1 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



supply a few similar entries. Thus in 1703, 'Dec. 27. To 

 Anthony Wilson for one Wild Catt head, £0, 0s. 4d.' The 

 next entry that I have detected occurs in a long list of the 

 ' vermin ' paid for at the Easter vestry meeting of the same 

 churchwardens, April 1713 : 'and for one Wilde Catt Head, 

 £0, 0s. 4d.' At Easter 1726 the Wild Cat crops up again: 

 ' pd. Robt. Rutson for a Wild Cat Head, £0, 0s. 4d.' These 

 animals were very probably killed in that eastern portion of 

 the parish which borders on Shap, forming part of the same 

 great stretch of moorland as that included in the neighbouring 

 parish of Orton. 



But it must not be supposed that these animals only tenanted 

 the wastes of the dreary moors that flank our faunal area to 

 the north and east. They existed in the heart of the Lake 

 mountains. Clarke states that twelve Wild Cats were killed in 

 the neighbourhood of Ulleswater at Whitsun-week 1759 ; while, 

 in describing the vicinity of Keswick, he alludes to the wooded 

 rocks, Catt-gill and Catt-cragg, ' so named I supposed from the 

 wild catts which inhabit there.' The same writer states in 

 his Appendix : ' The Wild Cats here are of different sizes, 

 but all of one colour (grey, with black strokes across the 

 back) ; the largest are near the size of a fox, and are the 

 most fierce and daring animals we have ; they seem to be of 

 the tyger kind, and seize their prey after the same manner ; 

 they cannot be tamed, their habitation is amongst the rocks or 

 hollow trees.' It was of the Windermere district that Pennant 

 remarked, 'Wild cats inhabit in too great plenty these woods 

 and rocks.' Gilpin made a personal tour through the Lakes 

 in 1772, and this is what he says : ' The thickets among these 

 mountains (Helvellyn and others adjacent), and indeed many 

 other parts of the country, are frequented by the Wild Cat, 

 which Mr. Pennant calls the British tyger, and says it is the 

 fiercest and most destructive beast we have. He speaks of it 

 as being three or four times as large as a common cat. We 

 saw one dead, which had been hunted on the day we saw it ; 

 and it seemed very little inferior, if at all, to the size he men- 

 tions.' x Mr. Housman contributed to Hutchinson's History of 

 1 Picturesque Beauty of the Lakes, vol. i. p. 173. 



