or Chace, in Law, is used for a driving of cattle to or from any place; as to a distrel, or fortlet, &c.

or Chace, is also a place of retreat for deer and wild beasts; of a middle kind between a forest and a park, being usually less than a forest, and not possessed of so many privileges; but wanting, v.g., courts of attachment, swainmote, and justice seat.*

Yet it is of a large extent, and stocked both with a greater diversity of wild beasts or game, and more keepers than a park. Crompton observes, that a forest cannot be in the hands of a subject, but it forthwith loses its name, and becomes a chace; in regard all those courts lose their nature when they come into the hands of a subject; and that none but a king can make a lord chief justice in eyre of the forest. See Justice in Eyre.

The following history of the English chase is given by Mr Pennant. "At first the beasts of chase had this whole island for their range; they knew no other limits than the ocean, nor confessed any particular master. When the Saxons had established themselves in the heptarchy, they were referred by each sovereign for his own particular diversion. Hunting and war, in those uncivilized ages, were the only employ of the great; their active, but uncultivated minds, being susceptible of no pleasures but those of a violent kind, such as gave exercise to their bodies, and prevented the pain of thinking.

"But as the Saxon kings only appropriated those lands to the use of forests which were unoccupied, so no individuals received any injury; but when the Conquest had settled the Norman line on the throne, this passion for the chase was carried to an excess, which involved every civil right in a general ruin: it superseded the consideration of religion even in a superstitious age: the village communities, nay even the most sacred edifices, were turned into one vast white, to make room for animals, the objects of a lawless tyrant's pleasure. The new forest in Hampshire is too trite an instance to be dwelt on; sanguinary laws were enacted to preserve the game; and in the reigns of William Rufus, and Henry I., it was less criminal to destroy one of the human species than a beast of chase. Thus it continued while the Norman line filled the throne; but when the Saxon line was restored under Henry II., the rigour of the forest laws was immediately softened.

"When our barons began to form a power, they claimed a vast, but more limited, tract for a diversion that the English were always fond of. They were very jealous of any encroachments on their respective bounds, which were often the cause of deadly feuds; such a one gave cause to the fatal day of Chevy-chase; a fact which, though recorded only in a ballad, may, from what we know of the manners of the times, be founded on truth; not that it was attended with all the circumstances which the author of that natural but heroic composition hath given it; for, on that day neither a Percy nor a Douglas fell: here the poet seems to have claimed his privilege, and mixed with this fray some of the events of the battle of Otterbourne.

"When property became happily more divided by the relaxation of the feudal tenures, these extensive hunting grounds became more limited; and as tillage and husbandry increased, the beasts of chase were obliged to give way to others more useful to the community. The vast tracts of land, before dedicated to hunting, were then contracted; and, in proportion as the useful arts gained ground, either lost their original destination, or gave rise to the invention of parks. Liberty and the arts seem coeval; for when once the latter got footing, the former protected the labours of the industrious from being ruined by the licentious sportsman, or being devoured by the objects of his diversion: for this reason, the subjects of a despotic government still experience the inconveniences of vast wastes and forests; the terrors of the neighbouring husbandmen; while in our well regulated monarchy very few chases remain. The English still indulge themselves in the pleasures of hunting; but confine the deer kind to parks, of which England boasts of more than any other kingdom in Europe. The laws allow every man his pleasure; but confine them in such bounds as prevent them from being injurious to the meanest of the community. Before the Reformation, the prelates seem to have guarded sufficiently against this want of amusement, the see of Norwich, in particular, being possessed, about that time, of thirteen parks."

in the sea language, is to pursue a ship; which is also called giving chase.

Stern-Chase, is when the chaser follows the chased astern directly upon the same point of the compass.

To lie with a ship's fore foot in a Chase, is to fail and meet with her by the nearest distance; and so to cross her in her way, or to come across her fore-foot.

A ship is said to have a good chase, when she is so built forward on, or a-tern, that she can carry many guns to float forwards or backwards; according to which she is said to have a good forward or good stern chase.

CHASE Guns, are such whose ports are either in the head (and then they are used in chasing others); or in the stern, which are only useful when they are pursued or chased by any other ship.

CHASE of a Gun, is the whole bore or length of a piece taken withinside.

