To be taken out annually, in the parish or place where your assessed
taxes are paid—costs, 3_l._ 13_s._ 6_d._, and one shilling fee to the
collector.
Does not authorise unqualified persons to kill game, but exempts them
from the penalty of 20_l._, and leaves them subject to that of 5_l._ for
non-qualification, and also to that of 5_l._ a piece for every head of
game found in their possession.
For menial servants, hired as gamekeepers, costs, 1_l._ 5_s._, and a
shilling fee to the collector.
Persons, not menial servants, must have a three and a half guinea
certificate, and should have, also, the common gamekeeper’s certificate,
to hold a deputation.
When demanded by any assessor, collector, land owner, commissioner,
inspector, surveyor, occupier of land, also gamekeeper, or other person,
provided the two latter produce their certificates, previously to
requiring yours, penalty for refusing, 20_l._ If you have not your
certificate to produce, your name, and place of abode, may be asked. All
certificates expire on the 5th of April in each year.
If you have not a certificate to produce at the time it is called for,
your Christian and surnames, and place of abode, may be demanded by any
assessor, &c. &c., (as before mentioned) and the penalty for refusing
them, or giving a false name, is 20_l._
CERULEAN, _a._ Blue, sky-coloured.
CHAD, _s._ A sort of fish.
CHAFFINCH, _s._ A bird so called, because it delights in chaff.
This bird is rather less than the sparrow. The bill is bluish; irides
hazel; the forehead black; crown of the head, back part, and sides of
the neck, bluish ash-colour; the cheeks, under side of the neck, and
breast, dull pink; back, chestnut-brown; rump greenish; belly, white,
tinged with pink; the bastard wing and coverts of the primary quills are
black; those of the secondary tipped with white; the smaller coverts
black and greyish, on which is a spot of white; the quill-feathers
dusky, slightly edged with greenish yellow on the outer webs, marked
with white on both webs at the base; tail dusky; the exterior feather is
obliquely marked with white, taking in the whole of the outer web, the
next is tipped with white; legs dusky.
The female is of a dull green above; the breast and belly of a brown or
dirty white; the wings have the same markings as the male, but less
brilliant.
This bird makes a most elegant nest of green moss, curiously studded
with lichen, interwoven with wool, and lined with feathers and hair. It
builds against the side of a tree, particularly in ivy, or in some
forked branch of a bush; but particularly in apple trees overgrown with
moss and lichen, and, like many other birds, adapts the materials of its
nest to the surrounding colour; an instinct of no small
importance.—_Bewick._
CHAIN, _s._ A series of links fastened one within another; a bond, a
manacle; a fetter.
CHAISE, _s._ A carriage either of pleasure or expedition.
CHALDRON, or CHAUDRON, _s._ A dry English measure of coals,
consisting of thirty-six bushels heaped up. The chaldron should
weigh two thousand pounds.
CHALK, _s._ A white fossil, usually reckoned a stone, but by some
ranked among the boles.
CHALYBEATE, _a._ Impregnated with iron or steel.
CHAMBEL OF A HORSE, _s._ The joint or bending of the upper part of
the hind leg.
CHAMOIS, _s._ An animal of the goat kind, the skin of which made
into leather is called _Shammy_.
The chamois is a little larger than a goat, but much superior in power
and agility; the strongest man could not hold one of a month old; they
bound from precipice to precipice to a prodigious distance, gaining the
loftiest summits, and precipitating themselves from the steepest rocks
without fear. The chase of this animal occupies a great part of the
mountainous population, and many perish annually in the hazardous
pursuit.
Often the hunter, overtaken by a dark mist, loses himself amongst the
ice, and dies of cold and hunger; or the rain renders the rocks so
slippery, that he is not able to reascend them. In the midst of eternal
snows, braving all dangers, they follow the chamois frequently by the
marks of their feet; when one is perceived at a distance, the hunter
creeps along till within reach of his gun, which he rests on a rock, and
is almost always sure of his prey: thus the innocent beast, which
tranquilly feeds, perhaps enjoys the last moments of its happy
existence. But if his watchful eye perceives the enemy, as is often the
case, he flies from rock to rock, “timor addidit alas,” and the fatigues
of the pursuer begin, who traverses the snows, and climbs the
precipices, heedless of how he is to return. Night arrives, yet the
hopes of the morrow reassure him, and he passes it under a rock. There,
without fire, without light, he draws from his wallet a little cheese
and oaten bread, which he is obliged to break with a stone, or with the
hatchet he carries to cut his path in the ice. This repast finished, he
falls asleep on his bed of snow, considering what route the chamois has
probably taken. At break of day he awakens, insensible to the charms of
a beautiful morning, to the glittering rays which silver the snowy
summits of the mountains around him, and, thinking only of his prey,
seeks fresh dangers. Thus they frequently remain many days in these
horrible deserts, while their wives and families scarcely dare to sleep,
lest they should behold the spirits of their dead husbands; for it is
believed that a chasseur, after his death, always appears to the person
who is most dear to him, to make known where lie his mangled remains, to
beg the rites of burial.
CHAMP, _v._ To bite with a frequent action of the teeth; to devour.
CHANCE, _s._ Fortune, the cause of fortuitous events; the act of
fortune; accident; possibility of any occurrence.
CHAP, _s._ The upper or under part of a beast’s mouth.
CHAR, _s._ A fish found chiefly in Winandermeer in Lancashire.
[Illustration]
The char is a most beautiful and excellent fish, and is a fish of prey.
