The second class contains the names of the beasts of the chase, and they are five; that is to say, the buck, the doe, the fox, the martin, and the roe. [173]
In the third class we find three, that are said to afford "greate dysporte" in the pursuit, and they are denominated, the grey or badger, the wild-cat and the otter.
Most of the books upon hunting agree in the number and names of the first class; but respecting the second and third they are not so clear. The beasts of the chase in some are more multifarious, and divided into two classes: the first called beasts of sweet flight, are the buck, the doe, the bear, the rein deer, the elk, and the spytard, which, as the author himself informs us, is a hart one hundred years old. In the second class, are placed the fulimart, the fitchat, or fitch, the cat, the grey, the fox, the wesel, the martin, the squirrel, the white rat, the otter, the stoat, and the pole-cat; and these are said to be beasts of stinking flight. [174]
XV.—WOLVES.
The reader may possibly be surprised, when he casts his eye over the foregoing list of animals for hunting, at seeing the names of several that do not exist at this time in England, and especially of the wolf, because he will readily recollect the story so commonly told of their destruction during the reign of Edgar. It is generally admitted that Edgar gave up the fine of gold and silver imposed by his uncle Athelstan, upon Constantine the king of Wales, and claimed in its stead the annual production of three hundred wolves' skins; because, say the historians, the extensive woodlands and coverts, abounding at that time in Britain, afforded shelter for the wolves, which were exceedingly numerous, and especially in the districts bordering upon Wales. By this prudent expedient, add they, in less than four years the whole island was cleared from those ferocious animals, without putting his subjects to the least expense; but, if this record be taken in its full latitude, and the supposition established, that the wolves were totally exterminated in Britain during the reign of Edgar, more will certainly be admitted than is consistent with the truth, as certain documents clearly prove.
The words of William of Malmsbury relative to wolves in Edgar's time are to this purport. "He, Edgar, imposed a tribute upon the king of Wales exacting yearly three hundred wolves. This tribute continued to be paid for three years, but ceased upon the fourth, because nullum se ulterius posse invenire professus; it was said that he could not find anymore;" [175] that is, in Wales, for it can hardly be supposed that he was permitted to hunt them out of his own dominions.
As respects the existence of wolves in England afterwards, and till a much later period; it appears, that in the tenth year of William I. Robert de Umfranville, knight, held the lordship, &c. of Riddlesdale, in the county of Northumberland, by service of defending that part of the country from enemies and "wolves." [176] Also in the forty-third year of Edward III. Thomas Engaine held lands in Pitchley, in the county of Northampton, by service of finding at his own cost certain dogs for the destruction of wolves, foxes, &c. in the counties of Northampton, Rutland, Oxford, Essex, and Buckingham. [177] As late as the eleventh year of Henry VI. Sir Robert Plumpton held one bovate of land, in the county of Nottingham, called Wolf hunt land, by service of winding a horn, and chasing or frighting the wolves in the forest of Shirewood. [178]
XVI.—DOGS OF THE CHASE.
In the manuscripts before mentioned we find the following names for the dogs employed in the sports of the field; that is to say, raches, or hounds; running hounds, or harriers, to chase hares; and greyhounds, which were favourite dogs with the sportsmen; alauntes, or bull-dogs, these were chiefly used for hunting the boar; the mastiff is also said to be "a good hounde" for hunting the wild boar; the spaniel was of use in hawking; "hys crafte," says the author, "is for the perdrich or patridge, and the quaile; and, when taught to couch, he is very serviceable to the fowlers, who take those birds with nets." There must, I presume, have been a vast number of other kinds of dogs known in England at this period; these, however, are all that the early writers, upon the subject of hunting, have thought proper to enumerate. In the sixteenth century the list is enlarged; besides those already named, we find bastards and mongrels, lemors, kenets, terrours, butcher's hounds, dunghill dogs, trindel-tail'd dogs, "pryckereard" curs, and ladies small puppies. [179]
There formerly existed a very cruel law, which subjected all the dogs that were found in the royal chases and forests, excepting such as belonged to privileged persons, to be maimed by having the left claw cut from their feet, unless they were redeemed by a fine; this law probably originated with the Normans, and certainly was in force in the reign of Henry I. [180]