128 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 



how Ludwall, prince of Wales, paid yearelie to King 

 Edgar this tribute of 300 woolfes, whose carcases 

 being brought into Lloegres, were buried at Wolfpit, 

 in Cambridgeshire, and that by meanes thereof 

 within the compasse and terme of foure yeares, none 

 of these noisome creatures were left to be heard of 

 ■within Wales and England. Since this time, also, we 

 read not that anie woolfe hath beene seene here that 

 hath beene bred within the bounds and limits of our 

 countrie : howbeit there haue beene diuerse brought 

 over from beyond the seas for greedinesse of gaine, 

 and to make monie onlie by the gasing and gaping of 

 our people vpon them, who couet oft to see them, 

 being strange beasts in their eies, and sildome 

 knowne (as I haue said) in England." 



This event is related somewhat differently by the 

 Welsh historians. " In the year 965," says Powel, 

 " the country of North Wales was cruelly wasted by 

 the army of Edgar, King of England ; the occasion 

 of which was, the non-payment of the tribute that 

 the king of Aberffraw (North Wales), by the laws 

 of How el Dha, was obliged to pay to the king of 

 London (England). But at length a peace was con- 

 cluded upon these conditions, that the king of North 

 Wales, instead of money, should pay to the king of 

 England the tribute of 300 Wolves yearly ; which 

 creature was then very pernicious and destructive to 

 England and Wales. This tribute being duly per- 

 formed for two years, the third year there were none 

 to be found in any part of the island, so that after- 

 wards the prince of North Wales became exempt 



