THE WOLF. 123 



juice of the grape is vouched for by several authorities. It would 

 appear that the wolves during the ardent heats of August suffer 

 greatly from thirst, and in the absence of water take to the vine- 

 yards, and there endeavour to assuage it by eating large quantities 

 of grapes— very cool, and, no doubt, very dehghtful at the time ; 

 but the treacherous liquid ferments, bacchanalian fumes soon 

 upset the brain, and for several hours these four-legged topers are 

 literally as drunk as beasts, and entirely deprived of their senses." 



The wolf used to be common in Britain, and the Saxon name 

 for January was wolf-month, significant of the fact that " people 

 are wont always in that moneth to be more in danger to be de- 

 voured of wolves than in any season else of the yeare ; for that 

 through the extremity of cold and snow, these ravenous creatures 

 could not find other beasts sufficient to feed upon." * 



That they must have been formidable beasts of prey in England 

 is evident from the nature of the edicts passed for their extinction ; 

 but the vast wild tracts and the numerous deer forests preserved 

 by the , kings and nobles of ancient Britain afforded such secure 

 haunts for these animals that the most vigorous measures for their 

 extirpation did not accomplish the purpose till the end of the 

 fifteenth century. During the reign of Athelstan (a.d. 925) iri 

 becam^ necessary to build a refuge at Flexton, in Yorkshire, where 

 travellers might seek shelter from being devoured by these gaunt 

 brutes, for they had become a terrible source of danger to the 

 wayfarers in that district. 



Edgar applied himself resolutely to free the country of the~~l 

 scourge, and adopted several curious methods of doing so ; one 

 being the commutation of the punishments awarded English 

 criminals to their delivery of a certain number of wolves' tongues. 

 He also liberated the Welsh from their annual payment of the tax 

 of gold and silver imposed on the Princes of Cambria by Ethelstan, 

 to a tribute of three hundred wolves. This wise policy had the 

 effect intended, for according to " Malmsbury's Chronicle," Jenaf, 

 PrmCe of North Wales, ceased paying the tribute on the fourth 

 year for want of wolves. 



■> Verstigan's " Eestitution of Decayed Intelligence in Antiquities concerning the 

 Most Noble and Kenowned English Nation." Antwerp, 1 605. 



