THE WOLF. 199 



In a poem, in six cantos, published as late as 1719, 

 and entitled, " MacDermot, or the Irish Fortune- 

 Hunter," " Wolf-hunting" and " Wolf-spearing" are 

 represented as common sports in Munster. Here is 

 an extract : 



" It happen'd on a day with horn and hounds, 

 A baron gallop'd through MacDermot's grounds, 

 Well hors'd, pursuing o'er the dusty plain 

 A Wolf that sought the neighbouring woods to gain : 

 Mac hears th' alarm, and, with his oaken spear, 

 Joins in the chase, and runs before the peer, 

 Outstrips the huntsman, dogs, and panting steeds, 

 And, struck by him, the falling savage bleeds." 



The crest of the O'Quins of Munster is " a Wolf's 

 head, erased, argent," possibly perpetuating the 

 prowess of some former noted Wolf-hunter in that 

 ancient family. 



The author of "The Present State of Great 

 Britain and Ireland," printed in London in 1 738, 

 wrote at that date, " Wolves still abound too much 

 in Ireland ; they pray for the Wolves, least they 

 should devour them." 



In Smith's " Ancient and Modern State of the 

 County of Kerry," 1756 (of which book Macaulay 

 said, " I do not know that I have ever met with a 

 better book of the kind and of the size," "Hist. 

 Eng." in. 1 36), the author, speaking of certain ancient 

 enclosures, observes (p. 173) that many of them were 

 made to secure cattle from Wolves, which animals 

 were not entirely extirpated until about the year 

 1710, as I find by presentments for raising money 

 for destroying them in some old grand -jury books." 



Traces of old circular entrenchments, into which 



