( 45 ) 



be fure no fpies were upon him. At rtight 

 he fecreted his plunder. He had boarded off 

 a part of his cottage, (forming a rough door 

 into it, like the reft of the partition, ftruck 

 full of falfe nail-heads,) with fuch artifice, 

 that the keepers, on an information, have 

 fearched his houfe again and again, and have 

 gone off fatisfied of his innocence : tho his 

 fecret larder perhaps at that very time con- 

 tained a brace of bucks. He had always, he 

 faid, a quick market for his venifon ; for the 

 country is as ready to purchafe it, as thefe 

 fellows are to procure it. It is a foreft-adage 

 of ancient date, 7ion eji inquirendum unde venit 

 venifon. 



The incroachments of trefpaflers, and the 

 houfes, and fences thus raifed on the borders 

 of the foreft, tho, at this time, in a degree 

 connived at, wxre heretofore confidered as 

 great nuifances by the old foreft-law, and 

 were very feverely puniflied under the name 

 of purprejiures, * as tending ad terrorem f era- 

 rum — ad nocumentum forejlce — and, as might 

 be added, at this time, by the neighbouring 



* See Manwood, chap. x. fee. i. 



pari£hes. 



