44 THE LAST WOLF IN SCOTLAND 



It may be granted that it was prudent to revoke the 

 Act passed by Parliament sitting at Perth in 1424, 

 whereby it was ' statut and the King forbiddis that na 

 man play at the fute ball ' under penalty of fifty shil- 

 lings for each offence no nominal fine in the fifteenth 

 century. Modern members of Parliament do not, as a 

 rule, seek relaxation in football ; but a goodly number 

 of them would be affected by a further enactment in 

 1461 that ' the fute-ball and golf be utterly cryit down 

 and nocht usit.' 



In drafting the Statute Law Revision Bill above 

 mentioned care was taken to explain in the schedule 

 why it was expedient to repeal these old laws: the 

 reason given for repealing the statute of 1424 ' the 

 Wolfe and Woolf birds l suld be slain ' is indisputable, 

 if somewhat naively expressed ' Obsolete : wolves 

 being extinct.' But they were far from extinct in the 

 Highlands in the fifteenth century; wherefore it was 

 enacted by this statute that every baron should 

 summon his tenants to hunt wolves at least four times 

 a year, ' and gar slaie them.' A hunter who killed a 

 wolf was entitled to a fee of two shillings, which, in the 

 depreciated Scots coinage, represented about threepence 

 sterling. Even that modest guerdon was cut down to 

 sixpence Scots in the following reign, while any tenant 

 who neglected to turn out for the hunt might be fined 

 a wether. Yet provision was made against indis- 

 criminate pursuit, even of wolves. ' Na man sail seeke 

 the woolfe with schot, but allanerlie [except only] in the 



1 Whelps. Anglo-Saxon brid (whence our 'bird') signified any- 

 thing ' bred ' the young or brood of any beast or bird. 



