1 5 2 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 



writers,* but we have not met witli any proof of this. 

 Indeed, Professor Newton has lately been good 

 enough to inform us that he has forgotten his 

 authority for the statement, and thinks it possible a 

 reference to the MS. of his essay, which was not 

 preserved, would show that, by a typographical 

 error, the numerals VIII. were printed for VII. 



In Longstaffe's "JVIemoirs of the Life of Ambrose 

 Barnes,"t it is stated that " his immediate ancestors 

 held an estate of Soo/. a year of the Earls of Kutland 

 and Belvoir, one of whom (a Barnes of Hatford near 

 Barnard Castle) was commonly called Ambrose 'Roast 

 wolf,' from the many wolves which he hunted 

 down and destroyed in the time of Henry VII. "| 



In a footnote to this passage, the editor remarks 

 that " the statement must be taken mm grano salts.. 

 Belvoir is not a title, and the Manners family did 

 not become Earls of Eutland until 1525, in the reign 

 of Henry VIII. § On the other hand, the period of 

 VII. is late for wolves, although Richmondshire 

 might well yield some of the latest specimens in 

 England. Doubtless they were familiarly associated 

 with wildnes* of country long after their extinction. 

 Many a tradition would linger in the families of their 

 destroyers. Ambrose ' Boast Wolf ' was probably a 

 real person of some date or other." 



* Wise's " New Forest, its History and its Scenery," p. 14. 



f " Memoirs of the Life of Mr. Ambrose Barnes, late Merchant 

 and sometime Alderman of Newcastle-upon-Tyne," p. 28. (Surtees 

 Society, 1867.) 



J See also Longstaffe's " Dnrham before the Conquest," p. 49. 



§ It is possible that a typographical error may have been made here 

 also, and that Ambrose " Eoast Wolf " may have lived in the reign of 

 Henry VIII., not Henry VII. 



