WARREN
,—the name applied to a privileged place, by prescription or grant from the King, in which to keep beasts or fowls of WARREN. These in ancient records were said to be the hare, the coney, the pheasant, and the partridge; but the word now principally applies to any particular district, or tract of land, set aside entirely for, and appropriated to, the breeding and preservation of rabbits as private property. These become a most valuable and profitable stock; paying a much greater annual rent than can be expected from a light and sandy soil, under any other mode of cultivation. There is a distinction between a WARREN and FREE WARREN, (which see.) The franchise next in degree to a park, is a free warren, and appertains chiefly to the privilege of killing game within its boundaries. A warren, in its general signification, extends no farther than a peculiar spot, of much magnitude for the infinitely numerous production of conies, with which the neighbouring inhabitants, and the markets of the Metropolis, are supplied; and these invariably pass under the denomination of rabbit warrens.