42 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



notices of their deaths occur only in very small numbers there- 

 after in the Kendal books. The Kendal men were no worse 

 than their neighbours either. In 1673, the churchwardens of 

 Kirkby Lonsdale spent £2, 7s. 3d. upon the heads of Badgers, 

 and paid for eleven heads in Middleton alone three years earlier. 

 In the neighbouring parish of Orton it appears that one or two 

 Badgers were destroyed every year; two were killed in 1661, 

 1670, and 1675, while single animals were paid for in 1673 

 and 1674. The entry of 1661 is this: 'for 2 brock heads, 

 the one to John Cobry of Sunbigin, the other to Jo. Fothergill, 

 £00, 02s. 00d.' Canon Bardsley quotes one or two similar 

 entries out of the accounts of Ulverston parish (which happened 

 to be a good Badger country, and one in which there were a few 

 of these animals at the beginning of the present century) : '1728. 

 To Thomas Adison for brock head, 6d. 1741. Jan. 12. For a 

 badger head, 4d.' This date of 1741 is the first at which I 

 have found the present species to be locally entitled by the 

 modern name of Badger. There seems to be no doubt that the 

 animal was early known as the ' gray.' Nicolson and Burn 

 remark that the manor of Grayrigg was ' probably so called from 

 being frequented by badgers, brocks, or grays, as on the east 

 side of the river Lune, opposite thereto, is a place which yet 

 bears the name of Brockholes.' 1 



Our local faunists have unfortunately neglected to tell us any- 

 thing about the Badgers of Lakeland. Eichardson is silent. 

 Dr. Heysham says little : ' Badger-baiting is a common diversion 

 in the north of England.' The old gentleman might as well have 

 confessed at once that his friends and neighbours in Carlisle 

 were as fond of baiting Badgers as any men in the north of 

 England. Probably he enjoyed the entertainment heartily, for 

 he was a man of the times, and lived in an unsentimental age, 

 when the public thought little about the sufferings of the lower 

 animals. Be that as it may, there can be no doubt that Badger- 

 baiting was a common amusement of the Carlisle citizens for 

 the first half of the present century. Indeed, the practice re- 

 vived a few years ago, but has since died out. The plan adopted 

 for drawing the Badger was a simple one. The contest took 

 i Vol. i. p. 110. 



