THE DOG AND THE LAW. 
sessions, and punishable by imprisonment, 
with or without hard labour, for not more 
than eighteen months, and (or) fine and 
sureties ; and corruptly taking any money 
or reward, directly or indirectly, under 
pretence or upon account of aiding any 
person to recover a dog which has been 
stolen or is in the possession of a person 
not its owner, is a misdemeanour triable 
and punishable in the same way. 
It will probably be of interest to many 
of those who nowadays follow the sport of 
Greyhound coursing to know that in the 
year 1603 or thereabouts a statute was 
passed which enacted that if anybody— 
with the exception of some privileged 
people—should be found keeping ‘‘ Grey- 
hounds to course deer or hare, he shall 
straightway be committed to the common 
gaol for three months without bail except 
he forthwith pay forty shillings to the 
churchwardens of the parish where the 
offence was committed.” 
In the reign of Charles II. no one was 
allowed to keep a dog unless he was fortunate 
enough to be (r) an owner of a free warren ; 
(2) a lord of a manor; (3) an owner of an 
estate of inheritance of at least £100 per 
annum for life ; (4) a leaseholder for ninety- 
nine years of {150 per annum; or (5) a 
son or heir of an esquire or one of higher 
degree. The penalty for keeping a dog by 
any unqualified person was later fixed at a 
fine not exceeding £20 for each dog, a 
moiety of which went to the informer and 
the rest to the poor of the parish. If the 
fine could not be levied by distress, the 
offender was sent to a house of correction 
with hard labour for any time not exceeding 
one month. 
Even as late as Queen Anne’s reign 
several people were not qualified to keep 
dogs, and by the statute 5 Anne, c. 14, s. 4, 
justices and lords of the manor might 
take away dogs from persons not qualified 
to keep them, and the case of Kingsworth 
v. Bretton, 5 Taunt. 416, decided that 
they might also destroy them. 
It seems quite plain that in the olden 
time every step possible was taken to dis- 
courage the ordinary person from becoming 
70 
i 
a dog owner, and it is therefore not difficult 
to understand that coursing meetings, dog 
shows, dog fights, and the like, were not 
of frequent occurrence. The statute of 
1603 already referred to—which was, of 
course, in the time of James I.—was by 
no means the only one which was passed 
dealing with this subject, for in the third 
year of that monarch’s reign we find another 
statute, which enacted that— 
“If persons not having manors, lands, 
or tenements of the yearly value of £40, 
and not worth goods or chattels of £200, 
shall use any gun, bow, or cross bow to 
kill deer or conies, or shall keep ‘ conny 
dogges,’ then every person having lands 
or tenements of {100 yearly value in fee 
simple, fee tail, or for life, in his own 
right or in that of his wife, may take 
possession of such malefactors and keep 
their guns, dogges, etc., for his own use.” 
About one hundred years previous to 
this, in the nineteenth year of the reign 
of Henry VII., we find an interesting statute 
which sets forth :— 
“Forasmuch as it is wele undrestand 
and knowen that the grettest destruc- 
cion of Reed Deer and Falowe within 
the Realme in tyme past hath ben and 
yet is with Netts called Deere Hayes 
and Bukstallys and stalkyng with beest 
to the greate displeasure of our Sovereign 
Lorde the Kyng and all the Lords and 
other noble mene within this his Realme 
havyng forests, chaces, or parks in their 
possession, rule, and kepyng, so that if 
the said netts or stalkyng shuld un- 
lawefully be used and occupied in tyme 
comyng, as they have been in tyme 
past, the most part of the forests, chaces, 
and parks of this Realme shuld be ther- 
with destroied ; Be it therfore established 
and enacted by the Lords spirituell 
and temporell and the Commons in this 
present Parliament assembled and by 
the authority of the same that eny person 
or persons spirituell or temporell having 
no park, chace, or forest of their owne, 
kepe nor cause to be kepte eny netts called 