Wild-goose Chase, a term used to express a sort of racing on horseback used formerly, which resembled the flying of wild geese; those birds generally going in a train one after another, not in confused flocks as other birds do. In this sort of race the two horses, after running twelve score yards, had liberty, which horse forever could take the leading, to ride what ground the jockey pleased, the hindmost horse being bound to follow him within a certain distance agreed on by the articles, or else to be whipped in by the tryers and judges who rode by; and whichever horse could distance the other won the race. This sort of racing was not long in common use; for it was found inhuman, and destructive to good horses, when two such were matched together. For in this case neither was able to distance the other till they were both ready to sink under their riders; and often two very good good horses were both spoiled, and the wagers forced to be drawn at last. The mischief of this sort of racing soon brought in the method now in use, of running only for a certain quantity of ground, and determining the plate or wager by the coming in first at the post.

**Chasing of Gold, Silver, &c.** See Enchasing.

**CHASTE TREE.** See Vitex, Botany Index.

**CHASTITY;** Purity of the body, or freedom from obscenity.—The Roman law justifies homicide in defence of the chastity either of one's self or relations; and so also, according to Selden, stood the law in the Jewish republic. Our law likewise justifies a woman for killing a man who attempts to ravish her. So the husband or father may justify killing a man who attempts a rape upon his wife or daughter; but not if he takes them in adultery by consent; for the one is forcible and felonious, but not the other.

Chastity is a virtue universally celebrated. There is indeed no charm in the female sex that can supply its place. Without it, beauty is unlovely, and rank is contemptible; good breeding degenerates into wantonness, and wit into impudence. Out of the numerous instances of eminent chastity recorded by authors, the two following are selected on account of the lesson afforded by the different modes of conduct which they exhibit.

Lucretia was a lady of great beauty and noble extraction; she married Collatinus, a relation of Tarquinius Superbus king of Rome. During the siege of Ardea, which lasted much longer than was expected, the young princes passed their time in entertainments and diversions. One day as they were at supper*, at c. 50—60. Sextus Tarquinius the king's eldest son, with Collatinus, Lucretia's husband, the conversation turned on the merit of their wives: every one gave his own the preference. "What signify so many words?" says Collatinus; "you may in a few hours, if you please, be convinced by your own eyes, how much my Lucretia excels the rest. We are young: let us mount our horses, and go and surprise them. Nothing can better decide our dispute than the state we shall find them in at a time, when most certainly they will not expect us." They were a little warmed with wine: "Come on, let us go," they all cried together. They quickly galloped to Rome, which was about twenty miles from Ardea, where they find the princesses, wives of the young Tarquins, surrounded with company, and every circumstance of the highest mirth and pleasure. From thence they rode to Collatia, where they saw Lucretia in a very different situation. With her maids about her, she was at work in the inner part of her house, talking on the dangers to which her husband was exposed. The victory was adjudged to her unanimously. She received her guests with all possible politeness and civility. Lucretia's virtue, which should have commanded respect, was the very thing which kindled in the breast of Sextus Tarquin a strong and detestable passion. Within a few days he returned to Collatia; and upon the plausible excuse he made for his visit, he was received with all the politeness due to a near relation, and the eldest son of a king. Watching the fittest opportunity; he declares the passion he had excited at his last visit, and employed the most tender entreaties, and all the artifices possible to touch a woman's heart; but all to no purpose. He then endeavoured to extort her compliance by the most terrible threatenings. It was in vain. She still persisted in her resolution; nor could she be moved even by the fear of death. But when the monster told her that he would first dispatch her, and then having murdered a slave, would lay him by her side, after which he would spread a report, that having caught them in the act of adultery, he had punished them as they deserved; this seemed to shake her resolution. She hesitated, not knowing which of these dreadful alternatives to take, whether, by consenting to dishonour the bed of her husband, whom she tenderly loved; or by refusing, to die under the odious character of having prostituted her person to the lust of a slave. He saw the struggle of her soul; and seizing the unlucky moment, obtained an inglorious conquest. Thus Lucretia's virtue, which had been proof against the fear of death, could not hold out against the fear of infamy. The young prince, having gratified his passion, returned home as in triumph. On the morrow, Lucretia overwhelmed with grief and despair, sent early in the morning to desire her father and her husband to come to her and bring with them each a trusty friend, assuring them there was no time to lose. They came with all speed, the one accompanied with Valerius (so famous after under the name of Publicola), and the other with Brutus. The moment she saw them come, she could not command her tears; and when her husband asked her if all was well? "By no means," said she, "it cannot be well with a woman after she has lost her honour. Yes, Collatinus, thy bed has been defiled by a stranger: but my body only is polluted: my mind is innocent, as my death shall witness. Promise me only not to suffer the adulterer to go unpunished: it is Sextus Tarquinius, who last night, a treacherous guest, or rather cruel foe, offered me violence, and reaped a joy fatal to me; but, if you are men, it will be still more fatal to him." All promised to revenge her; and at the same time, tried to comfort her with representing, "That the mind only sins, not the body; and where the consent is wanting, there can be no guilt." What Sextus deserves," replies Lucretia, "I leave you to judge; but for me, though I declare myself innocent of the crime, I exempt not myself from punishment. No immaculate woman shall plead Lucretia's example to outlive her dishonour." Thus saying, she plunged into her breast a dagger she had concealed under her robe, and expired at their feet. Lucretia's tragic death hath been praised and extolled by Pagan writers, as the highest and most noble act of heroism. The Gospel thinks not so: it is murder, even according to Lucretia's own principles, since the punished with death an innocent person, at least acknowledged as such by herself. She was ignorant that our life is not in our own power, but in his disposal from whom we receive it. St Auffin, who carefully examines, in his book De Civitate Dei, what we are to think of Lucretia's death, considers it not as a courageous action flowing from a true love of chastity, but as an infirmity of a woman too sensible of worldly fame and glory; and who, from a dread of appearing in the eyes of men an accomplice of the violence she abhorred, and of a crime to which she was entirely a stranger, commits a real crime upon herself voluntarily and indignantly. But what cannot Chiomara be sufficiently admired in this Roman lady, is her abhorrence of adultery, which she seems to hold so detestable as not to bear the thoughts of it. In this sense, she is a noble example for all her sex.

