PLACE AND FIELD NAMES OF DERBYSHIRE. 67 
_king’s pleasure. By the statute of Henry VII. it was made 
felony in some cases—for instance: ‘“‘A hart which hath been 
wild by nature, and made tame, and hath at his neck a little collar 
of leather, or any other notorious sign, and he doth go into the 
forest, and returneth again to the house at his pleasure, and is 
taken, killed by night or in any other secret manner, that is felony 
_ by the common law, and for that a man shall lose life and 
member.” * 
Remains of the bones of the elk (cervus megaceros) have been 
_ found in the Derbyshire barrows. Its horns, also, have been dug 
up, of a huge size, in the neighbouring bogs of Lancashire. 
Leigh mentions an instance in which the distance between the 
tips was eleven feet. ELx, or ELttock Low, near Hartington, 
points out the place where the hunter-chief was interred, together 
_ with the trophies of his prowess. Z/ch is the Anglo-Saxon name 
_ of this animal, and both Minshzus and Skinner suppose it to be 
identical with the a/ces of Plato, which, from its immense vigour, 
they derive from the Greek a/ce, strength. There is satisfactory 
proof that the elk once penetrated as far south as the Pyrenees, 
though it is now extinct throughout Europe. Giraldus Cambrensis 
(temp. Henry II.) speaks of them being then extant in Ireland. + 
The same writer in his Jtinerary through Wales mentions 
_ beavers as existing in that country, though then only to be found 
‘in the river Teivi. He gives, with all gravity, a marvellous account 
of their sagacity when being hunted. They are still occasionally 
‘met with in Norway; and Owen, in his Welsh dictionary (1801), 
says that the beaver has been seen in Carnarvonshire within 
the memory of man. This latter statement, however, is very 
‘problematical. The beaver (defer) was at one time common in 
‘Many of our rivers and swamps. Beverley in Yorkshire, Bever- 
*Glover, Hist. of Derbyshire, vol. i. p. 132. Percival Lewis, Forests and 
Forest Laws, p. 85. Crompton, Jurisdiction des courts de la Majestie de la 
Roygue, Londini, 1594, fol. 167. 
_ +Bateman, Zen Years’ Digging in Celtic and Saxon Grave Mounds. Leigh, 
om ‘a hire, Yorkshire, and the Peak, p. 62. Whitaker, Hist. of Manchester, 
‘Vol, Ul. p. 93. 
