Class I. BEAR. 91 



donian bears were used to heighten the torments 

 of the unhappy sufferers on the cross. 



Nuda Caledonio sic pectora praebuit urso 

 Non falsa pendens in cruce Laureolus.* 



Plutarch relates, that bears were trans- 

 ported from Britain to Rome, where they were 

 much admired.'}' Mr. Lhvycl'^^ also discovered 

 in some old IVdsh MS. relating to hunting, that 

 this animal was reckoned among our beasts of 

 chace, and that its flesh was held in the same 

 esteem with that of the hare or boar. Many , 

 places in Wales still retain the name of Pen- 

 7iarth, or the bear's head, another evidence of 

 their existence in our country. It does not ap- 

 pear how long they continued in that principa- 

 lity, but there is proof of their infesting Scot- 

 land diS late as the year 1057,§ when a Gordon^ ' 

 in reward for his valor in killing a fierce bear, 

 w as directed by the King to carry three Bear's 

 heads on his banner. They are still found in 

 the mountanous parts of France, particularly ' 

 about the Grande Chartreuse in Dauphint^ 

 where they make great havoke among the oat- 

 ricks of the poor farmers. Long after their ex- 



* Martial. Lib. Sped. ep. 7. 



f Plutarch, as cited by Camden, p. 1227. 



X Rail syn. quad. 214. 



§ Hist, of the GorcZoJzs. 1, 2. '' ■ ■■ ■- 



