6 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 



firms this, and even carries this country of woods 

 farther south. He says : "Of ancient tyme all the 

 quarters of the country about Lichefeild were forrest 

 and wild ground."* That would bring the Stafford- 

 shire woodlands close up to the purlieus of Cham- 

 wood Forest, in Leicestershii'e. Nor is this all ; 

 for about three miles north-west of Lichfield com- 

 mences Cannock Chase, with its parks as numerous 

 and extensive as those of Needwood, from which it 

 was separated only by the River Trent. This chase, 

 even at a comparatively recent period, was " said to 

 contain 36,000 acres," while " in Queen Elizabeth's 

 time Needwood Forest was twenty-four miles in 

 circumference, "t 



The mountainous and moorland district to the 

 north of Staffordshire, as many names of places still 

 indicate, was also heavily wooded at one time, and 

 contains, near its northern extremity, the singular 

 defile of rocks and caverns locally called Ludchurch, 

 said to have been the scene of Friar Tuck's ministra- 

 tions to Robin Hood and his merry men. J This 

 part of Staffordshire, bounded by the river Dove on 

 its eastern side, and on the west passing close to 

 Congleton in Cheshire, and another ancient forest 

 known as Maxwell forest, runs like a wedge near 

 Buxton into that wild country where the great 



* Leland, " Itinerary," ed. Hearne, vol. iv. p. 1 14. 



+ Erdeswick, " Survey of Staffordshire," ed. Harwood, pp. 192, 

 279. These were both celebrated for their oaks and hollies : those in 

 Needwood alone, in 1658, when it had been much reduced in extent 

 and denuded of its timber, being valued at 30,7 loZ. 



% Storer, " Wild Cattle of Great Britain," p. 65. 



