94 
MR. T. SOUTHWELL ON WILD-FOWL DRIVING. 
come of the punishment of God, whose benefit was thereby taken 
away from the poor people that were wont to live by their skill in 
taking of the said fowl, whereby they were wont at that time to 
sustain themselves with their poor households, to the great saving 
of other kinds of victual, of which aid they are now destitute, to 
their great and extreme impoverishing.” Thus although the taking 
of their eggs was still prohibited, the wild-fowl themselves were 
left unprotected, and we hear recorded by Willoughby, Latham, 
and others of the immense numbers taken. 
This state of things seems to have continued till the year 1706, 
when an Act (5 and 6 Anne, c. 14) was passed, entitled, “An 
Act for the better Preservation of Game,” the preamble of which is 
interesting, as it contains an enumeration of the class of “ receivers ” 
(against whom indeed the Act seems to have been mainly directed), 
and who at that time, and doubtless long after, gave the chief 
encouragement to the “ idle loose persons ” from whom the 
poachers were recruited. The words are : “ Whereas several Laws 
have already been enacted for the better Preservation of the 
Game, and by Experience been found not sufficient to prevent 
destroying the Game, by reason of the multitude of ITiglars and 
other Chapmen, which give great Encouragement to idle loose 
Persons to neglect their lawful Employment, to follow and destroy 
the same.” By this Act it was also made penal for Higlars, Chapmen, 
Carriers, Inn-keepers, Victuallers, or Alehouse Keepers or other 
unlicensed persons to “ keep or use any Greyhounds, Setting 
Dogs, Hayes, Lurchers, Tunnells , or any other engines to kill 
or destroy game.” Although “ Hayes ” and “ Tunnells ” are 
mentioned amongst the destructive engines, this Act, which was 
only to be in force three years, was not specially directed against 
the evil practice of netting fowl, but it was in due course followed 
in 1710 (9 Anne, c. 25, section 4) by “An Act for making the Act 
of the Fifth Year of her Majesty’s Reign for the better Preservation 
of the Game, Perpetual, and for making the same more effectual.” 
This was specially directed against the netting of Fowl in the 
following terms: — “And whereas very great Numbers of Wild 
Fowl, of several kinds, are destroyed by the pernicious practice of 
driving and taking them with Hayes, Tunnels, and other Nets in 
the Fens, Lakes, and Broad Waters, where Fowl resort in the 
Moulting Time, and that at a Season of the Year when the Fowl 
