MAMMALIA 1 1 



Cumberland this note regarding Wastdale, Netherwastdale, and 

 Eskdale : ' On the summits of these mountains are many wild 

 cats, foxes, and martins.' Richardson wrote from Ulleswater 

 in 1793 a note that may or may not imply that the animal 

 was still abundant, but Dr. Heysham negatives the idea, 

 manifestly believing that Wild Cats were dying out [1796], 

 as no doubt they were : ' very few wild cats are now to be 

 met with in any of our woods, except those bordering on the 

 lakes, and even there they are far from being numerous.' Mr. 

 Dickinson furnishes another passage: 'In 1843 the late Mr. 

 John Walker of Ullock told me that about fifty years before 

 Joseph Pearson of Ullock, with the aid of his mastiff, killed 

 a wild cat in Watern Woods, Loweswater, after a long chase 

 and severe fight. The cat weighed seventeen pounds. These 

 animals had been numerous in most of the wooded and rocky 

 parts of the country ; and had been very destructive to game, 

 and occasionally to young lambs ; and from their great activity 

 and ferocity were more than a match for any but a very strong 

 dog, single-handed. Pearson and his dog killed many.' 1 That 

 veteran, Mr. W. Hodgson, says, ' the Wild Cat lingers among 

 the fells of Cumberland only by tradition. The last I ever 

 heard of was captured in Great Mell Fell early in the present 

 century by the famous pack of hounds maintained by the squire 

 Taylor of Baldhow of that day, from whom I derived my in- 

 formation more than forty years ago [1885].' 2 



The Carlisle Express of March 4th, 1871, states that Walter 

 Graham, keeper for Mr. Standish of Brackenhill Tower, caught 

 a Wild Cat in one of his rabbit-traps, upon the 27th of 

 February that year. It had been ' viewed ' for years about 

 Whitesyke, but had always previously escaped. The animal 

 was stuffed by Mr. Plenderleath of Longtown for Mr. Richard 

 Wright, a well-known wrestler. I have no faith whatever in 

 this animal having been a true Wild Cat. Specimens of very 

 large cats, which had been killed in Patterdale and in other- 

 wild districts, have come under my notice from time to time, 

 but no one of the number could be referred to Fells catus. 



1 Cumbriana, p. 166. 



2 Trans. Cumberland and Westmorland Assoc, No. xi. p. 27. 



