ANCIENT FORESTS. iS 



virtue of the transfer, be no longer a forest, but thence- 

 forward its legal designation should be a chase. 



A park is so named from the French parque, i.e., locus 

 inclusus ; it is a large space of ground enclosed and privi- 

 leged for wild beasts of chase, by the king's grant or 

 prescription, according to Manwood, tarn sylvestris quam 

 campestris ; nor can a park be erected without license 

 under the broad seal. 



To constitute a park three things are required : — 1, A 

 grant thereof; 2, Enclosures by pale, wall, or hedge; 3, Beasts 

 of a park, such as the buck, doe, &c. ; and it is declared 

 that when all the deer are destroyed, it shall no more be 

 accounted 'a park : for a park is determined by vert, veni- 

 son, and enclosure, and if it is determined in any of them 

 it is a total disparking. It may be mentioned parks are not 

 governed by the forest laws, bat are subject to the common 

 law. 



In forest-law mention is made also of warrens. A 

 warren, I find it stated, is a franchise or free place, privi- 

 leged by prescription or grant from the king, for the keep- 

 ing of beasts and fowls of the warren ; which are hares and 

 coneys, partridges, pheasants, and some add quails, wood- 

 cocks, water-fowl, &c. These being feroe naturce, every 

 man had a natural right to kill as he could; but 

 upon the introduction of the forest laws at the Norman 

 Conquest these animals, being looked upon as royal game 

 and the sole property of the sovereign monarch, this fran- 

 chise of free warren was invented to protect them by 

 giving the grantee a sole and exchisive power of killing 

 such game, so far as bis warren extended, on condition of 

 preventing other persons. A man, therefore, that has the 

 franchise or warren is in reality no more than a common 

 gamekeeper ; but no man, not even a lord of a manor, 

 could by common law justify sporting on another's soil, or 

 even on his own, unless he had the liberty of free warren. 

 This franchise has almost fallen into disregard since the 



