finding certain dogs for the destruction of wolves and ^^ ' ' ^°'^'
martens, cats, and other vermin. In the reign of Ed-
ward III. Thomas Engaine held lands in Pitchley in
Northamptonshire, and Sir Thomas de Ailesbury and Blount, 260.
Katherine his wife at Laxton in the same county,



1 90



Blount, 235.
See Holins-
hed, 2. 225.
Transactions
of Essex Field
Club, vol. 3,
p. 6.
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
subject to this duty ; and by the service of keeping for
the King five wolf dogs (canes lupararios) William
de Raynes held land in Finchingfield, in Essex, in 13
Edward I.
But it cannot be inferred from these facts that the
wolf ran wild in Essex during the reigns of those Kings.
The destruction of wolves by Edgar was, of course, not
complete ; and the natural increase of those which re-
mained, immigration from the northern forests, and
possibly, occasional reintroductions for the purpose of
hunting, would account for their being sometimes found
in England, much later than the time at which they are
popularly supposed to have been extirpated. But the
evidence of comparatively late grants of land upon the
tenure of killing wolves is of very small value, as they
were commonly made in the same terms as more ancient
grants which they confirmed, or for which they were
substituted.
