The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924081040184 3 1924 081 040 184 Production Note Cornell University Library produced this volume to replace the irreparably deteriorated original. It was scanned using Xerox software and equipment at 600 dots per inch resolution and compressed prior to storage using CCITT Group 4 compression. The digital data were used to create Cornell ' s replacement volume on paper that meets the ANSI Standard Z39. 48-1992. The production of this volume was supported in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Digital file copyright by Cornell University Library 1994. Scanned as part of the A.R. Mann Library project to preserve and enhance access to the Core Historical Literature of the Agricultural Sciences. Titles included in this collection are listed in the volumes published by the Cornell University Press in the series THE LITERATURE OF THE AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES, 1991-1995, Wallace C. Olsen, series editor. ^tatE Qfollege nf Agriculture At QforncU WciivetsitQ TKB WILD WHITE CATTLE OP GREAT BRITAIN. An Aeeount of their Origin, History, and Present State. BY The late EEV. JOHN STOEEE, M.A., Of Sellidon, Northmnptomliire. EDITED BY HIS SON, JOHN STOKER. BBNEDICITE OMNES BESTUE ET PECORA DOMINO, LAUDATE ET STTPEKESE ALTATE BUM IN SECULA. Cassell Petter & GaLPIN: london, paris # nbw york. [all KIGHTS BESEllVED.] CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE <>rigTii of Cattle — European Eaoes of Cattle — ^Toasil Species — Small Celtic Ox probably descended from Bos Longifrons — The larger Baces from Bos Driis— Historical Notices of the Urns 1 CHAPTER II. Allied Races of White Cattle — Prejudice against "White nnf ounded — Antiquity of the Colour — White preferred for Beligioas Ceremonies and Festivals — White Cattle imported for snch Purposes from the native Country of the TJrus — ^No Authority for the Opinion that the TJrus was Black — The Augsburg Picture — Apparent Connection between the Urns and various domestic Races of White Cattle — The Charolaia Breed — The Friesland Ox — Holstein Cattle — Hungarian — Transylvanian — Cattle of the Rus- sian Steppes — British Wild Cattle similar in all important Characteristics — ^All probably descended from the ancient TJrus 16 CHAPTER in. The tTrus in ancient Britain — Fossil Remains found in both the Stone and Bronze Ages — Likely to survive much later in the North — ^Early Notices of Wild Cattle — Such Notices relate to Southern England — Extreme Wildneas of the Northern Mountainous Districts — These Districts the last Home of British Wild Animals 50 CHAPTER IV. From Forest to Park — Gradual Extinction of Wild Animals in Forests, whilst still remaining in the Parks — Historical Notices of Wild Cattle in Parks — Tradition of Saint Robert — Park Cattle the great Improvers of the Durham or Teeswater Cattle— The Stndley Herd a White Breed — The Bishop of Durham's White Cattle at Bishop Auckland — The Crest of the Nevill Family a White Bull— Chillingham— The Chillingham Cattle perhaps from the Royal Park at Chatton — Naworth — Frequent Mention of Wild Cattle under the Name of "Wild Beasts" — Leigh Park, Somerset 74 CHAPTER V. Ancient Domestic Races of White Cattle in England and Wales — ^Notices of them scarce, and not found as expected in Records of the Monasteries iv CONTENTS. PAGE — Custom at Kniglitlow Cross — Coincidence of this Cnstom with the Local Legend of the Wild Cow of Donsmore Heath— White Cattle in Wales and especially in Pembroke — Notices of them in ancient Welsh Laws — Four Hundred presented to the Qneen of King John — Distinct- ness from other Welsh Cattle — Herd at Vale Eoyal — ^BaHad of " Hughie the Grrseme " — The Lyrick Herd 102 CHAPTER VI. The Wild White Cattle in ancient Scotland — Former Wildness of the Conntry — Purity and Trustworthiness of Highland Traditions — Traces of White Cattle in Local Names — Allusions in Sir Walter Scott's Works — " Dancraggan's Milk-white BuU " — Description hy Boethius of the Wild Bull — The Tnrnbull Legend — Boethius confirmed by other Testi- mony on the most disputed Points — Bellenden and Leslie regfarding the Bull's " Mane " — Localities mentioned by Bishop Leslie — Clear Distinc- tion drawn by him between the Wild White Cattle and the Kyloe Breed — Discoveries of Bones of the TJrus in Scotland — Their compara- tively small Size —Desirability of further Investigation by Geologists . 117 • CHAPTER VII. The Chillingham Herd — Mentioned by CuUey and Pennant — Bewick's Account — ^Differences in these Statements — Brief Account of Chilling- ham — Lord Tankerville's Account of the Herd — Eutimeyer's Opinion — Notice in 1689 corroborates Bewick as to Colour of the Ears — Further Particulars by Lord Tankerville — Jesse's Statement that the Herd was once reduced to one Cow in Calf incorrect — Mr. Hindmarsh's Account — Last published Account of the Herd by " The Druid " in 1870 . . 144 CHAPTER VIII. The Chillingham Herd (continued) — Shooting of a Bull by H.E.H. the Prince of Wales— Visit of Mr. Chandos-Pole-Gell, Mr. Booth, and Mr. Thornton — My own Visit in 1874 — Length of Time the Calves are suctled — Desirability of examining Creswell Moss for Fossil Eemains . . . 165 CHAPTER IX. The Chillingham Herd (continued) — The ChiUinghams essentially Wild Cattle — ^Attacks upon Mr. Hope — upon Lord Ossulston — and the Keeper — Landseer's Pictures— Thin Red Line above the Muzzle — a Characteristic of the Herd — ^The Mane — Tendency to Black in Ears and Horns — and of Black Spots 184 CHAPTER X. The Chillingham Herd (continued) — Constitution and Government of the Herd — Combats of the Bulls sometimes fatal — Calves produced at all Seasons — Concealment of the Calves — Sick Animals often gored — Weight and Quality of Meat — Statistics of the Herd, past and present — Questions of Fecundity and Inter-Breeding— No Proof that the Herd has never been crossed— Herds of Deer crossed — No Difficulty formerly in obtaining a Cross— Probability that the Herd has been crossed . 200 CONTENTS. V CHAPTER XI. PABE The CJhartley Herd— Early Notices of these Caitle as "Wild Beasts"— Black Calves considered a fatal Omen — My own first Visit — Grand and massive Character of the Cattle — The Herd " Long-horns " — My Second Visit — Pecnliar Characteristics of these Cattle — They resemble those in Somerford Park^-Not so wild as the Chillingham Cattle — Black Calves — Attempts to cross the Herd — ^White Cattle in the Neighbourhood — Mr. Chandos-Pole-Gell's description — Mr. Thornton's 218 CHAPTER Xn. The Lyme Park Herd — The Legh Family — HansaU's Acconnt of the Herd — My own Visit, 1875 — Details given by Mr. Legh — Attempts to procure a, Cross — Result of the Chartley Cross — Curious Eesult of the Polled Gisbume Cross — Habits of the Old Lyme Cattle — Larger than any existing Wild Breed in this Country — The Burton Constable Herd — ^Refusal of Information — Bewick's Account — Destruction of the Herd by Distemper — Probable Origin of the Herd '. 245 CHAPTER Xin. The Somerford Park a Domesticated Herd — Probably Connected with the Lyme Park and Chartley Herds — My Visit in 1875 — ^Points of the Cattle — Their Fine Milking Qualities — Probable Use of Diluted Crosses —Antiquity of the Herd — Its Origin — Interesting Evidence as to Colour of the Wild Cattle— The Wollaton Hall Herd— Existing in 1790— Was a Polled Herd — Mr. Burton's Account — Eev. Mr. Willoughby's — This Herd only semi-domesticated — Extinguished by Negligence and In- breeding — Probable Origin of the WoUaton Herd — Greater Tendency to Black in the Southern Herds 256 CHAPTER XrV. The Gisbume Park Herd — Belated to the Middleton — ^Bewick's Description in 1790— Whitaker's, in 1805- A Polled Herd— Originally from Whalley Abbey — or possibly from Middleton — Its semi-domesticated Character — Became Extinct in 1859 — Lord Bibblesdale's Account — £ev. T. Staniforth's — Mr. Assheton's — The last Animal killed on Nov. 10, 1859 — The Herd perished from In-breeding — This often perfects the Individual, but annihilates the Kace — The Middleton Hall Herd- Dr. Leigh's Account, in 1700— Then "Wild Cattel"— and Polled — ^Probable Origin — Finally removed to Grunton Park . . . 277 CHAPTER XT. The Gxmton Park Herd originally from Middleton — Progress towards Domestication in Norfolk — ^Portrait of the original Lancashire Bull — Lord Suffield's Description — ^Mr. Coleman's — ^Besemblance to the Polled Cattle of Somerford Park — The Herd extinct, save in Off-sets from it — Influence in the District — ^BHckling Hall Herd descended from the a Ti CONTENTS. PASS Gimton Park Cattle — Eev. G. Gilbert's Beport in 1875 — Severe Injnry to the Herd from Cattle FIag:ne — Characteristics of the Cattle — Quite Domesticated — The Woodbastwiok Herd-r-Also from the Gnnton Cattle — Not now Pore^CalTes exchanged with Blickling — Crossed with Short-homs in 1864— Eev. G. Gilbert's Eeport in 1875— These White Polled Cattle quite distinct from those of Scotland or the Eastern Counties — ^White Cattle of Brooke House — Proofs of the Influence of the Wild Breed upon English Domestic Cattle 299 CHAPTER XVI. Extinct Scottish Herds — The Cnmbernanld Herd — History of the Cumber- nauld Estate — Historical and Heraldic Notices of the Cattle — Their Extinction — The Drumlanrig Herd — Notices of the Cattle, and their Extinction — The Auchencruive Herd — The Ardrossan Herd — ^introduced about 1750 — ^Abandoned in 1820 — ^Tradition that the Cattle were originally homed — BemoTal of the last Specimens to Dnchal, and Disappearance there 320 CHAPTER XYir. Existing Scottish Herds of White Cattle — ^The Hamilton Herd — ^Mr. Brown's Description— Differences between the Hamilton and Chillingham Cattle — Nearly extirpated during the CromweUian Period — Probability of their being Crossed then and subsequently — ^Further Probability that they were formerly Hornless — ^Now only partially so — ^Mr. Chandos- Pole-Gell's Account — The Aihole Herd — Sold in 1834 — and then divided — Lord Breadalbane's Portion lost as a Pure Herd — ^Bnt crossed with other Cattle — The Duke of Bucclench more successful — James Aitohi- son's Account of the Dalkeith Herd — Slaughtered in 1838, with sole Exception of one Bull — ^The Eolmory semi-wild Herd — How formed by Sir John Orde — ^Last Cross in 1852 — Present State and Management of the Ejlmory Herd— Mr. Chandos-Pole-Gell's Account of it . . 338 CHAPTER XVin. Conclusions — General Besemblance in the White Herds — White not im- probably the Colour of the Ancient Urns — Differences — These Differ- ences extend even to Structure — Proof the White Herds afford of the pestructive Effects of In-breeding 357 APPENDIX I. The TumbuU Legend 368 APPENDIX n. A list of Localities where Wild White Cattle or tiieir Descendants are proved to have existed 375 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Moldavian Oxen 22 Whitb Cattle and Lion, frou Pompeh 23 Supposed " Bos TJbtjs " 26 Chabolais Dbatioet Ox 31 HuNGABiAN Bull 38 Cattle op Eussian Steppes 46 Stiblino Castle 134 Head of Chillinghau Bull shot by H.B.H. the Prince of Wales . 169 Head op a Chabtlet Bull 223 Geoup of Chabtlet Cattle . * 229 HoBNs of Chabtlet Cattle 242 Gunton White Bull, supposed to have been bbouqht feom the MlDDLETON HeBD 301 a '^ PREFACE. It is -with pleasure that I feel myself in a position — althongli after some inevitable delay — ^to place before tbe pubHc tbe present work. Its author, unfortunately, did not live to altogether complete his researches ; still less to give the results of them to the world with that precision and accuracy which would have satisfied him ; and the want can now never be supplied. It was, indeed, in a great measure, the conscientious care with which he sought information upon every doubtful point, even when apparently only trifling, and the zeal with which he investigated every accessible record of the past that he thought could throw even ' the most partial light upon the subject of his investigations, which, more than any other cause, prevented him from seeing this book pubhshed in his lifetime. And this will be found, I fear, to be a loss to others besides himself; for in the case of a work of this kind— dealing, as it does, with many undecided ques- tions, upon some of which great differences of opinion exist — ^it is a double misfortune when the author does not live to complete and to publish it himself. First, because it has not been in his power thoroughly to reconsider, with the whole before his eyes, what he has asserted ; to weigh again objections, and to clear up X FBEFACE. by the latest obtainable information any points -which he might have regarded as being doubtful. Secondly, be- cause no one but the author can so satisfactorily maintaia his views after publication, reply to objections, and make concessions, if, after controversy, any of his opinions are found untenable. Such considerations should not be disregarded by the reader, if anywhere in these pages he meet with some statement or opioion not wholly, as he thinks, in accordance with another expressed elsewhere. The book has not been harmonised, nor its contents collated, by any last review of its author, so as to bring about a complete verbal agreement in all cases. A little re- flexion will generally show that there is no real inconsis- tency. It may also very well happen that the opinions expressed will appear to be less clearly established than they might have been, had the power of reply remained with the author. He alone was competent to have adequately defended his own views. Still, iu spite of all these drawbacks, I cannot but hope that the present work may not only be found of a positive value with reference to the subjects with which it deals, and interest many who follow kindred pursuits to those the author took so much delight in ; but that it win appeal also to a wider public. Nothing ought to have more interest for us children of a high civilisation than to look back to earlier and ruder times, when men were few and wild beasts plentiful; and nothing, I think, does interest us more. To us, living as we do ia a land cultivated like a garden, where scarcely a wild creature could exist without strict preser- FBEFACK xi yation, and where our very wastes are more or less arti- ficial, it is refreshing to find ourselves breathing a new atmosphere, so to speak ; roaming through the primaeval forest, and pondering on its wild yet fruitful life. This is the spirit which takes men into the heart of countries now desert, and makes them the companions of wild beasts and savages. It arises from that love of nature and of adventure which is the salt of life; and hardly in any form can it be more harmlessly and profitably em- ployed than when it leads us to a retrospect of our own country in ages past, and to a study of the animals which wandered wild in its then vast woods and wastes. Whether the decHning herds of our Wild Cattle now existing are lineaUy descended from the Drus, or have some other origin, is a question of high interest, though only to a few ; but a picture, such as the author has endeavoured to give us, of our native England as it once was, has, I should say, a wider interest. When the author died I found the work, although quite sufficiently advanced for publication, yet not al- together finished. The accounts of the several herds, with two exceptions (those of Hamilton and Kilmory), may be, I think, regarded as having received aU but the last verbal corrections of the writer, and are sub- stantially as he would have published them. The earlier portion of the book, too, was in a very forward state, as will be seen, and contains a succinct yet complete general history of the Wild Cattle of this country, and of kindred races abroad. StiQ, I am inclined to beheve that, if Mr. Storer had lived, this part of the book would have been at least partially re -written and re- xii FBEFAOE. arranged. He had been in constant qorrespondence with many persons in all parts of the country able to give him more or less information since he wrote it, and this might perhaps have induced him to extend and amplify some portions of his narrative. At any rate he would doubtless have submitted it to a complete and severe revision. In particular, I may state that with regard to the early history of the TJrus he was much stnick with the fact, lately brought to his notice, that wild hvUs, presumably of this type, were hunted by early Assyrian monarchs, as recorded in the series of Egyptian and Assyrian documents called " Kecords of the Past ; " and that various portraitures of these animals, upon both bowls and wall-paintings, are preserved in the British Museum. If he had lived to investigate this subject, the results; would have been given to the public. The same remarks apply equally — ^perhaps with even more force — ^to the concluding chapter. The account of the Hamilton herd was also left in- complete, for the reason that the author was, up to the time of his death, busily engaged in endeavouring to obtaia information with regard to the curious change from homed (presumably, at least) to polled, and then again from polled to homed, which this herd has under- gone. I was, therefore, obliged to use for this book an earlier narrative which Mr. Storer had left of this, as of several other herds, incorporating with it a report upon the cattle of this strain now existing, written by Mr. Chandos-Pole-GeU. That of the Kilmory herd seems complete, except that a similar report from the same gentleman had not been incorporated with it. PEBFAOK xin The text of the book has been left by me in all respects as Mr. Storer left it, with the sole exception of a fe"W merely verbal corrections. A few notes it seemed well to add are carefully distiaguished. In every case I have been most particular to preserve the exact meaning of the author, even to the minutest shade. The only other alterations are the omission of Youatt's description of the Chillingham cattle from the account of that herd, and the relegation of the history of Turnbull from the text to an Appendix. These seemed justified, the first by the sufficiency of detail with which the Chillingham herd is already treated; the second by its being largely episodical. For the headings of the chapters I am responsible, with the advice and assist- ance of the publishers ; to whose co-operation, indeed, I am largely indebted in the task of preparing the book for the press. It remains only for me to thank, in my father's name — as he would have done, I am sure, far more amply and in detail if he had been living — all those who assisted him in procuring information. These were very numerous, and include persons of almost every rank in life, and of a great variety of occupa- tions. Some — ^indeed many — were particularly kind, and took very great trouble in helping my father to obtain that large amoimt of detailed information, with- out which his researches must have been to a great extent without result. John Storee. AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION. There exist now, and there have existed in this country from the earliest historic times, herds of White Cattle, perfectly distinct, and of a different breed from its ordinary domestic races. Some of these herds seem to have been always wild, some more or less domes- ticated, and in other respects also they somewhat varied — as might have been expected, living as they did in locaHties far apart, and subjected as they were to various modes of treatment. But in colour they were everywhere alike, and everywhere different from others ; and though among domestic animals nothing is so fleeting and variable as colour, yet even among these a persisteincy of the same tiut during long ages clearly indicates the antiquity of the race. How much more is this true when not only, as in the case of the White Cattle, the same general colour has been preserved under the most adverse circumstances, but when small and oftentimes unobserved minutiae of secondary markings have everywhere distinguished them. While, then, a few of our wild white herds of cattle, and some memory of others recently extinct, remaia, let me, though incompetent in many respects to under- take so arduous a task, call attention to these rmst ancient races — races preserving in Great Britain alone, in some degree, their former character, and to which, 1 XTi AUTHOR'S mTBODUCTIOK feel confident, many if not all of our modem breeds of cattle owe to some extent their present value and improvement. In another generation it will perhaps be too late to attempt this ; on the Continent the oppor- tunity is long since past. In this country also many herds have died out, and the memory of them is rapidly vanishing; while the aggressiveness of the nineteenth century, of modem ideas of breeding incompatible with the nature of things, or neglect, are only too likely to tell on those which still remain. In the time of Bewick, fifteen years less than a century ago, these white herds, once very numerous, as Bewick himself affirms, were reduced, according to his account, to five : two others, of which he gives a brief description, having become extinct a few years before that time. Of these five herds which he mentions, three have come to an end within the present century, and another is in a, state by no means flourishiug. I hope, however, to show that there were in the time of Bewick other herds of the White Cattle in existence; now, day by day, those which yet remain decrease in number, and even the owners of the few survivors are in some cases little aware of the antiquity of their herds. It is high time then that public attention should be called to these interesting relics of past times, before it is too late. It seems, indeed, remarkable that such races have survived so long as they have ; for their colour is disliked by almost aU British breeders, even in the central por- tions of the island; while in the remoter parts — in Sussex, Devon, "Wales, and the Highlands of Scotland — to extirpate every vestige of white in their cattle has been the fashion amongst the inhabitants for ages ; and in Ireland a white bull is — as indeed he would be in most AUTH0W8 INTBOBUOTIOK xvi? parts of England or Scotland in the present day — nearly or quite unsaleable. The white herds could not have held their own, as they have done, in spite of this mass of prejudice, had they not possessed the prestige of great antiquity, and been derived from a race long con- sidered of superior value to all others. Old traditions clustered round them, and gave them an unique value and interest in the eyes both of their few and usually rich owners, and of the people of the neighbourhoods in which they were kept. Bewick was a ^Northumbrian, and weU acquainted with the Chillingham herd. He was a wood-engraver, living at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and in spirit combined with truthfulness his engravings of aniinals have never been surpassed ; he was also a clever and enthusiastic naturalist. In 1790 he published his " General History of Quadrupeds," illustrated by his own engravings. His statement in that work is as foUows : — " There was formerly a very singular species of WUd Cattle in this country, which is now nearly extinct. Numerous herds of them were kept in several parks in England , and Scotland, but they have been destroyed by various means J and the only breeds now remaining in the kingdom are in the park at Chillingham Castle, in Northumberland; at Wollaton, in Nottinghamshire, the seat of' Lord Middleton ; at Gisbume, in Craven, in Yorkshire ; at Limehall, in Cheshire ; and at Chartley, in Staffordshire." In addition, he mentions the herds at Btirton Constable and Drumlanrig, then recently extinct. In this account Bewick does not allude to the Hamilton herd, now so well known, possibly for reasons which I shall afterwards consider. Nor does he take any XTiii AUTEOB'8 INTBODUGTION. notice — ^it may be because they were no longer wild — of cattle resembling them in form and colour, which were then not uncommon ia several parts of England, Wales, and Scotland; though the similarity of their descent to that of some of the wild herds was not only strongly indicated by their own character and appearance, but in certaiu instances was confirmed by their history. The universal colour of these herds was white; in general pure, approximating, however, in a few instances, io cream-colour, hni with certain points otherwise coloured, and these points generally black. The tips of the horns, the muzzle, -the circle round the eyes, the hoofs, were in all the herds black ; in some the extremity of the taU was of the same colour ; while the ears in all were either black or brownish-red inside, and wholly or partially of the same colour outside the ear also. In most of them the front part of the fetlock, particularly of the fpre-legs, was marked with black, and in all there were a few black hairs on the leg, a httle above the hoof. In all of them, too, there was I believe a tendency, more or less slight, to produce small black or bluish- black spots on the neck, and even sometimes on the body. All were subject to occasional variations. In- dividuals were bom, though somewhat rarely, with more than the average amount of white on the horns, ears, about the eyes, on the muzzle and hoofs, or on some of these parts; and in some, black, or black-and- white calves now and then appeared : but these last were always destroyed when young, in order to preserve the original characteristics of the herd. In aU cases and in all parts, dozens of witnessesy. living far distant from each other, have testified to the. AUTEOB'8 INTBOBUOTION. xij superior quality of the beef of the Wild Cattle, as being in flavour and excellence far more delicious than that of any other breed. Where partially domesticated, they were generally found most valuable in consequence of their milking powers ; and there are sufficient indi- cations to lead us to believe that they were formerly of large size. It may seem somewhat strange to people now, con- sidering that White Cattle are stiU seen very frequently, to assert that the herds of that colour, which can be traced to a very high antiquity, are to be regarded, on account of their being of that colour, as of a peculiar race. Yet history plainly indicates that in Grxeat Britain this was in reality the case. Ancient laws and allusions show us clearly that the white cow or bull, with red or black ears, was preferred to all others. This was the breed especially selected by great men and religious bodies to retain — ^much more frequently than now — in their en- closed domains ; and we cannot for an instant doubt that it was so selected on account of its superior value, or that its distinctiveness and peculiarity of colour with reference to other breeds was formerly much more highly prized than it is in the present day. The greater part of these herds — ^and especially those belonging to the monasteries — ^became fused with the ordinary cattle of the country some three himdred years ago; and even where this was not the case, their improving influence was probably considerable. In the following pages the reasons for and the nature of this influence will be attempted to be shown. The origin of the British White Cattle is obscure. On the one hand, local tradition, in many parts of the country far separated from each other, declares some of xs AUTEOB'S INTBODUCTIOK them at least to be of the aboriginal wild breed of the British forests — an opinion supported by some historical statements and some osteological examinations. On the other hand, the recent inquiries of certain eminent scientific men have led them to doubt the truth of this, and to believe that these cattle were more recently, though anciently, imported from abroad. My own opinion is not disguised, but is not, I hope, too dog- matically expressed. The whole subject is at present involved in doubt, and not ripe for an absolute solution. Much further research and investigation are, I think, required ; and my principal business seems to be to throw light both on the present and the past, and thus to give some assistance to others more competent than myself towards arriving at a satisfactory conclusion. *,* A portion of this Work has appeared in The live Stock Journal, to which paper the Ser. John Storer vraa a, frequent contribntor, nnder the nam de plume of " Eistoricns." THE WILD WHITE GATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. CHAPTEE I. Origin of Cattle — ^European Eaces of Cattle— Fossil Species — Small Celtic Ox probably descended from £os Zongifrons — The larger Eaces from ,£os Unit — ^Historical Notices of the TTrus. Before I proceed to describe the British Wild White Cattle as they now exist, it seems desirable to state what is known of their origin and history. The European cattle — generally included under the name Bos taurus — as a whole differ much in structure, habits, and osteological formation from the humped kinds which Inhabit tropical countries — called in India Zebus, and to which the name of Bos Indicus has been given. Mr. Darwin * comes to the conclusion, that " there can hardly be a doubt, notwithstanding the adverse opinion of some naturahsts, that the humped and non-humped cattle must be ranked as specifically distinct." To this it must be added that most existing European cattle are supposed to de&cend from some one or more of the " two or three species or forms of Bos, closely allied to living domestic races, which have been found fossil in the more recent tertiary deposits of Europe." These were, it is * For this tmd the following quotations, see Darvrin's " Animals and Plants under DomesticatioB,*' toI. i., chap. ill. B 2 WILD WEITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. presumed, distinct species, for " they co-existed in different parts of Europe during the same period, and yet kept distinct. Their domesticated descendants, on the other hand, if not separated, cross with the utmost jfreedom, and become commingled." Following Darwin, who himself foUows Nilsson and Eiitimeyer, we find that the two principal fossil species, and those from which all our British cattle probably descend, were : — (1) Bos urus {antiquorum), or Bos primi- genius {recentiorum) — a colossal ox, with enormous horns, larger than those of any known domestic race ; these, near the roots, were directed outward and somewhat back- ward, in the middle they were bent forward, and towards the points turned a little upward. They were generally round, the diameter of them varying very sKghtly in whatever direction taken. The forehead was concave, the edge of the neck straight. (2) Bos longifrons (alias Brachyceros) — ^the small Celtic short-horned ox. The following description of it is partly taken from Professor Nilsson,* partly from my own observations: — The forehead, somewhat flat, has a very promiaent ridge standing up along the middle, and a smaller indenting backwards ; the horns are much flattened and compressed, small, and directed outwardly upwards, and bent in one direction forwards. From the slender make of its bones, its body must rather have resembled that of a deer than our common tame ox ; its legs at the extremities are certainly shorter and also thinner than those of a crown deer (fuU-antlered stag). The skull is long and narrow, even more so than that of a deer. The rest of the * Paper on " The Exidnct and Existing Bovine Animals of Scandinavia," by. Professor Nilsson, of Lund, in Awa. wnd Mctg. of Nat. Mist, vol. ii.^ Second Series. FOSSIL EUROPEAN OXEN. 3 skeleton is much like that of the tame ox, but each bone^ in proportion to the length, more slender and thin. Two other species of fossil European oxen might be mentioned; but of these the most important — Bos frontosm of Nilsson, a race larger than Bos lonffifrons, and regarded as allied to it, though in the opinion of some good judges it is a distinct species — appears to have been little known in Britain, though co-existing in Scania with its allied variety. The other, Bos trocho- ceros, is now considered by Eiitimeyer to be the female of an early domesticated form of Bos primigenius, and as the progenitor of the frontosm race. Specific names have also been given to four others, which are now beHeved to be identical with Bos primigenius. Prom the above fossil species most of the European races of cattle undoubtedly descend, more or less directly. In many instances, however, they have been produced by the commingling of more than one species, while climate and the selection of man have contributed to produce further modifications. And another considera- tion' stiU further complicates the subject. " Although certain races of cattle, domesticated at a very ancient period in Europe, are the descendants of the above- named fossU species, yet it does not follow that they were here first domesticated." * All recent discoveries seem to establish the fact, long since believed, that in the course of long ages, successive tribes of men — Iberians, Sc3rthians, Celts, Teutons — following and superseding each other like the waves of the sea, came from the East to "Western Europe, and, like the Israelites when they left the land of Egypt, brought their cattle — their richest possession — ^with them. Philology has * Darwin : " Animals and Plants," vol. i., chap. iii. b2 ■4 WILD WEITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. been called in to support this view ; but as Mr. Darwin thinks, inconclusively ; for he conceives these tribes would naturally give to the cattle of their adopted country the same names they had given to those they left behind them; Still the fact remains, that simul- taneously with new races of men new breeds of cattle appeared, and that our domestic races were in some degree affected by them. More extended inquiries on this point may possibly hereafter throw some light upon the ^migrations of man himself. But passing over the comparatively unknown, we come to historic times, dating, as respects Britain at least, from the first landing of Caesar in the year 55 before the Christian era. Long before that, nevertheless, as is now abundantly proved, the gigantic Bos urus and the Bos longifrom also had, in common with various other wild animals, inhabited its forests and its marshes, and perhaps been the food of its then barbarous people. But ages had passed since that remote epoch, and when Caesar came he found here, as in Gaul, a Celtic civilisation, to which a Eoman historian (and the his- torians of the time were all Eoman) was scarcely com- petent to do justice. This Celtic civilisation, from whatever source derived — ^partly, in all likelihood, from the Phoenicians, but certainly from the East — at whose head were the Druids, and whose metropolis was Britain, was suppressed by the Eoman conquests both here and in Gaul, but finally culminated some centuries later in Ireland, which had never been enthralled beneath the Eoman yoke. To Celtic civilisation historians even yet have scarcely done full justice ; but even Caesar alludes to it not obscurely. He saw indeed very little of the interior, the inhabitants of which he describes as not TEH CELTIC OX. 5 cultivating tlie land, but subsisting upon milk and flesh and clothed with, the skins of animals, while the mari- time parts had attained to a higher culture. But of the whole he says that " the multitude of inhabitants was infinite, the edifices most frequent, and the number of the cattle great." * These cattle were the small Celtic £os longifrons. Careful examinations made by scientific men of the remains found in refuse heaps, in caves, and elsewhere, seem to show, so far as has yet been ascertained, that this was the only domesticated ox of the ancient Britons, and that it was this variety which subsequently, during the Eoman occupation of Britain, supplied with beef its Eomanised inhabitants, and also the Eoman legionaries. This small, deer-like ox, as Nilsson has described it, was then everywhere present in a domesticated state. It is supposed to have been of a dark colour : for so generally were its known descendants; and so also was apparently the stUl re-, maining hair upon a very perfect skull of this animal found in the year 1846 in an Irish bog. This specimen, which has both the horns themselves, and also a part of the skin with the hair, attached, seems to show that the creature had a rough shaggy hide, like the Highland kyloes. But a terrible change came, and Eome, obliged to withdraw her legions for her own protection, left her Eomano-Celtic subjects to protect themselves against the devastating raids of the Picts and Scots. The Britons called to their aid the various Teutonic tribes, predatory and fierce, who, then inhabiting the opposite shores of Jutland, Holstein, and Friesland, have * "De BeUo Gall.," Ub. t., cc. 12, 14. 6 WILD WRITE GATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. since passed by tlie generic name of English.. The ally became the conqueror, and ruthlessly extirpated the en- feebled Celts. " Everything Eoman, everjrthing Christian, everything Celtic was the object of their hate ; " * "in the conquered districts the Brit- Welsh {i.e., the Eomano Celts) were either exterminated or enslaved." " The English invaders came over, with their wives and chil- dren and household stuff: " nor only with their families and goods, but, as Mr. Boyd Dawkins has ably shown, with their cattle also ; and these, supplemented by those of the Danes who followed, have ever since remained the cattle of our eastern and northern counties, where the Continental tribes landed in the greatest numbers. These were of the Bos urus type, though probably somewhat crossed. The Bos longifrons, the small Celtic ox, was driven, with his master the Celt, to remote and inac- cessible parts which the English could not reach ; and naturalists trace in the Highland kyloe and in the Welsh cattle (the Pembroke, however, being often excepted) its descendants. Youatt adds to these the Devon and the Sussex. In the former case, the deer-like form and extreme fineness of bone of the Devons ; their locality in the west, where many of the Brit- Welsh found a refuge ; and the circumstance that a black race of semi- wild cattle long h^ld its ground in Cornwall, render the supposition to a certain extent probable. And in the Sussex cattle a considerable resemblance may be traced to-the Devon^ but their greater size and substance, and stronger, not to say coarser bone, clearly indicate that, if originally of the same sort, they have been modified by crosses with a much larger race. This appears to have been also the case with some of the Devons themselves. * Boyd Dawkins : " Cave Hunting," chap, iii., p. 108. MODERN CELTIC BA0E8 OF CATTLE. 7 The Somersetshire variety is much, larger than the North Devon breed ; and the cattle of the South Hams are larger stiU, and evidently still more nearly related to the Sussex : yet they all belong to the same distinctive class. Differences of pasture and of climate have caused some divergencies; crossing with other breeds has perhaps contributed still more to produce them. It would seem that in North Devon, which the Brit-Welsh held latest against their English foes, the blood of their ox, the longifrons, is to be found most — ^though I think not altogether — pure ; for it is difficult to believe that so small and deer-like an animal could, upon cold and sparse pastures, with an inclement climate, and with very ordinary attention from man, as was for ages the case, have grown iato the small, yet larger. North Devon, unless it had received some cross. One circumstance only can I suggest as the cause of the uniformity, vary- ing as it does in some particulars, of the peculiar and distinctive domestic cattle of the southern counties. These counties belonged to a different tribe of men from those who possessed the rest of Britain — namely, the Belgae. They were fresher from the East than the Celts, and, just as the Belgae pressed on the rear of the Celts as far as the Seine, so they followed them into Britain and took possession of the "Pars maritima," or southern counties.* The unsettled con- dition of the country at the time of Caesar's invasion was probably due to the struggle then going on between Celts and Belgae. If, like other nomadic peoples, they brought with them their herds and flocks, might we not expect to find in these counties, from Kent to Cornwall, a distinctive breed of cattle? • Boyd DawMns : " Gave Hunting," ehap. tI, p. 224. 8 WILD WSITE CATTLE OF QEEAT BRITAIN. Migtt not even tlie Southdown sheep have owed its introduction to this invasion ? Here leaving for a time the small Celtic dark- coloured ox (£os longifroni), domesticated in Britain in Eoman and pre-Eoman times, we proceed to consder the history and the range of the much larger species, the Bos urus or primigenim. And this is the more impe- rative because it is quite certain that from this animal most at least of the ancient British herds of white cattle, whether wild or domesticated, derive their origin. For the Chillingham herd is undoubtedly one of the oldest and the finest of our ancient white wild herds, yet only shghtly varying from others ; and Professor Eriitimeyer, to whom Lord Tankerville sent a skull and various other parts of the skeleton, and who examined most carefully these remains, not only informed Mr. Darwin "that the Chillingham cattle are less altered from the true Primigenius type than any other known- breed," * but has published the same opinion in even yet stronger terms. Mr. Boyd Dawkins, too, who considers that cattle of the Urus type were re-introduced into Britain by the English subsequently to their first inva- sion in A.D. 449 (which is certainly true of their domesticated breeds), also believes that the Chillingham cattle are of this type, though doubting whether they have not since become feral, f A succinct account of the word Urus, by which this large species of Bos was known to ancient writprs, is given by Professor Low in his " Domesticated Animals." He says: " This animal was termed Urochs by the older Grermans, a word which is derived from JJr, a root * " ATiimala and Plants," vol. i., chap', iii., p. 81. t " Cave Hunting," chap, iii., pp. 77, 79. 90. TEE UBUS AND BISON DISTINCT. 9 common to many languages," tlie meaning of which is somewhat variously given. " The Grreek and Eoman writers employed the term Urus, either borrowed from the Teutonic or derived from the same root Ur, which entered into the composition of their own Tavpo<} and Taurus. Prom the same source are derived the Shur and Tur of the Hebrew and other languages of the East; and hence, too, the Thur of the Poles, the Tyr, Tyer, Stier, Steer, in the dialects of Northern Europe ; " and, according to Mr. Boyd Dawkins,* the same root occurs in the name of the gigantic ox of the table-land of Central India — ^the Gaur, Bos Gaurus. The names of various countries and places are said to be also derived from the same root ; while in the Runic alphabet of the Anglo-Saxons, corresponding in a great measure to the Scandinavian and the Grerman, words (as among the Hebrews, Greeks, &c.) being used to express letters, as Hagl (HaU) for H., Nead (Need) for N., the letter TJ is represented by Ur (Urus, or Wild Ox).t A considerable amount of trouble has been created in all ages by various writers confusing the Urus with the Bison, a contemporary animal, from which it is " easily differentiated by various anatomical characters."! This confusion has been increased by the similar Teutonic names given to each : the Urochs and the Aurochs. Tet the two are specifically distinct, and will not breed together; and while it is clear that domestic cattle have in every age sprung from the Urus, the Bison has never been subjugated by man. It only now exists in Europe in a forest of Lithuania, where * See Mr. Dawkins' paper on " British Fossil Oxen," Quarterly Jowmal Geol. Soc. London, vol. xm., 1866. t Tylor's " Early History of Mankind," p. 103. X See Mr. Dawkins' paper as aboTe. 10 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. it is protected by the Eussian GrOTemment. A similar confusion has often arisen between the TJrus and the Buffalo {Bos bubcdm), which was introduced into Europe as a beast of burden from the East. It seems, too, a pity that some modern naturalists have given to the Bos urus the designation of Bos primigenius, thereby causing unnecessary difficulty to those unacquainted with the subject, by altering the name by which he was known to ancient, mediaeval, and many modem writers. However and whenever the TJrus was first introduced to Europe — -a question outside the scope of this work — in the Pleistocene age it was everywhere abundant as a wild animal, both on the Continent and in the British Isles; and in later, though pre-historic times, it still existed in both — as its fossil remains everywhere testify — though perhaps more sparingly in Britain. And what- ever may be the case in this country, where authentic history began at a much later period than it did in the East and in Southern Europe, on the Continent the Urus was well known during the historic era. Every- where through what may be called Central Europe we find this gigantic ox wild. Mount Hsemus, the Car- pathians running through the middle of Europe, and the Hyrcinian Forest, stretching from these almost through Germany, and connecting them with other mountain ranges, were his favourite haunts; from Scythia, Sarmatia, and the Black Sea, to Denmark and the shores of the Northern Ocean, everywhere we find him. During the later stone age, in the shell-mounds or kjokken - moddinger (kitchen - middens), consisting chiefly of immense heaps of refuse shells, left on the shores of nearly all the Danish islands by the Danish PBB-EISTOBIG TBAGE8 OF TEE iMUS. 11 aborigines, "the remains of the wild bull {Bos urus, Linn.; Bos primigenius, Bojanus) " are found, " in such numbers as to prove that the species was a favourite food of that ancient people." " Professor Riitimeyer, of Basle, has shown that among the remains of wUdi, animals dredged up from the ancient Swiss lake dwell- ings, built on piles in the shallow parts of many Swiss lakes, there are those of the wild bull." It is also " beyond question that, towards the close of the stone and beginning of the bronze period, the lake dwellers had succeeded in taming that formidable brute, the Bos primigenius, the Urus of Caesar." " In a tame state its bones were somewhat less massive and heavy, and its horns somewhat smaller than in wild individuals. Still, in its domesticated form, it rivalled in dimensions the largest living cattle, those of Priesland in North HoUand, for example. "When most abundant it had nearly superseded the smaller race."* My readers will not fail to observe the speedy change which in some respects was produced in the wild bull by domestication. "When we advance further, and come to historic times, we find frequent notices of the Urus, or wild bull. Herodotus, writing about 400 B.C., tells us that when the army of Xerxes was passing through a part of Paeonia and Crestonia, which lay between Southern Thrace and Macedonia, and indeed formed part of the latter, the country abounded with wild bulls; which must have been animals of great power, for the same country jvas infested by lions so ferocious that they * The above quotations aie all taken from Sir C. Lyell's " Antiqtdty of Man," 4tli edition, 1873, chap, ii., where will be found fuller in- formation on this interesting subject. 12 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. attacked at niglit the camels carrying tlie provisions of the army.* And these wild bidls could not have been Bisons, but must have been Uri, the extraordinary size of their horns being clearly distinctive of the Urus ; for these, Herodotus says, were so large that they were in consequence exported to Hellas (Grreece). The existence of these wild bulls is confirmed by Hippo- crates,' a writer who shortly followed ; and, subsequently, Philip of Macedon is said to have himted and destroyed on Mount Orbela, in consequence of its devastations, a beast of this description, and to have hung up its spoils in the vestibule of the temple of Hercules. During the time of the Eoman Empire, which extended itself to the barbarous regions north of Italy and Grreece, (these barbarous regions being the native country of the Urus on the Continent), this animal was well known, and is mentioned by various , Latin writers too numerous to quote. Some of these, like Martial, called him, through ignorance, the Bubalus, or the Bison, when they really meant the TJrus. Others better informed, like Seneca, distinguished these cattle from others, and gave them their proper name of Uri:— " Tibi dant Tarise pectora tigres, Tibi villosi terga bisontes, Latisqiie feri comibus uri." But perhaps the best descriptions of the wild Urus are those given by Pliny and by Caesar. Pliny says : " Germany, coterminous with Scythia, produces two kinds of wild cattle: one, the Bison, distinguished by his mane ; the other, of excessive strength and swift- * Herodotus, lib. -vii., c. 124-6. See also Professor BawUnson's "Herod." vol. iv., p. 102,3. BI8T0MGAL NOTICES. 13 ness, the Urus, to which the ignorant vulgar give the name of Bubalus." And he says that " both of these animals were carried to Eome, and viewed by the people in the circus." StUl more explicit is the earlier account of Csesar, when describing the wild beasts of the Hyrcinian Forest, which then covered a large part of G-ermany, and connected the Gallic forests with those of the Carpathians and of Scythia. "The third kind of wild beasts is the one they call the Urus. Of such great size as to be little inferior to elephants, in general appearance, colour, and form they are bulls. Great is their strength, and great their swiftness ; and they spare neither man nor wild beast that comes within •their view. The Germans take and kill them in pitfalls, made with great care and trouble. Their young men inure themselves to this labour, and exercise themselves in this kind of hunting, and they who have killed the most, publicly produce the horns ia testimony of their exploits, and receive great praise. But it is impos- sible to accustom them to men and to tame them ; and to this even the very young ones are no exception. The great size, form, and heauty of their horns make them differ much from the horns of our oxen : these they collect with great care, and, surrounding the margin of them with silver, use them as cups at their largest banquets." It is rather singular that both Csesar and Pliny use the same words to characterise the Urus- — " vis et velo- citas " : strength and swiftness — and that they both use adjectives which intensify the expression. " Caesar's description has generally been accepted as the best ever given, and it accords entirely with all others which have any pretence to be authentic, except perhaps in one 14 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. respect. It is not likely that the adult TJrus of the Hyrcinian Forest would submit to be tamed; but so far as I am aware, there are none of the Taurine group which may not with care and attention be subjugated when young ; and this, as regards the Urus itself, the history of domestic cattle seems to show. It appears therefore pretty clear that on this point Csesar, who could never have tried the experiment himself, must have been mistaken ; as he certainly was in some more than doubtful statements which he made, possibly on hearsay evidence, with regard to other beasts in this same forest, supposed to be the Eeindeer and the Elk. In the troubled ages which accompanied and followed the decline and fall of the Eoman Empire the Urus still held his ground, though in decreasing nmnbers, as a wild janimal on the Continent of Europe. The martyr Saturninus was attached to the horns of a wild bidl and dragged to death at Toulouse, on the spot where after- wards one of the most ancient churches of G-aul was built, named du Taur. It is said that the Spanish bull- fights took their rise from the chase of this animal in the Pyrenees. The Urus is also mentioned as existing in the Vosges mountains, and in the Ardennes, and it was hunted by Charles the Great near Aachen.* It is spoken of in the Niebelungen lAed, where it is said about a hunting match in the woods near Worms — " Dar nach. schluch er schiere einen Wizent und einen Elch, Starcher Ure viere, und einen grimmen Schelch.'' " After this he slew straight a Bison and an Elk, Of the strong Uri four, and a fierce Schelch." * Still through the mediaeval period the £o8 urus lived, • Aix-la-Cliapelle. t Tlie meaning of this -word seems uncertain. EXTINGTION OF TEE WILD BULL. 15 but within much circumscribed limits — principally in Poland, Lithuania, and Muscovy, whose writers speak of it — ^tUl in the fifteenth or sixteenth century the wild bull became finally extinct in continental Europe. Having thus traced the JBos urus from early his- torical times throughout its European career, with the exception of Britain, I propose in the following chapter to make some remarks upon certain domestic races, its acknowledged or supposed descendants, with the view of ascertaining whether any and what resemblances, espe- cially of colour and character, exist between them and our own White Herds, traditionally believed to be also descended from it. CHAPTER n. AJlied Eaces of WMte Cattle — Prejudice against White unfotmded — Antiquity of the Colour — ^White preferred for religious Ceremonies and Festivals — White Cattle imported for such Purposes from the native Country of the XJrus — TSo Authority for the Opinion that the Urus was Black — The Augs- b.urg Picture — Apparent Connection between the Urus and various domestic Races of White Cattle — The Charolais Breed — ^The Frieslaud Ox — Holstein Cattle — Hungarian — Transylvanian — Cattle of the Russian Steppes— British Wild Cattle simUax in all important Characteristics — ^Allprohahly descended from the ancient TJrus. In entering upon tlie subject o£ wMte in cattle, espe- cially as regards domestic races, I am quite aware tliat I expose myself to many adverse opinions, for on tliis point " quoi homines, tot sentenfies ; " but it is a subject into wMcb I am compelled to enter, for its colour has always been the prime distinguishing characteristic of the white forest breed of Grreat Britain. That colour, retained universally, and for so long a time, plainly indicates its antiquity, and may perhaps give some clue to its origin. I fear I shaU shock the breeder, English, Scottish, or Welsh; for he for ages has been endeavouring to eradicate white, and to breed his cattle black, red, or only with so little white as may be necessary to produce a white face, or a body slightly flecked with this colour. From the Land's End to John o' Groat's, from Yarmouth to Haverfordwest — ^and you may cross over the Channel, and take Ireland too — ^the white cow is despised, and charged with delicacy ; yet here are these ancient British herds — some wild, some ORIGIN OF WBITE IN OATTLE. 17 domesticated — exposed to many hardships and vicissi- tudes of cold and tempestuous climates, but all hard as iron, vigorous, and — white. Some critics may object that the colours of animals are subject to great alterations when they are tamed and subdued by man, and may conclude from analogy that, as in the case of the dog, the cat, the pig, the rabbit, and others, the white cow is the product of domestication. It may indeed be so, but it would be dangerous to assume that the laws which affect certain domestic animals apply with equal force to all ; that the ox, for example, becomes subject to the same modifica- tions of structure and the same variations of colour as the rabbit. And besides, it should be remembered that white, or colours closely approximating thereto, are the natural colours of many wild animals. Mr. Darwin, writing on this particular subject, concludes that facts "show that there is a strong, though not invariable, tendency in wild or' escaped cattle, under widely different conditions of Ufe, to become white, with coloured ears ; "* and he enumerates various examples upon which he founds that opinion. If it is a correct, one it would seem to follow, that ,the British wild cattle, now kept in parks, but formerly ranging unconfined over extensive districts, are either the aboriginal descendants of the wild animal, which have never been subdued by man ; or that, once domesticated, they have long since become feral, reverted to the primitive type, and recovered the colour of the original Tsrild ancestor. In either case it would seem that the wild race from which they are derived must have been also white. » " Animals and Plants," vol. i., chap, iii., p. 85. 18 WILD. WHITE CATTLE OF QBE AT BRITAIN. Considering that there were formerly in this country numerous domestic herds of white cattle, dating their ex- istence from very early times, and distinct fi:om,yet nearly related to, those which were completely wild, the pre- dilection of the ancients for white cattle seems a curious coincidence. Everywhere these seem to have been con- sidered the most select, and in all ages the most valuable as sacrificial offerings on the altars of the gods. Among the ancient Egyptians, though Apis himself, their buU- god, was, it seems, principally black, yet it appears from Herodotus that the sacrificial cattle were obliged to be of the purest white. When a bull was made sacred, so that he might be offered to Epaphus or Apis, " a priest was appointed to examine the animal, both when it was standing up, and when it was cast. If he found a single black hair upon it he pronounced it to be un- clean." * It appears from " Jesse's Natural History." that the descendants of these cattle, a large, handsome white breed, stiU remain in Egypt. In India, which for thousands of years has preserved unaltered its religion, traditions, and habits, even now the white Brahmin buU, dedicated to Siva, roams at large protected from all injury ; and while the white elephant is the pride of the native princes in great state ceremonies, "the elegant carriages of the ladies of the court, covered with light gilded domes, from which hang silken curtains, pass along, drawn by white oxen,"f as they did in ages long since past. In Persia there were, we are told, a fine and * Herodotus, lib. ii., c. 38. Professor Eawlinson's " Herod.," vol. ii., p. 68. [In a note on this whicli Mr. Storer had probably not seen, Professor Rawliuson gives it as his opinion that vrhite was regarded as equally objectionable vrith black. He considers that the colour of this sacred bull was red. — Ed.] + " India and its Native Princes," by Louis Bous. ANCIENT VALUE OF WHITE CATTLE. 19 valued race of ancient white oxen ; and so devoted were the ancient Persians to the colour that the " sacred horses of the sun " were white. In countries far remote from the East, but deriving their religion and many of their customs thence, white- cattle were highly valued. Even in Britain (and this is a striking fact in the history of our white herds), the white bull was the sacred victim in one of the greatest religious ceremonies practised here before the Eoman conquest. Pliny tells us " that when that rare event occurred, the finding of the sacred mistletoe growing on the oak, the great festival began by bringing up to the tree which bore it two bulls of a white colour, which had never before been bound. The chief priest, clothed in a white raiment, then ascended the tree, and cut off with a golden knife the sacred treasure. It was received in a white cloth, and then the victims ready prepared below, the white bulls, were immolated with prayers to the Deity that he would make this, his own gift to the people, most prosperous." But if such was the value attached to the white ox by ancient nations, we might expect to hear more about him in the histories of countries then more central, and with which we are better acquainted, such as Greece and Eome. This is the case. It would be an unnecessary labour to fill these pages with too numerous quotations, but some references wiU be interesting. Varro tells us that the most usual colour among the cattle of Italy was black, then red, then dun or tawny (Aelvus), and the scarcest white, and he describes their several characteristics. He attributes the comparative scarcity of the white, which were evidently the most esteemed, to the great demand there was for them as c 2 20 WILD WEITE CATTLE OF GREAT BBITAJN. victims for altars of the gods ; for the Komans sacrificed white cattle to the celestial, black to the infernal deities, and the former were used also, as in the East, to adorn state processions and triumphs. Instances of both may be seen in Virgil. Mneas, prior to his descent into Tartarus, was recommended by the Sibyl to sacrifice black cattle to Hecate as an expiatory act — " Due nigras pecudes: ea prima piacula sunto." And accordingly he sacrificed four black buUocks, a black lamb, and a cow to her, and others of the infernal powers ; while in the " Georgics " Virgil indicates as plainly the value of the celebrated white herds of CUtumnus for sacrifices to the gods, and for the Eoman triumphs. " Hinc albi, Clitumne, greges, et maxima taums Victima, ssepe, tuo perfuti flumine sacro, Eomanos ad temipla De! O CATTLE OF TEE RUSSIAN STEPPES. 47 its scanty fare, we come to that wonderful country, tlie great Eussian steppe, the ancient Scythia and Sarmatia. Here, too, as in Hungary, represented by its modem semi-wild descendants, the £os urus still holds its own ; for the Cow of the Bussian Steppes nearly resembles both in character and in colour the Hungarian breed and our own white wild forest breed, as may be seen by the illustration from MM. Moll and Grayot's work. It was originally given in the work of M. Demidoff, entitled, " Voyage dans la Eussie Meridionale en 1841." It was painted from life by Eaffet, has been examined by scientijfic men, and by veterinary and other Eussian officers, who had occasion to see the cattle of the steppes, and all have pronounced it very exact. In that enormous territory there is great uniformity of colour. The calf, as in Hungary, is of a darker colour than its parents ; but as it grows up it assumes the characteristics of its race, which are light grey, common grey, dark grey, or mouse-coloured grey. The darker greys, however, rarely cover the whole animal, and are seldom seen except upon the neck and shoulders, the dewlap, and the tip of the tail. White seems to be the fundamental colour ; cattle housed for a time revert to it, and those which live out day and night, summer and winter, on their pastures, as the cattle of these immense steppes usually do, are a greyish white or a more ordinary grey. And on the whole M. Spinola affirms* that "though they present very varied tints, ranging from dirty white to grey more or less dark, the \^hite coat seems specially to characterise the animals of the race of the steppes at an adult age." And what is * MoU et Gayot, p. 676. 4S WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. true of the cattle of the steppes is true also of those of the Crimea, of Volhynia, Podolia, Moldavia, Bessarabia, and WaUachia, In all these extensive regions the cattle still preserve the grand characteristics of the race of the steppes, though in some cases slightly modified. Es- pecially they retain its ancient colour; and their likeness to the Chillingham cattle is apparent even to an ordinary observer. The Special Correspondent of the Daily News, in an article on "Servia and the War," published in that paper July 24th, 1876, remarks : — "On the Morava valley road [Servia], although we found no evidences of war, there was more tra£B.c than we had seen between Belgrade and Semendria. Long strings of bullock carts were passed or met, drawn by white oxen with black muzzles, the doubles, in all save ferocity, of the Chillingham cattle." And now let me briefly recapitulate. We have seen that the most select of the cattle of the ancients, and those especially which they considered sacred and used for the sacrifices of the gods, were white. In the best authenticated instance which remains to us, the Eoman importations from Thrace, I have endeavoured to show that these white Grrseco-Eoman cattle, coming from the country of the TJrus, were of the Urus type, and of the same character and colour as his present descendants in the same parts. We then sought for traces of the wild bull among the modem domestic races of Western Continental Europe. The search was fruitless ; war, pestilence, repeated crossings, and the admixture of races had, to a great extent, obliterated his vestiges. But turning eastwards, we there found numerous half- wild races, which in the opinion of naturalists, of eco- nomic writers, and of popular tradition, are of the WSITE BREEDS PBOBABLY ABOBIGINAL. 49 ancient type in form, colour, and other chaxacteristics, and tMs type, thougli so peculiar and distinct, stiU quite unaltered. "We return home, and we find in the ChUlingham, the Chartley, the Hamilton, and in others of our wild herds, the same colour, the same peculiarities of markings, the same distinctiveness of form and points ; everything the same, except that ours (owing to their less free and natural life) are, as Riiti- meyer after a careful osteological examination has remarked, a diminished copy of some of these kindred races. Surely we have gone far towards showing that both are aboriginal; in colour, as in other respects, hneal representatives, as tradition believes them both to be, of one common ancestor, and that ancestor the ancient TJrus. CHAPTEE in. The TTrus in Ancient Britain — FossU Bemains found in both the Stone and Bronze Ages — Likely to survive much later in the North — ^Early Notices of "Wild Cattle — Such Notices relate to Southern England — Extreme Wildness of the Northern Mountainous Districts — ^These Districts the last Home of British Wild AniTTialfl The question of the origin of the white races of cattle in Great Britain is much complicated by the circum- stance that they have existed in this country both as wild and as domesticated animals, and yet that in all cases they seem of the same variety. Another diflSculty is to obtain evidence upon the condition of things in remote times. Ancient historians give no description whatever of wild cattle, except in a few passing notices : and these, with few exceptions, are found only in authors who lived during the latter part of the mediaeval period. The same is true to a yet greater extent as respects our domestic cattle. The great question to be decided is, whether the white herds are to be considered aboriginal, in the usual sense of the term — that is, whether they originally came to this country as wild animals, and for all ages have so continued ; or whether they were, generations ago, introduced by man, many of them having since become feral. In one or other of these ways I feel no doubt that PBE-BISTOBIO BRITAIN. 51 they were clearly descended from the Bos primigenius, or Urus ; either by direct descent through wild animals from the wild bull ; or less directly, through domesti- cated cattle deriving their blood principally from him. This opinion has been doubted by some eminent men ; but it has been held by such high authorities as Eiitimeyer, Nilsson, Sir Charles LyeU, Boyd Dawkins, Darwin, and others ; and until a much more full and complete osteological examination takes place than has ever yet been made, I must be content to be led by these authorities, believing that on this side lies the great weight of scientific evidence. The strong resemblance in colour and character which has already been pointed out of the British white cattle to the Hungarian race and to that of the steppes of Eussia — undoubted descendants as these are of the wild Urus — appears also to be a strong point in favour of this view. When the Pleistocene period had passed, some, but by no means all, of the large animals which then in- habited Britain continued to make it still their abode — less in number, perhaps, and in many cases less in size. The gigantic elephants, the rhinoceri, and others, with many of the larger Camivora, disappeared; the Bos primigenius, the stag, and others remained, and the small Bos longifrons everywhere was numerous. Man, too, had appeared more decisively on the scene ; and the time arrived which scientific men have named " the pre- historic age," to distinguish it, on the one hand, from the more strictly geological epochs which preceded it, and on the other from " the historic age," the domain of bond fide history, which followed it. In Britain and in other northern countries, long savage and unknown, the historic age, of course, began thousands of years later E 2 52 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GBEAT BRITAIN. than it did in the East or on the Mediterranean shores, and therefore " the historic age " in this country is held to commence with the first invasion of Caesar, in the year 55 b.c. Caesar's statements respecting Britain and its inhabitants were the earliest dawn of British history ; but his knowledge of the country was at the best im- perfect, and confined to its southern coasts. It was not till the year of our Lord 43, when the Eomans, imder Aulus Plautius, again invaded and in part conquered it, that much was known about Britain; but we are content to take the year 55 b.c, when Caesar first invaded it, as the commencement of its historic age. In the meantime, what had become of the ancient £os primigeniiis, or Urus ? It existed, we know, in Britain in pre-historic times. With man of the palaeolithic or Older Stone Age, the Urus was, it will be I think admitted, contemporaneous. In the fluviatile deposits of the Thames valley, and in some other places, the remains of the two have been found together. A friend of mine* has a fine skull of the Urus, found in Cotten- ham Pen, the fractured bone of which clearly testifies that it was destroyed by a human weapon. Other instances occur in which the remains of the Urus have been found contemporaneous with man of the neolithic or Later Stone Age. For one such instance I refer to the admirable paper of Mr. Carter, in the " Geological Society's Magazine" for November, 1874, on the skull of the Urus pierced with the neolithic celt, and with the celt still remaining in the fracture, found in Burwell Fen, near Cambridge. The evidence of this • fact is overpowering, and the belief in the neolithic character * The Rev. Samuel Banks, Eector of Cottenham. REMAINS OF TEE VETJ8. 53 of the weapon is held by numerous and experienced palaeontologists who have examined it. The skull of the Urus has been found in Scotland in a moss, having in company with it bronze celts, which indicate a still later period — the Bronze Age. It has been found also in the " brochs," or " Picts' houses," which are believed to be of a still less ancient date. It is even said that in one case it was found pierced by a Roman spear ; but no trouble has been taken to verify or to invalidate such an all-important fact. Mr. Boyd Dawkins also states, in a letter to me, dated April, 1875, that he has found two cases, and two only, in the large accumulations of bones he has himself examined, of the Urus as existing in Britain during the pre-historic period: "the one being presented by those from the neolithic flint-pits of Cissbury, and the other by those from a tarn near Bury St. Edmunds, of the Bronze Age." Mr. Dawkins adds: " In both cases the animal was probably wild, and not domesticated. The Urus was extremely rare in the pre- historic deposits of Britain." Both these statements may be fuUy admitted. No discoveries have yet been made which can lead us to suppose that the Urus was domesticated in Britain in pre-historic times ; while the Bos longifrons, essentially " the Celtic ox," was every- where subjugated to and used by man. And it must be also apparent that if the Urus was then comparatively rare, even as a wild animal, the proofs we should have of his existence would also be relatively rare, and of liis being destroyed by man fewer still. It is, perhaps, wonderful that under these circumstances so much evidence has been obtained of the existence of the Urus in Southern Britain during a somewhat late pre-historic age. 54 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. I say in Soutliern Britain ; for it is not there, but in the extreme North of England and in Scotland, that I should expect to find the Urus longest holding his own. And in this opinion both Dr. John Alexander Smith, Vice-President of the Society of Antiquaries of Scot- land, and Professor Owen concur, one for historical, the other for osteological reasons, though they neither of them appear to think that either our domestic or our wild cattle were derived from this source. Dr. Smith, in his admirable paper entitled " Notes on the Ancient Cattle of Scotland," thus gives his own opinion and that of Professor Owen * : — " Here (that is, in Scotland) we have them in close relation to the bronze weapons of a possibly still later age, showing that these animals roamed in our forests and marshes, and were hunted by the inhabi- tants of these early times in at least our northern kingdom of Scotland. Professor Owen says, ' From the very recent character of the osseous substances in the remains of these cattle, it may be concluded that the Bos primigenius maintained its ground longest in Scotland before its final extinction.'" Dr.r Smith further on adds : " The remains, apparently allied to the great ox, found in the ruins of human dwellings of Caithness and Orkney, may perhaps be considered to bring its existence down to the times just preceding the invasion of the Norsemen in the North of Scotland, from about the sixth to the eighth or ninth centuries." The opinion of Dr. Smith, corroborated by that of Professor Owen, formed on quite different grounds, is, I * " Proceedings of Soc. of Antiqiuiries of Scotland," vol. ix., p. 645 (1873). LATE-B BEMAINS IN NOBTE BBITAIN. 55 think, conclusive ; but perhaps the time he names may be extended further. I do not see any evidence to prove that the Bos urus ceased to exist in Scotland even at the later period which Dr. Smith has assigned for its extinction. It is, I suggest, much more probable that it continued to live many centuries later, in the shape of those noble wild bulls and cows on which Scotland so much prided herself, and to whose extended range and remote anti- quity of origin the oldest traditions of many distant places and the statements of many old and authentic writers bear the strongest testimony. So far as they go, however, these opinions are much in favour of my argument ; and if true, they altogether neutraHse the opinions of some English geologists, who, judging as I think somewhat too exclusively from the remains found in the refuse-heaps, caves, and river gravels of Southern and Central Britain, have come to the conclusion that the Bos urus became extinct throughout the whole island in pre-historic times. There seems to be much probability, though it can scarcely be considered abso- lutely proved, that such was the case in the southern parts of Britain ; but I think it has yet to be shown that in the northern parts the same rule prevailed : especially as I believe that the Caledonian deposits more particularly — ^partly, perhaps, from their remote positions — ^have in but few instances been examined with that consummate skill, care, and attention which southern discoveries have received. -Some local anti^ quary — ^in many cases one imperfectly acquainted with the subject — often teUs us all we know about the former, while crowds of able and-s.cientifie men investigate the latter. 56 WILD WHITB CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. Having traced so far the Bos primigenius, or Urus, as he existed in ' the earliest times in this country, I will now revert to the White wild forest breed of cattle, and state what is known respecting their ancient history and the localities they inhabited, in the hope of throwing some further light upon their origin. In treating this part of the subject, I propose to relate first what concerns the purely wild variety, deferring till afterwards the notices we have of domestic or partially domesticated white herds nearly allied to the wild. Perhaps the earliest notice we have of the existence of wild cattle in Saxon times is contained in the cele- brated traditionary legend of the slaughter of the wild cow by Guy, Earl of Warwick, which is said to have taken place (and Leland confirms this supposed date in his " Itinerary," written about 340 years since) " in the dayes of King Athelstan," who ascended the throne A.D. 925, and died a.d. 941. The ancient ballad entitled " Sir Gruy of Warwick " will be found in Eitson's " Ancient Songs and Ballads," and it was, he informs us, " entered on the Stationers' Books " (though imdoubtedly much older) in 1691, I give only that part of the ballad which relates to this particular event : — Stanza 3. " Nine himdred twenty years and odd. After our Saviour Christ his birth, When Xing Athelstan wore the crown, I lived here upon the earth." Stanza 12. " In Windsor forest I did slay A boar of passing weight and strength," &c. THE COW OF BUN8M0BE EEATH. 57 Stanza 14. " On Dunsmore lieath I also slew A monstrous wild and cruel beast, Called the dun cow of Dunsmore heath, Which many people had oppressed," &o. The ballad proceeds to state that some of the bones of both boar and cow still lie in the Castle of Warwick, but one of the boar's " shield bones " " Hangs in the city of Coventry." I am quite willing to allow that much of this stor j may be mythical, and many of its circumstances fabulous- That matters not to my argument, which only requires tiiis to be conceded : that the memory of the wild boar and the wild cow existed at a very early period in this country, and that local traditions and histories clustered round them. Had the animals been themselves suppo- sititious, like the dragon, the case would have been altogether different; but as it is, I take it to prove just as clearly the existence in very ancient times of the dangerous and ferocious wild cow as the popular ballads about Eobin Hood prove the existence of fallow deer in Sherwood Forest in the time of King John : as clearly as the possibly exaggerated strains of some Eastern poet, recapitulating in extravagant terms the hunting exploits of the Prince of Wales in India, may prove centuries hence to the then perhaps regenerated Orientals that their country once had pathless jungles infested by elephants and man-devouring tigers. " It proves," say the learned editors of the English trans- lation of Cuvier's " Eegne Animal," " that in the tenth century such actions were still in the memory of the people, if not actually common."