THE DESTRUCTION OF WILD ANIMALS lxv 



maintain a precarious footing among our scars and precipices 

 for the greater part of the last century cannot be doubted. 

 The last mention of this species in the Kendal parish books 

 occurs in 1727 : 'pd. Jonathan Newton for a Wild Cat 

 £00, 00s. 04d.' But this does not prove that the species was 

 on the eve of extinction. The churchwardens of Kendal 

 decided in 1729 to withdraw the rewards previously offered 

 for the heads of Wild Cats and some other animals. That the 

 old race of Felis catus still lingered on our hills is placed 

 beyond the reach of all cavilling, by the discovery of entries 

 chronicling the decease of no fewer than forty-eight Wild Cats, 

 in the parish book of Barton, Westmorland. Some few of these 

 entries refer to Barton, which embraces a large extent of hill 

 pasture ; but the majority apply to the Chapelry of Martindale. 

 These records run from 1706 to 1755, and we learn from them 

 that though a * kill ' of a Wild Cat did not occur every year, 

 even in this remote and inaccessible region, yet every few years 

 such an event actually took place, while in one year no fewer 

 than five Wild Cats perished, all possibly belonging to the same 

 family. The interest attaching to the former residence of the 

 Wild Cat in the north of England is accentuated by the com- 

 parative scarcity of reliable data. Hence the desirability of 

 printing in full such data as are here printed, for the first time, 

 from the accounts of Barton parish and its quondam chapelry 

 of Martindale : — 

 1706. Martindale. ' ffor a wild Catt, . . £010' 



1710. Martindale. 'To Mich. Tyson and Tho. 



Cookson for killing of two wild, Cats 

 and a badger, . . . 3 0' 



' Isaac Wright for killing a Wild Catt and 



a young raven, . . . 12' 



1711. Martindale. ' ffor two Wild Catts, . 2 0' 



1712. Martindale. 'To Thomas Cookson for 



a wild Cat, . . . .010' 



Barton. ' To Edward Sisson for a Wild 



Catt, . • . .010' 



1713. Martindale. 'One Wild Catt kild by 



Mich. Tyson, . . ■ 10' 



