R3/4914/1 & 2

Letter Reads- Proceeds of the sale of game was only given away one year and probably was discontinued when preserving ceased but in any case Bennett doubts if it would achieve the desired effect of reducing poaching. The Duke considered the idea of giving game to labourers with cottage allotments, but it would require so much to give even a hare or a couple of rabbits to so many as to be impracticable. There was a suggestions that when more game than was required was killed on a farm the tenant might be given a portion but Bennett thinks that is where it should end. The Duke of Grafton ordered his keeper to discontinue night watching and so turned all the labourers into poachers. When he condemned game as a great evil he should have stopped preserving. Bennett has always tried to guard against preserving without protecting. He will see Woods and White and tell them the Duke's intentions. He plans to visit Cople tomorrow about plans for Mr Byng. The objections to the school house at Chesham Bois seem to have been met.

4 Dec 1844

From: 1844 To: 1844

item

Haedy, C,
Bennett,
Byng,
Woods,
White,
Grafton, Duke of

labourer, poaching, hares, rabbits, schools, letters, WOBURN, Woburn Abbey, COPLE, Chesham