Sas Aeron ‘s Fesreeee Se ee tis fal | i | | Sat =o Seer aes l sos : epee — Se oe Soo i i, 3 ti i ft We | LALA ALAA AAA AAA | McComare-AuLp COLLECTION NEW: YORK:STATE | COLLEGE AGRICULTURE | TTT CS TTT TTT CU ¢ Cc QL 255.H3 aca Cornell University The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924003394032 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS Ballantyne Press BALLANTYNE AND HANSON, EDINBURGH CHANDOS STREET, LONDON PART I. EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. BRITISH ANIMALS EXTINCT WITHIN HISTORIC TIMES WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF BRITISH WILD WHITE CATTLE BY JAMES EDMUND HARTING, F.LS., F.Z.S. AUTHOR OF ‘fA HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS ;” ‘‘ THE ORNITHOLOGY OF SHAKESPEARE,” ETC. ETC, WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY ¥ WOLF, C. WHYMPER, Rk. W. SHERWIN, AND OTHERS BOSTON -jJ. Rn OSGOOD AND CO. 1880 B And in yon wither’d bracken’s lair,’ Slumbered the wolf and shaggy bear ; Once on that lone and trackless sod High chiefs and mail-clad warriors trod, And where the roe her bed has made, Their last bright arms the vanquish’d laid. The days of old have passed away Like leaves upon the torrent grey, And all their dreams of joy and woe, As in yon eddy melts the snow ; And soon as far and dim behind, We too shall vanish on the wind. Lays of the Deer Forest. PREFACE. Few who have studied the literature of British Zoology can have failed to remark the gap which exists between Owen’s “ British Fossil Mammals and Birds,” and Bell’s “ British Quadrupeds ;” the former dealing chiefly with prehistoric remains, the latter with species which are still existing. Between these two admirable works a connecting link, as it were, seems wanting in the shape of a history of such animals as have become extinct in Britain within historic times, and to supply this is the aim of the present writer. Of the materials collected, during many years of ‘research, some portion has been already utilized in a Lecture delivered by the author before the “ Hert- fordshire Natural History Society,” in October, 1879, and in several articles in the Popular Science Review and. the natural history columns of The Field. The exigencies of time and space, however, neces- * Popular Science Review, 1878, pp. 53, 141, 251, 396; and The Field, 1879: Sept. 27; Oct. 4,11; Nov. 1, 8, 29; Dec. 20 and 27. Missing Page PREFACE. vii In regard to that portion of the present work which treats of the ancient breed of wild white cattle, it may be thought, by some, a little presump- tuous on the part of the writer to deal with a subject on which an entire volume has been so recently and so ably written by the late Mr. Storer. But it should be stated that almost all the materials for this portion of the book were not only collected long before Mr. Storer’s work was published, but were on the eve of being incorporated in an important essay by Mr. Edward Alston, which was nearly ready for the press when Mr. Storer’s volume appeared. It would be ungenerous, however, on the part of the writer were he to withhold an acknowledgment of his indebtedness to Mr. Storer’s work for many useful additions to his own (each, in fact, containing something which the other had not), and in particular for several details of the former extent of ancient forests, which have been embodied in the Intro- duction. CONTENTS, ————. PART I, EXTRODUGTION.¢ . 2. ¢ » ¥ ¢ @ 4 b 2 a 3 Tar Bur. ... . , a ee ee ee THE BEAVER . . . . . a Tar REINDEER |... Bie. ise ie, See: me, CREE Tam Winn BOAR 4 5 w 2 4 wh 4 & # 6 4 79 Th Wee.. » 4 a 2 & 2 eS rere Conclusion . . . — oe wo we w= 206 PART II. ‘WILD: WHITE CATTLE «©... 