Chiomara, the wife of Ortiagon, a Gaulish prince, was equally admirable for her beauty and chastity. During the war between the Romans and the Gauls, A.R. 563, the latter were totally defeated on Mount Olympus. Chiomara, among many other ladies, was taken prisoner, and committed to the care of a centurion, no less passionate for money than women. He at first endeavoured to gain her consent to his infamous desires; but not being able to prevail upon her, and subvert her constancy, he thought he might employ force with a woman whom misfortune had reduced to slavery. Afterwards, to make her amends for that treatment, he offered to restore her liberty; but not without ransom. He agreed with her for a certain sum, and to conceal this design from the other Romans, he permitted her to lend any of the prisoners she should choose to her relations, and assigned a place near the river where the lady should be exchanged for gold. By accident there was one of her own slaves amongst the prisoners. Upon him he fixed; and the centurion soon after carried her beyond the advanced posts, under cover of a dark night. The next evening two of the relations of the princess came to the place appointed, whither the centurion also carried his captive. When they had delivered him the Attic talent they had brought, which was the sum they had agreed on, the lady, in her own language, ordered those who came to receive her to draw their swords and kill the centurion, who was then amusing himself with weighing the gold. Then, charmed with having revenged the injury done her chastity, she took the head of the officer, which she had cut off with her own hands, and hiding it under her robe, went to her husband Ortiagon, who had returned home after the defeat of his troops. As soon as she came into his presence, she threw the centurion's head at his feet. He was strangely surprised at such a sight: and asked her whose head it was, and what had induced her to do an act so uncommon to her sex? With her face covered with a sudden blush, and at the same time expressing her fierce indignation, she declared the outrage which had been done her, and the revenge she had taken for it. During the rest of her life, she steadfastly retained the same attachment for the purity of manners which constitutes the principal glory of the sex, and nobly sustained the honour of so glorious, bold, and heroic an action. This lady was much more prudent than Lucretia, in revenging her injured honour by the death of her ravisher, rather than by her own. Plutarch relates this fact, in his treatise upon the virtue and great actions of women; and it is from him we have the name of this, which is well worthy of being transmitted to posterity.

The above virtue in men is termed continence. See Continence.

Château-Briant, a town of France in Brittany, with an old castle. W. Long. 1. 20. N. Lat. 47. 40.

Château-Chinon, a town of France in Nivernois, and capital of Morvant, with a considerable manufacture of cloth. E. Long. 3. 48. N. Lat. 47. 2.

