EARLY NOTICES OF THE BEAVER. 383 



the beaver in the remoter districts of Scotland, England, and "Wales, 

 long after it had ceased, from its diminished numbers to be an object 

 of legal or commercial consideration. 



The first of these occurs in " Pier's Ploughman's Creed," a poem 

 written by a Wycliffite of the reign of Bichard II. and abounding in- 

 satirical allusions to the excesses of the clergy. Here he describes 

 the Franciscan, with more cloth in his cape than furnished St. Francis 

 with a frock ; and yet underneath this, he wears a coat lined with the 

 fur of the weasel or fitchet, or of the Jlne heaver : 



" Loke hou^h this loresmen 

 Lordes taetrayen, 

 Seyn that they folwen 

 EuUy Praunceyses revvle. 

 That in cotinge of his cope 

 Is more cloth y-folden 

 Thau was in Fraunceis froc 

 Whan he hem first made. 

 And yet under that cope 

 A cote hathe he furred 

 With foyns, or with flchewes. 

 Other fyn bevere." 



In the Act of the first Parliament of James I . of Scotland, held afc 

 Perth, in 1424, regulating the " Custome of Mertrik skinnes, and 

 uther furringes," the martin, pole-cat, fox, otter, and other skins, 

 have their export duties specified ; but the beaver, which figured 

 among the Scottish exports in the reign of David I. no longer appears. 

 Yet an interesting piece of evidence of the most authentic kind, proves 

 that the beaver was not unknown to King James ; although it had 

 ceased to be a subject of Scottish taxation, and even perhaps no 

 longer continued to form an object of the chase. In his beautiful 

 poem of the King's Quair, written during his detention at the 

 English Court, prior to 1423, after describing his interview with 

 " Dame Minerve," and the good counsel he received, he relates his 

 wandering 



" Along a river, pleasant to behold, 

 Enbroudin all with fresch6 flourj'S gay, 



Where through the gravel bright as any gold. 

 The crystal water ran so clear and cold. 



That in mine ear it made continually 



A maner sound, mellit with harmony. 



Of besfcis saw I many dy vers kind : 



The bugill drawer by his hornis great. 



The martrik sable, the foynze, and many mo. 

 The chalk-white ermine tipped as the jet, 