1. ww. 4» 213 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. ——— PAGE THE BEAR... apse > “OE ee ALT Fossil Cranium of Bear, ‘Dumfriesshire . i a jee cle LIL S Recent Cranium of Bear. Under Surface . . . 15 Bear Hunt. From anold print. . .... . 18 Anglo-Saxon Gleemen’s Bear Dance . . 20 Bear-baiting. From a carved seat of the 14th century 25 THE BEAVER. . » 33 Cranium from the English Fens. Upper Surface . 44 The same. Under Surface . . » 45 Lower Jaw of Beaver from the English Fens » = 5 A Beaverat work . ........ 4. =. 60 THE REINDEER . . - . 61 Fragments of Reindeer’s Horn, from Caithness . | 7I Antler of Reindeer, from Orkney Seca er cnet ale Chto eS THE WitpD Boar . . 77 Wild Boar Hunting. From a MS. of the oth dentine. 79 Spearing a Boar. From a MS. of the 14th eines 85 Skull of Wild Boar . . . ‘ 86. Tracking a Wild Boar. Sixteenth century é- & « TO? Group of Wild Boars, froma carved horn. . . . 10g The Boar’s Head, Eastcheap . . . . . . . . TIL THE WOLF . . ee ee ee eG Skull of Wolf. e 3 Ry Ae! ses EZ Cranium of Wolf. Upper ‘Surface Fate le ae eae. a ABO Cranium of Wolf. Under Surface. . . . . . 121 Teeth of Wolf. NaturalSize. . . . . . 1 . 123 Wolf hunt. Sixteenth candace RE, ae a eee Ve ES Irish Wolf-hound . . see ew ws 188 Ancient Hunting Horn. . . . . . 1. . . 208 The Relay .. . ce Ss ee a ae 2 Ze WILp Wuitz CaTTLE . . oo a! Gr ol a @T3) 4 Skull of Wild Ox, Fifeshire 1 1... + + . 216 Skull of Wild Ox, Lancashire. . . 2-2 we 217 Coin of Cunobelin, with Wild Ox on reverse sos. 219 Wild Bull of Chartley . . «1 5 © * «© » » 6 231 Wild Bull of Chillingham . . . . 1. 1. 1. . . 233 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. INTRODUCTION. THE interest which attaches to the history of extinct British animals can only be equalled by the regret which must be felt, by all true naturalists, at their disappearance beyond recall from our fauna. It is a curious reflection at the present day, as we pass over some of the wilder parts of the country, that at one time these same moors and woods and glens, which we now traverse so securely, were , infested to such an extent with ferocious animals, that a journey of any length was, on this account, attended with considerable danger. Packs of wolves, which usually issued forth at night to ravage the herdsman’s flocks, were ever ready to attack the solitary herdsman, or unwary traveller on foot, who might venture to pass within reach of their hiding-places. In the oak woods and amongst the reed-beds which fringed the meres, wild-boars lurked while munching their store of acorns, or wallowing, as is their wont, in lacustrine mire, while they searched for the palatable roots of aquatic B 4 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. plants. Many a traveller then had cause to rue the sudden and unexpected rush of some grand old patriarch of the “sownder,” who, with gnashing tusks, charged out upon the invader of his domain, occasionally unhorsing him, and not unfrequently inflicting severe injuries upon his steed. In the wilder recesses of the forest, and amongst the caves and boulders of the mountain side, the bear, too, had his stronghold, and though exterminated at a much earlier period, long co-existed with the animals we have named; while in a few favoured localities in the west and north, the harmless, inoffensive beaver built its dam, and dived in timid haste at the approach of an intruder. At the present day it is difficult to realize such a state of things, unless we consider at the same time the aspect and condition of the country in which these animals lived, and the remarkable physical changes which have since taken place. Nothing we have now left can give us any idea of the state of things then; not the moors of North Derbyshire, West Yorkshire, and Lancashire, the wild wastes of Westmoreland, Cumberland, and Northumberland, nor even the extensive deer-forests and moors of the Scottish Highlands ; for the pathless woods which then covered a great part of these dis- tricts are all gone, and so also are the thick forests which, outside of but connected with them, skirted these higher grounds. The advance of man and the progress of cultivation has destroyed most of these wild woods, but it was not so in late Saxon and in INTRODUCTION. 