16 THE WILD CAT OF EUROPE. 



EECORDS OF THE WILD CAT IN ENGLAND 

 AND WALES. 



A KUMBEK of old deeds and charters still extant, and 

 mentioned by Mr. J. E. Haetikg in his ' Notes on the 

 Hunting of the Wild Cat,' sufficiently prove that a 

 Wild Cat inhabited the greater part of England up 

 to the end of the fifteenth century. In J 205, the sixth 

 year of the reign of King John, that monarch granted 

 a licence to one Gerard Camville, to hunt the Hare, 

 the Fox, and the Wild Cat in all the King's forests ; 

 and the Wild Cats must have been very numerous in 

 those days, as some seventy years earlier than the 

 above date, viz. in 1127, the skins of Cats (presum- 

 ably Wild Cats, as at that time the Domestic Cat was 

 rare and valuable) were used for the lining of dresses. 

 Archbishop CoKBOyLE, in his Canons, ordered that no 

 abbess or nun should use any more costly fur than is 

 made of Lamb- or Cat-skins ; and Strutt (' Habits of 

 the Anglo-Normans ') states that there is a decree 

 extant of Edward the Third, which ordained that no 

 tradesman or yeoman, or their wives and children, 

 should wear any kind of fur, except that of Lambs, 

 Rabbits, Foxes, or Cats. 



During the reigns of John, Richard XL, Edward II. 

 and TIL, licences were granted, and lands held under 

 the Crown, for hunting various chases and for the 

 destruction of Wolves, Foxes, Martens, Wild Cats, 

 and other vermin, in the counties of Buckingham, 

 Devonshire, Essex, Huntingdon, Lincolnshire, North- 

 amptonshire, Oxford, Rutland, &c. 



In the ' Booke of St. Albans,' printed by Wynkyn 

 DE WoDE in 1490, the Wild Cat is mentioned among 

 the " Bestys of chase sweete and stynking " ; and 



