THE EXTINCT BRITISH WOLF. 
151 
ment and thinks it possible a reference to the MS. of his essay, 
which was not preserved, would show that, by a typographical 
error, the numerals VIII. were printed for VII. 
In Longstaffe’s 44 Memoirs of the Life of Ambrose Barnes,” * * * § if 
is stated that 44 his immediate ancestors held an estate of 500Z. 
a year of the Earls of Rutland and Belvoir, one of whom (a 
Barnes of Hatford near Barnard Castle) was commonly called 
Ambrose 6 Roast Wolf,’ from the many wolves which he hunted 
down and destroyed in the time of Henry VII.” f 
In a footnote to this passage, the editor remarks that 44 the 
statement must be taken cum grano sails . Belvoir is not a 
title, and the Manners family did not become Earls of Rutland 
until 1525, in the reign of Henry VIII4 On the other hand, 
the period of Henry VII. is late for wolves, although Richmond- 
shire might well yield some of the latest specimens in England. 
Doubtless they were familiarly associated with wildness of coun- 
try long after their extinction. Many a tradition wouJd linger 
in the families of their destroyers. Ambrose 4 Roast Wolf’ was 
probably a real person of some date or other.” 
Within the precincts of Savernake Forest, the property of 
the Marquis of Ailesbury, near Marlborough, there is still 
existing a very old barn and part of a house, known as 44 Wolf 
Hall.” It was the ancient residence of the Seymours, and when 
Henry VIII. married Lady Jane Seymour it was here that he 
came a-courting, here that Queen Jane Seymour was married, 
and in this barn the wedding festivities are said to have taken 
place. In reply to our inquiry whether any tradition exists in 
the county to explain the name 44 Wolf Hall,” the Rev. A. C. 
Smith, of Yatesbury Rectory, Caine, has obligingly written as 
follows: — 44 It is supposed by some to have had nothing to do 
with the animal 4 wolf,’ but rather with 4 Ulf,’ the owner’s 
name, if there was such a person, and in the Domesday record 
it is spelt 4 Ulfhall.’ At the same time I must add that Leland 
in his Itinerary (ix. 36) calls it in Latin 4 Lupinum villa splen- 
didaj and again in his poem on the birth of the Prince of 
Wales, afterwards King Edward VI., § 4 Incoluit villam, quae 
nomine dicta Lupinum .’ Bishop Turner also (Bibl. Brit. 
* “ Memoirs of the Life of Mr. Ambrose Barnes, late Merchant and 
sometime Alderman of Newcastle-upon-Tyne,” p. 28. (Surtees Society, 
1867.) 
t See also Longstaffe’s “ Durham before the Conquest,” p. 49. 
% It is possible that a typographical error may have been made here also, 
and that Ambrose “ Roast Wolf” may have lived in the reign of Henry 
VIII., not Henry VII. 
§ Leland, u Genethliacon illustrissimi Eduardi Principis Cambrise,” &c., 
1543. 