5 early Norman times. Even in the less hilly districts more than half the country was one vast forest, and in the north at least these forests flanked the moun- tain ranges, extending their wild influence, and at the same time rendering them more inaccessible and wilder still. Between the tenth and twelfth centuries, great forests came up almost to the gates of London. In a curious tract entitled “Descriptio nobilissime civi- tatis Londonie,” written by Fitz-Stephen, a monk of Canterbury, in 1174, it i8 stated that there were open meadows of pasture lands on the north of the City, and that beyond these was a. great forest, in whose woody coverts lurked the stag, the hind, the wild-boar, and the bull. Two-thirds, or nearly, of the county of Stafford was, even in relatively modern times, either moorland or woodland. The northern part, going nearly up to Buxton, was moorland ; the central and eastern part forest. Harwood, in his edition of ' Erdeswick’s “ Survey of Staffordshire,” quoting Sir Simon Degge, says: “The moorlands are the more northerly mountainous part of the country lying betwixt Dove and Trent; the woodlands are the more southerly level part of the country. Between the aforesaid rivers, including Needwood Forest, with all its parks, are also the parks of Wichnor, Chartley, Hore- cross, Bagots, Loxley, and Paynesley, which anciently were all but as one wood, that gave it the name of woodlands.” Leland, about 1536, though he speaks of the woods being then much reduced, con- B 2. 6 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. firms this, and even carries this country of woods farther south. He says: “ Of ancient tyme all the quarters of the country about Lichefeild were forrest and wild ground.”* That would bring the Stafford- shire woodlands close up to the purlieus of Charn- wood Forest, in Leicestershire. Nor is this all; for about three miles north-west of Lichfield com- mences Cannock Chase, with its parks as numerous and extensive as those of Needwood, from which it was separated only by the River Trent. This chase, even at a comparatively recent period, was “said to contain 36,000 acres,” while ‘in Queen Elizabeth’s time Needwood Forest was twenty-four miles in circumference.” + The mountainous and moorland district to the north of Staffordshire, as many names of places still indicate, was also heavily wooded at one time, and contains, near its northern extremity, the singular defile of rocks and caverns locally called Ludchurch, said to have been the scene of Friar Tuck’s ministra- tions to Robin Hood and his merry men.{ This part of Staffordshire, bounded by the river Dove on its eastern side, and on the west passing close to Congleton in Cheshire, and another ancient forest known as Maxwell forest, runs like a wedge near Buxton into that wild country where the great * Leland, “ Itinerary,” ed. Hearne, vol. iv. p. 114. + Erdeswick, “Survey of Staffordshire,’ ed. Harwood, pp. 192, 279. These were both celebrated for their oaks and hollies: those in Needwood alone, in 1658, when it had been much reduced in extent and denuded of its timber, being valued at 30,7101, + Storer, “ Wild Cattle of Great Britain,” p. 65. > INTRODUCTION. q forest of Macclesfield, the Peak forest, and the high Derbyshire moors uniting together constitute “ that mountainous and large featured district which in ancient times had been well timbered and formed part of the great midland forest of England.