New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-04-15

| manors might have urged that they had no other
than sailed meat In the winter time. 30 that fresh
venison, though of the leanest, was more than
| luxury. Domestic animals there were, but M yet
the tame grasses had not been cultivated and good
fodder was not preserved in quantities to feed the
summer stock through the winter, and therefore
large fraction of the increase of herds and hocks
was slaughtered and tho meat picked when frost
came. In this circumstance Hallam finds some ex-
cuse for the rgor of the game-laws-inasmuch as
! the beasts of chase were protected for something
| beyond mere sport.
1t requires an exuberant charity, however, to be-
lieve that the appetite for fresh meat was respon-
sIble TO any serious extent for these enactments
From the DAYS Of Canute to those of Henry III. q
king could take possession of any tract of country
and erect forest there, after which it was death
to kill deer boar therein. In some cases the
murder OF plover was a capital crime. The wretch
who drew bow upon a stag was tied to the animal
! alive. The loss of eyes and still moro grievous
mutilatiOn was the punishment for killing royal
bird or beast in the time of Richard l.. and If one
should chase n deer until it painted, the lowest
penalty was fine of 10 shillngs-aG enormous sum
! in those days 1t is not known that William the
! COnquerer urged the fresh-meat plea to
justify his seventies The people believed
that he enjoyed the chase. He loved
|
cas- If he had been their father" 1t may be added
that the English game laws Of to-day while less
severe equally unreasonable and absurd, and no
one pleads Tnextenuation of their injustice that
Windsor Castle depends for its supply of fresh meat
at any season upon the game IN the Park These
laws have always been felt as a grIeyOus burden,
and in all times have been the subject of remon-
STRANGE and complaint. 1t was the universal belief
of the people that God would make New Forest the
death ground of some of the Norman Kings descend
ants reward for his crimes and cruelues IN
forming this hunting ground. Hohnshed voiced
this feeling when he wrote: THE People sore be-
walled their distress and greatlie lamentcd that
they must leave house anu homo 10 the of savage
beasts; which cruetio not Onely MORTAL men liv-
ing here on earth, but also the Earth itself, might
SCENE to detest as by wonderful synidcatOn it
seemed to declare by the shaking and roaring of the
same, which Glanced about the fourteenth year of
his reign as writers have recorded" The first Of
the Conqueror's blood to perish there was Richard.
mis- second son. who gOred to death by stag as
he was hunting. The next was William Rufus. OF
this last mlsadventuro another old chronicle gives
the following account: william Rous, that was
William Bastard's son, who made the New Forest
and cast down and destroyed twenty-six towns and
eighty houses of religion all for to make his forest
longer and broader, became wondrous glad and
proud of his wood and of his forest and of the wild
beasts that were therein; but it bcfcl that
one of the Knights, that Knight Walter
Tyrreu, would have shot at an hart, but his arrow
glanced upon branch and through insaveture
smote the King to the heart. and so ne fell down
dead"
Under favorable skies and careful nurture the
game in these old-tine forests plentiful beyond
question. Perhaps some of the present species
were introduced after the Roman Conquest, but
early as the time OF the Confessor. one charter
makes this enumeration:
Hart and hind doc and buck
Hare and fox. cat and brock
Wild fowl with ms flock,
Partridge, pheasant, hen and cock
Woodcock and snipe must have been found in
early times when the island was more suitable
habtation for them than 1t it has been since The
heron crced above the shady pools and the bittcn.
whose boom is no longer heard, has LEFT memorial
of her presence in the local of Bitterne. The
wolf was nearly exterminated as early az the time
Of King Edgar in the tenth century, but
his memory is perpetuated in the name of
the forest of WOolmer CWulvemereD, The wild boar
gave its name to the forest of Bere the
the hawk to lakewood and the badger to Bracken-
hurst. Names like those. common through rural
England testify to abonndng animal life we'll as
the prevalent passion for sports of the field In
1887 New Forest had become oycrstocked with |
stag and faow deer thai 800 of them persisted in a
single walk and 800 red deer were driven be-
fore Queen Anne when she the Royal prog
ress across the forest of Woolmer From the DAYS |
Of the Saxon King no English monarch ever rode |
forth to drive the deer with hound and horn " !
without finding royal game. James /. was the |
last hunting and hawking monarch but there is |
record Of one celebrated Royal chase on a later day
in Sherwood Forest where after all the merry |
meetings that had gone before, Charles l. was HIM
self the quarry"
The woods of Great Britain when compared with |
our own not rich in tree species, |
but the Romans found the island largely covered /
with heavy forest growth. The chase had few at
fractions for the invaders and the idea Of establish
ing game preserves never entered their minds. Inn
Der for their galleys they needed, and English oak
supplied it. No doubt, too large areas Of wood |
land were cut over because they furnished hiding |
places and rallymg-poInts from which bands of Brit
ons would attack the Roman camps. In later times |
English monarchs swept away large tractsof wood |
for the shelter they gave to bands of marauders 1t
was expressly enjoned upon the Duke of Medina |
Sldonla when he landed that he should not leave
a tree standing in the Forest Of Dean. The little
accident which happened 10 the Armada inerfered |
with this purpose, but the incident is suggestive as
showing bow woodlands suffer in times Of violence.
The Romans burned quantities Of wood IN
smelling iron, and this practice made
havoc in the timber for centuries to
come. The browsing deer in the preserves and the
domestic animals OF conmoners and borderers. with
nights of forest and woodland pasturage, can be
counted as another destructive force. The vast
droves of hogs which fed upon the oak and beech
mast did little damage, for they probably eff
Gent planters of nuts and acorns Some idea of the
abundance of this forest pork gained when 1t is
known that the value of q woodland was often esti-
mated by the number Of swine it would support