THE WOLF. 135 



possessed by "William Rufus, which, prompted him to 

 ■enforce, during his tragical reign, the most stringent 

 and cruel forest laws, is too well known to readers of 

 history to require comment. It cannot be doubted 

 that in the vast forests* which then covered the 

 greater part of the country, and through which he 

 continuously hunted, he must have encountered and 

 slain many a Wolf. Yet, strange to say, a careful 

 search through a great number of volumes has re- 

 sulted in a failure to discover any evidence upon 

 'this point, or indeed any mention of the Wolf in con- 

 nection with this monarch. 



Longstaffe, in his account of " Durham before the 

 Conquest," states that a great increase of Wolves 

 took place in Richmondshire during this century, 

 and mentions incidentally that Richard Ingeniator 

 dealing with property at Wolverston (called Olveston 

 in the time of William Rufus) sealed the grant with 

 an impression of a Wolf. 



1 1 00-1135. In his passion for hunting wild 

 animals, Henry I. excelled even his brother William, 

 and not content with encountering and slaying those' 

 which, like the Wolf and the Wild-boar, were at 

 that time indigenous to this country, he " cherished 

 of set purpose sundrie kinds of wild beasts, as bears, 

 libards, ounces, lions, at Woodstocke and one or two 

 other places in England, which he walled about with 



* " The word ' forest,' in its original and most extended sense, 

 implied a tract of land lying out (foras), that is, rejected, as of no 

 value, in the first distribution of property."— Whitakeb, History of 

 iVlialley, p. 193. 



