296 THE GAME LAWS. 



Free warren is a franchise, erected for the preservation or cus- 

 tody (which the word signifies) of beasts and fowls of warren ; 

 which, being ferce nature, every one had a natural right to kill 

 as he could : but upon the introduction of the forest laws, at the 

 period of the Norman conquest, these animals being looked upon 

 as royal game and the sole property of our savage monarchs, this 

 franchise of free-warren was invented to protect them ; by giving 

 the grantee a sole and exclusive power of killing such game so 

 far as his warren extended, on condition of his preventing other 

 persons. A man therefore that has the franchise of a warren, is 

 in reality no more than a royal gamekeeper ; but no man, not 

 even a lord of a manor, could by common law justify sporting on 

 another's soil, unless he had the liberty of free-warren. This 

 franchise is almost fallen into disregard, since the new statutes 

 for preserving the game ; the name being now chiefly preserved 

 in grounds that are set apart for breeding hares and rabbits. 

 There are many instances of keen sportsmen in ancient times, 

 who have sold their estates, and reserved the free-warren, or right 

 of killing game, to themselves; by which means it comes to pass 

 that a man and his heirs have sometimes free-warren over another's 

 ground, 



A person having a grant of free warren possesses a sole and 

 exclusive right of taking and destroying game within its limits. 

 If a person have a free warren in another's lands, the owner of 

 such land cannot permit a qualified person to kill game thereon ; 

 the consent of the owner of such free warren must be obtained, or 

 the person taking or killing game will be a trespasser, and will 

 be punishable as such. 



Lord Dacre v. Tebb. Black. Rep. 1151. Trespass for 

 hunting in a free warren. On not guilty pleaded and tried by 

 a special jury, the defendant was found guilty of breaking and 

 entering plaintiff's free warren, and chasing and hunting one 

 hare ; damages six-pence , not guilty as to the residue. It was 