* • Griffith's " CuTier," vol. iv., p. 416, 58 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. Dunsmore Heath was in those days a wild and large moor, ia a heavily-wooded district, and close to the small town of Dunchurch ; it extended over numerous parishes, and three of them are yet called Bourton- upon-Dunsmore, Stretton-upon-Dunsmore, and Eyton- upon-Dunsmore. There is no reason to suppose that the colour of the cow was "dun." That prefix has evidently become attached to her name because she was the Dunsmore cow; exactly as the celebrated cow which was said to have miraculously determined the site of Durham Cathedral, being found in: the " Dun Holme," a pasture of that name, was afterwards known as the " dun. cow." There is some reason (to which I shall afterwards allude) for conjecturing that the wild cow of Dunsmore may have been white. In very early English history we have wild bulls several times mentioned. In King Cnut's " Consti- tutiones de Foresta " there is a passage as follows : * — " There are also very many other animals, which, though they live within the enclosure of the forest, can nevertheless not be considered as belonging to the forest, such as Bubali, cows, and the like." " Bubali " — ^literally, buffaloes, which never existed in England — is considered to mean wild bulls, in which sense it is frequently used by Roman authors. There is nothing to show whether or not these bulls were white : perhaps not; they appear to be what YirgH calls "tauri syl- vestres," half-wild domesticated cattle. Speaking of a time somewhat later, Matthew Paris, in his " Lives of the Abbots of St. Albans, " says, with regard to Leofstan, abbot in the time of Edward the * Spelman's " Glossary," p. 241 ; and Thorpe's " Ancient Laws of England," 8to, vol. i., p. 429, chap, zxxii. WILD CATTLE ROUND ANCIENT LONDON. 59 Confessor : " He caused to be cut open the thick woods which extended from the edge of Ciltria (the Chiltems) nearly up to London, from the northern part where chiefly runs the royal road called Watling Street — ^the rough places to be smoothed, bridges to be built, and the rugged roads levelled and made more safe. For at that time there abounded throughout the whole of Ciltria spacious woods, thick and large, the habitation of numerous and various beasts, wolves, boars, forest bulls, and stags." * Though the name here is the same as I have quoted above — tauri sylvestres — I hesitate to attach to it the same meaning ; being placed in the middle of a list of wild animals, we must presume that these bulls were actually wild. The same is, I think, true with respect to the mention of the same sort of bulls {tauri sylvestres) by ritz-Stephen, who, writing about the year 1174, thus describes the country immediately beyond the suburbs of London : — " Close at hand lies an immense forest, woody ranges, hiding-places of wUd beasts, of stags, of fallow deer, of boars, and of forest buUs." This passage farther explains the preceding one ; for this was a part, now represented by Enfield Chase, of the great forests of the ChUtem districts, in which the Saxon chieftains, aided by some of the citizens of London, long held out against the Norman conqueror, xmder the countenance of Abbot Fretheric; and the Charter of Henry I. recognises the right of the citizens of London to hunt not only in Chiltem, but in Middlesex and Surrey, I therefore place the * For macli of the foregoing I am indebted to two papers by " K. T.,'' iu "Annals of Natural History:" the first, toL iii, 1839; the second, ToL iv., 2nd series, 18419. 60 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GEE AT BRITAIN. Chiltern " forest bull " and this Middlesex one in the same category. They were, according to Titz-Stephen, who was contemporary with them, " wild beasts," and, as such, classed with wolves, boars, stags, and fallow deer ; and we thus have for more than 200 years, from the time of Edward the Confessor to that of Henry II., the extensive forests of Buckinghamshire, Hertford- shire, and Middlesex full of wild bulls — " ahundabunt abundanter." I will not say that they were white ones, though they may have been ; that question must be left an open one. But surely, when what I have described was the state of things just outside the gates of London, we must hesitate long before we assert dogmatically that the Urus himself may not have still existed in the ten times larger, wilder, and more remote forests, moors, and mosses of the north. It is only by the merest accident that we have obtained, from the casual allusions of two ancient writers, these particulars with regard to the neighbourhood of London itself; but what historian shall tell us how it fared with the wUd bull in the eleventh or twelfth century amid the Grampians and the Cheviots ? To that northern land we must now travel, and try to find the wild bull in his mountain home. But first it is necessary that we should clearly point out where that home was. Commencing a few miles north of the river Trent, there runs, in a continuous line northwards, a long range of mountains, which are the very back- bone of Northern England and Southern Scotland, to which, from their resemblance to the similarly situated line of mountains which runs through Italy, Camden (whose " Britannia" was first published in 1586, nearly 300 years since) gives the name of "The English "THE BRITISH APENNINES." 61 Apennines," * a name which, has been adopted by many other writers. This extended range of hills and mountains divides the North of England into two distinct sections ; and though, when it gets to the Cheviots and the South of Scotland, it sends out spurs in all directions, and so covers much more of the central parts of the country, yet the same is the case there also. Throughout it is the great water-shed ; all the rivers and streams which empty themselves on the one side into the North Sea, on the other into the Irish Channel and. the Atlantic, have their source in its recesses. It was for ages the boundary line between rival and hostile kingdoms, separating, during a great part of the Saxon period, along the whole of its long liae, the great Saxon and Danish kingdom of North- umbria, which stretched from this Humber to the Frith of Forth, from the Eomano-Celtic kingdom of Strath- clyde, extending from the Dee to the Clyde, to which it formed a natural protection. "The tide," says Boyd Dawkins, " of English colonisation rolled steadily west- ward, until, at the close of the sixth century, the hilly and impassable districts culminating in the Pennine chain, and extending southwards from Cumberland and Westmoreland, through Yorkshire and Derbyshire, formed the barrier between the Brit- Welsh kingdoms of Ehnet and Strathclyde on the. east, and the English on the west." f Even the very powerful king Othel- frith of Northumbria, at the beginning of the seventh century, did not dare to face this formidable barrier, but led his forces round and to the south of it. "He marched along the line of the Trent, through Stafford- * Gibson's Edition of Camden's " Britannia," vol. ii., p. 127. t " Cave Hunting," chap, iii., pp. 108, 109. 62 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BBITJIN. shire, avoiding thereby the difficult and easily defended country of Derbyshire and East Lancashire," in order to destroy the power of Strathclyde. Wild, and rugged, and sparsely peopled as many parts of this huge mountain chain are now, few people realise what it was in Saxon and early Norman times. Commencing in the northern part of Staffiardshire, running up through Derbyshire and part of Cheshire, dividing Yorkshire from Lancashire, and embracing a good deal of both, it widened out and included the moxmtains and fells of Cumberland and Westmoreland, and much of Northumberland too. Joining there the great Cheviot range, it spread nearly from sea to sea, and entering Scotland, sent out in all directions numerous spurs, under the protection of which nestled half the southern Scottish counties, tiU it finally terminated at the Clyde, the vaUey of which is the only break for so great a distance in this long-con- tinuing, elevated chain. Even that is but a short one : for rising again upon the other side, passing near Stirling, connected with the western Highlands, and containing Ben Lomond in its centre, it traversed Breadalbane and became incorporated with the Grrampians, those gigantic mountains which spread across Scotland from east to west. There, in the vast congeries of the central Highlands, the British Apennines are for a while lost, merged in the enormous mass of those eternal hills; till breaking out again at last north of Boss, they proceed northwards, and, passing through Cromarty and Suther- land, terminate at Cape Wrath. From this cape to the centre of Staffordshire, if you draw a straight line, it measures in length more than 400 miles; but this mountain chain is even longer, for once at least, in the EXTENT OF ANCIENT F0BE8T8. 63 soutliern part of Scotland, it makes a considerable bend, forming tbe segment of a circle. In the central English counties it is from twenty to forty miles in width, but it expands as it proceeds northwards. It is m.uch broader as it traverses our northern counties, and when it arrives in Scotland, and has the Cheviots as its right arm, it is a hundred miles in breadth. It narrows again somewhat when it approaches the river Clyde, but rapidly widening again, embraces the whole of the northern Highlands, at least a hundred miles in width at their broadest part. It includes within its range all the highest mountains in Britain, and, with the ex- ception of those of Wales and Devonshire, almost aU the secondary ones. But I have only described the mere skeleton of this rocky district, which forms the backbone of our island through two-thirds of its length. In ancient times its large area — ^much of it even now in a very wild state — was one enormous mass of mountains, deep and wild glens, forests, moors, and morasses intermixed. These last often extended into the lower country, far beyond the limits I have named. Nothing we have now left can give us any idea of the state of things then : not the moors of North Derbyshire, West Yorkshire, and Lanca- shire, the wUd wastes of Westmoreland, Cumberland, and Northumberland, nor even the extensive deer forests and moors of the Scottish Highlands ; for the pathless woods which then covered a great part of these districts are all gone, and so also are the thick forests which, out- side of, but connected with them, skirted these higher grounds. The advance of man and the progress of cul- tivation has destroyed most of these wild woods ; but it was not so in late Saxon or in early Norman times. 64 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BEITAIN. Even in the less hilly districts more than half the country was one vast forest, and in the north at least these forests flanked the mountaia ranges, extending their wild influence, and, at the same time, rendering them more inaccessible and wilder stUl. We have seen already how, between the tenth and twelfth centuries, great forests came up to the gates of London. A slight sketch — and it must be one both slight and imperfect at the best — ^may perhaps give some faint idea of the savage state in which the central and northern parts of the island of Britain then remained. Even in the very centre of England, where this Apennine range ended, enormous forests clustered roimd its southern point. Two-thirds, or nearly, of the county of Stafford, in which it commences, was, even in re- latively modern times, either moorlands or woodlands. The northern part, going nearly up to Buxton, was the first ; the central and eastern part the last. Harwood,* in his edition of " Erdeswick's Survey of Staffordshire," quotes from Sir Simon Degge, who says : " The moor- lands are the more northerly mountainous part of the county lying betwixt Dove and Trent ; the woodlands are the more southerly level part of the county. Be- tween the aforesaid rivers, including Needwood Forest, with all its parks, are also the parks of Wichnor; Chartley, Horecross, Bagots, Loxley,f and Paynesley,{ * Erdeswick began his " Survey " in 1593. Sir Simon Degge was bom in 1612, became Sheriff of Derbyshire in 1673, and died in 1702. t Loxley is said to have been the birthplace of Bobin Hood, who was often called by the name of his native place — ^a thing not uncommon in those days. It belonged to the Ferrers family. Tutbury, where he is said to have courted and married a shepherdess, is not far distant in the same neijrhbonrhood. t Several others, and particularly Blithefield, might have bees added. EXTENT OF ANCIENT F0BE8TS. 65 wMch anciently were all tut as one wood, that gave it tlie name of Woodlands." Leland, about 1536, though he speaks of the woods being then much reduced, con- firms this, and even carries this country of woods farther south. He says : "Of antient tyme all the quarters of the country about Lichefeild were forrest and wild ground." * That would, I believe, bring the Stafford- shire woodlands close up to the purlieus of Chamwood Forest, in Leicestershire. Nor is this aU ; only about three miles north-west of Lichfield commences Cannock Chase, with its parks as numerous and extensive as those of Needwood, from which it was separated only by the River Trent. This Chase, even at a quite recent period, was "said to contain 36,000 acres;" t while "in Queen Elizabeth's time Needwood Forest was twenty- four miles in circumference." J They were both cele- brated for their oaks and hollies, those in Needwood alone, in 1658, when it had been much limited in extent and denuded of its timber, beiag "valued at £80,710." The northerly and mountainous moorland district of the county of Stafford was undoubtedly, as many names of places within it stitl indicate, anciently heavily wooded too, and contains, near its northern extremity, the singular defile of rocks and caverns locally called Ludchurch, and said to have been the scene of Friar Tuck's ministrations to Eobin Hood and his merry men. This part of Staffordshire, bounded by the river Dove on its eastern side, and on the west passing close to Congleton, in Cheshire, and another ancient forest quite contiguous, described by old Leland in the * " Itineraiy," toL iv., p. 114, Hearne's 2nd edition. t Harwood's " Erdeswick," p. 192. J Ibid, p. 279. F 66 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. words — " and Maxwell Forest thereby " * — ^is inserted, lite a wedge, near Buxton, into tliat bold and wild cotintry where the great forest of Macclesfield, in Cheshire, the Peak Forest, and the high Derbyshire moors uniting together constitute " that mountainous and large-featured district, which, in the ancient times, had been well tim- bered and formed part of the great midland forest of England." \ And a part only ; for we have seen that this midland forest district, of which the Peak was the centre, included towards the south the greater part of Staffordshire, while towards the east an imaginary line only separated it from the mighty forest of Sherwood. From Nottingham to Manchester was one continuous forest, and far into Yorkshire the great wood extended to join other and more northern forests there. From the Peak northwards, throughout West Yorkshire and East Lancashire, the forests, moors, and mosses connected with this mountain range were im- mense. I will mention one or two circumstances calculated to give some idea of their extent. The learned Dr. Whitaker, describing WhaUey in Lancashire in late Saxon and early Norman times, says : — " If, excluding the forest of Bowland, we take the parish of WhaUey as a square of 161 miles, from this sum at least 70 mUes, or 27,657 acres, must be deducted for the four forests or chaces of Blackbumshire, which belonged to no township or manor, but were at that time mere derelicts, and therefore claimed, as heretofore unappro- priated, by the first Norman lords. There wiU therefore remain for the different manors and townships 36,000 * " Itinerary," toI. t.^ p. 87, Heame's 2nd edition. t Dr. Robertson's "Bnston and the Peak," 1875, p. 41. EXTENT OF ANCIENT FORESTS. 67 or thereabouts, of wMcli 3,520, or not quite a tenth part, was in a state of cultivation ; while the vast residuum. stretched far and wide, like an ocean of waste inter- spersed with a few iahabited islands." * Let us try to realise the state of things, when out of 63,657 acres of land, over 60,000 were either forest or waste, and nearly half of that amount unclaimed and unappropriated; while close at hand towards the north was the still larger and wilder forest of Bowland, and towards the south that of Eosendale with an amazing range of moors beyond it. But this statement only shows how the great central range was covered and fringed with wastes and forests on its western, side. On the eastern side in the same neighbourhood, the country of Craven, it was just the same, even so lately as the time of Henry VIII. Leland says : — " The forest from a mUe beneth Gnaresburgh (Knaresborough) to very nigh Bolton yn Craven is about a twenty miles in lenght : and in bredeth it is in sum places an viij. miles,"t which is just about what it is, the whole intermediate district between Bolton and Bowland forest or between it and WhaUey> being about as wild as anything can be. I will not fatigue the reader by carrying him to the remaining parts of the north of England, where the same state of things prevailed, often on an even yet larger scale ; one forest alone in Cumberland, and that not in its wildest part, being described in " The Chartulary of Lanercost Priory " as extending at the time of the Norman Conquest from Carlisle to Penrith, * Dr. WMfcaker's " Parish of Whalley and Honor of Clitheroe," 3rd edition, 1818, p. 171. t Leknd's " Itinerary." T 2 68 WILD WEITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN: a distance of eighteen miles, and as " a goodly forest, fall of woods, red deer and faUow, wild swine, and all manner of wild beasts." * But I have given a sufficient specimen of what the English Apennines were, when clothed and surrounded with their primiseval forests ; and I must leave it to the imagination of the reader to work out the details. He can scarcely over-estimate the wildness that everywhere prevailed, when an immense forest spreading in all directions was in Southern Scot- land supposed -to have filled the intervening space between OhiUingham and Hamilton, a distance as the crow flies of about eighty mUes, including withiu it Ettrick and numerous other forests. Still less can I hope to depict the savagedom of the North, when the great Caledonian wood, known even at f Eome, covered the greater part of both lowlands and highlands, its reUcs later affording protection, before its final extinc- tion as a purely wild animal, to Scotland's grand white bull, which history and tradition agree in telling us had so long inhabited it. The whole of this immense range of mountains and hills, with its vast forests and wastes, was possibly as favourable a locality for the preservation of aboriginal wild animals as the Hyrcinian Forest itself, with which, indeed, it may bear some comparison. It is certainly a * Quoted by JefEerson in his " Hist, and Antiq. of Cumberland," 1840, p. 7. The " Ohartulaiy of Lanercost Priory " is in the library of the Dean and Chapter of Carlisle, and Mr. JefEerson mentions in his preface, page 7, that he was allowed to consult the MS. t The bear of the Caledonian forest was well known in the Boman circus, " Kuda Caledonio sic pectora preebnit urso, Hand falta pendens in cruce Laureolus." And the " Sylva Caledon'a " is mentioned by the martial geegrapher Ptolemy, and other Boman authors. PBE8EBVATI0N OF WILD ANIMALS. 69 singular fact, but one whicli I believe will be universally accepted as true, that not a single wild animal which, existed in Britain when Caesar first landed in the year 55 B.C., became extinct before the close of the eleventh century of the Christian era. The range of the rein- deer had, indeed, become confined to the extreme north, but this was owing to the circumstance that our climate and the pasturage had been through long ages becoming less and less adapted for its sustenance. And if, as I am iaclined to believe, the Urns did not perish in pre- historic times in Britain, I think the circumstances under which he was placed for the next eleven or twelve hundred years would be eminently conducive to his pre- servation. He had abundance of cover, shelter, and food; the population of the regions he inhabited was during all those centuries decimated by endless wars ; frequentiy the people were well-nigh exterminated al- together. Even of Southern Britain the Eomans were not well masters till about eighty years after Christ, and not more than 350 years later they left it for good. While Tork was the seat of their empire, often indeed for a time the residence of their emperors (two of whom died there), the high civilisation they created round them caused a great increase of cultivation, and may have had some effect upon the ancient central forests. But I think not much ; for the Eoman legions which could be spared from other parts of this vast empire, surrounded as it was everywhere then by hostile and savage foes, had little time for clearing away woods. When not occupied, as they constantly were, in attack- ing the Picts and the Scots, or in constructing and guarding defensive works to prevent invasion, they were employed in making everywhere throughout the Eoman 70 WILD WMITH CATTLE OF GBEAT BRITAIN. province those wondrous roads wMcli attested to after ages the great skill and science they brought to bear on that laborious task. But I do not concei,ve that in Central England the Eomans interfered -with the ancient forests more than was necessary to preserve free and un^ interrupted communication. For experience proves that primaeval forests once destroyed, are seldom, and that with great difficulty, restored; while these were as flourishing as ever throughout the Saxon period and long after. Beyond the Cheviots, and latterly beyond the Tyne, the influence of the Bomans was small indeed. Though they made numerous incursions into Caledonia, they never conquered it. Towards the close of the first century, their great general, Agricola, attempted to do this; he advanced through the Lowlands and defeated the Picts under Gralgacus at the foot of the Grrampians, driving them back to their moTintain holds beyond. Desirable as it was to Rome to conquer these formidable tribes, in whom Tacitus, the son-in-law of Agricola, re- cognised the farthest off of the earth's inhabitants, the last champions of freedom, " terrarum ac libertatis extremos," he could never subjugate them. Scanty in number, but fierce and suspicious, they retained their vast fir forests and wastes ; while Agricola himself retreated at last, and so owned his weakness, building from sea to sea, from the Clyde to the Firth of Forth, a line of frontier fortresses and a great wall of stone to keep out the barbarians whom he could not conquer. It was in vain. The Picts and the Scots mustered in stronger numbers; when they could, broke through the wall, when they could not, sailed round it. The Eomans again made a defensive rampart farther back, bmlt in EFFECTS OF CONSTANT WAB. H the time of Hadrian, of earth, and extending from the Solway to the Tjae ; thus virtually giviag up the whole of Scotland and Northumbria as well. Again the Picts and Scots broke through, and at last marched up to the gates of York, the capital of Eoman Britain. Then in the year 207 the Emperor Se varus himseK came, defeated the Caledonians, and overran their country; but nothing more. He returned to York, strengthened and built with stone Hadrian's rampart, and, dying there, bequeathed on his death-bed to his sons CaracaUa and Greta as relentless a hatred against the Scots as Edward I. did to his son, the second Edward. But it was not fated that Scotland was to submit to the Eoman yoke. A sort of armed truce for some years succeeded, tiU at last the Bomans, in the year 409, were obliged to withdraw their troops from Britain, and the northern foe overran the whole island. We know well what followed. For seven hundred years afterwards such continuous and destructive wars as the world has seldom seen within so small a space, raged everywhere. Picts and Scots fought with Eomano- Britons, Saxons, Danes, and often between themselves. The Anglo-Saxons landed, and throughout eastern, southern, and central England (the name our country then assumed) utterly exterminated the Eomano- Celtic race. Then the new seven kingdoms turned their arms against each other. Their differences were scarcely healed when they in their turn were invaded by another northern tribe, the savage and heathen Danes. For more than a hundred years the conflict was carried on with varying success, and the land was desolated ; and while these wounds were scarcely closed, over came the Norman Conqueror to ravage and to desolate, at 72 WILD WEITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. least the northern counties which resisted him, stUl more. According to William of Malmesbury, WiUiam razed the city of Tork to the ground; he laid the whole country waste from the Humber to the Tweed, and rendered it so complete a scene of desolation that for nine years neither the plough nor the spade was put into the ground ; and such was the wretched state of the inhabitants who escaped the sword, that they were forced to eat dogs and cats, horses, and even human flesh, to preserve their miserable existence. This accoimt is confirmed by Eoger Hoveden and Simeon of Durham, as well as by the concurrent testimony of all the historians of those times. When such had been the state of things for eleven hundred years, from one end of the British Apennines to the other; prevailing always throughout the greater part of the country bordering upon them, often through- out the whole ; can we wonder that the primaeval forests flourished, and that wild animals increased and mul- tipHed, while man decayed, and would indeed have been well-nigh extirpated if his numbers had not been re- cruited by fresh importations from abroad ? An exactly similar condition of things is described by Sir Walter Scott when relating the destructive effects of the great war betweeii the English and Scottish for the posses- sion of the Scottish throne at the commencement of the fourteenth century, and I the rather quote from him be- cause he refers to Douglas Dale, one of those wild valleys which lie at the foot of the great mountaiQ range itself. " Above aU," says Sir Walter, " it was war-time, and of necessity all circumstances of mere convenience were obliged to give way to a paramount sense of danger. The inhabitants, therefore, instead of trying to amend LAST HOME OF TEE WILD ANIMALS. 73 the paths whicli connected them with other districts, were thankful that the natural difficulties which surrounded them rendered it unnecessary to break up or to fortify the access from more open countries. Their wants, with a very few exceptions, • were completely supphed by the rude and scanty produce of their own mountains and holms, the last of which served for the exercise of their limited agrictdture, wMle the better part of the mountains and forest glens produced pasture for their herds and flocks. The recesses of the unex- plored depths of these sylvan retreats being seldom disturbed, especially since the lords of the district had laid aside during this time of strife their constant occupation of hunting, the various kinds of game had increased of late very considerably, so that not only in crossing the rougher parts of the hiUy and desolate country we are describing, different varieties of deer were occasionally seen, but even the wild cattle peculiar to Scotland sometimes showed themselves, and other animals which indicated the irregular and disordered state of the period. The wild cat was frequently sur- prised in the dark ravines or swampy thickets ; and the wolf, already a stranger to the more populous districts of the Lothians, here maintained his ground against the encroachments of man, and was still himself a terror to those by whom he was finally to be extirpated." The above I consider an exact description of the state of the wilder parts of Northern England and Scotland during the exterminating wars which desolated them for eleven hundred years. Scott omits to mention the wild boar, which,, however, in the subsequent account of the day's hunting which followed, he names as one of the objects of pursuit. CHAPTER IV. Prom Forest to Park— Gradual extinction of Wild Animals in Forests, whilst still remaining in the Parks — Historical Notices of "Wild Cattle in Parks — Tradi- tion of Saint Eohert — Park Cattle the great Improvers of the Durham or Teeswater Cattle — The Studley Herd a White Breed — The Bishop of Durham's While Cattle at Bishop Auckland — The Crest of the Nevill family a White Bull — Chillingham — The Chillingham Cattle perhaps from the Royal Park at Chatton — ^Naworth — Frequent Mention of Wild Cattle under the Name of " Wild Beasts " — Leigh Park, Somerset. Having sliown in tli* preceding chapter how favourable for so long a period the state of the country was for the continued existence of Britain's aboriginal wild bull ; and having also shown that wild cattle of some kind, though history does not specify of what variety, per- vaded the forests of the Chiltern districts and of Middlesex, even up to the gates of London, in late Saxon and early Norman times ; I proceed to point out the traditional and historical evidence we have of the continuance of the white forest breed of this country in a nearly wild state up to a comparatively late period. And though I shall, as far as I am able, distinguish between the historical and the traditional, they are everywhere so blended together, strengthening and corroborating each other, that it is often not easy to give them separately. I have no reason to believe that after the early Norman age the wild bull was ever very numerous, except perhaps in some parts of Scotland and in certain FORMATION OF PAEKS. 75 parts of the North, of England! And as population increased, and the great forests every day' diminished during the Plantagenet reigns, it became, like the wolf and the wild boar, and eventually the roe-deer, as a wild animal extinct in England. In a few favoured spots protected by some powerful lord, spiritual or temporal, a few herds may have held their ground somewhat longer, but very few I think after the death of Eichard II., in the year 1400. In Scotland the wild cattle continued in a perfectly wild state much, longer iu some parts ; but in otter parts perhaps even in Scotland, and certainly generally in England, they ceased to be beasts of the forest at even an earlier date than the above. The cause is very apparent, and is the same as that which eventually led to the extinction in a perfectly wild state of most of the larger beasts of chase. The forest was gradually superseded by the park. Even kings and nobles found that in spite of their stringent forest laws, as time went on and population grew and increased, game diminished. The forests were invaded by the ever-multiplying claims of adjoining freeholders, and the game, if not destroyed, as was sometimes the ease, was everywhere much disturbed. * The wild animals were obliged to retire before a growing civilisa- tion. Our princes and great men soon saw how to meet the case. With the permission of the Sovereign, which was very liberally granted, they enclosed within a pale, h.ay (hedge), or wall, large ranges of the forest, * Ab an instance of this it may be mentioned that Hatfield Chase, in South Yorkshire, contained, in 1607, 70,000 acres aiid 1,000 head of red deer; but that " the herd was much impaired by the depredations of the borderers." (Shirley, " Deer and Deer Parks," p. 217.) The same thing happened, to my knowledge, to the fallow-deer of Sherwood Forest, of which one of my mother's family was the last Terderer. 76 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. with, the beasts they contained or -witli others driven in, and this, enclosure became a park. Thus the land, afid all that it contained, was secured for ever to the owner as his own sole property ; no one could interfere or enter, unless he chose to subject himself to such heavy penalties as the law imposed ; * the beasts of chase harboured undisturbed, and they were more easily kept and guarded. The system that prevailed may be seen from the nature of the license which Henry I. or Henry II. gave with respect to Woodcote Park, at Horton in Epsom. " The Abbots of Chertsey were licensed to have their park here shut up whenever they would, and that they might have all the beasts which they could take therein." f The extension of such a system largely carried on in every county, and most of aU within the range of the great forests, was sure to lead in the end to the destruction of the larger beasts of chase in the forests, while they were retained in the parks ; for in the forests they became far less valuable and less the objects of care and preservation. Except so far as they were preserved in parks, aU gradually disappeared, though not all at once. Eirst the wild ox, then, in England (though not in Scotland) the roe-deer, then the wild boar, then the fallow-deer, and lastly (with the exception of a few on Exmoor, and those of the Scottish deer forests specially protected by man, and indebted to his * By Stat. Westminster I., c. 20, " Trespassers in parks or ponds sIuiJl give treble damages to the party grieTed, snfEer three years' imprisonment, be fined at the King's pleasure, and give surety never to ofEend in the like kind again; and if they cannot find surety they shall abjure the realm, or being fugitive shall be outlawed." t Shirley, " Deer and Deer Parks," p. 62, quoting Manning and Bray's " Surrey," vol. ii., p. 611. UNCLOSJTBE OF WILD ANIMALS. 77 care for their existence) the red deer also. Throughout England, and the greater part of Scotland too, the red and fallow-deer, like the wild buU, exist only as park animals, while in. both countries the wild boar has altogether ceased to live. It was not so once. I have already given in my last chapter Sir "Walter Scott's account — shall I call it traditional, or historical, or both, as I believe it is ? — of the state of southern Scotland, and its wild cattle during the war with the second Edward. Let me give as most apposite to my subject the supposed hunting match which he describes as undertaken by Sir John de Walton and the English garrison of Douglas Castle, so far as it relates to the pursuit of these animals. " The wild cattle, the most formidable of all the tenants of the ancient Caledonian forest, were, however, to the English cavaliers by far the most interesting objects of pursuit. . . . During the course of the hunting, when a stag or a boar was expected, one of the wild cattle often came rushing forward, bearing down the young trees, crashing the branches on its progress, and in general .dispersing whatever opposition was presented to it by the hunters. Sir John de Walton was the only one of the chivalry of the party who individually succeeded in mastering one of these powerful animals. Like a Spanish tauridor, he bore down and kUled with his lance a ferocious bull ; two well-grown calves and three kine were also slain, being unable to carry off the quantity of arrows, javelins, and other missiles, directed against them by the archers and drivers, but many others, in spite of every endeavour to inter- cept them, escaped to their gloomy haunts in the remote skirts of the mountain called Cairntable, with 78 WILB WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. tlieir chides well feathered with those marks of human enmity." * We know that the tale from which this is taken, though founded on certain well-known facts, is in many of its circumstances a fictitious narrative. So also were Shakspere's plays. But the merit of both authors was that they were so true to nature and reality. The description of this hunting match is as true to the history and traditions of the locality and the period, as that of Sherwood forest, its oaks, and its fallow-deer, in " Ivanhoe," is known to be historically and tradition- ally correct upon the banks of the Trent. The prevalence of these cattle in numerous parks dating from very ancient times is also proved by history. Bewick, writing ten years before the close of the last century, says : — " There was formerly a very singular species of wild cattle in this country, which is now nearly extinct. Numerous herds of them were kept in several parks of England and Scotland."! Professor Low, in his " Domesticated Animals," published about forty years since, tells us that " part had been preserved in some of the parks attached to the religious houses, their flesh being more esteemed than that of their 'awin tame bestial.' "% Numerous instances of their being kept in parks I can give, in some cases from very early times, going back to what may be called the forest period, as described above by Scott; and in a few ihstances bringing them down to the present day. I begin with * " Ca:siile Dangerous," chap. vii. t " History of Quadrupeds," Ist edition, 1790. X "Domesticated Animals of the British Islands," chap. iiL, p. 235, 8vo edition. I much regret that I have not been able to discover from what author Professor Low makes this quotation, which appears to be of some antiquity. PARKING OF WILD CATTLE. 79 Chartley Park in Staffordsliire, one o£ the parks which Sir Simon T>egge tells us was cut out of Needwood Forest, which Leland nearly 350 years since calls a "mightye large Park," and which is described by Erdeswick, himself a Staffordshire man, at the close of that century, as con- taining besides deer, " wild beasts and swine." The " wild beasts " it stiU contains, and the tradition is, that both they and the swine, as well as the deer, were driven in from the royal forest of Needwood when the park was enclosed about the year. 1248, by charter of Henry III., a tradition strongly corroborated by the circumstance that the wild boar at least could have scarcely come from anywhere else. We cannot expect to find in every case such evidence as this; but the Park of Lyme HaU, in Cheshire, some thirty-five miles to the north, which yet retains the wild bull, and has done so for ages, still belongs to the family of Legh, to which it was granted by Eichard II., being cut out of the Forest of Macclesfield, from which its " wild beasts " are said to be derived. It was imparked towards the close of the fourteenth century, being given as a reward for the services of Sir Piers Legh, who was standard-bearer to the Black Prince at the battle of Crecy. Intermediate between Chartley and Lyme Hall stiE exists a very ancient breed of white cattle of unknown antiquity, and, though polled, much resembling those at Chartley, and which, though now domesticated, I feel convinced were in olden times wild. They are at Sir Charles Shakeriey's, Somerford Park, near Congleton, a place in the heart of what was once Maxwell Forest, mentioned by Leland. * On the opposite and eastern side of this vast range of hills and forests lies Wollaton, near * " Itineraiy," toI. t., p. 87, Heame's 2nd edition. 80 WILD WRITE CATTLE OF' GEE AT BRITAIN. Nottingham. Here, till recently, was another wild herd of white cattle, mentioned by Bewick near a hundred years since, whose origin is not known ; but the park itself, lying on the verge of Sherwood Forest, is of the date of the Edwards. All these herds will be described fully in their proper places. Advancing northwards, some eighteen miles from Lyme Hall, we arrive at Middleton, the ancient seat of the Asshetons, a few miles north of Manchester. Here, the learned Dr. Charles Leigh relates, there were, in the year 1700, "in a park, wild cattle belonging to Sir Balph Ashton of Middleton." " They have no horns, but are like the wild buUs and cows upon the continent of America, of which Monsieur Hennipin has given us a full account." * And that this county was cele- brated for them centuries before is evident, for Leland, writing previously to the dissolution of the monas- teries, says about Blakeley, which was close to the Assheton's park at Middleton, " wild bores, bulles, and falcons breddem times paste at Blakele." f The present descendants of these " wild cattel " will be hereafter aUuded to. Some twenty mUes north of Middleton, and, like it, at the foot of the great central range, lies WhaUey Abbey, once surrounded by those extensive forests before described. It was granted, in the reign of Edward VI., to another branch of the family of Assheton ; and from the " Lord Abbot's Park " at WhaUey ancient tradition, says that the wUd cattle came, also polled, which belonged to the Listers of , * " Natural History of Lancashire, Cheshire, and the Peak of Derby- shire : " Oxford, 1700, boot ii., p. 3. t " Itinerary," vol. viL, p. 47, Heame's 2nd edition. EISTOBICAL NOTICES. 81 Grisbume Park, a few miles distant among the Torksliire hills ; a herd which has only recently become extinct. . This tradition, which has continued very strong among the old people at Whalley up to the present day, is much confirmed by the close and frequent intermarriages that took place between the Asshetons and the Listers, and by the considerable amount of property the latter in- herited from the former. But in all cases, both at Whalley and at Grisburne, tradition points to the wild bull of Bowland Forest as the ultimate origin of these cattle, only enclosed in the park when he was verging to extinction in his native ranges. Little more than ten miles south-west of Whalley, we come to Hoghton Tower, the ancient residence of the De Hoghtons, in whose park, now destroyed, tradi- tion says that the wild bull was kept. This tradition is still believed,* and it is confirmed by two circumstances. When James I. visited Sir Eichard Hoghton in 1617, one of the dishes with which the royal banquet was more than once supplied was " wild boar pye ;" f a remarkable instance of the continued existence of that animal, which renders it extremely probable that the wild bull was his companion. This is rendered yet more likely because the De Hoghton crest is the wild buU, and the two supporters of the arms are the same. The crest is thus heraldically described by Burke : — :" A bull, passant, argent ; the ears, tip of the horns, mane, hoofs, and point of the taU sable;" J — a capital description of * Sir Heniy De Hoghton, in a letter to me, strongly confirms the ex- istence of this tradition, and says it is mnch corroborated by the nnmerons " Bulls" and "White BuUs" which are yet the signs of inns and pnblic- houses in the neighbonrhood of Hoghton. t NiehoUs's " Progresses, &c., of James I.," vol. iii., p. 402. J " Peerage and Baronetage." G 82 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. * the wild bull. It is said, indeed, that during portions of their long career the De Hoghtons have borne as their crest the bull's head alone ; * but one or other — the wild bull itself, or its head — they have borne for many centuries, and in such a matter ancient heraldry must be evidence of great weight. We return ;froni Hoghton Tower, and crossing, via Whalley, the Craven Hills, we arrive at the eastern side of the great mountain chain. Here was the great Forest of Knaresborough, the extent of which has been before mentioned. In this forest, in the time of King John, who is said to have visited him with all his court, lived, at one time alone, at another in company with others, the celebrated hermit, Saint Eobert of Knaresborough, whose fame long survived in the North, on account of his acts of charity to the poor, and of the miracles he was supposed to have wrought for- their benefit. He was long honoured as the founder and patron saint of the Priory of Knaresborough, and that monastic house did full justice to his memory. There exists, in the possession of the Duke of Newcastle, and lent by him to the learned Mr. Walbran,t a MS. " Life of Saint Robert," written in Latin rhyming triplets, in Latin prose and in English metre, by (as Mr. Walbran supposes) the Prior of Knaresborough, the date of which is placed " in the early part of the fifteenth century." I give quotations — premising, however, that • Sir H. De Hoghton has a grant from the Heralds' College to one Thomas Hoghton, datedl588, that he might use the white bull as his crest, in lieu of a bull's head, argent, &c. ; but Sir Henry has reasons to think that this was a personal favour, and that the white buU entire had been the family crest anterior to that date. t See Walbran's " Memorials of the Abbey of St. Mary of Fountains," vol. iliii. of the publications of the Surtees Society. SAINT BOBEBT OF ENAME8B0B0UGH. 83 it is doubtM who " The Earl " was to whom the saint applied : — " At Robertus rursum ivit, Vaccam uuam expetivit, Comes qvddem aocersivit, Et libenter tribuit. " Hie, ut miser, mendicavit, Quibus sibi sociavit, Pane, potu, prece, pavit Ac sanare studuit. " Dux donabat tunc Eoberto , Vaccam feram in deserto, Quam deduxit in aperto Mansuetam moribus. " Domnm duxit, dictae gentes Obstupescunt intuentes : Horum movebantur mentes, In interioribus." " But good Hobert -went again, Asking a caw them to sustain ; Sent the Earl his wish to obtain, And pledged her then and there. " Piteous saint, and mendicant, For his brethren ill in want. Meat, drink, prayer, were never scant, Nor for their health his care. " Gave the Earl, thereon to Robert, One fierce wild one in the desert. Her he brought out, and naught was hurt. She gentle as she should be. " Home he led her, the said peers "Were astonished, eyes and ears. Minds were moved with sudden fears, As awed as they should be." G 2 84 WILD WEITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. The above English translation, being modernised, gives a faithful and spirited rendering of the Latin original. As a specimen of the more ancient form, I give a quotation from an English metrical Life of Saint Eobert, taken from a MS. belonging to Mr. Drury, of Harrow, and published by the Eoxburghe Club in 1824. The canto is headed — " QTJOMODO VACCAM DOMAVIT." " Off a myracle ■wylle I melle, That I trow be trew and lele, Of sayntt Eobertt ; anes, as I rede, Off a cow he had nede To hys pormen in hys place ; Tharefor to the Erll Roberd gayse. And for a cowe he com and craved. He graunte hym ane that wytles raned ; He bad hym to hys forest fare, ' And syke a cowe take the thare, I halde hyr wyld, maik thou hyr tame.' Eobert rayked, and thider yode, And fand this cowe wyttles and wode ; Sty)l she stode, nathynge stirrand, Eoberd arest hyr in a band. And hame wyth hyr full fast he hyed ; Meruayle them thoght that stod besyde. Byrde and best all bowed hym tyll, Etier to wyrke after hys wyll." The sequel was that the Earl and his men, over- coming their surprise, tried to get the cow back again, but were miraculously prevented by the interposition of the saint. I have given this account at full length because I think it affords the strongest proof of the existence of the wild cattle in the Forest of Knaresborough at a very EVIDENCE OF TEE LEGEND. 85 early period — as strong a proof, perhaps, as there is of their existence in Scotland in a mid state a hundred years later. This writer of about the year 1400, relating events which took place about the year 1200, makes the " fierce wild " cow, supposed to be utterly irreclaimable — ranging through " the desert," according to one version of the story ; in " the forest," according to another * — a principal actor in the narrative. I feel sure that the narrator was quite aware that such cattle existed in the times of which he wrote, and, in all probabihty, in the age in which he himself lived, and that those for whose benefit he wrote knew this fall well. If this had not been the case, his narrative would have been destitute of the first elements of credibility; and knowing, as we do, what the forest breed was on all sides, we may safely assume that this wild cow was of the same de- scription and colour also : for, as the wild cattle were always alike in that respect, " ancient writers seldom thought it necessary to mention that particular. Le- land, for instance, never names the colour of the wild bulls he speaks of, but we know from subsequent writers that those in the very places where he mentions their existence were white; and many other examples might be given. I think this, then, a very strong and stout link in the chain of my argument. Advancing farther northwards, through a country thickly studded with ancient parks, and leaving on the left the wildest and most mountainous part of the North Eiding, we come, at the distance of about thirty miles, to the Eiver Tees, the southern boimdary of the county of Durham, and whose vale has produced the most * Sach an extensive forest as that of Knaresborough then was, must have included, besides its woods, much wild and " desert " groimd. 86 WILD WEITE CATTLE OF GBEAT BRITAIN. famous of modem cattle. I feel little doubt that if the ancient history of the parks I have mentioned could be fully brought to light, and the animals they contained known, it would be found that of many of them the wild bull was a denizen — ^for I think there are some faint, though valuable, traces of its existence in this district. From parks in this neighbourhood* were derived, principally, the bulls to the use of which, in the last century, can be traced the great improvement which was then made in the Teeswater or Durham cattle, and these bulls were generally white. Mr. John Hutchin- son, banker, of Stockton-on-Tees, one of the most in- telligent of the early Durham or Shortjhorn breeders, and whose information went back further than that of most people, considered that the improved Short-horns, or Teeswaters, contained the blood of the " native white breed preserved at ChiUingham ;" while he calls the one herd which contributed more than any other to the im- provement a " white breed." f The Rev. Henry Berry, too, one of the most devoted of breeders, and most ac- complished and best informed of our writers on cattle, says : — " One cross, to which the breeders on the banks of the Tees referred, was, in all probability, the white wild breed ; and, if this conjecture be well founded, it will be apparent whence the Short-horns derived a colour * These were the parks of the MUbankes of Barmingham, withm two miles and a half of the Tees, and about fiye from Barnard Castle ; of the Milbankes of Thorpe Perrow, close to Bedale ; and of the Aislabies of Stndley Soyal, near Ripon. t This was the Studley Royal herd. In a letter, published in the Farmer's Jov/rnal in 1821, Mr. Hutchinson calls these cattle, " the white breed of Mr. Aislabie, of Studley Royal ; " and in a pamphlet, published in 1822, after mentioning " the ChiUingham," which, he says, "may not im- properly be called Albions," he adds, " and of which breed no doubt were those at Studley." TEE WEITB CATTLE AND 8E0BT-E0BN8. 87 SO prevalent among them." * After mucli inquiry, I entirely concur in tliis opinion. Let me mention another circumstance which may possibly throw some light on this question. Stanwick Park, the property of the Duke of Northumberland, and iaherited by him from the Smithsons, is rather more than two miles south of the Eiver Tees, half-way between Darlington and Barnard Castle. From the duke's agent here, Mr. Charles Colling bought, in 1784, a Teeswater cow he called " Duchess." The family came, in 1810, into the hands of Mr. Bates, of Kirklevington, and are still very celebrated cattle, bear- ing the same designation. Mr. Bates believed that he had discovered a tradition that the ancestors of this cow had been in the park at Stanwick, "in the pos- session of the ancestors of the Duke of Northumberland for two centuries "•)• before; and the tradition appears to have been confirmed, to a certain extent, by Lord PrudhoeJ (afterwards fourth duke), who then lived there. But this tradition, in its present form, is clearly incorrect. No other good Teeswater had ever been known to exist at Stanwick, though the most careful inquiries were made by most competent persons, § and Lord Prudhoe in vain sought among its old records for information. The Smithsons, too, had possessed the estate only a Httle more than a hundred years, obtaining ' Rev. H. Berry, in Touatt's " Cattle," cliap. Tii. + Mr. Bates added this to the pedigree of one of his " Duchess " cows, when he entered her in the " Short-hom Herd-book," vol. t., p. 201. X Bell's " History of the Kirkle-rington Cattle," pp. 27, 28. - § Mr. Fawcett, of Childwick HaU, St. Albans, and Mr. Wood, himself for many years a resident at Stanwick, both emiaent breeders themselves, and botii the sons of well-known breeders, have each assured me that many years since they made every possible inquiry with no satisfactory result. 88 WILD WEITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. it from the family of Catterick. They then resided in London, and had then recently been under a cloud for the part they took in the civil wars. It was, therefore, hardly possible that a domestic herd could have passed through aU these changes, and been continued from the days of Queen Elizabeth. But a wild herd might ; like deer, they were, in law, part and parcel of the park they inhabited, and passed along with it. It is my strong impression that it is to such a herd the tradition refers, and that if the steward's accounts of that period existed and could be examined at Stanwick, as they hare been at Chartley, some mention might be found in the one case, as in the other, of the " wild beasts." But we cross the Tees, and enter the Palatinate of Durham, whose prince bishop exercised formerly almost more than royal power, in consequence of his being in this district virtually " Bex atque Sacerdos." It abounded anciently, particularly its western side, with wastes, wilds, and primaeval forests. Even Durham itself, when the monks, in the year 995, brought there the body of St. Cuthbert, and began to build its famous minster, is thus described in a Saxon poem, given in Hickes' Anglo-Saxon Grrammar :— " And there grow Great forests ; There live in the recesses Wild animals of many sorts ; In the deep valleys Deer innumerable." Half-way between Durham and the Tees is Bishop Auckland, one of the principal residences of the Bishops of Durham ; Brancepeth Castle — so called, it is said, from a celebrated boar which frequented the neighbour- WILD CATTLE IN ANCIENT BUBHAM. 89 hood (Brawn's Path) — ^with. its numeroTis ancient parks, beiag intermediate. Before the Eeformation wild cattle were kept in the park at Bishop Auckland by the Bishops of Durham. Leland says : — " There is a fair park by the castelle, having fallow deer, wilde bulles, and kin" (kine). And a hundred years later, when Sir William Brereton, afterwards a famous Parliamentary general, visited the place, the " wild beasts " were still there, and as wild as they could be. His MS.* account is entitled " The Second Teare's TraveU throw Scott- land and Ireland, 1635." The writer passes a few days, on his way to Scotland, " att Bishoppe Auckland with Dr. Moreton, Bishoppe of Durham, who maintains great hospitaHtie in an orderlie well governed house, and is a verye worthy reverend bishoppe." After de- scribing the palace, " chappies," &c., he thus proceeds : — " A daintie stately parke, wherein I saw wild buUs and kine, w"^ had two calves runers. There are about twenty wild beasts, all white, wiU not endure yo' approach ; butt if they bee enraged or distressed verye violent and furious, their calves vfill bee wonderous fatt." This herd was probably destroyed during the civil war which speedily followed. Anciently the parks and forests which belonged to the Bishops of Durham were still more numerous and extensive, so that there can be little doubt that from some of these forests, which principally bordered on the great mountain chain, these Bishop Auckland " wild bulls and kine " were at first obtained. Here, among the wilds close to both Cumberland and * Sir "William Brereton was of an old Cheshire family, related to that of Sir Philip de M. Grey-Egerton, to whom this MS. belongs. It has been published in the Atmals and Magazine of Nat. Sist., vol. iii., 1839, and also as the first vol. of the Cheetham Society's Publications, 1844. 190 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. NortliuiaberlarLd, the Bishops of Durliain had, even so late as the time of Leland, a very large park. He . says : — " The Bishop of Duresme hath a praty square pile on the north syde of Were ryvei", canUed the Westgate ; and therehy is a parke, rudely enclosed with stone, of 12 or 14 miles in compace. It is XII.* miles in Weredale from Akeland Castelle." In earUer times aU the country round was one vast forest, including within it moor and mountain. " Here the bishops held their great forest hunt, and had their master of the forest, bow-bearers, and park and pale keepers, with other officers, resident in this building." f " They exercised in this forest aU the royal privileges that the king did in any of the Crown forests." Numerous lands were held of the bishop by the service of " at- tending the lord with one or more greyhounds in his forest hunt in the great chase in Weardale." Running high up into the same range of hills and at its farther end, quite contiguous to the bishop's Forest of "Weardale, was the great baronial Forest of Teesdale, which, following the course of the Tees, and containing at its lower extremity the Chase or Forest of Marwood, extended to Barnard Castle. That castle, with these its hunting grounds, belonged successively to the Baliols, afterwards raised to the Scottish throne, and subsequently to the Beauchamps and the Nevills, Earls of Warwick. By the marriage of the daughter and co-heiress of Eichard Nevill, Earl of Warwick, the King-maker, in 1471, with Eichard, Duke of Grloucester, afterwards Eichard III., it became the property and * Leland was mistaken about the distance ; this park was abont twenty miles £rom Bishop Auckland. t " History of the County of Durham : " Leeds Mercury Office, 1828. MEANING OF "WILD BEASTS." .91 favourite residence of that prince untU he ascended the throne ; at his death it reverted to the Crown. There can he no doubt that during the whole of this period the wild cattle lived and were hunted in that grand demesne, for nearly 1-^0 years later they existed there still. "King Charles I., in the second year of his reign, by his grant, dated 14th March, 1626, in con- sideration of a considerable sum of money, granted to Samuel CordweU and Henry Dingley, in trust for Sir Henry Vane, the reversion of the assigned premises (Barnard Castle, with its parks), together with all deer and wild cattle in the said parks." * It is only by some accidental allusion like this that we, in some few cases, get a clue. In most cases, con- veyances or grants of parks, forests, and estates were made without specifying what they contained. The terms used were, " cum pertinentiis," or " cum omnibus pertinentiis suis," with all their, appurtenances, or sometimes " cum feris," with their wild beasts — a con- fusing term, because if it stands alone it includes every kind of wild animal: though where deer are first mentioned and wild beasts follow, wild cattle are at least generally meant. I am not, however, sure that this is the case when the document is in Latin and the word " ferae " is used, for it includes all wild animals; while the term " beast " is, even in the present day, in common parlance; specially applied to the ox tribe ; and in many places far remote fi-om each other, f two and * Hutchinson's "Durham," 1794, vol. iii., p. 245. t The wild cattle were called " wild beasts " at Ewehne, in Oxfordshire, in 1627, and perhaps before ; at Chartley, in StafEordshire, in 1581, in 1600, and in 1658 ; at Bishop Anckland, in Durham, in 1635 ; and at ChiUingham, in Korthnmberland, in 1692. In all these cases it was their distiuctive and unmistakable name. 92 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GBEAT BRITAIN. three hundred years since, " wild beasts " was the distinctive name by which the wild cattle were pecu- liarly known. But with regard to such parks as those of Brancepeth, of Streattam Castle, the ancient seat of the Bowes family, and only three miles from Barnard Castle, and, above all, of Eaby Castle, about six miles distant from it, we have no information whatever as to what wild animals they contained in ancient times. We may suspect, indeed — and as regards Eaby at least, there is some ground for our suspicions. It was the great feudal residence of the head of the Nevills, the powerful Earl of Westmoreland, to a branch of which family, at one time, Barnard Castle belonged; and here, it is said, assembled at once seven hundred knights, who held of that princely family. We may be quite sure that no wUd animal worth keeping would be absent from their parks and chases. A singular circumstance, too, corroborates this opinion, for the house of Nevill has borne as its crest for at least 650 years Britain's white wild bull, "argent, pied sable." This crest is, indeed, as borne by the Marquis of Abergavenny, the male head of the family, heraldically speaking, " dis- tinguished:" i.e., collared, armed, and chained, gold; but these must be modem additions, for the old Nevill crest seems to have been, like the De Hoghton one, the pure and unadulterated wild bull.* In Hutchinson's " Durham " there is given an engraving of a carving in stone, still existing at Eaby Castle, which represents the Nevill bull holding a standard charged with the Nevill arms. It must be very ancient — I think 400 * The Earl of Westmoreland and Lord Braybrooke, both descended from the Nevills through the female line, bear respectirely as their crests the white bull's head and the white bull, spotted, no doubt as a difference. TEE CATTLE OF BEABPABK 93 years old or more — for neither tlie bull nor the coat of arms is charged with the roue, which they acquired during the wars of the Eoses. It is very well executed, and appears to be engraved^ow life, for the horns most strikingly resemble those of the Chillingham bulls.* Before I leave this county of the wild cattle I must briefly allude to the beautiful park of the priors of the Monastery of Durham, Beaurepaire — ^vulgarly, Bear- park — ^two mUes north-west of that city. Prior Hugh, of Derlyngton, by license from the bishop, enclosed a park here between 1258 and 1274, evidently for the purpose of keeping wild animals, for we are told that Bishop Beke, during his quarrel with the convent, broke down the fences and drove out the game. In 1311, Bishop Kellawe, however, granted license to Prior Tanfield to enlarge the park ; but in 1315 the Scottish, in their successful irruption into the bishopric, destroyed almost the whole stock and store of game and cattle, f The probability is that, as the park was i9vidently used for hunting purposes, these cattle were wild. When we get farther north and enter Northumber- land, we find the wild cattle retained for ages in the park of the Earl of Tankerville, where they stiU exist in great perfection. No exact date can be given when this park was first enclosed ; but the cattle here were, * The Dnke of Cleveland, the present possessor of Raby (whose grandfather, Henry second, Earl of Darlington, was, in the middle of the last century, long before the times of the Collings, one of the first and most celebrated improvers of the Durham cattle — several of the fine oxen he fed being mentioned by ArthnrToung in the " Ajmalsof Agriculture "), in a letter to me, dated January 17th, 1875, expresses his belief in the proba- bility of the white wild cattle having formerly existed at Raby, though it is " not recorded," and in the opinion " that the breed of Durham Short- horns is'derived from a cross of the white cattle." f Suitees's " Durham," vol. ii., p. 373. 94 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. like tie Scottish ones, beyond doubt, denizens of that great chain of hills and forests to which Chillingham is close. Its park is an outlying spur from the Cheviot HiUs,* audits " Great Wood," which formerly existed, was connected with the Scottish forests, only a few miles distant, whose ancient wild inhabitants have been found buried in a moss in the valley of the Till, just below CbiUingham. These cattle existed in this park in the days of its ancient owners, the great northern barons, the Lords Grey of Wark, and were then called " wild beasts." A full account of the herd, as it is at present, will be given further on. Contiguous to Chillingham is the extensive parish of Chatton, a place formerly of considerable importance ; for here King Edward I. had a royal residence, where he frequently resided during the years 1291 and 1292, because, being near the Borders, it was so conveniently situated for secretly influencing the deliberations of the Scottish Parliament on the claims of the competitors to the throne of Scotland. " Chatton Moor " comes up to Chillingham Park ; and here, a.d. 1292, or before, Edward I., for the purpose of sporting, detached from the barony of Alnwick, disafforested, and made into a park called " Kelsowe," about 200 acres of land. This is proved from an inquiry before the justices in Eyre, A.D. 1292, when William de Vesci, Baron of Alnwick, claimed aU the privileges his ancestors had possessed, " excepting in about two hundred acres of wood and moor, in Chatton^, which were within, the forest, but after- * Leland does not seem to have entered Northumberland itseK ; but he had heard of the wildness of this part of it, remarking: " In Northumber- land, as I heare say, be no forests except Chivet [Oheyiot] Hills, and there is great plenty of redde deare and roo bnkkes." — " Itinerary." CEATTON AND CEILMNGHAM. 95 wards by the present lord king were disafforested, and in these lie claimed not chase and warren." * This park existed in the year 1368, for it appears, from an in- quisition taken in the forty-second year of Edward III., that " a park with wild animals, called ' Kelsowe,' is of no value heyond the maintenance of the wild animals." It is considered to be very probable that the whole or part of this park, with the " wild animals " it contained, has since been taken into the park at ChiUingham ; for "in 1634 the tenants of Chatton complained of Sir ,Ealph Grey, pf Chilliagham, taking land of Chatton without right, and enclosing from Chatton Common. This encroachment may refer to the enclosure made by the park wall of Chillingham, which projects with an elbow into Chatton Moor on the west. 'Eobin Hood's Bog,' to which, when disturbed, the wild cattle habitually resort, and to which tradition points as their pristine habitat, is at the extreme elbow of this con- jectural intake." This curious coincidence of circum- stances seems to make it very probable that the " wild animals " of the royal park of Chatton at the close of the fourteenth century were, in part at least, the an- cestors of the " wild heasts " still kept at ChiUingham at the end of the nineteenth. In the north of Cumberland, surrounded by ancient forests, fells, moors, and wastes, which extend from thence to Chillingham, and continuously through Southern Scotland, lies the well-known border-fortress * Tate's "History of Alnwick," vol. i., p. 94. For the whole of this information, and all the following quotations, I am indebted to a learned pamphlet, full of references to ancient authorities, entitled "I^otes on Chatton," by the Rev. William Procter and Mr. James Hardy, which has been kindly given to me by the Rev. Henry Edward Bell, Yicar of that parish. 96 WILB WSITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. of Naworth Castle, once the stronghold of those re- doubted barons, the Lords Dacre of Gillesland; then the residence of their heir by marriage. Lord "William Howard, too well known to the Scottish moss-troopers under the soubriquet of " Belted Will;" and lastly, of his descendants, the Earls of Carlisle. In this wild neighbourhood, to perhaps a later period than anywhere else in England, the wild cattle roamed at large un- reclaimed, though protected, no doubt, by their all- powerful owners. A MS.* and anonymous History of Cumberland, known, however, to have been written about the year 1675 by Edmund Sandford, of an old Cumberland family, and preserved in the library of the Dean and Chapter of Carlisle, tells us that around Naworth formerly were " pleasant woods and gardens ; ground full of fallow dear, feeding on aU somer tyme ; braue venison pasties and great store of reed deer on the mountains ; and white wild cattel, vsdth blak ears only, on the moores ; and blak heath-cockes, and brone more-cockes, and their pootes." I presume that these " white wild cattel " had been destroyed during the civU. wars, from thirty to forty years before. The writer was evidently well acquainted with their colour and with the localities they frequented. It would perhaps seem natural, now that we have arrived at the Borders, to cross over and give a similar historical account of the kindred race of Scottish wild cattle. But before I do so I wish to point out to the reader that the numerous wild herds, of whose ancient * TMs MS. is quoted by Jefferson in his " History and Antiqmties of Cumberland," 1840 ; and also by Williani Dickinson in his Prize Essay, " On the Farming of Cumberland," Jaum. Royal Agric. Soc, vol. xiii., 1852. Both writers appear to have had access to it. BEOBNTLY EXTINCT HERDS. 91 existence so much evidence has been given, were all confined to the regions of the English Apennines or of the great forests and wastes bordering thereupon. With the exception of some trifling differences — the most important of which is that some of them were horned, some poUed or hornless— they were everyvrhere, in colour and in form, alike : one race, and all wild. But besides these, there were in England a few parks, remote from this great chain of central mountains, in which this same white wild breed were formerly kept, and there are also a few well authenticated instances of ancient domestic cattle strongly resembhng them. These it seems desirable to mention before we go on to narrate the ancient history of the Scottish wild cattle. I feel little doubt that in the iastances I am about to give — as I shall be able to show hereafter was the case with Lord Suffield's herd in Norfolk — ^these were off- shoots of the great forest breed, introduced from a distance, and from places near to the aboriginal domi- cile of the race. The first herd of this description I wish to name is the one — extinct towards the close of the last century — in the park at Burton Constable, half-way between Hull and the east coast of Yorkshire, of which, as some description of them can be given, a more full account will appear in its proper place. There was formerly another such herd in a park at Holdenby, ten miles north-east from Daventry and six and a half north-west from Northampton, in that county. Though the park here was licensed to be imparked in 1578, it was certairJy much enlarged when King James I. purchased of Sir Christopher Hatton the whole estate, and made here a royal residence in 1606 ; H 98 WILB WHITE GATTLJE OF GREAT BRITAIN. for in 1608 it was "impaled," 109/. 10s. 6d. being allowed in the king's " extraordinary " accounts for that purpose. Holdenby was seized during the civil war, with other demesnes of the crown, and granted by the Parhament to Thomas, Lord Grey, of Grroby, who sold it to Adam Baynes, of Knowsthorp, in Yorkshire, captain, and M.P. for Leeds. He destroyed the park and puUed the mansion down in the year 1650. At the time of the pale the park contained 500a. Ir,, and was " stocked with upwards of 200 deer of different kinds, worth 200/.; and 11 cows and calves of wild cattle, worth 421." * The passage means, I suppose, eleven cows, besides their calves ; even then their value, relatively to that of the deer, seems high. It appears to me nearly certain that they were introduced here by Kiag James I. himself, who made the place. He was passionately fond of hunting, and being so, we may well believe that he felt an attachment to the ancient wild breed which existed also in his own native country. It is rather singular that another of these few re- corded instances of parks containing wild cattle remote from their native district, should also have been a royal demesne, and have passed through the hands of James I. Ewelme, in South Oxfordshire, near to WaUingford, in Berkshire, belonged to the De la Poles, Dukes of Suffolk, but, reverting to the Crown, Edward Ashfield was appointed by King Henry YIII., in 1536, "Keeper of the Park of Ewelme and Master of the Wild Beasts there." In 1551-2 King Edward YI. conveyed the manor and park to his sister, the Princess Elizabeth, for life. In 1609 Lord WiUiam KnoUys was "Keeper of the Park and Master of the Wild Beasts in the * Baker's " History of Northamptonshire," 1822, vol. i., p. 197. BEGENTLY EXTINCT EEBDS. 99 same " for King James. "On the 21st March, 1627, King Charles I., by letters patent, conveyed to Sir Christopher Nevil, K.B., and Sir Edmund Sawyer, their heirs and assigns, for ever, in consideration of the sum of 4,300/., aU that park called Ewehne Park, containing 895 acres, which was part of the manor of Ewelme; also six acres, four of which were in a place called Haseley, and two in a place called EUesmere, the Keeper of the Park having heretofore been accustomed to save the hay thereof for the deer and toild beasts in the said park, to be held subject to a rent of 60/. per annum. Ewelme Park was probably disparked at this period." * Mr. Shirley, a great authority on such questions, agrees with me in considering it certain that, whether or no on the two first occasions named above, " wild beasts " meant deer alone or included wild cattle also, in the last mention of them as " deer and wild beasts " wild cattle alone were intended to be meant : they alone, besides deer, of any animals which could be called " wild beasts," requiring hay, and that being the technical name by which they were designated in other parks at the same period. It is remarkable that this conveyance was made exactly two years after the death of King James I., so that these wild cattle must have been here in his lifetime, and may have been introduced by him, as they almost certainly were into his park at Holdenby. Another wild herd, supposed to have been an ancient one, existed formerly in the park of Leigh Court, in Somersetshire, close to Bristol, and now the residence of Sir William Miles, Bart. It was purchased by his * Shirley's "Deer Parks, chap, yi., p. 137; quoting the Hon. and Rev. Alfred Napier's " Historical itfotices of Swyneombe and Ewelme," 4to, 03dord, 1858. H 2 100 WILB WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. father, in the year 1808, from the heirs of Lady Nor- ton; but two years previously, in 1806, the wild cattle had " become so savage that the owner was obliged to have them all shot." * This park anciently belonged to the Augustinian canons of Bristol; it was formerly magnificently wooded with ancient timber, which was cut down before the late Mr. MUes purchased it. The following is Sir William's description of its cattle : — " My recollection of the wild cattle is from hearsay. My father concluded the purchase of Leigh in 1808. At the time the cattle were destroyed Lady Norton Hved at the Old House, then existing; and left Mr. Trenchard executor. " I think I must have seen them myself — my re- collection of their deportment is so vivid. Their colour fawn, tending to yellow ; very red towards the flanks ; horns tipped with black ; hoofs black ; inside of the ear red. They were constantly fighting, and ready to attack anything which came across them." f It is very probable that Sir William Miles did see and recollect them, for he was nine years old at least, perhaps half a year older, when these cattle were extir- pated. He lived ia the neighbourhood at the time, and at Leigh Court itseM soon afterwards, so that his own boyish recollections must have been constantly refreshed by the memory of others ; and his account is so circumstantial that it bears the strongest impress of reality. StiU, it is right to add that the old bailiff at Leigh Court says "that his mother-in-law, he remembers, * Shirley's " Deer Parks," chap, iv., p. 99 ; this information being de- rived from Sir W. MUes, Bart. t The account of Sir William Miles was obtained for me by Mrs. Robert Miles, of Bingham, who also sent me the bailiff's statement made to Mr. John MUes. RECENTLY EXTINCT HEEDS. 