Château-Dauphin, a very strong castle of Piedmont in Italy, and in the marquisate of Saluces, belonging to the king of Sardinia. It was taken by the combined army of France and Spain in 1744, and was restored by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.

Château-du-Loire, a town of France, in Maine, famous for sustaining a siege of seven years against the Count of Mans. It is seated on the river Loire, in E. Long. 0. 25. N. Lat. 47. 40.

Château-Dun, an ancient town of France, and capital of the Dunois, with a castle and rich monastery; seated on an eminence near the river Loire, in E. Long. 1. 26. N. Lat. 48. 4.

Château-Neuf, the name of several towns of France, viz. one in Perche; another in Angoumois, on the river Charente, near Angouleme; a third in Berry, seated on the river Cher; and several other small places.

Château-Portien, a town of France, in Champagne, and in a district called Portien, with a castle built on a rock, near the river Aisne. E. Long. 4. 23. N. Lat. 49. 35.

Château-Renaud, a town of France, in the Gâtinois, where clothes are made for the army, and where there is a trade in saffron. E. Long. 4. 25. N. Lat. 48. 0. This is also the name of a town of Touraine, in France, with the title of marquisate. E. Long. 2. 41. N. Lat. 47. 22.

Château-Roux, a town of France, in Berry, with the title of a duchy. It has a cloth manufacture, and is seated in a very large pleasant plain on the river Indre, in E. Long. 1. 47. N. Lat. 46. 49.

Château-Thierry, a town of France, in Champagne, with the title of a duchy, and a handsome castle on an eminence, seated on the river Maine, in E. Long. 3. 23. N. Lat. 40. 12.

Château-Villain, a town of France, in Champagne, with a castle, and the title of a duchy; seated on the river Anjou. E. Long. 2. 59. N. Lat. 48. 0.

Châtel, or Châte, a town of Lorraine, in the Vosges, seated on the river Moselle, eight miles from Mirecourt.

Châtel-Allon, a maritime town of France, in Saintonge, five miles from Rochelle; formerly very considerable, but now greatly decayed.

Châtel-Chalon, a town of France, in Franche Comté, remarkable for its abbey of Benedictine nuns. E. Long. 5. 25. N. Lat. 46. 50.

Châtelet, a town of the Netherlands, in Namur, seated on the Sambre, in the bishopric of Liege. E. Long. 4. 28. N. Lat. 50. 25.

Châtelet, the name of certain courts of justice established in several cities in France. The grand châtelet at Paris is the place where the préfidal or ordinary court of justice of the provost of Paris is kept; consisting of a préfidal, a civil chamber, a criminal chamber, and a chamber of policy. The little châtelet is an old fort, now serving as a prison.

Châtellerault, a town of France, in Poitou, with the title of a duchy; seated in a fertile and pleasant country, on the river Vienne, over which there is a handsome stone bridge. E. Long. 0. 40. N. Lat. 46. 34.

Chatham, a town of Kent, adjoining to Rochester, and seated on the river Medway. It is the principal Chatigan principal station of the royal navy; and the yards and magazines are furnished with all kinds of naval stores, as well as materials for building and rigging the largest men of war. The entrance into the river Medway is defended by Sheerness and other forts; notwithstanding which, the Dutch fleet burnt several ships of war here in the reign of Charles II. after the peace of Breda had been agreed upon. In the year 1757, by direction of the duke of Cumberland, several additional fortifications were begun at Chatham; so that now the ships are in no danger of an insult either by land or water. It has a church, a chapel of ease, and a ship used as a church for the sailors. It has likewise about 500 houses, mostly low, and built with brick; the streets are narrow, and paved; and it contains about 3000 inhabitants. The principal employment of the labouring hands is ship-building in the king's yard and private docks. This town gave title of earl to that great statesman William Pitt in the reigns of George II. and III. E. Long. o. 42° N. Lat. 51° 20'.

CHATIGAN, a town of Asia, in the kingdom of Bengal, on the most easterly branch of the river Ganges. It is but a poor place, though it was the first Portuguese settled at in these parts, and who still keep a sort of possession. It has but a few cotton manufactures; but affords the best timber for building of any place about it. The inhabitants are so suspicious of each other, that they always go armed with a sword, pithol, and thunderbolts, not excepting the priests. It is subject to the Great Mogul. E. Long. 91° 10'. N. Lat. 23° 0'.