A HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE 14. Pine Marten. Mustela martes, Linn. Bell Martes abietum. This fine animal has probably been extinct in Derbyshire for about half a century, but as it is capable of covering long distances it is quite possible that individuals have visited us within more recent times from adjoining counties. Remains of the marten have been found in the surface soil of Robin Hood's Cave and the Cresswell Crags (Journ. Derb. Arch, and Nat. Hist. Soc. 1882, p. 171). Its chief haunts seem to have been the wooded parts of the Peak Forest in the north : the valleys of the Dove and Derwent, the forests of Needwood in Staffordshire and Charnwood in Leicestershire, from whence it made excursions into the south of Derby- shire. It must have been tolerably common towards the end of the eighteenth century, for Pilkington writing in 1789 says, 'It is scarcely necessary to add that polecats, martins, weasels, badgers and stoats . . . are all inhabitants of Derbyshire.' Glover, forty years later, also includes it in his list, and a writer in the Penny Magazine of November 27, 1841, describes the marten as ' plentiful in the fir-woods which clothe the sides of some of the hills of Derbyshire and especially near Buxton.' Mr. W. Bennett, writing in 1866 on the place names of the Peak Forest, says ' Martin- side and Cat's Tor were the places of refuge of the beautiful mart or marten cat, which has been found in a wild state within the last forty years among the solitary rocks of the Roych Clough' (Reliquary, vii. 95). The late Dr. C. Clay of Manchester, who died in 1893 at the age of 91, told me that he well remembered when a young man seeing a fine specimen offered for sale alive in the market at Manchester. It was in a cage and very savage, and was said to have been recently trapped in the High Peak. Mr. J. R. B. Masefield, in his paper on the indigenous mammals of Staffordshire, says : ' I should not have included it here had I not been assured by one on whose word I can rely that one was killed within his recollec- tion, but many years ago, on the Staffordshire side of Dovedale.' Garner (Nat. Hist, of Stafford}^ writing in 1844, notes that the marten has occurred in the woods near Dilhorne, Consall, in Needwood Forest and rocky places in the limestone district ; and Sir O. Mosley, nearly 20 years later, says that by traditionary report it was an inhabitant of Needwood Forest before the enclosure, but ' is now nowhere to be found.' Mr. M. Browne's researches in Leicestershire show that it survived much longer in that county. 15. Polecat. Putorius putorius (Linn.). Bell Mustela putorius. Locally, Foumart or Filimart (obs.) Fitchet. Formerly very common and widely distri- buted, but its numbers have rapidly decreased during the last forty years, and at the present time it is practically extinct in the south and occurs rarely in the north and west. In the ' Shooting Diary ' of the Rev. F. Gisborne of Staveley (Journ. Derb. Arch, and Nat. Hist. Soc. 1892, p. 196) occurs the following entry: 'October 24 [1772] i Foumart.' In a footnote the Rev. C. H. Molineux says that formerly these animals were evidently very numerous, and ^d. per head was paid by the churchwardens as 'verming.' In the accounts for 1772 there is a somewhat start- ling entry, 'A polecat catching in the Church, os. 6d.' Glover describes the habits of this animal accurately ; he tells us that in summer they haunt woods or rabbit warrens, and are very destructive ; in winter they are found in barns and outhouses. In 1842 Sir O. Mosley found this species ' sufficiently common ' in the Tutbury district ; but writing in 1863 he speaks of it as 'becoming more scarce every year,' but ' still to be found in rough upland banks and in the tangled willow beds by the sides of our rivers and streams.' Mr. E. Brown also says it is ' still occasionally found.' In the High Peak polecats were not un- common in the upper part of the Derwent valley and on the edge of the moors as late as 186076. I remember seeing one about 1874 or 1875 gallop across the road between Derwent and Howden in broad daylight and disappear through the opening at the bottom of the stone wall for the surface water to escape. On another occasion my father and the Rev. J. O. Bent were walking on the Derwent moors and suddenly came upon a family party, consisting of two old and six young polecats, which showed but little fear, and being undisturbed soon disappeared in the heather. This was about September 1873. Canon Molineux saw one at Staveley some time between the years 1888 and 1892, and watched it for some moments as it rolled on the turf like a dog on a rug (Journ. Derb. Arch, and Nat. Hist. Soc. 1892). In the Ashbourne district it still appears occasionally. One was killed at Bradley in 1890 or 1891. Another was seen in a hedgerow much frequented by rabbits near Bradley in 1896, and in the spring of 1900 154
