Ge i EROtyx. 
cent county of Derby, as Camden, p: 902, informs 
us, certain perfons at Wormbill held their lands by 
the duty of hunting and taking the wolves that in- 
fefted the country, whence they were ftiled Wolve 
bunt. To look back into the Saxon times we find 
that in Athelftan’s reign wolves abounded fo in York- 
foire, thata retreat was built at P/xtox in that coun- 
ty, fo defend paffengers from the wolves, that they 
foould not be devoured by them : and fuch ravages 
did thofe animals make during winter, particularly _ 
in Fanuary when the cold was fevereft, that our 
Saxon anceftors diftinguifhed that month by the 
title wolf moneth*. They alfo called an outlaw 
Wolffbed, as being out of the protection of the law, 
profcribed, and as liable to be killed as that de- 
ftructive beaft. Et tunc gerunt caput lupinum, 
ita quod fine judicial: inquifitione rite pereant. Bratton 
lib. iti, Tr. 14... 11. alfo Knighton 2356. | 
They infefted Ireland many centuries after their 
extinction in England, for there. are accounts of 
fome being found there as late as the year 1710; 
the laft prefentment for killing of wolves being 
made in the county of Cork about that time +. 
_ The Bear, another voracious beaft, was once 
an inhabitant of this iland, as appears from differ- 
ent authorities: to begin with the more antient, 
Martial informs us, that the Caledonian bears were 
a Verftegan’s Antiq. 59. 
+ Smith’s hift. Cork. UW. 226. 
ufed 
hy 
BEAR. 
