A man might scowl at a dog attacking him, and on two other occasions.-Gwentian Code.

Little children, dogs, and cocks, were the three signs of the inhabitancy of a country. Which then by the Welsh laws was entitled to a court and church, and the privileges of an inhabited country.-Gwentian Code.

"XXII. HERE IS THE WORTH OF THE FURNITURE.

111. The collar of the king's greyhound, eight pence. 112. The collar of a gwrda's' greyhound, four pence. 113. The leash of the king's greyhound, four pence. 114. The leash of a gwrda's greyhound, two pence. 115. The leash of a tracker greyhound, eight pence." Venedotian Code.

WELSH LAWS.

Four pence paid for a house cur. It reached its worth in a year, as did a cat and a sheep. If killed with weapon in hand in self-defence, no compensation due.

VI.-OF ANIMALS.

Some species of dogs are of higher rank than others:

:

4. "There are three higher species of dogs: a tracker; a greyhound; and a spaniel.

Breyr. D. and G.

5. [There are three kinds of trackers: a bloodhound,] a covert-hound, and a harrier.

6. There are three kinds of curs: [a mastiff] a shepherddog; and a house cur."

A house cur's value, like a goat's and sheep's, did not augment with the privilege of their owners..

No man to lose his life for a dog stolen, a bird, or wild animal.

The horses, favourite dogs, hawks, and arms, were ebediw.1

BOOK IV.

35. "There are three proofs respecting an animal. One is, whoever has his dog killed, and he assert it to be a sheepdog, he is to prove it; the second is, if a person kill a dog because of its being mad, and the owner of the dog contradict him, and say that it was not mad, the person who killed it is to prove it was so, by showing that he had seen it attacking dogs and men, or that he had seen it with its tongue knawn;2 the third is, a dog of mischievous habits; if it be killed, it must be proved that it was accustomed to bite men, or of doing other injuries."

If the dogs, of a man engaged in driving cattle from his corn, killed the cattle, he was to pay, but not if he broke their necks or hurt them in driving them lawfully. If his neighbour's dogs came and killed them, the latter was to pay. He was not to drive them with dogs beyond his own boundaries. There was no fine for a person killed by a mad dog.

1 Heriot, paid by an heir of a vassal to his lord.

2 This means with the tongue hanging out, as is the case with a rabid dog when he runs.

VOL. I.

2 B

C. III.

6. "Nine score pence is to be paid for a dog, a bird, and a wild beast, should they be killed; and the oath of one person denies them."

C. IV.

Any person setting on other person's dogs was liable for the injury done by them.

B. XIII.

"There are three motes of pursuit: after a wolf; after thieves; and after a mad dog: and all who shall hear the cry are to assemble together."

For murder, treason, treachery, and irretrievable spoliation, everybody of every age within hearing of the horn had to accompany the exile and keep up the barking of dogs till he put to sea and had gone three score hours out of sight.

Of the three dues of a lord from his man was the feeding of his dogs: dovraeth (domesticity).

To deny taking a dog or bird, the oath of one man sufficed : but twenty-four were required for a horse. If a dog or bird was taken, restoration was to be made to the owner, and nine score pence to the lord. It was not accounted theft.

No man was allowed to take the flesh of a tame or hidden animal torn by a wolf or dogs, without the owner's consent. There were three indispensables of a summer resident-a bothy, a herdsman's dog, and a knife.

If a wife abused her husband, wishing drivel on his beard, dirt in his teeth, or called him a cur (gestave), she was to pay him three kine; or if she liked it better, to receive three

strokes with a rod the length of his fore arm and the thickness of his long finger, on any part of her person he pleased, her head excepted.

This may seem a singular method of regulating the ladies; but those who are curious in matrimonial legislation will find in these laws some other rules still more surprising.

CHAPTER XXXII.

LEGISLATION concerning the dog must have existed

in England from a remote period; the natural instinct for the chace, so general in the human heart, not only in all ranks but among all people, both barbarous and civilized, and which was a strong characteristic of the Celtic and Teutonic races, soon led to the powerful and wealthy engrossing that enjoyment thus passionately pursued. Some laws in all likelihood were passed prior to those of Canute, though they are the oldest Forest laws known in this country. Gurguntius, son of Belyn, is said to have made forests in Wiltshire;1 but the origin of most of our forests is lost in antiquity. Certainly in Domesday we only find the names of five, namely, the New Forest, Windsor, Gravelings, Wimbourne, and Whichwood; but it is believed that many others were in the kingdom, and Odericus Vitalis mentions that William the Conqueror hunted in the forest of Dean. Canute's laws allowed every freeman to sport on his own land, and Edward the Confessor confirmed this, but enforced death for hunting in the Crown domains, and a man who even unintentionally put a wild beast out of breath incurred a fine or flogging: if it was a stag royal, two years imprisonment, or deprival of all privileges and exclusion

1 Concordantia Historiarum.