THE EXTINCT BRITISH WOLF. 
153 
East Riding of Yorkshire,” says Blaine, 44 are still to be seen 
memoranda of payments made for the destruction of wolves at a 
certain rate per head. They used to breed in the 4 cars ’ below, 
amongst the rushes, furze, and bogs, and in the night time to 
come up from their dens ; and, unless the sheep had been pre- 
viously driven into the town, or the shepherds were indefatigably 
vigilant, great numbers were sure to be destroyed.” * 
Apparently, however, some error has been made in the ortho- 
graphy of the localities referred to. Flixton is in the parish of 
Folkton, near Scarboro’. We cannot find that there is any such 
place as Hackston, but Staxton adjoins the other places named, 
and is in the parish of Willerby. The Vicar of Willerby, the 
Rev. Gr. Bay, at our request has most obligingly instituted a 
search, but has not succeeded in finding any parish-books of any 
kind to throw light on the subject. He writes : 44 There are no 
gentry resident in this parish, and the churchwardens have been 
tenant-farmers for generations. Of course great changes have 
occurred within the last, say, fifty years, amongst these tenant- 
farmers. Many names have altogether disappeared from the 
parish roll, and it is thought probable by some of the old 
farmers here that churchwardens in past days having left their 
farms and gone to other parishes took the parish books with 
them, and that these have either been destroyed or are lying hid 
in some descendant’s lumber-room.” 
In a paper 44 On Bruidical Remains in the Parish of Halifax, 
Yorkshire,” by the Rev. John Watson, M.A., F.S.A.,f the author 
says that 44 in the township of Barkisland is a small ring of 
stones, now called (1771) by the name of the wolf -fold. It is 
but a few yards in diameter, but the exact measurement of it I 
have lost or mislaid. 
44 The stones of which it consists are not erect, but lie in a 
confused heap like the ruins of a building. This place I took 
at first, from its name, to have been either a decoy for the 
taking of wolves, or a place to secure them in for the purpose of 
hunting; but observing that Mr. Borlase (p. 198) has attributed 
some such little cirques to the Braids, I have mentioned it here 
for the further examination of antiquaries, who are desired to 
take notice that if ever there was a wall here of any strength, 
the best stones must have been carried away ; for what are left 
are extremely rude, and totally unfit of themselves to compose 
any sort of building ; also that these few insignificant pebbles, 
as they now appear, must be of considerable antiquity, as well 
as once have been of considerable account, because they give 
* Blaine’s ‘ Encyclop. Rural Sports ’ (1858), p. 105. 
t Arcliseologia, vol. ii. p. 355. 
