280 



QUALIFICATION. 



The first time we meet with any defined qualification, is in 

 the time of Richard II. when 40s. per annum was deemed suffi- 

 cient. Prior to the time of Richard II. it would seem, that 

 every man was entitled to kill game upon his own land ; and 

 those who possessed the right of freewarren could legally 

 kill game upon any land within their franchise, though it might 

 belong to another person. But by the 13th of Richard II. c. 

 13, no layman who hath not lands or tenements of 40s. per 

 annum, or clergyman not being advanced to 10 a year, shall 

 keep any greyhound or hunting dog, nor use any instruments 

 whatever for taking or destroying gentlemen's game, on pain of 

 one year's imprisonment. 



The 1st of James I. c. 27, rendered it indispensable for a 

 person to possess an estate of s10 per annum, or goods to the 

 value of 200, in order to acquire a qualification ; unless he 

 were the son of a lord or a knight, or the heir apparent of an 

 esquire. In a few years afterwards, the qualification sum was 

 raised to 4.-0 a year, by the 7th of James I. c. 11. 



The most important, however, of the statutes on this head, 

 and which alone, in fact, deserves the attention of the sportsman, 

 is the 22nd and 23rd Charles II. c. 25. This is the most modern, 

 is uniformly acted upon at the present day, and has consequently 

 rendered the preceding enactments a dead letter. By this, every 

 person not having lands or tenements, or some other estate of 

 inheritance in his own or his wife's right, (a) of the clear (b) 



(a) This is not to be understood of a tenant by curtesy, but of one 

 whose wife is living. Vide Co. Lit, 351. 



(b) On this word it has been held, that the estate must be clear of 



