THE WOLF. 125 



Flixton, near Filey, in that county, wiierein travellers, 

 miglit seek refuge if attacked by them. 



Camden says : — " More inward stands Flixton, 

 where a hospital was built in the time of Athelstan, 

 for defending travellers from "Wolves (as it is word 

 for word in the public records), that they should not 

 be devoured by them."* It is currently believed 

 that a farmhouse between the villages of Flixton 

 and Staxton now stands on the site of this hospital. 

 It was restored and confirmed in 1447 by the name 

 of Canons Spittle, and was dissolved about 1535. 

 The farm is still called Spittal Farm, and a small 

 stream running by it is called Spittal Brook, t 



When Athelstan, in 938, obtained a signal victory 

 at Brunanburgh over Constantine, King of Wales, 

 he imposed upon him a yearly tribute of money and 

 cattle, to which was also added a certain number of 

 " hawks and sharp- scented dogs, fit for the hunting 

 of wild beasts. "J His successor, Edgar, remitted 

 the pecuniary payment on condition of receiving 

 annually from Ludwall§ (or Idwal||), the successor of 

 Constantine, the skins of three hundred Wolves. If 



* Camden, " Britannia," tit. Yorkshire, vol. ii. p. 902. 



f This information was communicated to the author by the Rev. 

 Henry Blane, of Folkton Eectory, Ganton, York. 



X William of Malmesbury, " Hist. Keg. Anglorum," lib. ii. c. 6. 



§ Cf. Holinshed's " Chronicles," vol. i. p. 378 (4to ed. 1807), and 

 Selden's Notes to Drayton's " Polyolbion," Song ix. 



II Cf. Camden's "Britannia," tit. Merionethshire, vol. ii. p. 785. 

 •If William of Malmesbury, op. cit. lib. ii. c. 8. See>lso the quaint 

 remarks on this subject by Taylor, the Water Poet, in his "Journey 

 through Wales," 1652 (pp. 31, 32, Halliwell's edition, 1859).. The 

 value of a wolf-skin in Wales, as fixed by the Code of Laws made by 

 Howel Dha in the ninth century, was eightpence, the same value 

 being set upon an otter-skin. 



