30 . PHEASANTS FOB COVEBTS AND AVIABIES. 



'(In a survey of the possessions of the Abbey of Glaston- 

 bury made. in 1539, mention is made of a 'game' of sixUen 

 pheasants in the woods at Meare, a manor near Glastonbury 

 belonging to the Abbey. , , 



" The value set upon pheasants and partridges at various 

 periods, as shown by the laws fixing penalties for their 

 destruction, seems to have fluctuated considerably. 



" By a statute passed in the eleventh year of the reign of 

 Henry VIII. it was forbidden ' to take pheasants or partridges 

 with engines in another's ground without licence in pain of 

 ten pound, to be divided between the owner of the ground 

 and the prosecutor.' . By 23 Bliz. c. 10, 'JN'one should 

 kill or take pheasants or partridges by night in pain 

 of 20s. a pheasant, and 10s. a partridge, or one month's 

 imprisonment; and bound with sureties not to offend 

 again in the like kind.' By 1 Jac. I. c. 27, ' No 

 person shall kill or take any pheasant, partridge- (&c.), 

 or take or destroy the eggs of pheasants, partridges (&c.), 

 in pain of 20s., or imprisonment for every fowl or egg, 

 and to find sureties in £20 not to offend in the like kind.' 

 Under the same statute, no person was permitted ' to buy or 

 sell any pheasant or partridge, upon pain or forfeit of ^ 20s. for 

 every pheasant, and 10s for every partridge.' By 7 Jac. I 

 c. 11, ' Every person having hawked at or destroyed any 

 pheasant or partridge between the 1st of July and last of 

 August, forfeited 40s. for every time so hawking, and 20s. for 

 every pheasant or partridge so destroyed or taken.' Lords 

 of manors and their servants might take pheasants and 

 partridges in their own grounds or precincts in the daytime 

 between Michaelmas and Christmas. But every person of a 

 mean condition having killed or taken any pheasant or 

 partridge, forfeited 20s. for each one so killed, and had to 

 find surety in £20 not to offend so again." 



For an early notice of the pheasant in Suffolk, namely in 

 1467, Mr. Harting has referred me to the household expenses 

 of Sir John Howard, Knight, afterwards Duke of Norfolk, 



