THE EXTINCT BRITISH WOLF. 
149 
of lands at Mansfield Woodhouse, in the county of Nottingham, 
which he held by the service of hunting wolves out of the forest 
of Shirewood, if he should find any of them.* * * § 
Thomas Engaine, dying without issue in 1368, was found to 
be seized of 14 yardlands and meadow, and 14s. 4 d. rent, in 
Pightesle, in the county of Northampton, held by the service of 
finding, at his own proper costs, certain dogs for the destruction 
of wolves, foxes, martens, cats, and other vermin within the 
counties of Northampton, Roteland, Oxford, Essex, and Buck- 
ingham.f 
Passing over the reign of Richard II. (1377-1399), during 
which we have not met with any particular mention of wolves 
in England, we come to that of Henry IV. 
1399-1413. In this reign Sir Thomas de Aylesbury, knight, 
and Catharine his wife, held of the King, in capite , the manor 
of Laxton, inter alia , with the appurtenances in the county of 
Northampton, by “grand serjeanty” — viz., by the service of 
taking wolves, foxes, wild cats, and other vermin in the counties 
of Northampton, Rutland, Oxford, Essex, Huntingdon, and 
Buckingham.:]: 
Shakespeare has pictured wolves as existing in Kent in the 
time of Henry VI. When the Duke of Suffolk lands at night 
upon the shore near Dover, he hears 
“ Loud howling wolves arouse the jades 
That drag the tragic melancholy night.” 
2 Hen. YI. act. iv. sc. 1. 
This may or may not be a poetic license. At all events, no 
evidence on the subject is now forthcoming, and we must turn, 
therefore, to some more reliable source of information. 
1422-1461. In the eleventh year of Henry YI. (1433), Sir 
Robert Plumpton, knight, was seized of one bovate of land in 
Mansfield Woodhouse, in the county of Nottingham, called 
Wolf-hunt land, held by the service of winding a horn and chas- 
ing or frightening the wolves in the forest of Shirewood. § This 
tenure is particularly referred to by the Rev. Samuel Pegge in 
his paper “ On the Horn as a Charter or Instrument of Convey- 
ance.” || A coloured plate of an ancient horn of the kind re- 
* De termino Trim anno 21 Edw. III. Rot. 1. Harl. MS. Brit. Mus. 
No. 34, p. 166. Blount, “ Ancient Tenures,” p. 258. 
t Rot. fin. 42 Edw. III. m. 13. Dugdale’s u Baronage,” vol. i. p. 467 ; and 
Blount, “ Ancient Tenures,” p. 231. 
X Blount, op. cit. p. 260. 
§ Escaet. 11 Hen. YI. n. 5. Blount, p. 312. 
j| “ Arcliaeologia,” vol. iii. p. 3. See also Thoroton, “ Antiq. Notting- 
ham.” p. 273, and Strutt, “ Sports and Pastimes,” p. 19. 