* And a part only; for we have seen that this midland forest district, of which the Peak was the centre, included towards the south the greater part of Staffordshire, while towards the east an imaginary line only separated it from the mighty forest of Sherwood. From Nottingham to Manchester was one continuous forest, and far into Yorkshire the great moor extended to join other and more northern forests there. From the Peak northwards, through- out West Yorkshire and East Lancashire, the forests, moors, and mosses connected with this mountain range were immense.t Some idea of their extent may be gathered from the remarks of the learned Dr. Whitaker, who, describing Whalley, in Lancashire, in late Saxon and early Norman times, says :—“ If, ex- cluding the forest of Bowland, we take the parish of Whalley at a square of 161 miles, from this sum at least 70 miles, or 27,657 acres, must be deducted for the four forests, or chaces, of Blackburnshire, which belonged to no township or manor, but were at that time mere derelicts, and therefore claimed, as heretofore unappropriated, by the first Norman lords. There will therefore remain for the different manors and townships 36,000 acres or thereabouts, of which 3,520, or not quite a tenth part, was in a state of * Robertson, “ Buxton and the Peak,” p. 41. + Storer, p. 66. 8 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. cultivation; while the vast residuum stretched far and wide, like an ocean of waste interspersed with a few inhabited islands.”* Let us try to realize the state of things, when out of 63,657 acres of land, over 60,000 were either forests or waste, and nearly half of that amount unclaimed and unappropriated, while close at hand towards the north was the still larger and wilder forest of Bowland, so admirably described by Whitaker, and towards the south that of Rosendale with an amazing range of moors beyond it. But this statement only shows how the great central range was covered and fringed with wastes and forests on its western side. On the eastern side in the same neighbourhood, the country of Craven, it was just the same even so lately as the time of Henry VIII. Leland says:—“ in Southwark, 114 Boar-hunt, in Eskdale, 83 Boar-spears, 84, 85, 114 Boar, the, of Borestall, 81 Bolton Priory, accounts of, 144 Book of St. Albans, 150 » of Howth, 187 xy Of Information, 191 » of Rights of the Kings of Erin, 93 Boyd aaa: Prof. W., on remains of Bear, 12 ag 4s Reindeer, 62, 74; on Wolf, 118 Bos weenie: skull of, 216, 217 Bowland Forest, 7, 8, 119, 155 * Brochs, or ancient circular forts, 70 Burial Places, insular, as protection from Wolves, 182 Browne, Sir Thomas, on errors concerning Wolves, 204 Catus, de Canibus, 131 Caledonian Forest, 9, 21, 160 Campbell of Glen Urcha, 172 Canes Scotici, 22 Cannock Chace, 6 Canute, forest laws of, 132, 220 Carmen de Bello Hastingenst, 133 Carte, Dr., on Irish Fossil Mammals, 14, 66 Cattle, Wild, 213 - British, 219 in Anglo-Saxon times, 219, Welsh laws affecting, 220 forest laws of Canute; 220 in Scotland, 222, 223 3 » herds of, in parks, 224-245 at Ardrossan, Ayrshire, 224 Auchencruive, Ayrshire, 225 Barnard Castle, Durham, 225 Bishop Auckland, Durham, 226 Blair Athole, Perthshire, 228 Burton Constable, Yorkshire, 228 Cadzow Castle, Lanarkshire, 229 -Chartley Park, Staffordshire, 230 Chillingham Castle, Northumberland, 232 Drumlaurig Castle, Dumfriesshire, 235 Ewelme