colt be detained in the house, and the mare taken back to her former place and here the wild is caught by the tame: and that does not constitute an illegal act.

19. Calves, lambs, and kids need not be loosed by the taker, but at his will, between meal-times; for no animal will die, by being impounded from one meal-time to another.

*

25. A foal following its mother is not to be taken, and that is called a darting foal.

26. Swine are not to be taken for trespassing upon corn, from the feast of St. John unto the calends of January; unless they be found in a barn, or in a meadow.

27. Whoever shall will to preserve a meadow, let him keep it, from the feast of St. Patrick unto the calends of winter: a meadow is land appropriated for hay only, and enclosed by a fence. It is to be preserved unto the calends of winter, because it is mowed twice in the year.

28. Whoever shall find an animal trespassing upon such a meadow, let him take thereon as upon corn. If he chance to find them thereon, and cannot overtake them, though confessed, damage to grass is not to be compensated.

29. Whoever makes a fence about his corn, let him take animals found upon the grass that may be therein, as well as upon the corn; because nothing is to depasture there.

30. No one, except a lord, is to have more than two reserves of grass, a field, and a meadow; and, if he will to keep it, let him obtain a cross from the lord, and under the sanction of that let him keep it.

31. Thus animals trespassing upon corn are to be impounded: if they be wild, they are to be taken and placed out in a yard; if they be tame animals, they may be impounded, in or out, at pleasure. If there be animals belonging to two different persons, they are not to be mixed together; and if they be animals of different species, they are not to be mixed; but; if they be placed together, every one of them is to be tied. It is not right to tie swine, only to take them. It is right to tie poultry and geese, in taking them.

32. If a person require a pledge for his corn, with the time of a pledge which shall lapse; no one is to give it, except for the time of a corn-pledge; and a corn-pledge does not lapse until the calends of winter.

33. Whoever is entitled to corn, either by surety; or for damage done by cattle in the harvest; or by purchase; and shall not demand it before the calends of winter; he is not afterwards entitled to it; because he has suffered the proper period for urging his claim to elapse: for it is not right to claim corn from one year to another.

34. Whoever in taking cattle shall injure them, whatever the nature of the injury, the taker is to pay for it; for the animals are to return home without claim, without surclaim, except payment to the taker of the property.

35. Whatsoever person shall impound an animal, and suffer it to graze; he is not to lose his claim, for doing more than right. 36. Whoever shall take animals, and they break out and get home, nothing is due for them; for it is not right that there should be two takings for one trespass.

37. Whoever shall impound an animal, and refuse a lawful pledge, requiring money; if the animal die, he is to pay for it.

38. Whoever shall take many animals, and detain one of them apart, for the act of the whole, and suffer the others to go away; he is only to receive what shall fall on that one animal.

39. Whoever shall find a small animal upon his corn, whether a sheep, a goat, or a swine; it is at the option of the taker, either to keep account of them, until one animal be due; or else a penny for a sheep, or a goat, after it shall have been taken five times; and a penny for the swine when taken, or reckon until a swine be wholly due.

40. Whoever comes to liberate animals for others, it is right for the taker to ask him, whether he will be responsible for them; and, if he will not be responsible, he is not to deliver them to him and, should they so die in his pound, not one is to be paid for. If the other engage to be responsible for them in all things, let a pledge be taken from him, with a surety for its dilysrwydd (warranty by a seller of property that no claim can be substantiated to the ownership of the property other than his own): and, if another owner should come to claim that pledge, he must produce, of his own property, one equally good, before the other is to go from him.

41. The pledge that is given by a wife, the husband is not to nullify; and the pledge given by a husband is not to be nullified by the wife.

42. Whoever shall have had his corn greatly damaged by trespass, and find animals upon it, and demand from the owner of

those animals compensation for all the damage; he is not entitled to more than the owner of the cattle, on his oath, may pay him as their damage; whether that be much or little and that

is to be of the same kind of land, in the same course of tillage: and that is called compensation for damage: and it is to be claimed before the calends of winter.

43. Whoever shall remove his corn from the stubble to the ley, and make his rick upon the ley; if it be damaged there, he is not to receive compensation. And flax, not in a garden, is subject to the same law as such corn.

44. There is no person, whatever may be his pledge, that is exempt from compensating damage.

45. No person is to milk, or to make any use of cattle that are impounded, though he may be the owner of them; without the permission of the captor.

46. The taker is not to seek the owner of the cattle he may take; neither is he to conceal them; and if he should conceal them, and they die, or be lost, through his negligence; let him pay for them.

And so terminates concerning corn damage.

The proof book of the laws of Wales ends. Amen.