cciv Journal of Proceedings.
barrow, and two of the holes are described as being beneath the bodies ;
the rest were a few feet away in various directions. Four seem to have
been circular, the two others more irregular in form. Greenwell remarks
that they are clearly not graves, and that he can only suppose they were
intended to hold provisions for the use of the buried person—but does
not consider this explanation a very plausible one. He also states that
they have been met with in the long barrows of the south-west of
England, but have not been noticed in the Derbyshire and Staffordshire
barrows.
SUPPLEMENT II.
Modern Legends of Supposed "Wolves" in Epping Forest.*
" A shade on the stubble, a ghost by the wall,
Now leaping, now limping, now risking a fall,
Lop-eared and large-jointed, but ever alway
A thoroughly vagabond outcast in gray."—Bret Harte.
In late geological periods the wolf was common in the Epping
Forest district, as is shown by the abundance of its bones in the peaty
beds in the valley of the Lea [Trans. E. F. C, iii., p. 6]. In historic times
there appear to be no records of the animal in the forest itself. It doubt-
less existed there, as in most other parts of England, for in a grant of lands
by Edward the Confessor to Waltham Abbey, a "wolf-pit" and a "wolf-run''
or " leap," are mentioned. In 1277 there was a presentment for wasting a
grove called " Wolvesgrave " and the name of a manor in Barking called
" Wolfhamston," may have had some connection with the animal [set
Fisher's ' Forest of Essex,' p. 187]. But all traditions of wolves in Essex
have ceased for so many centuries that it was startling to hear that a
wolf had actually been captured in Epping Forest. True, this deter-
mination was incorrect, but the fact that the animal was one of three
cubs (of presumably the same species) found in the forest gave rise to
much speculation as to their origin. For some time previously rumours
were current in the forest districts of the strange behaviour of some
supposed foxes in the forest in the neighbourhood of High Beach,
which were said to attack lambs, biting off the tails and leaving the
mangled bodies in the fields, sometimes, it was said, half-buried in the
earth. Also, there were stories of a large fox in Theydon Woods, with a
whitish tail, which always got away from the hounds.
The story of the actual discovery of the cub (or cubs) cannot be better
told than in the words of Mr. A. D. Bartlett, the well-known Superinten-
* This article was compiled in the belief that the determination of the name of
the animal (or animals, for the Chelmsford Museum specimen may be in the same
case) as a " Prairie Wolf" was correct. We now (December, 1891) hear from Mr.
Bartlett that the animal in the " Zoo" has turned out to be a North African Jackal
[see post p. ccviii.] But we leave the facts as originally recorded, as they are not, of
course, affected by the mistakes of the experts.—Ed., December, 1801.