74 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF MAMMALIA . 



being driven by the hunters into a plain, stood at bay and 

 challenged the whole party : he charged every horse 

 that advanced within fifty yards of him, with great fero- 

 city, causing them to rear and plunge, and throw off their 

 riders, whose lives were in jeopardy : though nianyof the 

 horses were accustomed to the sport, none would stand his 

 charges, or bring the rider within javelin distance, and at 

 last he fairly drove the party from the field ; and then, 

 gnashing his tusks and foaming, he made his way to the 

 jungle, where it was useless to attempt to follow him. 



In our own country the boar, reserved for the sport 

 of the privileged classes, was protected by severe laws. 

 By one of the edicts of William the Conqueror (a.d. 

 1087), it was ordained that any who were found guilty 

 of killing a stag, roebuck, or wild boar were to have their 

 eyes put out : sometimes, indeed, the penalty appears to 

 have been a painful death. 



At what precise period the wild boar became extinct 

 in our island cannot be exactly determined ; it is evi- 

 dent, however, that as population increased, and the vast 

 woods which spread over many parts of the country were 

 cut down and the land cleared, the range of the boar 

 would become more and more limited, and its numbers 

 decreased, till at length its extirpation would be complete. 

 We look in vain for the forest which, in the 12th cen- 

 tury, covered the country to the north of London, and 

 of which Fitzstephen, in the reign of Henry 11. , writes, 

 observing that "on the north are corn-fields and de- 

 lightful meadows, intermixed with pleasant streams, on 

 which stands many a mill, whose clack is so grateful to 

 the ear ; beyond them an immense forest extends itself, 

 beautified with woods and groves, and full of the lairs 

 and coverts of beast and game, stags, bucks, boars, and 

 wild bulls." Banished, however, as the wild boar is from 

 among our native mammalia, " its name is immortalised,'' 

 as Mr. Bell observes, " by having given origin to the 

 appellation of many places in different parts of the coun- 

 try, and by its introduction into the armorial bearings 

 of many distinguished families of every division of the 

 kingdom." 



