THE-^ WILD BOAR. 83 



this very period, in Eskdale, is related by Blount in 

 his " Ancient Tenures " (p. 5 5 7, ed. 181 5). He says 

 that in the fifth year of Henry II. the lord of Ugle- 

 barnby, William de Bruce, the lord of Snaynton, 

 Ralph de Percy, and a gentleman freeholder named 

 Allotson, met on the 1 6th October to hunt the Wild 

 Boar in a certain wood called ' Eskdale-side,' belong- 

 ing to the Abbot of the monastery of Whitby, by 

 name Sedman. 



" Then the aforesaid gentlemen did meet with 

 their hounds and boar-staves in the place aforesaid, 

 and there found a great wild boar ; and the hounds 

 did run him very hard near the chapel and hermitage 

 of Eskdale-side, where there was a monk of Whitby 

 who was a hermit. The boar, being so hard pursued, 

 took in at the chapel door, and there laid him down 

 and died immediately. The hermit shut the hounds 

 out of the chapel, and kept himself at his meditation 

 and prayers, the hounds standing at bay without. 

 The gentlemen in the thick of the wood, following 

 the cry of the hounds, came to the hermitage, and 

 found the hounds round the chapel. Then came the 

 gentlemen to the door of the chapel, and called on 

 the hermit, who did open the door, and then they got 

 forth, and within lay the boar dead, at which the 

 gentlemen, in a fury because their hounds were put 

 out of their game, ran at the hermit with their boar- 

 staves, whereof he (subsequently) died. Then the 

 gentlemen, knowing and perceiving that he was in 

 peril of death, took sanctuary at Scarborough ; but 

 at that time the Abbot, being in great favour with 



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