32 COMMON BKITISH ANIMALS 



pence for his relief for one messuage and one 

 oxgang of land, with the appurtenances in Mansfield 

 Woodhouse in the county of Nottingham, which the 

 aforesaid Walter held of the King in capite by the 

 service of huntiiio* wolves out of the forest of 8her- 

 wood, if he should find any of them/^ 1347. 



Also in the ' Antiquities of Nottinghamshire/ by 

 Robert Thoroton, we find, p. 273 : 



"Sir Robert Plumpton Knight died about 11 

 (Hen) YI (1432-33) seized of one Bovat in Mansfeld 

 Woodhouse called Wolfhunt Land and one Essart in 

 the same town at Wad gate near Woodhouse Mill 

 held by the service of winding an horn and driving 

 or frighting the wolves in the forest of Shirewood/^ 



Finally, the ancient fear of the wolf remains with 

 us in the folk story of ^ Little Red Riding Hood/ 

 But recently Mr. Rudyard Kipling and Mr. Jack 

 London in their stories of wolves have shown us a 

 different side of wolf life and character. 



Long after wolves were exterminated Irom England 

 they continued to live in Scotland and Ireland. 

 From Scotland they were exterminated about 1680 

 but they lingered in Ireland till 1710. 



The Fox. 



The craft and cunning of Reynard or Tod the fox 

 is told in many a song and story. But for the 

 sport of hunting him he would long since have gone 

 the way of the wild cat and wolf. 



In England and Ireland fox-hunting is a national 

 sport celebrated in some of our most characteristic 



