122 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 
have discovered the medicinal properties of the Bath 
mineral waters, by observing that cattle when 
attacked and wounded by the Wolves went and 
stood in these waters, and were then healed much 
sooner then they would have been by any other 
means. From this it may be inferred that Wolf- 
hunting was found by the ancient Britons to be a 
necessary and pleasurable, yet dangerous, pursuit. 
We do not find, says Strutt,* that during the 
establishment of the Romans in Britain, there were 
any restrictive laws promulgated respecting the 
killing of game. It appears to have been an 
established maxim in the early jurisprudence of that 
people, to invest the right of such things as had no 
master with those who were the first possessors. 
Wild beasts, birds, and fishes became the property of 
those who first could take them. It is most 
probable that the Britons were left at liberty to 
exercise their ancient privileges; for had any 
severity been exerted to prevent the destruction of 
game, such laws would hardly have been passed over 
without the slightest notice being taken of them by 
the ancient historians. 
Anglo-Saxon Period.—As early as the ninth cen- 
tury, and doubtless long before that, a knowledge of 
hunting formed an essential part of the education of 
a young nobleman. Asser, in his “ Life of Alfred the 
Great,” assures us that that monarch before he was 
¢ 
twelve years of age “was a most expert and active 
hunter, and excelled in all the branches of that most 
* © Sports and Pastimes of the People of England.” 
