148 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 



Thomas Engaine, dying without issue in 1 368, was 

 found to be seized of 14 yardlands and meadow, and 

 14s. \d. rent, in Pightesle, in the county of North- 

 ampton, held by the service of finding, at his own 

 proper costs, certain dogs for the destruction of 

 Wolves, foxes, martens, cats, and other vermin within 

 the counties of Northampton, Roteland, Oxford, 

 Essex, and Buckingham.* 



1377-1399- In Richard II.'s reign Wolves must 

 have been common enough in the forests of York- 

 shire, for in the account-rolls of Whitby Abbey, 

 amongst the disbursements made between 1394 and 

 1396, we find the following entry of a payment for 

 dressing Wolf skins : — 



Pro tewyngf xiiij pellium luporum .... 10. ixi^. 



Doubtless the skins of animals killed in some great 

 raid made upon them at the instigation of the 

 Abbey. 



1399-1413. In Henry I Y. 's reign. Sir Thomas de 

 Aylesbury, knight, and Catharine his wife, held of the 

 king, in capite, the manor of Laxton, inter alia, with 

 appurtenances in the county of Northampton, by 

 "grand serjeanty " — viz., by the service of taking 

 Wolves, foxes, wild cats, and other vermin in the 

 counties of Northampton, Rutland, Oxford, Essex, 

 Huntingdon, and Buckingham.^ 



Shakespeare has pictured wolves as existing in Kent 



* Eot. fin. 42 Edw. III. m. 13. Dngdale's "Baronage," vol. i. 

 p. 467 ; and Blount, "Ancient Tenures," p. 231. 



t To " tew," or " taw," an obsolete word signifying to beat and dress 

 leather with alum. Nares, " Glossary." 



X Blount, op. cit. p. 260. 



