NORTHUMBERLAND AND DURHAM. Hy 
Orpver 2. QUADRUMANA, Cuvier. 
This order has no British representative. 
Orver 3. CARNIVORA (Carnassiurs) Cuvier. 
TRIBE 1, DIGITIGRADA, Cuvier. 
FAMILY 1, FELIDA, 
1, CANIS, Linn. 
1. C. Lupus, Zinn. Wotr. 
That the wolf abounded in our district at no very distant 
period is abundantly evident, and we can readily conceive that 
the fastnesses of Cheviot would harbour the last of the race, 
down to a period little less distant, than that at which the sword 
of Ewen Cameron of Lochiel, ended their existence in Scotland 
in 1680. Positive evidence on the point is difficult to gather, 
but this need not surprise us, if we consider that it is precisely in 
those districts least known to the old chroniclers and itinerants, 
that the wolf would maintain itself the latest. Of this want of 
personal knowledge, Leland is an example, who, whenever he 
speaks of the central and north-western parts of Northumberland, 
prefaces his observations with the convenient introduction “I 
have heard saye.” 
We know that our Saxon ancestors called January, Wolfs- 
month, as being that in which the rayages of the animal were 
most to be dreaded ; and in the tenth year of William I., Robert 
de Umfraville, the head of a family then and long afterwards 
very powerful in Northumberland, held the Lordship of Riddes- 
dale by service of defending that part of the county against 
enemies and wolves.* 
“Jn the time of Henry III.,” says Brand, ‘‘ Northumberland 
appears to have been infested with wolves, as I find by the fore- 
going entry in the Harleian MSS. (Duodecimo pars eschaetor, 
temp. R. H. fil. Reg. Johannis.) ‘Idem Henricus tenuit de 
Rege in capite in com. Northumbria, manerium de Laxton» 
per serjentiam ad fugand. lupum cum canibus suis per quatuor 
* Testa Nevilli, Blount’s Ancient Tenures. 
