C H A 
chafe properly extend to the buck, doe, fox, martin, and 
roe; and in common and legal fenfe to all the beads of 
the fored. Co. Lit. 333. A chafe differs from a park in 
that it is not inclofed; and alfo in that a man may have 
a chafe in another man’s ground, as well as in his own; 
being indeed the liberty of keeping beads of chafe or 
royal game therein, protected even from the owner of 
the land, with a power of hunting them thereon, a Comm. 
38. But if one have a chafe within a fored, and he kill 
or hunt any flag or red deer, or other beads of the fored, 
he is fineable. 1 Jones's Rep. 278. A chafe is of a middle 
nature between a fored and a park, being commonly lefs 
than a fored, and not endowed with f'o many liberties, as 
the courts of attachment, fwainmote, and judice-feat; 
though of a larger compafs, and dored with greater di- 
verfity both of keepers, and wild beads or game, than a 
park. A chafe differs from a fored in this, becaufe it 
may be in the hands of a fubjeft, which a fored in its 
proper and true nature cannot; and from a park, in that 
it is not encloled, and hath a greater compal's, and more 
variety, of game. A fored and a chafe may have different 
officers and laws : every fored is a chafe, & quicidam atn- 
plius ; but any chafe is not a fored. A chafe is ad com- 
munem legem, and not to be guided by the fored laws; 
and it is the fame of parks. 4 Injl. 314, A man may 
have a free chafe as belonging to his manor in his own 
woods, as well as a warren and a park in his own grounds; 
for a chafe, warren, and park, are collateral inheritances, 
and not iffuing out of the foil; and, therefore, if a per- 
fon hath a chafe in other men’s grounds, and after pur- 
chafeth the grounds, the chafe remaineth. Ibid. 318. If 
a man have freehold in a free chafe, he may cut his tim¬ 
ber and wood growing upon it, without view or licence 
of any ; though it is not fo of a fored : but if he cut fo 
much that there is not fufficient for covert, and to main¬ 
tain the game, he ffiall be punifhed at the fuit of the 
king; and fo if a common perfon hath a chafe in an¬ 
other's foil, the owner of the foil cannot dedroy all the 
covert, but ought to leave fufficient thereof, and alfo 
browfewood, as hath been accudomed. 11 Rep. 22. And 
at has been adjudged, that, within fuch chafe, the owner 
of the foil, by prefcription, may have common for his 
ffieep, and warren for his conies, but he cannot fur- 
charge with more than has been ufual, nor make coney- 
burrows in other places than hath been ufed. Ibid. If a 
free chafe be inclofed, it is laid to be a good caufe of 
feizure into the king’s hands. Ii is not lawful to make 
a chafe, park, or warren, without licence from the king 
under the broad feal. 
The following account of the Englifh chafes is given 
by Mr. Pennant: “ At fird the beads of chafe had this 
whole ifland for their range; they knew no other li¬ 
mits than the ocean, nor confeffed any particular maf- 
ter. When the Saxons had edabliffied themfelyes in the 
heptarchy, they were referved by each fovereign for his 
own particular diverfion ; hunting and war, in thofe un¬ 
civilized ages, were the only employ of the great; their 
aftive, but uncultivated, minds, being fulceptible of no 
pleafure but thofe of a violent kind, fuch as gave exer- 
cife to their bodies, and prevented the pain of thinking. 
But as the Saxon kings only appropriated thofe lands to 
the ufe of foreds which were unoccupied, fo no indivi¬ 
duals received any injury ; but, when the conqued had 
fettled the Norman line on the throne, this paffion for 
the chafe was carried to an excefs which involved every 
civil right in a general ruin : it fuperfeded the confide- 
ration of religion even in a fuperftitious age : the village 
communities, nay, even the mod facred edifices, were 
turned into one vad wade, to make room for animals, 
the objects of a lawlefs tyrant’s pleafure. The new fored 
in Hampffiire, is too trite an indance to be dwelt on; 
fanguinary laws were enadted to preferve the game; 
and, in the reigns of William Rufus and Henry I. it was 
lefs criminal to dedroy one of the human fpecies than a 
bead of chafe. Thus it continued while the Norman line 
Von. IV. No. 183. 
