S6 buck; Clafel.. 



claimed a va^ft, but more limited tract for a diverfioni 

 that the Englijh were always fend of : They v/ere very- 

 jealous of any encroachments on their refpeflive 

 bounds, v/hich were often the caufe of deadly feuds ;. 

 fuch a one gave caufe to the fatal day of Chevy-chace,.. 

 a fad, though recorded only in a ballad, may, from 

 v/hat we know of the manners of the times, be found- 

 ed on truth 5 not that it was attended with all the cir- 

 eumilanees the author of that natural, but heroic com- 

 pofnion hath given it, for on that day neither a Percy 

 nor a Douglas fell: here the poet feems to have- 

 claimed his privilege, and mixed with this fray fome 

 ef the events of the battle of Otterhour,^. 



When property became happily more divided by the: 

 relaxation of the feodal tenures^ thefe extenfive hunt- 

 ing-grounds became more limited ; and as tillage 

 and hufoandry increafed, the beafts of chace were , 

 obliged to give way to others more ufeful to the com- 

 inunity. Thofe vaft tradls of land, before dedicated 

 to hunting, were then contracted j and in proportioti 

 as the ufeful arts gained ground, either loft their ori- 

 ginal deftination, or gave rife to the invention of 

 Parks. Liberty and the arts feem coeval, for when^ 

 once the latter got footing, the former protefted the 

 labors of the induftrious from being ruined by the- 

 iicentioufnefs of the fportfman, or being devoured by 

 the cbje6ls of his diverfion : for this reafon, the fub- 

 je<Els of a defpotic government ftill experience the in- 

 conveniences of vaft waftes, and forefts, the terrors of 

 the neighbouring hufbandmen * i while in our welt- 



* In Germany the peafants are often obliged to watch their 

 grounds the whole night, to preferve the fences and corn from be- 

 ing ieftroyed by the desr, 



■ ^ . regui- 



