BERKELEY CASTLE 181 



where Queen Elizabeth, in a fit of anger, destroyed the deer, 

 because the Lord Berkeley, instead of being at his Castle to 

 meet the Queen, who had intimated her intention to pay him a 

 visit, left home rather than receive her. Attached to the 

 domain is a beautiful chase, called St. Michael's or Micklewood 

 Chase ; and as, since the enclosure, the whole of it has been 

 ceded to the Castle, were it mine, I would soon throw up a 

 rough forest fence, like the one of the Brigstock forest in 

 Northamptonshire, and fill it with red, fallow, and roe deer. 

 Micklewood Chase affords a good example of what gamekeepers 

 should do, in regard to the care of timber, while protecting the 

 game. The timber on it, which of course belonged to the lord 

 of the manor, was so well preserved, that, when the enclosure 

 took place, it was worth more than the fee-simple of the land, 

 consequently those to whom the land was allotted in lieu of 

 common right declined to pay for the timber, and thus the 

 whole chase fell into the Castle estate. It was in regard to this 

 chase that the memorable trials took place, as to the question 

 of whether or not holly might be cut as brushwood by those 

 having common rights. By an error in the pleadings of the 

 lord of the manor, he was defeated ; nevertheless, he gave 

 notice to the winning party that if they continued to cut holly, 

 he would renew the actions at law. Backed by their success, 

 and disbelieving that they owed it to accident, fresh hollies were 

 cut and other actions brought, every one of which were given 

 in the lord of the manor's favour, and the fact established that 

 holly, in the eye of the law, was timber, and therefore not 

 available to the rights of common. 



Neither pains nor expense are spared at Berkeley in the pre- 

 servation of game ; and certainly, considering the deep, rich, 

 heavy loam of which the soil consists, and the number of foxes, 

 I never saw game preserved with greater success. The angling 

 at Berkeley is confined to a few ponds and brooks, and to the 

 Gloucester and Berkeley Canal, and is not worth speaking of; 

 the Severn affording salmon fishing with everything but the 

 rod. The seine fishing there is very good, and as the royalty of 



