124 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 



creatures could not find of other beasts sufficient to 

 feed upon."* 



The Saxons also called an outlaw " wolfs-head,"t 

 as being out of the protection of the law, proscribed, 

 and as liable to be killed as that destructive beast. 

 " Et tunc gerunt caput lupinum, ita quod sine judiciali 

 inquisiiione rite pereant."\ 



In the " Penitentiale" of Archbishop Egbert, drawn 

 up about A.D. 750, it is laid down (lib. iv.) that, "if 

 a wolf shall attack cattle of any kind, and the animal 

 attacked shall die in consequence, no Christian may 

 touch it." 



It is to the terror which the Wolf inspired among 

 our forefathers that we are to ascribe the fact of 

 kings and rulers, in a barbarous age, feeling proud of 

 bearing the name of this animal as an atti-ibute of 

 coui'age and ferocity. Brute power was then con- 

 sidered the highest distinction of man, and the 

 sentiment was not mitigated by those refinements of 

 modem life which conceal but do not destroy it. 

 We thus find, amongst our Anglo-Saxon kings and 

 great raen, such names as Ethelwulf, "the Noble 

 Wolf;" Berthwulf, " the Illustrious Wolf ;" Eadwulf, 

 "the Prosperous Wolf;" Ealdwulf, 'f the Old Wolf" 



In Athelstan's reign, Wolves abounded so in York- 

 shire that a retreat was built by one Acehom, at 



* " Restitution of Decayed Intelligence," p. 64 (ed. 1673). 



t Ang.-Sax. Wulvesheofod, that is, having the head of a Wolf. In 

 1041, the fugitive Godwin was proclaimed Wuhesheofod, a price being 

 set upon his head. The term was in use temp. Henry II. 



J Bracton, " De legibus et consuetttdinibus Anglic," lib.- iii. tr. ii. 

 c. II (1569). See also Knighton, "De Eventibus Anglise," in 

 Twysden's "Historiae Anglioanse Soriptores Decern," p. 2356 (1652). 