They generally haunt deep cool lakes, and are seldom found at the
surface till late in autumn. When they are at the surface, however, they
will take either fly or minnow. I have known some caught in both these
ways, and have myself taken a char, even in summer, in one of those
beautiful, small, deep lakes in the Upper Tyrol, near Nazereet; but it
was where a cool stream entered from the mountains, and the fish did not
rise, but swallowed the artificial fly under water. The char is always,
in its colour, a very brilliant fish, but in different countries there
are many varieties in the tint. I do not remember ever to have seen more
beautiful fish than those of Aussee, which, when in perfect season, have
the lower fins and the belly of the brightest vermilion, with a white
line on the outside of the pectoral, ventral, anal, and lower part of
the caudal fin, and with vermilion spots, surrounded by the bright olive
shade of the sides and back. The dorsal fin in the char has eleven
spines, the pectoral fourteen, the ventral nine, the anal ten, and the
caudal twenty. I have fished for them in many lakes, without success,
both in England and Scotland, and also amongst the Alps; and I am told
the only sure way of taking them is by sinking a line with a bullet and
a hook having a live minnow attached to it, in the deep water which they
usually haunt.—_Davy._
CHAR, _v._ To burn wood to a black cinder.
CHARADRIUS (LINN.) _s._ Plover, a genus thus characterised:
Bill shorter than the head, slender, straight, compressed, nasal furrow
prolonged more than two-thirds; mandibles bulged towards the tip.
Nostrils at the base, jagged, slit lengthwise in the middle of a large
membrane, which covers the fosse. Legs long or of middle length,
slender, three toes directed forwards; the outer toe joined to the
middle one by a short membrane; the inner toe separate. Tail slightly
rounded or square. Wings of middle size, the first quill a little
shorter than the second, which is the longest in the wing.—_Montagu._
CHARCOAL, _s._ Coal made by burning wood. _Charcoal poultices_ are
sometimes used to remove the fetid smell arising from greased
heels.
CHARGE, _v._ To accuse; to command; to fall upon, to attack; to load
a gun.
CHARGE, _s._ Care, trust, custody; command, commission; imputation;
expense; onset; the quantity of powder and ball put into a gun;
a preparation, or a sort of ointment applied to the
shoulder-splaits and sprains of horses.
Charges are plasters applied to the legs to remove windgalls and
lameness, previous to turning the horse out. Those in common use, are—
1. Yellow rosin 2 oz.
Burgundy pitch 4 oz.
Barbadoes tar 2 oz.
Bees-wax 3 oz.
Red lead 4 oz.
2. Yellow rosin 1 lb.
Bees-wax 8 oz.
Common turpentine 2 oz.
Armenian bole, powdered 4 oz.—Mix.
The first three are to be melted together, and then the latter is to be
added. The mixture is to be constantly stirred until sufficiently cold
to be applied; and if it prove too thick when cold, it may be softened
with a little oil or lard.
CHARGER, _s._ an officer’s horse.
CHARIOT, _s._ A carriage of pleasure, or state.
CHARMER, _s._ One that has the power of charms, or enchantments.
_The Charmer._—That individuals have exercised a powerful and
unaccountable influence on the most unmanageable animals, by means which
still remain a mystery, is certain. The most remarkable case on record,
is that of an Irish blacksmith, who, by an undiscovered agency, could
subdue the most vicious horses. He asserted, that this was effected by
merely whispering in the animal’s ear some potent spell, and hence he
gained the title of _the charmer_. This power over the most desperate
horses was so often put to the test, that all doubt is idle. He never
refused to enter the stable of horses that to all besides were
unapproachable, and after a short tête-à-tête, the animal would be found
trembling and subdued, and while every limb appeared convulsed with
terror _the charmer_ would pass under his belly, lift his feet, or do
any thing he was required. In his repeated experiments upon the most
savage horses, _the charmer_ never received any injury, or failed in
subduing the animal.
Many attempts have been made to account for the means by which this
influence was obtained. The general belief was, that some powerful drug
was passed by the exorciser into the horse’s ear; but by what means was
he enabled to approach sufficiently close to a furious brute to
administer it?
It is singular that though _the charmer_ was a miserable and
poverty-stricken wretch, no bribe could induce him to communicate the
charm—if it was one—and though immense sums of money were offered, he
carried the secret with him to the grave!
CHASE, _v._ To hunt, to pursue; to drive.
CHASE, _s._ Hunting, pursuit of anything as game; fitness to be
hunted; pursuit of something as desirable; hunting match; the
game hunted; open ground stored with such beasts as are hunted;
the chase of a gun, is the whole bore or length of a piece.
CHASER, _s._ Hunter, pursuer, driver.
CHECK, _s._ Restraint, curb; in falconry, when a hawk forsakes the
proper game to follow other birds; the cause of restraint; a
stop.
When hounds divide and are in two parts, the whipper-in must wait for
the huntsman’s halloo before he stops either. If there are many scents,
and it is quite uncertain which is the hunted fox, he should stop those
hounds that are the farthest down the wind, as they can hear the others,
and will reach them soonest.
When hounds are at a check, every one should be silent, and stand still,
the huntsman had better let the hounds alone, or content himself with
holding them forward, without taking them off their noses.
If hounds come to a check on a high road, by the fox being headed, in
trying back they have the best chance of hitting off the scent again, as
they may try on both sides at once.—_Beckford._—_Daniel._
CHECKMATE, _s._ The movement on the chess-board, that puts an end to
the game.
CHEEK, _s._ The side of the face below the eye; a general name among
mechanics for almost all those pieces of their machines that are
double.
CHERUP, _v._ To chirp, to use a cheerful voice.
CHESS, _s._ A nice and intricate game, in imitation of a battle
between two armies.