Mr. Hardy on the Wolf in Scotland. ^81 



thus : ' Do you observe that stag who is foremost of the 

 herd ? — There is danger from that stag ; for if either fear or 

 rage should force him from the ridge of that hill, let every 

 one look to himself, for none of us will be out of the way of 

 harm, as the rest will all follow this one ; and having thrown 

 us under foot, they will open a passage to the hill behind us.' 

 What happened a moment after confirmed this opinion ; for 

 the queen ordered one of the best dogs to be let loose upon a 

 wolf ; (Laxatus enim reginae jussu, atque immissus in lupum, 

 insignis admodum ac ferox canis) — this the dog pursues — 

 the leading stag was frightened — he flies by the same way he 

 had come there — the rest rush after him, and break out 

 where the thickest body of the Highlanders was. They had 

 nothing for it now but to throw themselves flat on the heath, 

 and to allow the deer to pass over them. It was told the 

 Queen, that several of the Highlanders had been woimded, 

 and that two or three had been killed outright ; and the 

 whole body of the deer had got off", had not the Highlanders, 

 by their skill in hunting, fallen upon a stratagem, to cut off 

 the rear from the main body. It was of those that had been 

 separated that the Queen's dogs, and those of the nobility, 

 made slaughter. There were killed that day three hundred 

 and sixty deer, five wolves, and some roes. The Queen and 

 her party returned to Blair, delighted with the sport."* 



Bishop Lesley, whose work De Origine, Morihus et Rehus 

 Scotorum, was written towards the close of the 16th century, 

 complains of the prevalence of the wolves, and their very 

 ferocious character.f The last act respecting them, passed, 

 as has been stated, in 1577. Their existence and that of the 

 wild-boar was quite recent in the recollection of James VI., 

 whenhe penned his celebrated " Basilicon Doron." In thefirst 

 edition of 1599, which was limited to seven copies, there is a 

 passage describing the islanders of Scotland, which was ex- 

 punged in the subsequent editions. '' Thinke no other of 

 them all, then as wolues and wild boars." J Wolf s-head is 

 an old English term for an outlaw. *' They wear a wolf's 

 head," says Fuller translating from Bracton, " so that they 

 lawfully may be destroyed, without any judicial inquisition, 

 as who carry their own condemnation about them, and 



* Pennant's Tours in Scotland, iii. p. 64. Gunn's Historical Enquiry respect- 

 ing the Harp in the Highlands, &c., p. 79. Scots Mag. 1807, p. 915, 916. 

 Peacock's Perth : its Annals and its Archives, p. 457, 458. 



f p. 19. Dalyell's Fragments, p. 30. Lupos quam plurimos et eos ssevis- 



X M'Crie's Life of Melville, ii. p. 490. 



