The Eleventh General Meeting. 



29 



persons not to plough up any of their down land ; and one person, 

 who, notwithstanding the notices, had the courage to do so, was 

 immediately served with a law process for his alleged breach of 



1 the chase and forest law. In an instance where a deer had escaped 

 into Wardour Park, the sanctity of the retreat was broken into, 

 and a pack of bloodhounds, without the permission of Lord 

 Arundell, was turned into the park, who started the game and 

 killed it on the spot. In the year 1814, Mr. Thomas King, a 

 farmer living near Alvediston, determined to try what were the 

 actual bounds of Cranborne Chase, and what were the real chase 

 rights. As the tenant of Norrington Farm, on which was a certain 

 down where deer were feeding, he turned in greyhounds to drive 

 them away, on which an action was commenced against him by 

 Lord Rivers for breaking and entering Cranborne Chase. This 

 cause was tried at Salisbury in the year 1816, when the jury found 



!■ a verdict in favour of the defendant. By that verdict a death-blow 

 was given to the intended revival of the obsolete forest laws, and a 

 way was opened to the total abolition of the rights of the chase 

 since so happily effected. Dr. Williams then pointed out, at some 

 length, the important social changes which had followed the dis- 

 foresting of Cranborne Chase, which had been productive of a great 

 improvement in the character of the rural population of the dis- 

 trict. Ho then alluded to the circumstance of the eccentric John 

 Aubrey having resided at one period of his life at Broad Chalk, 

 and mentioned several facts connected with this writer, of whom, 

 although he had some strange peculiarities, he desired to make 

 respectful mention. Dr. Williams then gave a description of the 

 church, which is dedicated to All Saints, the living being in the 

 gift of King's College, Cambridge. Mr. Bowles, in his " History 

 of Broad Chalk," says that the church is a pure specimen of the 

 architecture of Henry the Eighth's time, at least so much of it as 

 extends from the western door to the chancel, including the tran- 

 sept or cross aisle. He (Dr. Williams) was, however, of opinion 

 that this parish church was of older date, and was probably built 

 in the early part of the 15th century, somewhere about 1410. It 

 consisted of a nave, chancel, and transepts. There was a large 



