20 J. E. HARTUfG — AISriMAlS WHICH HATE BECOME 



cattle when attacked and wounded by the wolves went and stood 

 in these waters, and were then healed much sooner than they 

 would have been by any other means. 



Such ravages did the wolves commit during winter, particularly 

 in January, when the cold was severest, that the Saxons distin- 

 guished that month by the name of "wolf-month." They also 

 called an outlaw " wolf's-head " (A.S. wulvesheofod), as being out 

 of the protection of the law, proscribed, and as liable to be killed 

 as that destructive beast. 



It is to the terror which the wolf inspired among our forefathers, 

 that we are to ascribe the fact of kings and rulers in a barbarous 

 age feeling proud of bearing the name of this animal as an attri- 

 bute of courage and ferocity. Brute power was then considered 

 the highest distinction of man, and the sentiment was not miti- 

 gated by those requirements of modern life which conceal but do 

 not destroy it. We thus find amongst our Anglo-Saxon kings and 

 great men, such names as Ethelwulf, "the noble wolf"; l^erth- 

 wulf, "the illustrious wolf " ; Earlwulf, "the prosperous wolf"; 

 Ealdwulf, " the old wolf," etc. 



In Athelstan's reign, wolves abounded so in Yorkshire, that a 

 retreat was built by one Acehorn, at Flixton, near Filey in that 

 county, wherein travellers might seek refuge if attacked by them. 



when Athelstan, in 938, obtained a signal victory at Brunan- 

 burgh over Constantine, King of Wales, he imposed upon him a 

 yearly tribute of gold, silver, and cattle, to which was also added 

 a certain number of " hawks and sharp-scented dogs fit for the 

 hunting of wild beasts,"* His successor, Edgar, remitted the 

 pecuniary payment on condition of receiving annually from 

 Ludwall, the successor of Constantine, the skins, some say the 

 heads, of three hundred wolves. It is generally admitted that he 

 adopted this course, because, say the historians, the extensive 

 woodlands and coverts, abounding at that time in Britain, afforded 

 shelter for the wolves, which were exceedingly numerous, espe- 

 cially in the districts bordering upon Wales. By this prudent 

 expedient, it is said, in less than four years the whole island was 

 cleared of these ferocious animals, without putting his subjects to 

 the least expense. 



But this statement must be taken to refer only to Wales, for, in 

 the first place, it can hardly be supposed that the Welsh chieftain 

 would be permitted to hunt out of his own dominions, and, in the 

 next place, there is abundant documentary evidence to prove the 

 existence of wolves in England for many centuries later. 



The wolf is expressly mentioned in the forest laws of Canute, 

 promulgated in 1016 ; and Liulphus, a Dean of Whalley at that 

 time, was celebrated as a wolf-hunter at Rossendale, Lancashire.! 

 Matthew Paris, in his 'Lives of the Abbots of St. Albans,' men- 

 tions a grant of church lands by Abbot Lcofstan (the twelfth Abbot 

 of that Monastery) to Thurnoth and others, in consideration of 



* "William of Malrasbury, ' Hist. Eeg. Anglorum,' lib. ii, c. 6. 

 t Wliitaker, ' History of Wlialley,' p. 222. 



