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351
net game on their own lands, and
reserved to owners of £^0 free-
hold, or owners of ^400 of pro-
perty only, the right to take game
between Michaelmas and Christ-
mas. Night poaching and the
secret conveyance of game to
market by night was made punish-
able by three months' imprison-
ment, and constables were given
power to search on warrant sus-
pected premises and to destroy
dogs and nets found thereon.
By the time of the Restoration
(sports of whatever kind were
flouted during the Commonwealth)
the legitimate value of the setter
had come to be recognised, and
Charles II. (1670-71) passed an
Act (22 and 23 Car. II. 25) which,
among other provisions, gave
persons having lands or tenements
of the annual value of /*ioo the
right to keep guns, bows, grey-
hounds, setting dogs, ferrets,
** coney dogs " and lurchers. To
be strictly accurate, it forbade
people who had not that property
qualification to enjoy possession
of these things and animals. This
Act also gave keepers— mentioned
in our laws for the first time— the
right of search on a J.P.'s war-
rant, and made poaching rabbits in
unenclosed warrens an offence
punishable by three months* im-
prisonment.
In 1692 another Act (4 Wm.
and M. c. 23) again gave con-
stables power to search suspected
dwellings, and if game were found
to carry those in whose custody
it was discovered before a Justice
of the Peace. If no satisfactory
explanation were forthcoming,
the Justice could fine the prisoner
and send him to the House of
Correction for a period of from
ten days to one month, and sen-
tence him to a whipping in
addition.
"Unqualified persons" found
in possession of greyhounds,
setters, ferrets, nets, &c., were
liable to the same penalties. By
this Act also gamekeepers were
authorised to ** oppose and resist "
night poachers ; and inasmuch as
** great mischief ensues by inferior
tradesmen and other dissolute
persons neglecting their trades
and occupations who follow hunt-
ing, fishing, and other game to
the ruin of themselves and the
damage of their neighbours," any
such person who presumed to
hawk, hunt, or fish, unaccom-
panied by his master, was to be
held a trespasser.
One more old statute and we
have done. In 1706 Queen Anne
passed a law (6 Anne, c. 18)
which made any higlar, chapman
(pedlar), carrier, inn-keeper, vic-
tualler or ale-house keeper liable
to a fine of £^ for every head of
game found in his possession.
Any unqualified person keeping or
using a greyhound, setter or
lurcher was liable to a fine of £^
or imprisonment for three months ;
and Justices of the Peace and
Lords and Ladies of manors were
empowered to confiscate any dogs,
nets or engines they might find in
the hands of pedlars and those
forbidden to have game in their
possession. In this Act, too, we
find heather burning made an
offence for the first time. Only
the forest of Sherwood in Notts
and parts adjacent are thus pro-
tected, but legislative recognition
of the fact that reckless heather
burning ''destroys the breed of
game " is worth notice. Buy Seromycin
The law of 1710 (9 Anne, c. 27)
perpetuated the preceding Act,
and in addition forbade Lords of
Manors to appoint more than one
gamekeeper to each manor. It
also forbade the driving and
taking of wildfowl from July ist
to September ist. q^
VOL. Lxxi. — NO. 471.
25
^
352
May
The Chances of the Game.
SOME TALES OF PLAY.
By Major Arthur Griffiths.
Author of **My Grandfather's Journals," &c,, &c.
I.— DE SOTO'S SYSTEM.
Some thirty years ago the last
stronghold of public play was
installed upon the hill of Spelugues
as it was then called, a spur oJF the
great Mont Agel above, forming a
narrow plateau with sides that
dropped steeply into the blue
Mediterranean. At that time the
gaming tables that had long
flourished Generic Seromycin in the watering places
of Ems, Homburg, Baden Baden,
had been closed by the newly
formed authority of the North
German Confederation, and all
other European Governments were
too virtuous to give harbourage
to hazard. Only in the small
principality of Monaco the tempta-
tion of great profit was too strong
for a needy monarch whose king-
dom was no more than a good
sized tablecloth could cover, and
whose revenue did not amoimt to
many hundreds a year. Charles
III. of Monaco gave a concession
to certain enterprising speculators
who opened a small hell under his
palace walls in the ancient town,
then moved down into Condamine,
then returned to the Villa Gabarini
in Monaco, and finally began to
build a lordly pleasure house for
the seductive games of roulette
and trente et quarante upon the
above-mentioned hill. Charles
III., however, stood godfather,
and the place was re-christened
by its present widely know name,
Monte Carlo.
Hazard did not greatly prosper,
however, in those early days.
* All rights reserved in Great Britain and the
United States.
The Casino buildings did do:
advance very rapidly; punters
were few, for the means of access
to this new temple of fortune were
limited. One way of reaching
Monaco was by steamer from
Nice ; pleasant enough in smiling
weather, but the boats were
cockleshells, and horribly uncom-
fortable in the sharp squalls that
are too common on this storm-
tossed inland sea. Yet some
extended the voyage to Mentone
— a better port — where they landed
and returned to Monte Carlo by
road. Others again drove frora
Nice by Great Corniche high^^'ay,
and halting at La Turbie dropped
down to the Casino by the bridle
paths, on foot or mule - back.
They made shift perforce with