59 



tonsbire, found to be held of the king by the service of hunting the wolf, 

 fox, and badger.' 



In the reign of Edward II. (1320) John Le Wolfhunt, or Wolfhurt. 

 son and heir of John Le Wolfhunt, or Wolfhurt, held lands in Worm- 

 hill, in Derbyshire, by the service of chasing and taking aW wolves 

 that miglit come into the King's Forest of the Peak in that county." 



In the eleventh year of Edward III. (1366), John, Lord Roos, of 

 Hamlake, had a charter granted to him by the king, of free warren in 

 lands in Nottinghamshire and Oxfordshire, and also to hunt the fox, 

 wolf, hare and cat, throughout the King's Forest of Nottinghamshire,^ 



In the thirty-third year of Edward III, (13.58) Vitalis Engaine died 

 seized of part of the lordships of Laxton and Pichesse, in Northampton- 

 shire, held by petit seijeauty, to hunt the wolf whensoever the king 

 should command.* 



In the forty-first year of the reign of Edward III. (1366), Thomas de 

 Engaine, Lord of Blatherwic died, seized of land, meadows, and rent in 

 Pightesse, in Northamptonshire, held by the service of " finding, at his 

 own proper costs, certain dogs for the destruction of wolves, foxes, 

 martrons [marten cats,] cats, [wild cats,] and other vermine," within the 

 coimties of Northampton, Rutland, Oxford, Essex, and Buckingham.® 



Of course it is not pretended, that at the dates of the deaths of any 

 of the before-mentioned personages, who died seized of lands held by 

 the tenure of destroyiug wolves, such a tenure is conclusive evidence 

 that those animals existed at the times of the deaths of those per- 

 sonages respectively ; because it may have happened that the lands may 

 have descended from father to son, several times, after the dates of the 

 original royal grants or charters creating such tenures ; still, even in 

 that case, enough is shewn to prove that they were not extinct until 

 centuries after the time of King Edgar. Besides which it must not be 

 forgotten, that the charter before-mentioned of the eleventh year of the 

 reign of Edward IIL to John, Lord Roos, of Hamlake, then gave him a 

 license to hunt the wolf in the king's forest of Nottinghamshire, which 

 would have been useless if there were not then any such animal to hunt. 

 We, therefore, have some evidence that wolves existed in England in the 

 fourteenth century; but it is very probable that they had been destroyed 

 in the more populous and cultivated counties, although for more than a 



' Dugilale's " Baronage," vol. 1, p. 4fi0. 



* Camden's ".Mag. Britannia," Cough's edition, vol. 2, p. 302, — Lyson's " Magna Britau- 

 nia," title, " Derbyshire," p. clxix., and 280, quoting Dodsworth's " CoUeciion from E.'ccliequer 

 Records." 



"Diigdalu's " Baronage," toI. 1, p. 519. 



•• Ibid, p..46f;. 



» Ibid, p. 407. 



