Mr. Hardy on the Wolf in Scotland. 2T9 



ar rycht noysum to the tame bestiall in all partis of Scot- 

 land." There was, however, one blessed spot, the valley of 

 Glenmore in Angus, " in quhilk the tame bestiall gettis litell 

 dammage of wyld bestiall." A French writer, whose work 

 was published in 1538, who seems to have followed Boece, 

 affirms of these gentle-hearted wolves, whose leniency was 

 certainly much to be suspected : " it is a fact that in the shire 

 of Angus in Scotland, in the valley of Glenmore, the wolves 

 appear to be of another nature than elsewhere. For there 

 they prey exclusively on divers kinds of wild beasts, which 

 they pursue without doing any injury to the sheep." * Boece's 

 remark has chiefly reference to the fox, as he subjoins 

 " specially of toddis.." Their inoifensiveness he accounts for 

 in his own marvellous way. " Ilk hous nurises ane yung 

 todd certane dayis, and mengis the flesche thairof after it be 

 slane, with sik meit as thay gif to thair fowlis or uthir small 

 beistis. And sa mony as etis of this meit ar preservit twa 

 monethis efter fra ony dammage be the toddis ; for toddis will 

 gust na flesche that gustis of thair awin kynd : and be thair 

 bot ane beist or fowll that has nocht gustit of this meit, the 

 tod wyll cheis it out amang ane thousand."! It is not easy 

 to determine, whether to Scotland, or England, belongs 

 another wolf referred to by the Frenchman above cited. " I 

 have heard it commonly reported that there are no wolves in 

 England, but I am well assured of one having been seen on 

 this side of Berwick." J Three years after the passing of the 

 act of 1525, King James V., his mother, and the Pope's 

 legate, were entertained by the earl of Athol, with a great 

 hunt that lasted for three days. " It is said, at this tyme, in 

 Atlioll and Stratherdaill boundis, thair was slaine threttie 

 scoir of hart and hynd, with other small beastis, sick as roe 

 and roebuck, woulff, fox, and wyld cattis," etc.§ These field 

 sports were part of the daily life of the Highland population. 



* Les Sommaire des Antiquitez et Meruielles Descosse, redige et mys par 

 Jehan de Monstier escuyer. Paris, 1538. Dalyell's Fragments of Scottish 

 History, p. 33. Something like this, is what the Rev. Dr. G. Gordon mentions 

 of the fox in Morayshire, " having recently acquired a comparatively honest 

 character," owing " to the profusion of rabbits now spread over the district," 

 which supply " him with abundance of food without removing far from the 

 mouth of his hole, or subjecting him to detriment or death in visiting the hostile 

 habitations of men." Zoologist, p. 424. 



t Bellenden's Boece. Maxwell in his Hill-Side and Border Sketches, i. p. 

 191, 192, has the impudence to place Glenmore in the Cheviot-hills ! 



X '' Jay ouy dire vulgairement, que en Angleterre ny auoit poinct loups, mais 

 ic puis bien asseurer den auoir veu pardeca Beruic." 



\ The Chronicles of Scotland, by Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, ii p. 346, 



