A TREATISE ON THE GAME LAWS, AND ON FISHERIES; WITH AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING ALL THE STATUTES AND CASES ON THE SUBJECT. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. BY J. CHITTY, Esq. OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE. PRINTED LONDON: FOR W. CLARKE AND SONS, PORTUGAL-STREET, ΤΟ THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THOMAS, LORD ERSKINE, &c. &c. &c. My Lord, THE very kind and flattering marks of confidence which I have had the gratification to experience from you, induce me to hope that your Lordship will allow me the honour of dedicating this work to you. Much of my professional success is attributable to your Lordship's kind support, and I have ventured to presume that the same benevolence will induce you not to deny me the sanction of your name on the present occasion. I beg to subscribe myself with the greatest gratitude and respect, My Lord, Your Lordship's most obliged and JOSEPH CHITTY. Temple, 28th November, A. D. 1811. PREFACE. Ir is remarkable that there is no work of any magnitude on the law relating to Game and to Fisheries. It is a subject interesting to the Profession, and peculiarly so to Gentlemen of landed property. Numerous, indeed, and much to be regretted are the disputes and actions which arise from the real or supposed infractions of this law. It appears to me, that animosities of this nature are generally the effect of ignorance, on the part of the injured, or of the offender, of their respective rights and liabilities, and that therefore nothing would so effectually tend to prevent such disputes, as to shew to those who are possessed of exclusive and peculiar privileges how far such privileges extend, and to explain to others the wrongs which they commit, and the penalties to which they subject themselves, by their encroachments on the rights of their neighbours, or their violation of the law; and thus, by defining to all the limits which they are forbidden to exceed, to hinder, on the one hand, authority from swelling into oppression, and on |