EXTINCT IN BRITArNT AVITHIX HISTOEIC TIMES. i) 



heads. The dilference of one letter only in the name might easily 

 account for a mistake, which has been since blindly copied by 

 many writoi's. 



AVhen native bears no longer existed, our ancestors imported 

 foreign ones, for a purpose that docs no credit to the manners and 

 customs of the times: "bear-baiting," in all its cruelty, was a 

 favourite pastime with our forefathers. In Queen Elizabeth's time 

 it was reckoned a fitting entertainment for an ambassador, and the 

 Queen herself was amused in this way, amongst others, when she 

 visited Kenilworth. Our nobility also kept their " bear- ward," 

 who was paid so much a year, like a keeper, falconer, or other re- 

 tainer. Twenty shillings was the payment made in 1512 to the 

 " bear- ward " of the fifth Earl of jN'orthumberland, "when he 

 comyth to my lorde in Cristmas with his lordshippes beests for 

 makyuge of his lordship pastyme the said xij days." 



A travelling "bear-ward" depended entirely on his patrons. 

 In the "household book" kept by the steward of Squire Kitson, of 

 Hengrave, Suffolk, and commenced in 1572, we find under date 

 July, 1572, the entry, "To a bearman for bringing his bears to 

 Hengrave, ijs. vjd." 



Happily in this more enlightened age such pastimes have been 

 discontinued. 



The Beaver. 



There is no reason to doubt that within historic times the beaver 

 was an inhabitant of Britain, although, like the bear, the wolf, 

 and the wild boar, it has been exterminated before the advance of 

 civilization. 



The earliest notice we find of it is contained in the code of 

 Welsh Laws made by Howel Dha in the ninth century, and which, 

 unlike the ancient Saxon codes and the Irish Senchus Mor, contains 

 many quaint laws relating to hunting and fishing. It is there laid 

 down that the King is to have the worth of beavers, martens, and 

 ermines, in whatsoever spot they shall be killed, because from them 

 the borders of the King's garments are made. 



The price of a beaver's skin, termed Croen Lhstlijdan, at that 

 time, was fixed at 120 pence, while the skin of a marten was only 

 24 pence, and that of an ermine, fox, and otter, 12 pence. This 

 shows that even at that period the beaver was a rare animal in Wales. 

 The otter is there styled dyfrgi, but the name afangc (beaver) 

 nowhere appears, though the skins then in use are particularly 

 enumerated. 



Giraldus de Barri, or, as he is generally styled, Giraldus Cambrensis, 

 in his quaint account of the journey he made through AVales in 1 1 88 

 in company with Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury (who after- 

 wards fell before Acre in the train of Richard Coeur cle Lion), tells 

 us that in his day the beaver was found in the river Teivi in 

 Cardiganshire, and gives a curious account of its habits, apparently 

 derived in some part from his own observation.* 



* Giraldiis Cambrensis, ' Itinerary,' ed. Iloare, vol. ii, p. 49. 



