MAMMALIA 9 



the memory of its quondam presence no longer survives among 

 the venerable dalesmen whose grandfathers were the chief 

 instruments of its extinction, yet fortunately we possess satis- 

 factory evidence that at one time it was to be found in many 

 of the wilder portions of Lakeland. It is not probable that 

 it was ever numerous during the historical period. But that 

 it ranged over the Scottish borders is no less certain than 

 that it inhabited the great wastes of eastern Westmorland 

 and the heart of the Cumbrian mountains. Our first note of 

 its presence is supplied by an entry among 'My Lord's 

 Parcells' in Lord William Howard's accounts for 1629: 

 ' Maye ... 6. For a wilde cattskinne iiij s.' A fox skin was 

 priced at the same time at three shillings, so that the pelage 

 of the cat was evidently the scarcest and the most difficult 

 to procure. 



A graphic description of the country between Naworth and 

 the Scottish march, as seen about the middle of the last century, 

 appears in the seventh edition of Defoe's Tour. The writer 

 observes regarding Christenbury, "It has at present no In- 

 habitants but Wild Cats, of which there are many, the largest 

 I ever saw.' 1 The information thus embodied by Defoe was 

 first printed in the Gentleman's Magazine. It appeared in the 

 month of November 1754, and it seems not unlikely that the 

 tourist paid his visit to Bewcastle in August that year. Wild 

 Cats do not appear to have been sufficiently numerous to 

 figure frequently among the victims of church rates. I have 

 discovered entries of ten Wild Cats in the parish books of 

 Kendal and Orton, and have little doubt that additional re- 

 search would increase the number of known entries. The 

 churchwardens of Orton, near Appleby, gave a shilling apiece 

 for the heads of Wild Cats. Entries of heads of Cats occur 

 singly in the years 1649, 1650, 1661, and 1672. In 1670 we 

 find two separate entries of cats' heads. The first runs thus : 

 'To Robt. Wilson for a wild cat head, £00, 01s. 00d.' The 

 next is similar : ' To James Ward for a wild catt, £00, 01s. 00d.' 

 There is a more general entry in 1672 : ' for a wild Cat and 

 other vermine, £00, 01s. 05d.' The Kendal parish books 

 1 Tour through Great Britain, 7th edition, vol. iii. p. 333. 



