1 18 DELIBERATE DESTRUCTION OF ANIMAL LIFE 



item it is ordanyt for the distruccione of wolfes that in ilk cuntre quhar 

 ony is, the sheref. or the bailyeis of that cuntre sail gadder the cuntre-folk 

 thre tymes in the yer betwixt sanct marks day [April 25th] and lamess 

 [Lammas August ist] for that is the tyme of the quhelpis and quhat evir 

 he be that ryss [rise] not with the sheref or bailye or barone within himself 

 [in his area] he sail pay unforgeuin a wedder as is ordenyt in the aulde act 

 maid thairapone. And he that slays ane wolf than or ony uthir tyme he 

 sail haif of ilk hous-hald of that parochin that the wolf is slayne within jd 

 [one penny].... And he that slays ane wolf sail bring the hede to the sheref, 

 bailye or barone and he sail be dettor to the slaar for the soume forsaide 1 . 



A few records of the payment of head money still exist : 

 on the 24th October 1491, the Treasurer of Scotland paid 

 55. "to a fellow that brought the King [James IV] two wolves, 

 in Linlithgow." 



The necessity of raising a general hue and cry after 

 marauding Wolves led to the general establishmentof kennels 

 of wolf-hounds and even to the definition in leases of the 

 duties of tenants on that score. So the monks of Coupar- 

 Angus Abbey in a lease of part of the lands of Innerarity 

 in 1483, bound the occupier to "obey the officers rising in 

 the defences of the country to wolf, thief, and sorners," 

 and many leases enforce the maintenance of "ane leash of 

 good hounds, with ane couple of rachis [wolf hounds] for tod 

 and wolf." 



In spite of all such enactments, the effective destruction 

 of the Wolves seems to have rested mainly on the personal 

 idiosyncracy of the landowners, so that, while good service 

 was rendered by an occasional bright spirit such as the 

 Lord Hugh Eraser's lady, " a stout bold woman " as the 

 Wardlaw MS. informs us, who in the latter half of the 

 fifteenth century, " purged Mount Capplach [on the border 

 of the Beauly Firth] of the wolves," yet the plague increased 

 till it reached a climax in the sixteenth century. 



Contemporary historians are at one in describing the 

 abundance of Wolves and the terrible devastation wrought 

 amongst flocks and herds by the savage marauders, and in so 

 doing, they picture a Scotland wild beyond the imagination 

 of the present day. 



"In all boundis of Scotland," wrote Boece, in effect, in 1527, "except 

 thay partis quhair continewall habitatioun of peple makis impediment thairto, 



1 It is interesting to recall' that these Scottish Acts "For the distruc- 

 cione of wolfes " were repealed only in 1906. 



