PROTECTION OF ANIMALS FOR SPORT 209 



recognized expedients. In the first place deer were not to 

 be slain but by properly qualified persons: in the earliest 

 days by the King and his Court, or by persons to whom he 

 had deputed or granted rights of forestry ; in later days by 

 the great landowners on whose ground the deer roamed, 

 for no one dare slay "Deare or Raes in utheris closes or 

 Parkes....but [except with] special licence of the owners, 

 under the paine of dittay [criminal prosecution], and to be 

 punished as thieft" (1474). The "unlaw" or fine for such 

 misdemeanour, at first "X punds," was raised in 1579 to 

 "ten pundes" for a first offence, "twentie pundes" for a 

 second, and "fourtie pundes" for a third, but if the wrong- 

 doer was "not responsall in guddes," he was to "be put in 

 the stokkes, prison or irones auct [eight] dayes on bread and 

 water" for the first fault, "fifteene dayes" for the second, 

 and for the third was to suffer "hanging to the death." 



In the second place, since deer were preserved for 

 hunting, and hunting in the early days meant the "clamorous 

 hunt" with trained deer-hounds, all other methods were 

 prohibited, such as shooting or slaying with such noxious 

 inventions as "hag buttes [arquebus], hand gunnes, croce 

 bowes and pistolettes, and taking of them with girnes 

 [snares] and nettes" (1597 and earlier Acts). 



In the third place, deer were not to be slain until they 

 were able to take care of themselves, for it was provided in 

 1474, "that na man slaie onie of their Kiddes quhill [i.e. until] 

 they be ane yeir auld, under the paine of X punds. And it 

 to be a point of dittay." 



In the fourth place, a sort of "close season" (instituted 

 in 1400) was confirmed by the Act of 1474, since it was 

 ordained "that na man slaie Daes nor Raes, nor Deare in 

 time of storme or snaw.... under the paine of X punds." 



And lastly a kind of total prohibition was tried, for 

 Parliament ruled that from June 1682 venison be not bought 

 or sold for seven years. 



EFFECTS OF DEER LEGISLATION 



The importance attached to the protection of these 

 objects of the chase and the great efforts made to preserve 

 them, may be judged from the fact that, in the sixteenth 

 century alone, no fewer than eleven Acts are concerned with 



R. 14 



