102 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 



In the same year the King hunted the Boar at 

 Windsor. Adam Newton, in a letter to Sir Thomas 

 Puckering, Bart., dated Deptford, Sept. 28, 1617, 

 writes: "I was at Hampton Court on Sunday 

 last, where the Court was indeed very full ; King, 

 Queen and Prince all residing there for the time. 

 The King and Prince, after their ccming from 

 Theobalds this day sennight, went to Windsor 

 to the hunting of the Wild Boar, and came back on 

 Saturday."* 



In Westmoreland the last Wild Boar is said to 

 have been killed near Staveley by a man named 

 Gilpin,f the country round being at that time all 

 forest and fell. Close to the spot indicated is an inn, 

 still called " Wild Boar Inn," while the bridge over 

 the beck is known as "Gilpin's Bridge." A tradition of 

 the former existence of the Wild Boar in this neigh- 

 bourhood is still current, but no date can now be 

 assigned for the destruction of the last of its race. 

 It is referred to approximately as " about 200 years 

 ago," which carries us back to the reign of Charles II., 

 and this is the latest date at which I have been able 

 to find any mention of this animal in a wild 

 state in England. An old "Account Book of the 

 Steward of the Manor of (/hartley : Praeses. Com. 

 Ferrers," contains the following entry : 



" 1683. Feb. Pd. the cooper for a paile for ye wild swine 0-2-0 " 



This shows that the Wild Boar was not extinct in 



* " The Court and Times of James I.," vol. ii. p. 34. 



f It appears by an Inquisition 20 Eliz., that in this year William 

 Gilpin held the manor of Over Staveley (see Nicholson, " Hist, and 

 Antiq. Westm. and Cumberl.," vol. i. p. 139). 



