Crass I. Di Ei Ei R; 
new foreft in Hampfhire is too trite an inftance to 
be dwelt on: fanguinary laws were enacted to pre- 
ferve the game; and in the reigns of Wiliam Rufus, 
and Henry the firft, it was lefs criminal to deftroy 
one of the human fpecies than a beaft of chafe*. 
Thus it continued while the Norman line filled 
the throne; but when the Saxon line was reftored | 
under Henry the fecond, the rigor of the foreft laws 
was immediately foftened. 
When our barons began to form a power, they 
clamed a vaft, but more limited tract for a diver- 
fion that the Engli/h were always fond of. They 
were very jealous of any encroachments on their 
refpective bounds, which were often the caufe of 
deadly feuds: fuch aone gave caufe to the fatal 
day of Chevy-chace, a fact, which though record- 
ed only in a ballad, may, from what we know of 
the manners of the times, be founded on truth; 
not that it was attended with all the circumftances 
the author of that natural, but heroic compofition 
hath given it, for on that day neither a Percy 
nor a Douglas fell: here the poet feems to have 
clamed his privilege, and mixed with this fray 
fome of the events of the battle of Osterbourne. 
When property became happily more divided by 
the relaxation of the feodal tenures, thefe extenfive 
* An antient hiltorian fpeaks thus of the penalties incur 
red 5 Sz cervum aut aprum oculos eis evellebat; amavit enim feras 
tanquam erat pater earum. M. Paris. 11. 
hunting 
43 
