MEANING OF "WILD BEASTS." 91 



favourite residence of that prince until he ascended the 

 throne ; at his death it reverted to the Crown. There 

 can he no doubt that during the whole of this period 

 the wild cattle lived and were hunted in that grand 

 demesne, for nearly 150 years later they existed there 

 still. "King Charles I., in the second year of his 

 reign, by his grant, dated 14th March, 1626, in con- 

 sideration of a considerable sum of money, granted to 

 Samuel Cordwell and Henry Dingley, in trust for Sir 

 Henry Vane, the reversion of the assigned premises 

 (Barnard Castle, with its parks), together with all deer 

 and wild cattle in the said parks." * 



It is only by some accidental allusion like this that 

 we, in some few cases, get a clue. In most cases, con- 

 veyances or grants of parks, forests, and estates were 

 made without specifying what they contained. The 

 terms used were, " cum pertinentiis," or " cum omnibus 

 pertinentiis suis," with all their appurtenances, or 

 sometimes " cum feris," with their wild beasts — a con- 

 fusing term, because if it stands alone it includes every 

 kind of wild animal : though where deer are first 

 mentioned and wild beasts follow, wild cattle are at 

 least generally meant. I am not, however, sure that 

 this is the case when the document is in Latin and the 

 word cc ferae " is used, for it includes all wild animals ; 

 while the term " beast " is, even in the present day, in 

 common parlance, specially applied to the ox tribe ; and 

 in many places far remote from each other, f two and 



* Hutchinson's " Durham," 1794, vol. iii., p. 245. 



f The wild cattle were called " wild beasts " at Ewelme, in Oxfordshire, 

 in 1627, and perhaps before ; at Chartley, in Staffordshire, in 1581, in 1600, 

 and in 1658; at Bishop Auckland, in Durham, in 1635 ; and atOhillingham, 

 in Northumberland, in 1692. In all these cases it was their distinctive and 

 unmistakable name. 



