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What is Lycanthropy? The change of manor woman into the form of a wolf, either through magical means, so as to enable him or her to gratify the taste for human flesh, or through judgment of the gods in punishment for some great offence. This is the popular definition. Truly it consists in a form of madness, such as may be found in most asylums. Among the ancients this kind of insanity went by the names of Lycanthropy, Kuanthropy, or Boanthropy, because those afflicted with it believed themselves to be turned into wolves, dogs, or cows. But in the North of Europe, as we shall see, the shape of a bear, and in Africa that of a hyaena, were often selected in preference. A mere matter of taste! According to Marcellus Sidetes, of whose poem {Greek _peri lukandrw'pou_} a fragment exists, men are attacked with this madness chiefly in the beginning of the year, and become most furious in February; retiring for the night to lone cemeteries, and living precisely in the manner of dogs and wolves. Virgil writes in his eighth Eclogue: -- Has herbas, atque haec Ponto mihi lecta venena Ipse dedit Mris; nascuntur plurima Ponto. His ego saepe lupum fieri et se conducere sylvis Mrim, saepe animas imis excire sepulchris, Atque satas alio, vidi traducere messes. And Herodotus: -- It seems that the Neuri are sorcerers, if one is to believe the Scythians and the Greeks established in Scythia; for each Neurian changes himself, once in the year, into the form of a wolf, and he continues in that form for several days, after which he resumes his former shape. --(Lib. iv. c. 105.) See also Pomponius Mela (lib. ii. c. 1) There is a fixed time for each Neurian, at which they change, if they like, into wolves, and back again into their former condition.

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The Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould (/ saebaIn bearIn gu ld/; 28 January 1834 - 2 January 1924) of Lew Trenchard in Devon, England, was an Anglican priest, hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist, folk song collector and eclectic scholar. His bibliography consists of more than 1240 publications, though this list continues to grow. His family home, the manor house of Lew Trenchard, near Okehampton, Devon, has been preserved as he had it rebuilt and is now a hotel. He is remembered particularly as a writer of hymns, the best-known being Onward, Christian Soldiers[1] and Now the Day Is Over. He also translated the carol Gabriel's Message from the Basque language to English. Sabine Baring-Gould was born in the parish of St Sidwell, Exeter, on 28 January 1834.[3] He was the eldest son and heir of Edward Baring-Gould (1804-1872), lord of the manor of Lew Trenchard, a Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant of Devon, formerly a lieutenant in the Madras Light Cavalry (resigned 1830), by his first wife, Sophia Charlotte Bond, daughter of Admiral Francis Godolphin Bond, Royal Navy.[4] Sabine's paternal grandfather was William Baring (died 1846), JP, DL, who in 1795 had assumed by royal licence the additional surname and arms of Gould, in accordance with the terms of his inheritance of the manor of Lew Trenchard from his mother Margaret Gould, daughter and eventual heiress in her issue of William Drake Gould (1719-1767) of Lew Trenchard. The Gould family was descended from a certain John Gold, a crusader present at the siege of Damietta in 1217 who for his valour was granted in 1220 by Ralph de Vallibus an estate at Seaborough in Somerset.[5] Margaret Gould was the wife of Charles Baring (1742-1829) of Courtland in the parish of Exmouth, Devon, whose monument survives in Lympstone Church, 4th son of Johann Baring (1697-1748), of Larkbeare House, Exeter, a German immigrant apprenticed to an Exeter wool merchant, and younger brother of Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet (1740-1810), and John Baring (1730-1816) of Mount Radford, Exeter, which latter two established the London merchant house of John and Francis Baring Company, which eventually became Barings Bank.

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