Park, Oxfordshire, 236 Gisburny Park, Yorkshire, 236 ery 3) 252 INDEX. Cattle, Wild, at Hoghton Tower, Lancashire, 239 5 » Holdenby Park, Northamptonshire, 239 4 » Kilmory House, Argyleshire, 239 - » Leigh Court, Somersetshire, 239 $3 » layme Park, Cheshire, 240 % » Middleton.Park, Lancashire, 242 a » Naworth Castle, Cumberland, 244 sy »» Somerford Park, Cheshire, 245 Pr » Whalley Abbey, Lancashire, 246 Wollaton Park, Nottinghamshire, 246 Charnapod Forest, 6 Chief Master of the Bears, 27 Chisholm’s, the Laird of, adventure with Wolf, 173 Coins, ancient British, 77, 219 Corbet, Peter, Wolf-hunter to Edward I., 143 Cosmo, Grand Duke, travels in England, 1669, 197 Craven Forest, 8 Cumberland, Moors and Forests, 4, 8 Cunobelin, coin of, 219 DERBYSHIRE Moors, 4 Drayton’s “ Polyolbion,” 36, 142 Expar, Jonny, story of, 165 Erdeswick’s “ Survey of Staffordshire,” 1593, 86, 97 Ettrick Forest, 161 Evans's “ British Coins,” 77 FirzstEPuEn’s Description of London, 1174, 5, 84 Flower, Prof. W. H., on cranium of Dog, 117 Forest of Bere, 119, 136, 137 » of Bowland and Blackburnshire, 7, 119 » Of Irwell, 119 » near London in 1174, 5, 84 of Marr, 76, 95 of the Peak, 7, 145 » of Riddlesdale, 119 » of Savernake, lor, 119, 153 of Wolmer, 95 Forests, former extent of ancient, 4-9 Griratpus Camprensis, Itinerary of, 35, 93, 186 Gordon, story of a Gordon and a Boar, 24, 91 Great Grimsby, Seal of the Corporation of, 87 Haye, or Haia, 10 Hentzner’s Itinerary, 29 INDEX. 253 Highland Deer Forests, 4 Horns of Reindeer, 71, 75 » of Wild Cattle, 216, 217, 231, 233 Horn, Hunting-, 10, 149, 205 » Nigell’s, 8r Household Book of, Earl Ferrers, 102 x » Bolton Priory, 144 Ss » Whitby Abbey, 148 33 » Earl of Northumberland, 28 a » Squire Kitson, 28, 85, 86 9 » Monastery of Durham, 28, 100, 101 - » Harlof Hertford, rot Elizabeth of York, 85 Howel Dha, lage of, 33, 80, 125, 128, 220 Howell’s “ Familiar Letters,” 194 Hunting in ancient times, 10 3 the Bear, 18 n » Beaver, 34 ae », Reindeer, 72~74 55 » Wild Boar, 79 9 » Wolf, 151, 159, 161 InGLewoop Forest, 82 Isle of Bute, Beavers in, 46-59 Ireland, earliest account of wild animals in, 93 » Bear in, 13-16, 23 ; » Reindeer in, 65-66 3, Wild Boar in, 92-94 » Wolf in, 185 Joun, Charter of Liberties of, 138 Lancasutre Moors, 4 Lauder, Sir T. D., account of Moray Floods, 180 Leith Adams, on Irish Fossil Mammals, 14, 65, 67 Liulphus, a celebrated Wolf-hunter, 133, 154 Llwyd on Welsh MSS., 17 Lyon, Lady Margaret, and the Wolves, 162 Macciesrietp Forest, 7 Macpherson of Braekaely, 171 MacQueen of Pall-a-chrocain, 178 Marr, Forest of, 76,95 - Matthew Paris, 133 Maxwell Forest, 6 Memprys, killed by a Wolf, 121 INDEX. NeEpwoop Forrst, 5, 6 Newbury, the Peat-pit near, 89 New Forest, 119 Newton, Prof. A., on Zoology of Ancient Europe, 151 Nigell and the Wild Boar, 81 Nigell’s horn, 81 Northumberland Moors, 4 O’Fiauerty’s West or H’Iar Connaught, 197 Orkney, Jarls of, hunting Reindeer, 72~74 “ Orkneyinga Saga,” 72-74 Owen, Prof., on Fossil Mammals, 12, 65,117, 215, 218 Paris Garden, 26 “Paw-calf,” the, 23, 24 Peak, Forest of the, 7, 145 Peat-pit near Newbury, 89 Pennarth, 17 : * Penitentiale”’ of Abp. Egbert, 19, 124 Pennyles Pilgrimage, 168 Peter Corbet, Wolf-hunter to Edward L.,, 143 Polson of Wester Helmsdale, 176 “ Polychronicon” of Ranulphus Higden, 186 “Polyolbion” of Michael Drayton, 36, 130 Qurrn Anng, advertisements of Bear-baiting, 30 » dilizabeth bear-baiting, 27 » Mary Wolf-hunting, 166 Ray, “ Synopsis Methodica Animalium,” 17 Reindeer, 61 4 remains in post-glacial deposits, 62 a at Brentford, 62 5 Kew Bridge, 62 39 Windsor, 62 = Oxford, 64 * Bedford, 64 » Rugby, 64 3 Salisbury, 64 5 Sittingbourne, 64 7 Maidstone, 64 a Bath, 64 4 East Dereham, 65