lxviii PROLEGOMENA 



— It is ordered by this Court that ye Churchwardens and over- 

 seers of ye poore of ye pish of Brampton doe forthwith pay unto 

 the said Thomas Watt the sume of fowerteen shillings for killing 

 ye sd foxes according to Law.' The duty of disbursing the 

 reward for a Fox head occasionally fell on unlikely individuals. 

 Thus it happened in the year 1779, in Patterdale, that Thos. 

 Holme, constable, paid the following bill to Thos. Dawson: 

 • Scholars ale, Is. 6d. Two Foxes and 3 Cubs, 9s. 8d. To one 

 Fox and one Cub, 4s. 4d.' But oftenest of all the payment was 

 claimed by one or other of the huntsmen. Such was the case in 

 Martindale in 1713, when the clerk entered : 'Two ffoxes kild 

 by Mich. Tyson and his fellowes, £0, 6s. 8d.' The quaintest 

 entry in the Martindale books occurs in a bill settled by John 

 Jackson the ' chaplewarden,' Aug. 23, 1818: ' 6 J Fox Heads at 

 3s. 4d. each, £1, Is. 8d.' It seems possible that the 'half of a 

 Fox may have been a cub. The men of Bondgate, Appleby, 

 were at one time devoted to hunting Foxes, and killed many on 

 Murton Pike, at Dufton, and elsewhere in the neighbourhood. 

 They had a weakness, too, for killing cubs, but never entered 

 them as the ' halves ' of Foxes. It is written that on the 20th 

 of April 1734 the warden e paid: 'for 6 foxes, 5 whereof was 

 cubs, £0, 3s. 6d.' In April 1737 they paid: 'for 4 foxes and 

 one cub, £0, 4s. 6d.' They acted similarly in 1739: 'for 2 

 foxes, 1 old one, Is. — a young one (total) £0, Is. 6d.' In 1757 

 they paid for ' Four Fox Heads, 1 Old one and 3 cubs, £0, Is. 6d.' 

 In 1758 they paid for nine Foxes : 'Fox Heads, viz., 5 old ones 

 and 4 cubs, £0, lis. 6d.' 



According to present information, the practice of paying head- 

 money for Foxes seems to have become obsolete about the same 

 time in both Cumberland and Westmorland. I have shown (at 

 p. 1 4) that the claim for a reward for killing a Fox was finally 

 disallowed by the Greystoke vestry in 1856, just thirty-six 

 years ago. The wild parish of Asby in Westmorland supplies 

 a rather later date of payment. An analysis of the accounts of 

 Asby proves that the total number of Foxes paid for in that 

 parish during half a century, from 1814 to 1864, amounted to 

 a total of fourteen, at the cost of £1, 13s. 6d. The following are 

 the last entries of vulpicide for which the Asby churchwardens 



