Although it appears to be known with some degree of certainty, about what period they ceased to exist in Scotland and Ireland, there is a great difficulty in ascertaining, at what date they became extinct in England; and in consequence of its greater population, its not having many mountainous and wild districts, and, as suggested in Buffon’s work, its not having extensive woods, it is certain, that wolves would be much sooner exterminated in England, than in Scotland or Ireland. At the time of the Anglo-Saxon sway, wolves abounded in great numbers in England; and in the tenth century, in the reign of Athelstan, a place of retreat was erected at Flixton, in Yorkshire, in order to protect travellers from being devoured by wolves. {290c} It has been said, that in the reign of Edgar, also in the tenth century, an annual tribute was imposed upon the Welsh princes, of three hundred wolves’ heads, in order to effect their destruction. If that be true, it is only reasonable to suppose, that considerable numbers would be destroyed, by the adoption of that expedient; but it is strange that some authors, copying from one another, and without giving themselves the trouble of searching into authorities, have stated, that the extinction of wolves in England and Wales was caused by it. Nothing can be further from the truth, as will be presently shown. Mr. Hume, in his _History of England_, indeed, even goes far beyond other writers, in his unqualified assertions on that subject, without any proof; and shows, as is too often the case in his work, his ignorance of the authorities relative to it; and he has not adduced, and in fact he seems to have been unable to adduce, any authority for making the following assertion, viz.:—“Another remarkable incident of this [Edgar’s] reign, was the extirpation of wolves from England. This advantage was attained by the industrious policy of Edgar. He took great pains in hunting and pursuing those ravenous animals; and when he found that all that escaped him had taken shelter in the mountains and forests of Wales, he changed the tribute of money imposed on the Welsh princes by Athelstan his predecessor, into an annual tribute of three hundred heads of wolves; which produced such diligence in hunting them, that the animal has been no more seen in this island.” {291a} It is surprising that Mr. Hume should have ventured to make an assertion so easily refuted; and it is remarkable, that his _History of England_ should find a prominent place in so many libraries, when it is now admitted, that its author is very frequently incorrect as a historian, and that the statements in it, when he omits, as he often does, to quote authorities, cannot be relied on. That work has never been regularly reviewed, which ought even yet to be done. Lord Brougham, in his _Lives of Men of Letters and Science_, who flourished in the time of George III., very properly exposes the faults and incorrectness of Mr.