101 used to speak about them, and he feels pretty sure she described them, as white!' I think it very probable that both statements are correct, and that they varied from a white colour to a light dun. At present we have no clue to the origin of these Leigh Park cattle. I think it most probable that they date back to monastic times, and that the variation in colour was possibly produced by some cross. The dis- covery of their existence is an interesting circumstance, for it is the only instance yet known of a wild herd inhabiting the West of England j and this herd was clearly very wUd. CHAPTEE V. Ancient Domeetio Races of White Cattle in England and Wales — ^Notices of them scarce, and not found as expected in Records of the Monasteries — Custom at Knightlow Cross — Coincidence of this Custom with the Local Legend of the Wild Cow of Dunsmore Heath — ^White Cattle in Wales and especially in Pembroke — Notices of them in Ancient Welsh Laws — Four Hundred presented to the Queen of Xing John — ^Distinctness from other Welsh Cattle— Herd at Vale Royal— Ballad of " Hughie the Grsme "— The Lyrick Herd. Having thus taken, so far as England is concerned, a somewliat extended view of the "White Forest Breed as it existed in ages past, wild as any beast of chase in forest and in park ; and shown the strong historical facts which everywhere demonstrate, in central and northern England, its continuance from a very early period to our own time ; I propose to devote a few pages to the his- torical notices we possess of a tame domesticated race of white cattle which seems to have also prevailed from a very early period in some parts of England, which was perhaps nearly allied to the wild breed, and which so nearly resembled it in colour and in other respects that it has been generally considered identical with it. I must, however, caution the reader against forming too sudden and unsupported a decision on this point. I began this investigation with a strong impression that I should find this tame white race numerous and far extended, which has not been the case. While many fresh instances of the former existence of the wild breed were continually presenting themselves, the notices of the tame breed did not, on further inquiry, become CUSTOM OF ENIGETLOW CROSS. 103 ^ more frequent. I have been unable to find any, as I expected to do, in the records of the monasteries : those white cattle which ecclesiastics possessed previously to the dissolution appearing to be, in the few instances where facts can be ascertained — as in the parks of the Bishop of Durham and the Abbot of Whalley — ^wUd ones ; thus confirming the statement of Professor Low * with regard to the Scottish monastic bodies. Of course, their domestic herds were numerous and valuable, but I have as yet been unable to ascertain that they were white. The instances of white domestic cattle are com- paratively few, and confined to a few localities, and these principally south of the Trent ; while there is at present no well authenticated instance of a wild white herd being for any length of time ia existence south of that river, and only one or two parks where they were kept at aU, while to one of these they were certainly intro- duced at a late period. Farther discoveries may strengthen or weaken this opinion, but so the case stands at present. Perhaps the only evidence we have of a domestic white breed allied to the wild in central England in early times, is derived from a singular custom still remaining in force in Warwickshire, and called " The Custom of Knightlow Cross." At the northern ex- tremity of the village of Stretton-on-Dunsmore, near Dunchurch, stands in a field a stone, which is the mortice-stone of the ancient Cross of Knightlow. On this spot, every year, on the 11th of November, St. Martin's Day, there takes place an ancient ceremony, which is said to date from a period anterior to the Norman Conquest. This custom is the payment to * " Domesticated Animals,'' chap, iii., p. 235. 104 WILB WSITU CATTLE OF GBBAT BRITAIN. the Lord of tlie Hundred of Knightlow of " Wroth or Ward Money," otherwise called " Swart Money." The villagers, and those who owe suit and service, attend ; the steward of the Lord of the Hundred, now the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensherry, reads the names of the parishes and persons liable, and gives notice requiring payment, proclaiming that in default of payment the forfeit will be " twenty shillings for every penny, and a white bull with red ears and a red nose." There is a tradition in the neighbourhood of the forfeiture of a white bull having been demanded and actually made, but of late years the pecuniary part of the forfeit only has been exacted.* I think it ought to be observed that this proof of the existence formerly of the domesticated white bull with red ears — ^for tame this animal must have been — one quite unique as regards central England, is found at Stretton-upon-Dunsmore ; the very place where, in Saxon times, Gruy Earl of Warwick was supposed to have killed the wild " cow of Dunsmore Heath," and that the custom dates from Saxon times too. My idea is that the two circumstances possibly tend to throw light upon and to corroborate each other. The domestic white bulls with red ears in that neighbourhood are not unlikely to have derived their descent, at least in some measure, and their peculiarities of colour, from the wild white forest breed which inhabited it, and of which Sir Guy's cow was one. Many such instances shall we see, as we proceed, of domestic cattle springing from this source. * This statement is principally taken from an account of the custom given in the Graphic newspaper of December 19th, 1874 ; but every par- ticular has been confirmed by the information! have received from credible persons living in the neighbourhood, which is only a few miles distant from the place where I now write. TSE PEMBROKE CATTLE. 105 The next, and by far the strongest instance of an ancient white race of domestic cattle, conies from Wales ; and it seems such cattle were much more common than elsewhere in Wales in the county of Pembroke. " It appears," says Professor Low, "from various notices, that a race of cattle similar to that which we now find at Chniingham Park and elsewhere existed in Wales in the twelfth century. . . . The individuals of this race yet existing in Wales are found chiefly in the county of Pembroke. . . UntU a comparatively re- cent period they were very numerous ; and persons are yet living who remember when they were driven in droves to the pastures of the Severn and the neigh- bouriag markets." Notwithstanding every discourage- ment — ^black being uniformly preferred by the breeders — this white colour sometimes breaks out in the cattle of that neighbourhood, and I have examined several single white ones which have come down with large herds of black ones from Pembrokeshire for the Northampton- shire graziers. Some of these have a certain quantity of black upon them, but some are nearly pure white, with black ears, muzzle, eyes, tips of the horns and hoofs ; and they have generally some strongly-marked small black spots on the head, neck, and body; they have not now, as formerly, red ears. They strongly resemble the wild cow (those I have seen have been heifers) in colour, but not at all in form, having reverted to the ancient type in colour only. No one who had seen the ChiUingham or Chartley cows could detect any resemblance, except in colour, and partially only in the growth of the horns ; iu other respects they were unmistakably Welsh. " The earliest record of the Welsh white cattle with 106 WILD WHITE GATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. red ears is to be found in the Venedotian code of laws, ascribed to Howel Dha, and wbicb is probably of the tenth, or perhaps of the eleventh century, the usage implied by the laws being no doubt much older than the codification. The fine to be paid for injury done to the King of Aberfraw is a hundred cows for each hundred townships, and ' a white bull with red ears to each hundred cows.' In the later Dimetian code the Lord of Dynevwr is to have for the infidngement of his prerogative 'as many white cattle with red ears as shall extend in close succession from Argoel to the Palace of Dynevwr, with a bull of the same colour with each score of them.' In the still later Latin trans- lation of the Welsh laws, one hundred white cows with red ears were considered equivalent to a hundred and fifty black cattle. The specification of white with red ears in these passages is considered by Mr. Touatt and Mr. Darwin* to denote merely a difference of colour, and not of breed. Prom its continual occurrence, however, and from its agreement with the Chillingham ox, there can be little doubt that it denotes a difference of breed ; and this conclusion is rendered almost certain when we consider that the size of the Chillingham ox is about one-third greater than that of the black Welsh and dark-coloured Highland cattle, the ratio between them being the same as that between the hundred white cattle and the hundred and fifty black of the 'Leges WalHse.' "f In this last opinion I entirely concur. * Tonatt's "Cattle," p. 48; Darwin's " Ammals and Plants," voLii., chap. XX., p. 209. t The aboTe statements have been often made, and the quotations in Latin might be given, as they have been by Dr. Smith, V.P.S.A., Scotland, in their "Transactions," vol. ix., pp. 608, 609; but I have preferred to WELSS WHITE OATTLE. 107 The Welsh white cattle with red ears were brought into further notoriety by the present of 400 such cows and one bull which Maude de Brense made to the queen of King John, in order to purchase peace for her offend- ing lord. Speed has been mentioned as the authority for this statement; the real authority is Hollinshed, in whose Chronicles it is said : — "Anno 1211. We read ia an old historie of Flanders, written by one whose name was not known, but printed at Lions by Gruillaume Eouille, in the year 1562, that the said ladie, wife to the Lord WiUiam de Brense, presented upon a time unto the Queene of England a gift of f oure hundred kiae and one bull, of coulour all white, the eares excepted, which were red. Although this tale may seem incredible, yet if we shall consider that the said Brense was a Lord Marcher, and had good possessions in Wales and on the marshes, in which countries the most part of the peoples' sub- stance consisteth in cattell, it may carry with it the more Kkelihood of truth." * I have been fortunate enough to discover the work referred to by HoUinshed as his authority: — "Chronique de Flanders, ancienne- ment composee par Auteur Incertaia, et nouvellement mise en lumiere par Denis Sauvage de Fontenailles en Brie, Historiographe due Tres-chrestien Eoy Henry, second de ce nom. A Lyon, par GruiUaume Eouille, a I'exen de Venise. — M.D.LXH." The editor says, in gire this very dear and condensed acconnt, taken from an unpublished paper of Mr. Boyd Dawkins, which he has kindly placed at my disposal Tonatt further states that, " when the Cambrian princes did homage to the Xing of England, the same number of cattle and of the same de- scription were rendered in acknowledgment of sovereignty ; " but no authority is given for this statement. * Raphael Hollinshed : " Chronicles," 1586 (first published 1577), vol. iii., p. 174. 108 WILD WEITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. \m address to tlie readers, that he discovered this " Chronicle " in the library of an ancient house in the County of Burgundy, belonging to " Monsieur Charles de Poupet, Chevalier et Signeur de la Chause, Crevecoeur, Eoiches, Bayune, et Melaree," who was high in office successively at the court of Charles VIII. of France, Don Philip of Castile, and of the Emperor Charles V. It was written " en feuilles de parchemin, et de gros papier entremesles, monstre une lettre assez antique," and without the author's name. Monsieur Sauvage softened down "rude" expressions, and changed ancient phrases and forms of speaking. The passage referred to is given in a note below, * and exactly con- firms the statement of Hollinshed. This work seems to have been considered of considerable authority, and to have been used by Froissart and others. Before I close this brief history of the ancient white cattle with red ears of Wales, I will make one or two remarks upon it. The notices of them seem to show that the localities they inhabited were principally the * " Chronique de Mandres," chap, rvii., p. 42. In this chapter, relating principally to King John, the author, after stating that the king had wished to appoint an Archbishop of Canterbury contrary to the liberty of the Church, and that his land (" terre ") was put under an interdict, thus proceeds : — "Dedans cest entredit, Tindret nonvelles au Roy Jehan, que ceui d'Trlande estoient rebeUes : dont incontinent appareiUa sa nauire, pour aler en Yrlande. Mais aia9ois ala sur un haut home des marches des GaUes, qn'on appeloit GuUlaome de Briuse. La femme de celni fert une fois present i, la S/oyne de quatre-cent vaches, et un taureau : qui toutes estoient blanches, f ors leurs oreUles : qui estoient rouges." This present was unfortunately of little use ; and eventually, the husband being in France, "Mahaut sa fenune " fled, with her son William, to the castle of her father, WiUiam de Blancy, in Ireland. This the Mug stormed ; and though she and her son escaped at first to the Isle of Man, they were taken, and brutally starred to death in Windsor Castle, where they were confined. TEE TWO WULSH BREEDS. 109 lower sea-lying parts of the counties of Pembroke and Carmarthen, in which last " Dynevwr " is situated ; on the borders of the Bristol Channel; and also the extreme northern parts of the country, on the coasts of the Irish Sea, opposite to Anglesea, where was Aberfraw. We have no reason to believe, from the historical notices we have, that they occupied the intermediate, far larger, and more mountainous part of Wales. On the contrary, the smaller black breed, the native cattle of Wales, possessed the country as a whole, and has finally exterminated the others. In South Wales it is remark- able that the white cattle seem to have been primarily derived from the neighbourhood of its most westerly point; there they held their ground the longest, especially in the country round Pembroke, Haverfordwest, and Milford Haven, the extreme point of South Wales. It is singular, too, that even now great osteologists, like Riitimeyer, consider the Pembroke cattle descendants of the Bosprimi^enitis, while they class the other Welsh cattle as representatives of the longifrons. The same is true of the northern branch of this white race. The kingdom of Aberfraw was close to Anglesea, and pro- bably included it, and the cattle of Anglesea were more nearly allied to, and more closely resembled, those of Pembroke than any others in Wales. One of two things we must, I think, suppose : either these white domes- ticated cattle found their way into Wales by the cele- brated port of Milford Haven, used in every age as a port of importation, and by the ports of North Wales ; or they are connected with British Druidism, whose last strongholds were Pembrokeshire and Anglesea ; or they owe their origin to both causes combined. One thing seems to me most apparent : that they were not derived 110 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. from England, and had no connection, except such as tbe Hungarian or Tuscan cattle had, with the British wild cattle — ^namely, descent in remote ages from a common source. I cannot conceive, as some have done, the possibility of the Brit- Welsh being willing, or even able, to accumulate during ages of internecine war large herds of a breed of cattle obtained from their most deadly and generally victorious enemies, the Anglo-Saxons. And the improbability of such a thing seems reduced to a certainty of its being impossible when we consider, first, that these cattle have always been most prevalent in those parts of Wales which were the farthest removed from England ; and then, that though the Anglo-Saxon cattle were, with certain modi- fications, very probably descended from the Urus, we have no reason to suppose that they were generally white, but quite the contrary : the only accredited instance, I believe, of the Anglo-Saxons possessing domestic cattle of this colour, as a race, being the " Custom of Ejiightlow Cross," to which I have just alluded. The true solution seems to be that the Welsh white cattle with red ears, both in North and South Wales, whatever was their pristine origin, appeared first in the extremest parts of both, midtiplied by degrees, and finally extended along the sea-coasts and the river- valleys, though only to a limited extent, into some of the neighbouring English counties. One such herd, possibly derived from this source, existed imtil lately at Yale Royal, on the westerly side of Cheshire, half-way between North wich and the Forest of Delamere, which, in the time of Leland, abounded with deer. This was formerly a monastic house of con- siderable importance, and was granted, in the thirty- TEE VALE ROYAL EEBD. Ill third year of King Henry VIII., to Sir Thomas Hol- crof t ; in whose family it continued for two generations, till purchased in 1616 by Lady Cholmondeley, called by King James, who visited her here in 1617, "the bold ladie of Cheshire,"" and in the possession of whose descendants, the Lords Delamere, it stiU remains. Here was an ancient domestic herd of white cattle with red ears, which, though now crossed out and extinct, was kept up, partially pure only, in the time of the late lord. They are supposed to have belonged to the Abbey ; and a singular tradition, the truth of which the late Lady Delamere believed she had verified, was prevalent, to the effect that some of Cromwell's troopers drove off most of them, but that one cow, after being driven with the rest seven or eight mUes, escaped from them and returned home. They were white with red ears, and were in all probability derived from North Wales, as from thence the original monks of Yale Eoyal came. There is one singular case of a white domestic breed in the eastern part of England, but it is a comparatively modem one, and nothing can be discovered respecting its origin or antiquity. Professor Low mentions that, when he wrote, cattle of this sort were "in considerable numbers between Stafford and Lichfield." And he says * " they were here destitute of horns, in which respect they resembled those which were kept at Eibblesdale " — Grisburne Park, I presume, is meant. The only authentication of this I have been able to procure is that, a good many years since, white cattle with small snags, which could scarcely be called horns, were very occasionally brought * " Domesticated Animals," chap, iii., p. 296. 112 WILD WHITE CATTLE. OF GREAT BRITAIN. from that district to sorae of the Midland fairs. Low says "they were of good size, and valued hy the farmers as dairy cows." They prohably derived their colour either from some remote cross of the wild blood, once abundant in that neighbourhood, or by descent from some importation into those parts of the "Welsh white tame race. I have already alluded to the "White Breed" of the Aislabies, of Studley Eoyal, near Eipon. Great as was the effect of this herd upon the domestic cattle of the country, nothing whatever has been yet ascertained with regard to its origin. I shall mention one circumstance, which shows the connection formerly existing between the families of Studley Eoyal and Chillingham, in the hope that it may, some day or other, lead to some due. When King Greorge I. ascended the throne in the spring of 1714, Lord Ossulston (who, in right of his wife, the heiress of the Greys of Wark, had recently inherited Chillingham) and John Aislabie, Esq., of Studley Eoyal, were both strong and influential Whigs. Mr. Aislabie was made Chancellor of the Exchequer; Lord Ossulston was raised, at the coronation, to the Earldom of Tanker- ville. A few years later the friendship of the families was further strengthened by the marriage of Mr. Aislabie's son and heir with the only daughter of the sixth Earl of Exeter, whose first wife (by whom he had no children) was the sister of the same Lord Ossulston.* In any future inquiry with regard to the breeding of the Studley white herd, I think it very desirable that the connection and probable intimacy of the Aislabies * The above particnlars are taken from Arthur Collins' "Peerage,'' vol. iii., 1768. EUGHIE THE GB^MK 113 with the proprietors of the ChiUiagham. wild cattle should not be forgotten. The only two other instances I have been able to obtain of ancient breeds of domesticated white cattle in England have both reference to Cumberland, and I suspect that in both the wild cattle have something to do with their origin. The following quotations from the old baUad of " Hughie the Graeme," * show pretty clearly the value placed upon "white stots" (young oxen) in the North at that time : — Stanza I. " Our lords are to the mountains gane, A hunting o' the fallo-w deer, And they hae grippit Hughie Graeme For stealing o' the bishop's mare.'' Stanza IV, " Up then bespake the brave WHtefoord, As he sat by the bishop's knee, ' Five htmdred white stots I'll gie you. If ye'U let Hughie Graeme gae free.'" The bishop refuses, and declares Hughie Grrseme shall die; upon which Whitefoord's wife pleads with the bishop : — " Up then bespake the fair Whitefoord, As she sat by the bishop's knee, * Five hundred white pence I'U gie you, If ye'U gie Hughie Graeme to me.' " The bishop stUl refused, and Hughie was hanged. Many original copies of this ballad existed, so^ie in * " Songs and Ballads of Cumberland," edited by Sidney Gilpin, 1866. I 114 WILD WSTTH CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. black letter. * Sir Walter Scott supposes the date to be about 1553; be gives another version of tbe same ballad, with several variations, in bis " Border Min- strelsy." Tbe most important of these is that Lord Hume — who, instead of Wbitefoord, entreatsj not the bishop, but the judge, for Hughie Graeme's release — offers "twenty white owsen " (oxen), which seems more probable than " five hundred white stots ; " but both equally prove the existence of such a breed in that country at that time, and that it was one of superior value. Another white Cumberland herd, whose existence may perhaps throw light on the preceding ballad, remains yet to be noticed. It has unfortunately altogether disap- peared ; but its cattle must have been splendid animals, and the following description of them, by one who knew them well, would lead one strongly to believe that they had a very large infusion of the wild blood : — " The Lyrick breed, which emanated from the Hall of that name at the western foot of Skiddaw, were truly a beautiful race, with fine spreading boms, and nearly pure white, except the ears and muzzle, which were dark brown, and a few small dark spots on the sides and legs. When seen in herds, their lively figure and lofty carriage rendered them probably as ornamental a kind of cattle as England produced at the time ; but their indifferent milking qualities hastened their extinction." f * One in the collection of the Duke of EK)xburghe; another in the hands of John B^3me, Esq., irom a coUation of which the baUad, as given in Bitson's " Ancient Songs,'' was taken. Scott's copy was procured from his friend, Mr. W. Laidlaw, and had been long current in Selkirkshire. It was sent, as it here appears, to the " Scot's Musical Museum " by Bums, whose version was derived from oral tradition. + William Dickinson's Prize Essay, " On the Farming of Gnmberland : " TEE LTRIGK BALL EUBD. 115 I have since seen a letter from Mr. W. L. Dickinson, tlie writer of the above, dated Thorncroft, June 17th, 1876, and addressed to Mr. Jefferson, Preston Hows. It completely corroborates his previous statement, but adds little to it. It tells us, however, that " the Lyrick Hall herd was a lofty and handsome herd of forty or fifty head," and that they had " a few dark spots on the fore-legs, mostly below the knee, and a very few on the sides." Nothing seems known as to their origin; but as respecting their extinction, the impossibility of getting " a change of blood " for them had as much to do with it as any imperfection in their milking qualities. They finally got mixed with the Long-horns of the day, and " were lost or absorbed." Mr. Dickinson adds : — " Besides myself, there are very few living who have seen the Lyrick herd, and it is well on to threescore years since I enjoyed the sight of it. I do not know any one likely to give you further information." Lyrick HaU is near Keswick, and it appears likely that its cattle were related to the " white owsen" and " white stots " of the Border Ballads, some two cen- turies and a half before " the Lyricks " came to an end. Tashion had changed in the interval; and the white cattle, so highly valued at the earlier period, excellent as they continued to be, were quite undervalued in later times. Yet here, in the wilds of Cumberland, at the beginning of this century, still remained a domes- ticated ox of the Urus type — in colour, style, and loffcy carriage closely resembling the Hungarian — a cultivated Jnwrnal of tlie Royal Agricultural Society of England, vol. xiii., p. 250. H. H. Dixon says, in " Saddle and Sirloin," chap, iv., p. 92, that their " smart figure and carriage " rendered them, very valuable " for topping the dealer's lots." I 2 116 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GBEAT BRITAIN. Chillingliain ox. What a pity it is that so little is known of its origin and history, and that no good pictures of this nohle animal have been preserved. Here, where at last we find the wild and the domestic white ox blending into one, we appropriately close the general ancient history of both in England, and, crossing the Borders, foUow them into Scotland. CHAPTEE VI. The Wild White Cattle in Ancient Scotland — ^Former Wildness of the Country — Purity and Trustworthiness of Highland Traditions — Traces of White Cattle in Local Names — Allusions iu Sir Walter Scott's Works — "Dun- craggan'.B Milk-white BuU " — ^Description by Boethius of the Wild BuU — The Tumbull liCgend — ^Boethius confirmed by other Testimony on the most disputed Points — Bellenden and Leslie regarding the Bull's " Mane " — Localities mentioned by Bishop Leslie — Clear Distinction drawn by him be- tween the Wild White Cattle and the Kyloe Breed — Discoveries of Bones of the Urus in Scotland — Their comparatively smaU Size — Desirability of further Livestigation by Geologists. We cross the Cheviots, and enter Scotland — ^in every age the land of the bold, the noble, and the free. Its northern and western mountains held those Picts and Dalriadian Scots, who, amalgamating, have produced the modem Highlanders, apt descendants of their fathers — ^the men who, when Grermany was subdued and Helvetia enslaved, were the last "champions of freedom;"* who resisted the serried masses of the Eoman legions; preserved intact their own mountain homes; and eventually, assuming the offensive, helped to drive Eome and its Imperators out of Britain. Such, in ancient time, was proud and free Caledonia; such she was in long later ages, when from her southern provinces, so happily incorporated with her northern, the Wallace first sprang up ; and then the Bruce, the Douglas, and a host of other heroes, who, * Tacitus : " Agricola," chap, xxx., §. 4. Galgacas, when addressing the Caledonian troops at the foot of the Grampians, says : — " Nos ter- raram ac libertatis extremos recessns ipse ac sinns famae in hunc diem defendit." 118 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. supported by chiefs of ancient Pictish and Scottish blood, finally, after unnumbered reverses, with their backs to the Highland hUls, like their ancestors under Galgacus, annihilated in the greatest defeat England ever suffered, her whole power launched against them on the field of Bannockbum. Such, too, their descen- dants still remain — ^bold, vigorous, and free ; and though what Nature required was at last accomplished, and Great Britain became one kingdom, it was Scotland that gave Aer native race of kings to consummate this happy union. I have before sketched briefly the extreme wHdness of this country in ancient times. The whole of Scotland,^ from north to south, and from east to west, was little more in ancient days than one continuous wood, so extensive that, as Ve have seen, the Caledonian Wood and the bears it produced were well known at B^me ; and probably all the better, because the Bomans were never able to penetrate into its inmost recesses, and only held its outskirts partially for a short and inconsiderable period. Its dales, glens, straths, and curses the Picts and Scots inhabited ; its inaccessible rocks were their fortresses, and its interminable forests and wastes their hunting grounds. The nature of the country they inhabited may be faintly estimated from two accounts of two parishes, written by their respective ministers, and g^ven in Sir John Sinclair's " Statistical Account of Scotland," published at the close of the last century.* * Sir John Sinclair's " Statistical Account of Scotland " came out in periodical volumes, from 1792 to 1801, in which latter year the twenty-one volumes were completed and published by the Eoard of Agriculture, of which Sir John was President. It was drawn up from the communica- tions of the ministers of the different parishes, but in a few cases the reports were made by other persons. WILDNUSS OF ANCIENT SCOTLAM). 11&. The parish of Laggan (in Badenoch., county of Inver- ness) extends from north-east to south-west, upwards of twenty miles, but the breadth of the inhabited part is only about three miles. It is bounded on the north by " Monadh-Liadh," or the Grrey Mountain — a prodigious ridge of inaccessible rocks, — and various rivers, rising in the Grampians, run through it. Loch Laggan lies on the south-west extremity of the parish ; it is very deep, with a bold rocky shore, and it is surrounded with woody mountains. On the south side is the " Coil More," or Great Wood, the most considerable relic of the great Caledonian Forest. This wood, which extends five miles along the loch side, is the scene of many traditions. At the east end of the loch are two islands, one of them much smaller than the other. On the larger are the side walls still remaining of a very ancient building, made of common round stones, but cemented with mortar. This is said to be the place where the kings of the Picts retired from hunting and feasted on their game. The neighbouring island, which is called "Eilean nan Con," or the Island of Bogs, is said to be the place where the hounds were confined. In the middle of the parish is a perpendicular rock, upwards of one hundred yards in height, and most difficult of access, yet with remains of fortifications upon it ; while in the wood south of the loch is a place long held sacred, which, it is said, is the burial- place of seven ancient Caledonian kings. These kings, tradition says, always came here to hunt with their retinue and hounds during the greater part of the summer ; and the time assigned is about the period when the Scots were driven by the Picts beyond the Tay, and had their seat of government at Dunkeld. Still larger and as wild is the parish of Kilmonivaig, 120 WILD WEITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. county of Inverness — in length sixty miles, in greatest breadth twenty. Here was the ancient Castle of Inver- lochy — in the time of Edward I. occupied by the Cummings, previously by the Thanes of Lochaber, and among others by the noted Banquo, and still earlier, it is said, by the kings of the Scots. In ancient times, and even tiU within the eighteenth century, the valley was covered with wood.* Farther south still remains "The Black Wood of Kannoch" — of fir — ^another old relic of the great Cale- donian Wood. But it is useless to multiply examples ; the wild nature of the country is well known, and the immense range of its forests is matter of history. Besides deer and more ordinary game, we know that they contained in early times the bear,- that even so lately as 1578+ they were full of numerous and most ferocious wolves; and that in comparatively recent times the capercailzie,! which requires extensive pine forests like those of Norway for its subsistence, was also common. Here too, imdoubtedly, during the Middle Ages, abounded Scotland's noblest game, the white wild bull. Whatever may have been the case in Southern England, here unquestionably he roamed at large and flourished tiU comparatively recent times. Possibly this was his aboriginal home, and he may perhaps by degrees, when troublous times favoured his migrations, * The report of the parish of Laggan ("Statistical Account of Scotland") was made by the Eev. Mr. James Grant, parish minister, vol. iii., pp. 145 — 152 ; that of Kibnonivaig by Kev. Mr. Thomas Boss, minister, toL xvii., pp. 543 — 550. t Bishop Leslie's " De Origine, Moribns, et Bebns gestis Scotorum," published in that year. J The capercailzie, having become extinct in Scotland, was successfully re-introduced from Norway by the late Marquis of Breadalbane, and naturalised in the woods which sorroand Taymouth Castle. VALUE OF 800TTISH TRADITION. 121 have occupied the still more southern ranges, which we know he also inhahited; hut whether this was so or not, few persons, I presume, are likely to deny that the Hamilton and ChiUingham cattle are either his relatives or descendants. The only question can be his own extraction. Tradition carries him back to the times of the Pictish kings; while ancient historians describe hiia, though still existing when they wrote, yet as verging towards extinction, and in olden times much more numerous. The Vice-President * of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries admits, led thereto by discoveries made of late years, that the Urus {£os primigenius) may have existed in the North of Scotland for several hundred years after Christ. So that history and tradition would seem to unite in carrying the wild bull back to a time when, in the North of Scotland at least, the Urus may have been still there, and thus tend to confirm the general belief that the one is descended from the other — a behef much strengthened by the osteological ex- aminations of Professor Eiitimeyer and others, and by the remarkable resemblance the wild cattle bear, as we have seen, to the Hungarian and other races of Eastern Europe, the admitted descendants of the ancient Urus. And it should be borne in mind that these Scottish traditions do not represent the fading and changing memories of some Lowland district, but the recollections of an ancient and remote mountain race, which until 1745 never was completely conquered, and which had handed down for centuries, from father to son, its language, its history, its songs, and its customs. All of these had * Dr. John Alexander Smith : "Proceed. Soc. Antiq , Scotland," toL ii., part iL, p. 587, &c. 122 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. continued from tlie earliest historical period, and were retained with, unswerving tenacity and fidelity. Surely, then, its traditional belief in the indigenous origin of Scotland's wild white bull carries with it much weight, confirmed as it is by other evidence. These traditional beliefs remained a few years since very vivid, and they bore very strongly upon the antiquity of the wdld white race. A Scottish corre- spondent, upon whom I can fully depend,* says : — " The recesses of the old Caledonian Forest were in the central Highlands, where traces of it still remain. I was most familiar with its localities, having spent my youth-time in the Highlands of Perthshire, and I often heard, when a boy, about the white oxen. I can recall the name of a mountain slope between Eannoch and Lochaber — Leac^ — ^na^ — ba^ — giU/ the Gaelic for shelving rock^ (or stony slope) — of the^ — white* — ox* (or cow)." But perhaps of all others Sir Walter Scott, the great Scottish antiquarian of his day, who so faithfully represents the manners, habits, and opinions of his countrymen, is the most authentic expositor of their traditions on this as on other points. I have already quoted, from his romance of " Castle Dangerous," the account of a mediaeval hunt of "the wild cattle peculiar to Scotland;" and at the head of my chapter on the Hamilton cattle a further quotation will be given from his well-known poem of " Cadzow Castle." But his works, as might be expected when the subject was of such national interest, have other allusions to the subject. When, in " The Lord of the Isles," Lord Eonald of the Isles * Quoted from a letter addressed to me by Mr. A. C. Cameron, MA., of rettercaim, County of Kincardine, the author of a yaluable paper in the " Highland Society's Transactions." Fourth Series, toL t., 1873. SIR WALTER SCOTT. 123 guides up the rocky pass the supposed page Amadine, but really Edith of Lorn, the chieftain asks her — " Dost'thoTi not rest thee on my axm ? Do not my plaid-folds hold thee warm t Hath not the wild bull's treble hide This targe for thee and me supplied ? " * One ordinary use to which the hide of the wild bull was applied is here alluded to. 'Not must we forget the beautiful description, in " The Lady of the Lake/' of the way in which the island home of the banished Douglas was adorned : — " For all aroimd, the walls to grace, Hung trophies of the fight or chase : A target there, a bugle here, A battle-axe, a himting spear, And broadswords, bows, and arrows store, "With the tusk'd trophies of the boar. Here grins the wolf as when he died. And there the wild-cat's brindled hide The frontlet of the elk adorns, Or mantles o'er the bison's horns." f The bison here is the wild bull, frequently, though improperly called so, both in ancient and in modem times, for the true bison has not existed in Scotland, or even in Great Britain, during the historic period. In another of his works, " The Bride of Lammer- moor,"J Sir Walter makes the wild bull figure in his story, though at a later period, when he had become a park animal. He gives, however, a sketch of the * "The Lord of the Isles," canto v., stanza 18. t " The Lady of the Lake," canto i., stanza 27. J Chapter v. 124 WILD WHITE OATTLH OF GREAT BRITAIN. ancient history and then state of the wild cattle, and calls them " the descendants of the savage herds which anciently roamed free in the Caledonian forests." Many of my readers will remember the " Hfe-like description which follows of the wild bull, " stimulated either by the scarlet colour of Miss Ashton's mantle, or by one of those fits of capricious ferocity to which their, disposi- tions are liable," detaching himself suddenly from the group with which he was feeding, and approaching " the intruders on his pasture ground, at first slowly, pawing the ground with his hoof, bellowing from time to time, and tearing up the sand with his horns, as if to lash himself up to rage and violence ;" and how at last he pursued at full speed the unfortunate lord keeper and his daughter. The last quotation I shall give is peculiarly striking, not so much as alluding to the wild cattle, for " Dun- craggan's milk-white bull" is not represented as being of this race, though the poet, when describing biTn as " so fierce, so tameless, and so fleet," wishes, I think, to indicate his descent from or relationship to it. But its peculiar value consists in the description of an ancient custom, which assumed the character of a reli- gious rite, and which had come down from the times of the Druids ; the rite being accompanied — as was the custom among the Druids themselves in their most important ceremonies — ^by the slaughter of a white bull. I can scarcely doubt that Sir Walter had aU this in his mind when he wrote — " It is, because last evening-tide Brian an augury hath tried, Of that dread kind which must not be Unless in dread extremity. " DUNGBAGGAN'8 MILK-WHITE BULL." 125 The Taghaimi call'd ; by which, afar, Our sires foresa-w the events of war. Duncraggaa's miLk--white bull they sle-w." The wizard was wrapped in tlie reeking hide, and being laid on the verge of the foaming cataract, there awaited the prophetic inspiration, as his Pagan ancestors would have done hundreds of years before. The poet, it must be remembered, describes a ceremony which actually existed among the Highlanders ; and one which, among many others, shows us how strongly their minds were impressed with the remembrance of the past. To a great extent the traditions of the Scotch gene- rally, and of the Highlanders especially, were eminently historical; encumbered, it may be, with many myths and fables, as the early histories of all nations are, yet founded upon fact. Upon no circumstance is Scottish tradition everywhere more uniform in its testimony, than with regard to the great antiquity and prolonged continuance of its wild mountain buU, on which it so justly prided itself; while Scott, in his writings, may be said to have embodied these traditions. Bat now we approach the period of authentic history, and that verifies and confirms them. A barbarous and savage country like Scotland, engaged in perpetual wars, bad, of course, few early historians ; its bards and scalds, as among all northern nations, chronicled its records in their memory and recited them in their effusions. Of its recognised historians. Hector Boethius was one of the earliest, and he gives a graphic description of the wild bull, which confirms the traditional accounts. His " Scotorum Historiae, a prima Grentis Origine," was first pubKshed * " The Lady of the Lake," canto iv,, stanza 4. 126 WILB WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BBITAIN. in Paris in 1526-7 ; that is, exactly three hundred and fifty yeai's since ; but as he was then fifty-six, having been born in 1470, his personal recollections must have gone back to a time nearly four hundred years antecedent to the present. Boethius was a contemporary of Leland, whose journeys throughout England commenced a few years later, and who alludes to the wild bulls in that country. The celebrated passage in the work of Boethius in which reference is made to them is as follows : — * " Near to Argyle and Lennox, in the midst of Scot- land, lies the district of Stirliug and Monteith, not far from which is the town of the same name — Stirling — with its very strong castle, called sometime the Dolorous Mountain. Here formerly was the commencement of the Caledonian Wood, the ancient names of Callander and Calder still remaining ; it covered a great tract of country, running through Monteith and Strathearn, as far as Athol and Lochaber. That wood used to produce bulls of the purest white, having manes like that of the lion ; and though in other parts of the body they very much resembled tame cattle, they were stiU so wild and untamable, and so desirous to avoid all intercourse with man, that when they perceived that any herbs, trees, or fruits had been touched by man's hand, they fled from them for many succeeding days. When captured skilfally (which, however, is a most * " Scotorum Historise," &c. : Paris, 1574 fok. xi. and xiL I have, however, collated it with the first edition, Paris, 1526. This work of Boethius was translated into the Scottish vernacular by John Bellen- den, Archdeacon of Moray, in 1553, and into English by Raphael Hol- Unshed, in 1585 ; but in both cases so nnliterally, that I have ventured to give, both in this passage from. Boethius, and in those which follow from Bishop Leslie, my own translation. TSU TUENBULL LEGHND. 127 dif&cult matter to accomplish), in a very short time they would die of grief. If, however, they iSind that they are pursued, they rush with the greatest impetuosity against any man, and soon prostrate him, fearing neither dogs, nor spears, nor any other weapon. " It is related, too, that Eobert Bruce, after he had obtained the kingdom, and peace was restored, had a narrow escape from death while hunting for the sake of recreation. For while wandering about somewhat negligently, wherever inclination led him, and apart from his companions, there met and attacked him a bull of this breed which had been wounded by a spear, and which, impelled by rage, threatened him with imme- diate destruction ; nor was there any way in which the king could escape from the impending danger. But while all looked on, stupefied with fear, a certain man, instantly resolving to sacrifice his life for the king, seized the wild animal by the horns ; and resisting him with his utmost strength, not only stopped his im- petuous course, but, unhurt himself, with great valour prostrated the beast upon the ground, where it was immediately despatched by the spears of the attendants, who ran in : and thus he was the means of averting the death which threatened the king. * Grrateful for the preservation of his life, the king endowed him richly, and willed that thereafter he should be called Tuknbull, which means — The man who overthrew the bull. There still exist families of this name of no incon- siderable rank, whose name and fortunes, it is said, have their first origin from him. " The flesh of these animals is most pleasant eating, and especially grateful to the noblesse ; but though, they * See Appendix. 128 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. "were bred formerly tkrougliout all that wood, they are only found now in one part of it, called Cumbernauld, having been universally slaughtered in all others by the gluttonous lust of man." It has been the fashion among some eminent men to consider this account exaggerated, and the writer him- self credulous,* and an instance has been given of his relating an absurd story of a " terrible beast " which in the year 1510, came out of "a loch of Argyle ;" but it should be remembered that this improbable narra- tive was given, not on his own authority, but on that of Sir Duncan Campbell. It must indeed be admitted that the early writers of all nations have been too credulous, and too apt to embrace without hesitation or examination any popular story which was handed down to them. Every age has its literary errors ; and perhaps that of our own age is a species of stilted scepticism which leads many to deny the truth of every historical circumstance that cannot be proved by vsrritten evidence, and to reject all testimony, however cumulative, which is merely circumstantial. But in this case the statement of Boethius with regard to the mountain bull of Scotland will bear the strictest and closest examination. It has an unmistakable likeness to Caesar's description of the TJrus in the Hyrcinian Forest, and a comparison of the two is in favour of Boethius. Each described an animal Hving when he wrote; but Csesar one in a country remote from his * So Dr. Robertson, the learned historian of Scotland, pronounced Boethins to be; but then he seems to have been quite incapable of estimating the value of antiquarian researches, for he intimates that early Scottish history " ought to be totally neglected, or abandoned to the industry and credulity of antiquaries." (" History of Scotland," book i) CREDIBILITY OF BOETEWS. 129 home, and at the very outside of his conquests ; Boethius one then existing at Cumbernauld, in a straight line only about thirty miles from Edinburgh, respecting which, even if it came not — as probably it did — within his personal cognisance, he had means of procuring information far superior to Caesar's. And the result shows the greater credibility of Boethius ; for while there is no internal evidence to show any exaggeration in his statements with regard to the inhabitants of the Caledonian Wood, Gsesar gave the most absurdly fabulous account of two animals in the HyrcLnian Forest, which are supposed to be the rein- deer and the elk.* The first he describes as having " one horn only rising from the middle of its forehead ;" the other as being " broken-homed, and without joints and articulations in their legs," so that "if they laid or tumbled down, they never could get up again," and therefore used " the trees for their beds, and took their repose reclining gently against them." Primarily, Caesar's account of the Hyrcinian TJrus is clearly, when you take into consideration the, incredible statements he made with regard to other animals in the same forest, far less trustworthy than that of Boethius respecting the Caledonian mountain bull ; but as regards the Urus, Caesar's narrative was confirmed * "Osesar. Comment.," lib. ti., chap. xxvi. : — "Est bos cervi fignra, cajns a media fronte inter anres nnum comu exsistit, excelsius magisqne ■ directom his, quae nobis nota sont comibus. Ab ejus snmmo, sicnt paJnue, ramique late difEundtmtttr," &c. And chap, xxvii. : — " Sunt item qnas appeUantur alces. Eaxum est consimUis capris fignra et rarietas pellinm, sed magnitadine panUo antecedunt : mutilseqne sunt cornibus, et crura sine nodis articulisque habent : neque quietis causa proeumbunt, neque, si quo . afflictse casn conciderunt, erigere sese ant sublevare possnnt. His sunt arbores pro cnbilibus : ad eas se applicant, atque ita, paullum modo reclinatse, quietem capinnt," &c. 130 WILD WEITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. by independent testimony. So also was that of Boethius. The principal points which are supposed to be exaggerated in the above quotation from Boethius are that the Scotch forest bull had a mane " like that of the lion " (" in formam leonis "), and that he would avoid for a length of time whatever had been " touched by man's hand." But the truth of both of these supposed exaggera- tions has been fully proved. The existence of the mane is fully confirmed by Scottish testimony of but a few years subsequently, as will be shortly shown ; while in my account of the ChiUingham herd it will be seen, from my own observations, that their descendants have them now, though to a diminished extent, and extending over exactly those parts of the body which the mane of the lion covers. It will be shown there that Sir Edwin Landseer (one of the best of judges) considered this one of their most peculiarly distinctive features, and that when Bewick (one of the most faithful of delineators) engraved, eighty-seven years since, the ChiUingham bull, this remarkable feature was much more clearly marked than it is now. As respects their avoidance of whatever had been touched by man, and the keenness of their sense of smell, numerous modern instances bear testimony to the correctness of the state- ment. Even domestic cattle have, as every observing breeder knows, the most highly developed sense of smeU ; but in the wild cattle this peculiarity is intensi- fied, and, as in other wild animals, upon the acuteness of this sense, combined with those of seeing and hearing, they principally depend for protection from their foes. Mr. H. H. Dixon, when describing the B0ETEIU8 COBBOBOEATJED. 131 Chillingliam cattle, says :— " Their sense of smell is exceedingly acute, and a cow has been seen to run to a man's foot like a sleuth-hound when he had run for his life to a tree." * The same accurate observer informs us that if a Chillingham calf " has been housed, it takes nearly two months to take off the tame smell." And a most remarkable instance of this kind has come to my knowledge lately. I am informed by Mr. Jacob Wilson, the steward of the Chillingham estate, that for experimental purposes a domestic cow was, a short time since, introduced to one of the Chilling- ham bulls under the most favourable circumstances. Though she was quite prepared to give him encourage- ment, he would take no notice whatever of her, and the Chillingham people ascribed this curious result to one thing only : that she had lately been handled by man, and that the wild buU could not endure that smell.f Nothiag can more completely confirm the truth of the record of Boethius, or show how intensely abhorrent to the wild cattle is the scent of man. It may be admitted, indeed, that these and other instances of their ferocity and wildness do not necessarily establish their aboriginal wild origin, for undoubtedly domestic cattle which had become feral, and contiuued so through many successive generations, would regain this and other characteristics * " Saddle and Sirloin," chap. Vi., p. 137. f This experiment has since been repeated, and more snccessfuU^. A wild bnll (captured for the purpose) was iu the autumn of 1876 in- troduced to two or three Short-horn females. At first he showed a dis- position to Tnll one or two of them. In the end, a heifer was left with hivn for three weeks, at the end of which time — owing, it is supposed, to the smell of man having passed aS — he took to her. From this and subsequent similar experiments, some young animals resulted, a description of which is given at p. 217. — ^Ed. J 2 132 WILD WHITE GATTLE OF QBE AT BRITAIN. of the truly wild animal. This, however, proves nothing either way. There is nothing to indicate that Boethius exaggerated, but much to show that he did not. It must indeed be allowed that similar descriptions of the Bos (or, as they often called it. Bison) Scoticus, published abroad some years afterwards by the foreign writers, Paulus Jovius, Gresner, and Aldrovandus, and also those in the work of John Jonston,' M.D. (published at Amsterdam in 1657, when the Scottish bull, as a forest animal, was well nigh extinct), add little or nothing to strengthen the statements of Boethius. They appear — as might have been expected from the circumstances of the authors — ^to have taken him as their authority, and to have copied from him almost literatim. But it was far otherwise with eminent Scottish writers who immediately succeeded him. John Bellenden was Archdeacon of Moray, a part of the country closely contiguous to that which the wild bull formerly inhabited, and must have been well acquainted with its history and its form. He translated the work of Boethius into the Scottish vernacular only twenty-seven years after its first publication — ^namely, in the year 1553 — which I cannot but think was strong evidence of its value. Nay, he did more than this ; on the very point most at issue — ^the lion-like manes of these bulls — he added peculiar and remarkable words of his own which were not in the original, but which aptly describe even yet the hair on the necks of the Chillingham bulls. He says their mane was " crisp and curland," an addition to the description of Boethius which probably resulted from his own knowledge and observation. A few years later, in 1578, a most eminent Scotsman, Leslie, Bishop of D m a K o m Is w a 13 ta o O ffi S5 R CO P5 m BISHOP LESLIE'S TESTIMONY. 135 Ross, published in Latin at Rome his work entitled, " De Online, Moridm, et Bebm ffestis Scotorum" His mature age at the time, and great attainments, still more the part of the country where the See of Ross was situated, make his opinion of the greatest value, and he entirely confirms the statements already given. In 1561 he was the commissioner from the Scottish Roman Catholics to wait on Queen Mary, then in France ; he afterwards did aU he could to alleviate and, if possible, to terminate her imprisonment in England ; he was her chief commissioner at the conferences of both Tork and Westminster; signed on her behalf the articles of agreement for her proposed marriage with the Duke of Norfolk ; and finally, for joining in a conspiracy with that nobleman against Queen Elizabeth in 1571, he was "committed to the Tower, treated with the utmost rigour, threatened with capital punishment, and, after a long confinement, set at liberty, on condition that he should leave the kingdom." Dr. Robertson calls him Mary's "ambassador at the English Court," and repre- sents him as being " equally eminent for his zeal and his abilities.^' * It seems difficult to suppose that such a man's description of the Scottish wild buU was, as has been sometimes asserted, a mere transcript of that of Boethius, though in its outline and mode of treatment it is very similar, and some of its expressions are probably de- rived from that source. Even if it had been, it would be the testimony of an independent witness perfectly cognisant of the subject on which he wrote. The account of Bishop LesHe, after describing Stirling and Monteith, * The whole of the above quotations, and also the previons particnlars with regard to Bishop Leslie, are taken from rarious places in Dr. Kobertson's " History of Scotland." 136 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GBEAT BRITAIN. and relating tliat "from these regions that formerly- most vast Caledonian Wood took its origin," notices the extinction of the bears, of which it was once, according to ancient writers, extremely' full (" refertissimam "), and after farther mentioning that it still had "wolves in great numbers, and of the most savage kind," proceeds as foUows : — " In Caledonia there was formerly common, but now more rare, a kind of forest bull, which, of the purest white in colour, carries a mane, thick and hanging down, like that of the Hon. It is fierce and savage, abhors the human race; and anything that man has either touched or breathed upon, for many days it altogether avoids. Besides this, so great was the audacity of this bull, that not only would it when irritated madly overthrow horsemen, but even when provoked ever so little, it would attack all men pro- miscuously, both with horns and hoofs, and it would utterly despise the attacks of our dogs, which are of the most ferocious kind. Its flesh is cartilaginous, but of the sweetest flavour. It was formerly common through- out that most vast Caledonian Wood, but, destroyed by man's gluttony, it remains in three places only : Stirling, Cumbernauld, and Elincardine." It win be observed that there is considerable resem- blance in the descriptions of the -vdld btdl, as given by Boethius and Bishop Leslie; but not more than was natural when the two writers were describing the same animal, and when the later writer had, of course, read the description of the earlier. But the bishop's account, short as it is, adds many fresh particulars. It mentions the numerous bears with which the Caledonian Wood anciently abounded, and the very savage wolves which VALUE OF BISEOP LESLIE'S ACCOUNT. . 137 in his own time infested it. It describes mucli more fully thian BoetHus did tlie lion-lite mane of the Caledonian forest bull ; it relates how this bull was very sensitive to what man had not only touched, but even breathed upon ; how it attacked horsemen, and how it used as a weapon of ofPence the hoof as well as the horn ; and it enlarges upon the animal's contempt of dogs, however ferocious, while it says nothing about its indifference to spears and other weapons. But the most striking and complete difEerence between the two accounts is, that while Boethius mentioned one place only — Cumbernauld — where this wild bull still remained, the bishop named two others : Stirling and Kincardine. Upon this point he appears to have had the more full information. It is quite probable that in Leslie's time some of the wild bulls which had afforded sport to the Scottish kings when they made Stirling their residence were stiU preserved there; for more than a hundred years later Sibbald mentions Torwood, near Stirling, as one of the largest woods then remaining in Scotland. Where Kincardine was is not certain. There are several Kincardines ; but the one most likely meant is a small place of that name near Blair Drummond, and between Stirling and Callander, being exactly the same localities where the moimtain bull existed in the time of Robert Bruce, and where it was probably still preserved by the Scottish kings in the time of Bishop LesHe. It is singular that neither Boethius nor Leslie alludes to the wild cattle at Hamilton ; which, however, were beyond the range of the Caledonian Forest, and being also confined in a park, were perhaps in both respects outside their subject ; and this remark probably applies to other wild herds, then existing, but similarly circumstanced. 138 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. Sir Eobert Sibbald, M.D., in his " Scotia Dlustrata," published at Edinburgh in 1684, first threw doubts upon these descriptions of the forest bull, and said they " wanted confirmation :" a somewhat bold assertion from a man who coTild never have seen these animals in their wild state, since they were then, as such, nearly if not quite extinct, while the writers he contradicted lived contemporaneously with them. And he added : " In many places of the mountainous part of Scotland wild oxen are found, and white too, but not so savage or differing in form from domestic cattle." Now I must observe that we have no reason at all to suppose that the Kyloe or Highland breed of cattle were ever white, except in a few exceptional cases. Indeed, the great obstacle which those have to contend with who hold that these forest bulls were derived from cattle from the neighbouring domestic herds which had strayed and become feral is the difficulty — ^I might say, the impossi- bility — of showing how a small and uniformly dark race of cattle, in structure clearly allied to the Bos longifrons, could be the parents of a liarger breed, invariably of pure white, and descended, mainly at least, as osteological examinations clearly show, from the Bos primigenius. But in this case there is not much doubt, for, fortu- nately. Bishop LesHe, 106 years previously, describes also the semi-wUd Highland cattle to which Sibbald alludes, treating them as of quite a different species from the wild forest bull. I give the following trans- lation of the passage * : — " There are pastured, on the mountains of Argyle, * The learned Professor Fleming, in Ms "British Animals" (Edin- jburgh, 1828, p. 24), refers to this passage, and considers that the cattle here described were probably the parents of the domesticated breeds, still rather wild, yet existing in the same parts. BISHOP LESLIE ON EIGSLANB CATTLE. 139 in Eoss-slxire too, and in very many otlier places, cows which are not tame as elsewhere, but which wander about like stags, avoiding with considerable natural wildness intercourse with or the sight o£ man. Scarcely, even in winter, when the snow is very deep and severe frost lasts long, are they recalled to the shelter of a roof. The wonderful sweetness and most delicate flavour of their flesh far exceed the expectation of those who have never tasted it : when the meat is cooked the fat does not set when it cools, like that of other cattle, but for a few days is fluid, like oU. Many others of this breed are celebrated, but those which are sent to us fromCarrick* most of all. The herdsmen only retain the cow calves ; they never keep the bull calves, except single ones for single herds, for there they plough the land with horses. On the approach of winter, when the cows are very fat and plump, they are sent for sale into all parts of the kingdom ; but those which are killed for domestic use are preserved in salt till the following summer, as in other nations they do with pork, a kind of flesh which our countrymen little care for." I think it must be apparent to my readers that Boethius and Leslie well knew that the wild bull of the Caledonian Forest was as distinct in species as he was * " Carectonia " is, I presume, Carrick. Tonatt, describing what has taken place there daring the present century, says : — " In Carrick chiefly, but not exclnsirely, many black cattle are grazed and fattened for the Scotch and English markets." And again : — " In the beautiful -village of Colmonel, on the banks of the Stinchar, there are usually at least 3,000 black cattle."— Touatt's "Cattle," chap, iii., pp. 137, 138. This seems much to confirm what Bishop Leslie wrote so long before, as does also the old and well-known rhyme : — "£yle for a man, And Carrick for a cow, Cmuungham for batter and cheese. And Galloway for wooL" 140 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. in colour from the dark, semi-wild Highland cattle which Leslie, much more fully than Sibbald, describes ; and he also speaks of the two species as occupying in his day quite different localities. On the whole, therefore, it seems certain from the evidence of both history and tradition, that when the great Caledonian "Wood was at its best, then the grand Caledonian wild bull was most flourishing and abundant ; but when it declined the forest bull declined with it, so that historians who lived from 300 to 400 years since were only able to testify how much more prevalent it had been in former days, how rare it had then become, and how nearly it had arrived at that total extinction which soon followed. It was the history of a grand and ancient race dying out, as did subsequently Scot- land's noble aboriginal bird, the capercailzie, from the loss of those primaeval forests which had anciently given food and protection to them both. Far, far in the depths of a remote antiquity, if history and tradition are to be believed, its first origin must be looked for, since, 400 years ago, it was a mere relic of the past ; and it seems pretty certain that even in the time of Robert Bruce, 550 years since, its range had become much circumscribed. It had for ages filled the place assigned it, and its work was done. We have the concluding chapter only of the history of an ancient species — so, at least, all the evidence we can obtain testifies. That testimony carries us back to, and perhaps much beyond, the time when the learned Yice-President *• of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland thinks the Urus may perhaps be considered to have still existed there — namely, from the sixth to the ninth century. The two • Dr. T. A. Smith. DE. SMITH ON ANCIENT BUMAINS. 141 Knes of evidence; the Historical and the Geological, meet and cross, and the Scottish mountain bull, most abundant in those ancient times, may very likely have been himself, as tradition believed him to be, the Scottish representa- tive of the Urus. It is a possible, and I think the most probable, solution, especially if we take into considera- tion the many instances of confirmatory evidence given in this book. In Dr. Smith's excellent paper "On the Ancient Cattle of Scotland,"* the value of which I estimate most highly, though I am unable to concur in all its conclusions, an admirable account is given of the known cases in which the remains of the Urus {Bos primiffenius) have been found in Scotland. He deals very fairly with the subject, mentioning the pro- bable discovery in a marl pit, near Selkirk, of the skuU of the Urus in combination with bronze weapons, and the finding " remains, apparently alHed to this great ox, in the ruins of human dwellings," the brocks or Pictish houses " of Orkney and Caithness." But there are other discoveries named in his paper which do not seem to have struck him so forcibly as they do me. It appears, from the instances given, that the remains of the Urus, or of an ox nearly allied to it, have been found also in Haddingtonshire, " in an ancient structure built of dry stone waUs, and a kitchen-midden, dis- covered on an isolated rock known as the ' Grhegan,' on the sea shore near Seacliff." Certain circumstances connected with the account are curious. Amid a multiplicity of bones there appear to have been none found of any species now extinct; and the bones of sheep being " in very great abundance," while those of * "Proceed. Soc. Aatiq., Scotland," vol. ix., part ii., p. 587, &c. 142 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF OBEAT BRITAIN. the goat were " few," seems to indicate the comparatively recent date of these remains. Here, too, there were found of bones " of oxen a great abundance, and con- sisting of several varieties." The £o8 longifrons was one ; what were the " others " ? It is much to be regretted that so little attention has been paid, in most of these Scottish discoveries of the remains of the Urns, to the question of date and to the circumstances under which they were found ; which are the more important because the smaller dimensions of the remains of this animal found in Scotland, as com- pared with those of the Thames VaUey and other places, apparently prove either that it was always here, as in Scandiuavia, of inferior magnitude, or that many of these reliquia belonged to those of the species which lived at a later period, when they had generally decreased in size. To show how considerable is the difference, I will merely say that in one iustance only of the many specimens from the brick earth of Hford now in the British Museum is the circumference of the horn-cores at the base so little as fifteen inches, every other specimen measuring from seventeen to eighteen inches ; while in the numerous Scottish examples referred to by Dr. Smith, only two are given the circumference of whose horn-cores at the base attains to fourteen inches, the others being all of less, and some of much smaller dimensions. It would not be, I think, too much to say that in this particular the average variation in size between the Scottish specimens and 'the Ilford ones is nearly, if not quite, as two is to three, one-third less ; and there appears to be in other respects a corresponding inferiority in size. In some cases, too, these relatively small skulls of the Scottish TJrus appear to have been liTEEB OF FUBTSEB EXPLORATION. 143 found in comparatively recent deposits. Two remark- able discoveries took place in 1839 and 1840 in tlie parish of Bower, in the county of Caithness. In both cases " two heads were locked together by the horns, as if the animals had killed one another." Few par- ticulars were given, and these perhaps not very accurate ones, but enough is stated to show that these bulls must have been very inferior in size to the ordinary fossil Urus, and that they were buried not much below the surface of the ground. In one case the two united heads were discovered in a moss Kttle more than three feet deep ; in the other near a loch, where recent deposits may have been considerable, three feet only below the surface; and it is remarkable that in the latter case the circumference of the horn-cores of the one of the two bulls which was measured was eleven inches only. I hope that in future greater attention may be paid to such important points ; and — ]S. I am not too bold in making the suggestion — possibly, researches ably con- ducted at the known residences and hunting-seats of the ancient Pictish and Scottish kings might lead to interesting discoveries. CHAPTEE VII. The Chillingham Herd — ^Mentioned by CuUey and Fennant — ^Bewick's Account — Differences in these Statements — Brief Account of Clhillmgham — Lord Tankerville's Account of the Herd — Eiitimeyer's Opinion — ^Notice in 1689 corroborates Bewick as to Colour of the Ears — Further Particulars by Lord TankerviUe — Jesse's Statement that the Herd was once reduced to one Cow in Calf incorrect — Mr. Hindmarsh's Account — Last published Account of the Herd by " The Druid" in 1870. Among the wili herds now or formerly existing in this country, that of Chillingham has long claimed the foremost place. To this it seems entitled, if for nothing else, at least for this — that it is the connecting link between the wild cattle of England and those of Scotland, and retains, perhaps more than any other, the type and character of an animal so celebrated in history as Caledonia's wild bull. It has been, too, for a long time much more prominently before the public than other herds ; for which it is indebted principally to the happy circumstance that Bewick, the prince of wood- engravers, and no mean naturalist, illustrated his pages with the picture of the wild bull of his native country, and with an interesting description of it ; while, in later years, Landseer himseH passed many a leisure hour in studying and observing the Chillingham cattle in their native haunts, and then immortalised them by trans- ferring them life-like to his canvas. But the earliest historian of the Chillingham wild cattle was Mr. George Culley. Bom in 1730, the son VULLHY, PENNANT', AND BEWICK. 145 of a gentleman * of good landed estate at Denton-on- Tees, in the county of Durham, and the friend both of Arthur Toung and Bakewell, he is said to have been, together with his brother Matthew, the greatest of " agricultural improvers " in the North. He was joint author with John Bailey (who had been steward at Chillingham) of the "Agricultural Surveys of North- umberland and Cumberland," published by the Board of Agriculture. But it was in his clever work on "Live Stock," published in 1786, that he gave the first account of any importance that the public ever had of the ChiUinghani herd, and which has ever since done duty as their history, f Pennant, the great naturalist, published about the • same time his " British Zoology," and mentions { "having seen in the woods of Drumlanrig, in North Britain, and in the park belonging to Chillingham Castle, in. Northumberland, herds of cattle derived from the savage breed," "white cattle with black muzzles and ears, their horns fine and with a bold and elegant bend." The keeper at Chillingham informed him that the weight of the ox was thirty-eight stone, and of the cow twenty-eight. Thomas Bewick, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, followed by pubHshing, in 1790, his " General History of Quadru- peds," a book which went through several editions, and which contained a most spirited engraving of the Clul- Hngham wild bull. His description of the cattle is * His mother was Eleanor, daughter of Edward Surtees, Esq., of Mainforth, a well-known family, which produced the historian of the County of Durham. t CuUey's account may be found at pages 8 and 9 of Youatt's work on " Cattle." J Vol. i., p. 18, 4th edition, 1786. K 146 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. taken word for word from Culley's work, so that it is needless to repeat it. In one respect only does lie differ from the latter, in saying, " The weight of the oxen is generally from forty to fifty stones the four quarters, of the cows about thirty." Bewick, however, besides giving some brief notices of other wild herds, states further, with reference to the one at Chilling- ham: — " About twenty years since there were a few at Chillingham with black ears, but the present park- keeper destroyed them : since which period there has not been one with black ears." ..." Tame cows, in season, are frequently turned out amongst the wild cattle at Chillingham, and admit the bull. It is somewhat extraordinary that the calves produced by this mode are invariably of the same colour with the wild breed (white, with red ears), and retain a good deal of the fierceness of their sire." The above authorities differ a little on one or two points. Bewick makes the oxen of much greater weight than Culley, who had the best means of knowing ; or than. Pennant, who obtained his information from the keeper. There can be no doubt that Bewick was misr taken. Even Culley's statement names a maximum weight greater than either ox or cow nowadays attains ; while Pennant's average of their weights, ninety years or so since, fairly represents their average weights at the present time. Michie, the keeper, told me that the hea,viest ox killed for some years past weighed forty-two stone three pounds the four quarters, and the heaviest cow thirty-three stone nine pounds. But it is undoubtedly true, as Culley observes, that they would make much greater weights could they be subjected to BIFFEBENOES IN BE80BIPTI0K 147 the same treatment and fed in the same manner in which ordinary oxen are, when preparing for the market. CuUey intimates that the colour of the ears was red ; Pennant says black ; and Bewick, writing a few years later, says that they were red-eared, bnt that twenty years before a few of them were black-eared. Possibly Pennant saw some of these; and as he classed the ChiUingham cattle in his brief description with those at Drumlanrig, which he saw at the same time, and which were all black-eared, he may have considered Hhe black ear, rather than the red, the more distinctive characteristic of the race. It is, perhaps, a matter of little moment ; for it will be seen, as we proceed with this history, that other herds of white cattle have pro- duced, like the ChilUngham herd, ears of both these colours, and that the one or the other has finally pre- vailed in consequence of man's selection. I have stated above just what was known about the Chniingham wild cattle at the close of the last century. Before entering upon further inquiries re- specting them, I proceed to describe briefly the locality they inhabit. ChiUingham Parish, Castle, and Park are situate in Glendale Ward, Northumberland. The Northumbrian " wards " answer in the main to the hundreds in more southern counties, and each of them contains numerous very extensive parishes, again sub- divided into several townships. Glendale Ward, deriv- ing its name either from the small river Glen, or from the numerous and picturesque fflens with which it abounds, is situated in the wildest and most beau- tiful part of the county of Northumberland, just where England, enclosed by Scotland on the one side and the German Ocean on the other, is narrowing K 2 148 WILD ymiTE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. rapidly to a point, which terminates at Berwick. It forms, as a whole, a large and picturesque valley, nearly surrounded by the noble Cheviots or their ontlying spurs ; it is watered by unnumbered bums or rivulets, which rise in its lovely glens. The Caldgate, Lear- mouth, Hetton, Chillingham, Carey, Pallins, Beaumont, and College burns, or rivulets, are some of the principal ; the river Till crosses the ward from south to north, and the Tweed, for about three miles, washes its north- western limits and divides it from Scotland. Every part of the district is replete with historical associa- tions. Flodden Field is within its limits; Otterbum, which gave rise to the celebrated ballad of " Chevy Chase," is nigh at hand; and down its romantic glens has many a troop of Scottish marauders passed, for Glendale was the favourite road for their incursions. Its only town was Wooler, formed into a powerful barony by William the Conqueror, and Chillingham Castle, on the southern side of Grlendale Valley and Ward, has always been the residence of Wooler's lord or baron. During the IsTorman period it was held by the family De Musco Campo, or Muschampe ; but after various changes, both Wooler and Chilling- ham came, in the reign of Henry III., into the pos- session of the heroic family of the Grreys of Wark Castle. Sir William Grrey, of Chillingham and Wark, was created a baronet in 1619, and Lord Grey of Wark in 1623; and his son Forde, Lord Grey, was created Viscount Glendale and Earl of TankerviUe* in 1695. * This was only a revival of that title, for we find that Heniy Grey, seventh Lord Powys, was, by King Henry Y., A.D. 1414, " created Earl of TankerviUe in Normandy, to him and his heirs male, by delivering one basin of earth at the Castle of Rouen every year, on St. GSeorge's Day." CHILLINGEAM CASTLE. 