Related article: and conies, on pain of a year's
imprisonment. Capital punish-
ment and mutilation for offences
against forest law had been long
abolished at this time. Passing
over several laws relating to deer
and hawking and hawks, we come
to the year 1495, when Henry VII.
earned the respect of shooting
men for all time by legislation in
favour of ** fesauntes and part-
ryches.*' This Act (11 Hy. VII.
c. 17) commends itself to us by its
pleasing frankness ; it recognised
that game possessed not only a
monetary, but a sporting value.
346
baily's magazine.
[Mat
To summarise it briefly, the Methotrexate Rheumatrex
statute declared that —
" divers persons having little substance to
live upon frequently take pheasants and
partridges >frilh n«ts, snares and other
engines u|K)n the manors of lords and
others without leave, whereby the owners
lose pleasure and disport ihein«elves, their
friends and servants atiout hawking, hunt-
ing, and taking the same, also ihe profit
and avail that by the occasion should grow
(accrue) to their households to the ' grete
hurt of all lordes and gentlemen and others
having any grete livelode' (livelihood).*'
The Act proceeded to declare
the unsanctioned taking of phea-
sants and partridges on another's
land an offence punishable by a
fine of ;^io ; corresponding to
;^I40, or possibly more, at the
present day.
Mr. Greener, in his admirable
book, ** The Gun and its De-
velopment,'* says : — ** As a sport-
ing weapon the gun dates from the
invention of the wheel-lock," and
that the wheel-lock proper was
invented in 15 15 at Nuremberg.
It was some little time before the
potentialities of hand firearms in
relation to sport were recognised
by the English legislature.
Henry VIII., in the third year of
his reign (15 12), passed an Act
forbidding his subjects to possess
either crossbows or "hand
gonnes" save for the purpose of
defending their houses ; and about
1542 another statute was promul-
gated which has more direct
bearing on sport. It is abun-
dantly clear, from the wording of
this law, that poachers had found
out the merits of small firearms,
and used them with effect ; for
the preamble states that inasmuch
as evil-disposed persons shoot
with crossbows and ** little short
hand guns and little hagbuts," to
the great peril and continual fear
of, among others, keepers of
forests, chases and parks, no hand
gun less than one yard in length
over all might be lawfully made,
and no hagbut or demyhake
(carbine or pistol) of less than
three-quarters of a yard long.
The same statute also forbids
anyone to order a servant to shoot
at deer, fowls, or anything other
than an earth bank with cross-
bow or firearms unless under
royal licence, which specified the
beast or fowl the licensee might
have shot for him. This clause
suggests that the nobles and
gentlemen of the time would not
condescend to use such weapons
as crossbows and firearms. It
will be convenient here to make a
short cast Order Rheumatrex forward and examine
an Act passed by Edward VI. in
1548. This curious law is en-
titled ** Purchase Rheumatrex Online An Acte against the shoot-
ing of hayle shot." It declares
that an infinite Rheumatrex Cost quantity of fowl
and much game is killed owing to
the fashion which has grown up
of ** shooting of hayle shot,"
which game is thereby destroyed
and of benefit to no man. \Ve
infer from this that the sportsman
of the time was Order Rheumatrex Online in the habit of
** plastering "his birds. That he
shot them sitting, and was not
particular where they sat, the
Act Rheumatrex Methotrexate tells us very plainly, for it
says that —
" No person under a Lord of Parliament
shall shoot in any hand gun wilh'n ainr
city or town at any fowl or other oaik.
upon any church, house or dovecote:
neither shall any person shoot in any place
any hayle iBuy Cheap Rheumatrex more Pellotts(pellccs)
than one at a time.
Fortunate peers ! to them alone
was reserved the precious privi-
lege of ** potting " sparrows and
allied small fowl and tame pigeons
on the Buy Rheumatrex Online housetops! Let us hope
they enjoyed this exclusive sport
with some regard for the lives
and limbs of their fellow-towns-
men. At the same time, one
cannot resist a feeling that the
town-dwelling lieges of Edward
VI. must have b<^n grateful for
1899]
GAME PRESERVATION IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
347
a piece of legislation which put
an end to shooting at large. It
may be added that one reason
assigned for prohibiting the use
of small shot was that it ** Purchase Rheumatrex utterlie
destroieth the certenties of
shootynge which in warres is
much requisite."
Henry VIII., as we know, was
a sportsman to the backbone.
He it was who, in Rheumatrex Price 1523, made
tracking hares in the snow illegal.
This practice must have been
carried to extremes if the Act
(14 and 15 Hy. VIII. c. 10)
does not overstate the case. It
sets forth that the king and other
noblemen of the realm '' have
used and exercised the game of
hunting of the hare " Buy Rheumatrex (the phrase-
ology of these old statutes strikes
quaintly on the modern ear) ** for
their dispone and pleasure,"
which game of hunting is ** now
decayed and almost utterlie dis-
troied " Generic Rheumatrex by reason of the iniquities
of divers persons who habitually
track hares in the snow, and by
that means kill ten, twelve, or
sixteen in a day. Hares must
have been numerous if a man
could make a bag of sixteen by
tracking ; the game Rheumatrex Online of hunting
would have been improved by
judicious thinning out. How-
ever, the Act absolutely forbade
" tracing in the snow," whether
" with any dog, bech, bowe, or
otherwys," the prescribed penalty
being six shillings and eightpence.
Sportsmen now a days regard
** tracking " with a dubious eye,
but the practice is by no means
neglected in some parts of the
kingdom.
In 1540 it was felt that the
operations of poachers demanded
attention, and to make an end of
them an Act was passed abso-
lutely forbidding the sale or pur-
chase of pheasants on pain of a
fine of six shillings and eightpence
for each bird sold or bought, and
of partridges on pain of half that
fine. The only persons exempted
were the officers and ministers of
the royal households ; whence we