in Dorset, and is Member of a county borough, will make himself well acquainted with all these unhappy circumstances, and will be an overmatch for Mr. Serjeant Lens, being retained on the other side. In my last letter to Messrs. Farrers, I requested them not to build any thing on my evidence in regard to a new trial, for that nothing should induce me (even if I was able to travel) to expose myself in a court of judicature, where I could not hear one word that was said. I made a proposal to have my evidence taken by a commission; but you will find by Messrs. Farrers's letter, that it may be done in the Court of Chancery, but not elsewhere. If, as the lawyers are pleased to say, my little performance contains a mass of evidence, and is written with great perspicuity,' why then should not Lord Rivers avail himself of that evidence when he can? Why should it not be secured to him immediately; and not suffer it, as must soon happen, to die with me? It is very certain that my evidence cannot be received in any court, and therefore of no service to Lord Rivers unless made public; and I am clearly convinced in my own mind it would be doing Lord Rivers a most essential service at this time. But how it is to be done is the question, and which I submit to your consideration; and if your opinion of the matters agrees with mine, as soon as I hear from you, I will transmit to you the whole performance, for until you have read it, it will be impossible for you to judge of the propriety or impropriety of publishing such an incongruous a performance. Yet at the same time I do flatter myself that your father, should he be pleased to peruse it, will not be displeased with it, to whom I beg leave to present my respects; and I am,

"Your sincere humble servant,

WM. CHAFIN.

"I have herewith sent an account of my motives for writing at all concerning the Chase."

Rev. W. Chafin's Motives for Writing concerning Cranbourne Chase.

"That what I have written respecting Cranbourne Chase may be rightly understood, I think it necessary for me to declare my motives, which were various, for writing on the subject at all. Some short time after the decease of the late Lord Rivers, Mr. Beckford, of Stapleton, on whose son the title is entailed, and who is interested in reversion in the rights of the Chase, requested of me (knowing that I had been conversant with the affairs of the Chase longer than any other person then living) to sit down at any leisure time, and recollect all the incidents and occurrences that had happened respecting the Chase within my memory, and to commit them to paper. This injunction I obeyed; and with some difficulty wrote several sheets of paper, which I formed into a little packet, and which I put into my pocket with intent to deliver it into Mr. Beckford's own hands, whom I was engaged to meet on that day with

his son. Mr. Horace Beckford was there, and I delivered my packet to him, who promised that his father should have it the night, but owing to some woeful mischance, I know not what, the papers never reached the father's hands to his dying day. After the late trial at Salisbury, in which a verdict was given against Lord Rivers, I did presume to say to his Lordship, that I was well convinced that, if the contents of my lost papers had been known to the Court, a different decision might probably have been the consequence. Lord Rivers desired me to endeavour to recollect as much of the purport of those papers as I could, and send it to him. To execute this task was the first and principal motive for writing what I did, but from a great lapse of time, and many occurrences intervening, I could not write in the same form as before, but was obliged to conform to the taste of the times. Another motive for writing thus was this: An honest quaker, a schoolmaster at Salisbury, was induced, by the dictates of some persons unfriendly to Lord Rivers's rights, to publish, some little before the aforesaid trial, a small pamphlet *, in order to prejudice the minds of some people, and to persuade them that Lord Rivers had no Chase rights in Wiltshire. It has been my aim, therefore, to contravene many assertions in this little book, and to expose the fallacy of them. Within a few years last past, there has been a great change of landed property in the Chase; and the present possessors are, I believe, not perfectly informed of Lord Rivers's rights and claims. Another motive, therefore, for my writing was, to set these rights and claims before them in a clearer light, in hopes of preventing vexatious contests in future. How far I have been successful, I must leave to all those who are concerned impartially to judge."

18. Mr. J. B. NICHOLS to Mr. CHAFIN.

"DEAR SIR, Red Lion-passage, Fleet-st. Jan. 8, 1817. "I have read over to my father with great interest your correspondence with Lord Rivers and his agents; and hasten to express my father's and my sincere concern that matters should have turned out so unfortunately. It was polite and correct in you to submit your manuscript to Lord Rivers previous to publication, as you had his Lordship's interest mainly at view; but the consequences make me regret you did not surprise Lord Rivers with your printed defence of his rights. It would, how

"A History of the Forest or Chace, known by the name of Cranborn Chace, collected from authentic early records, and continued to a late period; with a brief description of its present state. By WILLIAM WEST. Gillingham, printed by E. Neave, 1816." 8vo, pp. 132. It appears to have been chiefly compiled from the History of Dorsetshire. The same author afterwards published another pamphlet on the subject, which is noticed hereafter, p. 242.

ever, we humbly conceive, be improper now to print the statements, after what has passed between Lord Rivers and you, whilst the litigation is going forward; but I sincerely hope so important a document will not be wholly lost; and that you may live to see the time when it may be published with propriety. Your motives for writing it might be easily converted into a good prefatory introduction. I wish your health and strength would have conveniently borne a journey to London, as it would have given me great pleasure to have paid my respects to you at your hotel or lodgings; and still greater to have seen you at my humble abode. I fear, however, by what you say, this is not likely to be the case; and without it how can Lord Rivers be benefited by a new trial?

"If you intrust us with your manuscript, we doubt not to be amused and instructed by it; and it shall be carefully returned. "I now send back the letters; and remain, dear Sir,

"Your obliged and faithful servant, J. B. NICHOLS."