149 These titles expired at his death, without issue male, in 1701; but Chillingham, Wark, Wooler, and their dependencies were inherited by his only daughter and heiress, Lady Mary Grrey, who had married, in 1695, Charles Bennet, second Baron Ossulston. This noble- man was re-created Earl of Tankerville at the corona^ tion of Greorge I., on October 19th, 1714 ; and in his descendants, by the heiress of the Grreys, these titles and estates still continue. Chillingham Castle is situated on the south side of GrlendaJe, and was, during the whole of the period we have been recapitulating, one of that line within line of strong Border fortresses, hie Norham, Ford, Alnwick, Warkworth, and a dozen others ; where England's great Northern barons stoutly held their own, and protected their neighbours against the perpetual predatory excur- sions of Scotland's moss-troopers, and against the stiU more formidable attacks of her kings and nobles- Wooler lies about four miles distant in a south, westerly direction as the crow flies ; due west you arrive at the Scottish border at about eleven mUes; but the elevated moors which formed part of the great Caledonian Forest are at little more than four miles distance in the same direction, having, as Sir Walter Scott pointed out, Ohilhngham at its one extremity, Hamilton (or Cadzow) at the other. Intermediate between these (for the Cheviots take, from Chillingham, a south-westerly bend before they trend north-westerly through Ettrick Forest to Lancashire, and so form a semi-circle) was Naworth Castle, on the moors around which the " white wild cattle " roamed unreclaimed as late as two centuries ago. Intermediate also was Drum- lanrig, where they were also kept. A scarcely outlying 160 WILD WSITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. portion of this great forest was formerly Cliillingliaia itself. Yery woody is it now. The large and ancient Hepburn Wood adjoins the park on one side ; on the other scarce anything but high and open moors inter- venes between it and the sea-coast. Tet the whole was much more woody formerly. * "When the church of ChiUingham was built, and the vicarage endowed, as appears by a copy of the endowment extracted from the records at Durham, circa 1220, the vicar was, by an agreement with Eobert de Muschampe, to be allowed as much timber as he wanted for repairs, of the best oak, out of the Great Wood (Magno Bosco) of ChiUingham ; and the late Lord Tankerville states that the remains of this wood " were extant in the time of his grand- father." The Castle of ChiUingham is pleasantly situated on a slightly rising ground in the valley above the river TUl, and the village nestles under its shelter. The park is contiguous on its southern side ; some part of it is in the valley, on a level with the castle, but it graduaUy widens and rises, tiU at last, in terrace after terrace, it ascends the hiU, the summit of which, caUed Eoss Castle, it encloses. Here is an ancient British encampment, and though only about ten miles distant from the sea, this part of the park is 1,036 feet above the sea-level. Containing as it does within itself so much variety of pasturage and climate, it is eminently adapted to be the residence of wild animals. Of the date of its enclosure no record remains, and the * TMs and the subsequent statements of the late Lord Tankerville, and of Mr. Hindniarsh, are all taken from Mr. Hindmarsh's paper " On the Wild Cattle of ChiUingham Park," containing a letter from Lord Tankerville, read before the British Association in 1838, and published in Annals of Nat. Hist., voL ii., p. 274. GHILLINGSAM PARK. 151 statement in Darwin* that "it is referred to in a record of the year 1220," is, I think, a mistake, originating in the passage above quoted, which, how- ever, refers only to Chillingbam "Grreat Wood," and not to the park at all. StiU "the Park of ChiUingham is a very ancient one," and was in aU probability im- parked at about the above period, or earlier. Though the greater part of the present castle dates from about this time — namely, early in the reign of Henry III. — yet it had long before that been the residence of the great feudal house of De Musco Campo, Barons of Wooler. We may, therefore, I think, safely conjecture that the park was enclosed, and the wild cattle with it, not later than the time of Henry III., or about the time that the grant to the vicar was made as above named. During that and the preceding reign the great barons were aU-powerful, and did pretty much as they pleased, the Crown being extremely weak; and many such enclosures were then made, one of which was Chartley, whose park and wild cattle, as imparked for the first time, are said to date from the same reign. The late Lord Tankerville also points out that as ChiUingham "was closely bounded by the domains of the Percies on the one side, and the Hib- burnes on the other (the latter of whom had been seated there since the tinie of King John), and as the chief branch of the Grreys always made ChiUingham their principal residence, it is reasonable to suppose that, in order to secure their cattle, wild and tame, they had recourse to an enclosure probably at an early period." Whatever may be the age of the park, that, I * "Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. i., chap, iii., p. 84 152 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. imagine, indicates also tlie time when the wild cattle were first confined within its boundaries, for no record of their introduction exists. I suppose that they, previously wild denizens of the surrounding forest, were then first incarcerated, as they were at Chartley and at Lyme. The late Lord Tankerville states the question very fairly. "Writing in 1838, he says : — "I must premise that our information as to their origin is very scanty. All that we know or beKeve in respect to it rests in great measure on conjecture, sup- ported, however, by certain facts and reasonings which lead us to believe in their ancient origin, not so much from any direct evidence as from the improbability of any hypothesis ascribing to them a more recent date. I remember an old gardener, of the name of Moscrop, who died many years ago, at the age of perhaps eighty or more, who used to tell of what his father had told him as happening to him when a boy relative to these wild cattle, which were then spoken of as wild cattle, and with the same sort of curiosity as exists with respect to them at the present day. "In my father's and my grandfather's time we know that the same obscurity as to their origin prevailed ; and if we suppose (as, no doubt, was the case) that there were old persons in their time capable of carrying back their recollections to the generations still antecedent to them, this enables us at once to look back to a pretty considerable period, during which no greater knowledge existed as to their origin than at the present time." Mr. Hindmarsh, in commenting upon this state- ment, points out that "the testimony of the two Moscrops, connected with the contemporaries of the first Moscrop, would carry us back a period of 200 FBOFESSOB BUTIMETEB'8 OPINION. 153 years." That was 1838; and both he and Lord Tanker- ville arrive at the same conclusion: "that the probability is that they were the ancient breed of the island, en- closed long since within the boundary of the park." In this opinion I altogether concur. Tradition, locality, similarities of form and colour, and a large amount of cumulative evidence, seem to prove that, whatever were the wild cattle which abounded in the North of England and in Scotland during the historic period, of the same breed also are the ChiUingham wild cattle ; and Pro- fessor Eiitimeyer, judging them solely by their " osteo- logical characteristics," and declaring that, as respects these, " the question about the relationship of the cattle of ChiUingham is a pure anatomical one, and perfectly independent of the historical " (which, he intimates, " examines merely whether the herd has ever been a tame one or not"), arrives at the following very positive conclusion : — " Putting aside the lesser size, the skull differs in no way from the wild Primi^enius. The ChiUingham skull is an elegant diminished copy of the mightier and stronger diluvial oxen of Europe, and the historical descent of the first from the last cannot be doubted." The Professor farther remarks upon the "uncommon fineness and delicacy of the bones " of the ChiUingham oxen ; and although agreeing with Hermann von Nathusius that such " fineness and delicacy" are "never to be found in real wild cattle," he attributes these pecuKarities to their partial confinement, to their obtaining their food easily and without labour, and to their not having been subjected to " cross-breeding." These causes he considers sufficient, in the course of ages, to " affect the texture of the bones and muscles " 154 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. to the extent which, has taken place. But while avow- ing that he considers the Chillingham wild ox " one of the true descendants of the family" of the Bos primigenius, " and a faithful keeper of its race," he does not deny that there are other breeds which may in some degree claim a similar descent. Indeed, he says that " a tame Primigenius race, in a more or less pure form, is widely spread ; " and he especially mentions how closely the head of the " tame Budjading cattle of Holsteia" resembles, notwithstanding their lesser horns, the Chillingham skull. None of the authorities I have quoted above seems to have been aware that there is a notice in existence of the Chillingham cattle, as they were near 200 years since, which in many respects throws light upon them. Having heard that such was the case, I discovered it at last in a note at page 390 of vol. i. of E. Mackensie's " View of the County of Northumberland," published at Newcastle-on-Tyne, a.d. 1825. This, note is as follows : — " In a family Accotuit Book -writteii by William Taylor, steward of Chillingliam, and now (1821) in the possession of Ms great grand- son, William Taylor, Esq., Hendon Grange, near Sunderland, is an outlay : — ' 1689, Dec'- 5, pd. Wm. KadyU's white calfe ten shillings.' '"May, 1692. Beasts in the Parke. My Lorde's 16 white wilde beasts, 2 black steers, and a guy,* 12 white, read, and black- ear'd, five blacke oxen and brown one, 2 oxen from Warke, from last a steer killed.' " ' August '92. Y' guy had a calfe, and went to Upparke with the twelve black and read-ear' d, two of the Warke, and the brown one at Chivton.' " With much trouble I have traced the Taylor family. * A "gny," or "quey," means universally throughout the North, and in the Midland counties also, a young heifer. ANCIENT COLOUB OF THE EAE8. 155 The heir of Mr. William Taylor, of Hendon Grange, was his brother ; by whose son I am informed that his father, some years before his death, burnt in his yard several large boxes of old family papers, and no doubt the steward's " account book " among them. So that we cannot ascertain anything further from this source ; but these short quotations are very valuable, as showing what was the state of the herd which belonged at that time to the last Lord Grey of Wark. To the " white caHe " bought of WUham Kadyll, and to the "guy," I shall allude further on. The "12 white, read, and black -ear 'd," otherwise " black and read-ear'd," classed with the " steers and oxen," were clearly of the same sort, and must, I think, have been the produce (of that description) of " my Lorde's 16 white wilde beasts " — ^their relative number being about what was Hkely, and the herd of sixteen so extremely small if it had also included steers. It was small enough at that time on this, the most favour- able, supposition. Bewick's assertion that about eighty years later black-eared cattle existed in the Chillingham herd is thus completely confirmed. Some have indeed supposed that Bewick meant that calves were occasion- ally bom, twenty years before he wrote, with black ears, but his words scarcely bear that construction — " There were a few" — ^that is, in the herd — " with black ears." These were clearly the remains of the " black-ear'd " ones, which had been so much more numerous, relatively to the rest, in William Taylor's time, in 1692. It foUows that originally there was a tendency to produce ears of either colour, and that at Chillingham, as in some other herds, the uniform prevalence of red ears has been obtained by selection. 156 WILD WSITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. It would seem from tlis statement that " my Lorde's wilde beasts " were scarcely so wild then as they are now : at least, their range was apparently more circumscribed ; for it looks as if they were not ordi- narily admitted to the " TJpparke," though they may have been at certain times. But their supposed wild oriffin is thus strongly confirmed, for nearly two cen- turies since they were called " wilde beasts," the very- name by which the Chartley cattle also went ; and in both places, so remote from each other, and, I might add, in many others, the tradition and belief with regard to their wild origin was the same. " With respect to the habits of the Chillingham wild cattle," says the late Lord TankervilLe in his letter to Mr. Hindmarsh, " it is probable that you will learn more from Cole, who has been park-keeper at Chilling- ham for many years, than from any information that I can give. I can mention, however, some particulars. They have, in the first place, pre-eminently all the characteristics of wild animals, with some peculiarities that are sometimes very curious and amusing. They hide their young, and feed in the night, basking or sleeping during the day. They are fierce when pressed, but, generally speaking, very timorous, moving off on the appearance of any one even at a great distance ; yet this varies very much in different seasons of the year, and according to the manner in which they are ap- proached. In summer I have been for several weeks at a time without getting a sight of them — ^they, on the slightest appearance of any one, retiring into a wood, which serves them as a sanctuary. On the other hand, in winter, when coming down for food into the inner park, and being in constant contact with people, they will let LOBB TAMEJEBVILLE'8 BESOBIPTION. 167 you almost come among them, particularly if on horse- back. But then they have also a thousand peculiarities. They wiU be sometimes feeding quietly, when, if any one appears suddenly near them, they will be struck with a sudden panic and gallop off, running one over the other, and never stopping till they get into their sanc- tuary. It is observable of them, as of red deer, that they have a peculiar faculty of taking advantage of the irregularities of the ground, so that, on being disturbed, they may traverse the whole park, and yet you hardly get a sight of them. Their usual mode of retreat is to get up slowly, set off in a walk, then a trot, and seldom begin to gallop till they have put the ground between you and them in the manner that I have described. " In form they are beautifully shaped. They have short legs, straight back, horns of a very fine texture, thin skin, so that some of the bulls appear of a cream colour ; and they have a peculiar cry, more like that of a wild beast than that of ordinary cattle. With all the marks of high breeding, they have also some of its defects ; they are bad breeders, and are much subject to the ' rash ' — a complaint common to animals bred in- and-in, which is unquestionably the case with these as long as we have any record of them. " When they come down into the lower part of the park, which they do at stated hours, they move like a regiment of cavalry, in single file, the bulls leading the van ; and when they are in retreat the bulls bring up the rear. Lord Ossulston was witness to a curious way in which they took possession, as it were, of some new pasture recently laid open to them. It was in the evening, about sunset. They began by lining the front of a small wood, which seemed quite alive with them, when all of 158 WILD WmTE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. a sudden they made a dasli forward all together in a line, and, charging close by him across the plain, they then spread out, and after a little time began feeding." To this statement Lord TankerviUe subsequently added the following remarks: — "I forgot to mention, in my letter to Mr. Hindmarsh, a curious circumstance with respect to the continuation of the breed of the wild cattle. Several years since, during the early part of the lifetime of my father, the bulls in the herd had been reduced to three. Two of them fought and killed each other, and the third was discovered to be impotent, so that the means of preserving the breed depended on the accident of some of the cows producing a bull calf." The date of this circumstance would be about the year 1760, or soon after. It quite disposes of the story often told, and mentioned in a note by Jesse in his " Natural History," that the Chillingham herd was once reduced by an epidemic to one cow in calf, which for- tunately produced a bull, and that thus the herd was renewed by inter-breeding of the closest kind. All this is clearly a traditional exaggeration of Lord Tankerville's better authenticated fact. That the statement of Wil- liam Taylor, the steward, with respect to the comparative smallness of the herd in 1690, was correct, is also con- firmed by this circumstance, which seems to show that seventy years later it was not a large one. It increased until seventy years after that, the date of Mr. Hind- marsh's paper, in 1838 — ^the authority being old Cole, the keeper — there were " about eighty in the herd, com- prising twenty-five buUs, forty cows, and fifteen steers, of various ages." They seem, however — if their numbers were not then somewhat overrated, as probably they were — after that to have again decreased during the MB. SINDMABSS'S AGOOUNT. 159 next twenty years ; for the present Lord Tankervillej who succeeded twenty-one years later, informs me that in his father's time they were " a smaller herd than they are now," and that " they increase slowly, several dying each year hy accidents or hy over-running their calves when disturoed ; and the cows breed slowly, owing to having frequently the calves still sucking the second year." For further particulars with respect to their habits Lord Tankerville referred Mr. Hindmarsh to old Cole, " who had been park-keeper upwards of thirty years," so that his experience of the cattle would extend to quite the commencement of this century. Mr. Hind- marsh therefore visited Chillingham in June, 1838, and reported as follows : — " 'So sight could be more beautiful than they were when we saw them retreating in regular order into their forest sanctuary. Their perfect symmetry, pure white colour, and fine crescent horns, render them, when moving in a body, a very imposing object. The eyes, eye-lashes, and tips of the horns alone are black ; the muzzle is brown, the inside of the ears red or brown, and all the rest of the animal white.* Even the bulls have no manes, but only a little coarse hair upon the neck ; and they fight for supremacy until a few of the most power- ful subdue the others, who submit to the rule of superior physical strength. If by accident a bull gets separated from the herd for a day or two, his settled relation seems to be forgotten, for on his rejoining it a fight ensues, and the conflict continues until the previous amicable * Mr. Hindmarsh omits the hoofs, which are also quite hlach, and, as regards the wMtiss of the bulls, it must be remembered that he saw them in the height of summer, when the hair is, comparatively short. 160 WILD WSITE CATTLE OF GBEAT BRITAIN. ■onderstanding is re-establislied. The cows generally commence breeding at three, and continue to breed for a few years. When they calve they hide their young for a week or ten days, and repair to the place of con- cealment two or three times a day for the purpose of suckling them. Should any person happen to approach their hiding-place, the calves clap their heads close to the ground, and lie in form Hke a hare. , " They bear the winter well, but in severe weather will come into a fold to eat hay, although they will not taste turnips. They are seldom allowed to live more than eight or nine years, at which period they begin to go back. When slaughtered, the steers are usually six years old, and weigh about 5cwts. (40 stone). The beef is finely marbled, but in taste scarcely distinguish- able* from that of the domestic ox when fed on grass. By taking the calves at a very early age, and treating them gently, the present keeper succeeded in domesti- cating an ox and a cow. They became as tame as domestic animals, and the ox fed- as rapidly as a Short- horn steer. He lived eighteen years, and when at his best was computed at 8 cwts. 14 lb. (65 stones). The cow only lived five or six years. She gave little mUk, but the quality was rich. She was crossed by a country bull ; but her progeny very closely resembled herself, being entirely white, excepting the ears, which were brown, and the legs, which were mottled. " In their wild state few die from disease, and in the present keeper's time few from calving. It is remarkable that during the thirty-three years Mr. Cole has been * This is certainly a mistake. I and many of my neighbours, who tasted the round of beef sent to me from ChiUiugham, at Christmas, 1874, are prepared to maintain the contrary. MB. EINBMABSE'S VIEWS. 161 keeper he lias perceived no alteration in their size or habits from iu-breeding, and that at the present time they are equal in every point to what they were when he first knew them. About half a dozen within that period have had small brown or blue spots upon the cheeks and necks ; but these, with any defective ones, were always destroyed." It ought perhaps to be added that Mr. Hindmarsh's paper goes on to discuss " the high antiquity of the ChiUingham breed of wild cattle," as shown in Lord Tankerville's letter. He remarks that " the testimony of the two Moscrops, connected with the contemporaries of the first Moscrop, would almost carry us back a period of two hundred years, when their origin seemed to be veiled in the same obscurity as at present exists respecting it. To this," he says, " must be added the negative proof derivable from the absence of all record of their introduction iato the park." Mr. Hindmarsh proceeds to state his belief that the ChiUingham wild cattle are of the same race as the Caledonian wild bull, and gives his reasons for that opinion ; and both he and Lord TankerviUe make statements with regard to other wild breeds whicb had been preserved at Chartley, Cadzow, Drumlanrig, &c. AU this will be fully con- sidered in its proper place. As a sequel to the accounts of the late Lord TankerviUe and Mr. Hiadmarsh, it may be worth mentioning that one of the last of the great hunts of the wild cattle, as practised in ancient times, and as described by Culley, is said to have taken place in the year 1826, when a bull was shot by Earl ClanwiUiam, the clean carcase of which weighed fifty-six stones. One half of this was sent as a present to King Greorge IV. li 162 WILD WHITH CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. Old Cole's son, who died a few years since, park- keeper at Windsor, was in his younger days a great hand at " riding out the hull " from the rest of the herd — a service of much danger. The risk was also increased hy the skill with which the savage animal, when wounded, frequently concealed himself behind inequalities of the ground, thus temptiug his enemies to approach too near, and charging them furiously when they least expected it. Now they are generally stialked, which lessens, but does not altogether remove, the danger. Such are the records of the past, many of them, however, but little known. Before I enter upon the more recent history of the herd, and my own ob- servations thereupon, I will introduce some remarks made in the intervening period by others. The following is a graphic sketch of a view of the herd which was obtained by one of the visitors to Chilling- ham on the occasion of the coming of age of Lord Ossulston, on the 31st of December, 1850. He says : — "Many of the visitors to Chillingham availed themselves of the opportimity of viewing the wild cattle in the park. At this season the herd are easily found and can be viewed without difficulty, as they generally assemble for shelter in a lightly -wooded comer of the park, where hay is supplied to them every morning. In the summer, when pasture is abundant, they are commonly dispersed over the hills, and may be seen occasionally bounding like deer across the prospect. It is not always safe to approach within sight or smell at that season, especially when the cows of the herd are rearing their calves, as they will then assume the offensive against any intruder without hesitation. At 2£B. I>IX01>P8 AOaOUNT. 163 all seasons the herd are. excessively timid, and will allow no one to approach unobserved within two or three hundred yards of them. By dexterously availing one- self of the shelter of the adjacent trees, it is possible, as we did, to get to much closer quarters, and observe the habits of the hardy, agile, and noble creatures, who were quietly feeding in the glen. At the first hearing, or perhaps smell of us, however, the nearest of the herd suddenly erected his head with the action of a deer, and backed in among the others, who, taking the alarm, all sheered off as if preparing to take flight. Not caring to disturb them ia their feeding, we did not attempt to get closer, but could easily observe the essentially wild and unsocial habits of the herd." Mr. H. H. Dixon (" The Druid ") was the last person who published any account of the herd, in his " Saddle and Sirloin," in 1870, having seen it a few years previously. He admits that " in compiling this book," " he could do no more than touch on what appear to be leading points." I give only so much of his description as may be at once novel and well authenticated : — "We got within a hundred yards of them. We might have got nearer; but a herd of startled bucks trotted past them, and as one rose they all rose and moved off at a foot's pace, the old bull behind and the king bull leading." " The herd is generally kept up to eleven bulls, seventeen steers, and thirty-two females, or three score in all." " It was the practice to make steers of them when they dropped ; but it was a very dangerous one, and spoilt the bull selec- tion as well." " If it is fair weather they go up the hill, and if stormy they remain below. They often scour a good deal in warm weather. The bulls L 2 164 WILD WBITE CATTLE OF GREAT BBITAIK eat very much at night, and mostly in company, and are of a more tawny shade than the cows, as they fling the dirt very much over their shoulders when they kneel to challenge.* Both sexes have black nostrils, horns tipped with black, and a little red within the ears ; and in their general look they partake of the Charolais and Highlander combined. Their offal is rather coarse, f and they have sometimes a tendency to be high on the tail as well as upright on the shoulder. Like Highland herds going along a road, they are subject to panics, and two gallops in the course of a week, one season, owing perhaps to the rustling of deer near them, cost nearly every cow her calf. The calves are dropped in the fern, but they are sad little Tartars ; and if they have been housed it takes nearly two months to take off the tame smell. Their sense of smeU is exceedingly acute, and a cow has been seen to run a man's foot like a sleuth- hound when he had run for his life to a tree. While Sir Edwin Landseer was taking sketches for his cele- brated pictures, the herd went into action, and he was glad to fly to the forest as they passed by." * It is rather owing to the dirt, which, lite all other cattle, they paw up in hot weather, finding a lodgment among the more abundant and mane-like hair of their fore-qnarters. + This is a great mistake ; their ofEal is most wonderfully light. CHAPTEE VIII. The ChiUingham Herd (continueeS) — Shooting of a Bull hy H.E.H. the Prince of Wales — ^Visit of Mi. Chandos-Pole-GeU, Mr. Booth, and Mr. Thornton — My own Visit in 1874 — Length of Time the Calves are suckled — ^Desirahility of examining OresweU Moss for Fossil Eemains. The great event which of late years has brought the ChlLLinghain cattle prominently before the public was the successful pursuit by the Prince of Wales of the noblest unreclaimed animal our country still produces, the yet wUd and even savage descendant of Caledonia's wild bull. His Eoyal Highness, a true Briton in his love for field sports, had long taken his part in them at home, and abroad had shown his skill in pursuing and bringing down the wild animals of various kinds with which the carefully preserved domains of the monarchs of Russia and Prussia abounded. But two of the noblest denizens of Europe's primaeval forests he had never yet seen in a state of nature : the European Bison, stiU preserved by the Czar of Eussia in a remote forest of Lithuania,* and the still living descendant of Caesar's indomitable Urus in a similarly wild state in his own country. ChiUingham had the honour of making him acquainted with the latter. On the 15th of October, 1872, f the Prince and * Bialowitz, or Bialowiera. t For the following particulars I am partly indebted to Mr. Robert Bedpath, of the Newcastle DaiVy Journal, who has sent me the accoonts published in that paper ; and partly to Mr. Michie, the head keeper, who accompanied and directed the Prince. 166 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BEITAIN. Princess of Wales arrived at Chillinghain Castle, and were received, not only by its noble owners, but by the whole of tbe Border-land, with a right royal welcome. The day after their arrival was devoted to partridge shooting on Lord TankervUle's farms near Wooler ; arid on the 18th, Northnmbria's noblest and best came to do honour to their future sovereign, when the hounds met at Chillingham. The morning of the intermediate day, the 17th, was given up to the foremost object of the visit — ^the chase of the wild bull. A little before nine the start was made through the gardens and grounds on the south front of the Castle, from which, at something less than a quarter of a mile, access is gained to the park. The Prince was accompanied by Lord Tankerville, and attended by Michie, the head keeper, by the assistant keeper, and by his own giUy. At first the Prince rode a pony ; but, as they got nearer to the cattle, this was exchanged for the hay-cart, a long, light country cart — one of the vehicles ordinarily used by the farmers of Northumber- land, from which in winter the animals axe foddered. When the " deer-hamel," which is rather more than a quarter of a mile within the park, was reached, the wild herd was first seen. Its members were then gathered to- gether upon the large and extensive wood plain in the lower part of the park, and were quietly grazing in a single group. The Prince and Lord Tankerville then entered the cart, which also carried some hay. Various attempts were made to approach the herd, and much time was ex- pended in endeavouring to do so. The cattle were jealous and suspicious ; they kept moving about from place to place; they sometimes separated and divided into smaller bodies ; and there was much fear that if pressed BULL SSOT BY THE PBIKGE OF WALES. 167 th.ey might gallop off tpgetlier, and retreat to the heights of Eosscastle. Grreat caution was therefore observed; but at last the hunters found, on reaching the end of the Tox Knolls, that the cattle had gone up through that wood, and were all iij. one body at the edge of the wood on the flat ground above. They once more observed their pursuers, and moved a little higher up. Driving, however, alongside of the wood, and partly under its cover, the sportsmen got at last within a reasonable distance of them. But unfortu- nately the king bull, the object of pursuit, was surrounded by the mass of his subjects, and there was no possibility of getting a shot at him with any probability of hitting a vital part. The herd made several slight changes of place and position, but the king bull still remained covered. At last he drew himself out from among the herd and came to the front. Soon afterwards he turned nearly broadside to the hunters. In an instant the Prince fired, and the noble animal lay dead upon the spot. The rifle bullet had entered the neck at about six inches from the base of the horn, cutting through the spine, and of course producing instant death. The Prince, before flring, had left the cart, and the keeper observed to me how amenable to dis- cipline was the heir of the crown. Michie advised the Prince to kneel on one knee, in order to take more certain aim, and the advice was followed. This has not always been the case, especially with forei^ers, whom Michie considers particularly indisposed " to bend their knees." The Prince of Wales's shot was unquestionably a most excellent one. The distance was measured, and found to be seventy yards. The sharp. 168 WILD WHITE CATTLB OF GREAT BEITAIN. clear report of the rifle rang through the park, and was heard in the neighhonrhood of the Castle, where many of the visitors were watching, with the aid of glasses, in the direction the sportsmen had pursued, the concussion telling that the objects of their search had been arrived at. The frightened animals of various kinds which were quietly browsing or resting near, fled terrified in all directions. The cattle seemed in great bewilderment, and trotted off to some distance, apparently amazed that their monarch did not join them. A couple of red deer, in the greatest alarm, flew to the head of Eosscastle, where they stood for some time upon the very peak of the eminence, their dark profiles showing out clear and distinct against the bright blue sky of that beautiful sunny day. In the afternoon the body of the animal was brought down to the Castle and inspected by the visitors. At the special request of the Prince, the carcase, weighing about sixty stones, was given to the poor of the neigh- bourhood, and the grand head, bearing a pair of mag- nificent horns, together with the neck as far as the shoulder — also the remainder of the skin, and the hoofs, each separately — were preserved in superb style by Mr. Edwin Ward, P.Z.S., of Wigmore Street, London, in order to adorn their Eoyal Highnesses' residence at Sandringham. These I saw at the time at Mr. Ward's, and shall subsequently allude to. Of the stuffed head I am enabled to give a representation. Something less than ten months after this, as I was myselB unable to do so, my friends, Mr. Chandos-Pole- CreU, Mr. Booth of Warlaby, and Mr. John Thornton, the celebrated Short-horn auctioneer, in company with Mr. Jacob Wilson, Lord Tankerville's agent, aU men MB. CHAMJOS-POLE-GELL'S VISIT. 169 well acquainted with every description of British cattle, visited the Chillingham herd. They crept up through the fern, to within about two hundred yards' distance of the herd, part of which were standing and part lying down, and, by means of glasses, obtaiaed an HEAD OF THE CHILLIMGHAM BTJLL SHOT BY H.B.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES. (Etigraved, by permisswn, from a Photograph taken by the London Stereoscopic Company.) excellent view of the cattle without disturbing them. Mr. Chandos-Pole-GeU, whose long experience with regard to every description of cattle, and whose acquaintance with their breeders, is larger than that of any man I know, made to me the following remarks upon them : — "As far as I could judge, their form bore most resem- blance to the unimproved Yorkshire cow of former days. 170 WILD WEITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. on a smaller scale ; but, tlus especially struck me in the shape of the hind quarters, which I thought were long in proportion to the size of the animal. The hair also seemed somewhat similar to that of Short-horn cattle, and this opinion was further confirmed by Sir Edwin Landseer's pictures at the Castle. I have sometimes seen black Welsh cattle not unlike the Chillingham breed, and the horns in this case were formed in the same way, but not so large, and not set on the head in the same peculiar manner — as if they were constantly expecting an attack from some enemy." In these remarks Mr. Booth altogether concurred. Mr. Thorn- ton, agreeing generally with them, said : " The muzzles were quite black; the ears reddish, particularly inside; and I thought some of the bulls rather steerish about the head." Speaking from my own observation, I have no doubt that the above remarks are in the main correct. Riitimeyer, while believing that the Chillingham wild bull is the legitimate descendant of the Urus, yet states that : " Certain it is — and this corresponds exactly with the opinion of Nathusius — that the Chillingham skull shows in no way any marks of that of a wild animal. It is remarkable rather for the uncommon fineness and delicacy of its- bones, which are never to be foimd in the real wild cattle, to examine which I had ample opportunity. I should, therefore, if the skull had come to my hands from an unknown source, never have hesitated to declare that it was not that of a wild animal." Such being the variations in the osteological structure which have taken place in the Chillingham ox, we may, of course, expect to find corresponding changes in the external form, character, and appear- CEA27GE8 IN CHABACTEE. 171 ance. In these respects also tlie same fineness and delicacy would be, of course, developed, and Caesar's great and indomitable Urus would necessarily be reduced, in a series of ages — ^though still retaining much of its wUdness — ^into a much smaller, more elegant, and deer-like animal : partial confinement and submission to man's behests, but far more con- tinuous inter-breeding, being the causes of the change. These have produced the ewe-like light neck, clean jaws, and excessive refinement of head in the cow, which Mr. Chandos-Pole-GeU considered so strongly resembled those parts in the Yorkshire cow, the efforts of whose breeders have for ages been exerted to produce those characteristic points. Bake- well's in-and-in bred bxdls had the same semi-steerish character and great dissimilarity in this respect to their ancestors, the old coarse-boned Cravens, being deficient in what the farmers call leather. Grrand, majestic, noble, such an animal may, and, in the case of the Chillingham wild buU, does remain ; but it is a grandeur, majesty, nobility in some degree varying from the pristine character, and more resembling, as may be seen in Landseer's pictures, those qualities in the stag, now it has lost the elephantine size and coarseness of bone, and the lion-like ferocity of its remote ancestors. At the time of this visit the herd consisted of sixty-four head — seventeen buUs of aU ages from calves upwards, nineteen steers, and twenty -eight cows, heifers, and female calves. Lord TankerviUe told my friends that Professor Owen had strongly advised him never to let the breeding cows sink to fewer than twenty in number. 172 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. My own visit to Chillingham was paid something more than a twelvemonth later. At half-past seven in the morning of August 25th, 1874, I started for Chilliagham from the very comfortable "Blue Bell" Inn, at Belford, accompanied by the Eev. C. S. Holthouse and Mr. Jacob WUson. Immediately after leaving Belford in a rather south-westerly direction, the ground begins to rise with considerable rapidity, till at the distance of two or three miles you get high above the sea-level, and a magnificent prospect opens. Seawards, we saw the vast expanse of the German Ocean, studded near the coast with the Fern Islands, Holy Island, Liadisfame, and the Long Stone — the scene of the heroic exploit of the brave young maiden, Grrace Darhng, the saviour of the shipwrecked crew of the Forfarshire. All these lay like a map beneath us, while Northumbria's rocky shore, fringed with feudal castles, extended far in both directions. A little further on, and when we had got to the height of Chatton Moor, bare and cold even on that fine August morning, there broke on us the inland view, the grand amphitheatre of the cloud-capped Cheviots — " The Cheviot" himself, far to the north, their gigantic leader — ^while between us and them stretched for mUes the lovely valley, Grlendale, every part of it teeming with historic reminiscences. Teaveriag Bell, formerly sacred to the mystic rites of the Druids; Ford, Wark, and other Border castles, the sites of a hundred skirmishes and battles ; above all, Flodden's ever memorable field : all these were seen in that glorious picture, full of every kind of form and colour, every variety of light and shadow, which was then presented to our view. We made a bend in a southerly direction and right in KEiaHBOUBHOOD OF GEILLINGHAM. 173 front of us there rose, some three miles distant, the southern boundary of Glendale, Chillingham Park, "terrace upon terrace, with the white dots not far below the sky-line which told of its famous cattle." From this point the road rapidly descends into the valley, and we soon passed through the village of Chatton, formerly celebrated for its royal residence and demesne, where Edward I., while prosecuting his designs with regard to Scotland, often stayed, and passed much of his time in hunting; possibly in hunting; the ancestors of those very wild cattle which now graze on ChiUingham's opposite hiU. The two properties are contiguous, and Chatton, formerly a demesne of the De Yescies', now belongs to the Percies. Two mUes further brought us to Chillingham ; but first we crossed the historic river TUl, here only a mountain stream, but which, a few miles lower down the valley, after receiving numerous tributaries, arrives at Wooler, where Surrey stayed on the eve of Flodden ; and a little further on at the field of riodden, where it separated the English and Scottish armies on that eventful morning, when " From Flodden ridge Tlie Scots beheld the English host Leave Barmore "Wood, their evening post, And heedful watched them as they crossed The TlLL by Twisel Bridge." A little further brought us to Chillingham Castle, a grand baronial residence, square, and with four mas- sive towers, one at each angle of the building, and enclosing a courtyard within it. The outer walls are of immense thickness and of great antiquity. The character of the whole structure is ancient ; for though it has received slight alterations in each successive age. 174 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. and is now replete with every modem comfort, tlie tout ensemble is undoubtedly mediaeval, and so are tlie majority — externally, at least — of the details. A fine decorated wind,ow high up in one of the towers, called "King John's window," was pointed out to us. The park — originally of 1,500 acres — is now, ex- clusive of enclosed woods, about 1,100, some 400 acres near the castle having been taken off a few years since. This latter helps to supply the considerable quantity of hay required. It is proposed, however, to add to the higher and further portion of the park, and so to make up the deficiency. A short walk through the grounds brought us to its enclosure. Just before this we crossed -" The Dell," a pretty ?pot, through which flows the Chillingham Bum, which, originating in several springs within the park, and receiving afterwards some small mountaiu tributaries, passes the Castle and is finally absorbed in the Till, below Chatton. The park abounds with every species of game. A herd of seventy head of ' red deer and one of about 400 head of fallow deer are kept up ; hares and rabbits are plentiful ; the purlieus of the castle swarmed with pheasants, which constantly crossed the path; iu the centre of the park is a heronry; and when we got higher up the black-cock rose before us. The head keeper, Michie — a Scotsman, full of the cleverness and shrewdness natural to that country, conducted us. He has been here for many years, and had the honour of being recommended for the post by Sir Edwin Landseer himself. As the best mode of approach, we took, by the advice of the keeper, Michie, the light hay-cart which had served the Prince of Wales so well, and to which the cattle are accustomed. CEILLINGMAM FAILK. 175 since it conveys hay to them in winter. We traversed, however, the lower part of the park on foot, for, as it was a bright, clear, hot day, the wild cattle, as is their wont, were high np on the hUl, and we had some distance to go before we came to them. The lower part of the park is wide and spacious, and of no great elevation above the valley below ; and is very good land. It is well wooded and very wild, abounding in many places with fern and gorse, which, near the little rivulets, grow to the height of a man's head ; in others with large breadths of good grass. In these forest glades and wide, open, intermediate spaces, hundreds of deer, both red and fallow, were graziag. As we rise higher above the sea-level the deciduous timber ends, and there is a long, large, tolerably flat, open plateau of grass, where the cattle were when we saw them. It has been proposed to name this " The Prince of Wales's Plain," for it was there that the Prince for some time pursued and finally shot the wild bull. The ascent to this high terrace is gradual. On the steep slope below it is " The Pox KnoUs," a fine, thick, but open wood of larch, beech, and oak. Above it, on the stiU. more pre- cipitous hill-side, is a large wood of Scottish fir, called Eoss-hUl Wood ; and above that stretches to the summit of Eosscastle, the heather. Besides ChilHngham Burn, several small mountain streamlets rise in the park, and supply it abundantly with the purest water. Towards the centre of the park, as you proceed southwards, but near to its western boundary, is "Robin Hood's Bog," a characteristic name, pointing apparently to times long past, and " to which," it is said, " the wild cattle, when disturbed, habitually resort, and to which tradition points as their pristine habitat." This is the pla,ce called by 176 WILD WHITE OATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. the late Lord Tankerville " their sanctuary," and by Mr. Hindmarsh " their forest sanctuary." It is a large and ejEtensive do^, several acres in extent, in the middle of which grow alders, birch, hazel, and a few stunted oaks ; while connected with it, but on the drier groxmd, is a wood of beech, larch, &c. The whole forms the " forest sanctuary " of the wild cattle. Is it possible,' from its traditionary name, that the celebrated outlaw of the Middle Ages, when he wanted change, or when his loved Sherwood had been rendered unsafe in con- sequence of his predatory incursions, may have left the latter for a time, and struck down with his good long- bow the ancestors of Chillingham's wild bulls ? Having traversed the lower part of the park, we crossed one of the small brooks I have mentioned ; where a wide and good ford, well stoned, had been made. This, we were informed, was quite necessary, for iE the passage was narrow, and the cattle when alarmed crossed the brook en masse and with great rapidity — as was then their wont — ^they would get so jammed and crushed together that accidents to the younger ones would certainly occur. Not far also from Robin Hood's Bog we saw the deer-hamel, near which the wild cattle are fed in winter. Formerly they were fed in the winter season with hay only, but in the winter of 1873-74 they were for the first time fed with cut hay mixed with meal, of which they are very fond. This food "is put into boxes set down in a large circle, at from eight to ten yards apart." We next examined the very ingeniously constructed " trap " in which one of them is occasionally secured for the purpose of castration, &c. Its dimensions are eighteen feet long by eight wide, with a gate at each narrow end. These are fastened open, and the cattle sow TEE CATTLE ARE TRAPPED. Ill are tempted to go through, it hy hay placed in the park beyond. When they have become accustomed to this, lyers-in-wait stand prepared in a plantation, which skirts the " trap " and goes up to it on one side. In this, some twenty yards distant, is a roughly constructed place of concealment, which hides the man who manages the " trap." From him proceed thin ropes attached to the spring-catches, which keep the gates at each end open; and when he sees the required animal passing through, he pulls the ropes. The spring-catches in an instant release the well-balanced gates at each end ; they shut with great rapidity, and the animal is en- closed. The first notice he has is the sight of the gate in front closing upon him in an instant. Much alarmed, he backs, but the one behind him has closed too. He makes frantic but useless struggles to escape for his captors mount the platform on the outside, beyond the reach of his furious attempts to gore them, fetter him. with ropes, drag him to the comer, and tie him to a post. The operation is performed in the quickest and most primitive fashion, and the animal is speedily re- leased to rejoin the herd. No further attention is paid to him, and bad consequences scarcely ever occur. Michie, however, related to me a rather exciting case which occurred in connection with the " trap " in the spring of 1873. It shows pretty clearly how ferocious the wild cattle are when thoroughly roused. I give it in Michie's own words : — " When enticing a young buU into the trap, there happened to enter with him a young cow. When she found herseK secured and unable to vent her rage upon her captors, she began to roar and bellow so furiously that she soon brought the whole herd to her rescue. They came, with their heads up in M 178 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. a most determined manner, to free the captives. We were obliged immediately to open tlie gates and release the prisoners, for if we had not, the trap would have been demolished in a few minutes. The same young bull would never enter the trap again." We now walked through the park, aU the time gradually ascending, till we caught glimpses through the trees of the white cattle lying down on the elevated plateau described, considerably above us, and at the distance of perhaps half a mile. We still walked quietly on, till we got to a small grove of trees at the end of the "Fox EJnolls," from which we were shortly to emerge in full view of the wild herd. Then my friend and I got into and lay full length on the hay in the bottom of the hay-cart; the others walked, stooping, behind, or on the far side, in a great measure concealed. Harry Rough, the driver, walked on the side nearest to the cattle ; for to the sight of him and his cart they are more accustomed. The greatest caution is needful in order to approach them. Strict silence was insisted upon, and observed: and Michie bitterly complained how difficult he found it to enforce this upon the majority of those who came to see them, though it is so evidently necessary in order to avoid sending the cattle off at a gallop, to their own possible injury and to the disappointment of the visitor. • As it was, they were suspicious of us, gradually rose up when we. were about 800 yards distant, and quietly drew off to a knoU a few hundred yards further off. This would not do, and Miehie told the driver not to approach them so directly, bat to take a somewhat circuitous course by the side of the Pox Knolls, "as if we were going to gather sticks." This they permitted. APTHABANGE OF TEE CATTLE. 179 and by degrees we got to within rather more than a hundred yards of the herd, pulling up the cart close to the edge, and somewhat under the cover of the adjoining wood. They stood on the rising ground above us, and we saw them to perfection during more than a quarter of an hour, for we had opera-glasses and a telescope. And a grand sight it was. The whole herd of about seventy were grouped in constantly changing picturesque bodies, enjoying the cool sea-breeze, which relieved at that elevation the heat of that hot sunny day. We saw clearly most of those small details which are described elsewhere ; their general outline and their red and black points being distinctly visible. The older bulls — the thicker and longer hair of their necks darkened to a rich cream-colour by constantly pawing up the soil — showed themselves in different attitudes to the greatest advantage ; and noble beasts they were. The cows were singularly symmetrical and beautifully feminine in ap- pearance. The steers were not, relatively to the others, so magnificent as at Chartley. Be the cause what it may, at Chillingham the bull, at Chartley the ox, is the grander animal of the two. The back-line of both sexes was beautifully straight ; so also was the belly-line ; and all agreed with the remark I made — that the owner of many a prize Short-horn might have envied the exquisite form of their hind quarters, and the stylish thorough- bred manner in which their tails were set on. Their excellence in this point had, as we have seen, previously struck Mr. Pole-Gell also. The pretty young ones, of all ages and of both sexes, enlivened the interesting group. We saw several of the calves suck their dams ; one heifer we particularly observed when so employed. It was very large, and had M 2 180 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. strongly developed horns ; and we aU agreed that it could not be less than a year and a half, but was pro- bably much nearer two years old. Michie deprecated this, and wished it could be prevented, being decidedly of opinion that the length of time the calves are often suckled interferes much with the fecundity of their mothers. Lord Tankerville has also expressed to me a similar opinion; and from my own experience with respect to domestic cattle, and from what I heard and saw at Chartley, I have a strong impression that such is actually the case. By this time the day had become really hot, and the flies being troublesome, the herd, though on the whole stationary, kept moving somewhat irritably among themselves. They did not take much notice of us, nor seem to be at all alarmed; but some of the older cattle, both cows and bulls, occa- sionally turned towards us, and looked at us jealously and suspiciously; and it was quite clear to me that, fearing we might mean mischief, they always kept us well in view. At last some of the younger ones began to draw off a little, and the older cattle showing a disposition to follow, we turned the cart roimd and quietly retired. We returned to the Castle, inspected its beautiful .grounds, and examined the large baronial venison larder, so constructed that the carcase of one of the wild bulls can be hung up by the heels. A simple method for preserving the meat, which we were assured in no way injures its flavour, was there in use. On the stone floor stood an iron vessel, resembling a glue-pot. In damp weather every day, in dry weather on alternate days only, two table-spoonfuls of sulphur, alias flour of brimstone, are placed in it, and (the windows and doors LAST- VIEW OF THE CATTLE. 181 being closed) are set on fire, and left to bum tbemselves out. The plan, we were told, was most efficacious ; no blue-bottle ever survived those fumes. After a liberal entertainment, having some hours of daylight stiU before us, we unwillingly left this en- chanting place, and started for the town of Wooler, Mr. Hopej the estate-bailiff, accompanying tis as our guide. Our .route was for some miles in a westerly direction, across the valley formed by the Wooler "Water, a small stream which falls into the Till a little below Wooler. The high hill of Chillingham Park was behind us ; that on which Middleton, our first destination, stands is five miles distant on the opposite . side of the valley. All along as we went, at various turns of the road, we saw Chillingham's famous cattle, lying pretty nearly where we had left' them, on the far hiU-side, in a long, clear, white line, lit up by the bright sunshine. Nor did we lose sight of them altogether until, after leaving Mid- dleton, we were on the turnpike road which leads from Morpeth to Wooler. Thence (so brilliant was the day, and so rarified the fine northern air) we coxdd see them with the naked eye at more than five miles distance as the crow flies, measured upon the Ordnance Map, and regretfully took leave- of them. We saw them unex- pectedly again, however, on our return from Wooler, when we called at the hospitable Vicarage of Chatton. The twilight was closing in, and from ihe pretty garden of the Vicarage, at a distance of about two miles, we saw our old friends rise up after their long siesta, and move off to feed. Between Chillingham and Wooler, we drove to Middleton Hall, the residence of Mr. Gr. H. Hughes, which is just on the edge of the moors where the old 182 WILD WEITE OATTLE OF OEEAT BRITAIN. Caledonian Forest ended. Considerably below this, in the valley formed by the Wooler Water, and nearly intermediate between it and Cbillingbam, lies the ex- tensive Bog or Moss of Creswell, in the township of Middleton Hall, and belonging to its owner. It was some seventy acres in extent, but has now been drained. Here have been discovered embedded some few remains of wild animals — not perhaps of very ancient date, yet belonging to a period when these animals themselves, as well as the country they inhabited, were in a very difEerent state from what they are at present. We were shown some of these remains preserved at Middleton Hall. There were several very fine tusks of the wild boar, and a pair of the antlers of the stag with twenty- one points — ^the greatest number now produced by the red deer at Chillingham being twelve. I much regret that I was not able to procure there, in consequence of Mr. Hughes's absence from home, nor subsequently at Wooler, any farther information on this interesting subject, nor even to discover whether the remains of any species of £os have ever been found there ; but my informants thought not. It is much to be desired that this bog, and perhaps Eobin Hood's Bog, in Chilling- ham Park, should be more carefully examined; and Lord Tankerville informs me that in the case of Cres- weU Moss this has been thought of. Probably the remains of the £os jorimiffenius lie buried there ; and not only his : perhaps those of his descendants — the intermediate link between him and the ChiUingham buU — might be also found. The reliquiae of the wild beasts that ranged the forest at the same time having been exhumed, those of the ancient Caledonian wild bull may yet be discovered ; and the great pro- ANCIENT REMAINS FBOBABLY LONGER. 183 bability is that, as in the case of the red deer, they wotdd indicate that the Caledonian bull of those days was, though inferior in size to the ancient Urus, a larger animal than the present ChiUingham ox, yet of the same type as both of them. CHAPTEE IX. The CMUingham Herd {continued) — ^The Chillinghams essentially Wild Cattle — Attacks upon Mr. Hope — upon Lord Ossulston — and the Keeper — Landseer's Pictures — ^Thin Red Line above the Muzzle — a Characteristic of the Herd — The Mane — Tendency to Black in Ears and Horns — and to Black Spots. I PEOPOSE in this chapter to state further facts and circumstances, the result of my own investigations with regard to the habits and characteristics of the Chil- Kngham wild cattle, which tend to confirm or to correct in various ways the statements previously published. They are undoubtedly now, and for ages past have been, essentially wild cattle. This has sometimes been denied, on the ground that Highland kyloes, when allowed to range in a semi- wild state, " get almost like wild animals, acting exactly hke these Chil- lingham cattle." I cannot see the force of this objec- tion. It is based upon the fact that these kyloes have made a certain progress towards reverting to a state of nature ; and such is the case with all domestic cattle when freed from subjection to man, and allowed abundance of range and pastiire. The full result (par- tial only with the Highlander) has been attained ia the wild herds of the Falkland Islands and ia those of the northern island of New Zealand, all sprung from domestic cattle which have resumed the feral state. Their habits are those of essentially wild animals. But it may be said that, this being allowed, it cannot be shown that these CMUingham cattle have been always VABIOUS HYPOTHESES. 18^ wild. They may have been once domesticated, and have again become feral, as in the above-named cases. I fully admit that this hypothesis cannot be disproved by direct testimony, though I think that history and the circumstances of the country present an immense amount of cumulative evidence in the opposite direc- tion. Neither do I consider the solution of this question of much importance, so far as regards the cattle them- selves. They have been proved, on the high authority of Eiitimeyer, to be legitimate descendants of the Bos urm ; and it appears to me to matter little whether they have been continuously wild, or whether, once tamed, they again became feral several centuries ago. I am aware that some persons have supposed that the Chillingham wild buU and his Caledonian ancestor also may both have descended from the small Celtic ^o* longifrons. Eiitimeyer 's anatomical investigations have, I imagine, disposed of that opioion. And besides, the smaller size of the supposed ancestor seems to render this hypothesis untenable. Professor NUsson asserts that in every case domestic races of cattle are smaller than their supposed wild ancestor ; but whether this is so or not, one thing seems certain: that continuous inter-breeding, carried on for many generations, causes invariably, among other effects, decrease in size. Leicester sheep, bred for many years from the same flock alone, become, in time, much smaller than their ancestors, or than their congeners not similarly treated ; and all experience would lead us to believe, what anatomy confirms, that the ancient progenitor of the closely in-and-in bred Chillinghams must have been a larger, and not a smaller, animal than themselves. It has also been argued that the ChiUingham cattle 186 WILD WEITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. cannot be descended from Caesar's Urus ; for that, he asserts, was quite indomitable, and could not. even be tamed " when caught very young ; " while, notwith- standing their natural wildness, two of the Chillingham cattle, taken young, were thoroughly domesticated by old Cole, the keeper. But then Caesar's account may be in some degree exaggerated. In a parallel case we know he was in error ; and on a point like this he could have no personal knowledge : his information must have been derived from others. Men have a natural tendency to add ,to the wonderful; and J am jaoi «oTe -that even now at ChiHingTiam the possibility of reclaiming any of the younger of the wild cattle would be universally admitted by their keepers. It seems, however, pretty clear that Caesar's statement is exaggerated on this point ; for Sir Charles Lyell says : — " It is, however, beyond question that . . . towards the close of the Stone and beginning of the Bronze Period the lake-dwellers (of Switzerland) had succeeded in taming that formidable brute, the Bos primigeniv^, the Urus of Caesar." This is exactly what we might have expected; for I am not aware that (whatever may be the case with regard to the Bison) it has ever been proved on good authority that any species of JSos is, or ever was, unreclaimable. It has been shown that when taken very young- these animals may be domesticated and tamed; but nothing of the kind could be accomplished with those partially, or wholly, grown up. They are essentially " wild beasts," fearing, hating man : scenting him, as related by Boethius ; and I feel quite convinced that if any of them were placed in captivity, his description would be verified : they would be " sa impacient that, eftir thair taking, they deit for import- FEROGITT OF THE CATTLE. 187 able doloure." It is to me very extraordinary that they should be so wild as they are, considering that they are confined in a park of 1,100 acres, where they must often see man, and where they are fed by him in winter ; and I cannot conceive that any kind of wild animals would be, under the circumstances, wilder, while most woiQd be much tamer. They do not, as a rale, TTiUiiigly encounter man, but rather retreat, some- times in a hurried mfia;ner, at his approach; but if followed up, they often show fight in ihe manner de- scribed by Culley, and are never thoroughly to Tse depended upon, even by their keepers, whom they so often see. Many stories are told of their ferocity, and of the hair-breadth escapes and numerous accidents which occurred in the wild hunting of ancient days. I shall confine myself to two or three which have occurred within the last few years, which are, therefore, well authenticated, and in the majority of which the present Lord Tankerville himself took part. In one instance, lately, a full-grown steer lay dis- abled, remote from the herd, in a far corner of the park. Great was thjB sensation; for the rinderpest was then prevalent. It was supposed that one animal had been seized, and that the herd would fall a victim to its fury. But, happily, that dire scourge never touched Chillingham ; and the ailing steer was afterwards, when slaughtered, found to be suffering from rupture. The keeper, however, and Mr. Hope, ignorant of the cause, went to examine him, and in order to get nearer to him took the hay-cart. They drove it tolerably near to him in front, an enclosed wood being behind him ; and Mr. Hope got out and advanced towards him to examine him more accurately. But this was not to be ; 188 WILD WEITE CATTLE OF &BEAT BRITAIN. he rose, and finding himself in some measure closed in, he charged with the greatest fury. Mr. Hope had barely tipae to escape to the cart when the ox, dis- appointed of his revenge, attacked the cart itself, and made it ring with the strokes of his horns. Fortunately, he hutted at it behind, or it might have been upset. Still more dangerous would it have been if he had attacked the horse. However, he did not j and at last, tired of these unavailing efforts, he drew off. To even greater danger was the present Earl of Tankerville, when Lord Ossulston, once exposed. A bull had been shot at and wounded, it was supposed mortally. The pursuers, and among them his lord- ship, were under cover in a wood ; the bull was in the open, not far off'. Lord Ossulston advanced on horse- back, rifle in hand, to despatch him. The wounded bull charged in an instant furiously and suddenly ; and before the horse could be completely turned round, and got quite out of the way, he was gored and disem- bowelled. Staunch, however, to the last, the noble horse carried his master away at a gallop ; but after traversing 300 or 400 yards, he fell dead in a moment. Nothing could have saved Lord Ossulston, for the place was quite open, had not the attendants previously seen the danger, and succeeded in diverting towards them- selves the attention of the buU. The steed lay dead, but the rider almost miraculously escaped. I stood upon the spot, and retain a vivid recollection of it. The following incident has been immortalised by Landseer's magnificent picture, " The Death of the Bull," which hangs over the sideboard in the dining- hall at the Castle. In it' also, as in the preceding one, the present earl, when still Lord Ossulston, was ATTAOK UPON A KEEPEB. 189 concerned. This grand picture depicts the dead bull. Lord Ossulston, the old keeper Cole, a pony, and the good dog " Bran " standing by, all of them the size of life. I give the narrative as it has been supplied to me by Lord Tankerville himself: — " ' The Death of the Bull,' by Landseer, represents the bull that tossed the keeper (Barnes), and also the favourite deer-hound. Bran, that held the bull at bay and saved his life. "We used in those days to single the buUs out of the herd to shoot them — a dangerous amusement — ^instead of quietly stalking them. The lower part of the park, which is now separated from the portion above where the deer and cattle go, was at that time kept for hay, and pastured afterwards by these animals, which only fed there at night, and retired to their own haunts in the upper part of the park at day- light. "When a bull was to be kUled, one of the keepers watched the gates, and when the main herd had passed he shut in the buU alone, or a small portion of the herd with him, in the lower park, where the plains were more suitable for galloping. On this occasion the buU was not to be foiled in this manner ; he charged the fence, and, smashing it, nearly got through, when he was con- fronted by the man and his dog. It appears that the man was either too bold or not active enough, for, on advancing a few yards from the fence, he could not regain it before the bull picked him up; We were at breakfast, when we were alarmed by seeing Cole, the head keeper, running across the lawn ; rushing into the hall, he begged us to come to the man's assistance, as he was being tossed by the bull. I had to put down my rifle, which I had seized, as my father (remembering the escape I had previously had) would not otherwise 190 WILB WSITH CATTLE- OF GBEAT BBITAIN. be pacified ; and probably it was lucky I did so, for I took my dog Bran instead, and be reacted tbe scene of action quicker tban we could. "Wben we got within sigbt of tbe spot, Bran saw in an instant what was going on in tbe distance, and sprang off like ligbtning, and bad bitten off tbe bull and beld bim safe at bay long before we got up to bim. So intent, bowever, was tbe bull upon bis victim, tbat be broke away several times to return to bim ; but Bran was too powerful and determined to give bim a cbance, and tore at bis bocks till be forced bim to turn round again. So we got tbe poor fellow into a cart. " You would suppose tbat after sucb a mauling tbe poor man would bave little life left in bim ; but be lived to be eigbty-four, and be was still pursuing bis favourite vocation of trapping rabbits, &c., on tbe Cbeviots, wben I met bim tbere only tbree years ago, witb a beavy load of traps and rabbits on bis back. It seems a marvel tbat, witb five broken ribs and a quarter of an hour's goring and tossing by a- wild bull, bis days should not bave been shortened to something less tban this patriarchal term of life. The man who was tossed was called Barnes ; it is Cole who, as bead keeper, is represented in Landseer's picture : but some poetic license has been taken ia his likeness. The animals, which were Landseer's forte, are perfect fac-similes."* If the keeper showed such tenacity of life, so also did tbe buU ; for the late Lord Tankerville, writing in 1838, gives us this sequel to the story. Tbe keeper having been withdrawn, several gentlemen, and among them " a steady, good marksman," fired " upon the bull from behind a fenfce, at the distance of twenty-five yards ; * Letter of Lord Tankerville to me, dated October 22ud, 1874. SIB EBWIN LANDSEEB AT OHILLINGEAM. 191 but it was not till six or seven balls bad actually entered tbe bead of tbe animal (one of tbem passing in at tbe eye) tbat be at last fell. During tbe wbole time be never flincbed nor cbanged bis ground, merely sbaking bis bead as be received tbe several sbots." Wben sucb is tbe Cbillingbam wild bull now, wbo sball say tbat tbe account Boetbius gives of tbe ferocity of tbe Cale- donian bull, as be tben existed on bis unreclaimed native wastes, is at aU exaggerated ? Having described tbe circumstances on wbicb Land- seer's celebrated picture of " Tbe Deatb of tbe Bull" is founded, it may be proper to add bere tbat tbis, tbougb on tbe largest scale, is not tbe only one, nor, in my opinion, tbe most striking, of tbat celebrated artist's pictures wbicb may be seen at Cbillingbam. Notbing can prove more fully tbe amiable kindness and discrimi- na,ting taste of CbiUiDgbam's noble family tban tbeir friendsbip for Sir Edwin Landseer. "Wbetber tbey were at bome or not, it was just tbe same ; Sir Edwin was always at bome at tbe Castle, and constantly spent weeks of bappy retirement tbere, sometimes witb tbe family, sometimes alone, but always welcome. And notbing tbat I bave said can so perfectly describe Cbillingbam as tbat it was tbe favourite retreat of Landseer. Its park abounded witb tbose noble wild animals wbicb be so intensely loved, and witb sucb a master's band delineated. No one interfered witb bim, and " be used," says Lord Tankerville, " to go for wbole days togetber into tbe park to study tbem; so be knew tbem well." No wonder tbat tbe place abounds witb reminiscences of tbis grand master. Not to mention tbe beautiful sketcbes and smaller pieces wbicb Lady TankerviUe carefully retains — and among tbese, ob ! 192 WILD WRITE CATTLE OF GREAT BBITAIN. such a dog ! a terrier starting aJive out of the canvas ! — there are two, besides " The Death of the Bull," and nearly as large — ^for the animals are the size of life — in the dining-hall. In execution and in interest I think them even superior to that magnificent work of art. They are at the opposite end of the room — companion- pictures — on each side of the central doorway leading to the library. On one side is the picture of " The Stag, the Hind, and the Fawn;" on the other, "The Wild Bull, the Cow, and the Calf" I must leave the first of these priceless pictures to notice — though I cannot do justice to — ^the latter : " The Wild Bull, the Cow, and the Calf" — all the size of life. The bull is very grand, as he stands on a small rising ground nearly facing the spectator, and fore-shortened j the whole of the calf, which occupies the lower portion of the picture, is also shown ; but the cow, which stands across it, somewhat higher than her caK, yet lower than the buU, is only shown as far as the chine, her middle and hind quarters being cut ofi" by the requirements of the picture. They all stand up, and the whole, apart from its beauty as a work of art, is a wonderful study ; for these are admir- able portraits of the ChiUingham wild cattle as they are, painted by a master hand from life, and true to the very smallest minutiae. The character of both male and female gives the strongest impression to the mind of what may be technically called " blood and breeding." Grrand, masculine, majestic is the buU ; peculiarly sweet, feminine, and elegant is the cow ; and both are distin- guished by what a. breeder would call " style." The cow much reminded me, in the symmetry and beauty of form of those parts shown, of some of the late Sir Charles Knightley's females ; her type of head much resembled MINOE POINTS OF TEH OATTLE. 193 tlie proverbial elegance of theirs. A touch of humour has been added by the artist to illustrate the well- known fable. A contemptible little frog in front is endeavouring to inflate himself to the size of the superb bull. This picture assisted me in coming to a conclusion on one or two important points. I had previously been informed by Michie that the Chillingham cattle had, besides the red ear, a faint line of red hair, as if drawn by a pencil, immediately above the black and hairless muzzle, and intermediate between it and the hair of the face, which, like that of the rest of the body, with the exception of the greater part of the ears, is white. I was much struck with this, for this characteristic has never before been mentioned or alluded to ; and I asked Michie whether all the Chillingham cattle had this mark. His reply was : " All ; it is bom with them, and it dies with them." And here was the confirma- tion. That pencU-line of red had not escaped the notice of the observing Landseer, but was clearly shown in his faithful portraits. It has been remarked by Touatt, and confirmed by general observation, that white Short-horns have a great tendency to red or roan ears. My own experience leads me to believe that this is true ; and that when their ears are not red or even roan, they wiU generally be found, on examination, to contain a few red hairs. Mr. Chandos- Pole-Grell and I have also, each independently of the other, long since observed another resemblance between the white Short-horn and the white wild cattle. "We both believe that in the white Short-horn a dark or stained nose occurs more frequently than in those of any other colour. To these points of likeness I have now to add N 194 WILD WSITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. that I have very often — I may say generally— observed in the white Short-horn a tendency to have a few red hairs in the " same place where the faint pencil-line of red hair occurs in the Chillingham cattle. Such simi- larities can scarcely be accidental ; they probably indi- cate affinity, though perhaps remote, in blood. Another circumstance I noted first that day at Chillingham. I had accepted as undoubtedly true the assertion of all modern writers — Sir "Walter Scott, CuUey, Hindmarsh, &c. — that the wild cattle had whoUy lost " the mane," which, according to Boethius and Leslie, the Scottish wild bulls three hundred years since possessed, and which may even (if Dr. Leigh's account of them is to be so understood) have distinguished, 175 years since, those belonging to Sir Ealph Assheton at Middleton, in Lancashire. I had been content to accept the universally received opinion, as stated by Culley, that the only approximation to the manes mentioned by the old writers is that " some of the bulls have a thin upright mane, about an inch and a half or two inches long " — which is not unf requently the case with domestic cattle also. What, then, was my surprise when I saw in Landseer's picture that the mane of the bull was clearly and distinctly shown. ' It was not, indeed, so strongly developed as to resemble the mane of "the wild lion," as we are told that of the old Caledonian bulls did ; yet there undoubtedly it was, in a rudimentary yet distinctive form, covering the forehead, extending over every part of the neck right down to the dewlap, and suddenly ending in a clearly marked line at the shoulders, which, be it observed, were well thrown back. There it was, " crisp and curland " over all those parts, while the hair M'as " meek 4nd tame in the remanent figure of thair MANES OF TEE BULLS. 