EXTINCT IX BEITAIX WITHIN HISTORIC TIMES. 10 



•when James the First in that year visited Sir Hichard Hoghton, at 

 Hoghton Tower, near "Whalley, one of the dishes with which the 

 royal banqnct was more than once supplied was "wild-boar pye."* 



In the same year the King hunted the boar at Windsor. Adam 

 Kewton, in a letter to Sir Thomas Puckering, Bart., dated Deptford, 

 Sept. 28, 1617, writes: "I was at Hampton Court on Sunday 

 last, where the court was indeed very full ; King, Queen, and Prince 

 all residing there for the time. The King and Prince, after their 

 coming from Theobalds this day se'nnight, went to Windsor to the 

 hunting of the wild hoar, and came back on Saturday."! ' 



The latest date at which we have been able to find any mention 

 of this animal in England occurs in an old "Account Book of the 

 Steward of the Manor of Chartley : Preses. Com: Ferrers," which 

 contains the following entry : — 



" 1683 — Feb. Paid the cooper for a paile for ye wild swine . 2 0" 



This shows that the wild boar was not extinct in England so early 

 as has been supposed, that is, previously to Charles the First's 

 abortive attempt to reintroduce it into the New Forest. 



The Wolf. 



Of the five species which come within the scope of the present 

 essay, the wolf was the last to disappear. On this account, partly, 

 the materials for its history as a British animal are more complete 

 than is the case with any of the others. 



To judge by the osteological remains which the researches of 

 geologists have brought to light, there was perhaps scarcely a 

 county in England or Wales, in which at one time or another 

 wolves did not abound, while in Scotland or Ireland they must 

 have been even still more numerous. 



The vast tracts of unreclaimed forest land which formerly ex- 

 isted in these realms, the magnificent remnants of which in many 

 parts still strike the beholder with awe and admiration, afforded 

 for centuries an impenetrable retreat for these animals, from which 

 it was almost impossible to drive them. It was not indeed until 

 all legitimate modes of hunting and trapping had proved in vain, 

 until large prices set iipon the heads of old and young had alike 

 failed to compass their entire destruction, that, by cutting down or 

 burning whole tracts of the forests which harboured them, they 

 were at length effectually extirpated. 



Hunting the wolf was a favourite pursuit with the ancient 

 Britons. Memprys, one of the immediate descendants of Brutus, 

 about the year 980 b.c. fell a victim to the wolves which he de- 

 lighted to pursue, and was unfortunately devoured by them. 



Blaiddyd, another British monarch (b.c. 863), who seems to 

 have been learned in chemistry, is said to have discovered the 

 medicinal properties of the Bath mineral waters, by observing that 



* Nichols, ' Progresses, etc., of James I.,' vol. iii, p. 402. 

 t ' The Court aad Times of James I.,' vol. ii, p. 34. 