C H A 72 r 
filled the throne; but, when the Saxon line was redored 
under Henry II. the rigour of the fored laws was imme¬ 
diately foftened. 
“ When our barons began to form a power, they 
claimed a vad, but more limited, tract, for a diverfion 
that the Englifh were always fond of. They were very 
jealous of any encroachments on their refpeftive bounds, 
which were often the caufe of deadly feuds; fuch a one 
gave caufe to the fatal day of Chevy-chafe; a fadt which, 
though recorded only in a ballad, may, from what we knew 
of the manners of the times, be founded on truth; not 
that it was attended with all the circumdances which 
the author of that natural but heroic competition hath 
given it; for, on that day, neither a Percy nor a Doug¬ 
las fell: here the poet fieems to have claimed his privi¬ 
lege, and mixed with this fray fome of the events of the 
battle of Otterbourne. When property became happily 
more divided by the relaxation of the feodal tenures, 
thefe extenfive hunting-grounds became more limited ; 
and, as tillage and hufbandry increafed, the beads of 
chafe were obliged to give way to others more ufeful to 
the community. The vad tradts of land, before dedi¬ 
cated to hunting, were then contradted; and, in pro¬ 
portion as the ufeful arts gained ground, either lod their 
original dedination, or gave rife to the invention of parks. 
Liberty and the arts feem coeval; for, when once the lat¬ 
ter got footing, the former protedted the labours of the 
indudrious from being ruined by the licentious fportf- 
man, or being devoured by the objedls of his diverfion : 
for this reafon, the fubjedts of a defpotic government dill 
experience the inconveniences of vad w-ades and foreds, 
the terrors of the neighbouring hufbandmen; while in 
our well-regulated monarchy very few chales remain. 
The Englifh dill indulge themfelves in the pleafure of 
hunting; but confine the deer-kind to parks, of which 
England boads more than any other kingdom in Eu¬ 
rope. The laws allow every man his pleafure; but con¬ 
fine them in fuch bounds as prevent them from being- 
injurious to the meaned of the community. Before the 
reformation, the prelates feem to have guarded fufficient- 
ly againdthis want of amufement, the lee of Norwich, in 
particular, being poffeffed, about that time, of thirteen 
parks.” 
CHASE, in the fea language, is to purfue a fir ip ; 
which is alfo called giving chafe. Stern-chafe, is when 
the chaler follows the chafed a-ltern diredlly upon the 
fame point of the compafs. To lie with a Jhip's fore-foot 
in a chafe, is to fail and meet with her by the neared 
didance, to crofs her in her wa} ? , or to come acrols her 
fore-foot. A ffiip is faid to have a good chafe, when the 
is fo built forward on, or a-dern, that die can bring 
many guns to bear forwards or backwards; according 
to which file is faid to have a good forward or good 
dern-chafe. Chafe-guns, are fuch whole ports are either 
in the head (and then they are ufed in chafing of others) 
or in the deni, which are only ufeful when they are pur- 
fiued or chafed by an enemy. 
Wild-goofe Chase, ail ablurd kind of racing on horfe. 
back, in which the two horfes, after running about 
twelve fcore yards, had liberty, which horfe foever could 
take the lead, to ride what ground the jockey piealed, the 
hindmod horle being bound to follow him within a cer¬ 
tain didance fixed by the articles, or elfe to be whipped 
in by the populace ; and whichever horfe could diltance 
the other, won the race. This fort of racing was not 
long in ufe, for it was found dedrudtive to good horfes, 
when two fuch were matched together; for, in this cafe, 
neither was able to diltance the other till they were both 
ready to fink under their riders; and.often two very 
good horfes were both fpoiled, and the dakes forced to 
be drawn. The mifehief of this racing foon brought in 
the method now in ufe, of running only a certain quan¬ 
tity of ground, and determining the plate by the coming 
in at the pod. 
CHA'SER, f Hunter; purfuer; driver; anenchafer: 
I i Stretch’d 
