296 SHOOTING. 



extend to the buck, doe, fox ; but in common and 

 legal sense to all the beasts of the forest. A Free 

 Warren was a place privileged by prescription or 

 grant of the king, for the preservation of the beasts 

 and fowl of the warren, viz. hares, conies, partridges, 

 and pheasants. If a pheasant, or other bird of 

 warren, flew into a free warren, the falconer could 

 not follow it, but it became the property of the 

 owner of the warren. A Decoy for wild fowl is to 

 this day privileged, in so far as the owner has the 

 exclusive right to the birds frequenting it ; and no 

 person is allowed to fire a gun or otherwise make a 

 disturbance within a reasonable distance of it with- 

 out permission from the owner. 



In the reign of Richard II. a landed qualifi- 

 cation of forty shillings per annum became neces- 

 sary to entitle a person to keep " any greyhound, 

 hound, dog, ferret, net, or engine, to destroy deer, 

 hares, conies, or any other gentleman's game." 

 The qualification required was increased with the 

 improved value of land, from time to time, until, 

 in Charles the Second's reign, it was enacted, that 

 persons not having ^100 per annum arising from 

 freehold, or \5Q from leasehold property, or not 

 being of the degree of esquire, or otherwise privi- 

 leged, should not keep or use " any guns, bows, 

 greyhounds, setting dogs, ferrets, coney-dogs, lur- 

 chers, hays, nets,' lowbels, hare-pipes, guns, snares, 

 or other engines for taking or killing game." 



It was not until the early part of the reign of 

 George III. that killing game was taxed as a 

 luxury, and made a source of revenue to govern- 