195 bodyis " — a very decided rudimentary mane, not so large and long; but as clearly marked as in the Hon himself. I then remembered that snch also was the character of the hair of the neck of the Ohillingham bull shot by the Prince of Wales, and that it was similarly contrasted with that of the rest of the body ; although, as the head and the skin of the body were preserved separately, and I did not see them together, the difference in character of the hair was not so easily observed. Such, too, though seen at some distance, was evidently the case with regard to the older bulls we saw in the park ; the relatively larger amount of hair they carried on their necks afforded greater opportunities for the lodgment of the dirt they pawed up, and made them of a deeper colour in that part. Most strikingly was this mane seen too, even yet more plainly marked, in a wood engraving of a Chilling- ham wild bull by the celebrated Bewick, the fidelity and truth of whose delineations of animals admit of not the slightest question. It was a small print, framed, and hung in one of the bed-rooms, and bore upon it, printed underneath, its own verification : " Thomas Bewick, Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1789" — that is, eighty-six years since. No one could give the most cursory glance at this beautiful little print without being struck with the curly mane, which is quite a remarkable feature of the grand bull, full of wild grace and vigour, which is there delineated. If the ChillLngham bulls a century since had manes like that, the description of Boethius cannot, after aU, be so much over-drawn ; for we should be led to suppose that if the mane had been diminished some- what in the time which elapsed between Bewick and Landseer, much greater may have been its diminution N 2 196 WILD WEITU OATTLE OF OBEAT BRITAIN. between tlie time o£ Boethius and that of Bewick, a period of over 260 years. But that this mane still exists is evident, not only from Landseer's pictures, but from his frequently expressed opinion — and no man ever studied these cattle so minutely; for Lord Tankerville informs me that " Landseer always talked about it as a chairacteristic of them." His lordship adds, what is doubtless strictly true, that " the mane is not so strongly developed as in the Bison, and only in roughness and curliness as compared with the rest of the skin ;" and that " it is more developed in some of the bulls than in others, and becomes more so with age." I have suggested the possibility of restoring in some degree this feature by a certain amount of selection of the bulls which have it most. Perhaps I may be permitted to observe that I have sometimes seen a tendency — I can scarcely call it more — in some well-bred bulls of various Short-horn families to produce a mane of this description, though of course to a much more limited extent, and without the clear and definite line of demarcation at the shoulder which distinguishes the wild animal. As an illustration, I will mention the picture in the dining-room at Warlaby of Mr. Booth's celebrated and white bull, " Windsor " (14013). The "accounts which have been given, sufficiently describe the general markings of the Chill ingham cattle. Like all other of the white herds with which I am acquainted, they are subject to certain variations. They have not been proved, indeed, to have the same tendency to produce black or black-and-white calves which some other herds have ; and we may, I think, take it for granted that they either have no tendency to this, or at TENDENCY TO BLACK SPOTS. 197 least that tlie disposition to do so is much less than it is in many of the white cattle. But it seems certain from Bewick's account, taken together with the steward's book — both previously quoted — ^that formerly they had a very strong pre-disposition to have red or black ears indifferently ; and that the uniformly red ear which has of late years prevailed is solely the result of selection, the black-eared ones having been purposely destroyed. In examining the horns of several of the ChiUing- ham cattle preserved by Mr. Briggs, the taxidermist, at Wooler, I observed on one head — that of a buU — that while one horn was absolutely pure white, without a black stain on it, the fellow horn was very faintly, almost imperceptibly, tinged with black towards the tip, but nothing like so strongly as in many a high-bred Short-horn. I am informed by Mr. Jacob Wilson that he believes these were the horns of a bull which he knows was shot not long since on account of his horns not being correct in colour. This is a strong proof of a tendency to variation suppressed by selection. But the strongest and newest fact which, as I think, I have established, is the tendency which the ChiUing- ham cattle have to black or blue spots upon the neck. This seems common to aU the white races. Dickinson describes " the Caledonian Forest wild cattle " — by which he means, I presimie, those of Athole, Cumbernauld, &c. — as " being a dun, or rather fiea-biiten white," and having black muzzles and ear-tips, with spotted legs ; and he says that the Drumlanrig breed "had the same markings." At Chartley, to my own knowledge, the same description holds good ; some there might certainly be csiSi&dLJlea-Mtten whites. The same tendency exists in the Chillingham herd, though to a less extent than in 198 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. most others, as might have been expected : for this variety has less tendency to black and more to red than most others have. Old Cole, the keeper, informed Mr. Hind- marsh that during the thirty-three years he had been there, there had been " about half a dozen which had small brown or bine spots upon the cheeks and necks ; but these, with any defective ones, were always destroyed." Into this I determined to inquire further ; and I, there- fore, about a month after he was shot, carefully examined at Mr. Ward's, in Wigmore Street, the remains, still there, of the Prince of Wales's bull. The head and neck had been stuffed; and the skin, and the four feet also sepa- rately, up to half-way between the fetlock and knee-joint, had been preserved — and all these were intended for the purpose of decoration at Sandringham. The neck, down to the dewlap, and the upper part of the face was covered with thick and very curly white hair — not very- long, for Mr. Jacob Wilson said he had not yet got his winter's coat ; yet much longer and more curly, and different in character from that on the rest of the body, where it was straight, short, and not mossy in character. The hoofs were as black as ebony. But what struck me most was this : his cheeks and neck, and still more perceptibly that part of the skin which had covered the shoulders and the withers, had upon them very distinctly marked small spots of a black-roan character. Some of them were as large as a sixpence, some smaller, a few perhaps larger, and they were on those parts numerous. Indications of the same thing were apparent on the skin above the hoofs ; on this part were numerous, but isolated, black hairs ; there was, moreover, on one leg a black spot of the same size as those on the neck. Armed with this information, I pressed Michie BLACK SPOTS GENJEBAL. 199 on the subject ; and lie admitted that some of both the old btdls and cows had " a few blue spots ; " but he said " this was indicative of old age " — a conclusion which, after old Cole's statement respecting the calves with " brown or blue spots upon the cheeks and necks," I considerably doubt. It appears to me rather indicative of relationship to the "flea-bitten whites with rmttled legs " of the old Caledonian Forest and other places. Possibly, too, an equally close examination might show traces of this peculiarity in some of the younger cattle ; but if not, it is quite in accordance with the statement of Darwin, that many animals develop some hereditary characteristics only when they arrive at a certain age. The tongues of the ChiUingham cattle are slate-coloured above, and of a reddish-brown colour on the under-side ; the teats of the cows, unlike those at Chartley, are white ; and although the muzzle of these cattle is black, the under -lip is white. CHAPTEE X. The Chillingham Herd {continued) — Constitution and Government of the Herd — Combats of the Bulls sometimes fatal — Calves produced at aU. Seasons — Con- cealment of the Calves — Sick Anima,la often gored — ^Weight and Quality of Meat — Statistics of the Herd, past and present^Questions of Fecundity and Inter-hreeding — No proof that the Herd has never heen crossed — Herds of Deer crossed — ^No Difficulty formerly in ohtaining a Cross — Probability that the Herd has heen crossed. The constitution of the CMUingham herd is an abso- lute monarchy. At its head is always a male, who is known as the king bull; he acquires his crown by virtue of his own prowess, and must always be prepared to defend it. The females are at his disposal, and the less potent males obey him. The king bull generally succeeds in maintaining his supremacy for two or three years, while strength and vigour last; but when age comes vpith years, bringing weakness instead of strength, the failing monarch succumbs to a younger and more energetic rival, who is again in his turn deposed, after a somewhat similar interval, by the flower of the rising generation. Few reign so long as the Prince of Wales's bull did, and he would have been previously deposed had not the bull who would naturally have succeeded him been shot for the purpose of sending him to the Moscow Exhibition. Though, in case of alarm or of a necessity of fighting for the protection of the herd, the king bull takes the lead, it did not appear to me that their ordinary movements were so systematised, and Michie assured me they were not. The king bull— COMBATS BETWEEN TEE BULLS. 201 lord and master of the herd — ^remains in pretty close attendance upon any cow which happens for the time being to wish for his company, yet it seems clear that he is not the sire of every calf bom while he reigns supreme. The superior activity and vigilance of the younger bulls enable them sometimes, perhaps not un- frequently, to seize some happy opportunity, and to outwit their potent and vigorous, but less energetic monarch without the risk of a personal encounter with him. Some remarkable instances of this were told us, so that probably the influence of the reigning bull is not so great, as regards the succeeding generation, as has been usually supposed. At least, I apprehend that this is, to a certain extent, the case in a herd so numerous as the one at Chillingham, and in which so many adult bulls are kept, whatever it may be under other circum- stances. When a younger buU thinks himself able to contest the supremacy with his chief, he challenges him. This is a smaU. matter in itself, though, often terrible in its results ; he puts himself in the attitude of defiance and paws the ground. The reigning monarch knows well what it means, and the laws of honour compel him to accept the contest. The duel is a desperate one ; the mastership of the herd the prize. " The bellowing -war begins : Their eyes flash fury ; to the hoUo-wed earth. Whence the sand flies, they mutter bloody deeds, And groaning deep, the impetuous battle mix : While the fair heifer, balmy breathing, near, Stands kindling up their rage." The contest is no child's play. Sometimes both combatants perish, when very equally matched — both 202 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. gored to deatli. One sucli case the late Lord Tanker- ville has mentioned ; and such a termination of the fray seems to have been not uncommon in the fights between their ancestor, the Urus ; for no less than two cases have been related in one parish — that of Bower, in the county of Caithness — ^in each of which two skulls of these large cattle were found locked by the horns together, showing that they fought till they destroyed each other. But generally the battle, though severe, is less fatal. The old monarch, if beaten, retires, no more to reign ; the challenger, if discomfited, bides his time, till his own increasing strength and his rival's advancing years allow him to renew the fight and gain the victory. Of Mr. Dixon's statement of two young bulls at- tacking the king bull " fore and aft " when he advances in years, I could not obtain any confirmation. On the contrary, the change of dynasty is accomplished in the manner I have related above — ^by single combat, as among the knights of old ; and the rule is "a fair field and no favour." Grenerally, at least, the remainder of the herd look on quite passively, and there is no inter- ference whatever with the two combatants. One re- markable instance, however, I heard to the contrary. The master bull was challenged, and fought with the aspirant. The herd watched the spectacle ; they were equally matched, and the result was yet doubtful, when a jealous old bull, long since deposed and laid aside, took the opportunity to revenge himself on his former rival, charged the king bull a tergo, and thus gave the victory to the younger competitor. As the habits of wild cattle are little known to us, I have thought it desirable to relate these narticulars. HABITS OF THE COWS. 203 There is little fighting among the females; still one is occasionally gored, and sufficient trials of strength occur to decide the question of mastership. Michie believes that the " order of precedency " is quite recog- nised, and that every cow knows her own place quite as well as do more high-born dames. The period of ges- tation has never been clearly ascertained ; but it seems singular — though nevertheless an undoubted fact — that the cows calve in every month of the year, frequently in January and February, and often when the snow is on the ground. I could not discover that any instance was known of their producing twins ; certainly no such case has occurred of late years. The cows conceal their calves in the long grass or fern, and, as has been shown, defend them with the greatest ferocity; while the newly- born animal itself shows its instinctive wildness by crouching quietly in its hiding-place, Hke the hare when she nestles in her form. It has been said by the old authorities that this concealment of the calf lasts " for a week or ten days," the cow, in the meantime, going to suckle the calf two or three times a day. This is in the main correct, but the calf does not appear to be hidden for near so long a time as was supposed. Michie, the present keeper — a very shrewd and in- telligent man, of great observation — ^informs me that "when a cow calves" (I give his own words) "she chooses a secluded place to drop her calf, and rejoins the herd the next and every succeeding morning, re- turning to it at night and at other times to suckle it. The cow introduces the calf to the herd on the third or fourth day ; and I have never known but one case in which the cow was five days before she brought the calf into the herd. 204 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GBEAT BRITAIN. " I have known a few cases — when the weather was cold and misty — of the cow not leaving her calf at all till she brought it into the herd with her on the second day after calving. Owing, no doubt, to the coldness, the calf did not sleep sound enough for her to leave or steal away from it." Perhaps, too, it might require the additional warmth of the mother lying by its side. This last accoimt is, I am informed, analogous to the habits of park deer under similar circumstances. With regard to their goring the sick, it appears that such is the case. Michie says that "a sickly animal is sure to be badly used. A case of the kind came udder my notice last year, when feeding the cattle one morning. A bull made a rush at a sickly steer, and threw him over. When he fell the cattle gave a most unearthly yell, and closed in around him. At the moment I had no doubt that they would gore bim to death ; but he lay quite stiU, apparently feigning death, and in a few minutes they all went to their feed again. The fallen animal then lifted up his head, and seeing they were gone, he rose up and quietly followed after them, as if nothing had. happened." The weights of the ChiUingham cattle appear to be somewhat less than they were said to be by Culley, but his iaquiries upon the subject may have been less strict than mine. The average weight of the steers is at present rather less than 40 stones of 14 lb., that of the cows about 30 stones. The heaviest steer killed of late years weighed 42 st. 3 lb. ; the heaviest cow 33 st. 9 lb. The adult bulls weigh heavier than eithei^. The clean carcase of that shot by Lord Clan- william in 1826 weighed 56 stones; the one shot by the Prince of Wales in 1872 weighed nearly 60. stones. This WEIGHT AND QUALITY OF BEEF. -.205 great difference in weight between bulls and steers of a like age may be owing to the late period at which the latter are castrated — never under three years old. In this respect the practice is obviously a disadvantage, but the great risk and danger are avoided which would attend this operation if performed on the calves when their wild and ftirious dams are near at . hand to defend them, and it allows much greater choice in the selection of the bulls. The steers are generally killed at from six to eight years old, and the bulls at about the same age. Some of the breeding cows are allowed to live to a greater age. If domesticated, and treated like ordinary cattle, they would undoubtedly weigh much heavier. The steer which old. Cole reare'd and tamed was computed to have weighed, when at his best, 65 stones, but he would have been castrated when a caH. It seems surprising that the beef of these steers, cas- trated so late, should be so wonderfully good; yet so it is. Mr. Jacob Wilson, by the desire of Lord Tankerville, sent me the round of one of the wild oxen at Christmas, 1874. To test its merits thoroughly, I had it cooked and discussed at a public dinner at Daventry ; dozens of men tasted it, and some of the best judges in the country, of beef alive or dead, formed the grand jury. The verdict was unanimous. Gentlemen graziers, and others, all declared that " they had never eaten beef at all equal to that." AU agreed, like the monks of old, that the flesh far exceeded that of "their awin tame bestial:" and Northamptonshire has plenty of good beef of every possible sort. This Chillingham ox was six years old, and the beef was beautifully marbled and of excellent grain, in colour very dark, like mountain mutton. It ate very -206 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. short, sweet, and tender, and yet had sufficient firmness. The finest Scottish, Welsh, or Devon was inferior to it in flavour; and the fat, of which there was abundance, was delicious, and in elasticity on a par with that of the best venison. The "quaHty" was extraordinary, and was accompanied by what breeders and graziers always regard as a test of " quality " — great lightness of offal. This piece of beef must have lost weight, for it had a long journey from Northumberland to London, and then down to Hellidon. When it came into my house, I saw it carefully weighed, and the weight was forty pounds to an ounce; while the bone it contained (which I have preserved), when divested of the marrow, weighed one pound, or sixteen ounces, only : a most rare instance, I believe — two and a half per cent, of bone. Other parts would, of course, have had a much higher percentage of bone ; yet in these, too, the percentage must have been, relatively to most other cattle, very small. It was this "uncommon fineness and delicacy of its bones " which struck Kutimeyer so much when he examined anatomically the Chillingham Bos; and it was this rare quality which rendered this same herd, and others similarly descended, fitted to become — what I fully believe they were — the great improvers, when the coarse, big-boned cattle of former days required to have their superabundant offal sensibly reduced. The numbers of the herd appear to vary a good deal at no long intervals. We have seen before that in aU probability in the year 1692, according to the steward's account, it consisted of only fourteen breeding animals, bulls and cows, and calves of both sexes, and twelve steers — in all twenty-eight. Mr. Hindmarsh states that in 1838 there were "about eighty in the STATISTICS OF TEE KERB. 207 herd, comprising twenty-five "bulls, forty cows, and fifteen steers, of various ages." But if this statement is not an exaggerated one, it must have subse- quently much decreased. In a letter to Mr. Darwin, Mr. Hardy, then agent, said they numbered " about fifty." That was in May, 1861. When viewed by Mr. Thornton and others on the 1st of August, 1873, it numbered sixty-four: namely, seventeen buUs and bull-calves, twenty-eight cows, heifers, and calves, and nineteen steers. Nearly fifteen months later, October 28, 1874, Lord Tankerville wrote to me thus: — "I have succeeded in getting up the herd to a good head, about seventy now, and quite up to the mark that I wish them to be. But I was some time in getting them up to this number, as they were a smaller herd in my father's time, and they increase slowly, several dying each year by accidents or by over-running their calves when disturbed ; and the cows breed slowly, owing to having frequently the calves still sucking the second year." In the not quite five months that intervened between that and March 22nd, 1875, the herd had again considerably decreased. The number in October was, I beheve, actually seventy-one ; as many as twelve died in less than five months following, while there had been three births : so that in March, 1875, the herd consisted of sixty-two — fourteen bulls and bull- calves, thirty-one females, and seventeen steers. It is interesting to trace, so far as is known, the causes of these numerous deaths. They are — 5 steers and 1 cow Shot. 2 bulls and 1 old co-w Gored. 1 steer, 1 cow, and 1 six months' \ Died from causes old calf I unknown. 208 WILB WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. The above account corroborates very strongly their liability to " accidents," to which Lord Tankerville has alluded ; and it shows, too, that at times many deaths take place from their goring one another. But though disagreeing altogether, for other reasons, with the arguments of CuUey, who considers this " as a case of long continued inter-breeding within the limits of the same herd without any consequent injury," and agreeing with those of Mr. Darwin, in his admirable chapter on " Good from Crossing, and Evil from Inter-breeding," I yet cannot, as respects the Chillingham cattle, concur in all the conclusions of the latter. Before it is admitted that the " annual rate of increase " in the Chillinghams is " one in five " only, while that of the half-wild herds in South America " is from one-third to one-fourth the total number, or one in between three and four," it ought to be shown that this is a "fair standard of comparison " in the following respects — ^that the loss of the latter from accidents is as great' in the open plains of Paraguay as it is in the steep and abrupt glens, the narrow defiles, and thick woods of the confined park at ChiUingham: accidents, I mean, to the caK before birth as well as after, for many calves are never bom, in con- sequence of the panics and stampedos to which their dams are subject; thus Dixon says, as we have seen, " two such gallops in the course of a week, one season, cost nearly every cow her calf." It ought also to be shown that the same cause of infecundity prevails in Paraguay which is so common at Chillingham — the cow suckling her calf when it is more than a year old ; this may or may not be the case there. But in addi- tion, the very premises on which the conclusion is built are in themselves fallacious — namely, that " the herd is TEjE question of IN-BBEEBING. 209 kept up to nearly the same average number of fifty." It has really been raised of late to ai much, higher average, and has increased since 1861 between thirty and forty per cent.; the annual increase, therefore, must have been much greater than that supposed, even under disadvantages which have not yet been proved to apply to the semi-wild herds of Paraguay. I consider that the relative infecundity of the ChiUingham cattle has been scarcely proved in itself, and still less as a result of inter-breeding, for I do not think that their being in-and-ia bred to the extent supposed by "Culley and others" is at all established by evidence. It appears to me to be a mere assumption, and one not in itself particularly probable. This is a subject upon which, from its great importance, I cannot refuse to enter ; for the supporters of long-continued in-and-in breeding have always appealed to the Chillingham herd as their great example and authority. It should be remembered, however, that this question in no way affects the origin or antiquity of the herd, nor even the preservation of its ancient type, these last being suffi- ciently proved ; it affects only the manner in which the herd has been kept up : the point at issue being whether it has always been from the first continuously and systematically inter-bred, or whether at any time subjected to a cross. It is by no means to be denied that these cattle have been often, and perhaps for a long time together, and especially of late years, bred closely inter se alone — ^that is fully admitted; and the late Lord Tankerville, Eiitimeyer, and Darwin point out some disadvantages which have arisen ia consequence, such as diminished size and a tendency to certain complaints. But the real question is — rl repeat it again — ^Have they o 210 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. never received any cross? The fact that the recent extinction within a few years of two celebrated wild herds, at Grisbnme Park, and at Wollaton, and their being almost extinct at Lyme, is attributed by those who knew them best to long-continued inter-breediug, ought to make us pause before we assume, except upon conclusive evidence, that the ChiUingham herd has not received for ages any fresh blood. CuUey's statement that they have not is abundantly strong : — "One of the most conclusive arguments," says he, " that crossing with different stock is not necessary to secure size, hardiness, &c., is the breed of wild cattle in ChiUingham Park, iu the county of Northumberland. It is well known these cattle have been confined in this park for several hundred years, without any inter- ijiixture, and are, perhaps, the purest breed of cattle of any in the kingdom. From their situation and un- controlled state, they must indisputably have bred from the nearest affinities in every possible degree ; yet we find these cattle exceedingly hardy, healthy, and weU formed, and their size, as well as colour, and many other particulars and peculiarities, the same as they were five hundred years since." .... " From these instances it appears there can be no danger in breeding from the nearest affinities, provided they are possessed in a superior degree of the qualities we wish to acquire." A very bold assertion indeed, but a mere assertion, unaccompanied by any even presumptive evidence, much less by any proof. " It is," says he, " well known " that " for several hijiidred " years "these cattle" have never received "any intermixture." One would have supposed it would have been "well known" to the GULLET'S STATEMENT IMPROBABLE. 211 writer tliat no proof whatever of this being true for anythiag like one hundred years exists : much less for several hundred. And then he asserts as roundly that these cattle are in size, and in every excellent quality, " the same as they were five hundred years since " — which he could not in any way know, and which we have every reason to believe is not the case ; for Eiiti- meyer and Darwin have pointed out what wonderful changes they have undergone, and there is no cause for thinking that the last five hundred years have been altogether exempt from their share in producing these alterations. If men are asked to believe such almost miraculous statements as these, some evidence, strongly presumptive at least, of their credibility should be given. The onus probandi rests upon the assertor. Nothing of the kind has been attempted, because nothing of the kind was possible ; and the conclusions built upon such assertions are altogether worthless. Nothing can be known with any certainty as to how the Chillingham cattle have been bred for several hun- dred years, nor whether they have ever been crossed or not. Various collateral circumstances would lead to a presumption, more or less strong, that at certain times they may have received fresh blood. One reason for thinking so is, that previously to the time of BakeweU, whose views had little influence till after the middle of the last century, the idea of in-and-in breeding con- tinuously was totally alien to the minds of all practical men. Culley has himself confirmed this very fully : — "The great obstacle to the improvement oi domestic animals seems to have arisen from a common prevailing idea amongst breeders, that no bull should be used in 2 212 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GBEAT BRITAIN. the same herd more than three years, and no tup more than two ; because (say they) if used longer, the breed will be too near akin, and the produce will be tender, diminutive, and liable to disorders." Such were the ideas which prevailed universally before the time of Bakewell; and it is scarcely to be supposed that noblemen and gentlemen, any more than farmers and breeders, would disbelieve opinions which were then universally accepted as true. That they did not is shown by the circumstance that they constantly infused new blood into their herds of deer; and this was much less necessary, inasmuch as they were far more numerous. Take, for instance, Chillingham, with its average of, perhaps, 50 head of wild cattle and 400 of fallow deer, during the last hundred years. It seems obvious that the habit of breeding from close rela- tionships and affinities woxdd be eight times as great in the cattle as in the deer, and that if the cattle only required a cross at the end of a hundred years, the deer wotild not require one, supposing the same rule to hold good with both, till the end of eight hundred years. It is certainly not probable that men who thought their deer required a change of blood would think otherwise — ^when that, too, was the received opinion — ^with regard to their cattle, which were so much more closely inter-bred. There seems no reason to suppose that the owners of the wild herds would act differently from what, in their day, every one else did. They had, moreover, every facility for taking an occa- sional cross. Three hundred years since, and still more if we go farther back, the whole of the North was studded with herds of these wild cattle. Numbers of them were MANY CROSSES AVAILABLE. 213 ■within easy reacli of ChiLlingham : this is certainly true of the herds kept at Hamilton, Drumlanrig, Naworth, Bishop Auckland, Barnard Castle, and possibly of a dozen others of which all memory is lost, not to mention those further distant. How easy it must have been in those days to obtain an appropriate cross is obvious. Again some of these herds were in existence till a comparatively recent period, so that a good deal later there coidd not have been much difficulty. At the beginning of the last century the Tankerville family were intimate and indeed connected with the family of Aislabie of Studley Eoyal, near Eipon, whose celebrated white herd was destined, later in the century, to become the great source of reno- vation and improvement in the old Teeswaters. It was derived from unknown sources, but almost certainly not from the general cattle of the adjoining country ; it is much more likely that it originated from the cattle of . the monks of Fountains Abbey, close by. Had these sources altogether failed — ^which tiU a late period they did not — ^there were other facile means of obtaining a cross. The system formerly adopted was far less exclusive than at present, and the cows of the neighbours were freely admitted to breed to the wild bulls. This we know from history was the case in other parks besides that at Chillingham ; and that it was so there we have the sufficient evidence of Bewick. On his authority, and on that of others also, we know that the . prepotency of the wild sire stamped indeHbly his own lineaments, colour, and points upon his offspring from these less high-bred mothers. I am aware that some of the guardians of the present Chillingham herd consider its wildness so great, that to bring about such a connexion nowadays would be impossible; but the 214 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GBEAT BRITAIN. contrary is indicated by the habits of the yet wilder, although feral, cattle of the Falkland Islands and of the northern island of New Zealand. There many of the bulls, tempted by domestic cows, desert their own herds to follow them, and are lassoed or shot down in consequence. Superior as these wUd Chilling- ham cattle were to the ordinary domestic breed, the whole neighbourhood must have abounded with their half-bred descendants, strong resemblances of themselves. Here was, indeed, a grand opportunity for a cross, with little chance of losing the original type if the selection were made carefully — ^for a half or three-quarters bred wild bull, with abimdanee of wild character, might have been easily procured ; and I cannot divest myself of the idea that " William KadyU's white calfe," purchased Dec. 5th, 1689, by WiUiam Taylor, Steward of Chilling- ham, was obtained for this purpose. The price, ten shillings, must have been an extremely high one for the time ; for Symson, in his " Large Account of Galloway," quoted by Touatt, and published in 1682, only seven years previously, speaking of the farmers selling their calves, says : — " They think it very iU husbandry to seU that ybr a shilling which in time would yeeld pounds." The strong probability is that this " white calfe," pur- chased so dearly, was the daughter of one of the wild bulls to which tame cows were in those days put, and that it is identical with the solitary " guy " (heifer) mentioned as being " in the Parke, with my Lorde's 16 white wilde beasts," in May, 1692. It would then be about two and a haK years old. Three months later, in August of the same year, at just the age one might have supposed, " T® guy had a calfe," undoubtedly by one of the wild bulls with which she had rim ; and she PBOBABILITY OF A CB08S. 215 was then removed, apparently for the greater safety of the calf, to a separate part of the park. This well- authenticated circumstance seems to indicate a systematic plan for ohtaining a cross from a domestic cow (which may even herself have had some of the wild hlood), but in a modified form — one or two crosses of the wild bulls being superimposed first. It is exactly the mode which many most skilful breeders have adopted when they wished to gain fresh blood without sacrificing the ori- giaal type and character; they have infused it into their herds, having previously diluted it. Such proceedings may have been at times, when the necessity for them was felt, not unusual. At any rate, the only safe conclusion at which we can arrive is this : that while there is no proof that the ChiUingham cattle have been closely inter-bred without any admixture for several hundred years, nor, on the other hand, that they have not been so in-and-in bred, yet all the presumptive evidence — and that very strong — Pleads to the supposi- tion that they have at least occasionally been crossed. Nor can I at all see of what disadvantage to them the small amount of crossing they have possibly received could be. Proper selection being subsequently used — and we know selection has been continuous — ^it would in no way affect type, form, or colour, especially since the wild blood is proved to be so much more potent in its influence than the tame. Even if this were not the case, and no selection had been used, the effect of the cross would in a few generations be very small, provided it were not soon again repeated. The stronger blood of the majority woidd eventually neutralise the weaker blood of the one and of his descendants, who would almost necessarily be in a great 216 WILD WEITE CATTLE OF QBE AT BRITAIN. minority. What Sir Charles Lyell says with reference to man is wholly or nearly wholly true of cattle also : " It is an acknowledged fact that the colour and features of the negro or European are entirely lost in the fourth generation, provided that no fresh infusion of one or other of the two races takes place." The new hlood is bred out. On the other hand, the advantages of an occasional cross in a closely inter-bred herd cannot be doubted. The old worn-out blood is renewed and re-invigorated. I am indeed the last who would wish to lessen the im- portance of Bakewell's grand discoveries, and I am well aware that to produce and retain uniformity of type, character, and colour in cattle, you must have consan- guinity. But this, like every other hobby, may be ridden too hard; which is indeed the case when men maintaia, as did Culley, that a herd of perhaps fifty may go on, without injury, breeding inter se alone for several hundred years. Had he lived till the present time, he would have found that within fifty or sixty years after Bakewell's death it had been abundantly proved that in the case of Bakewell's own Improved Long-horns and New Leicesters the principle of breeding in-and-in from one herd or flock only without admixture had proved a most signal failure, and caused those breeders, who followed BakeweU to the extreme extent which Culley -advocated, to get their stock, as his friends, the old farmers, said they would, " tender, diminutive, and liable to disorders." On the whole, I think we may come to the conclusion that, so far as presumptive evidence goes, this grand herd of wild cattle by no means contradicts, but rather confirms, the principle which my late lamented SUMMARY OF TEH CASE. 217 friend, Mr. Carr, allowed me to put forward in his valu- able work on the " Booth Herds :" namely/that " the via media, and therefore the via salutis, would seem to He in the adoption of two apparently opposite principles — iu' and-in breeding and fresh blood." Nor do I think that there is anything in the history of these cattle, properly read, to invaHdate the conclusion to which Mr. Darwin comes, even after having read their history as so un- fairly stated by Culley, that — " The existence of a great law of nature is, if not proved, at least rendered in the highest degree probable : namely, that the crossing of animals and plants which are not closely related to each other is highly beneficial or even necessary, and that inter-breeding prolonged during many generations is highly injurious." * * Since the foregoing account was ■written two pure-bred white Short-horn heifers have been mated with one of the Chillingham Wild Bulls. Both ■were very highly-bred animals, •with recorded pedigrees on each side for up^wards of a century. In June, 1877, they each produced ■white calTCs, one a buU-calf and the other a cow-calf. At six months old these calves inherited the conformation and colour of the wild animal — the bull in almost every degree ; the ears ■were red-tipped, but the eyelids ■were black, and the nose not entirely black, but mottled; There was much loose-hanging skin from the throat to the dew-lap, and he appeared to be not quite so good behind the shoulders as the -wild cattle. On entering the box the calf ran up and do^wn, as if to escape, and finding that impossible, he gradually set himself in the comer, as if ready to charge on too close an approach. The cow-calf partook more of the Short-horn character, and was a shapely, good calf, fuller of flesh than the bnll; and although it set itself in somewhat the same manner as the btdlcalf, yet it was certau^Jy not nearly so ■wUd. Its ears were tipped with red, and the lower eyelid was black, the upper one being white. It differed also in having a clear nose, like the Short-horn.— 'Ed. CHAPTEE XI. The Chartley Herd— Early Notices of these Cattle as " Wild Beasts "—Black Calves considered a fatal Omen — ^My own first Visit — Grand and Massive Character of the Cattle — ^The Herd "Long-home" — My Second Visit — Peculiar Characteristics of these Cattle — They resemhle those in Somerford Park — ^Not so wild as the Chillingham Cattle — Black Calves — Attempts to cross the Herd^ — ^White Cattle in the Neighbourhood — Mr. Chandos-Pole- Gell's Description — Mr. Thornton's. The Chartlet Herd is the only other herd of wild cattle in England,* besides the Chillingham, which stUl remains in its pristine state, and it has on that account, and for the sake of its own merits, the greatest claim to onr notice. Chartley Castle, to whose lords it has belonged for more than 600 years, is situated in the central part of the county of Stafford, but somewhat nearer to its eastern than its western side. To the east and south-east, very few miles distant, are the Eoyal domains of Cannock Chase and Needwood Forest, which last must have formerly extended nearly or quite up to it; while at a stiU shorter distance, towards the north- east, begin to rise the hills which, running up into Derbyshire, form the southern point of that central backbone of mountains which have been appropriately called the " British Apennines." A better country in olden days for wild sport cannot be conceived. After the Conquest, Chartley belonged to the great Norman * The Hamilton, or Cadzow, herd still exists in Scotland, and will be considered in its proper place. THE PABZ AT CSARTLHY. 219 baron, Ferrers of Chartley, in the hands of whose descendants it has continued ever since ; for Sir "Walter Devereux, K.Gr., eventually married the heiress, and was summoned to Parliament in 1461 as Baron Ferrers of Chartley in her right. He died at Bosworth Field ; and his descendant. Sir Eohert Devereux, second Earl of Essex, the great favourite of Queen Elizabeth, had two daughters, the younger of whom married Sir Eobert Shirley, of Staunton Harold; and her brother Eobert, third earl, the celebrated ParHamentary general, having died without issue, the Shirleys, created Earls Ferrers, who sprang from that marriage, have since inherited the place. The ancient castle, built during the feudal period upon a low lull for the purpose of defence, is a con- spicuous and very picturesque ruin, and the Manor Place near, where the Devereux lived and received their sovereign, was destroyed by fire soon after the civil wars of the seventeenth century : the pretty modem residence, in imitation of the ancient style, being erected in its place. But " the mighty large park," which lies at the distance of a mile and a half north- wards from the house and castle, remained in pretty much the same state during all this period, except that it is more destitute of wood; and it retains its wild cattle stni. Nor has any alteration been made in its original extent of between 900 and 1,000 acres of land, the whole of which is quite in a state of nature. Erdeswick observes : " The park is very large, and hath therein red-deer, fallow-deer, wild beasts, and swine." By " wild beasts " the wild cattle are meant ; and it is a name strongly confirmatory of their traditional origin, namely, that they formerly roamed at large in the royal 220 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BBITAIN. Porest of Needwood, and were driven into this park during the reign of Henry III. " About this time " (32nd and 33rd of Henry III., that is, a.d. 1248—1249, says Mosley) " some of the wild cattle of the country which had hitherto roamed at large in the Forest of Needwood were driven into the park at this place, where their breed is still preserved." We see, then, that this park contained all the wild animals of importance which had formerly occupied Needwood, and that its cattle retained a name having especial reference to their nature and origin — mid beasts. The family accounts show that they were so called -near 220 years since, and, though they have lost much of their ancient ferocity, they are so called in the neighbourhood at the present time. The following are extracts from the " Accoimt Book of the Steward of the Manor of Chartley : Preses, Com : Ferrers," with which I have been kindly supplied by Mr. Shirley, of Etting- ton Park : — £ s. d. " 1658 — ^P*- a moytie of tte charge of mowings, makings, and carryings of hay for y* wild beasts 2 7 7" « 1683— Feb. P"^ the Cooper for a paile for y" wild swine 2 0" The last item seems to show very clearly that the wild boar was not extinct in England so early as has been supposed : . namely, previously to Charles I.'s abortive attempt to re-introduce its race into the New Forest. The number of the wild ca,ttle is said to have not generally exceeded thirty ; " yet," says Mr. Shirley, " in April, 1851, there were forty-eight, and in November^ SUPEBSTITION ABOVT BLACK CALVES. 221 1873, there were twenty-seven; their colour wHte, with black ears." A singular and ancient superstition hovers round them. At intervals some cow gives birth to a black calf, and this is said by the common people, and even by others, to be in- dicative of some impending calamity; or as some say, " to be a sure omen of death within the year to a member of the lord's family." I give the statement as I have received it from a member of the fainily; but I must add that being, nearly forty years since, in the neigh- bourhood of Lord Ferrers' other place, Staunton Harold, when several members of the Ferrers family had died near together, the unusual number of black calves that had been lately bom at Chartley was a frequent subject of conversation. But omen or not, one thing it seems to show : a certain tendency to an unusual quantity of black. Darwin, quoting from Low, says respecting these cattle : — " A singular superstition prevails in the vicinity that when a black calf is bom some calamity impends over the noble house of Ferrers. All the black calves are destroyed." If indeed they are supposed to be such indications of evQ, it is probable they would be. Such is the historical and traditional account of Chartley and its cattle. What follows is the result of my own observations and inquiries on the spot. Twice I have visited the park, and very carefully inspected the cattle. The first time I approached it from the north, on July 24th, 1874, with Mr. Chandos-Pole-GreU, and Mr. PhUips, of Heybridge, both well-known Short-horn breeders. We passed through a rough, hilly, broken country, of principally second-rate pasture land, cold and scantily inhabited at present, and which in ancient days 222 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BEITAIN. must have been very wild indeed. The park itself, a sort of table-land much elevated, is broken into small hills and valleys ; it is wholly in a natural state, and numerous springs rise out of marshy, boggy-looking spots. It is very wild and open, with but little timber; the soil is partly cold day, partly, and indeed a good deal of it, a black peaty loam ; the herbage is scanty and inferior ; and the whole is so covered with fern, heather, and other wild plants, that it gives the idea of a very extensive mountain common. It is very slippery to ride across after rain. No question, it has originally been part of the ancient forest. Needwood, close at hand, was celebrated for its oaks and hollies ; so also was the Park of Lyme, cut out of the Forest of Macclesfield ; and so originally must have been the park at Chartley also ; and it would, I think, add much to the effect of the park itself and of its cattle, and to their comfort also, if the ancient woods of which it has been denuded could be in part restored. It did seem wonderful to, me that, large and fine as the Chartley cattle undoubtedly arei they should be able to maintain their size on a pasture comparatively sterile, and where even in winter they are only supplied with hay of a very coarse and poor description, of which fact we had ocular proof on my second visit. It speaks volumes in favour of the great size of the race from which they sprang. They were, when I first saw them, twenty-five in number. There were ten breeding cows, four buUs, two of these being adults, six steers, and five heifers of various ages. In that year, 1874, they had been somewhat unfortunate. Some calves, one cow, which calved earlier than they usually do — namely, at eighteen months old — and the finest old bull — as STATE OF THE HERD. 223 Mr. Chandos-Pole-Gell, who had seen them previously assured me — had died since the previous autumn, when they numbered twenty-seven. I am able to give an illus- tration of the above-named bull's head, from an original drawing by Mr. Williams. Besides the wild cattle, there are kept in the park seventy head of red deer and about two hundred and fifty fallow deer. The only other EEAB OF OLD BULL BELOSGIHG TO THE CBARTLET HEED. animals grazed there are a few horses, and occasionally a small and insignificant number of sheep. We arrived at the keeper's lodge, close to the park gate, at the Chartley end of the park. King, the keeper, an intelligent man, who had then been there five years, showed us every attention, and introduced to me a labourer, Greorge Whitton, who had worked in the park for thirty years, who was a man of great observa- tion, and from whom I got much information. We entered the park at its south-eastern corner, just opposite the keeper's lodge. A cart-track — it could 224 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BBITAIN. scarcely be called a road — skirted the boundary of the park, having a yard and a paddock or two on the left hand — ^the park itself being on our right and in front of us — while a large piece of water in a valley slightly beneath us, to which the cattle were coming down to drink, was a few hundred yards distant to the right. The herd was behind a knoU immediately in front. Just then, alone, came from the other cattle a mighty bull to drink. He passed down the valley within seventy or eighty yards of us, with a stately, majestic walk, his action being very grand. He took of us not the slightest notice; but he bellowed loudly as he went, for he had been confined iu one of the paddocks near, and had that day broken out and attacked his rival. He was now, the keeper told us, retreating from the fight discomfited, and would probably sulk apart from the herd for two or three days, and then renew the battle. How vividly was I reminded of Virgil's exact and beautiful description of a similar incident in his Third G-eorgic. We went on towards the knoll, and two cows ap- peared iu advance of the rest of the herd. They saw us, and crossed to the right, in the direction of a low hill some few hundred yards distant ; but we had a good view of them as they did so at, perhaps, eighty or a hundred yards distance ; the rest of the herd, which were further ofE, followed them. We drew quietly after them, and had a splendid view of the herd grouped en masse on the summit of the hill, for they allowed us to get very near them ; and a grand sight it was. Just, however, at that moment the thunder-storm, which had long been threatening, broke upon us, and we were soon obliged unwillingly to retire. CHABACTEB OF THE CATTLE. 225 The style and carriage of these cattle is striking and majestic, and they unite with this considerable size, while their magnificent horns add much to their gran- deur, and recall at once to the memory the accounts of the ancient Bos urus. I particularly observed how deep and massive were the fore quarters of the bull as he passed near us. His shoulders were beautifully formed; he had a wonderful amount of leather beneath his chin; nor could "Comet," or the celebrated "Duke of Northum- berland," have had a much finer dewlap. As in all wild animals, the hind quarters were comparatively lighter than the fore; but they were well shaped, good, and long, and both the back and belly-line were straight. We saw also in a paddock, at a distance of scarcely twenty yards, a young bull two years old, and a lovely little heifer-calf of about two months, the orphan off- spring of the eighteen-months-old heifer which had died prematurely ; it was nursed by an ordinary cow. The snowy whiteness of its colour was beautifully relieved by its jet-black eyes, ears, and muzzle; its hairy coat a thousand-guinea "Duchess" might have envied ; and as it stared at us, the picture of wild grace and beauty, I longed much for a Landseer to reproduce its likeness. What struck me most forcibly on this my first visit, though I had been prepared for it by Mr. Chandos-Pole-Grell, was that the Chartley cattle, like the original domestic breed of the part of the country they inhabit, are essentially Long-horns. To such an extent is this the case that this gentleman, who is well acquainted with the old Long-horn cattle, remarked to me that he thought a cross with the Chartley would probably largely contribute to the restoration of that breed. But of this, and other particulars I observed p 226 WILD WRITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. and ascertained, more hereafter, under tlie head of my second visit, to which I now proceed. My first visit had been so much cut short by the weather that I determined to see the Chartley herd again, and this time in winter, when the cattle, being fed with hay in paddocks, can be approached more easily. I was accompanied by Mr. Chandos-!Pole-Grell and Mr. John Thornton to Stafford over-night, and we drove to the park, where we met other friends the next morning, December 1st, 1874 — on this occasion ap- proaching it from the south. To refresh our minds with the character of the improved Long-horn, and thus be better able to compare them with the Chartley cattle, we attended the day before, at Birmingham, a sale by Mr. Lythall of fourteen Long-hom heifers, the remains of the herd of the Chapmans of Upton, which, commencing its notoriety by the hire of Bake- weU's celebrated bull "Twopenny," had since been bred, with great attention to purity, for 118 years. These heifers were extremely good and of large size for their age, which was from two years and six to two vears and ten months. The next morning we drove first to Chartley HaU, and were very kindly received by Captain Walsh, who, with his wife, the Dowager Countess, and mother of the present Earl, was then residing there. He gave me much valuable informa- tion, and showed me several — a dozen, perhaps — stuffed heads of bulls, cows, and steers. None of these did justice to the living animal, for all had that peculiar shrunken, mummified look which I had before observed in the stuffed heads at Chillingham and in numerous other instances. This is much more apparent in pre- served specimens of the genus Bos than in most other SECOND VISIT TO TEE HEED. 227 animals, such as deer and most wild beasts, which, have nothing like so much loose pendant skin about the head and neck. StiU, these heads were especially valuable on account of their general character, their colour, and, above all, their horns. Driving a mile and a half farther, to the keeper's lodge at the comer of the park, we found that Eing had made every preparation for us. In the paddock a short distance within the park, where I had before seen the two-year-old btill and the young calf, was one of the old bulls, lately castrated on account of his extreme pugnacity interfering (as was believed) with the fertility of the herd ; he was the master bull, but the cows had not bred to him satisfactorily. In the paddock with him were, one cow, two or three yearling heifers, and a few calves, from six to nine months old, all weaned, and apparently put there for the purpose of weaning them from their dams ; among these was the one I admired in July. A yard, one side of which was open to this paddock, was connected therewith, and in it at the time the cattle were. A door in one of the sheds unlocked by the keeper admitted us to the sight of them not many yards from us. The bull was within ten yards of us, and at first stood quite stiU, staring at us while we looked at him. He soon, however, drew off to the paddock, and the others followed him. There, through the paUngs, we had a very good view of these two adults and of the juniors of the herd. Nearly half a mile's walk took us across the low hiU, where we had seen the herd in July, to a wild and low valley, in which is a large shedded yard where the deer are fed, and open to it a paddock of about an acre. Here the seniors of the herd were enclosed, and we p 2 228 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. stood round the outer paled fence of the paddock while the keepers quietly drove them tolerably near to us. They stood grouped together for perhaps half an hour, within thirty or forty yards of us, moving about now and then among themselves. There was no wildness or impatience — a little timidity, certainly, which pre- vented their being driven yet nearer to us ; but fortified as they were by the presence of their fellows and of the keepers who fed them, they took little notice of us. I feel convinced it would have been otherwise had the keepers not been there, and we had approached this their sanctuary alone. There were ten cows, two bulls, and six or seven steers of various ages, all, save and except the differences of sex, alike as peas. Their uni- formity of type and colour was surprising, and no experienced person could doubt what that type was. They were what an agricultural writer would caU Long-Jiorns, and, if of the colour that attaches to that breed, might have been sold as such : the similarity being not only in the horns, but also in form, size, and general character. In this we were all agreed ; and of the six visitors who then stood round, all of us were weU acquainted vdth the old Long-horns, most of us from childhood, and four of U5 had seen the heifers of that breed sold the day before. The horns, though very considerable in length, did not attain that extreme size which some of the " Improved Long-horns " pre- sented, nor did they show the same eccentricity of growth; on the contrary, allowing for the differences of sex, and .some very slight individual variations, the horns were singularly uniform. But then we know on good authority that these peculiarities, in their extreme development, were not characteristics of the original TEE OHJJRTLET CATTLE— LONG-HOBNS. 231 Long-homs, but changes of character which followed upon their increased cultivation and improvement.* I think, notwithstanding some opposing circumstances, which I shall consider further on, we must consider the Chartley cattle the aboriginal representative type from which the old Long-horns, or Cravens, as they were otherwise called, were primarily derived. Nor need the latter be ashamed of it; for while we stood by the palings of the paddock, surveying that splendid group, Mr. Thornton, delighted beyond measure, ex- claimed that here were, in a state of nature, most, if not all, of the points which for nearly a himdred years we had been trying to produce in the Short-horn. Straightness of the back and belly-lines was a most strongly marked feature of these cattle ; depth also of the body, and shortness of the leg. As in aU wild animals, the hind quarter was lighter than the fore ; but it was of considerable length, and the flesh was carried well downwards towards the hock. The tail was set on straight with the back in a very blood-Kke manner, but the quarter itself sloped a little from the hips backwards, so that the tail was slightly raised above the rumps. The loin and chine had not that breadth and thickness which are often, though not always, seen in the best of our improved modem cattle ; but neither were these possessed by the improved Long- horn heifers — splendid specimens of the breed — which I examined carefolly the day before. Bat in neatness of shoulders, plates, and crops the Chartley cattle lost nothing by comparison with others, and in depth and breadth of breast few in mere store condition, as they were, could equal them. The development of what is * Tonatt's « Cattle," chap, vi, p. 188. 232 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GBEAT BRITAIN. technically called leather in the males — both in the hulls, with their pendent chins and dewlaps, and in the steers, with their grand briskets — ^was remarkable, and even the pretty calves, with their excellent necks and double chins, were in this respect very striking. The head was very elegant in the cow, masculine in the bull, kind (to use an agricultural term) in the steer ; in none coarse. It was much set off by the nearly straight, yet gracefully curved, horns, which were strongly indicative of blood and breeding. These were of no great circumference in proportion to their con- siderable length ; in most instances there was little or no black tip, but, as in the Improved Long-horns, a light brown one; and in those cases where the tips were black, they were generally not so black as in most other of the white herds, and can only be said to have been sHghtiLy tipped with that colour. The horns grow out sideways — ^horizontally — somewhat downwards at first for perhaps two-thirds of their length, and then a little up, in the form of an ogee. This was very apparent in the two-year-old bull I saw on my first visit ; his horns had not then begun to turn up, but grew out very- straight sideways and somewhat downwards, giving him a peculiar and not agreeable appearance. The eye was lively, yet mild and benignant, and by no means indicative of ferocity : indeed, the whole expression of the face gave you the idea of placidity and good nature. This was increased by what appeared to me to be a peculiarity of their own. The lower part of the face was sleek and free from long hair, but on the top of the poll, reaching equally in all directions, and in front coming down nearly to the eyes, was a large, round, raised, spreading mass of long white hair. MINOR CHABA0TEBI8TIC8. 233 Though of a dijfferent colour, it reminded me most strongly of the long, imkempt scratch wig which I had seen many elderly men of the middle class wear in my younger days. It was common to both males and females, and gave their faces a singularly demure; owl- like look ; it seemed as characteristically hereditary of this breed as is the lock of wool on the forehead of the Cotswold sheep. I observed it afterwards in the Somerford Park white cattle, which in some other respects much resemble these. Their hair was generally good and abundant ; the bulls had a larger quantity on the neck than the others, and it was more curly there than on other parts of the body, but it could not be called, as in the Chillingham bulls, a mane. All had black muzzles and black hoofs, and all had — some more, some less — a tendency to black upon the front part of the fetlock of all four legs, close to the hoof, but much more upon the fore-legs than the hind. In some of them there was a considerable quantity of black upon that part of the fore-legs ; in others a small blotch or two ; in all some. In most of them this was not at all, or scarcely at. all, perceptible on the hind- legs ; but King, the keeper, assured me that the tendency to it existed in all, and upon all four legs. One or two were a little blotched with black above the muzzle, in that respect also resembling the Somerford Park cattle. Some of them, I could easily see, had small black spots upon them, principally on the neck; one cow especially had a good many, visible at a considerable distance, not only on the neck, but on the back and the body also ; and King told me they all had them, though in the case of the greater number they were only seen when the cattle were changing their coat. These spots were very 234 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GBEAT BRITAIN. apparent on the stuffed head of a cow at the HaH ; in that case, however, the black hairs were so very nume- rous — some of them in small bunches, some of them single, others nearly so — ^that they gave the head quite a grizzled appearance, which must have been very like the "cinder-grey " of some of the darker cattle of the Eussian Steppes, or the "flea-bitten grey" of some of the wild cattle in our northern counties. The cow I saw in the herd approximated to the same character, and so did several of those I saw at Somerford. Black ears are preferred, and are an object of selec- tion ; yet the colour o£ the ear varies a good deal in different individuals, being, however, in all more or less black. In some I observed the whole ear black, inside and outside ; in others the inside was black, and the outside merely tipped with that colour. Some of the calves and young heiEers had ears apparently altogether white, both inside and out : but this is not really the case ; there are always within the ear some black hairs. It is somewhat singular that these white-eared ones — ^two or three, perhaps — are all the descendants of one cow, which was pointed out to us. She was one of the finest and largest cows, and her own ears were lighter in colour than those of most of the others, but not as light as those of the calves ; hers were white, tipped with black. I also observed that one of these white-eared calves had principally, if not entirely, white eye-lashes, difiering in that respect also from the rest of the herd. In other respects, these white-eared calves resembled their relatives. The cows had black teats, but there does not seem to be a disposition in any of them to black upon the tail. It struck me that, when compared with most other TEE CATTLE SEMI-WILD. 235 breeds of cattle, the cows were small relatively to the bulls and steers — ^in this respect resembling the Here- fords, which perhaps are indebted for some of their blood to this strain of wild cattle. In winter they come up in bad weather, and are fed with coarse, rushy hay, which we saw, and with this hay alone. Formerly all were fed together in one paddock ; but King, the present keeper, finding that the younger ones suffered from the older ones getting most of the hay, has adopted a different system, and now the older and the younger are each fed by themselves in separate paddocks, and the younger ones have grown and thriven much better since. This plan, and also the enforced separation of the calves from their mothers after a certain age, appear to me likely to increase the fertility of the herd, but perhaps to diminish its wildness. Possibly, the latter result is even now appreciable. The Chartley wild cattle are not so wild as those at ChiHingham. This is probably owing to the circum^ stance that the park is bounded on one side by a public road, from which it is only separated by a paled fence, which is not the case at ChUlingham, so that they are at Chartley much more habituated to the sight of man. My impression is that they are somewhat wilder than faUow-deer in an ordinary deer-park. It is possible to get pretty near them ; but they have a great amount of timidity, and soon sheer off if approached too closely. A gentleman who lived in the neighbourhood, and who has frequently ridden through the park, told me that when doing so he has never seen them, so much are they inclined to conceal themselves. When we got near them on my first visit, it was a very hot, dry, sultry afternoon, and we intercepted them as they were 236 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF QBEAT BRITAIN. coming down to water. Mr. Philips and the keeper tried to get round them in order to drive them nearer to Mr. Chandos-Pole-Gell and myself; but- they would not stand this, and quickly bolted sideways. In winter, when fed in the paddock, no keeper can even handle them. But though generally timorous and placid, there are times when it is perilous to approach them. . King says that the time when they are most dangerous is in October. Captain "Walsh told me that they were " hardly ever " dangerous when together in masses, and that if they approached towards you it was usually sufficient to knock your stick upon the ground, and they will turn tail. But he added that there was sometimes much risk in coming across one by itself. Of course this risk would be increased if you met a cow going to her concealed calf ; and I strongly suspect that the enraged bull I saw on my first visit would have quickly re- venged his defeat by his rival on any one who had been so unfortunate as to cross his path. The Chartley cows breed with great regularity, as regularly as ordinary cows, and suckle their calves well ; they conceal them for the first three or four days. They calve at all seasons of the year, and have had calves " in every month of the year ; " but evidently the spring is the more usual time — ^for when I was there on the 1st of December aU the eleven cows were believed to be in calf. There is no separation beyond what is mentioned above ; the young heifers therefore run with the herd, and generally calve at from two to two years and a half old, which may partly account for the smaller size of the cows, and no doubt this must partially affect the size of the males also. An unusual case, alluded to WEIGHT OF CEABTLEY CATTLE. 237 aboTe, recently occurred of a heifer calving wlien only eighteen months old. Black calves are not at all tin- common ; three had been born during the two years preceding my visit in July, 1874 ; and I have not heard that the Ferrers family suffered ia any way in con- sequence, so we may hope that the charm is broken. It is much to be desired, in the interest of natural his- tory, that the black female calves should be preserved separate from the rest of the herd, and mated with a white bull ; this might throw light on more than one important question. King told me that when this variation of colour occurs the calves are always pure black, " with not a white hair on them," never parti- coloured ; and this was quite confirmed by the old labourer, Whitton, who had been there so long. The steers are castrated when quite young, as the horn is thereby much improved. None have been killed since King came, as the herd was then reduced to fifteen, and the object of Lord Ferrers is to increase its number. The old labourer says that neither cows nor bulls have ever been killed during the last thirty years, but oxen frequently. Their weight, when fed on hay only out in the park, where they get into very fair condition, was from seven to eight score a quarter (that is, taking the medium, 43 stone of 141b., or 75 of 8 lb.) — a very great weight, when the sterile nature of their pasture is considered. He remembers one which was brought up and fed in an enclosure on hay and oil- cake. This steer was nine years old, and weighed, when slaughtered, ten score a quarter (that is, 57 stone of 14 lb., or 100 of 81b.). These steers were noble animals; and I and others thought that if they could be tied up by the neck, and fed like ordinary bullocks till 238 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. moderately ripe, they would make at least 70 stones o£ 14 lb. Whitton told me that he had frequently eaten their beef, which he described as very juicy and good, but somewhat coarser-grained than common butcher's beef, perhaps owing to their greater age. Captain Walsh assured me that the beef of the steer just alluded to was far superior in flavour to any beef he ever tasted — rich, juicy, and deHcious — dark in colour, and eating short, while the fat was elastic and re- sembled that of venison. I could not make out that any tradition existed that the Chartley herd had ever been crossed, but efforts have been made in this direction. Some correspondence took place in the late lord's time with Lord Tankerville for an exchange of buUs, and Whitton remembered a young bull being selected for this purpose; but the negotiation proved abortive. A few years since a young bull was obtained from Lyme Hall, the produce from a Lyme cow of a bull Lord Ferrers had given to Mr. Legh. When it came it was not approved, and was never used, but was immediately made a steer. It was thought to be coarser and larger in the bone than the Chartley cattle, to have less black on the nose and hoofs, and shorter and thicker horns. If a cross had been at any time required, undoubtedly facilities for it existed. Whitton remembered well the time when the tenants and neighbours were permitted to turn their cows into the park to be served by the wild buUs. This privilege has been withdrawn, but some results of it stm remain; and both he and the keeper knew well a cow so bred, and agreed in saying that her owner considered her the best milker he ever had. I also observed, as we approached the park from Stafford, in MB. CHANBOS-POLE-OELL'S VISIT. 239 the fields near, a very unusual number of white cattle, the result, probably, of the former use of the wild bulls. Whitton also said that whatever cows were put to the white bulls, the calves came almost invariably the colour of their sires: the only instance he remembered to the contrary being that on one occasion a dark- coloured cow produced a spotted calf. Thus were singularly confirmed at Chartley two of the facts which Bewick relates with regard to Chillingham — the existence of the custom and the prepotency of the white sire. The cattle here have suffered much from the foot-and- mouth complaint, but they have fortunately escaped the rinderpest. Their noble owner takes great interest in them, and even wished to re-introduce the wild swine ; for which purpose he imported a wild boar and sow. The former unluckily died, and the sow, a genuine specimen of the Sus scro/a, is still kept ; she is said to be as clever as a terrier at killing rats; rabbits, &c. I add here Mr. Chandos-Pole-Grell's and Mr. Thornton's remarks on the Chartley cattle, thereby running the risk of some recapitulation. Yet on some points they have enlarged more than I have done; and in the present state of these valuable wild cattle, so small now in number, I should not feel justified in omitting to give the opinions of two such authorities. They are singularly confirmatory of my own, though all these three accounts were written quite independ- ently of each other. The following observations of Mr. Chandos-Pole-G-eU refer to his first visit, prior to either of mine : — "In the autumn of 1873 I drove to Chartley Park, to inspect the herd of white cattle in the possession of 240 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. Earl Ferrers. About two months before my visit I had seen those at Chillingham Castle, and was anxious to compare the two herds, having always understood that the animals were similar, with one exception: namely, that the cattle at Chillingham had red ears, wlule those at Chartley had black ones. My visit took place on a dull, murky autumn day, and as I drove up to the keeper's lodge I saw the cattle grouped close against the park palings. Not being aware how near they would allow us to approach them, I at once stopped in order to examine them through my opera-glass. My astonishment was great at finding that, instead of re- sembling the Chillingham animals, they were of a different variety, and were really ' Long-horns ; ' their general character being the same as the old Long-horn breed, which were the ordinary stock of Derbyshire and Staffordshire till about fifty, or perhaps sixty, years ago. With these I had been acquainted from my boyhood, as my father kept a herd of them, and many of the farms in his neighbourhood were stocked with the same de- scription of cattle, or with crosses from them, locally termed in those days ' Half -horns.' I had also at one time kept a few of them myself. "The colour of the Chartley cattle is, however, white, the ears being black, and they have black spots on the legs above the hoofs, and in some of them a few black spots about the neck. On examination I found these cattle to be what is technically called very ' true made.' They are long and low in form; their backs level, loins strong but not very wide, hook-bones not too prominent ; the under-line very straight, the shoulders oblique and well laid back (giving them a majestic walk), and the ribs fairly well arched. Some MB. TEOBNTON'8 ACCOUNT. 241 of them were rather rough about the tail-head, but the quarters were always long. Of course I could not handle them; but they appear to have plenty of good hair, and I do not doubt that they have thick, soft hides, like the ordinary Long-horns with which I am acquainted. The head has great falness between the eyes, which are very taking in their appearance, being bright, quick, and lively. The horns, which show every sign of high breeding, are beautifully curved, and taper finely to the point, which is sometimes tipped with black, but not always so. Those animals which have been made into steers show a much greater development of horn, as is usually the case ; the horns of the bulls are much thicker than those of the females. The teats of the cows are black." The following is the report of Mr. John Thornton, the weU-known Short-horn auctioneer : — ""We drove from Stafford, on the morning of December 1st, 1874, through a bleak country, to Chartley Park. The keeper had drawn the wild cattle together ; some in a small paddock, where, with several young calves, was an old bull, recently castrated. The remainder of the herd was in a kind of enclosed yard in a hollow in the park, through which a small stream ran, and in which were built hovels. By these arrange- ments we were as dose to them as it was possible to get. The old man who foddered them said he had never yet been able to touch one, either in the park or the shed. "The peculiarity most striking was the colour: a clear white body, head, and neck, with much hair ; but the ears, nose, circle round the eyes, and the hoofs were black, and there were a few black spots on the fetlock Q 242 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. above the hoof. One cow had ears orQy partially black, and the same peculiarity was transmitted to her off- spring'. The udder was white, the teats and the tongue black ; and in the summer they are said to have a few black spots on the body. The horns of the buUs, cows, and steers differ materially from each other as well as from those of the Chillingham wild cattle, those of the bulls being thick, flat, and broad at the base, and of a deeper yellow colour, declining outwards with a shght curl. The cows' horns are much longer and thinner, not quite so yellow, and in some cases they are nearly straight, in others they incHne downwards and then upwards, while those of the steers were larger than the cows', growing a little downwards, and rising shghtly towards the tip. TYPES or HOSKS IN THE CHABTLEY HEBD. " The previous day I saw fourteen of Mr. Chapman's pure two-year-old Long-horn heifers sold by Messrs. Lythall and Clarke at Birmingham. There was some similarity to the Chartley cattle, excepting the colour ; there were, however, no animals at Chartley with the horns strongly curved backwards and downwards, as was the case with some of the brown and brindled Long- homs. In both kinds the hair and symmetry were about equal, though in this the Chartley had a little ni8 IMPRESSION OF THE OATTLE. 