Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/372

Cbaptft O £ 14 A'NCHESTE R. 3^ thanes Itfee Sons, and 1 afenoft a« fierce and afe favage as they'*. Nor were theft the only inhabitants of our woods. We had alio a ntHneroes breed of bears ia the iflartd. The hills of Portugal, the mountains of Spain,- aaA Che fordfttf of Britain, all eqwaiiy produced- ft variety of tears at thift period **. Thefe continued in die north of England a* btte as the eighth century. . Thefo oomi- Mtoed in the fouth of England as lat« as the Conoue&. When mif tme, lays the gtea i teo ttal «l archbtfhop Egberts . ftrifces 4 wUd bea#wi& an arrow tad k efcaperand ia found dead three days irterwartfsy if «* fecund a- woK a fax. or a bear or a&j& ether wiW bdaft bath begun to feed upon it, let no Chriftiaa touch it. The* tto*ra of Norwich, fays. Doomfilay v ia the tig^e of tteConfcflbr fornAed annually one bear to. the king and fi» dqg? Jbt the bailiftg of it 44 . Aftd all thefe tshabitants of our exteofivo woddtands fifiwA have been chaced by the dogs which ftill coe>- timie remarkable among us, and which ftill point out the ori-% girial nature of their game in their prtfent appellations of Bear- dogs BuU-dogs and Wolf-dogs* All animals were in a great degree probably civilized at* the aera of their releafe from the ark,- and fome of them Were caf* wed equally tame by the firft colonies of the Noachidab into the weft, and were- wafted in the fame veffels «with their matters m into the iftands of Britain. There multiplying in corffiderabW numbers and joving into the woods for food, they were nd longer daily conyerfknt wkh man or fubje& to the unrforni : re* ftraints of authority,., and in the cotirfe of two or thrfee genera* tipns fynk abfolutply into the nature of favages.. Such was pro- llably the cafe, as the confinement in the ark for more than * jjear muft neceffarily hdve tamed in fome degree the wilder hearts and muft have civilized in a great degree the geritlcri Such ,was more probably the cafe, as this explains th« great difficulty in natural hiftory which is explainable upon rio othe* jgiinciplf^ the traniportation of favage animals from the coa* jinent intaefiftant iflaiids. And fuch was pretty certainly the safe*. aa we know: even the moft omii«d of: alt oar domefti* animals^ our horfes,, otsr dogs, and our kioe; to have been trans- ported * > ':' »