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 * > ':' »