243 the advantage ; tlie latter were, however, at the same age, apparently less in size. " I should call the Chartley cattle, as compared with Short-horns, of good medium size. Some of the cows had the appearance of heing good milkers. The body is well formed, on wide-set, short legs, the top and under lines being nearly parallel; ribs fairly sprung, and reaching close to the hip-bone ; shoulders nicely laid into the back, with good breast and f orequarters ; forelegs short with large broad arm, but very fine below the knee; loin good, hips not very prominent; hind quarters long, with tail square behind, at nearly right angles to the back-bone, but from the hips to the "touch" shghtly drooping. The thighs were rather light, but the flank good ; neck slightly lower than the body. " In appearance the bulls were totally different from the cows. They were deeper in body and perhaps shorter on the leg; but the head was stiU more strikingly different. The bull's head had a very broad forehead, which was covered with hair (as was the case also with the cows), but smooth from eyes to nose ; it was very masculine-looking, like a Highland Scot's, but perhaps a little sulky. The cows' heads were long — the bulls' short and broad, almost triangular. The chin of the buU was thick, and there was a great deal of loose skin about the throat, neck, and dewlap. The different character of the male and female is very striking. " In selecting the bulls, only the white colour and the black ears and nose are regarded, but no attention is paid to formation. Two or three bulls are kept, but when they fight too much — as they are apt to do — Q 2 244 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BBITAIN. the most wicked and savage one is castrated. Occa- sionally neighbours' cows have been allowed to be turned into the park to the wild bull, and the half-bred produce feed and milk well. The wild steers have been known to come up to ten score a quarter. The meat is said to eat short, like vension — ^better than ordinary beef — and the fat cools like the fat of venison. " On the whole, it would seem that these were a breed of Long-horn cattle with almost Short-horn shapes ; and if, as it is said, they have been kept pure since the park was enclosed — ^more than six hundred years ago — we are forced to arrive at the conclusion that though other breeds of cattle may have been brought to a state of earlier maturity, little or no im- provement in conformation and symmetry has been made in them." CHAPTER Xn. The Lyme Park Herd — The Legh Family — Hansall's Account of the Herd — ^My own Visit, 1873 — ^Details given hy Mr. Legh — ^Attempts to procure a Cross — Result of the Chartley Cross — Curious Besult of the Polled Gishume Cross — Habits of the Old Lyme Cattle — Larger than any existing Wild Breed in this Country — The Burton Constable Herd — Eefusal of Information — Bewick's Account — ^Destruction of the Herd by Distemper — Probable Origin of the Herd. The Lyme Park Herd of wild cattle is aUuded to by- Bewick as one of the ancient herds, but he does not seem to have known any particulars about it. Lyme Park, in Cheshire, is about seven miles north of Macclesfield, and closely abuts upon that wild part of North Derbyshire which forms the High Peak, sur- rounded formerly by numerous extensive forests. It is of great extent, and has belonged since its first enclosure to a branch of the old Cheshire family of Legh. Sir Piers Legh, when very young, bore the standard of Edward the Black Prince at the Battle of Crecy and took the Count de TankervUle prisoner. For these services he was rewarded by the prince with a money grant; but in place of this he received from that prince's son, Eichard II., the grant of Lyme Park, which was enclosed for the purpose from the Eoyal Forest of Macclesfield, of which it formed part. Sir Piers married the daughter of another Crecy hero, and had a son — Sir Peter — who eventually fell at Agin- court ; while he himseK, devotedly loyal to his unfor- tunate sovereign, was beheaded at Chester, in, 1399, by 246 WILB WSITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. Henry IV., then Duke of Lancaster, and had his head set on one of the highest turrets of that fortified city. Prom these heroes the Leghs of Lyme descend ; and the wild cattle have been there, it has always been believed, ever since they and the park they inhabit were enclosed together from Macclesfield Forest, nearly five hundred years ago. The following is the account given of them by Hansall, in his "History of Cheshire," in 1817. "Li Lyme Park, which contains about 1,000 Cheshire acres, is a herd of upwards of twenty wild cattle, similar to those in Lord Tankerville's park at Chillingham — chiefly white, with red ears. They have been in the park from time immemorial, and tradition says they are indigenous. In the summer season they assemble in the high lands, and in the winter they shelter in the park woods. They were formerly fed with holly branches, with which trees the park abounded ; but these being destroyed, hay is now substituted. Two of the cows are shot annually for beef." The park of Lyme was celebrated for the fine flavour of its venison ; and here a curious custom was observed formerly of collecting the red deer once a year — about Midsummer, or rather earlier — in a body before the house, and then swimming them through a pool of water, with which the exhibition terminated. This custom of driving deer like ordinary cattle is said to have been perfected by an old park-keeper — Joseph Watson, who died in 1763, aged 104, after having filled that ofB.ce for sixty-four years. This patriarch is believed to have been in his 102nd year when he hunted a buck in a chase of six hours' duration, and to have driven suc- cessfully, in the reign of Queen Anne, twelve brace of stags from Lyme to Windsor Porest. All this, I think, LYME BALL AM) PARK. 247 sliows how tlie wildest animals of the order Euminantia may be subjugated by man, and as an example of this it wUl be hereafter noticed. The further account of the herd is derived from my own inquiries on the spot. Starting from Buxton on August 10th, 1875, I stopped at Disley station, from which Lyme Park is distant about two miles. The whole county is one continuation of the elevated hills of North Derbyshire — now generally in pasture, but formerly part of the Peak and Macclesfield Forests. To this the country round Lyme offers no exception. The whole way from Disley is a very strong pull up-hiU, and when you arrive there you see, far below, the great vale of Cheshire and Lancashire, as far as the Eivington hills, in the distance. I drove through a small park, where groups of fine large stags — ^retaining perhaps some traditional memory of the, instruction of Joseph Watson — stood at no great distance, leisurely and quietly survey- ing me from beneath oaks, many of which showed, by their grandeur and their decay, that they were verging towards the conclusion of a life which had probably lasted for a thousand years, and most of which must have been in fall vigour when, five hundred years before, they were imparked from the Forest of Macclesfield together with the red deer and wild cattle, to which for such long ages they had afforded shelter. Encircling the fine mansion, which is built round an open court-yard and filled with the most interesting relics of the past, are similar small parks and paddocks, beautifully wooded; and beyond these, at the distance of half a mile or more from the house, you come to the wild and extensive park which the wild cattle inhabit, called " The Park Moor." This is in summer their constant residence. In winter they are 248 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. brought into some of the smaller parks near the house ; and a herd of about fifty red deer and a certain number of sheep also graze there during the summer. This "Park Moor," which is about eight hundred acres in extent, is the wildest place that can be imagined — quite unaltered from the time when it formed part of the forest, except that it has lost the greater part of the trees and the beau- tiful hollies with which it was formerly clothed ; but its great extent and still greater inequalities of surface afford every necessary protection to the wild animals, which may be within two or three hundred yards of you without your being at all aware of it. A very deep deU, through which flows a rivulet, and from which broken ground and high hills rise on either side, intersects it. It is covered with furze, and rough tussocky grass, with grass of finer quality intervening. In many places it is very boggy, and, in one part at least, swarms with rabbits. I was unfortunately unable to see the cattle of this herd, as, after walking a considerable distance — more, I think, than a mile through the Park Moor — we came to the edge of the very extensive and deep valley I have just mentioned. My guide and I stood on the hill on one side of this valley ; and it was at last ascertained, with some difficulty (for the distance was so great that they were scarcely distinguishable by the naked eye), that the cattle were far off on the top of the opposite hill. Want of time and my inability to walk so great a distance prevented my going to them. I, however, obtained from Mr. Legh himself, and from James Arden, who accompanied me — an intelligent man, born close by, and who has been for more than fifty years in the service of the family — many particulars relating to the Lyme cattle. ATTEMPTS TO PBOCUBE A GROSS. 249 Tids very ancient herd had, previously to the time of the present Mr. Legh, been much neglected ; and since he took possession of it several unforeseen accidents have occurred. The principal of these were — the loss of two cows, and impairment of the fertihty of others by the foot-and-mouth complaint, and the re- tention at one time of a single bull which proved infertile. Mr. Legh also attributes — ^and, no doubt, justly — its present diminished numbers to long con- tinued in-and-in breeding from near affinities. This last cause was rapidly producing the same result at Lyme which it did at WoUaton and Gisburne ; and as the herd was always small — never consisting for many years of more than fourteen or fifteen, a portion only of which were females — ^it was unable to bear such losses, and has been reduced in consequence to very narrow limits. Various efibrts were made to meet the evil. An attempt to procure a bull from Chillingham proved abortive ; but a cow and bull-caK were obtained from Grisburne, as will be seen in the account of that herd. This, as Mr. Legh remarked, was a great mistake ; for the Grisburne cattle, being hornless, were very unsuitable as a cross, nor does it appear that in other respects this step proved beneficial. Subsequently, however. Lord Ferrers very kindly supplied Mr. Legh with a bull, which I saw in a walled paddock near the house. He is of the genuine Chartley stamp — a good, thick, cloggy, short-legged animal, and of the ordinary size of the Chartley bulls, but not nearly so large, it is said, as the old Lyme bulls were. In addition to this,the Lyme herd, when I was there, consisted of four animals : one bull, three years old, of Mr. Legh's own sort ; one cow of the same sort ; and 250 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. her two daughters. The elder daughter, three years old, and in calf to the Lyme hull, was by the Chartley bull, and is unfortunately of that dark colour- which the Chartley herd, more than any other, not unfrequently produces. She is "a blue-black, with a white stripe down the back, a large white star on the forehead, and white rings round the legs." As no variations of this kind had ever been known before at Lyme, there is now a strong feeling against the use of the Chartley sire ; yet I am myself of opinion that more good than harm will eventually arise from the cross with that blood. The old cow's other daughter was a young calf by the Lyme bull, and was, like her sire and dam, of the legitimate colour. Probably all the herd have now in their veins some of the Gisbume Park blood. Considering the herd, therefore, just at present as in a transition state, I proceed to give what account I can of the Lyme herd as it was prior to the introduction of the Grisbume blood. Unfortunately, no pictures or stuffed heads remain ; but, as we have only to go back some fifteen or sixteen years, the characteristics of the old uncrossed breed are well and generally remembered. The old Lyme Park cattle were of the genuine ancient type : pure white, with black muzzle, and black circle round the eyes, and hoofs. They had also, at least usually, some black above the hoof on the front of the fore-leg. The horns were only slightly tipped with brownish-black, in this respect resembling most the Chartley cattle ; the ears were generally red, but in some cases they were tipped with blue — ^the keeper said it could scarcely be called black. This quite corroborates what Hansall says : that they were "chiefly white with red ears." The horns were of an intermediate character RESULT OF A POLLED GB08S. 251 between those of the Chillingham and Chartley breeds ; larger, not so upright, nor so nearly resembling in their mode of growth the horns of the Devon or "Welsh breeds as is the case with the Chillingharas, but smaller, somewhat more upright in their growth, and less approximating to the horns of the old Long-horns than is the case with the Chartley cattle. The skeleton head, with the horns attached, of an old cow of the uncrossed sort, and the horns of another, with the con- necting portion of the skull, have been preserved, and quite confirm the above remarks. But a singular effect was produced by the cross with the polled Gisbume. The horns (with part of the skull similarly intervening) appertaining to a cow which had been so crossed, have been also kept ; and these are, unlike those from the pure Lyme animals, very decidedly Long-Jiorn in cha- racter ! They are not so long as the horns of a genuine Long-horn cow — perhaps about as long as those of the more purely bred cows ; but they have grown quite downwards till they have nearly met beneath the chin, each horn being very nearly a semi-circle, and presenting a strong resemblance to the drooping horns of some of Bakewell's and other Long-horn cows. This may perhaps be a singular instance of a peculiarity, derived from some very remote ancestor on one side or the other, again breaking out in consequence of a fresh cross; and it is the more remarkable as one of the two breeds crossed together was a hornless one. Li habits, the old Lyme cattle very much resembled those at ChUlingham. They were equally wild and timid as a rule, and quite as dangerous if assailed or pushed hard, and especially the cows when they had young calves. It is said that poachers were particularly 252 WILD WRITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. careful not to run the risk of coming across tbem. The cows were very good milkers, and, Hke the wild cows mentioned by Sir William Brereton in the Bishop of Durham's park, made their calves " wonderous fatt." Like the ChUlinghams, too, they frequented the highest ranges of the park in fine weather, while in rain or storm, or when these threatened, they habitually kept in the valleys and lower grounds. So invariably was this the case, that the neighbouring farmers considered them an infaUible barometer, and when about to mow, make, or carry hay, never commenced operations tiU they had ascertained in what part of the park the wild cattle were. They were, I believe, larger than any breed of wild cattle now existing in this country. The Chartley bull, though an average specimen of that herd, is said by all who knew them to be much inferior in size ; they were higher on the leg, more up-standing, and longer in the body— very large cattle, with strong bone, much substance, and a large amount of flesh about the neck and dewlap. They had abundance of long, rough hair, which, in the males, was very fully developed, curly, and mane-like on the head and fore quarters ; and the hide was of immense thickness. They were very grand and symmetrical in appearance, and their movements were distinguished by a peculiar majestic stateliness. Their flesh was excellent; but there does not seem to have been any record kept of their weights. For a great many years, indeed, none but cows were ever slaughtered, and latterly not even these. Whether the wild cattle at Burton Constable and Wollaton, which appear to have been larger than most others, were as large as these, I have not been able to THE BTTBTON 00N8TABLE EEBD. 253 ascertain ; but they had certainly a better pasture. My impression is that the Lyme Park cattle, in size and in some other respects, resembled the ancient £os urus more nearly than any other recently existmg park breed ; and the horns preserved at Lyme, and especially those on the skeleton head of the cow, appeared to me to grow very similarly in form to the horns of that animal. The herd of white cattle at Burton CoNSTABiiE, in the East Eiding of Yorkshire, deserves our attention next. It is mentioned by Bewick, in 1790, as having been then a few years extinct. The fine old house and park of Burton Constable are situated in the parish of Sproatley, in the richest and flattest part of Holdemess, just where it is narrowing towards Spurn Head, and about fourteen miles across from Kingston-upon-Hull to the east coast. If a straight line is drawn from that town to the coast, Burton Constable lies nearly equi- distant between them. It formerly belonged to the ancient family of Constable, and is now the property of Sir F. A. Talbot Clifford-Constable, whose father, remotely connected with that family by marriage, succeeded to their estates and took their name. In the splendid old Manor House there is one of the finest libraries in Yorkshire, and therein (my information being derived from a person who was allowed to examine it in the time of the late baronet) a collection of MSS., written about the middle of the last century by " the learned William Constable," upon various subjects : horses, cattle, agriculture, and coimty history; and which in all probability contain some valuable references to the herd of wild cattle which then inhabited the park. I write this for the benefit of those who may 254 WILD WRITH CATTLE OF GREAT BEITAIh pursue such studies after me, the library of Burton Constable being at present a sealed book. This is the onli/ case in which I have been refused information. We must therefore depend upon Bewick's brief account of this herd, which is as follows : — " Those at Burton Constable, in the county of York, were all destroyed by a distemper a few years since. They varied slightly from those at Chillingham, having black ears and muzzles, and the tips of their tails of the same colour. They were also much larger, many of them weighing sixty stone ; probably owing to the richness of the pasturage in Holderness, but generally attributed to the difference of kind between those with black and with red ears, the former of which they studiously endeavoured to preserve." Bewick was probably right, in supposing that the richness of the pasturage in Holderness had much to do Avith increasing the size of the Burton Constable cattle. Undoubtedly it would have that effect, if they enjoyed it for only a few generations ; much more would this be the case if, as is likely, they had depastured there for a great length of time. Tet this may not have been the only cause ; for many other circumstances tend, to pro- duce some variation, especially when a herd has been confined for centuries in a particular park : two of the stronger of these being selection and close inter-breeding, or the absence of them. Like Bewick, I cannot attach much influence to their having black ears rather than red. With some exceptions, the tendency to produce ears of either colour indifEerently has appeared in most of the park breeds, and generally the prevalence of one colour or the other has been obtained by selec- tion ; and Bewick's words certainly imply that here the PBOBABLE ORIGIN OF TEE HEBB. 255 black-eared were specially selected — " they studiously endeavoured to preserve " tlie latter. It is therefore quite certain that the red ear was sometimes produced in this herd. As the Burton Constable herd was, unlike most others, far removed from the great mountain range and its immense forests, it would seem that these cattle were probably brought here from some other place. I will point out some of the sources from which they may have been derived. The Bishops of Durham had a large park and palace in Howdenshire, then subject to his jurisdiction ; and Hutchinson, in his' " History of Durham," mentions several of the Constable family, who were Seneschals for the Bishop of Durham's estates in Howdenshire. Very near to Burton Constable was the rich and weU-managed Cistercian Abbey of Meaux, or " de Melsa," which had frequent dealings with the Constables ; and in the same neighbourhood was the Cistercian nunnery of Swine, granted, in the third and fourth year of Philip and Mary, by the queen to Sir John Constable. Prom one or other of the parks belonging to these great ecclesiastical houses these wild cattle may have been obtained. I think, however, it is much more probable that they were brought from the banks of the Tees — ^the native home, as we have seen, of the wild bull ; for there, five miles south-east of Barnard Castle, the Constables have long possessed WychfEe Hall, intermediate between it and Darhngton. " The park of Burton Constable," says Shirley, " is undoubtedly very ancient. At present it contains 29C acres." CHAPTEE XIII. The Somerford Park a Domesticated Herd — ^Probably connected with the Lyme Park and Chartley Herds — ^My Visit in 1875 — ^Points of the Cattle — Their fine Milkiiig Qualities — Probable Use of Dilated Crosses — Antiqvdty of the Herd — Its Origin — ^Interesting Evidence as to Colour of the Wild Cattle— The Wollaton Hall Herd— Existing in 1790— Was a PoUed Herd — Mr. Burton's Account — ^Eev. Mr. WiUoughby's — This Herd only semi-domesticated — ^Extinguished by Negligence and In-breeding — Probable Origin of the Wollaton Herd — Greater Tendency to Black in the Southern Herds. The Somerford Park Herd demands our attention next. It is a domesticated herd, and a polled one ; but its cattle are very characteristic, and have all the peculiar features of the White Forest breed. It is certainly of great, though unknown, antiquity; and is probably — now that the Gisbume Park cattle are extinct, and the Hamilton herd has acquired horns — ^the best represen- tative yet extant of the hornless and tame variety of the originally wild white breed. Somerford Park, the seat of Sir Charles Watkin Shakerley, Bart., is a very fine place, from three to five miles — ^for the park extends to a great distance by the side of the public road — ^from Congleton, a small town on the Derbyshire side of Cheshire. It does not now contaiu deer, but is divided into large enclosures ; the oaks and other timber trees are very fine, and the quality of the soil and of the grass it produces is very good. Like almost every other place where we do not find the white breed notoriously an imported one, this park is 80MBBF0BB PAS,K 257 situated near to the slopes, anciently covered with wood and wild forests, of the great central range of mountains which extends from the Trent to the Clyde. It is little more than ten miles, as the crow flies, from the won- derful rocky defile called Ludchurch, situated near the western extremity of a Tery extensive district of moorlands, uplands, and ancient forests, and traditionally said to be the place where Friar Tuck of&ciated in the presence of Eobin Hood and his merry men. Lyme Hall, so celebrated for its wild cattle, is only about fifteen miles from Somerford towards the north-east ; while Chartley, still more renowned, is about thirty mUes distant towards the south-east. The three herds form a group, and possibly had a strong family resemblance. In the present state of the Lyme Park herd, it is iadeed impossible to speak positively on this point with regard to it; but it will be evident, from what follows, that the Somerford cattle, though hornless and domesticated, have much in common with the Chartley. Perhaps, however, they are still more nearly allied to the Gis- burne and others which came from WhaUey Abbey : both were hornless, and both are found in the neigh- bourhood of ancient forests, at the western foot of the great central mountaia range. Avoiding the old " forest roads" — which, passing by Wildboarclough (a deep ravine, whose name sufficiently indicates its former wild inhabitants) and Ludchurch, sacred to Friar Tuck ; and which roads even then, in the height of summer, were said to be so rugged as to require a very large amount of time and considerable horse-power — I started from Buxton with a friend early on August 6th, 1875 ; taking the rail, via Stockport and Macclesfield, to Cdngleton. On arriving at Somerford Park, I met with great 258 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. attention from the bailiff, Mr. H. Ford, who, having acted in that capacity for twenty years, showed us every- thing ; and we had also with us the old huntsman, who had been there for forty years. The herd, which is without horns, consisted of twenty head in all. There were no steers, and only two bulls — one three years old, and about to be sold to the butcher because not so useful as he should be ; the other a big calf, eight or nine months old, and intended for future use. There were nine pure-bred cows, three ia-calf heifers from them, and one cow-calf a week old. Besides these, there were four half-bred cows by pure-bred sires, and one two-year-old heifer from one of these : she is in calf to a pure bull. An old and very fine bull, which the bailiff much regretted I had not seen, had been sold to the butcher not long before. The three-year-old bull, which we saw tied up, and which we handled, was on short legs : not very high- standing, but compact and well made ; fine in the bone ; the hair rather wiry — ^but then it must be remembered that he was certainly out of condition and somewhat hide-bound, for the bull-calf handled very difierently. He was fair in the ribs and loin ; not particularly neat, nor yet especially defective, in the hind quarters ; mode- rately good in the twist, but rather light in the leg, and in these respects resembled (as did the herd generally) the wild animal. The fore-quarters, chest, girth, and bosom, very good ; plates and fore-flank remarkably good; shoulders very neat, and head and neck very beautiful — the head broad, short, and blood-like ; the neck strong, very much arched, and of great substance. There was a tendency to a mane, and the baHifi" assured THE 80MEBF0BD HEBB. 259 me that this was usual in the males when they had their full coats. The colour was pure white ; the ears, rims of the eyes, muzzle, and hoofs being quite black. There were a few black spots on the fetlocks of the two fore- legs, and immediately above the bare black skin of the muzzle was a strong, deep black line, perhaps an inch wide; and immediately above it, clustering together, there were a few small black spots, so clearly defined that my friend mistook them for flies, which they looked much like. This bull had no black spots else- where. I have described this animal particularly, because I consider that he fairly represents the ancient character of the herd. From Sir Charles's remarks, and still more from those of the bailiff, I am satisfied that, these cattle were much more uniformly jowre white, with only the ordinary black points, than they are at present. Like all other old herds of the Forest breed of white cattle, they have a strong tendency to produce small black spots on the neck, sides, and legs ; and this the proprietors admire and encourage : many of them have therefore become more or less speckled. The young bull- calf, reserved for future use, is very decidedly marked with black spots, and has a good deal of black on all four legs. He is a very excellent young animal, very good in all his points, and, except in colour, would pass muster in any Short-horn herd. His fore-quarters and breast were unimpeachable; his touch soft and good, with plenty of pelt; and he had abundance of long, straight hair, not particularly mossy in character. The heifer-calf, a week old, we saw next : it was very pretty, and, except the usual points, was pure white without spots. This was the only one that showed any K 2 260 IVILB WSITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. indication of wUdness. All the others were very tame ; yet none of the females, all of whom we saw va. the open, would allow tis to handle them; but this calf, which was by itseK in a large loose-box, was certainly much more timid than domestic calves usually are. This may very likely be the result of inherited tendencies only partially suppressed. The cows, as I have said, were thirteen in number, four of them being half-bred. One of these latter was, the baLliff said, from a perfectly black cow. Notwith- standing this, she contained much more white than would have been supposed, and her heifer, which we saw afterwards, stiU more. The other three were from ordinary Short-horn cows, which were all, I understood, homed, and with a certain amount of colour ; yet two of these were hornless and pure white — one with white, the other with red ears ; while the third, a light roan, had one smaU abortive snag — it could not be called a horn. There cannot be a stronger proof of the pre- potency of their white sires. Of the nine pure-bred cows, one showed a great deal of black on the head, sides, and legs, the back and belly- lines being clear white : this gave her much the appear- ance of a Long-horn. One was, on the head, neck, sides, and legs, so speckled, that she might fairly be called a "flea-bitten grey;" and in this respect she strikingly resembled one of the stuffed heads of the Chartley cows which I had seen in the Hall there. Four others were more or less speckled — but none of them to a great extent — with small, very clearly-marked black spots, principally on the neck, and more partially on the sides. These spots were generally a good way apart from each other, and in most of them — though very POINTS OF TEE SOMEBFOBB CATTLE. 261 distinct and clear, so that they could, he seen at a con- siderable distance — they were very few in number. It must also be borne in mind that early in August, when I saw them, a cow's hair is shorter and sleeker than at most other times of the year, and that these spots would not have been nearly so visible when the cows had on them their full natural coat of hair. Three cows were pure white, or very nearly so. In all there was a cer- tain amount of actual black, or of black spots, imme- diately above the hoof on the front part of the fore-leg ; and in all there was a Hue, as in the bull, of about an inch wide, of jet-black hair round the jet-black muzzle — the line of demarcation between this and the white hair of the face being very distinct, and the contrast particu- larly striking. In some of the cows the teats were all black, the udder itself being white ; in others they were about half black, the extremities being of that colour. The tails were aU white. It is remarkable that, notwithstanding the strong pre-disposition to produce black spots, black calves very seldom appear — not nearly so often as at Chartley. The bailiff tells me that during the twenty years he has had charge of the herd this has only occurred twice. The description of the bull as to form applies also to the cows, except that they were somewhat neater in their hind quarters. Their worst poiat was that some — but by no means all of them — drooped a little in the centre of the back. Their grand point was the fore quarter ; they had shoulders which Sir Charles Knight- ley would have envied. For females in milk, the neck was unusually good and well up, and upon it was beautifully set a charming, blood-Kke female head — comparatively short, but very wide across the eyes and 262 WILD WBITE CATTLE OF OBEAT BRITAIN. forehead, in whicli point the difference between the pure- bred stock and the others was very observable. Con- sidering their great milking powers, their girth, width through the heart, and depth and fulness of bosom, were extraordinary. So was also the large amount of flesh they carried ; and as a whole they were most beautiful, graceful, and stylish objects among the trees of that fine park, decorating it in the same peculiarly striking man- ner as is the case at ChiUingham. And my friend — a man of great taste — observed, when they were brought up by the herdsman from a distance : — " It was a sight to see them walk up," so nobly majestic was their carriage. On their polls they aU wore, in greater or less abundance, the toppin of long hair I had seen at Chartley, and the baihff considered this a peculiar hereditary distinction of the race. What has been said of the cows applies to the three in-calf heifers — ^their daughters. All were fine, well- grown cattle, quite equalling in size any average Short- horn dairy cows in those parts of the country , where the growth of the Short-horn is well developed. Usually they are kept in quite an ordinary manner, and are reared like common dairy cattle : their principal advan- tage being that the land on which they pasture is undoubtedly good. TJnfortunately, no steers have ever been kept; but the cows, when fed, average ten score a quarter, or fifty-seven stone of fourteen pounds. I can now easily understand the old herdsman at Gisbume Park declaring that the wild cattle there, which these much resemble, were as large as Short-horns. The meat, I was told by the bailiff, is very fine in quality and of most delicious flavour. It is, however, their milking powers that make the MILKING QUALITIES OF TEE EEBB. 263 Somerford cows such great favourites with their owners. The house is a very large one ; the establishment cor- responds, and is supplied with every product of the dairy from this herd : in consequence, the cows calve at all times of the year. The beautifully formed and largely developed udders of the cows showed very plainly that they were deep milkers ; and the milk, which I tasted, is very rich. The milk given at each meal by the cow which had calved a week before filled — and even more than filled — a milk-kit which was shown to me, the capacity of which I carefully tested. It held something more than twelve imperial quarts — about half a pint more ; so that this cow was giving more than twenty -four quarts, or six gallons, a day; and the old herdsman assured me that this cow was not superior to some of the others. When I was there the family was absent from home, and the dairy-maid was taking advantage of this to make large quantities of cheese. Although the general management of the cattle and the rearing of the young stock are on a similar system to that pursued in well-conducted farmers' dairies, the very greatest attention has been paid to two points. The first of these is the most careful selection of the young stock kept for breeding purposes. This is care- fully supervised ; and every calf which, in colour, form, or any other respect, does not come up to the required standard, is sacrificed. The other point attended to, has been purity of descent in the bull used. There has certainly been much close breeding, and to this is owing, in the main (combined as it is with careful selection), the singular uniformity of character in the herd and the preservation 264 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. of its ancient type. Tet I think there can be no doubt that highly diluted crosses have occasionally been taken, and that to this the continuation of the herd, when so many similar ones have perished, is chiefly due ; indeed, the bailiff admitted both the fact and the result. It has, however, been done with consummate skUl, and evidently to no greater extent than imperative necessity required. As it is, perhaps, there are some indications of infertility. The cows indeed seem to be regular breeders, but the bull was foimd fault with; and the number of young females is not so great as might have been ex- pected. To this it was replied that for a year past the calves had been almost entirely bulls ; and it is also certain that a herd of this kind, kept for the purposes it is, does not require the rearing of much young stock, and that no more are reared than are entirely approved of and are likely to be wanted. The four half-breeds, however, seem to show that the herd has fallen some- what short of its own requirements. No calves are sold for breeding purposes, and at present all the bulls are reserved for the exclusive use of the proprietor ; but I understand that formerly this was not to the same extent the case, and that the tenants' and neighbours' cows were occasionally admitted to the Somerford bulls. It is to be regretted that no record, or even tradition with regard to the origin of this herd exists, for its ap- pearance bespeaks great antiquity. Sir Charles Shakerley says : — " We have no history of how they came or how long they have been here. I am of the third generation which has known nothing about them. The tradition is that they have been here two hundred years." The probability seems to me to be that they have been there PBOBABLE ORIGIN OF THE EEBB. 265 much longer. They may have been derived jfrom some ancient monastery, one of which — ^Vale Eoyal — only some twelve miles distant, had a somewhat similar breed ; or they may have come from Gisburne Park, or from the kindred herds at Whalley Abbey and at Mid- dleton, of the Lancashire Asshetons, many of whom married into Cheshire; or they may have been, like those at Chartley and at Lyme — ^when first introduced to Somerford — ^wild denizens of the adjacent wild forests ; but which of these they were originally, no one can now say. The Somerford herd is of great importance, as showing what and of how great value the numerous ancient herds of white polled cattle were. Perfect and in working order — ^retained, too, as pure as is compatible with continuance — ^it gives us an excellent idea of what the Grisbume and the Hamilton cattle were originally. This herd seems to be also a connecting link between the domesticated white cattle and the wild, and also between those which had horns and those which were polled : for while the Somerford cattle are, in character and in type, nearly allied to those at Grisburne Park- — themselves wild, but many of whose congeners were domesticated — an experienced eye cannot fail to trace a very close resemblance between them and the wild homed breed at Chartley. The mere circumstance of the want of horns bespeaks only an originally accidental, but perhaps long continued, variety; and I think that if the Chartley horns cduld be added to the Somerfords, or the ChartleyS become polled, small indeed would be the differences of appearance between the two. But it seems to me that one of the circumstances which makes the Somerford herd of the greatest im- 266 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. portance is, that there has been tried the important experiment, with regard to colour, which naturalists complain has not been tried at ChiUingham, Hamilton, or Chartley. With regard to the two former. Professor Low says: — "One circumstance, common to both" (ChiUingham and Hamilton) "the herds of wild oxen referred to, is the tendency of the young to deviate from the ' markiug,' as it is termed, of the parents : that is, to become altogether black or altogether white, or to have black ears in place of red ears, and so on. These animals are destroyed, and, therefore, the interesting part of the experiment is interrupted of showing what characters they would assume were they to be left in the natural state." And with regard to the Chartley cattle he says : — " All the black calves are destroyed ; and thus, as in other cases, we are unable to know what ultimate character of colour the race would assume." Mr. Darwin forms a very similar opinion. He admits indeed that our park cattle, "not allowed to roam freely and to cross with other herds," are more subject to variations than " truly wild animals." He admits also the " tendency in wild or escaped cattle to become white, with coloured ears." But he comes to the conclusion that to preserve uniformity, " even within the same park, a certain degree of selection — that is, the destruction of the dark-coloured calves — ^is apparently necessary ; " and even that, from their occasional ap- pearance, "it is extremely doubtful whether the original Bos primigenius was white." Whether this tendency to a certain amount of black arises from a disposition to variation, induced by a sort of semi-domestication, or from reversion to a remote ancestor, or from both, it is impossible to say. It may TEE QUESTION OF BLACK MARKINGS. 267 arise from both ; for wliile in all tlie herds there is some tendency thereto, it seems far the least in the herd which is the freest and the Avildest, and that is the one at Chillingham. Tet even in this there has always been a tendency to certain black markings, which are common to all the herds. Black as well as red ears, and spots upon the neck — which last the most rigid selection has not altogether suppressed at Chillingham, as the skin of the Prince of Wales's bull showed — these may be considered, I think, hereditary tendencies. But I do not beheve that in a state of nature the Forest breed would ever become black, at least in this country. I do not indeed assert that if you reared black calves, from Chartley or elsewhere, and bred from them inter se, you might not produce a black race ; but then this would be the result of strong selection by man, in an opposite direction from that of which naturalists now complain. But it is not certain that even then you would obtain such a result, for the experiment has not been tried; and it is quite possible that these dark-coloured calves might, when they grew up, assume much hghter colours, as is the case with those of a kindred race on the Russian Steppes. Suppose, however, that these black calves had been bom from parents of the Forest breed while still wild (which we have no reason for believing they ever were), and they themselves had continued of this colour, is there any reason for thinking that they would, to any material degree, have affected the colour of the race? I apprehend not. Certain individuals would perhaps have been found, as they have been now, spotted with black on the head, neck, and sides, or, as in some of the Continental cattle,, of a light fawn colour or ashen grey on some of these 268 WILB WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. parts, the neck particularly ; but as a whole the breed would have continued to be what it is now — ^white, with black points. My reason for believing so is, first, that for hundreds of years, when wild, both in England and in Scotland, this breed of cattle did, when it could not be subjected to selection of any kind, maintain completely the same uniformity of colour which it now possesses ; and secondly, so also do those semi-wild Continental races which most nearly approximate to its type. There may be some slight differences of the black markings, but in aU tbe great characteristic — tbe aH-prevaihng colour — is white. I cannot but think that the Somerford Park herd remarkably corroborates this view. If the experiment, to which Professor Low and Mr. Darwin have aUuded, has not been tried fully there, it has at least been tried to a great extent. An increased amount of black mark- ings has been approved and fostered ; and, of course, a tendency to black spots on the head, neck, and sideSj which in many places would be suppressed, here show themselves ; yet they amount to nothing more, after all, than a full development of certain hereditary and secondary markings, such as many Continental races show. The marked and primary colour is white, some- times with these omnipresent black points somewhat more prominently shown than in herds where it has long been the practice to endeavour to obliterate them. Sometimes, as in the case of several of the cows, of the bull, and of the young cow-calf I saw, the white is unadulterated with any black, save what is common to all these ancient herds ; and it is still more curious that at Somerford, where exceptional black TEE WOLLATON SALL EEEB. 269 markings have been cultivated, fewer black calves have been bom than in some herds where these variations have been systematically suppressed. The "WoLLATON Hall herd of wild cattle has become extinct during the last fifty years. It belonged to the family of WiUoughby, Barons Middleton, so created on the last day of December, 1711, in the tenth year of Queen Anne. They are paternally descended from the "Willoughbys — Barons WiUoughby d'Eresby and Barons WiUoughby of Parham — a cadet of which house married Bridget, eldest daughter and co-heiress of Sir Francis WUloughby,* the owner of WoUaton (and of Middleton, Warwickshire) in the time of Queen EHzabeth, and the builder of its famous mansion. WoUaton HaU is scarcely three miles west from NottiQgham, and the entrance to its beautiful park much less. It is on the summit of a bold hiU, and commands extensive views over the rich and picturesque Vale of Trent on one side, and over the fine country which was once the royal Forest of Sherwood, on the outskirts of which it is situated, on the other. It is the chef d'amvre of the Elizabethan architect, Thorpe, who buUt Burleigh, Longleat, and other celebrated houses, some of them larger, none so striking and commanding as this. The stone with which it is faced was brought from Ancaster, in Lincolnshire, on the backs of dray-horses, coal being taken back to Lincolnshire in the same manner in return — ^the state of the roads in the Vale of Bel voir, through which it was necessary to pass, then and long * Sir Francis WiUoughby was descended from Ealph Bugge, of. Not- tingham, who purchased lands at Willoughby-on-the-Wolds, in the time of Henry III., from which the WoUaton WUIoughbys derived their name. See I'horoton's " Nottinghamshire : " under heading of " WoUaton." 270 WILD W3ITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN: after precluding any other mode of carriage of heavy goods. The Wollaton herd of wild cattle were generally known in the neighbourhood as " The Old Park Breed" — a name clearly indicative of very remote antiquity. They have been extinct a little over fifty years. They must have been weU known and celebrated when Bewick wrote in 1790, for he classes this herd among the five "only breeds now remaining in the kingdom" of those ancient herds formerly so "nu- merous," and he assigned to the Wollaton herd the second place in the list. When I was, as a boy, frequently in the neighbourhood, they had only recently died out, and I am able to give a fair account of them, obtained from those who knew them well. The late Hon. and Eev. C. J. Willoughby, Eector of WoUaton, whose recent and sudden death is so much to be de- plored, took much interest in the subject, and supplied me with the results of his inquiries ; and through the kindness of Mr. William Kirkland, of Beeston, near Nottingham, whose father was bom at Wollaton, I have obtained — besides some valuable remiaiscences of his own — ^much information from Mr. Thomas Burton, of Beeston, now over seventy, who was bom at the "King's Head '' Inn, WoUaton (now turned into cottages), which his father then kept, and where he himself lived till quite grown up. Mr. Burton says " that he well remembers the white cattle ; that they had black noses and black ears ; he does not recollect ever seeing any with red ears ; they had a very fine circlet of black round the eyes. They were polled, or without horns, and were called ' the old park breed ; ' they were fijie beasts, and partially domesticated, some of the cows THE HEED OF GREAT ANTIQUITY. 271 ■being milked, but some of them were too wild for this. He well remembers some men coming to his father's public-house when he was something over twenty, and their saying — ' WeU ! the old park breed is done away with.'" Mr. Burton strongly insists that they were polled, and called " the old park breed ; " and Mr. Kirkland, whose father was born at "Wollaton in 1782, tells me that he has often heard him mention both the above circumstances. These cattle became extinct in the time of Henry, sixth Lord Middleton (who succeeded 4th of June, 1800, and died 19th of June, 1835). He was a very eccentric nobleman : once shot a woodcock off a bull's back for a wager, and once drove a team of oxen in his carriage ; and the story got about that the animals so employed were some of the wild cattle. Mr. Burton shows that this was not the case. Some Devons were also kept as domestic cattle, and the bull which his lord- ship rode was a Devon, " and it was put up at the ' King's Head.' " Mr. Burton adds, that the old park cattle " vi^ere larger and finer than the Devons." My other information is derived from the late Mr- Willoughby, Rector of Wollaton, and the present Lord Middle ton's brother. He first applied to Mr. C. Chouler, a gentleman well known, and for many years steward of the Lords Middleton. All the information he coidd give was, that when he went to Wollaton in the fifth lord's time, in 1792 (which must have been as a boy), " they were in the park," and that " the sixth lord also had them several years ; but as they began to deteriorate and fall ofE in size, his lordship adopted the Devon breed." Mr. Bienry Moody, whom Mr. Willoughby got to make further inquiries, " derived some further 272 WILD WHITE OATTLE OF GBEAT BRITAIN. information from a fine old man wlio was fonnerly con- nected with the WoUaton stables, and who now lives at Eadf ord. ' He teUs me that fourteen of them died at one time from eatiag dead branches cut from the trees near the Hall ; and that, as they would breed no longer, and were so thinned by this accident, Mr. Chouler ordered them to be sold and slaughtered, which the then lord afterwards regretted. He says they were pure white in colour, with black at the tips of their noses and tails and some of their feet, but spotless elsewhere- He speaks in the highest terms of their symmetry and fine size, and declares that nothing he has ever seen, at Smithfield or elsewhere, has been at aU comparable to these white cattle.' " * The last strongly expressed opinion is corroborated by Mr. Burton, who says that they were " fine beasts," and that they were " larger and finer than the Devons " — and this, it must be remembered, at a time when " they began to deteriorate and fall ofE in size." What must the "old park breed" at "WoUaton have been ere such deterioration and diminution in size commenced ? And the above statement is the more remarkable because, within a mile of the park gate, and on the direct road from Wollaton to Nottingham, was then kept, and paraded night and morning the public road on its way to and from its pastures near the Trent, one of tbe finest Short-horn herds in the kingdom — ^that of Mr. John Wilkinson, of Lenton — which, derived at first from cattle purchased at an early period from Mr. Charles Colling, had since, been bred with consummate skiU and judg- ment ; and then enjoyed a local celebrity so great that * This description is from a letter of Mr. Willoughby qnoting one from Mr. Moody. ITS FINAL EXTINOTION. 273 the above informant must certainly have known it. This circumstance tends much to enhance our opinion of the value of the Wollaton "old park breed." This breed was clearly, to a certain extent, domesti- cated in its later years, but its original wild nature still remained, and prevented its being altogether subjugated by man. I conceive it to have been in that transition state in which Sir John Orde's herd at Ealmory now is, or in which the descendants of the wild Middleton and Whalley Abbey herds were at Gisburne Park — a partial domestication, not so complete as others of the same variety have since attained in Norfolk. The end of this herd was, according to the accounts of those who knew the cattle best, that " they began to deteriorate and fall off in size " — "that they would breed no longer" — and that, finally, an unfortunate accident and lamentable neg- ligence combined, helped to consummate more quickly the ruin which in-breeding had wrought. The pasturage of the park, which is of considerable extent, is fairly good, but not particularly rich. Some few remarks must be made with respect to the probable origin of the herd, though nothing positive can be ascer- tained. It seems reasonable to suppose that from the grand old Forest of Sherwood this wild breed came : either immediately and directly, or derived at an early period from some ancient park, or later from some .suppressed monastery. If the second of these suppositions is the true one, these cattle may have come from the royal park of Beskwood, only some three miles distant, and in the heart of Sherwood Forest.* " The King's * The Eoyal HTmtings in the " King's Hag of Beskwood " have long since ceased, as Dr. Thoroton tells us, in his " Bostorj of Nottingham- shire," written in 1677. He says: — "Before the troubles it was well S 274 WTLB WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. Hag of Beskwood," as it was called, was " enclosed with a pale," and contained a royal residence,* where Edward III. certainly came for the purpose of hunting. It was of great extent, and contained every variety of game. The two Sir Eichard Willoughbys, father and son, who were the " great advancers " of this family, lived in the reigns of Edward II. and III., and the son was a judge of high repute, and " some- times Chief Justice when GalMdus le Scrope, the Chief Justice, was gone on the "King's business beyond the seas." About the same time, more than one of the family of "WiUoughby in succession were the Eoyal Foresters in Beskwood Park ; and to this period of royal favour I should be inclined to assign the intro- duction of the wild cattle to Wollaton, either jBrom Beskwood Park or from the forest which surrounded it. stocked with red deer. But now it is parcelled into little closes on one side, and mnch of it hath been plowed, so that there is scarce either wood or venison: which is too hkely to be the fate of the whole Forest of Shirewood." Beskwood was bestowed by Charles II. upon his son by Nell Gwynne, created Duke of St. Albans, in whose family it stfll remains ; and, except just in the purlieus of the dukeries, the glories of Sherwood are altogether gone, as Dr. Thoroton so mournfully anti- cipated. Old men, not many years dead, remembered its last relic — Thomeywood Chase — ^and the fallow deer crossiag the enclosed farms within the boundaries of the forest as they went down to water, quite undisturbed unless they got beyond its ancient limits, in which case the deer-stealers often shot them down. Even up to the close of the last century the Nottinghamshire nursemaids sang to their young charges the old ballads of Eobin Hood, which they learnt in their cottage homes. But now " Merrie Shirewood" is a thing only of the past; and in the year 1848 died its last verderer, one of my mother's family, the Wyldes of Nettleworth, who had for generations supplied one of the four ancient ofl&cers, who bore that name, and took care of that right royal forest, its vert, and its venison. * Edward III., in the third year of his reign, issued several letters patent from this place. See Thoroton's "Nottinghamshire:" article, " Beskwood Parke." ORIGIN OF THE WOLLATON OATTLE. 275 If, however, they are derived from one of the dissolved monasteries, it is not unlikely that they may have come from Newstead Priory, eight or nine miles distant, whose extensive park, taken out of Sherwood Forest, contained at one time 2,700 head of deer.* It was granted at the dissolution to the Byrons, and there was considerahle connection between the two families. But there is still a third source from which the wild herd of "WoUaton may have originated. For several hundreds of years — certainly before the reign of Queen Elizabeth — the WiUoughbys of WoUaton have possessed, and still possess, the fine mansion and park of Middleton HaU, from which they take their title. This place is at the extreme northern edge of the county of Warwick, close to the boundary line between it and Staffordshire. For- merly Cannock Chase came quite up to Middleton, and Needwood Forest was only a few miles distant. At Middleton, therefore, the WiUoughbys, when they resided there, were not far from Chartley itself, and still nearer to the forests from which the Chartley cattle were obtained. The Wollaton Hall herd forms, with those at Chart- ley, at Somerford, and at Lyme, the southernmost group of the ancient white cattle j and aU these herds may be said to have been in tolerably close proximity. Somer- ford and Lyme he in a westerly and north-westerly direction, little more than fifty miles from Wollaton in a straight line : the whole country between them being anciently a wonderful congeries of extensive forests, moors, and hiUs — the favourite haunts of Eobin Hood and his associates. To the south-west of Wollaton Hes Chartley, less than thirty-five miles distant. But mere * Thoresby's "Thoroton," toL iL, p. 289. S 2 276 WILD WEITB CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. distance scarcely stows, so far as the wild cattle are concerned, the actual connexion; for a few miles to the south of WoUaton, very near indeed to it, came the Forest of Charnwood, in Leicestershire, and that again joined Need wood, which went up to Chartley — ^the small town of Ashhy-de-la-Zouch, the scene of Sir Walter Scott's tournament in " Ivanhoe " — ^being intermediate between the three. WoUaton and Chartley are both a short distance only from the river Trent on its northern side. It seems to me that this southern group of wild herd retained at WoUaton, Chartley, Somerford, and Lyme, were aU inclined to grow to a larger size than was attained by any of the cattle of the more northern groups. The only herds which seem to have equalled them in this respect were that at Clifford Constable (situated far south of the great northern herds), and perhaps those which came from WhaUey Abbey, which in point of locality is intermediate. I think we may also conclude that in the more southerly herds the tendency to black was the greatest. Little is to be learnt now on this point at Lyme, yet even there a blue-black cow with some white, may now be seen, though its sire was a Chartley buU. But at Chartley and at Somerford, and — judging from the unusual circumstance of their having black tips to the taUs — I think we may assume at WoUaton and Burton Constable also, there was in the southern herds a stronger disposition to black than was shown by their northern congeners. Li the latter the same tendency existed, but it does not generaUy appear to have been so fuUy de- veloped. I cannot account for the circumstance, but I think it right to allude to it. CHAPTEE XIV. The Grisbume Park Herd — Belated to the Middleton — Bemck's Description, in 1790— Whitaker's, in 1806— A Polled Herd- Originally from WhaUey Abbey — or possibly from Middleton — ^Its semi-domestioated Character — Be- came extinct in 1859 — ^Lord Ribblesdale's Account — Kev. T. Staniforth's — Mr. Assheton's— The last Animal killed on Nov. 10, 1859— The Herd perished from In-breeding — ^This often perfects the Individual, but annihi- lates the Eace — ^The Middleton Hall Herd — ^Dr. Leigh's Account, in 1700 — Then " Wild Cattel"— and Polled— Probable Origin— Finally removed to G-nnton Park. Having given in the preceding chapter, so far as it can now be ascertaraed, the history of two of the English wild herds of the hornless or polled variety of white cattle, I proceed to describe others, whose origin was undoubtedly in the county of Lancaster. Of these there were two, intimately connected by the frequent inter- marriages of the families to which they belonged, and which may or may not have sprung from the same source. They were the Gtisbubne Park Herd, belong- ing to the family of Lister, and the Middleton Hall Herd, to that of Assheton. Both were also alike in character ; and though I first treat of the former, it is impossible to exclude many references to the latter, which was something over thirty miles distant, being only from four to five miles north of the once small, but now great, city of Manchester. The Gisbume Park herd is one of those mentioned by Bewick. The park itself is the fine seat of the Listers, Lords Bibblesdale, and is situated ia the beau- 278 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. tiful valley of the river Eibble, in the district of Craven, and in one of the most romantic parts of the northern portion of the West Eiding of Yorkshire, but close to the confines of the north-eastern boundary of Lancashire, from which it is only distant about four miles : the cele- brated Pendle Hill being about twice as far off. The park is about half-way between OUtheroe and Skipton, places about eighteen miles apart, but is somewhat nearer to the former. The primaeval state of this country, as narrated by its learned historian, Dr. Whitaker, has been described before ; it was anciently, like the greater part of the North of England, one vast district of forests, moors, morasses, and rocks, with a few fertile and cultivated dales intermixed. The estate once formed part of Gis- burne Forest, whUe the still more extensive Forests of Bowland and of Blackbumshire were closely contiguous. The Listers have had considerable property, in the neighbourhood of Grisburne since the year 1312, which they then acquired by the marriage of John Lister with Isabel, daughter and heiress of John de Bolton, Bow- bearer of Bowland. The famous cattle of Grisburne Park are thus described by Bewick in 1790: — "At Grisburne there are some perfectly white, except the inside of the ears, which are brown. They are without horns, very strong- boned, but not high. They are said to have been originally brought from Whalley Abbey, in Lancashire, upon its dissolution in the twenty-third of Henry VIII. They were said to have been drawn to Grisburne by the ' power of music.'" Bewick's brief description, given above, of these cattle as they were then, is, from all I have been able to learn, perfectly correct ; latterly some changes took place THE GISBUBNE PARK EEBD. 279 in some of their markings. A few years later. Dr. Wlutaker, in his "History of Craven," published in 1805, gives the following account of them : — " Grisburne Park is chiefly remarkable for a herd of wild cattle, descendants of that indigenous race which once peopled the great forests of Lancashire. After their extinction in a wild state — which we know did not take place till a short time before the age of Leland — it is highly probable that the breed was kept up by the Abbots of Whalley in the ' Lord's Park,' and fell into the hands of the Asshetons, who acquired possession of that rich domain soon after the dissolution. This species differs from those of Lyme, in Cheshire, and Ohillingham Castle, in Northumberland — ^where alone in South Britain they are now preserved — ^in being without horns. " They are white, save the tips of their noses, which are black ; rather mischievous, especially when guarding their young, and approach the object of their resentment in a very insidious manner. They breed with tame cattle ; but it is to be hoped that respect for so ancient and singular a family will induce the noble owner to preserve them from any foreign admixtures." * It seems desirable that we should first investigate their origin. Dr. Whitaker, we see, calls them the " descendants of that indigenous race which once peopled the great forests of Lancashire;" and in another place, before quoted, he mentions these forests as having been the " last retreats " df, amongst other animals, " bubali, or wild cattle " — " of which tradition records that they were transplanted into the Dean's or Abbot's Park at Whalley, whence they are reported, on the same evidence, to have been removed after the dissolution to * " History of Craven," p. 37, 2nd ed. ; p. 62, 3rd ed. 280 WILD WHITE OATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. Gisbume Park, where their descendants still remain." In this respect Bewick and Whitaker both agree that these wild cattle, intermediately between the time when they were the unreclaimed denizens of the forest and the date of their transference to Gisbume, inhabited the Lord Abbot's Park at WhaUey Abbey.* Nor must it be supposed that Dr. Whitaker merely foUows Bewick ; for his son, the Eev. E. N. Whitaker, Vicar of Whalley, says, " that the tradition in Whalley, which he remem- bers to have heard the old people teU, was that the Abbots of Whalley used to have these cattle in the Lord's Park." The Cistercian Abbey, formerly dignified by the name of " Locus Benedictus de WhaUey," was of great antiquity ; and it is a curious circumstance that in Saxon and early Norman times its head, whose title was then "Dean," was a married man and a temporal lord. In. later times its domains were extensive, and the power of its mitred abbot great. So early as the year 1320, when Adam, Abbot of Cumbermere, Visitor of the Cistercian Order, took account of its property, it had eight hundred head of cattle, and it possessed, con- tiguous to the Abbey itself, a large park, called " the Lord's Park." This, we may be sure, was for the purpose of recreation and hunting : for that was in those days the special object for which such parks were made ; and nothing is more probable than that it contained wild cattle, as many other parks then did. The only cir- cumstances which may seem to mihtate agaiast this * Dr. Whitaker, in a note, alludes to, and seems to attach some weight to, a tradition in the family that these cattle were brought after the dis- solution from Gisborough Priory, in Cleveland. The distance renders this improbable ; it is supported by no evidence ; and it seems impossible, for Gisbume was not, it appears, imparked till long after. NOTICES OF WEALLEY ABBEY. 281 supposition are, that in the account of the visitation of 1320 no wild cattle are specifically mentioned; and that, when the Ahbey was dissolved — John Paslew, its last Lord Abbot, being hung for the part he had taken in the " Pilgrimage of Grace " on March 12th, 1 536-7— the cattle were sold off, and the lands let by the king's commissioner. But neither of these circumstances has, I think, much weight. In the first place, it is probable that in the account of the property of the Abbey, in 1320, wild cattle would be placed in the same category as deer, and, like them, not mentioned ; and even if they were reckoned in with the other cattle, I should scarcely expect to find them specified : for monastic accounts of cattle, while they classify them according to age and sex, give, with scarcely an exception, no description whatever of the breed or variety to which they belonged. Besides, it is quite possible that the " park breed " may not have been obtained tiU a later period. And as regards what took place at the dissolution, it seems to me both possible and probable that some of the deer and wild cattle would be retained in the park as the property of the Crown. Nothing more is reported of Whalley for two years; and then, on April 12th, 1539, John Braddyll, Grent., of Braddyll and Brockhole, had the bailiwick of the demesnes (as the property of the Crown) committed to him. Under his control, on behaK of the Crown, the Abbey estates remained for fourteen years more; tUl, twenty days only before the death of Edward VI., they were purchased conjointly by the above John Braddyll and Richard Assheton, a younger son of the house of Assheton, of Leaver, for the sum of £2,132 3s. 9d., and partitioned between the two purchasers. Eichard Assheton took the Abbey itself, 282 WILD WHITH GATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. with its sTirrounding demesnes. He died without issue ; and Whalley Abhey, becoming the property of his nephew, was from that time the principal residence of the Asshetons of Whalley Abbey and of Leaver, created baronets June 28th, 1620. It is a curious fact, which shows how strongly the English cling to the memories of the past, and how averse they are to change, that duriag the above transi- tion period, while the Abbey belonged to the Crown, a few of the old monks still remained in occupation of it. If John Braddyll of BraddyU, acting as the deputy of the king, dared to wink at this, we may feel pretty sure — knowing as we do the strong hunting propensities of the country gentlemen of the period — that he would be a strict conservator of the remains of the Abbey deer and wild cattle, i£ any such still existed, as they probably did, under his care. I think, then, we may adopt the above carefully ex- pressed opinion of that cautious historian, Dr. Whitaker : " that it is highly probable that the breed was kept up by the Abbots of WhaUey in the ' Lord's Park,' " and that it finally " fell into the hands of the Asshetons," with which view the local traditions exactly coincide. But there was still another source from which the Asshetons of Leaver and Whalley Abbey might have derived the wild cattle. They were descended from a younger son of the family of Assheton of Middleton HaU, near Bury; and Richard Assheton, who bought WhaUey Abbey, was great-nephew of Sir Eichard Assheton of Middleton. And at Middleton we know well that long after this time the wild bull existed, as I shall subsequently show, and also close to it for a long time previous ; so that even if it cannot be proved that TEE GI8BUBKE OATTLB AND WBALLEY ABBEY. 283 the tradition is true (but only probable) that the wild cattle of the Asshetons of Whalley were derived from those of the Lord Abbot, it seems pretty certain that they had them from either this source, or from Middle- ton, or from both ; for the tradition that the Grisbume Park cattle came from Whalley Abbey is much con- firmed by what foUows respecting the connexion between the Lister and Assheton families, to illustrate which I give on the following page a pedigree of the Assheton family so far as it bears upon this subject. To return to Gisbume Park : tradition and historical evidence corroborate each other in proving that its herd of wild cattle was derived from Whalley Abbey, but both, I think, concur in showing that this did not take place so early as the time of the dissolution of the monasteries, as asserted by Bewick. From the known history of the Lister family this seems impossible. At the time of the dissolution the seat of the Lister family in the parish of Grisbume was Amoldsbiggin, while the pro- perty, since imparked, and called Grisbume Park, later the domicile of the wild cattle, was then called "the Lower Hall," Grisbume, and did not belong to them. When or however acquired by the Asshetons, it certainly belonged to Sir John Assheton, fourth and last baronet of Whalley Abbey.* He married the widow of Thomas Lister of Amoldsbiggin, and, dying without issue, the estate of Whalley Abbey reverted to his sister's son. Sir Ealph Assheton, second Baronet of Middleton, his own baronetcy becoming extinct ; but he left to his wife's son by her previous marriage — Thomas Lister of Amoldsbiggin — ^his estate at Malham, and also all his * Mr. Assheton, of Downham. HaU, informs me tliat he thinks this doubtful— Ed. ASSHETON, Of Assheton-nnder-Lyne, comity of Lancaster. The elder line ended in co-heiresses, but from a younger son, after several generations, descended Sir Ralph Assheton, Knight, Page of Honoor to K. Henry VI., who, marrying the heiress of the Bartons of Middleton, became, iurt uxoris, first of Middleton. He had issue two sons. Sir BiCHABD Absheton, Knight, of Middleton, married Isabel Talbot, and (after several genera- tions) was progenitor of Sir Ralph Asshbton, Knight, who by mairiage with the heiress of Leaver, became of Leaver, and (after several generations, during which Whalley, Malham, and Downham were ac- quired) progenitor of J Sir Ralph Assheton,* of Leaver (sold by him in 1629), Whalley Abbey, and Malham. Created a Basonet by K. James I., June 28, 1620. His children were, besides others. Sir Ralph Assheton, : of Middleton, mar- ried his distant cousin, Ann Asshe- ton, of Whalley Abbey. Created a Baronet by King Charles II. Aug. 17, 1660. Ann, Even- tually heiress of Whalley Abbey. Sir Ralph, 2nd Bart. of Leaver, d. s. p.j Sir Edmund, 3rd Bart. of Leaver, d. s. p. Sir John, 4th and last Bart., of Whalley Abbey, married the widow of Thomas LiSTEB, of Arnolds- biggin, and dying s. p. June 9, 1697, left his property in Gis- bume, Rimington, Horton, and other neighbouring town- ships, and Malham, to her son, Thomas LiSTEK, ancestor of the present Lokd RiBBLESDALE. (Ba- ronetcy ertinct.) Sir Ralph Assheton, 2nd Bart, of Middleton, and of WhaUey Abbey, jure uxoris^ died in May, 1716, leaving several daughters, co-heiresses, of whom Catherine married Thomas Listeb, of Gisbume, ancestor of the present Lokd RiBBLESDALE. Richard, married Mary Parker, and left, besides other issue, a son, Sir Ralph Assheton, of Middleton, but not of Whalley Abbey, 3rd and last Baronet. Married Mary Egerton, and dying Dec. 31. 1765, left two daughters, co-heiresses (the Baronetcy becoming extinct). Maby, who had Middleton, and married in 1760, Sir Harbord Harbord, afterwards created Lord Lupfield, ancestress of the peers of that name. Eleanor, married, in 1769, Sir Thomas Egerton, Bart., of Egerton and Oulton, an- cestress of the Duke of Westminster. • From Badcliffe Assheton, younger brother of the first Baxonet of Ijeaver and WhaUey Abbey, descends in the ninth generation the present Mr. Assheton, of Downham Hall, M.F. for Ohtheroe, the male representative of this ancient family, who has rendered me so much assistance. In his pedigree there is a third intermaixiage of aa Assheton with a Lister of Gisborne. TEE AS8RET0N FAMILY, 285 property in Grisbume, Eimington, Horton, and about twenty other townships. He died June 9th, 1697, and Thomas Lister, the recipient of this testamentary- benefit, placed in the year 1706 in the church of Gis- burne a monument to his memory, "to express his gratitude to the said Sir John Assheton, his kind and generous benefactor." This was the time when, according to Dr. Whitaker, " the Lister family removed, after the death of Sir John Assheton, to the Lower HaU of Grisbume, the demesnes of which have since been enclosed for deer ; it has thus acquired the name of Gris- bume Paris:." This seems to have been pretty clearly the time when some of the wild cattle were transferred from WhaUey Abbey to Glisbume Park. It clearly could not have been earlier, for prior to that Grisbume Park did not exist. And the historical and traditional evidence of this being the date of the removal of the wild cattle from the park of WhaUey to that of Grisbume quite agree; for while Dr. Whitaker came to the conclusion that it was " highly probable " they had passed through " the hands of the Asshetons," the tradition of the old people of Whalley was, a few years since, as reported by liis son, the present vicar of that place, that " when the Asshetons ceased to live at Whalley the herd was divided, and some went to the Listers at Grisbume, but the tradition as to what became of the others was lost." Of course the latter went to the Asshetons of Middleton, who inherited the place. The very want of circum- stantiality of the tradition in this respect the more proves its truth, and the historical evidence that Gris- bume Park could not have sooner received its moiety still farther establishes it. We may, I think, safely conclude, that after the death, in 1697, of Sir John 286 WILD WRITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. Assheton, tlie last Baronet of Whalley Abbey, part of tbe wild cattle in the " Lord's Park " at that place went to Gisbume, part to be added to the previously existing herd of his heirs, the Asshetons, Baronets of Middleton. Nor is this all; for Thomas Lister — son of the Thomas Lister to whom Sir John Assheton bequeathed the " Lower Hall," afterwards Grisbume Park, and a part of the Whalley wild cattle — ^married, in 1716, Catherine, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Ealph Assheton of Mid- dleton, nephew (through his mother) of the same Sir John Assheton, and as such inheritor of Whalley Abbey also. This gave the Listers an interest in the Middle- ton herd too, and from it the Gisbume cattle probably received a cross. The grandson of Thomas Lister and Catherine Assheton of Middleton was created Baron Eibblesdale, October 26th, 1797. I proceed to consider the Gisbume Park herd. These cattle were unquestionably wild at first, though they gradually became to a considerable extent domesticated, owing very much to their small number — ^for many years, not more than seven or eight — and to their being latterly kept, not in the park, but on a farm, where their range of pasture was much circumscribed. So lately as 1805, when Dr. "Whitaker wrote, they were "rather mischievous," and " approached the object of their re- sentment in a very insidious manner." Li the last days of their declining state, though they had become com- pletely tame, a touch of their old savage nature still remained, and they were " more quarrelsome amongst themselves than cattle usually are, and would fight, ofi" and on, for days." In the year 1859 they became finally extinct ; the following pages wUl show us how and why. ACCOUNTS OF TEE GISBUBNE CATTLE. 