Photo from open sources
Conan Doyle gave the world the Hound of the Baskervilles – a terrible monster, living in the heart of the Grimpen bog. But if in reality no one believes the Baskerville monster (Mr. Doyle himself gave a solution of this mystery) then in the English county of Cornwall in existence in their the edges of the giant wild panthers that go hunting at night, not nobody doubts.
Local horror story
Cornwall is the southwest of England. Until the middle of the eleventh century an independent state. Here is the birthplace of Celtic culture, it was here that King Arthur was born, elves, fairies and their king lived Oberon. It is understood that mention of the Cornish panthers in the first the queue was perceived as a tradition. Well, where if not in Cornwall can a monster appear? No wonder it was “settled” in the southwest his dog the Baskervilles Arthur Conan Doyle.
For the first time, “Cornish cats” are mentioned in medieval chronicles describing them as huge beasts with fangs, protruding from the upper jaw and burning eyes, capable of one a paw blow to break a bull’s ridge. Today, residents of rare scattered in the county counties will be happy to tell you that Cornish panthers live here from time immemorial and will list with a dozen ancestors who died from the fangs of monsters.
They will tell an ancient legend that the dukes of Cornwall caught and kept individual individuals in their menagerie, releasing them for the night to hunt. In the morning, they returned to the castle, quite rumbling and licking bloodied faces. Visiting tourists with delight and horror listen to these “horror movies.”
Legends?
Cornwall panthers were considered fairy tales until 1962, when from farmers began to massively complain about the death of bulls and sheep from huge black cats. Cornish asked to shoot and reduce the number of predators to reasonable limits.
Government officials who arrived at the scene to clarify the situation found out that the Cornish monsters have long been the scourge of these places. Local farmers specializing in sheep breeding and rearing gobies, constantly find from their wards left to graze in the swamps, only torn carcasses.
A photo from open sources
The number of people claiming to have personally seen huge cats moving in giant leaps was so great that not allowed to treat this as a local superstition. Found even one who met with the beast, which is called face to face (a more precisely, facing the face).
Eye to eye meeting
John Hamstead is the only one attacked by Cornish panthers and a survivor. It happened at night when John was returning to his lonely farm. A strong blow knocked him down. In the hands of Hamstead was a flashlight with which he, periodically turning on and off, illuminated the most dangerous sections of the road. This lamp saved the farmer a life. Falling on his back, John turned it on and aimed it at the attacker.
Anthracite black cat, eyes the size of tea saucers, grinning mouth with huge fangs hanging down. Snatched out by the light of a lantern the farmer remembered the picture for life. Scared bright light, the animal jumped to the side. Home John Hamstead came back gray-haired.
Unsuccessful hunt
A photo from open sources
From 1962 to 1987, hunters repeatedly arrived in Cornwall, as groups and singles. From Cornwall they brought numerous stories of local residents, photo and video materials of the unimportant qualities, shreds of wool – but not a single animal, nor to catch, nor nobody managed to shoot. The beast was elusive.
In 1987, one of the groups brought a cast of the track “ghostly” cats. “Zoologists concluded that the mark was left large feline sized cougars or leopard. And how real is the existence of such an animal (cougars? leopard?) in England? What do scientists say?
A word to specialists
Cornwall – 9th county in the UK by territory and 24th by population density. So the places where a Cornish cat can hiding from people and hunting is more than enough. Southwest England is the warmest place in the UK, winters are mild, frosts are extremely rare. Representatives of the cat family can live and breed under these conditions.
True, zoologists are not ready to admit existence in England. descendants of fossil black panthers. According to Douglas Richardson, in charge of the London Zoo, the 1976 law is to blame obliged citizens with wild animals to pay huge taxes. According to Richardson, unwilling to pay fabulous amounts owners of personal zoos have released their pets to freedom. The descendants of these animals terrify the inhabitants of Cornwall.
Slender version, only here are the evidence from the medieval chronicles do not fit into it in any way.
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