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260 OF THE FOREST LAWS. 



woods and lands in the pourallee are disafforested only for the 

 owners thereof, and not for every one to hunt and spoil the 

 wild beasts there at his pleasure ; for if they chance to wander 

 out of the forest into the pourallee, yet the king hath a property 

 in them still against every man, except the proper owner of the 

 ground wherein they are; for such person has a special property 

 in them, ratione soli, but yet so that he may only take them by 

 hunting, or chasing with his greyhounds or dogs, without any 

 forestalling, or foresetting them in their course back again to- 

 wards the forest ; for the king hath always rangers in the pour- 

 allee to attend such wild beasts of the forest, as come there, and 

 re-chase them back into the forest ; which proves, that though 

 the wild beasts of the forest do by chance stray into the pour- 

 aliee, yet the king hath a property still in them, or otherwise the 

 ranger could have no lawful authority to re-chase them into 

 the forest. 



The Forest Laws may now be regarded as obsolete ; they may 

 be said to have naturally become defunct, since the forests have 

 ceased to exist. However, we may hence very easily trace the 

 origin of the Game Laws. Whatever forest regulations might 

 have been adopted by the Saxons, the English appear to have 

 been comparatively content under their dominion ; and though 

 Canute may be accused of having instituted laws in respect to 

 the forests and wild beasts, which reflect no credit on his memory, 

 it does not appear that they were rigorously enforced in his time. 

 The Normans not only rendered these unjust enactments much 

 more oppressive, but appear to have exercised the greatest cruel- 



