THE WOLF. 167 



lodgings to travellers who might be overtaken by- 

 night where there was no place of shelter. Hence 

 the origin of the Spittal of Glen Shae, and similar 

 appellations in other places. 



Camden, whose "Britannia" was published in 

 1586, asserts that Wolves at that date were common 

 in many parts of Scotland, and particularly refers to 

 Strathnavern. 



" The county," he says, " hath little cause to brag 

 of its fertility. By reason of the sharpness of the 

 air it is very thinly inhabited, and thereupon ex- 

 tremely infested with the fiercest of Wolves, which, 

 to the great damage of the county, not only furi- 

 ously set upon cattle, but even upon the owners 

 themselves, to the manifest danger of their lives. 

 In so much that not only in this, but in many other 

 parts of Scotland, the sheriffs and respective inha- 

 bitants are bound by Act of Parliament, in their 

 several sheriffdoms, to go a hunting thrice every year 

 to destroy the Wolves and their whelps."* 



Bishop Lesley, writing towards the close of the 

 sixteenth century, complains much of the prevalence 

 of Wolves at that period, and of their ferocity, f 



" About this time there was nothing but the petty 

 flock of sheep, or herd of a few milk-cows, grazed 

 round the farm-house, and folded nightly for fear of 

 the Wolf, or more cunning depredators.''^ 



* Camden, "Britannia," vol. ii. p. 1279. Bishop Gibson, in 

 bis edition, has a marginal note to this passage — " No Wolves now 

 in Scotland" (1772). 



\ " De Origine, Moribus et Eebus Sootorum." 



J Irvine's " Scotch Legal Antiquities," p. 264. 



