140 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 
St. Gregory [March 12], for two Wolves captured, 
one at Boscha de Furchiis, the other at Willes, r1os., 
given to Smalobbe and Wilck, the keepers of the 
veltrarid of Thomas de Sandford.” 
It is perhaps not generally known that the cir- 
cumstance narrated in the story of Bedd Gélert, 
with which every one is familiar, is said to have 
occurred in the reign of King John, and, as it is a 
story of a British Wolf, it is scarcely to be passed 
over here without some brief notice, the more so as 
it is not at all unlikely that it is founded on fact. 
The tradition, as related by Bingley in his “ Tour 
round North Wailes,”* is to the effect that Llewellyn, 
who was Prince of Wales in the reign of King John, 
resided at the foot of Snowdon, and, amongst a 
number of other hounds which he possessed, had one 
of rare excellence which had been given to him by 
the king. On one occasion, during the absence of 
the family, a Wolf entered the house; and Llewellyn, 
who first returned, was met at the door by his 
favourite dog, who came out, covered with blood, to 
greet his master. The prince, alarmed, ran into the 
house, to find his child’s cradle overturned, and the 
ground flowing with blood. Ina moment of terror, 
imagining that the dog had killed the child, he 
plunged his sword into his body, and laid him dead 
on the spot. But, on turning up the cradle, he 
found his boy alive and sleeping by the side of the 
dead Wolf. This circumstance had such an effect on 
* “A Tour round North Wales,” 1800, vol. i. p. 363. See also 
Sir John Carr’s “ Stranger in Ireland,” 4to, 1806. 