287 I give first tlie information I received from the pre- sent Lord Eibblesdale,* wlio succeeded to the remains of this herd in 1832, as a minor not five years old, and who reaped the consequences of the neglect and indif- ference with which it had been previously treated. His lordship says, in a letter to me, dated January 29th, 1874: — "The cattle that used to be here have been extinct about fifteen years. I could not keep them on any longer; they got delicate from breeding in-and-in, and always bred buUs at last. They were, I believe, the old inhabitants of the forests of this part of the country. "When I knew mine they were not wild. They required great care. I believe that generally the account of them in the ' History of Craven ' is correct." The above words ought to be printed in letters of gold, framed, and hung over every cattle-breeder's mantle-piece, as a warning against excessive inter-breed- ing. I have some reason to think that this remarkable case is not a solitary one ; but that, as respects cattle, one consequence of long-continued and excessive inter- breeding is, that the cows generally, if not — as Lord Eibblesdale affirms with respect to his — "always," " breed bulls at last." The Eev. Thomas StaniEorth, of Storrs, Windermere, one of the oldest and most intelligent of English breeders, lived at Bolton-by-BowIand Eectory, about four miles from Grisbume, from January, 1832, to June, 1859; and had, therefore, every opportunity of observing the Gris- bume Park cattle. He tells me that " in size they were as large as ordinary Short-horns, and had thick, mellow * Since deceased ; but it is thought better not to alter the text, also written by a hand now dead. — Ed. 288 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BEITAIN. hides — the hair, however, being straight and not curly ; the ears white, but yellow inside ; noses clear, like those of Devons in colour. The cows supplied the house with milk ; they were regularly milked, but not kept in the park, but on the opposite side of the river Eibble, on a farm called EUenthorpe, which Lord Ribblesdale had in his own hands." Mr. Staniforth had a cow " got by a Gisbume bull from one of the tenant's cows ; she was white, or nearly white, and a good fair milker. "About 1834, the Eev. Henry Berry, one of the best judges and breeders of cattle, took Mr. Staniforth's duty for a few weeks, and expressed his surprise that these cattle were so much better in form and quality than he had expected to have seen." A gentleman who saw them about thirty years since says : — " There were then about ten ; they came galloping up to the herds- man, but did not seem more than half- wild." Through the kiadness of Mr. Assheton, of Down- ham Hall, near Clitheroe, the male representative of the ancient family to whom these wild cattle for- merly belonged, who has afforded me most valuable assistance, I have had forwarded to me three photo- graphs of the three last of the Grisbume cattle, taken from life. They belong to Mr. Dixon Eobinson, of Chtheroe Castle. Like most photographs of cattle taken from life, they distort their subject, and are there- fore not suitable for illustration. They are the last bull, the last cow and calf, and the three together. The cattle had then — as might indeed have been expected — much degenerated in size ; but they are striking animals, preserving the old type — short-legged, thick and deep, strong-boned and strong-limbed, and very heavy -fleshed. So far as can be judged from a photograph, I should say ACCOUNTS OF THE QISBUBKE CATTLE. '289 that the ears of the calf were red inside ; but it is qiiite certain that it has three or four very distiactly marked dark spots on the body — whether red or black, of course, I cannot say, but clearly indicating in the last of the race bred at Gisburne the same tendency to revert to hereditary markings, long suppressed by selection, which we find in other herds of the wild forest breed. For the quotations which follow I am also indebted to the report of Mr. Assheton, who made every pos- sible inquiry for me both at Whalley and at Grisburne. He remarks : — " Dr. Whitaker says the Grisburne cattle were white, without horns, and with blac^ noses. There are, in his ' Craven,' prints of both a bull and a cow, which in most of the copies are printed in a sort of coffee-coloured mezzo-tinto ; but some of the copies had hand-coloured plates. I have seen such a copy, and there the noses of the beasts are flesh-coloured, the ears white outside, but with red hair inside them. A copy of the ' History of Craven ' in the library at Gisbume Park has the following note, opposite the statement that the noses were dlac&, in the handwriting of the first Lord Eibblesdale : ' The ears and noses of this species of cattle are never black, but most usually red or brown.' "I saw, November 24th, 1874, Mr. Thomas Chew, of Gisburne, steward to Lord Eibblesdale, aged forty- four. He told me he never remembered the herd being above seven or eight in number ; they seemed quite bred out. They were (when he knew them) between a Short- horn and a West Highland Scot in size. They were quite tame, and housed in winter, as all good cattle are here, and were milked for the house — ^they were mode- rate milkers. The last cow and calf were sold to Mr. 290 WILD WEITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. Legh, of Lyme Park, and taken there by bim (Mr. Chew) in October, 1859; but this attempt to cross the breed failed, as did a similar attempt which was made by bringing a heifer from Lyme to GKsbume. The bull, the last of his race, was killed at Gisbnme, [November 10th, 1859, at 8.35 a.m. His head is now in the kitchen at Gisbume, but is so dirty, and apparently so badly stuffed, that I learnt nothing from it, except that I saw no signs of a mane. Mr. Chew said the beef of these animals was excellent, and several other people said the same. There was no tallow in them, but the fat and lean all in alternate layers. When one was killed, the beef was sold at a small price to the villagers, because it was an old custom, and not because of any inferiority of the beef. There were 7421b. of beef sold from the last bull, besides scraps of offal " — that is, that beef to the amount of 53 stone of 14 lb. was sold. Mr. Assheton proceeds : — " I saw the same day Bichard Hornby, who was herdsman to the cattle, and looked about sixty years of age. He told me that the cattle were hornless, and white in colour : a very creamy-white towards the roots of the hair. The hair itself was nothing particular as to length or character ; and there were no signs of any manes (this Mr. Chew also confirmed) ; their noses and hoofs were white. They were just as tame and quiet as other cattle to those about them, but more quarrelsome amongst them- selves than cattle usually are, and would fight, off and on, for days. Hornby says they were as big as Short- horns in their best days, but were bred out for want of a cross. He had always heard that they came from Whalley, and had followed a band of music thence ; and I have heard from a Whalley source as well the same PIGTUBE8 AND REMAINS. -291 tradition of their having followed the hand of music. These cattle were kept in modern times at EUenthorpe, a farm outside the park at Grishume. " I saw the same day the picture at Grishume Park, which is thus entered in the catalogue : ' Grishume Park, A.D. 1730, with portraits of the first Lord Kihbles- dale's grandfather and father, and his aunts, Catherine and Mary Lister, with the white cattle in the hack- ground, by NoUekens.' The white cattle are quite in the background, and tell us nothing but that they were white and hornless. The sign of the * White Bull,' at the public-house at Grishume, is a very excellent painting Wy Ward, E.A., and is admitted to be an admirable likeness of a Grishume bull. It is a white bull, very like a Short-hom, but without horns, and rather (but not very much) higher shoulders, and worse quarters than a Short-horn buU. The nose, ears, and hoofs are all white. There is a tinge of pink inside the ears, but not more than is needed to give the expression of shadow and semi-transparency ; I don't think it is meant to indicate coloured hair. This is a different and inde- pendent picture from the bull in Whitaker's ' Craven.' "On December 1st, 1874, I saw the stuffed white cow at Owen's College, Manchester; it is ticketed as being of the Grishume breed of cattle, and was presented to the cm-ator, Mr. Boyd Dawkins informed me, before 1839, and is entered in the catalogue as 'the white-eared variety.' It is white all over — ^white ears inside and out, white hoofs, and what probably was a white nose, but which is now a sort of ashv-brown. The hair, as it is now, is rather short, more Uke that of an Aldemey than a Short-hom, with an inclination to curl about the quarters. With the exception of sex, this looked T 2 292 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GBEAT BRITAIN. precisely like the picture by Ward of the white bull at Gisbume, mentioned before. It is without horns, and stands about four feet six inches high, measured like a horse, and is about seven feet long from the top of the head to where the tail turns down." It appears from two letters in the Standard news- paper, written by the Eev. Eobert Potter, of Bulkington Vicarage, near Rugby, dated September 7th and 9th, 1874, that his father resided at Grisbume Park from 1835 to 1840, during a part of the minority of the present Lord Eibblesdale, and that he gave this stuffed specimen now in. Owen's College. Mr. Potter farther states that in 1836 he "first saw the wild cattle," which were " white, with tawny-reddish ears." Prom the above evidence we may, I think, fairly draw the following conclusions as regards origin : that the Gisbume Park cattle came at first from WhaUey Abbey, and were most likely obtained from the Asshetons ; the two inter-marriages of the families, through both of which the Listers obtained property, rendering it certain that they had every opportunity of obtaining some of the wild cattle also from the same source. That they did so is confirmed by tradition, and still more by the circumstance that both herds were of the same variety. As regards colour, it seems quite certain, from Bewick, Whitaker, and the first Lord Eibblesdale, that from seventy to eighty or ninety years since these cattle were red or brown-eared, and it appears that some of them were so when Mr. Potter saw them in 1836 ; their noses Dr. Whitaker describes as black, and very possibly he saw some of that colour, but generally they were at the above time red, brown, or flesh-coloured, and so some of them must have been, according to Mr. EXTINCTION OF TEE HERD. 293 Stanifortli's account, at a much later period ; finally, by selection, these colours were extirpated : ears, muzzles, even hoofs, were white, and they entered the Manchester Museum as " The "White Variety." They had anciently, according to Bewick, more tendency to white than most other wild herds, and that colour, being cultivated, finally prevailed. As regards vnldness, they were more ferocious formerly than at last ; but even to the end were very pugnacious towards one another. As regards size, there is abundant evidence to show that they were a large, fine breed of cattle, fair milkers, and of good quality ; even in their very last days, when they had much degenerated and deteriorated, there is clear enough evidence to show that they were as large as ordinary Short-horns. The great cause of their extinction — ^long-contiaued inter-breeding — has been clearly sho"mi : they were "bred out." And the evil must have been much intensified and its operation quickened by the small numbers of the herd ; for many years they must have been bred from very close relationships. Once, in the time of the late Lord Eibblesdale, who died in 1832, an exchange was proposed through a mutual friend, Mr. Spencer Stan- hope, of Cannon Hall, Yorkshire, by Edward, third Lord Suffield, of Grunton Hall, Norfolk, whose grandfather had inherited and removed to [Norfolk the Middleton herd. The negotiation was carried on for some time, and turned upon the question whether " black or red noses had been the fashion at GrUnton ;" thus clearly showing that the latter colour at least was not then considered alien to the Grisbume cattle. As the Gunton cattle had, however, black muzzles. Lord Ribblesdale would have none of them, and so lost for ever the chance of perpetuating the herd. Li one of his letters 294 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GBEAT BBITAIN. his lordship mentions a curious fact. He says : — " I have two bulls, I think the handsomest I ever remember of the kind." Such is one of the singular effects of long-continued in-and-iu breeding when verging to its close : it occasionally perfects the single animal, but annihilates the race. The Middleton Hall Hekd was, it appears to me, quite an original one, though in later years, in conse- quence of family relationships, intimately connected with those at Whalley Abbey and at Gisbume. A schedule of the pedigree of the ancient family of Assheton, to which it belonged, I have already given ; and the Sir Ealph Assheton, knight — whose elder son was the ances- tor of the Asshetons Baronets of Middleton, and whose younger son was the ancestor of the Asshetons Baronets of WhaUey — was (after being Page of Honour to King Henry VI.), in the time of King Edward IV., Lieutenant of the Tower of London, and at first Knight Marshal, and afterwards Vice-Constable, of England. Their seat was Middleton, which, though only about five miles north of Manchester, was then in a very wild and primitive coimtry. The families of the two sons of Sir Ealph Assheton re-united towards the close of the seventeenth century, and in the year 1697 Sir Ealph Assheton of Middleton inherited WhaUey Abbey also. There must, long before that, have been a herd of wild cattle in the park at Middleton; for about that time they were seemingly visited by the learned Dr. Charles Leigh, who, in his " Natural History of Lancashire, Cheshire, and the Peak of Derbyshire," published at Oxford, a.d. 1700, thus describes them : — " In a Park near JSury in Lancashire are Wild Cattel belonging to Sir Ral^h TEE MIBBLETON BALL EEBB. 295 Ashton of Middteton; these I presume were first brought from the high-lands of Scotland. They have no Horns, but are like the Wild Bulls and Cows upon the Conti- nent of America, of which Monsieur Hennipin has given us a full account in his travels up the River Mesashippi, upon the Banks of which great Herds of these are frequently seen grazing, & are Hunted by the Indians, as the Deer by us." We may treat Dr. Leigh's supposition that the Middleton cattle came from the Highlands of Scotland as mere surmise. He himself mentions it as such, and gives no authority for thus supposing. But it must be observed that, according to his account, they were clearly not then domesticated, but " Wild Cattel " in the park, and " like the wild bulls and cows on the Continent of America"; and he states this not as a mere surmise, but as an observed fact, in the same sentence in which he says "they have no horns." I think we must conclude that they were then really wild, park animals. To illustrate this the more, he compares them to the essentially wild American Bison, mis-called Buffalo, in the vaUey of the Mississippi. The appearance of this animal would probably be sufficiently well known to a clever naturalist and philosopher like Dr. Leigh, in the year 1700, and so it appears, from his reference, it was; and its peculiar characteristic is an enormous hairy and shaggy mane, which envelopes the fore quarters in such a mass of hair that the somewhat small horns are well-nigh concealed. Kot quite two hundred years before, Boethius and Leslie had described the wild Caledonian bulls of their day as similarly distinguished; and both Darwin and Sir Walter Scott have alluded to the loss of this hairy appendage in the present day as 296 WILB WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. a decided mark of degeneracy. It is, I think, certain that Dr. Leigh would be well acquainted with the de- scriptions of the above Scottish writers, and it was this, I think, which made him " presume " that the Mid- dleton cattle " were first brought from the high-lands of Scotland." 'He probably recognised their likeness to the description of the American bison, and to the statements of Boethius and Leslie respecting the simi- larly maned Scottish mountain bull, and therefore con- sidered them, as I do, nearly allied to the latter. On any other supposition there would have been no pre- sumption that they came from the Highlands of Scotland rather than from elsewhere. It would seem, then (from the statement of Dr. Leigh, who wrote 176 years since, at a period of time just about equi-distant from these Scottish historians and ourselves), that at this time some at least of the wild bulls still retained to a considerable extent the hairy honours of their ancestors, and that a large amount of degeneracy has taken place since; which, indeed, the gradual decay and the ultimate extinction of so many of the wild herds, and the difficulty experienced in keeping up others, would lead us to expect had been the case. That the Lancashire wild bull especially may have been " maned " is much confirmed by the circum- stance that when, nearly 300 years since, the Heralds' College confirmed and restored to the Hoghton family, as their crest, the wild bull which it was then shown they had borne ages before (the description of the animal being strikingly distinctive), the mane is pecu- liarly mentioned; and a further corroboration, at a much later period, is to be deduced, as I have before shown, from Bewick's engraving of the ChUlingham wild bull. ORIGIN OF TEE MIBBLETON EEBR 297 A few words about the probable origin of tbe Mid- dleton Park herd. The strong family connexion, cemented by frequent inter-marriages, which existed between the Asshetons here, those at "WhaUey Abbey, and the Listers of Gisburne, renders it (in the words of Mr. Assheton) "highly probable that had either family by any means acquired the wild cattle, they were yeiy likely to have spread from them to the others." That such a cross did come to Middleton from Whalley Abbey, tradition there, we have seen, affirms; and the circumstance that the Middleton Asshe- tons eventually inherited WhaUey Abbey itself tends strongly to confirm this traditional recollection. But I think that history suppUes us with a much more probable account of the primal source from which they were derived. Less than a mile, iu a southerly direc- tion, from the, park at Middleton is the village of Blakeley, the district round which produced, centuries since, the wild buU. Li speaking of " Saltfordshire," which included Manchester, Bolton, Bury, Orwick, &c., Leland says : — " Wild Bores, Bulles, & Falcons bredde in times paste at Blakele." There can be but little doubt that hence, where they were found close by, the " Wild Bulles " were driven into the large park of Middleton Hall in very early times, as they were into so many others. Leland wrote this account about 340 years ago ; and as he speaks of these animals as wild " in times paste," we appear to be justified in supposing that they may have been introduced into the park of Middleton long before his time. Two singular coincidences cast light on the above recorded facts. There is still close to Blakeley a place called " Boar Grreen ; " and the Shakerleys, of Somer- 298 WILD WEITB CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. ford Park, Cheshire, who possess a peculiar breed of white cattle, which are undoubtedly of the same race as those at Middleton, and, of unknown antiquity, came, centuries since, from Shakerley in this district, only a few miles distant from Middleton and Blakeley. The descendants of the Middleton wild cattle are not yet extinct. When Sir Balph Assheton, second baronet of Middleton, died in 1716, leaving only daughters, his nephew, Sir Ealph, became third baronet, and the possessor of Middleton. He died in 1765, leaving two daughters co-heiresses, and the baronetcy became extinct. Sir Harbord Harbord, after- wards the first Lord Suffield, married the elder daughter, inherited Middleton and the wild cattle, and took the latter to Grunton, his place in Norfolk. To that place we now foUow them. CHAPTER XV. The Gunton Park Herd origmally from Middleton — Progress towards Domes- tication in Norfolk — ^Portrait of the original Lancashire Bull — Lord Suffield's Description — ^Mr. Coleman's — Resemblance to the Polled Cattle of Somerford Park — The Herd extinct, save in Ofi-sets from it — Influence in the District — Blinkling Hall Herd descended from the Gnnton Park Cattle — Eev G. Gilbert's Report in 1875 — Severe Injury to the Herd from Cattle Plague — Chaiacteristics of the Cattle — Quite Domesticated — ^The Wood- bastwiok Herd — ^Also from the Gunton Cattle — ^Not now Pure — Calves Exchanged with Blickling — Crossed with Shorthorns in 1864— Rev. G. Gilbert's Report in 1873— These "White Polled Cattle quite distinct from those of Scotland or the Eastern Counties — White Cattle of Brooke House — Proofs of the Influence of the WUd Breed upon English Domestic Cattle. The GrUNTON Park Herd, the property of the Lords Suffield, was immediately descended from that of the Asshetons of Middleton Hall, described just before ; it was, in fact, a continuation of it. When Sir Harbord Harbord, second baronet (created Lord Suffield in 1786), succeeded in right of his wife to Middleton HaU, on the death of his father-in-law. Sir Ralph Assheton, in 1765, he brought a part at least of the white wild cattle of the Asshetons to Gunton, his place in Norfolk. There they flourished; and though the Grunton herd is now extinct, several off-sets sprang from it, some of which have continued this ancient Lancashire race of wild cattle down to the present time. AU these are now, however, thoroughly domesticated ; most likely, indeed, the Middleton cattle, like the Gisburne, had, in their later years, to a considerable extent, become so; and 300 WILD WEJTE CATTLE OF CtBEAT BRITAIN. ttis seems to be tlie natural fate of a wild race long habituated to and cared for by man, unless placed in cir- cumstances peculiarly favourable for the retention of tbeir wildness. At any rate, tie descendants of tbe Blakeley " Wild Bulles " became tboroughly tame and domesticated in Norfolk, tbougb tbey lost none of tbe other characteristics of their race. The extensive Park of Gunton is in the north- eastern part of Norfolk, sixteen miles north of Norwich, and four of Aylsham, Cromer, on the coast, being six miles distant. The present Lord SuflSeld, though the fifth who has held the title, is grandson only of the first lord, who brought these cattle from Middleton some- thing more than a hundred years since ; and through his kindness I am able to give an exact copy of an old picture he possesses, which, family tradition says, is the very bull originally brought from Lancashire. Though roughly executed, it gives a good idea of what the old Middleton cattle and their descendants at Gunton were, forming as it does the connecting link between them. The Gunton herd was in its greatest perfection in the time of Edward, third Lord Suffield, second son of the first lord, and father of the present peer. He died in 1835. The herd seems to have declined and come to an end in the time of Edward Vernon (fourth lord, and half-brother of the present), who did not care about it, and who also sold Middleton Hall. He died, without issue, in 1853. The present Lord Suffield says : — " I perfectly recollect the animals, with their ears black inside and white outside, and black noses ; I forget the colour of their tails. I find upon inquiry that there were here twenty-two cows of this breed AOCOUNTS OF TEE GTTNTON EEBD. 303 always in the dairy, and, of course, to keep them going, there must have been many more about the place." Dr. Dumford, Bishop of Chichester, who about fifty years siuce was tutor to the elder brothers of the present peer (one of them being Edward Yemon, fourth lord), informs me that he "perfectly remembers the herd of cattle at Grunton. They were white, with dark brown ears and muzzle, and, I think, tail — ^that is, tip of the tail ; without horns, and large and finely made beasts. Lord Suffield always told me that they came from Lancashire ; they must have been brought to Gunton by the first Lord Suffield, and from Gunton to BHckhng by the second lord, he haviug married the heiress of BlicHing, The Gunton herd were not fierce or wild, but tractable, and milked regularly ; indeed, there were no other cows m use." The above accounts are quite confirmed by the Hon. and Eev. John Harbord, brother of the present lord, and by the Dowager Lady Suffield, their mother, the latter of whom has a vivid recollection of the herd as it existed in the time of her husband, the third lord. The small discrepancy with regard to the colour of the ears — whether they were black or dark brown — is perfectly accoimted for by the fact that most wild herds are subject to variation in this respect ; and it wiU be seen, as we proceed, that this was the case with the Gunton herd and its descendants. This appears, indeed, from the following statement (procured for me by the Eev. George Gilbert), made in his own handwritiag by Mr, Timothy Coleman, veterinary surgeon, who lived for many years at Antingham, close by Gunton Park : — " The colour of this breed was white, with black ears, and some had dark brown ; nose black, no horns, very 304 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BBITAIK. good skin ; hoofs also black. They were very large, big-framed beasts, with wide haunches, back, and loins, and of considerable height at the spine-line. They were not large consumers for their size, and generally very healthy. The cows were capital milkers, and had very large, well-formed udders. The calves always came pure white, except the noses and ears, but in a few instances incHned to cream-colour. I never recol- lect seeing any of the true breed spotted with black or red. The herd consisted of about forty animals, two or three of which were bulls. They were never crossed with any other cattle." I have also procured, through the Eev. John Dolphin, for forty -five years Eector of Antingham, the following information, which he elicited from his parishioner, Mr. Carter, Lord Suffield's " oldest tenant, who well recollects the Gunton herd." Mr. Carter says : — " He is certain that some had blaci ears and others brown." We may consider it, therefore, quite established that there was a tendency to variation in this respect, and that the predominance of one colour or the other at any particular time would be merely the result of selection. It will be observed how much this herd resembled, in its excellent milking powers, the one of the same variety, and one probably remotely allied to it, at Somerford Park. It is a loss to the country at large that cattle so valuable should, through neglect, have, as Lord Suffield says, " gradually disappeared." We have seen in the account of the Gisbume cattle that the third Lord Sufield tried to procure a cross from thence, but that it came to nothing, because Lord Eibblesdale objected to dark ears and muzzles. It would probably have saved both herds. As it is, the Gunton Park herd CHARAGTEBISTIG8 OF TSB EEBD. 305 survives only in two herds which, have sprung from it. It had, however, while it existed, a great effect upon the cattle of the district. To such an extent was this the case, that when, in the memory of elderly men now living, white polled cattle with black or brown muzzles and ears appeared on Norwich HiU, the great local cattle mart, they used to be called "Lord Suffield's breed." The Eev. George Gilbert has also ascertained from an independent and, he considers, " perfectly com- petent" elderly vsdtness,* a confirmation of Coleman's statement with respect to the great size of the Gunton cattle, and particularly of the steers, which, it is said, were very high at the shoulders, and " stood up like a dray-horse." The same witness also remembers "that a tenant of the Gunton estate had a dairy aU of these white cows, and that they were rare milkers. And the oxen were enormous when fat, but late in fatting, and our best Norfolk graziers thought them slow feeders in comparison with the Galloways." Nor was this an exceptional case, for Mr. Hugh Ayhner, the well-known Short-horn breeder, informs me that his father, Mr. William Eobert Aylmer, who took the Whinburgh Park farm, three miles south of East Dereham, in 1816,. kept there first sixty, and, when he recollects them, in 1824 or 1825, twenty or thirty of such cows, "polled, white with black spots, which there is very little doubt were descended from the Gunton or Blickling herd." " I well remember," says Mr. Aylmer, " that the calves * Mr. Hylton, Ms father's chnrch-waxden for forty years ; he remem- bers, besides the above, at Felmingham, near Ganton, a farmer who had five of these cows and a buU " from Lord Siiffield's," and they were '' very tall, long cattle with black ears and noses, and polled." This Mr. T. "W. Gilbert, Mr. Gilbert's cousin, who remembers them well, completely confirms. U 306 WILD WEITE CATTLE OF GREAT BBITAIN. very often came pure white, with only black ears and muzzles, and some of the cows were marked the same. They were considered very good dairy cows and good- looking, and people in that part of the country, at that time, spoke of them as a good lot." It seems, then, certain that the Grunton cattle were fine large cattle, good milkers, and had for some time con- siderable influence in Norfolk. Mr. Gilbert suspects, from the large size of some polled steers which have been occa- sionally exhibited there, which he cannot otherwise ac- count for, that this influence may even yet partially exist. The Blickling Hall Herd is an undoubted and admitted ofE-shoot from the herd at Grunton Park. The fine old Elizabethan mansion of Buckling came into the possession of the Hobarts, created, in 1746, Earls of Buckinghamshire, in whose hands it con- tinued till 1793, when John, the second earl, dying without issue male, Bhckling came to Caroline, one of his three daughters, who had married in the previous year the Hon. WiUiam Assheton Harbord, eldest son of the first Lord SuJfield and of Mary Assheton, the heiress of Middleton. Mr. Harbord, having succeeded his father as second lord in 1810, died without issue in 1821 ; but his widow retained Blickling, her own \iereditary property, tiU her death in 1850, when it reverted to the grandson of her sister Henrietta, Mar- chioness of Lothian, the eighth marquis of that name. Has widow, Constance, Marchioness of Lothian, is the present owner. Her ladyship has given me every assistance, and has allowed the Eev. Greorge Gilbert, of Claxton, near Norwich, to inspect and report upon the herd in my stead. ORIGIN OF TEE BLIGKLING EEBD^ 307 There can be no donbt that the Blickling white cattle were introduced from Grunton; the Dowager Lady Suffield, Lord Suffield, his brother the Hon. and Rev. John Harbord, Mr. E. W. Parmeter of Ayls- ham (for many years Clerk of the Peace for Norfolk, and agent for the Blickling estate), and others, all con- firm this; while Lady Lothian has enabled me to fix the date within a few years. They were brought to Blickling from Gunton during the time that the heiress of the former lived there, as Lady Caroline Harbord, with her husband, prior to his succeeding, at his father's death, to the peerage : and that was from 1793 till 1810. Mr. Parmeter says, in a letter to me, dated November 4th, 1874 : — " Lady Lothian tells me she remembers to have read in a letter from Lady Suffield, when Lady Caroline Harbord, to a friend, that they were ' rearing some of the favourite Grunton calves for Blickling.' " Mr. Parmeter, now an elderly man, adds : — " As long as I can carry back my knowledge of Blickling, the white cows with black noses and ears were an object of notice there." The Middleton white cattle, therefore, acclima- tised at Grunton, were introduced to Blickling during the few concluding years of the last century, or at the very commencemeut of the present one. They have always been much valued by its proprietors, but were unfortu- nately nearly destroyed a few years since by the rinder- pest, from which they are by degrees recovering. Bui I leave Mr. Gilbert to make his own report. " So many of the questions put to me by Mr. Storer had reference to the hair of the white polled cattle which survive at Blickling Hall, that it seemed desir- able to defer the examination of these imtU their winter coats should be grown. The herd must at any time u 2 308 WILD WEITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. have mucli to repay a visitor; but it can never have recalled the traditions involved in its history better than when seen, in late autumn, roaming among the deer under the noble trees which surround the lake in the park of the Marchioness of Lothian. It is a cir- cumstance to be deplored that the death, a few years since, of the bailiflF who had been charged with the care of the herd for a long period, should have put an end to any hope of obtaining much local information respecting it. The estate agent, Mr. Wells, the dairy manager, and the herdsman, were very kind in rendering assist- ance ; but none of them had held their posts very long ; my chief object, therefore, must be to report what I saw on November 10th, 1875. " There are now at Blickling thirteen full-grown cows and one bull, six maiden heifers, two yearling steers, and one heifer-calf. The weanlings of 1874 and early in 1875 seem to have been mostly got rid of, either because their markings were not true or because they were principally males. No cattle are ever fatted ; the cows do not suckle their calves, but are milked for the use of the family. They live as their comrades, the fal- low deer, live ; and are as free and as picturesque as they. " The herd has not been breeding well recently, and the sire in use is not a success. The last bull seems to have been far more impressive ; but he became dan- gerous, and had to be slaughtered in 1874. Not many of the cows have the appearance of being extraordinary milkers ; but it is right to add that the manager of the dairy says that previously to the destruction of the greater part of the herd by the cattle-plague the cows were not merely much finer animals, but also yielded cream far superior to any which has been obtained since. BUSGEIPTION OF TEE EEBD. 3J9 It is necessary to keep tliis rinderpest slaughter in mind, because it is through this mishap that the herd wears the appearance it now does. Not more than three or four, and these principally calves, seem to have survived. The number required for the dairy was made up sub- sequently by re-purchasing cows which had been sold or given away in the neighbourhood ; the principal contri- bution having been three or four females, of all ages, from Mr. Gator's kindred herd at Woodbastwick Hall : of which more hereafter. Groing among the older cattle, I found twelve cows and the bull grazing apart from the maiden heifers, and two steers. At first sight they seemed alike. The cows are swan-white, without a yellow tinge, and, even in dreary November, looked as clean in their coats as if in May. When seen closely, two or three variations from the original type re- vealed themselves ; there have evidently been, in some of them, crosses with the local polled breed ; and also (in the case of the Woodbastwick cows) with a Short-horn sire. Perhaps the presence of these undoubtedly cross- bred animals makes the peculiarities of those which descend from the surviving females of the original sort more conspicuous. These peculiarities were a singularly wide loin and long hind quarter for cattle of their size : the cows not being now above the average of the Grallo- ways, and below that of the Aberdeens : yet they are longer in their frames than either, and upon as short a leg. They have very neatly laid shoulders, and, in the case of the Woodbastwick cow and the bull, very deep fore quarters. The head is not Galloway-shaped, but longer ; nor are the ears so much feathered. The skin of those cows which allowed me to touch them was good, so far as suppleness is concerned. 310 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. "There was a great difference in the coats 6f different animals in the herd. Some of the younger cows and two-year-old heifers, which are the produce of the slaughtered bull (which is said to have been out of an original cow, in calf at the time of the plague), have shaggy coats of long hair, especially about the neck and chine. These, too, have the black colour of the ears, muzzles, and circles round the eyes more conspicuously developed. Not one had a black tip to its tail ; nor could it be ascertained that any such occurrence had ever been noticed, nor that a calf with horns had ever appeared. Some, but not all, of the cows showed a yellowness of the skin round the setting on of the tail; and one or two had black spots ^on the bare places adjoining thereto; while all the truest bred had black hoofs. One of the maiden heifers had black spots (about as big as a penny) in large numbers on her neck, and on her sides as far as the foremost ribs; and all these young members of the herd had black ears, muzzles, and eyes, the pupil of the latter being also black. This was not the case to the same extent among the cows; two of these had white ears, and more than two had no circles at all round the eyes ; one or two had black tips to the teats, the rest of the udder being white. Those which seemed to have acquired a cross with the Norfolk or Suffolk polled race had the udder more largely developed, but were narrower framed, and shorter too. Those which had the most characteristic markings had smaller udders and less apparent tendency to prolonged milking. It has been said that pre^dously to the rinderpest the cream given was higher-coloured and richer. Tellow- skinned cows generally do yield high-coloured cream; BESCBIPTION OF TEE CATTLE. 311 and these were not now in the majority. !No cow or heifer had black on the fetlock. The bull was a long and really deep fore-quartered animal, with abundant hair, but no marked development of mane. It was believed, however, that he was out of one of the Wood- bastwick cows, which are plainly crossed with the Short-horn; and his appearance quite confirmed the suggestion ; he was a large animal. The portrait (given previously) of Lord Suffield's bull corresponded exactly with those of the cows now at BUckling, which are believed to be truest bred ; and I may add that these were reproductions in all points of the old cow, stated by me to have existed forty years ago at Chedgrave, which was derived from the Brooke House stock. The heifer now at Blickling, which has black spots on her neck and sides, is a fac-simUe of one of that old cow's grand-daughters. It can only be added that the cows now at Blickling are quite as gentle and tame as ordi- nary cattle which have not been made pets of. They are very interesting and picturesque ; but not now above the average of = ordinary polled stock in size, substance, or propensity to fatten. They were in good store con- dition, and nothing more; still, the presence of the deer and the number of large trees must be taken into account." It should also, I think, be remembered that many parts of the Eastern Counties, and especially the north- eastern part of Norfolk, are iU adapted for permanent pasture, the grass being sparse and poor to such an extent that, except in connexion with the residences of noblemen and gentlemen there, the land is scarcely ever kept permanently in grass; and even in a park like Holkham the quantity so kept is comparatively small. 312 WILD WSITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. Towards Blickling the character of the grass-land im- proves, but it is not strong, and it is also affected by the circumstances Mr. Gilbert mentions. It is not, therefore, to be expected that cattle kept there in a perfectly natural manner, as these white cattle are, should develop their full capabilities to the extent they would under more favourable circumstances. Any other remarks on Mr. Gilbert's admirable report I defer until I have considered the history of some other Norfolk white herds, which, like this, sprang from Gunton. The Woodbastwick Herd was also most certainly derived from the one at Gunton. It was kept by the late Mr. Albemarle Cator, at his residence, "Wood- bastwick HaU, some eight miles to the north-east of Norwich. Like the Gunton herd, from which they sprang, these cattle were used for domestic purposes, and they have continued to the present, time, but not in their original purity. They are now- the property of the present Mr. Albemarle Cator, son and heir of their former possessor of the same name. It appears from the statement of Mr. Timothy Coleman, before alluded to, who first lived at Antingham, close to Gunton, and was subsequently a tenant of Mr. Cator's, and who, therefore, knew both herds well, that, " about the year 1840," Edward Vernon, fourth Lord Suffield, had a sale of some of his white polled cattle, and " one or two " were purchased for Mr. Cator. This the old herdsman, who has been at Woodbastwick more than thirty- six years, confirms. Soon after his arrival one cow came, and he well remembers her. " She had black spots round the muzzle," and he believes "the ears and the THE WOOBBASTWICK SERB. 313 circles round the eyes were dark brown. She was in calf when slie came, and produced a bull, which was retained; the dam remained barren for more than a year, and her second calf at Woodbastwick, a heifer, was by her first." So this herd originated. Mrs. Cator the widow, the present Mr. Albemarle Cator, and the Eev. WiUiam Cator the son, and Mr. William Birkbeck the son-in-law of the late proprietor, all assert that these cattle first came from Gunton. And this is further confirmed by the circumstance that at Bhckling they were considered to be of kindred origin, and were strengthened and increased by mutual exchange of calves. At Woodbastwick red-eared calves were pre- ferred, at Blickling black-eared ones ; and as we have seen that at Grunton there were those having ears of either colour, the same was the case also sometimes in both of the above herds descended from that source. An exchange of calves was therefore arranged. Mrs. Cator, widow of the original owner of the Woodbast- wick herd, writes thus : — " I can quite recollect an ex- change of calves between ours and the Blickling herd ; and, as well as I remember, there was a sort of compact between my husband and the old steward at Blickling, sanctioned by Lord Lothian, that when they had a red-eared white calf they were to give us the refusal of it, and that we in turn were to do the same when we had a blach-eared one." This is quite confirmed in a letter to me from Mr. Parmeter, of Aylsham, who has been for a great number of years agent of the Blickling estate. He says : — " A gentleman in this county, Albemarle Cator, Esq., of Woodbastwick, Nor- wich, had cattle of almost the same character. He and the steward for the time being of Lady Suffield 314 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. and Lord Lothian used to exchange calves, according to sex, with satisfaction on both sides." To this ex- change it was probably owing that the Woodbastwick herd increased as it did ; for it hardly could have got on so weU. as it did had it been wholly confined to the descendants of the one cow from Grunton ; and Mr. Williani Wigg, for many years baihfE at "Woodbastwick, in a letter to me, also mentions how they "used to change " calves with Blickhng. He also tells me that " now and then there was one with ears white," and that " the bulls were large, and would fat up to a great weight, and had large manes." Such the Woodbastwick cattle were till 1840, or somewhat later. For twenty years or thereabouts they seem to have been kept quite pure ; then the late Mr. Cator, dissatisfied with some of them coming with white ears, used a Short-horn bull. The Eev. George GrUbert, who visited them for me in November, 1875, will best report what has since taken place, and their present appearance. He says : — " At least as far back as 1864 a well-bred Short-horn bull was in use for two years ; he was succeeded by a polled son of his from one of the best-marked cows, and this again by another buU bred in the herd. But, during the p^st three seasons, the sire in use has been another white pedigree Short-horn bull ; and the calves by him, in 1874 and 1875, are better marked and more like the BlickHng cattle (substituting red for black) than were the older cows. Among these last, greater divergence occurs than was to be seen at Blickling ; some had large red patches on the neck and fore quarters ; almost all had flesh-coloured noses; not above two or three had circlets round the eyes. One very old cow was certainly CEABAOTEB OF TEE EEBD. 315 by a red-polled Norfolk bull — ^the result of an accidental alliance : her form was very difEerent to that of the rest, and her calves were more coloured ; but from the others (even by the present sire) the calves were pure white with red markings ; one or two having also black noses, with brownish-red hair adjoining. I saw no white animal which had horns, though two or three coloured ones had. There were in front of the Hall several year- ling and two-year-old steers grazing. These had, to a noticeable extent, long hair on the frontlet, on the ridge of the neck, and on the fore quarters ; all the herd had abundance of hair, and I should quite believe that old bulls would show a mane. The steers were big of their age, and it was said that they fattened well, weighed well, and contented the butcher ; but there was not here, any more than at Blickling, any indication of the extraordinary size which is said to have once belonged to this breed. Their tails are invariably white, their hoofs light-coloured, and their fetlocks white ; their skins had more substance, combined with suppleness, than any of the polled Norfolks or Suffolks possess. The cows are as tame as ordinary cattle, breed regularly, and seem quite up to the average as milkers ; they are striking-looking when seen in the pasture in a group, or when examined separately. It is plain that, in spite of loose breeding, there is a perpetual struggle at Wood- bastwick to reproduce the original type ; and this proves how much more firmly fixed is this in the blood than is that of any of the recently introduced crosses. When two animals, bred in the herd, are coupled together, the produce is white polled, with red ears and muzzles. It would seem, therefore, to be possible to bring out, by careful matching, even in the whole herd, the character 316 WILB WRITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. wliicli appears to be for ever endeavouring to re-assert itself." Tiiere is one point to whicL. I wisli particularly to call attention. After Mr. Grilbert had most carefuUy examined the BHckling and the Woodbastwick herds, there seems to have been no point which struck him more forcibly, or upon which, in his letters to me, he insisted more strongly, than the essential difference between these white polled cattle and the hornless varieties of the Eastern Counties or of Scotland. He remarks : — " It is impossible not to notice that the white polled cattle both at Blickling and Woodbastwick are quite distinct from the Norfolk and the Suffolk ; being longer, of more tubular frame, with better shoulders, deeper fore quarters, and very different hair. They are as distinct from the local polled variety as is possible." And again : — " I am convinced these polled cattle are wholly distinct from the ordinary polled Norfolk breed, a.nd from the Gralloway or Aberdeen. They have dif- ferent shape, hair, and handle; their heads, too, are unlike, and their hind quarters longer; and, though they are of no imusual size now at Blickling or Wood- bastwick, there are indications that the breed was the largest of polled varieties, and had a long tubular frame on short legs." In this opinion I cordially concur ; for it should be remembered that no comparison can be made between Britain's ancient white polled race as it exists to-day — neglected, worn out, degenerated by inter-breediug, for whom no man cares — and the pampered ox of Norfolk or Aberdeen at the Smithfield Show, carefully cultivated for successive generations, and forced from his very birth. But go back to the beginning of the century, and compare the little Grallo- TEE KEBBI80N WHITE CATTLE. 317 way, Angus, or Norfolt cow, as they were then, with the even then deteriorating polled white cattle of Grisbume, Somerford, and Grimton ; and no one who has fairly studied the subject can, I think, doubt that Mr. Grilbert's conclusion is the true one, and that the ancient white •polled breed " teas the largest of polled varieties." There were several other herds of white polled cattle in Norfolk, which may or may not have been derived from Grunton, as the origin of them cannot be exactly ascertained ; and, curiously enough, some cows of one strain belonged to Mr. Grilbert's mother, and are well remembered by him. The parent herd was kept at Brooke House, between the rivers Tare and Waveney, in the south-eastern comer of Norfolk, late in the last or early in the present century, by Sir Eoger Kerrison. It is now the property of Viscount Canterbury. These white cattle, which were used as dairy cows, were once highly valued, and carefully kept as heir-looms in the Kerrison family ; and Sir Eoger gave some of them to his sister, the wife of Freeman Denny, Esq., of Bergh-Apton. Mr. Gilbert's mother was the daughter of this lady, and the niece of Sir Eoger; and when she married (about the year 1812) and settled with her husband at Chedgrave Manor House, in the same neigh- bourhood, she took with her two of these cows — " white, with black ears." For some time after this the Chedgrave cows were regularly sent to the Brooke House bull for service, as -the Bergh-Apton cows had been long pre- viously. They were called " the old-fashioned sort " and " old Madam's cows," in allusion to Mrs. Denny, from whom they came. As Mr. Gilbert's father did not him- self keep a buE, when Brooke House was sold and the 318 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. herd dispersed (about 1820), these cows were put to any bull which happened to be at hand, many of these being horned j yet, says Mr. Grilbert, "they continued to breed true to pattern, whatever bulls might be em- ployed, through a long series of years." As he was one of the youngest of a large family, Mr. Grilbert first recollects one of these white cows in 1834 or 1835. " She was polled, with black ears and muzzle, and had always calves like herself; except that in one or two cases these calves had reddish-brown instead of black ears and muzzles. For nearly thirty years," says he, " I can recall that old cow's descendants, which, like her immediate offspring, almost invariably ' took after ' herself. At intervals, as time wore on, a few black spots were to be found on the neck, near the eye, and about the muzzle of some ; and eventually some came with horns ; yet almost at the last of my seeing that stock — that is, nearly thirty years after I first knew them — a white polled calf with black ears, and of the original type, was bom to a pedigree Short-horn buU from her great-great-great-grand-daughter. I also recoUect that the old white cow's bull-calves, if reared and steered — ^which occasionally happened — grew very fast, and became unusually tail. I remember, too, a neighbour — who was born in the neighbourhood of Blickling, at the end of the last century — ^telling me that the white cattle there, when he was a boy, ' were rare big uns ; taller than I am at the withers ; ' yet he was a man of full average stature. There are also traditions of a similar breed of white polled cattle in the Down- ham district. Occasionally, even now, polled steers of gigantic stature are to be found: I saw one, in 1877, which certainly stood six feet high." INFWENOB ON B0ME8TI0 RACES. 319 It is quite possible ttat these Kerrison. white cattle may have come from Grunton towards the close of the last century, as those at BHckliug did at about the same time ; but Mr. Q-ilbert has pointed out to me that they may possibly have been derived from another source. It appears, from Blomefield's "History of Norfolk," that at Seething (adjoining Brooke) was a monastery of the Premonstratensian Order, which enjoyed the privilege of keeping a bull free to roam at will throughout certain manors. These included Brooke and Kirstead, in both of which parishes Sir Eoger Kerrison's ancestors had long lived ; and his cattle may have been derived from this monastic origin. Whichever was the case, the Kerrison cattle were undoubtedly of the same breed as the other polled white English races, and had a near relationship to the other Norfolk herds * whose descent has been historically traced for centuries. The whole chapter forms a capital conclusion to the history of the British wild herds ; for it demonstrates, by the clearest evidence, how strong has been the influence of the wild forest breed upon our domestic cattle ; how wonderfully persistent is the type; and how it reproduces itself imder the most unlikely circumstances — often, perhaps, when its very existence is altogether unsuspected. * Mr. Gilbert remarked to me what a striMng resemblance the picture of Lord Snffield's buU bore to his mother's cattle as he remembered them -when a boy. CHAPTEE XVI. Extinct Scottish Herds — The Cumhemaxild Herd — History of the Cumhematdd Estate — Historical and Heraldic Notices of the Cattle — ^Their Extinction — The Drumlanrig Herd — ^Notices of the Cattle, and its Extinction — The Auchencniive Herd — The Ardrossan Herd — Introduced ahont 1750 — ^Aban- doned in 1820 — ^Tradition that the Cattle were originally homed — Bemoval of the last SpecLtnens to Duchal, and disappearance there. In turning our attention to the more recent descendants of Scotland's ancient mountain bull, it may be con- venient to consider first the herds now extinct ; and Cumbernauld asserts its claim to primary notice. It is centrally situated, in the heart of Southern Scotland, the very umbilicus terrce, nearly equi-distant from Stirling and from Hamilton, and not far from either — ^being only about thirteen miles iiom the former, and a little more from the latter. It thus connects North and South ; the wild bull of the old Caledonian Forest north of Stirling with the Hamilton wild cattle, and with those which inhabited, as described by Scott, the con- tinuous mountain ranges and the innumerable forests which formerly extended from Hamilton to ChiUing- ham. Itself a considerable forest, Cumbernauld was towards the north connected with Stirling and the \ great Caledonian Wood by the large intervening Forest of Torwood, once the hiding-place of Wallace, while the great and extensive peat-mosses on its southern side afforded to wild animals an opportunity of passing to the woods formerly around Hamilton and the TSE LIST BEALL7 FOREST EEBD. 321 coTintry beyond it. The wild bull of the North, had, therefore, anciently free access to the whole of Southern Scotland, and to the mountains, wastes, and forests of Northern England also. In another respect the Cumbernauld herd is remark- able. It is the connecting link between history and tradition, and firmly unites the two together. Boethius and Leslie combine in declaring that this was one of the few places where the Scottish wild bidl, said by tradition to have been formerly so common, still remained in their days — an undoubted evidence of his previous existence. Boethius says that Cumbernauld was the only place in Scotland where the wild bidl yet survived ; but Leshe says that it was still kept in the royal Forest of Stirling, in which Kincardine was included. This last statement is the more probable, for the near contiguity of the Forests of Stirling and Cumbernauld would much facili- tate the keeping up of both herds, and enable the kings of Scotland to extend their hunting. It seems hkely, however, that the royal herd at Stirling succumbed under -the constant aggressions made upon it during the state of anarchy which prevailed after the im- prisonment of Queen Mary in England; for the one at Cumbernauld suffered then severely from the same cause, though it continued in a declining state for some time after — the surviving relic of the Scottish Urus as he was when free and unconfined. Cumbernauld, and Stirling in a less degree, present the last instances in Grreat Britain of the ancient forest breed still continuing as wild denizens of an ancient wild forest ; elsewhere I believe the wild cattle had been universally enclosed in parks. Still, in the rather limited space of forest which they occupied here and at Stirling, they could scarcely 322 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. have been preserved so long without the aid of man. The kings of Scotland, no doubt, protected this royal game, and, in connexion with the lords of Cumbernauld, kept up for a long time the breed in a state compara- tively free. The history of Cumbernauld, its castle, its forest, and its wild cattle, is closely associated with the history of Scotland ;* they anciently belonged to the great but unpopular family of Comyn. When the head of that house, John, the Eed Comyn, fell woulided by the dagger of Bruce in a sudden quarrel at the steps of the altar in the Church of the Minorite Friars at Dumfries, on the 10th of February, 1306, Kirkpatrick, it is well known, went in and despatched the victim with the well-known words " I make siccar " (surer). It was reserved, how- ever, to Sir Robert Fleming, another distinguished chief and adherent of the Bruce, to decapitate the Comyn, and to exhibit the head with the exclamation, " Let the deed shanr."-j- For this and other exploits King Robert transferred to Sir Robert the barony of Leny, which had belonged to the Comyns ; and from this time Cumber- nauld Castle became the residence of the Flemings, or Fleemings, as their name is variously written. In course of time Sir Robert Fleming, a member of the family, was created a peer by the title of Lord Fleming ; and in 1606, John, sixth Lord Fleming, was created Earl of Wigton, a title which ended with Charles, seventh earl, who died tmmarried February 10th, 1747. By the marriage of his niece, the Lady Clementina * For much assistance with regard to Gnmbemanld, I am indebted to the Rev. Dr. T. 0. Waddell, of that place. t These two expressions have ever since been the several mottoes of the honses of Kirkpatrick and Fleming. TEE GUMBEBNAULV FOBESTi 323 (daughter of the sixth earl), with Charles, tenth Lord Elphinstone, the estates were carried into that family ; and they have since become, in right of his mother, the property of the Hon. CornwaUis Fleeming, the eldest son of Visconnt Hawarden. Unfortunately the devoted loyalty in every age, as history clearly shows, of the Flemings to the House of Stuart, seriously impaired from time to time the estate of Cumbernauld, and at last necessitated its sale. The present owner is Mr. John William Bums, of Kilmahew Castle, Cardross, Dumbarton. The Castle of Cumbernauld, now destroyed, was a place of much importance ; the undoubted antiquity of its military works, which yet remain, makes it evident that it was of great strength ages since. Its turrets frowned from the summit of the glen — ^the only part of the property where timber to any extent still remains — commanding its two passes to the west and north, and in close approximation to the dun or pristine fortifi- cation which protected it on three sides of the steep, while a fourth was made inaccessible by a fosse of water. In those days miles of dense forest stretched around, tenanted by herds of wild cattle, and by deer and various wild animals. This forest extended northward and eastward to the rivers Bonny, Kelvin, and Carron ; westward many miles ; and southward, in one direction, to the river Avon, in another to the great moss which extended from Shotts, east of Hamilton, to the baronies which adjoined the royal lands of Linlithgow. All is now disafforested, and there are three farms on the curtailed estate of Cumbernauld which bear the names of East, Middle, and West Forest respectively. The civil war in the time of Charles I. seems to have V 2 324 WILD WEITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. materially injured both th.e estate and the castle. The latter was subsequently pulled down, and the present Mansion House substituted for it. This was built by John, sixth Earl of Wigton. It was begun, as a date afl&xed to a lintel shows, in 1731, and completed shortly before his death, in 1744. I wish I were able to describe to my readers the Cumbernauld wild cattle; That, however, is impossible, and I must content myself with briefly sketching their history — ^the only description of them which remains beiag the striking account of the Scottish wild bull given by Boethius and Leslie as it existed several hundreds of years since, and with which, as has been already seen, those writers identify the cattle of Cumbernauld. We shaU see, from what follows, that their statements have been confirmed. In the time of James IV. the royal herd at Stirling still remained, and those of the Lords Fleming of Cumbernauld were still hunted by the king. In Nisbet's " System of Heraldry " * we have the following statement : — " The name of Stark, with us, has its rise from just such another action as Tumbull's, but later : by saving James IV. from a bull in the Forest of Cumbernauld, by one of the name of Muirhead, who, for his strength was called Stark ; and to show his descent from Muirhead he carries the armorial figures of Muirhead with a bull's head, — viz., azure, a chevron between three acorns in chief or, for Muirhead, and a bull's head erased in base of the second. The same is carried by John Stark, of Killermont ; and for crest, a bull's . head erased argent, distilling drops of blood proper. Motto: — Fortiorum fortia facta."—" N.E." * YoL i., p. 333. CBEST OF THE STARK FAMILY. 325 "N.E." is his authority— the "New Eegister," commenced in 1672, and in the Lyon Office. But the crest of Stark of Killermont is there given as — " Ane dexter hand holding be the home a buU's head erased argent and distilling drops of blood proper," arms and motto as above.* It wUl be observed that, though in the addition to the arms of Muirhead — subsequently Stark — the bull's head is of an heraldic tint, or, in order to correspond with the other charges on the shield, the chevron and the three acorns, yet the crest, where no such necessity existed, is argent — ^the colour of the white wild buU ; and further that, in allusion to the circum- stances under which it was assumed, it is distinguished as " distilling drops of blood." There are, I imder- stand, families of the name of Stark still in Scotland who claim descent from the original actor, and bear his arms and crest. The next historical notice we have of the Cumber- nauld wild cattle was in the time of Mary, Queen of Scots, grand-daughter of James IV. Her long minority, the violent religious changes, and her many misfortunes brought troublous times to Scotland. The Lord Flem- ing of those days was a strong supporter of the queen, and suffered much in her cause. The king's party got the upper hand, and Lord Fleming's wild bulls were considered fair game. It is probable that during this period of anarchy and confusion the royal herd at Stirling received a blow from which it~ never recovered, for no notice of it has been found subsequent to the * This corrected description of the crest of Stark of Eillermont was obtaiaed for me from the Lyon Office itself by Mr. Tumbull, of Abbey St. Bathan's. The Stark crest and arms are among the first in the " Xew Kepster," 1672. 326 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. time of Leslie; and that of Cumbernauld was at the same time seriously trespassed upon. It appears that it is stated in a MS. in the Fleming archives that the devastations of the Eegent Murray on "My Lord Fleming's bourdis " were such " that no heart can think thereon but the same must be dolorous." Murray was succeeded as Eegent by the Earl of Lennox ; and there is in the Public Eecord Office in London a State Paper, which I have examined, containing a series of fourteen charges brought against him by the English Court for breach of faith. The date of this document is either November 28th or early in December, 1570; and the heading is as follows * : — "A brefe note of the thinges done be th'erle of Lennox and his adherentes contrar to their promises made to the erle of Sussex livetenant to the Q Ma*« of Ingland by the quilt they have violated and broken the abstinence subscrived be the said erle of Lennox which was promised to be keped bona fide." The charges brought against the earl were of various kinds, such as summoning a Parliament, levying taxes, calling the Queen of Scots' subjects to appear before him, and on their refusal seizing their goods and harrying their lands, &c. The following was one of them : — " And amonges others greite enormyties perpetrated be th' erles men of werre they have slayne and destroyed the dere in John Fleming's forest of Cummemald and the white kye and bulles of the saide forest to the greit destruction of police and hinder of the common wele for that kinde of kye and bulles has bene thir mony * State Papers, Public Eecord OfBce: Mary Qneen of Scots, voL v., No. 92. TEH LAST mSTOBIGAL NOTICE. 327 yeres in the said forest and the like was not mayn- teyned in any other parte of this He of Albion as is well knowen." The last statement in this charge shows that Queen Elizabeth's miaisters were better versed in politics than in natural history : for assuredly many wild herds were then in existence. Tet as -wilA. forest animals the Cum- bernauld " white kye and buUes " were^ as we have seen, imique, and of sufficient celebrity to be noticed in so im- portant a State Paper. After this they have no history. Thianed down, as we have seen, ia these convulsions, and also, it is said, during the civil wars of the. next century, they gradually became extinct, though the exact time it is impossible to fix. In the time of Charles II., WiUiam, Earl of Wigton, kept a Household Book, a venerable-looking tome, with iron clasps, still preserved, in which is kept a regular entry of the sheep and cattle taken from the forest for the use of the family. .These may have been remains of the old breed in a greater or less state of purity ; the tradition of the oldest, and the belief of the best-informed persons about the place being, that this ancient race came to an end about the time of the build- ing of the new mansion-house of Cumbernauld — that is, about a hundred and forty years since. Cumbernauld also possessed in comparatively modern times a singular natural curiosity : a breed of bald-faced stags. Captain Spiers, of Culcreuch, informs me that, being very intimate with the family in the time of the Hon. Admiral Fleming, grandfather of the late owner, he observed in the house at Cumbernauld an old hunt- ing picture, showing] the stag at bay, and having a very decidedly bald face. Captain Spiers made some 328 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. depreciatory remarks ; but the admiral told him. " he was wrong ; for such a breed, though then extinct, had formerly existed at Cumbernauld." The next Scottish herd I shall notice is the Drum- LANRiG Herd, the property of that branch of the house of Douglas which enjoyed successively the titles of Earls, Marquises, and Dukes of Queensberry. The Duke of Buccleuch, as heir general, is Duke of Queens- berry, and possesses Drumlanrig; the heir male is the marquis of the same name. Unfortunately, this herd has been long extinct, so that little is now known re- specting it. Bewick . otAj slightly mentions it, saying " the breed which was at Drumlanrig in Scotland had also black ears." Mr. Hindmarsh, who derived his in- formation from the clergyman of the place, writing in 1838, describes them as being " all white, with the ex- ception of the ears and muzzle (which were black), and without manes. They went under the appellation of the wild Caledonian cattle. They were driven away about 1780." Mr. WiUiam Dickinson, to whom I have already alluded, an able authority, who was born in the last century, in his paper " On the Farming of Cumber- land," published in 1852, identifies the Drumlanrig cattle with " the Caledonian Forest wild cattle," and as having been in colour "a dun, or rather, flea-bitten white, having black muzzles and ear-tips, with spotted legs." He also mentions that " two cows and a bull " of this breed " were living in 1821, but the buU and one of the cows died from the effects of removal in that year." The " flea-bitten white " and the " spotted legs," which are found also in so many other wild herds, are eminently suggestive ; while the last state- THE AUOHENCBUIYE SEED. 329 ment would lead us to conjecture that the Drumlanrig herd was not totally destroyed quite so early as has been supposed. To a certain extent this is confirmed by Pennant, who saw them himseU. Drumlanrig Castle, in Dumfriesshire, is situated in the valley of Nithsdale, intermediate between Hamilton and the Solway Firth, but somewhat nearer to the latter, and at the western foot of those wild hills which, ex- tending throughout Southern Scotland, were the ancient haunts of the Scottish mountain bull. One of their highest points, Queensberry Hill, is near; and the mountains which Scott describes in "Castle Dangerous" as the shelter and protection of the wild bull are not far off. The Atjchenckuive Heed of wild cattle was also, in all Hkelihood, one of some antiquity. It belonged to the Lords Cathcart, and was sold in 1763, together with the estate, by Charles, ninth baron, to Mr. Eichard Oswald, in the hands of whose descendants the estate still con- tinues, but the wild cattle have been long destroyed. Auchencruive, in the parish of St. Quivox, and on the water of Ayr, is in the county, and not far from the town, of that name. The following letter was written, at the request of Mr. Campbell, of the Bank at Ayr, who was for many years factor on the Auchencruive estate, to Mr. Oswald Mitchell, of Ardrossan, a relative of the Auchen- cruive family, and forwarded to me for inspection : — " Royal Bank of Scotland, Ayr, "5th of April, 1876. " My dear Sib, — ^Mr. Campbell has asked me to reply to your letter to him of yesterday's date. His information is to this effect. When the estate of Auchencruive ■was acqidred 'in 1763 &om Lord 330 WILB WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BBITAJN. Cathcart, by purcliase, by Eich.ard Oswald (the first), it bad on the opposite side of the 'river to the house, on a grassy hill, called ' the Peel HiU,' a herd of white wild cattle. These being found useless and troublesome, were got rid of within a few years, and certainly during the lifetime of the first Laird, who died in 1784. ' The Peel Hill ' was bounded on the side next the house by the river, which partly encircled it ; and the landward part was fenced. " Yours very truly, " Hugh Cowan." Except that it is said they were very savage, this is all the information I can obtain ahout the Auchencruive cattle. Their origin is quite unknown. The Lord Cathcart who sold the property married a grand-daughter of the Duke of Hamilton, hut only ten years before he sold it, so that it is very improbable that they came from Hamilton. From two hundred and fifty to three hundred years before that, his ancestor John, second Lord Cathcart (whose eldest son by a former marriage fell at Flodden in 1513), married as his second wife a daughter of the house of Douglas of Drumlanrig. The wild cattle of Auchencruive may have come from that place ; or they may have been a still more ancient possession of the family of Cathcart. TheArdrossan Herd of wild cattle comes next; and, like those of Hamilton and Auchencruive, it was mentioned by Sir John Sinclair in 1814 as one of the then few remaining examples of Caledonia's ancient breed. It survived tiU about 1820. The ruins of Ardrossan Castle are beautifully situated on the west coast of Southern Scotland, and in the county of Ayr. It has belonged for ages, and stUl belongs, to the Earls of Eglinton, who reside at their TEE ABBBOSSAN EERD. 331 Castle of Eglinton, some six miles distant, but, having been destroyed in the time of Cromwell, has never since been inhabited ; it is close to two bays of the sea at the base of the promontory which forms the town. Con- tiguous to the castle, bnt away from the town, were the five parks enclosed by Alexander, tenth Earl of EgHn- ton, in 1748 or 1750. They were enclosed by high and strong stone walls, built with lime, and altojgether nearly four miles in extent. Of these, three parks, having communication with each other, were grazed by the wild cattle and other animals, and contained about 120 acres. The other two parks, divided from these and from the castle by the road from Largs to Stevenston, were devoted principally to horses. The Stanley Burn suppKed abimdant water. There were no trees in any of these parks, except a few near this bum. Into the three parks, as before-mentioned. Lord Eglinton introduced the Scottish vsrild cattle from 1748 to 1,750. Where he obtained them it seems impossible now to ascertain, but they were undoubtedly of the true and genuine breed. It is said that he meant to try experiments in crossing ; he, however, lost his life by violence in the year 1769. After his death the wild cattle were retained, but less cared for ; and on the death, in December, 1819, of Hugh, twelfth earl, being much diminished in numbers, the few still remaining were sent away. Whether the tenth earl did or did not use a cross cannot now be discovered ; but there are curious circumstances coimected with the Ardrossan cattle. They are traditionally believed to have been homed when introduced to Ardrossan in the middle of the last century ; they were certainly all, or very nearly all, poUed within the memory of man. It would seem to 332 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. follow, either that the tradition is incorrect, or that they had become hornless. In other respects they seem to have differed little from the Caledonian wild cattle, ex- cept, perhaps, in one thing : that they seem to have been smaller than other known examples, owing, no doubt, to the extremely artificial manner in which they were confined, in fields enclosed by stone walls, and without natural shelter, the only protection they seem to have had being some sheds. Being also only few in number for many years — only from ten to twelve — they would in the course of years be necessarily deteriorated by very close inter-breeding, and this was probably the cause of their final extinction ; but to the last they were very shy and wild. They are best described by Mr. George Robertson, author of several works on agriculture, who came from Grranton, near Edinburgh, to be factor to Lord Eglinton about 1814 or 1815, and remained with him two years. In his " Description of Cunningham and Ayrshire," published in 1820, he says : — "Nothing uncommon in the usual cattle of the country ; but there is (or lately was) a singular species of cattle, remarkably different from the ordinary breed of the country, to be seen in Lord Eghnton's park of Ardrossan. They are altogether wild, the breed never having been within a house or imder the hands of man. They are pure white, with the exception of the muzzle and the inside of the ears, which are black. They have no horns. In this respect they differ from the singular breed of wild cattle belonging to Lord Tankerville at ChiUingham, in Northumberland, which have horns. Though very shy, they are not so remarkably fierce as Lord Tankerville's ; the reason of which may be, perhaps, that they graze in open pastures unscreened by wood. VARIOUS AG00UNT8 OF THE SEED. 333 with public roads on all sides, and are accustomed con- tinually to people passing. There are also other cattle grazing along with them, with which they have no association hut no hostility : so that they are in some degree reclaimed from the savage state. The number is limited, not being allowed to increase beyond about a dozen. They are thinned by shooting, which requires some precaution to accomplish. The fuU-grown weigh about thirty stones (avoirdupois) the four quarters. The meat is not reckoned so good as well-fed beef; they never, indeed, are so fat. They are distinguished by the name ' Caledonian.' " Very similar to the independent testimony which Bishop Leslie gives to the statements of Boethius is that, corroborative of Mr. Eobertson, given by the Eev. Mr. Bryce, Parish Minister of Ardrossan, in the " New Statistical Account of Scotland," published in 1837. In this case, the one had these cattle, which he described, imder his own personal supervision ; the other related, a very few years after their extinction, particulars with regard to the Ardrossan cattle which nearly all his adult parishioners well remembered. His narrative so nearly resembles that of Mr. Eobertson that it is not necessary to transcribe it ; it is the less necessary as there are many persons stiU living who remember them well, and others who have heard many particulars respecting them from people living a short time previous. These testimonies have been collected for me through the kindness of Mr. Hugh F. Weir, of KirkhaU, which is only about eight hundred yards distant from the walls of the Ardrossan parks. His grandfather was bom at Eirkhall in 1728, and died there in 1800 ; his father, born there in 1757, died there in 1838 j so that his 334 WILB WSITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. assistance has been invaluable. Mr. Weir's father, " being in his younger years a good ball-shot at a long distance, had often to go down and despatch a wild beast which the keepers had wounded and failed to kill, and which they dared not approach, but which he managed to kUl from the top of the walls." Mr. Weir was informed that these cattle were originally homed, by Alexander Bartlemore, of Seafield, near Ardrossan (a feu from Lord EgHnton), who died several years ago : he was a son of Bartlemore, the favourite servant of the tenth earl. He said, "that the wild cattle were introduced about 1750, and that they were then exceedingly wild, and had horns." And exactly the same evidence was given by Andrew Clerk, another old tenant on the Ardrossan estate, which he said he had received from his wife's father, a tenant in the neighbourhood under the tenth earl, who introduced the cattle. Mr. William Coulter, a retired watchmaker, living at Saltcoats, near at hand, remembers well the Ardrossan Park cattle in their later days. He " thinks that they had parts near the shoulder larger than his hand of a darker colour than on other parts of their bodies." Mr. John Young, now living in Ardrossan, but formerly coachman to Earl Hugh, the last proprietor of this herd, says that "they were not pure white, but cream- coloured, and wanting horns." Mr. James Willock, eighty-two years of age, and residing at Saltcoats — commonly called " Baihe Willock," he having been at one time a bailie of the burgh of Ardrossan — also remembers them well. His father took the " Nursery Holme," adjoining to the Park waU on the Saltcoats side, in 1811, and after his father's death he carried on VABI0V8 ACCOUNTS OF TEE EEBB. 335 the nursery, &c. He says : " The white cattle had no dark spots or places on them ; they were all white, except perhaps when they were shedding their hair : they were then slightly- darker. The cattle had liberty in all the parks, except those above the road, in my day, but I saw them oftenest in the twenty-two acres park, and sometimes got upon the top of the wall to give them a fright and see them scamper away. They were few in number. I remember old WiUie Stevenson, the herd, with the white horse on which he used to visit them, and also his being nearly killed on one occasion when the buU attacked him and got his head under the horse." When one of these cattle was shot, the carcase was taken in a cart to Eghnton Castle. Their savage nature continued to the last, notwithstanding their confinement for seventy years on bare fields enclosed by stone walls ; indeed, the circumstance of their keeper being obliged to approach them on horseback seems to show that they were fiercer than the Chillingham or Chartley cattle. At last, in 1820, shortly after the death of Earl Hugh, the only survivors were two cows and a bull ; probably the others had been previously slaughtered. These three were sent by the then Earl of Eglinton to Duchal, in Eenfrewshire, as a present to Mr. Porterfield, of Porterfield and Duchal. The latter place is from twenty-five to thirty miles from Ardrossan, and their removal was accomplished with much difficulty. Many persons recollect it ; and Bailie WiUock, whom I have just quoted, says : — " I remember the bull and two cows being taken to Duchal, and the trouble there was to get them removed from the parks. A number of people had to be employed, and old Mr. Bartlemore was 336 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. nearly unhorsed and sent into a hedge." Nor was this all. Mr. Bartlemore, of Seafield, before alluded to, who was commissioned to accompany the party who took the cattle, told Mr. Weir's sister that he rode behind, and that when they came to a place where the road to I>uchal turns off the main road the bull turned on the party, and attacked them with the greatest fury. The risk was considerable, and it was some time before they could get his anger allayed ; but at last they managed to arrive at Duchal. These cattle did not, it appears, long remain there. The btdl was soon after killed — ^most likely on account of his ferocity — ^and, being preserved, was long an ornament of the entrance-hall there. The difficulty that was experienced in removing the last Ardrossan wild bull from his former home reminds one of the attacks which " Duncraggan's nailk- white bull " made on the Highland raiders — " Ah ! well the gallant brute I knew ! The choicest of the prey we had, When swept our merry-men Gallangad. His hide was snow, his horns were dark. His red eye glowed like fiery spaxk ; So fierce, so tameless, ajid so fieet. Sore did he cumber our retreat, And kept our stoutest kernes in awe. E'en at the pass of Beal'maha." The account I have given of the Ardrossan herd is so full that I need not add more. The two difficulties which remain unsolved are — ^from whence they originally came, and how they became hornless. I think that the two statements of Bailie Willock and Mr. William Coulter, when taken together, tend to show that in them, as in most other wild cattle, there was a pre- THE GENERAL CHABAOTEB UNMISTAKABLE. 