THE WOLF. 167 
lodgings to travellers who might be overtaken by 
night where there was no place of shelter. Hence 
the origin of the Spittal of Glen Shae, and similar 
appellations in other places. 
Camden, whose “Britannia” was published in 
1586, asserts that Wolves at that date were common 
in many parts of Scotland, and particularly refers to 
Strathnavern. ' 
“ The county,” he says, ‘ hath little cause to brag 
of its fertility. By reason of the sharpness of the 
air it is very thinly inhabited, and thereupon ex- 
tremely infested with the fiercest of Wolves, which, 
to the great damage of the county, not only furi- 
ously set upon cattle, but even upon the owners 
themselves, to the manifest danger of their lives. 
In so much that not only in this, but in many other 
parts of Scotland, the sheriffs and respective inha- 
bitants are bound by Act of Parliament, in their 
several sheriffdoms, to goa hunting thrice every year 
to destroy the Wolves and their whelps.”* 
Bishop Lesley, writing towards the close of the 
sixteenth century, complains much of the prevalence 
of Wolves at that period, and of their ferocity. T 
“ About this time there was nothing but the petty 
flock of sheep, or herd of a few milk-cows, grazed 
round the farm-house, and folded nightly for fear of 
the Wolf, or more cunning depredators.’’{ 
* Camden, “ Britannia,’ vol. ii. p. 1279. Bishop Gibson, in 
his edition, has a marginal note to this passage—“ No Wolves now 
in Scot:and”’ (1772). 
+ “De Origine, Moribus et Rebus Scotorum.” 
+ Irvine’s “ Scotch Legal Antiquities,” p. 264. 
