Page:Prerogatives of the Crown.djvu/160

 140 Free Chase.— Park. C.lll. But Lord Coke (a) says, that a man may as lawfully hunt, to all intents and purposes, within the purlieu in his own grounds, as any other owner may do in his grounds that never were afforested. 4. A Free chase is a right to hunt and kill game over a certain district, derivable from a royal grant, or immemorial usage which supposes it(b), A chase differs from a forest, properly fo called, principally in this respect, that a chase cannot be subject to the forest laws. It is an unenclosed place (c). And a man may have a chase in the ground of another as well as in his own, and the game therein is protected for his benefit, even from the owner of the land {d). Not that the King has the power to grant a chase over the lands of a subject without his concurrence, or that the subject can, without the King's licence, make a legal and privileged chase over his own ground {e). The right to a chase over another's land originated from the grantees of chases selling their estates in antient times, reserv- ing their rights of chase to themselves {f). There can, how- ever, be no doubt, that the King has the prerogative of confer- ring this franchise over other lands than those of the grantee, with the consent of the owner ; though, as observed by Mr. Cruise (^), it is probable that a chase was never granted over any grounds but those whereof the grantee was himself seized ; and most of the antient grants of free chase and warren, (of which an infinite number are mentioned by Dugdale in his Baronage,) are confined to the demesne lands of the grantee. The right to a free chase does not prevent the owner of the soil from cutting timber and wood growing upon it, though if he cut so much that there is not sufficient for covert, and to maintain the game, the King, or his grantee of the free chase, has his remedy {h), 5. A park is an enclosed chase, extending only over a man's (a) 4 Inst. 303. («) 1 1 Rep. 87. 2 Inst 199. (A) 2 Bla. Com. 38. (/) 2 Bla. Com. 39. (c) 4 Inst. 317, 8. Wood's Inst. {g) 3 Cruise Dig. 293. 219,20. 2 Bla. Com. 38. (A) See Case of Forest, 12 Rep. 22. (d) Ibid. Com. Dig. tit. Chase, B. 4 lust. 298. own