146 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 



le-Frith, Derbyshire, a descendant of the same family 

 as Mr. F. W, Bagshawe, the present owner of Worm- 

 hill Hall, in reply to inquiries on the subject, has been 

 good enough to write as follows : — 



" With the particulars in Blount's ' Tenures ' I 

 have long been familiar, but I am sorry to say that 

 I cannot add to them. Wormhill Hall was never, 

 so far as I know, held under the tenure of destroying 

 Wolves, but it is most probable that a portion of the 

 lands there were originally held by the tenure of 

 preserving the king's 'verte and venyson' in his 

 forest of the Peak. There is a tradition that the 

 last Wolf in England was killed at Wormhill, but I 

 never saw any evidence of it, nor did I ever hear any 

 date assigned. In my pedigree of our family I find 

 a note to the effect that John de l'Hall (the ancestor 

 of John de l'Hall, whose daughter Alice was the wife 

 of Nicholas Bagshawe) "was appointed a forester 

 (of fee, I suppose) to the king by deed dated 1349."* 



In 1 3 2 1 William Michell, son and heir of John 

 Michell, held a messuage and land at Middelton 

 Lillebon, co. Wilts, of the king in capite, by the 

 serjeanty of keeping his Wolf-dogs — per serjantiam 

 custodiendi canes luparios JRegis.f 



1327-1377. So far as can be gathered from history, 

 it would seem that while stringent measures were 

 being devised for the destruction of Wolves in all or 

 most of the inhabited districts which they frequented, 



* Camden, " Britannia," tit. Derbyshire, i. p. 591 ; Blount, "Ancient 

 Tenures," p. 250. 



f Luparios elsewhere luporarios; Harl. MS. Brit. Mus. No. 134, 

 p. 80. Blount, "Ancient Tenures," p. 258. 



