THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
the boundaries of the forest he has come by it lawfully.” Mr Justice Bigham 
was of the same opinion. He did not think that section 14 created a fresh 
offence, but intended that the person charged should escape if he satisfied 
the justices that he had not committed an offence under section 12. The 
defendant, he said, had killed a beast /<?r<r natures ; \\q was not trespassing, 
and was not committing any criminal act. Section 12 does not refer to 
any acts done outside the purlieu of the forest. The act must be done 
within the forest. For these reasons the Court held that the magistrates 
were wrong, and that the conviction must be quashed. 
This is tantamount to a decision that the owner of a deer forest has 
only a qualified ownership in the deer so long as they remain within the 
forest or in the purlieu thereof. Just as with a pheasant or any other bird 
of game, so long as a man does not trespass in pursuit, but shoots it on 
land either in his own occupation or where he has a right or permission 
to be, he commits no offence so long as he is the holder of a game licence. 
In the above-mentioned case of deer, nothing was said as to shqoting 
without a licence. Had it been proved that the defendant had no game 
licence as required by section 4 of the Game Licences Act, 1860, he would 
have been liable to a penalty of £20. 
There is no close season for deer in England or Scotland; but in Ireland 
it is enacted by 10 Will. HI., c. 8, section 6, that no person may hunt, 
course, or kill any male deer before June 10 unless it be in the park or 
proper ground of the person hunting, coursing, or killing the same; nor 
shall course, hunt, or kill any male fallow deer after Michaelmas in any 
year unless on the proper ground, as aforesaid, under a penalty of £5 for 
each offence.* 
THE AGRICULTURAL HOLDINGS ACT, 1908 
8 Edward VII, c. 28 
By this statute a “ holding ” is defined as any parcel of land held by 
a tenant which is either wholly agricultural or wholly pastoral, or in part 
agricultural, and as to the residue pastoral, or in whole or in part cul- 
tivated as a market garden, and which is not let to the tenant during 
his continuance in any office, appointment, or employment held under 
the landlord. 
By section 10 of this Act a tenant of such a holding is entitled to claim 
*Farran, Game Laws of Ireland, 1907, p. 7. 
326 
