PETERSFIELD.
Agent—Miss DUPLOCK
PETTY SESSIONS, Dec. 28th.—Present, Hon. J. J. Carnegie (Chairman), J. Martineau, and J. H. Waddington, Esqrs.
— William Budd Stubbs was charged on the information of William Gooch, with trespassing in search of game, on land in the occupation of Mr. Cobbald, in the parish of Eastmeon, Mr. Blackmore, jun., of Alresford, appeared for defendant.
— Hannah Gooch deposed: I am the wife of William Gooch. I was going to Eastmeon on the 19th November, about 11 o’clock in the forenoon. I was in a road leading to Privett by Mr. Forbes’ lodge. I saw some partridges in a field on the ground. I heard a gun go off, and the birds flew up. I went to the hedge and looked; one bird flew up about a yard and fell dead. I saw defendant come from behind a stack; he went and put his gun into his cart; he then went into the field with a dog; he sent the dog after the bird; the dog picked up the bird and brought it to him; he put it into his cart, and then got up & drove off towards Eastmeon. On passing me he asked me where I was going; he drove off so fast that I had no time to answer him. I saw the horse and cart in the road before I heard the gun. There was no one else there.
— Cross-examined by Mr. Blackmore: I saw the cart soon as I got out of the park gate; I was close to the cart.—The field belongs to Mr. Forbes, and is in Mr. Cobbald’s occupation. Defendant went straight from the field into the road, and then went back with the dog into the field. I did not see him in any other field; he was behind the stack when I heard the gun go off; there was no one else behind the stack; the rick is 10 or 12 yards from the road; Mr. Randall Vinn’s field joins the field in which the birds were; I will swear he did not shoot from Mr. Vinn’s field; I must have seen him if he had; the rick covered none of Mr. Vinn’s field from where I was standing; Mr. Vinn’s field joins a plantation and Mr. Cobbald’s field, but it does not join the road.
— William Gooch deposed: I am keeper to Mr. Forbes; I know the field in question; it is in Mr. Cobbald’s occupation, but Mr. Forbes has the right of killing game. I heard a gun go off when I was in the park; went to the spot and saw partridge feathers about 25 yards from the rick.
Mr. Blackmore, in opening the defence, remarked that he never knew evidence more conflicting than that which had been given and that which he was about to introduce. His instructions were that defendant was not on the land in question at all, and that he never went into the fleld. He called the defendant, who deposed that he was riding along the road on the day in question, and saw a covey of partridges run from Mr. Vinn’s field into the hedge; he also saw another covey in Mr. Cobbald’s field. He went into Mr. Vinn’s field from the road, and when he got about 40 yards along the hedge the birds got out of the hedge, and he killed one, which dropped in Mr. Cobbald’s field. He then went back into the road and put his gun into the cart, and waved his hand to the dog, which went and fetched the bird, and he then drove on towards Eastmeon. He never went into Mr. Cobbald’s field from first to last. The dog went and fetched the bird, and brought it to him to the road. He saw the woman (Mrs. Gooch) standing about 20 yards from his cart; he said to her, ‟did you see that?” she made no reply; there was plenty of time for her to do so. Mr. Vinn’s field joins the road; there is a plantation part of the way, but where he (defendant) entered the field there is only a low hedge separating it from the road.
— By the Bench: I was about 40 yards in Mr. Vinn’s field when I shot, and about 15 yards from the rick; the birds when I shot were about over-right the hedge. I do not know whether the hedge is Mr. Vinn’s or Mr. Cobbald’s. My reason for saying to Mr. Gooch ‟Did you see that?” was that I thought the dog (which was a young one) brought the bird out well.
— William Gooch re-called, deposed that the hedge for 200 yards belongs to Mr. Cobbald and not to Mr. Vinn; the plantation separates Mr. Vinn’s field from the road all the way, so that no could get from the road to the field without going through the plantation.
— Mr. Blackmore called the attention of the Bench to the case of ‟The Queen v. Pratt,” in which Lord Campbell had ruled that to constitute a trespass there must be an actual corporeal entry on the land, which he submitted there had not been in this case, inasmuch as the evidence of Hannah Gooch had been distinctly rebutted on oath by that of the defendant.
The Magistrates withdrew for a short time to consider their decision, and on returning into court the Chairman announced that they considered the case proved, and adjudged defendant to pay a fine of 10s., and 7s. 6d. costs.
⎯ Mary Anne Anderson was summoned by Ebenezer Durman, Assistant Overseer of the Parish of Petersfield, for non-payment of poor’s-rate. Warrant of distress to issue if not paid in a fortnight.
⎯ George Oakshott was charged, on the information of John Knight, gamekeeper to Sir William Knighton, Bart., with setting a slip for a pheasant, on the 15th of December, on land belonging to and in the occupation of Sir J. C. Jervoise, Bart., in the parish of Clanfield. Defendant did not appear. Service of summons was proved by P.C. Godfrey; and, as it appeared that he had been convicted of a similar offence three or four times before, he was fined 1l. and 7s. 6d. costs, or twenty-one days’ imprisonment, with hard labour.