EXTINCT IN BMTAIN WITHIN HISTORIC TIMES. 21 



their keeping the -woods between the Chiltcrn Hundreds and 

 London free from ■wolves and other wikl Leasts. 



Longstati'e, in his account ot ' Durham before the Conqiiest,' 

 states that a great increase of -wolves took place in llichmondshirc 

 during tl-iis century, and the early Norman kings must have had a 

 line time of it hunting these animals by turns -with the deer and 

 the wild boar. 



In Henry the Second's time the Sheriff of Hants had an allow- 

 ance made to him in the Exchequer for several sums by him 

 disbursed for the King's -wolf-hunters, ha-wkers, falconers, and 

 others. From a charter of liberties granted by King John, -wht n 

 Earl of ^[orton, to the inhabitants of Devonshire, the original of 

 which is in the custody of the Dean and Chapter of Exeter, it 

 appears that the -wolf was at that time included amongst the beasts 

 of vcnery in that county. Indeed throughout the southern forests 

 at that time it could not have been very uncommon, for we find 

 entries in the Rolls of payments made to the slayers of them. Thus 

 in 1212, "On Thuisday next, in the octave of the Holy Trinity 

 [May 12], for a wolf captured at Freeman tie [Surrey], by the 

 dogs of Master Emald de Aucleut, 5s." "Item [at Hereford], 

 Thursday next following the feast of St. Martin [Nov. 22], to 

 Norman the Keeper of the Veltrars,* and to Wilkin Doggett, his 

 associate, for two wolves captured in the forest of Irwell, lOs., by 

 the King's command." 



We shall see later how the reward increased in value, until in 

 Cromwell's time as many pounds were paid for a wolf's head as 

 John had given shillings. 



In the reign of Henry the Third, these beasts were still sufficiently 

 numerous in some parts of the country to induce the King to make 

 grants of land to various individuals upon the express condition of 

 their taking measures to destroy them wherever they could be 

 found. f The same may be said of the reign of Edward the First, | 

 who in 1281 appointed one Peter Corbet to the office of wolf-hunter 

 general, commissioning him to destroy all he could find in the 

 counties of Gloucester, Worcester, Hereford, Salop, and Stafford, 

 and the bailiffs in the several counties were directed to be ready to 

 assist him.§ 



In the accounts of Bolton Priory, quoted in Whitaker's 'History 

 of Craven' (p. 331), occur entries in the years 1306-1307, of pay- 

 ments made in reward for the slaughter of wolves, as " Cuidam qui 

 occidit liqmm,'''' but the price paid to the slayer is not stated. In 

 1320 lands were held at Wormhill in the county of Derby, by the 

 service of hunting and taking wolves, from whence they were called 



* Yeltrariua or VaHfrariui, from the French vaultre, -was a mongrel hound 

 for the chase of the -wild boar. — Blount, 'Ancient Tenures,' p. 233. 



t Dugdale's ' Baronage,' vol. i, p. 4GG ; and Selden, notes to Drayton's 

 'Polyolbion' (ix, 76). 



+ Camden, ' Britannia,' p. 525 ; Blount, ' Ancient Tenures,' pp. 230, 236, 257. 



j Eymer's ' Fcedera,' vol. i, pt. 2, p. 192 ; vol. ii, p. 168. 



