96 WILD CAT. Class I. 



be no despicable enemy. Wild cats were for- 

 merly reckoned among the beasts of chace, as 

 appears by the charter of Richard II. to 

 the abbot of Peterborough, giving him leave 

 to hunt the hare, fox, and wild cat. The use of 

 the fur was in lining robes ; but it was esteem- 

 ed not of the most luxurious kind, for it was 

 ordained ' that no abbess or nun should use 

 1 more costly apparel than such as is made of 

 ' lambs or cats skins.'* In much earlier times 

 it was also the object of the sportsman's diver- 

 sion. 



Felemque minacem 



Arboris in trunco longis praefigere telis. 



Nemesiani Cynegeticon, L. 55. 



* Archbp. William Corboyl's canons, A. D. 1127. quoted by 

 Mr. T. Roio in Gent. Mag. April 1774. 



