141 
THE EXTINCT BRITISH WOLF. 
Br J. E. HARTING, E.L.S., E.Z.S. 
(Continued from, p. 61.) 
pERIOD from the Conquest to the reign of Henry VII . — 
Historical evidence of the existence of wolves in Great 
Britain before the Norman Conquest, as might he expected, is 
meagre and unsatisfactory, and the abundance of these animals 
in our islands prior to that date is chiefly to be inferred from the 
measures which in later times were devised for their destruction. 
The Carmen de Bello Hastingensi (v. 571) states that 
William the Conqueror left the dead bodies of the English upon 
the battlefield to be devoured by worms, wolves, birds, and dogs 
— vermibus , atque lupis , avibus , canibusque voranda. 
In 1076 Robert de Umfraville,* Knight, lord of Toures and 
Tain, otherwise called “ Robert with the beard,” being kinsman 
to that king, obtained from him a grant of the lordship, valley, 
and forest of Riddesdale, in the county of Northumberland, 
with all castles, manors, lands, woods, pastures, waters, pools, 
and royal franchises which were formerly possessed by Mildred, 
the son of Akman, late lord of Riddesdale, and which came to 
that king upon his conquest of England ; to hold by the service 
of defending that part of the country for ever from enemies and 
wolves , with the sword which King William had by his side 
when he entered Northumberland.! 
1087-1100. The inveterate love of the chase possessed by 
William Rufus, which prompted him to enforce, during his 
tragical reign, the most stringent and cruel forest laws, is too 
well known to readers of history to require comment. It can- 
* “ The Dame seems to he derived from one of the several places in Nor- 
mandy now called Amfreville, hut in some instances originally Omfreville, 
that is Humfredi villa, the vill or abode of Humphrey.” — Lower, “ Patro- 
nymica Britannica.” 
t See Dugdale’s “Baronage,” vol. i. p. 504, and Blount’s “Ancient 
Tenures,” p. 241. 
