ABSTRACT
Although the endemic social violence of the first years of the century was by and large a thing of the past after the 1840s the maintenance of law continued to be a central problem. John Archer has shown how cattle maiming, another crime of protest or revenge, continued in East Anglia until at least the 1870s. More spectacularly, enclosure and enclosure riots are usually seen as a thing of the period between the 1790s and 1830s. Of all rural crime against property the most important were offences against the game laws, those laws which ‘protected’ hares, rabbits, deer, pheasant, partridge and other named fowl. The Acts of 1828 and 1831 were modified at various times during the next thirty years but remained the basis of legislation on game. In 1844 the 1828 Act was modified to cover public roads and highways, as well as enclosed ground.
