FORM OF A GENERAL NOTICE,

Which, after all, may be the best to answer every purpose.

The following printed notice, signed by yourself and all your tenants, will save much trouble, and be found extremely useful; as it may be read, or even shown by any common labourer. By this means, therefore, your carters, your shepherds, or the most humble person in or out of your service, may at all times be empowered to warn off immediately any stranger, whom they might find trespassing on your

estate.

Let the person (while merely showing the notice)

say:

Sir; here is my authority, and I accordingly forbid you from trespassing on this estate.

FORM OF THE NOTICE.

We, the undersigned, do hereby authorize

the bearer of this notice, to warn off all persons whom he may find shooting, or otherwise trespassing, on any of the lands [or waters] in our respective occupations, situate in the parish [or parishes] of

in the county [or counties] of

and we do declare, that we will prosecute, as a wilful trespasser, any person whomsoever continuing or coming upon our lands after having been enjoined to quit by the said

, pursuant

18

[Here follow the signatures of the landholder and all his tenants.]

The foregoing directions, with respect to notices, are, I trust, all that can be required either for landlords, tenants, keepers, or their printers.

DOGS, TRESPASS OF.

An unqualified person cannot use dogs for sporting, although they may be bonâ fide the property of one who is qualified.

If an unlicensed person keeps a person keeps a dog for sporting, he is liable to the penalty of 57. and also to have his dog seized, as becoming the property of the lord of the manor. But it would, perhaps, be prudent for the lord, or his keeper, first to seize the dog, before he ventured to shoot or destroy him.

It is a common trick among low farmers and poachers, who keep a wire-haired greyhound, or a lurcher, to cut his tail, and pass him off for a sheep-dog. The most effectual way to prosecute an offender of this description is, first, to lodge an information against him for keeping such a dog; and, after that is paid, for the lord of the manor, or his keeper, to lay hands on the dog, after which he becomes the property of the lord, and may then, by him or his keeper, be safely taken, shot, or otherwise destroyed, in any place within the limits of that lord's manor.

In case, however, that doubts should exist as to the dog being of the description specified in the act ("greyhound, setting dog, or lurcher,") it has been suggested, that it would be advisable, in lodging the information, to use the word setting dog as a kind of general term. This point I must leave to the more experienced to judge; but were an unqualified person actually seen using any dog in the destruction of game, I should then, if he had no certificate, put him in the hands of the tax-gatherers; where he would find himself in a sort of hornet's nest, from which there would be very little hope of escape.

By the 52 Geo. III. cap. xciii. s. 8. (the act relating to certificates)" hound, pointer, spaniel, or other dog" is added.

For farther information on this, vide under “Time within which Actions must be brought."

One who is warned off a ground, and sends his dogs thereon, is as much liable to an action of trespass, as if he went there himself.

WASTE LAND,

Sporting on, the exclusive right of the lord of a manor.

It has been given as an opinion, that, although a person may, by common rights, have the liberty of going, sending, or keeping his cattle on the waste land, yet he has no right to go there in pursuit of game, without leave from the lord of the manor.

FREE WARRENS AND DECOYS.

The game, in a free warren, is considered as private property, as are also the wildfowl, &c. within a decoy; and, consequently, a person sporting on either, would be subject to an action accordingly (with costs), and without receiving any previous notice.

The exercise of a free warren, however, is, in most cases, now difficult to be proved.

WILDFOWL.

Any one may shoot them on the coast, from a public path, &c. &c.

Where a person, with neither permission from the lord of the manor nor license, has a right to carry a gun, provided he does not use it for the destruction of game.

The shooting of wildfowl, therefore (according to the best professional opinions I have collected), is such a use as cannot be deemed an illegal one.

It is said, that a lord of a manor, or his keeper, cannot seize the gun of any person whatever, unless

it has been used, by the person carrying it, in destroying, or with an intent to destroy game. (Sed quære?)

TIME WITHIN WHICH ACTIONS MUST BE

BROUGHT.

The time prescribed for bringing an action of trespass, affecting and (which is called an action quare clausum fregit), for the recovery of damages, is SIX YEARS.

With regard to cases where the possibility of bringing an action, within the limited time, might be precluded by the absence of either party, I have thought it advisable to put the following questions to two gentlemen who are eminent in the profession, for the purpose of here giving brief directions as to what should be done.

Question. Supposing A. should trespass on the land of B., while B. is beyond the sea, can B. sue for the trespass after his return? Answer. He can, provided he commences his action against A. within the time limited (by the 21 Jac. 1., cap. 16.) after his return, which is six years, and which would run from the time of his return.

Question. Again, supposing A. and B. both be in the kingdom, and A., after having committed a trespass on the lands of B., should leave the kingdom, or withdraw himself to a distant part of it, and there secrete himself, until the period, within which an action may be commenced, is expired, can B. afterwards sue him for the trespass?

Answer. No, he cannot, as his right of action will be barred by the statute, unless he sue out a writ within the limited period, and if A.'s residence be unknown, and he cannot be met with, to be served with it, or he should continue out of the kingdom, the action may be kept on foot, by proper continuances, regularly filed, till A. can be met with; and THEN B., if he can get him served, may proceed with his action after the expiration of such period, the same as if A. had been served within it.

LORDS OF MANORS.

Since the several inclosure acts, doubts have been entertained, whether lords of manors have a right to sport over the freehold of any other person, within the manor, after notice; or whether a deputation to a gamekeeper will justify his going on any grounds, except the lord's own soil ?-CLEARLY NOT.

A lord of a manor, or his gamekeeper (unless in a free warren, or by an especial right reserved, in letting or selling property), cannot sport on the land of another, without being liable to the same action as any other trespasser; neither can he prevent those, who are qualified from sporting (on the grounds not his own) within the manor. But the lord of a manor, or even a reputed manor (and his keeper too, it is here presumed), is not liable to the NEW PENALTY for trespass, while within the bounds of the said manor.

PERSONS FOUND AT NIGHT ARMED WITH INTENT TO KILL GAME.

By 9 Geo. IV. c. 69., it is enacted that persons taking or destroying game by night, viz. from the first hour after sunset till the first hour before sunrise, should be committed for the first offence for three months, and second offence for six months, and in both cases kept to hard labour and find sureties, and for the third offence be liable to be transported.

Owners or occupiers of land, lords of manors, or their servants, may apprehend offenders, who, if they offer violence, are deemed guilty of misdemeanour, and liable to be transported for seven years, or imprisoned for two years. Limitation of time for proceeding under this Act, one year.

Three persons entering land armed by night, for the purpose of taking game, &c., a misdemeanour punishable by transportation or imprisonment. Game within this Act deemed to include hares, pheasants, partridges, grouse, heath or moor-game, black-game, and bustards.