19. Mr. CHAFIN to Mr. J. B. NICHOLS. "DEAR SIR, Chettle, Jan. 12, 1817. "I received your packet safe. As Lord Rivers can have no such evidence as mine to support his Chase claims, from lapse of time and other casualties, I cannot but think that, if my manuscript documents should die with me, it would be an irretrievable loss to Lord Rivers. I have, therefore, sent you the whole of my simple performance, which I wish you to keep; but, as I have no copy, I should be obliged if you will have it transcribed, and return a copy to me instead of the original. You will find it very different from what you expect; there are many anecdotes and little stories related in it, which will appear very trifling, but you, who are acquainted with my design, will clearly perceive the intent of them; and that they tend to establish rights of great value, which could not have been done in a serious way without giving offence, which I have carefully avoided. I have also sent the Quaker's book which I mentioned to you, which has done mischief; and which it has been my aim to prevent. I have the presumption to flatter myself that your good father will find some minutes' amusement from my performance; and he may assure himself that all the facts are true. "Your sincere and obliged humble servant, WM. CHAFIN."

Feb. 5, 1817.

20. "DEAR SIRS, "Not having heard from you for some time makes me apprehensive that you may have sent a parcel, which I have not received, and that is the reason of my troubling you now. If no transcript of my papers hath been taken, I think, upon due consideration of the matter, that it will be a useless trouble to

do it, as you have got the original in your keeping. As to the renewal of Lord Rivers's Chase cause, I have not heard any thing concerning it, nor have I had any communication with any of his Lordship's agents, which I suppose I should have had if a new trial was to take place; but I am at present quite in the dark respecting that matter. I was pleased to see, in the Gentleman's Magazine, a proper notice of that insidious publication which I sent you; and that your opinion of it exactly coincides with mine. It has already done much mischief, which will be made manifest to the world at the ensuing assizes at Dorchester, where several poor criminals will be tried for capital offences, committed in consequence of having been seduced by the dictates of that book. As I have mentioned the Gentleman's Magazine, I take the liberty of giving you an account of an uncommon appearance (as I believe it to be) which has lately been observed here; and if you can spare a little room for it in your next Magazine, I think it would be interesting to Ornithologists. A pair of swallows, the arundo rustica, Lin. Syst. having bred up a nest of young ones the last summer in a hovel adjoining a dwelling-house in this village without being disturbed, came on the eleventh day of January last and visited their nest, and one of them was seen in it, busily employed either in pulling it down or repairing it, the other sitting on a rafter near. They both flew in and out many times in the course of the day, and appeared strong on the wing. It was a warm day for the season, and some gnats were perceived in the air; they departed about one o'clock. In about ten days after they re-visited their nest, but made a much shorter stay, the weather not being so favourable, and have not been seen since. A line from you will greatly oblige your sincere humble servant, WM. CHAFIN."

Feb. 6, 1817.

21. Mr. J. B. NICHOLS to Mr. CHAFIN. "REV. SIR, "On the receipt of your parcel, which was truly acceptable, the papers were given to Mr. Nichols senior to peruse, which afforded him very considerable satisfaction. They were sent to a confidential scribe to be copied fair, as you desired. This person, I am sorry to say, has detained them much longer than I imagined.

"I am glad the slight notice in the Magazine of the Cran

"By what authority the misnomer of Forest has crept into this pamphlet, we are at a loss to comprehend, as in sober truth it never was a Forest; nor is it Chace but a Chase. The plan of the publication is evidently to insinuate that Lord Rivers has no Rights of Chase within the County of Wilts. The subject, however, being still sub lite, we shall leave the further notice of this pamphlet to that upright and very able Critic, the Lord Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench." Gent. Mag. Jan. 1817, p, 54.

bourne pamphlet was to your satisfaction. I doubt not my father will avail himself of your notice of swallows *,-a subject which a few years ago was frequently agitated by the correspondents of Mr. Urban.

“Yours, &c.

J. B. NICHOLS."

22. Mr. CHAFIN to Messrs. NICHOLS.

"SIRS, Chettle, Oct. 15, 1817. "I should not have so long delayed having communications with you if I had been capable of writing; and I have no helper. I had the misfortune, in the course of the summer (if it may be called so), to be struck with a flash of lightning as I was sitting in a window, attended with tremendous thunder and hail-storm, which did not extend half a mile either way. It hath deprived me of the sight of my left eye, and the use of two fingers of my right hand, and greatly affected the muscles of my breast, which I at this time very severely feel; but it does not seem to have injured any inward vital part. The hail did great damage in gardens, and where glasses were used; but spared the produce of the fields, which were never known to be more plentiful or of finer quality. My principal motive for writing to you now is, to inform you that I have very lately been honoured with three visits by Lord Rivers, and we have had long conversations relating to his Chase; and I find that all the Judges are unanimously adverse to the granting a fresh trial on the former plea, of claim of the great boundaries of the Chase in former days, and that his Lordship must be content with the smaller inbounds, which I have set forth in my little manuscript; but it is doubtful whether or no his Lordship will, after so long a delay, be able to obtain even those. His Lordship seems to regret he did not follow his first intention of making my little manuscript public; and I verily believe that, though very trifling and imperfect as it was, it would in some measure have prevented some very distressful occurrences, which have since happened, and which oblige me to add much to that manuscript, and to relate some unpleasant transactions which I wished to avoid. And as I am now in for it, and have some very old letters in my possession, giving an account of the field sports with which our ancestors were amused, it is my present intention, if my health will permit, to introduce these subjects into my narrative, with transcripts of the letters, without interfering in the least with Lord Rivers's concerns, but to catch the attention of some readers, and to keep up good humour and create a laugh, which is all I aim at. The difficulty will be, how to form a connexion in regard to these discordant matters, but I must do the best I can; and if I can get on, I shall swell my

* See the Gentleman's Magazine for March 1817, p. 221.