BRITISH BEARS AND WOLVES. 
251 
likely drove them out of his territory, but they still continued 
numerous in other quarters. The statement in the metrical 
account of the battle of Hastings, that Duke William collected 
and buried his own slain, while he left the English a prey to 
the birds and wolves,* is probably literally true, because the 
tangled thickets of the Andredsweald must have been the 
lurking-places of wolves at the time. In 1281 they had in- 
creased so much in the counties of Gloucester, Worester, 
Hereford, Shropshire, and Stafford, that one Peter Corbett 
was ordered by Edward I. to destroy them by any means that 
he could.f This is the last historical notice which I have been 
able to verify. Camden, however, mentions them as formerly 
infesting the Peak country, and there is said to be preserved 
at Exeter a record in which they are mentioned as infesting 
Devonshire. Taking everything into consideration, it seems 
very probable that they were exterminated in England and 
Wales before the end of the fourteenth century; for had 
they been present in any force, their ravages would certainly 
have been placed on record. Their memory is preserved in 
several names of places in different parts of England. u The 
spacious palace,” for example, called Wolvesey, built close to 
the east side of Winchelsea Cathedral by Bishop Henry in 
1137, and Wolvey, near Nuneaton, where Edward IV. was taken 
prisoner by the Earl of Warwick, after the battle of Dane 
Moor, may be quoted as examples. 
The wolves lingered some time longer in Scotland, as might 
be expected from the country affording better cover than in 
England. The last wolf in Scotland was killed, according to 
Pennant, by Sir Ewen Cameron in the year 1680. 
The wolf also lived in Ireland during the pre-historic period, 
* “ De Bello Hastingensi Carmen/’ by Guido, Bishop of Amiens : — 
u Lustravit campum tollens et csesa suorum 
Corpora, Dux, terrse condidit in gremio ; 
Vermibus atque lupis, avibus canibusque voranda 
Deserit Anglorum corpora strata solo.” 
t “Bymer Foedera,” folio, Lond. 1705, p. 168. 1281 An. 9 E. 1. “Eex 
omnibus Ballivis, etc. Sciatis quod injunximus dilecto atque fideli nostro 
Peter Corbet quod in omnibus Forestis et Parcis, et aliis locis infra comita- 
tus nostros Gloucestr. Wygorn. Hereford. Salop, et Stafford, in quibus lupi 
poterunt inveniri, lupos cum hominibus, canibus et ingeniis suis capiat, atque 
destruat modis omnibus quibus videntur expedire. 
“ Et ideo yobis mandamus quod eidem Petro in omnibus, quae ad captio- 
nem luporum in comitatibus prsedictis pertinent, intendentes sitis et auxili- 
antes, quotiens opus fuerit et prsedictus Petrus yobis scire faciet ex parte 
nostra. In cujus etc. duratur quamdiu nobis placuerit. Teste Pege apud 
Westminst. decimo quarto die Maii.” 
