1 40 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 



St. Gregory [March 12], for two Wolves captured, 

 one at Boscha de Furchiis, the other at Willes, i os. , 

 given to Smalobbe and Wilck, the keepers of the 

 veltrario of Thomas de Sandford." 



It is perhaps not generally known that the cir- 

 cumstance narrated in the story of Bedd Gelert, 

 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 Wales,"* 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. In a 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 011 



* "A Tour round North Wales," 1800, vol. i. p. 363. See also 

 Sir John Carr's " Stranger in Ireland," 4to, 1806. 



