THE WOLF. 163 



Aird, that they were exterminated out of their prin- 

 cipal hold in that range. According to the Wardlaw 

 MS., "she was a stout bold woman, a great huntress; 

 she would have travelled in our hills a-foot, and 

 perhaps outwearied good footmen. She purged Mount 

 Caplach of the Wolves." Mount Caplach is the 

 highest range of the Aird running parallel to the 

 Beauly Frith, behind Moniach and Lentron. Though 

 the place of the lady's seat is now forgotten, its 

 existence is still remembered, and said to have been 

 at a pass where she sat when the woods were driven 

 for the Wolves, not only to see them killed, but to 

 shoot at them with her own arrows. The period of 

 her repression of the Wolves is indicated by the suc- 

 cession of her husband to the lordship of Lovat, 

 which was in 1450, and it is therefore probable that 

 the "purging" of Mount Caplach was begun soon 

 after that date.* 



Such partial expulsions, however, had little effect 

 upon the general " herd " of Wolves, which, fostered 

 by the great Highland forests, increased at intervals 

 to an alarming extent. During the reign of James 

 IV. (1488-1513), rewards continued to be paid for 

 the slaughter of Wolves in Scotland, and we learn 

 the value of a Wolf's head in those days from the 

 accounts of the Lord High Treasurer, t For in- 



* MS. History of the Erasers, in the library of Lord Lovat (p. 44). 

 Also the curious account of the North Highlands called the Wardlaw 

 MS. in the possession of Mr. Thompson, Inverness (p. 67). 



f Extracts from these accounts will be found in Pitcairn's " Criminal 

 Trials in Scotland," vol. i. p. 116. 



M 