337 disposition to increased darkness about the neck, particularly when we take into account the great length of time which has intervened since they saw them, how young the ohsenrers then were, and the considerable distances at which they must generally have Viewed them. It seems to be universally ad- mitted that the muzzles and the inside of the ears were black. \v CHAPTEE XVII. Existing Scottish Herds of White Cattle— The Hamilton Herd— Mr. Brown's Description — Differences between the Hamilton and Chillingham Cattle - Nearly extirpated during the Oromwellian Period — ProhahUity of th ir heing crossed then, and subsequently — Further Probability that they wt re formerly Hornless — Now only partially so — Mr. Chaudos-Pole-GeU's j» o- count — The Athole Herd — Sold in 1834 — ^Aud then divided — Lord Breac;il- bane's Portion lost as a Pure Herd — But crossed with other Cattle — ^The Diie of Bucoleuch more successful — James Aitchison's Account of the Dalkeith Herd — Slaughtered in 1838, with sole Exception of one BuU —The Kilmory semi- wild Herd — How formed by Sir John Orde — ^Last Cross in 1832 — Present State and Management of the Kilmory Herd — Mr. Chandos-Pole- GeU's Account of it. I PROCEED to consider now those remaining herds of wild cattle which were formerly kept in parks in Scotland. The only one of these still existing is that in Cadzow Park, an ancient royal chase, near to and connected with Hamilton Palace in Lanarkshire, the seat of the Douglas-Hamiltons, Dukes of Hamilton and Brandon, who represent the great Douglases, Earls of Angus, through the male line, and the Hamilton family through the female. This herd is usually called the Hamilton Herd. Cadzow Park is about 200 acres in extent; and both it and its cattle are well described in a letter of Mr. Brown, Chamberlain to the Duke of Hamilton, published in " Jesse's Natural History." It was, as Sir Walter Scott pointed out, on the confines of the great Caledonian Forest. The same great writer aUudes to the wild cattle formerly no doubt common in that TEE EAMILTON KERB. 339 neighboTirh.ood as elsewhere in the following weU-known lines : — "Mightiest of all the beasts of chase That roam in -woody Galedon, Crashing the forest in his race, The monntain boll comes thnndeiiog on. "Fierce, on the hunter's quiver'd band. He rolls his eyes of swarthy glow, Spurns, with black hoof and horn, the sand, And tosses high his mane of snow." * -, " The chase ia which they browse " (I quote from Mr. Brown) " was formerly a park or forest attached ti the royal chase of Cadzow, where the ancient British k ngs of Strathclyde, and subsequently the kings of Scotland, used frequently to reside and hold their courts." "As compared with those kept at Chilling- ham Park, Northumberland, by Lord Tankerville, they are larger and more robust in the general form of their bodies, and their markings are very different. In the TankerviUe breed the colour is invariably white, muzzle black, the whole of the inside of the ear and about one-third the outside, from the tips downwards, red. The horns are very fine, white, with black tips ; and the head and legs are slender and elegant. In the Hamilton Urus the body is dun-white, the inside of the ears, the muzzle, and the hoofs black, and the fore part of leg, from the knee downwards, mottled with black. The cows seldom have horns ; their bodie3 are thick and short ; their limbs are stouter and their heads much rounder than in the Tankerville breed. The inside or roof of the mouth is black, or spotted with black. The tongue is black, and generally tipped with black. It is somewhat larger in proportion than * " Cadzow Castle" : Sir Walter Scott. w3 340 WILB WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. that of the common cow; and the high ridge on the upper surface, near to the insertion of the tongue, is also very prominent. It is observable that the calves that are off the usual markings are either entirely black or entirely white, or black and white, but never red or brown. The beef, like that of the Tankerville breed, is marbled and of excellent flavour; and the juice is richer and of a lighter colour than in ordinary butcher's meat. The size of the smaller cows does not exceed fifteen stones troy weight; but some of the larger sort, especially the bulls, average from thirty- five to forty-five stones. . . " The imiversal tradition at Clydesdale is that they have been at Cadzow from the remotest antiquity ; and the probability is that they are a part remaining of the establishment of our ancient British and Scottish kings. At present they are subjects of great curiosity, both to the inhabitants and to strangers visiting thie place. During the troubles consequent on the death of Charles I. and the occupation of Cromwell they were nearly extirpated; but a breed of them having been retained for the Hamilton family by Hamilton Dalzell, and by Lord Elphinstone at Cumbernauld, they were subsequently restored to their ancient purity. . . " Instances are recorded of their having been taken when young and tamed, and even milked. The milk, like that of most white cattle, is described as thin and watery. The present keeper of the park at one time possessed a cow, which he had taken when a calf in consequence of the death of its mother ; it was gentle, and was milked as a cow, and bred freely with the common bull." * * These quotations are from a "Narrative as to Wlite Cattle at Cadzow," prepared by Mr. J. Thompson, Curator, Kelvinside Mnsemn, Glasgow. TEE HAMILTON AND OEILLINGEAM OATTLK 341 In commenting on this statement, I may observe that the differences of form and colour between the Hamilton and the Chillingham cattle, as here pointed out, are unquestionably correct. And it might have been added, that in both of these respects the Hamilton cattle — ^now partially hornless, and formerly said to have been -wholly so* — agree in the main -with those at Gisbume, which were " without horns, very strong- boned, but not high." In the colour of their ears the two differed ; but in another respect also they agreed. The Hamilton " calves that are off the usual markings " are sometimes " entirely white," while at Grisburne they were " sometimes without dark muzzles." Bewick says some were " perfectly white," except the ears. The statements with regard to weight seem hardly consistent with the assertion that the Hamilton cattle are, however, " larger " than those at Chillingham : unless we suppose either that the latter are not really now so heavy as they were in the time of Bewick and Culley, which is possible, or that previously to slaughtering they are fed to a greater extent, or both. But there is a strong tendency in all proprietors of cattle to exaggerate the merits of their own ; and it may be remarked that the Duke of Hamilton's Chamberlain represents His Grrace's cattle as " larger " than those at Chillingham. Darwin reports that they " are said by Lord Tankendlle to be inferior : " we are not told in what respect. Another singular thing is the statement that the Hamilton wild cattle were " nearly extirpated " during the Oromwellian period, but, being retained for the * Mr. Storer was at a kter period quite satisfied they had been at one time hornless. — Ed. 342 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BBITAm. family by Hamilton DalzeU and Lord ElpMnstone, "they were subsequently restored to their ancient purity." How they went on at these two different places during that interregnum no one can possibly say; nor, if they had acquired any crosses, how the process was performed of restoring them " to their ancient purity." They probably did get then some cross, and to that their continuance to the present time is very likely owing. I am of opinion that no wild herd, if imprisoned in a park and interbred for several hundred years without a cross, could be in existence now. In this case, something more than two hundred years since, it is apparent that there was every oppor- tunity for such a cross taking place. It is more than questionable whether such a cross has not taken place much more recently. Sir J. Powlett Orde, of Kilmory House, Argyllshire, says that he is told by "Mr. Campbell, of Stonefield, that the late Mr. Lachlan Macneill (a very well-known judge and breeder of West Highland cattle, and who afterwards took the name of Campbell, and the territorial title or designation of SaddeU, in place of Dimdrishaig), that he had been employed to get a West Highland bull with which to cross the wild cattle at Cadzow." Sir John Orde says further that " he heard, very many years ago, that the Cadzow or Hamilton cattle had all heen jpolled, but that a Highland bull having accidentally got into the park, some horned calves were produced, and that by sub- sequent selection the herd had got horns generally." The truth of these statements receives strong con- firmation from the fact that it is very rare indeed, if not quite exceptional, among cattle for the female to be hornless while the male is not so, though it is common F0BMEEL7 A POLLED EEBD. 34'J- enougli among sheep and deer. The Hamilton herd are, I believe, the sole instance of this in the British Islands. But there is yet further corroboration. Youatt, in his work on " Cattle," published nearly forty years since, speaks of the Hamilton cattle as being polled. He commences his account of " TAe Polled Cattle" with these words: — "We have already stated that there appear to be the remnants of two distinct breeds of aboriginal cattle in the parks of Chillingham, in Northumberland, and Chatelherault,* in Lanarkshire; the first are middle horns, and the second are polled." And in another part of his book f he quotes, from Mr. Macgillivray's older " Prize Essay on the Present State of the Outer Hebrides," the following passage : — " The most common colours " (of the Hebridean cattle) " are black, red, brown, brandered (that is, a mixture of red and brown, with stripes — ^brindled). A whitish dun colour is also pretty frequently seen, not unlike that of the original wild cattle of Scotland, both the horned breed at Chillingham and the polled one at Hamilton ; and it is remarked that in all their traditions or fables of what are called fairy cattle this is the colour ascribed to these animals." It is nearly impossible to resist the conclusion that about this time the Hamilton herd under- went the above-mentioned change. And the absence of horns was certainly considerable, even in the males (which Mr. Brown, does not mention), a few years since, for James Aitchison, Sir John Orde's grieve, whose brother Eobert was at the time, and for many years after, forester at Hamilton and Cadzow, informs * Cadzow is meant, called Chatelherault from the Duke of Hamilton's French dukedom, t Chap. iiL, p. 71. 344 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GBEAT BEITAIN. me that, thirty -five years since, he saw the Hamilton cattle, and that many of them wanted horns, and that the oxen from that herd which were shown at the Highland Society's meeting at G-lasgow were polled. The following report upon the Hamilton herd is by Mr. H. Chandos-Pole-GeU, who visited it for me on October 3rd, 1874 :— " I went to Hamilton, and met there Mr. Lawrence Drew, a well-known breeder of Ayrshire cattle and Clydesdale horses, and formerly manager of the Home Farm at Hamilton Place, under the late Duke of Hamilton. We drove to Cadzow Park, about one and a half miles from the town of Hamilton, a piece of the old Caledonian Forest, and well timbered in parts with fine old oaks of every form and size, and in various stages of growth and decay. I counted there about thirty animals, including one bull. They have very straight backs, good under-line, generally fair hind quarters, which are in good proportion to the fore quarters. They appeared to have good hair, and aU had small turn-up horns. The land at Cadzow Park is a strong clay, and grows moderately good grass. In winter the cattle have a large open shed (lately built), in which they eat the coarse hay provided for them. No other animals are pastured in the park. In a field near the park, and of the same description, I saw fifteen bulls and steers, along with one old cow and a young heifer. The old bull (i.e., the one in the park) was a very fine beast, rather dun in colour, arising, in my opinion, from his age. All the cattle have black hair inside the ears, and the muzzle quite black. Their heads are beautiful [Mr. Pole-Gell, in speaking to me about them, said, " curiously beautiful." — J. S.] — ^a broad MB. CHAJWOS-FOLII-GELL'S ACOOUNT. 345 scaup hollowed under tlie eyes, broad muzzle, quick dark eyes. " I got within less than a hundred yards of them, and, having a good glass, saw them very clearly ; they seem about as wild as those at Chartley. When killed they are shot. Heaviest weight of steers, forty stone ; cows would make about thirty stone ; they are only made steers when calves. The beef is hard, tasteless, and bad-coloured, more Hke veal than beef. Coloured calves seldom come ; but when they appear they are black-and-white. The old bulls had a good deal of curly hair on the neck and fore-part of the shoulder. All I saw had horns. The bulls are nowadays separated from the cows at certain seasons ; but this was not the case formerly, and then calves were bom at all times of the year. Mr. Drew thought he remembered some of the cattle mthout horns. " In 1866, the cattle-plague year, by Mr. Drew's advice, some of the cattle — about fourteen in number, including one buU — ^were got out of the park, and taken away to the deep glen some distance off. These escaped disease, and from them the present herd, about forty- five animals aU told, is descended. AU the others, ex- cept one old steer, died." * Another herd of wild cattle was kept ia Scotland, from forty to fifty years since, at Blair Athole, in the north of Perthshire, one of the ancient Highland seats of the Murrays, Dukes of Athole. It belonged to Lord * The above report, I am desired to state, is merely a resume of ob- serrations taken on the spot, and mnst not be regarded as a detailed account. This equally applies to Mr. Chandos-Pole-Gell's report on the Kilmory herd. Both were kindly written with a view to afEording Mr. Storer information. — ^Ed. 346 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GBEAT BRITAIN. James Murray, created in 1821 Lord Grlenlyon, who, about that time, had the management of the estates, and whose son became sixth Doke o£ Athole, and was father of the present duke. These cattle were kept in one of the parks at Blair Athole, and are known as the Athole Herd. From the testimony of numerous persons of the highest character who knew them, I entertain no doubt that they were genuine wild cattle ; they were " white with black points," having the ears, the muzzles, the orbits of the eyes, and the hoofs in a great measure black ; and they bred perfectly true. Owing to family circumstances, the Athole herd was sold in the year 1834. Mr. Butter, of FaskaJly, who is stiU living and informs me that such was the case, bought the greater part of them, which were divided between the present Duke of Buccleuch and the late Marquis of Breadalbane. The portion allotted to the Marquis went to Taymouth, but they have not been continued, as when there they ceased to breed together, though the cows bred with other buUs, and vice versa ; but several cattle shown by Lord Breadalbane at one of the Highland Society's shows were entered as High- land cattle (without a white one amongst them), and were bred from this Athole fstock on one side. The circumstances prove that in-and-in breeding had been carried too far ; and though Lord Breadalbane tried at last, as we shall subsequently see, to remedy the evil, the attempt came too late. The other portion of the Athole herd, purchased by Mr. Butter, of Faskally, became the property of the Duke of Buccleuch, and was sent to Dalkeith. For the first two years they were tended by Mr. James Aitchison, a most respectable and intelligent man, TEJE SMALL EEBB AT DALKEITH. 347 wtose family had been long in the employment of the Dukes of Buccleuch and Marquises of Lothian, and whose brother Eobert was for many years forester at Hamilton, in the charge of the wild cattle there, and who has himself been, for the last thirty-eight years (since 1836), grieve to Sir J. Powlett Orde, of Kilmory House, Argyllshire. From him the following informa- tion is derived. "The Duke of Buccleuch's herd, which came from Athole Forest in 1834, consisted of six cows and two cow-calves, one bull, and five oxen. They were all white — pure white — and they had all black muzzles ; but the black was confined to the muzzle itself, and did not aflfict the skin around it which bore hair. The orbits of their eyes were black, and the hoofs black or striped with black. The ears were generally tipped with black, and in many there was also more or less black inside, but in a few the black hairs on the ears were scarce, though in none altogether wanting. They aU had horns, which were not very long, turned up at the ends and very sharp, and all their horns had black points.* They differed much from well-bred Highland cattle, but bore some resemblance to more ordinary ones, being short-legged, straight-backed, and having long silky hair. But, Kke all wild cattle, they had a strong family likeness, and were all rather light in their hind quarters. The Athole bull was by no means wild or unmanageable, and had a double thin upright mane. A son of his, who afterwards went to Sir John Orde's, resembled him in these respects ; and so did another bull * Some of them had dark specks in the skill, which, however, grew white hairs; sometimes, however, the calves showed black hairs mixed with the white when new-bom and wet, but these did not show afterwards. 348 WILD WEITE CATTLE OF GBEAT BRITAIN. afterwards oMained from Lord Breadalbane's portion of the Athole kerd. The mane is lost with age." James Aitchison further says " that the cows which came to the Duke of Buccleuch's were watched by him at their calving ; that they always calved by daylight ; that he took their calves from them, and they were brought up by hand, as the Short-horn calves were ; but that, in carrying them away at first tke^ stiffened themselves out, so that he almost thought they were dead. They were very difficult to teach to drink, and, if another calf had touched the milk in the pail offered to them, they uniformly refused it. When the cows and calves went out, they were obliged to give up milking the cows any more." I presume the wildness of both calves and dams compelled them to allow the calves then to suck. The whole is an excellent account of a semi-reclaimed wild herd, such as formerly existed in many parts of Grreat Britain. In the year 1836 James Aitchison went to live as grieve with Sir John Orde at Elilmory; in 1838 the Duke of Buccleuch went abroad, and the home demesne at Dalkeith was let. The new tenant did not wish to retain the wild Athole cattle, and they were therefore slaughtered — unfortunately before Sir John Orde was informed. The moment he heard of it, James Aitchison was sent over. One pure-bred young bull, who was neither beef nor veal, alone survived : he was purchased, and brought back to Argyllshire ; and with him, as its basis, commenced the Kilmort Herd — a semi-wild herd, which has been carried on for thirty-six years, and has the characteristics of the ancient wild cattle to as great an extent probably as any herd now exist- OBIGIN OF TEE ZILMOBT EBRD. 349 ing in Scotland. "With it I propose to close the account of the Scottish herds ; for it seems to me that, taken in conjunction with the narrative just given of what the Athole cattle were when at Dalkeith, it is a most appo- site illustration of how, in former days — ^in many a lordly abhey, in- many an ancient grange — ^the appa- rently indomitable Urus was gradually subjected by man, and made the means of improving and renewing our race of domestic cattle. Sir John Orde is a man of very great experience and skill in breeding. He has bred for years, besides this herd, Aldemey, Indian, and other cattle, as well as horses and other animals ; and his acute and scientific experi- ments in breeding have been carried on both at home and abroad. James Aitchison — ^who had, as we have seen, already managed one herd of wild cattle — was his coadjutor in building up, from the relics of that one, another. The sheet-anchor, to begin with, was the Duke of Buccleuch's Athole bull. There was the wild sort, of pure blood, and the true type which it was so desirable to continue. The difficulty was to procure proper females. Cows of the same strain as the bull could not be had — perhaps it was very well they could not ; but cows as nearly as possible similar in colour, character, and blood were obtained. Sir John went to the Kyloe, or West Highlander — a breed which pro- bably, in general character, in hair, and in horn, though perhaps not in colour, retains as much likeness to the TJrus, as described by ancient Scottish writers, as any variety of British cattle ; some great authorities con- sidering it to be at least partially his descendant. The Highlander difiers much indeed from the Urus in size ; but this is sufficiently accounted for by his inhabiting 350 WILB WEITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. for SO many centuries a bare and inhospitable region, where he was exposed to every privation, and where he had often to be content with the merest modicum of coarse food. He was often found, as we have seen, cream- coloured or light dun ; but this colour would not do, for Sir John Orde purchased some such cows, and found that when put to the wild Athole bull they almost always had very dark calves. Occasionally, though rarely, the West Highlander is to be found white — ^pure white — with pint, or rather white, skin, and with, at the same time, a tendency to black (Hke the wild cattle themselves) on the ears, muzzles, orbits of the eyes, and hoofs. Two or three such cows were purchased from the district of Lorn (Kibnory is in Argyll proper), and two or three, as occasion offered, in other parts of the neighbourhood. The result was successful. Some care in selection was necessary at first ; but for years past there have been none but white calves, though occasionally one is bom which wants the black nose, or the black tip to the horns, or the black edge to the eyelids. These are not kept for breeding ; and the herd only agrees, as we have seen, with the most ancient of the original wild herds in producing these slight and occasional variations. Sir John had used the wUd bull for some years when he heard that the late Lord Breadalbane was in difficulty about keeping up the white wild herd he had obtained from Athole, in consequence of his cows proving barren. The idea was (and, no doubt, a correct one) that the barrenness might be owing to the bull being " ower- sib " (in English, too nearly related) " to the cows." A proposal was made that his lordship and Sir John should change bulls. This was done, but Lord Breadal- bane's cows were not benefited by the change, and his MANAGEMENT OF THE EEBD. 351 herd became, as we have seen, extinct ; Sir Jolin's cows continued to breed with Lord Breadalbane's bull as they had done with his own. This cross introduced much more of the wild blood into the herd, for the two wild bulls were used from 1838 till 1851 or 1852, thirteen or fourteen years. At the latter date a pure white and pure-bred West Highland bull-calf (with black points) was brought from Barcaldine, in North- western Argyllshire, before the wild bull was parted with. This bull improved the stock much. No further crosses have since been made. The principal improvement which the Barcaldine bull is supposed to have made is in the hind quarters, which are less light than they were before. He also introduced curls, which James Aitchison does not like, because the wild bull which came from Athole to the Duke of Buccleuch was quite free from curl. Sir John's bulls have usually very little curl on the neck, but his present bull has a curly face. It may be remarked upon this that the Chillingham bull shot by the Prince of Wales had a good deal of curl, both on his neck and forehead. The management of the Kilmory herd is as follows. The cattle are, to a very great extent, out summer and winter. When a cow shows any appearance of calving she is brought in and put into a loose-box until she has her calf ; the next day she is tied up, and the calf put into a crib ; in a few days the dam goes out during the daytime, and this continues until all have calved : the season preferred for which is from the beginning of January till the end of May. The bull is, therefore, allowed to run with the cows from the end of March till the 1st of September, and then taken from them to 352 WILD WEITE CATTLE OF GBEAT BRITAIN. prevent late calves. When they can live on the grass the cows are wholly turned out, with their calves at foot, till October, when they are brought home ; the calves are weaned, and the cows turned out again till they are due to calve. The calves are kept in a straw yard for a time till they have forgot their mothers; they are turned out into a field during the day, where turnips are spread for them, being brought up to the yard every night, where they have hay under a shed. This is done partly in order to make them as tame as possible. When the cows go out for the sunimer, after calving, the yearhngs go too, and are never brought in tUl they come due to calve, or to be sold off, as the case may be. Hay is, of course, given to those out at pasture in the winter near the shepherd's house. The whole herd is usually pastured together, except that, to avoid premature breeding, the young heifers are kept separate till sometimes two, but more usually three, years old ; and that during the winter season the bulls graze together, separate from the cows, in a field enclosed by dry stone dykes. The pasture ground of the general herd consists of a range of low hills, much given in the highest places to grow heather, and none of it rich land. It is of considerable extent, not mountainous, but wild and unreclaimed, and much of it unreclaimable. It is called the Hill, and is kept free of sheep all the summer ; but during the winter Highland sheep, as well as the cattle, run over it till April. With the exception of the rather slight alteration produced by the Barcaldine bull, the cha- racter of the herd is exactly that of the portion of the Athole herd which came to Dalkeith. That is the type which has, during the last thirty-five years, been CEABAGTEB OF TEE KILMOBY CATTLE. 353 reproduced and carried on under Sir John Orde's con- stant supervision, witli the aid and assistance of his intelligent manager, James Aitchison, who tended the old herd, and whose constant care and help have so materially contributed to build up the new one on its ruins. The description o£ the Athole cattle as they existed at the Duke of Buccleuch's need not' be repeated, for it closely applies to them. I am informed that they are not, .like the Hamilton cattle, mottled with black above th6 fetlock ; and it has been observed of them that ther more black upon the ear the more black the hoofs also. They have all the characteristics of the ancient herds of wild cattle, and retain, in spite of the careful domestication they undergo when young, a spice of their native wildness. They are very shy, but never wicked ; and, though they graze on a hill through which the high road to Inverary passes, without any fence at all along the greater part of it, have not been known to molest anybody; but to drive the young steers to market is a job, so they are generally sold on the ground and put on board a steamboat near. Even the calves, five or six months old, when at grass with their dams, will run at the boy attending the cows, and, missing him, tumble heels over head, and then get up and run at him again. The cows, too, are very quarrelsome armng them- selves, and Sir John Orde has had more than one kiUed by her own sisters, cousins, &c. The place is much better adapted for breeding than for feeding purposes, and the oxen are therefore seldom fed at home, but sold at about six quarters old to a distance for feeding. At the Prince Consort's Shaw Fann at Windsor, at the Duke of Buccleuch's at X 354 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF QBEAT BRITAIN. Dmmlanrig, and at many other places, they have at four years old made excellent heasts, and have given great satisfaction to hoth the feeder and butcher. At the former place I accidentally saw two of them some years since, and was much struck with them ; they were remarkably good and very beautiful cattle. Since that, Sir John has sent to Her Majesty the Queen, at the Shaw Farm,, Windsor, six heifers six quarters old: that is, rising two years. They were put to a short-homed buU, and Mr. Tait said that they produced excellent stock. He spoke highly of the cross-bred produce, which are said to have been all light-coloured; but he had to part with the mothers "because they stared at ladies going through the park," and so got the credit of being dangerous. On two occasions last year Sir John Orde sent to Mr. Assheton Smith, of Yagnol Park, near Bangor, nine cows, not picked, but such as could best be spared, six fine and handsome heifers, rising two years, a buU, and six yearling steers. It is much to be hoped that this attempt to introduce these valuable cattle win be successful. That they are valuable is evident from the fact that Sir John has twice shown, as extra stock, cows of this breed at shows held by the Highland Society at Perth and Glasgow, and on each occasion he has been honoured by a silver medal. I have dwelt somewhat long on this remarkable herd, because it presents a wonderful example of how a herd of cattle of a particular description has, under the greatest difficulties, been brought to perfection in his own lifetime by a man stall Hving, with the aid of a skilled subordinate who is also living; because the system of management and treatment of these cattle pretty vividly pourtrays, with a few trifling exceptions MB. CSANDOS-POLE-GELL'S YIStT. 355 (such, as the milking of the cows), the management and treatment which the ancient Short-horns received a hundred years since from our Teeswater predecessors ; and because I am not without hope that these cattle, if kept up and disseminated, may tend to preserve to us still the type of our ancient wild cattle, which, I cannot but fear, is in some danger of being lost. The following is an account of a visit to the EHmory Herd made for me by Mr. Chandos-Pole- Gell, in his own words : — " October 1st, 1874. — Left Greenock at 9 a.m. in the lona, and reached Ardrishaig at one o'clock. Captain and Miss Orde came to meet the steamer, and drove me to TTilmory House. After luncheon, I went with James Aitchison, the grieve, a most intelligent man, to inspect the white cattle, which had been collected together in a large piece of heathery moorland, in order that I might have a better chance of observing them accurately than on the large range, where they are usually pastured. "I saw seventy-seven cows, heifers, and calves, of various ages, but could not obtain an accurate account of each kind. Amongst the calves were about six stots, and, I think, two small bull-calves, stiU sucking their dams, one being a very good one. They are exactly like the ordinary West Highland cattle, only white in colour. There are black hairs inside the ear, and the muzzle, which is broad and well-shaped, is black, and they are very lively-lookiag. I could not see any ap- pearance of red hair above the muzzle. One of the heifers had a black ear — ^the ' black-luggit ane,' as Aitchison called her. No black or coloured calf ever appears. No steers have ever been kept to maturity, X 2 356 WILD' WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. except some that were ill-formed or in any way unfit to sell. The cows would easily make thirty-two stone (fourteen pounds) weight, and I think rather more. " The cattle have good hair, and would, I imagine, handle well. The bulls — ^which are separated from the cows, in order that the time of their calving may be iu some degree regulated — ^were at a distance, four in num- ber : three being young animals unfit for service, and one about five years old — a very handsome fellow, with much hair about his neck. He appeared very level behind, and had a good rib. Two young queys have white noses, which does not suit the character of the animal, and makes them look weak and poor ; they will be drafted, and sold with the young stots. These two probably trace back to a certain bull, which got a good many that way. " The horns of most of the animals resemble the picture of the Argyllshire Highland ox in Youatt, but are, perhaps, a little finer, and barely so long ; they ought to have all black tips to them. One cow, I observed, had a different horn, a little like the Chil- lingham cattle when you looked at her in front, but the resemblance diminished when looked at sideways. This cow was bought as a calf from a neighbour who had often used the white bulls. " The cows are bulled at two years old, but it would be better to leave them till three years old. Excepting the calving cows and the calves, these cattle have no shelter, living out all winter, and only getting a little long hay. Some steers have been fed at Drumlanrig, and Aitchison wiU try and obtain an account of their weights when killed." CHAPTEE XVIII.* Conclusions— Greneral EesemWance in the White Herds — White not improbably the Colour of the Ancient TJrus — Differences — These Differences extend even to Structure— Proof the White Herds afford of the Destructive Effects of In-breeding. Before the subject of the wfld cattle is closed, it would seem desirable to refer briefly to some ' remarkable features developed in the foregoiag account. The different breeds of wild cattle retained in this country, though varying in many smaller particulars, agreed in one large and principal one : they were all white, with certain black or red markings, which were generally in each herd of a definite and fixed character. Such, as we have seen before, was not unlikely to have been the colour of the ancient Bos urus, from which they sprang. Tet of this there must always remain some little doubt, as has been pointed out by Darwin ; for in every one of the three great herds which still remain, and certainly to some extent in those which are extinct also, it was necessary to preserve the orthodox colour by careful selection, and to destroy calves which were bom — as they were not unfrequently — ^with unusual markings, or of a different colour altogether from the rest of the herd. I must leave to naturalists to decide from what * This chapter was ■written some time ago, and had not been revised by the light of the latest information received by the author. This should be borne in mind should any expressions be considered inconsistent with other portions of the work, or wanting in completeness. — ^Ed. 358 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. causes these differences of colour arose : whetlier from reversion to an original type, without, or in consequence of, a cross ; from the natural tendency to variation, increased perhaps in some cases by semi-domestication and confinement ; or from any other causes. Darwin, speaking of these differences in the park cattle, says : — . " They show that animals nearly in a state of nature I and exposed to nearly uniform conditions, if not allowed I to roam freely and to cross with other herds, do not keep as imiform as truly wild animals." * And this is certaiu, that at Chillingham calves have been produced with black instead of red ears, and, which is of more importance, " with brown and blue spots upon the cheeks or necks;" at Chartley they have, at no long intervals, been occasionally bom wholly or partially black ; and at Hamilton they sometimes come entirely black, or black and white, and even entirely white. The occasional occurrence of calves of unusual colours in herds which are now extiuct it is impossible ade- quately to trace, but we know that those at Gisbume and Burton Constable agreed with existing ones ia sometimes producing calves with muzzles and ears differing in colour from their congeners. What is still more important, the wild herds of cattle, though agreeing so closely, yet differed somewhat in structure as well as appearance. Having regard to all these differences, I strongly incline to class them as two pretty distinct varieties, broken into other sub- varieties, as follows t : — * Darwia: "Aiumals and Plants,'' vol. i., chap, iii., p. 84. f All of the herds are not included in this classification ; at the time it was written the author did not possess information which he received subsequently respecting some herds. It is also doubtful whether at this time he was aware that the Hamilton herd is now homed. — Ed. VABIHTIES OF TEE WEITE CATTLE. 359 I. — ^Variety with Hoens. 1. Sub-variety. Having black ears, but no black tip to the tail. The Chartley, Drumlanrig, and Athole Herds. 2. SvA-varieti/. Having red or brown ears, but no black tip to the tail. The Chillingham and Lyme Herds. II. — ^Vakiett Hornless or Polled. 1. Suh-variety. Having black ears and black tips to their tails. The WoUaton and Burton Constable Herds. 2. Sub-variety. Having black ears, but no black tips to tail ; the fore-part of leg mottled with black. The Hamilton Herd. 3. Sub-variety. Having red or brown ears. The Gisburne Herd. All the herds agreed in having the muzzle, orbits of the eyes, tips of the horns, and hoofs more or less black. The distinction between the two varieties is very strongly marked, not only by the presence or absence of horns, but also by differences in general form and figure. The polled variety were and are more robust in their bodies, thicker, shorter (in the leg, as elsewhere), stouter-limbed, stronger-boned, with heads rounder, and with a general contour less elegant and striking than in any, as far as I can ascertain, of those herds which carried horns. This may possibly have arisen from some difference of extraction, but the similarity of the two varieties in many other more important points would scarcely allow us to encourage that idea. It might arise from a cross, but it is quite as likely that natural variation might produce, and man's selection continue, the hornless variety with its differences of form. Such had been the case so long ago as the time of Herodotus, who describes the Scythian domestic cattle as hornless, attributing it to the great severity 360 WILB WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. of the climate.* Be this as it may, it is somewhat singular that of the known herds of poUed white cattle, all appear to have passed through circumstances favourable to the development and maintenance of peculiar variations. Most at least of the other herds could not have had so good a chance of semi-domesti- cation. There is another very curious thing which may be observed. In each variety there were some herds which had black, some which had red ears ; and it seems as if, both in the homed and hornless varieties, the black- eared were the larger and stronger cattle, though the red-eared were the more slender and elegant. Nay, it appears as if the finest and largest of all these wild cattle were those which had black tips to their tails also. None of them seem to have attained the size and grandeur of the black-eared and black-tailed herds of Wollaton and Burton Constable. But perhaps the most important result we obtain from considering the present state of the wild herds, and one which should weigh heavily upon our minds as Short-horn breeders, is the conclusion it strongly points to on the subject which Mr. Darwin, as a heading to his splendid chapter thereupon,! entitles — " The G-ood Effects of Crossing, and the Evil Efiects of * Herod., lib. iv., chap xxix. f " Animals and Plants," vol. ii., chap, xvii., pp. 114 and 119. [Any inoonsistency which some may find between this citation from Mr. Darwin, and the -views expressed in the chapters on the GhUIingham cattle, is more apparent than real. The author in those chapters — written at a later date than this — saw reasons for questioning Mr. Darwin's con- clusions on the particular point of the natural relative inf ecundity of the ChiUingham cattle ; but he adopts there, as here, Mr. Darwin's general conclusions, and attributes in both places the preservation of existing herds to timely crosses. — ^Bd.] MB. DABWm ON IN-BBEEDING. 361 Inter-breeding," He has already used the wild cattle as an illustration of his argument, and I hope, by the production of further facts, to add fresh weight to his conclusion. His reasoning is as follows : — "The half -wild cattle which have been kept in British parks probably for four hundred or five hundred years, or even for a longer period, have been advanced by CuUey and others as a. case of long- contiaued inter-breeding withia the limits of the same herd without any consequent injury. With respect to the cattle at ChilHngham, the late Lord Tankerville owned that they were bad breeders. The agent, Mr. Hardy, estimates (in a letter to me, dated May, 1861) that in the herd of about fifty the average number slaughtered, killed by fighting, and dying is • about ten, or one ia five. The buUs, I may add, engage in furious battles, of which battles the present Lord Tankerville has given me a graphic description, so that • there wlU always be rigorous selection of the most vigor- ous males. I procured in 1855 from Mr. D. Gardner, agent to the Duke of Hamilton, the following account of the wild cattle kept in the duke's park in Lanarkshire, which is about 200 acres in extent. The number of cattle varies from sixty-five to eighty ; and the number annually killed (I presume by aU causes) is from eight to ten : so that the annual rate of increase can hardly be more than one in six. Now, in South America, where the herds are half-wild, and therefore ofier a nearly fair standard of comparison, according to Azara, the natural increase of the cattle on an estancia is from one-third to one-fourth of the total number, or one in between three and four; and this, no doubt, applies exclusively to adult animals fit for consumption. 3B2 WILD WSITE CATTLE OF GREAT BBITAIN. Hence the half-wild British cattle, which have long inter-hred within the limits of the same herd, are relatively far less fertile. Although in an tmenclosed country like Paraguay there must be some crossing between the different herds, yet even there the in- habitants believe that the occasional introduction of animals from distant localities is necessary to prevent degeneration in size and diminution of fertility. The decrease in size from ancient times in the ChUlingham and Hamilton cattle must have been prodigious, for Professor Riitimeyer has shown that they are almost certainly the descendants of the gigantic £os primi- genius. No doubt this decrease in size may be largely attributed to less favourable conditions of life; yet animals roaming over large parks, and fed during severe winters, can hardly be considered as placed under very imfavourable conditions." It has always seemed to me extraordinary that any one can conceive that the wild herds of the desert or the prairie can possibly inter-breed to the extent to which park cattle in confinement, or domestic cattle under the control of man, may be obliged to do. Look at the American bison at the time when its countless thousands shared vsdth the Red Indian alone the greater part of the vast continent of North America, and as it still exists, though in lessened numbers. No doubt these cattle break up for convenience of breeding, pasturage, &c., into many small bodies, which constantly herd together ; but even among these, in the ordinary routine of life, there must be much admixture. Male rivalry and female jealousy prevail throughout creation ; such combats as take place between the bulls of Chillingham and the cows of Kilmory occur also on the wild pasture- m-BBEEBING PBEVENTED BY NATURE. 363 ground of tlie bison, lessen many an overgrown herd, and give rise to fresh ones, formed in many cases no doubt from the waifs and strays of several old ones. What happened to the Red Indian himself was but an example of what happened to his friend the bison too. But Nature had other and more stringent means by which to enforce her laws, and to re-invigorate with fresh blood her creatures. The grand means was to make them what the sportsman calls j»a(?>^ — thousands of herds united into one for an annual or semi-annual emigration. The necessities of living required them to travel so united for thousands of miles ; who can doubt that many a herd would be reduced to its elements and re-constituted in the process ? How much more would this be the case when one of those great stampedoes occurred to which wild cattle are from various causes subject, and which have been described by travellers as so sublimely awful ? Then, impelled by fear, perhaps urged on by pursuing flames, the teeming millions rush they know not where, down precipices, through rivers — drowned, destroyed, trampled on — ^yet ever rushing on over the bodies of their slaughtered fellows. Surely we need not dream of the sire, dam, sons, and daughters coming together again to continue their in-and-in breed- ing after such wholesale destruction as that. Nature herself, by one of the grandest of her convulsions, has interfered to stay the evil, and has provided them with mates of a different strain of blood. Nor in many cases are the attacks of man and carnivorous animals without some effect. They decimate the herds, and compel them to unite, as the lessened coveys of grouse and partridge do, for greater protection against the hunter. It appears from Azara, as quoted above by Darwin, 364 WILD WRITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. , that even the semi- wild herds of Paraguay, though not compelled to do so hy such stringent inducements as really wild cattle, do nevertheless cross, and that man furthers this process still more by introduciag fresh .blood, believing that, if crossing is not promoted, "de- generation in size and diminution in fertility " are pro- duced ; and Darwin goes on to prove that the park cattle of this country are, relatively to these cattle, degenerate and less fertile. Their diminution in size from their great ancestor the £os primigenius or TJrus, he also shows ; and elsewhere how they have — ^probably since the days of Boethius and Leslie — lost one of their finest features, their magnificent manes ; and to this Sir Walter Scott has also alluded. Dr. Leigh's account of the Middleton herd given above tends to confirm this latter fact, and would lead us to at least suspect that a considerable increase of degeneracy in this par- ticular'has occurred during the last century and three- quarters. And this is just what sound induction wotdd lead us to suppose would be the case ; for as during that period the wild herds have become much fewer in number, and very probably the number kept in each, park has also been diminished, the opportunities for crossing have been lessened also, the cumulative iU- efiects of continual inter-breeding enhanced, and the progress of decay rendered in consequence more rapid. And this is so indeed. Even in the early part of this century the wild herds of Grreat Britain, includ- ing that at Athole which is not noticed by Bewick, were seoen in number. I purposely pass over the Mid- dleton, the Burton Constable, and the Drumlanrig herds, which had already ceased to be, and the cause of whose extinction is, in two cases out of three, quite unknown, FATAL BE8ULTS TO THE WHITE CATTLE. 365 to US; but at the comparatively recent time I have named, seven herds of wild cattle still remained. There are now three only left ; for we can scarcely caU a herd the one or two doubtful cows still remain- ing at Lyme. Four herds have during this century first declined, and then come to an end through con- tinued inter-breeding. We have in every case the authority either of the proprietor himself, or of some- one intimately acquainted with him and with the herd, for saying this. The Wollaton herd " began to dete^ riorate and fall off in size," and at last " would breed no longer." The Lyme herd is " all but cleared out ; the cross came too late, and has not answered." The Gisburne herd " got delicate from breeding in-and-in, and always bred bulls at last." " They required great care." The moiety of the Athole herd which went to the late Lord Breadalbane's was not continued, though for some years great efforts were made for that purpose, because '' they ceased to breed together, though the cows bred with other bulls, and vice versa." Of the three wild herds which still continue, it is pretty clear that the Hamilton one must almost cer- tainly have received an admixture of fresh blood during the CromweUian period, and much more certain that it was crossed a few years since. The continuous inter- breeding of the cattle at Chillingham without inter- mixture since the thirteenth century is a prodigy which would require more proof than it is ever Kkely to re- ceive. Their neighbours, the Scottish moss-troopers, some of whom lived within twelve miles, woxdd have been extremely likely to have interfered with the operation ; and there are some strong reasons for supposing that deliberate crosses have been taken much more recently. 366 WILB WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. At Chartley we do not know what was done formerly ; but we know tliat of late the necessity for a cross has , been felt, and an attempt made to take one. We have every reason to believe that in. aU these herds the general opinion of mankind, founded on observation, and since confirmed by science, was in former days allowed to pre- vail, and that occasional infusions of new blood, without destroying the type, preserved the herd itself from ex- tinction. In the time of Bewick and Whitaker several of these herds bred with tame cattle ; the ChiUingham and Gisburne are especially mentioned as having done so : and it is particularly remarked how strongly, in the former case, the calves resembled the wild animal. This, in ancient times, when the herds were much more nume- rous, and their owners much less scrupulous than now, must have had a great effect upon the cattle of the sur- rounding districts, and have modified them considerably, particularly as the wild buU was so impressive when put to the domestic cow. It also afforded great facilities for another thing — for taking crosses which retained the type of the wild sort and partially inherited the same blood; and I am told, on good authority, that this opportunity was taken advantage of in some cases, and that such crosses did take place. Of late years the demand for excessive and un- natural purity of blood, and the large amount of pre- judice which has prevailed — each owner considering his own herd the only pure and original one — has prevented beneficial renewal. In one instance the proprietor of one of the oldest herds persistently refused to supply with a cross another herd as old as, and very kindred in character to, his own, and the consequence was the latter coxdd not be kept up. We SOLE HOPH OF AVERtma EXTINGTION. 367 have already seen the effects of this short-sighted policy in the loss of so many of our herds of park cattle within really a short period ; and I confess that I do not see any very brilliant prospects for those which remain, unless a different course is soon pursued. The number of wild females — cows and heifers— which are stiU in existence, is scarcely more than seventy in all the three herds put together, and hitherto prejudice has prevented any one of these herds being of any use to either of the others. They are quite reduced to three distinct families, and each family a small one. Exces- sive rarity has been aimed at, and obtained ; and that is the very worst quality that can be imposed on any family of cattle, whether wild or of a fashionable do- mestic sort: for it is produced by infertility, and the end is to deteriorate and breed out the race. APPENDIX I. THE TUBNBULL LEGEND. " Between red ezlar banks that frightful scowl, Fringed with grey hazel, roars the mining Ronll ; Where Tumbnlls once, a race no power conld awe. Lined the rough sMrts of stormy Ruhertslaw. Bold was the chief from whom their line they drew, "Whose nervous arm the f urioos bison slew : The bison, fiercest race of Scotia's breed. Whose bounding course outstripped the red deer's speed. By hunters chafed encircling on the plain, He frowning shook his yellow lion-maue, Spumed with black hoof, in bursting rage, the ground. And fiercely tossed his moony horns around ; On Scotia's lord he rushed with lightning speed, Bent his strong neck to toss the startled steed ; His arms robust the hardy hunter Aung Around his bending horns, and upward wrung With writhing force his neck retorted round. And rolled the panting monster on the ground, Crushed with enormous strength his bony skull, And courtiers hailed the man who tttened the bull." Leyden's " Scenes of Infancy." Befoee concluding this work, I propose to consider the story connected with King Eobert Bruce which. Boethius relates, as has been already stated, and which must have occurred between the battle of Bannockbum in the year 1314 (when the Bruce established himself on the throne), and the king's death in 1329. This attack upon the king by the wild bull is, I believe, the earliest incident in Scottish history in which this animal figures as an actor. It took place at least fire centuries and a half since — two. centuries before Boethius wrote — and it is a pretty strong proof that when it occurred the wild bull was more abundant than in his time. Yet even then the great Caledonian Wood must have been much APPE2WIX I. 369 diminished in its extent from what it had been centuries before, and the wild bull, as a forest animal, was verging towards his end. 'And it is singular that this was the case at the same period in England too, and from the same cause — ^the rapid destruction of the larger forests. The description given by Boethius is simple and unex- aggerated, and bears the internal impress of truth; merely men- tioning the attack of the wounded bull upon the king, the danger he was in, how he was rescued by a certain man, who, at the risk of his own Ufe, seized the bull by the horns ; who, in consequence, was largely rewarded, and had his name changed to Tumbull ; and that from bin-i several influential Scottish families claimed descent. There is clearly no inherent improbability in the story. An English historian* calls this man "a certaine stoute champion of great stature ; " and it is no xmusual thing in any nation for men to be occasionally bom who far surpass their fellows in size and strength, as apparently did Tumbull. The sacred writings afford many ex- amples. Grecian history contained similar narratives; and it is doubtful whether the statue to which the following beautiftd lines from the Greek Anthology + refer was meant to represent the contest of Hercules with the Marathonian bull, or the conquest of the Minotaur by Theseus : — " A miracle of art ! this deadly fight : The man bears down the bull with matchless might. With knee upon his foe, his hands he lays, One on the nostrils, one the horn to raise ; He twists the neck-joints with a fatal clasp, And back the monster falls with struggling gasp. Who sees the skilf nl brass would think he viewed The beast's quick breath, the man with sweat bedewed." I have myself frequently seen a very powerful beast so held by a strong and active man, by the nostril and the horn, till its neck was " retorted " back ; and, romantic as the story is, it is not half so wonderful as most of the numerous incidents which are said to have happened to Robert Bruce in the foi-mer part of his adventurous career. Neither was it necessary in the time of Boethius that the story should have been transmitted through more than one or two * Stowe. ■f- " The Greek Anthology " (chap, -ri., p. 161), by Lord Neares, one of the Senators of the CoUege of Justice in Scotland. Y 370 WILD WEITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. hands. When he was twenty years old this memorable event would have happened about 170 years, and he might easily have heard it from those who had associated with men grown up when it occurred. To give an instance : — Till the age of twenty -five I constantly asso- ciated with my grandfather, who died then, at the age of ninety ; and he was growing up into a man when his grandfather, bom soon after the restoration of Charles II., and a man in the reign of James II., died, at the age of ninety-five. Thus circumstances which happened in the reign of James II., one hundred and eighty years since, might have been transmitted to me from the original actor or witness through one iatervening person only. Another almost similar instance might be given in my own family. So long-lived as are many of the Scots, the same thing may easily have happened to Boethius, or to those with whom he associated. In addition, the truth of the story is amply confirmed by much curious circumstantial evidence. The writer of the lines at the head of this chapter was John Leyden, the very learned and lamented friend of Sir Walter Scott, who, in " The Lord of the Isles," thus deplores his premature death in India : — " Scenes sung by him who sings no more ! His bright and brief career is o'er, And mnte his tuneful strains ; Qnehched is his lamp of varied lore, That loved the light of song to pour; — A distant and a deadly shore Has Leyden's cold remains ! " * He was a native of Denholm, in the County of Eoxburgh, and in the immediate vicinity of the country of the Tumbulls, and it is not only the scenes, but the traditions also, of his infancy that he relates ; and there the origin of the family of Tumbull, as described by Boethius, was then — and is, I believe, still — universally believed. I have met many Tumbulls, unconnected with and unknown to each other, and they all believe in the truth of the story and in their own descent from the man who saved the king's life ; so that this universal family tradition deserves great consideration. It is con- firmed stiU further by the crest and arms which they have borne for generations. The following information has been kindly obtained * " Loid of the Isles," canto iv., stanza 11. APPENDIX I. 371 for me, principally by Mr. John Tumbull, of Abbey St. Bathan's, near Dimse, Berwickshire, and also of Frederick Street, Edinburgh, who beKeves that now (its acknowledged original heads, the Turn- bulls of Bedrule, being extinct) he has probably as good a claim to the chieftaiaship of the clan as any one else. Similar accounts on some points have been given to me by other gentlemen of the same name. There is no doubt of the existence of an universal and ancient tradition as to the origin of the name, particularly in the Border Country, where the TumbuUs lived. Their country was the valley of Rule-Water, in Eoxburghshire, a little way &om Jedburgh, and the castle of the head of the clan was Bedrule (or, as anciently written, Badyruel), where considerable foundations still remain. The tradition is that the family was originally Rule, or Rouel, derived from the river Rule-Water, which was a tributary of the river Teviot, and that the name TurnbuU was assumed in consequence of this exploit, which is said to have taken place at C^Uander, near Stirling : William Roule being there in attendance on the king. It seems to me probable that when he changed his name his collateral relatives in his native valley, whose chief he was, changed theirs also. And though there is no record . of the grant of arms to the original Tumbull,* the various families of this name have always borne the bull's head on their coat of arms, in reference to his exploit. The coat which they bore nearly three hundred and fifty years since is given in the MS. emblazoned by " Sir David Lindesay of the Mount, Lord Lyon King-at-arms," f which bears date 1542, but certainly refers back to a considerably earlier period, for therein are contained the arms of families which were then extinct. The arms of Tumbull, as given there, are, " Argent, three bulls' heads erased sable ; " and these are the arms which have been used with differences * There ia no doubt that many or most of the old records belooging to the Lyon Office (which answers to the English Heralds' College) have been lost — it is traditionally said, by fire. The present Lyon King attributes it, however, to other causes. Many of his predecessors kept the records in their own houses, and on their death these papers got mized with their own, and were destroyed or dispersed. It is in this way that Sir David Lindsay's MS. is not in the Lyon Office, bnt in the Advocates' Library, where it has been fortunately preserved. This destruction of ancient heraldic documents makes it very difficult to trace the arms of many Scottish families very far back. t Sir W. Scott's " Marmion," canto iv., stanza 7. t2 372 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. for hundreds of years by the various families of Tumbull of Bedi-ule, of Kno-w, of St. Bathan's, of Strickathro, of Smiddichill, of Currie, and others.* Yet, ancient as these arms were, there seems to have been, nearer to the time of Robert Bruce, a still older coat, "which was charged -with one bull's head only. On a buttress of Jedburgh Abbey — approximating in point of date, it ■would seem, to the time I have named — is a shield bearing one bull's head only ; and Nisbet, in his ■work on heraldry, f says : " The name of Tumbull carried Argent, a bull's head erased sable, of late three of them, disposed t'wo and one ; " and then, after repeating the origin of the name, ■which he says before ■was Ruel, and laying the scene in the Forest of Stirling (in which Callander, traditionally said ■to be ■the place where it occurred, was), he adds : — " I have seen the armorial seal of Tumbull of Minto appended to a charter of his of the date 1455, which had only one bull's head, and that cabossed. - Of late those of this name multiply the heads to three.'' Mr. Tumbull's arms of Abbey St. Bathan's are : — " Per che^vron, argent and sable, three bull's heads erased, counter changed." The earliest form of the crest, as borne by the family of Bedrule, is not kno-wn, but it seems to have been always, in some form or other, the bull's head. The oldest in the Lyon Office is that of Tumbull of Know (1672), and it was " a bull's head cabossed, sable:^ Mr. Tumbull's of Abbey St. Bathan's is "a dexter hand fessways, couped, holding a dagger erect, proper, hilted, and pommelled or, bearing on the point thereof a buU's head erased, sable." It can be traced back for one hundred and fifty years. Of the origin of his striking motto, which so singularly confirms the old tradition — 31 eabeJ tj)C Itlins; — ^Mr. TumbuU knows nothing, except that he finds it on silver plate from 100 to 150 years old, so that it is at least no new assumption. * I have 'not thought it worth while to allade to -the Bnppositions of some that the familj of Tnmball were derived from BobertuB de Tremblage, whose name appears on the " Bagman's Boll " — that is, the list of those Scots who swore submission to Edward I. of England in the years 1292-96 and 1297. Bobert de Tremblage took the oath of allegiance on July 28th, 1296, at Elgin. A member of sach a. family was not very likely to have so soon afterwards received a grant of land from Bobert Brace : the supposition is unsupported by any evidence whatever ; and the Tremblages, living in Fifeshire, Forfarshire, or Kincardine, were most remote from the country in which so shortly afterwards the Tumbull family flourished. t Nisbet's " System of Heraldry," p. 340, and 2nd ed., 1804, p. 332. APPENDIX I. 373 It occurred to me at first that the bull's head in the St. Bathan's arms being sable was of a different colour irom what might have been supposed ; but little was tiiought of this at the Lyon Office. Mr. TurnbuU was informed there that "there is nothing unsatis- factory in the bull's head being sable; for heraldic colours were generally taken instead of the proper colours." And besides this, it should be remembered that we have no record of the grant of arms made to the original TumbuU, or of the colours of the arms which the heads of the family at Bedrule bore. We only know what arms have been borne by junior branches of the family ; and it is well known that the colours were often changed, as a difference, to dis- tinguish the arms of younger branches from those of the parent stock. We have, therefore, really nothing to show of what colour the bull's head was in the original coat. But besides this, the most undeniable evidence exists that a man, formerly of some other surname, did at this exact time assume the name of TurnbuU, and that he was rewarded by King Robert Bruce for services done. In the " Register of the Great Seal of Scotland " * is given a charter by that king to " WiUielmo vocato Tumebull " (William, caMed Tumebull), of a piece of land at Fulhophalch (PhUip- haugh), on condition of his rendering " unam sagittam amplam ad festum assumptionis beatse Mariae Yirginis." The " vocato Tumebull " of the grant strikingly coincides with the statement of Boethius about the man whom the king " TumbuU appeUari exinde voluit.'' It was clearly a name very lately taken. It is also very curious that in the " liber de Calchou " (the Book of Kelso Abbey) there appear grants to the monks from the family of Roule, or Rule, before this time — one particularly was made by Adam de Roule about the year 1300, and to this WUHam Rule (who has been supposed to have been the very person of whom I write) was a witness ; t while subsequently only, and then very soon, the name of TumbuU occurs and that of Rule disappears. A Walter TumbuU is a witness to three of these grants. These charters have * Page 6. A BoyaJ Commission began to print this " Register,'' tut only one Tolnme was issned, entitled "Begistmm magni sigUli Begam Scotoram," &c., containing the Charters from 1306 to 1424. The reference is to the page of this Tolnme. t Pages 136 and 458 of " Liber de Calohon," one of the Bannatyne Club books, printed for the Bannatyne Club by the Dnke of Boxburgh. J " Liber de Calchou," pp. 339, 887, and 394. 374 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. themselves no dates ; but the charters confirming them are — one by David II., King of Scots, the 1st of April, 1354, and the two last by Edward III. of England, dated the 1st of May, " Anno Eegni nostri, Anglise 24, et Erancise 15 : " that is, about the year 1351. We have not even yet done with this famous knight (for knighted it is said he was), Sir WiUiam Tumbull. Scottish traditions say that he fell at the battle of Halidon HiU, fighting against the English, in 1333. The English historian, Stowe, thus relates the circumstance : "Whereuppon at length the two armies appoynted to fight, and setting out uppon HaUdowne HiQ, there commeth foorth of the Scots campe a certain stoute champion of great stature, who, for a fact by him done, was called Tumebulle ; hee, standing in the midst betwixt the 2 armies, challenged aU the Englishmen, any one of them, to fight with him a combat. At length one Kobert Venale, knight, a Norfolke man, requesting license of the king, being armed, with Ms sword drawne, marcheth toward the champion, meeting by y" way a certain blacke mastiffe dogge, which waited on the champion, ■whom with his sword he sodainely strake, and cut bitn off at his loynes ; at the sight -whereof the maister of the dogge slain was much abashed, and in his batteU more warie and fearefuU : whose left hand and head also afterward this -worthy knight cut off." * Baker, in his " Chronicles," mentions the same circumstance, and calls the knight " Yenile." And Barnes, in his " History of Ed-ward III.," t gives a much fuller account of this single combat, and says that the name of the English knight was Sir Robert Benhale, who in the Parliament of 1331 (only two years previously) had been fined for a riot. It seems, therefore, probable that as he -was then under a cloud he might be all the more anxLoiis to -wipe out the memory of his disgrace by engaging in this chivalric and dangerous undertaking. Barnes also expressly identifies Tumbull -with the man who saved Robert Bruce from the -wild hull. * Stowe's " Annales," continued by Ed-ward Howes, 1615, p. 231. t 1688, chap, vi., p. 77. APPENDIX II. A LIST or LOCALITIES WHERE WILD WHITE CATTLE OB THEUt DOMESTIC DESCENDAITTS ARE PBOVJfiD TO HAVE EXISTED. In Scotland. The Great Caledonian Wood. — Througliout the Trhol6 of this the ■wild moTintain buU ranged from the earliest times ; latterly he only survived at the three following places : — Stirling. — King Robert Bruce hunted him here, tradition says, about the year 1320, and wild cattle were still found in this neighbourhood in 1578. Gvmbemauld. — King James IV. hunted the wild cattle in the Forest of Cumbernauld about the year 1500 ; they are mentioned by historians in the years 1526 and 1578 ; they were the subject of a State Paper in the year 1570, and did not become finally extinct tiU the early part of the last century. Kmcardine. — ^They are noticed by Leslie as remaining here in 1578. Cadzow Pabk (Hamilton). — The wild cattle have been here from time immemorial. They had a narrow escape from destruction during the civil wars of the seventeenth century. This herd is still existing. AtJCHENCEUiVE (County of Ayr). — ^There was here a herd of wild cattle, of unknown antiquity, the property of Lord Cathcart. Charles, ninth baron, sold the estate in 1763 to Richard Oswald, and the cattle were destroyed a few years later. Aedrossan (County of Ayr). — WUd cattle were introduced about 1750 by Alexander, tenth Earl of Eglinton; they were de- stroyed in 1820. Dkumlaneig Castle (Coujity of Duinfries).^Here was a herd of wild cattle of great and unknown antiquity ; it was destroyed towards the close of the last century by WUliam, fourth and last Duke of Queensberry, of the Douglas family. 376 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. FoEEST OF Athole. — From the remains of the ancient wild cattle stm existing here, Lord Glenlyon formed a wild herd towards the beginning of this century, which was eventually removed to Tatmouth — the Marquis of Breadalbane's — and Dalkeith — the Duke of Buccleuch's. — Both these herds are now extinct ; but from these two in part descends the semi-wild herd at KiLMOET House (County of Argyll). — ^It is the property of Sir John Powlett Orde, Bart. This herd still exists. *»* T?ie Cadzoto Park (Bamilton) and the KiVmory herds are the only two now existing in, Scotlcmd, In England. DuNSMORE Heath (in Warwickshire). — A celebrated wild cow is said to have been slain here between the years 925 and 941 ; and here, even from Saxon times, " a white bull with red ears and a red nose " has been imposed as a forfeiture for non-pay- ment of certain dues. The Southern Forests, in the time of King Cnut, contained " Bubali," or wild bulls— that is, from 1017 to 1035. The Chilteen Forests (Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, and Mid- dlesex), in the time of Edward the Confessor — from a.d. 1041 to A.D. 1066 — contained wild bulls. Enfield Chase, then extending up to the gates of London, in the year 1174 contained wild bulls " in great abundance." EJNAEESBOEOUGH FoREST (Yorkshire), about the year 1200, had its " fierce wild " cows. Ohillingham Castle (Northumberland) has in its park a fine herd of these cattle, certainly several hundred years old, and probably much older. Chatton, adjoining ChiUingham, imparked by King Edward L in 1291 or 1292, contained "wild animals," presumably the same as those at ChiUingham. Kawoeth Castle (Cumberland) had wild cattle on its extensive moors in ancient times. Chaetlet Park (Stafibrdshire) was, it is believed, enclosed about the year 1248, and the wUd cattle, deer, wild boaxs, and other wild animals, were then driven into it out of Keedwood Forest, APFENBIX 11. 377 of which it formed part, and which they had long previously inhabited. Their descendants are stiU kept here. Lyme Pakk (Cheshire), enclosed about 1280 or 1290 from the royal Forest of Macclesfield, obtained its wild herds, still remaining, in a similar manner from the ancient wild cattle of that forest. Blakelet (Lancashire) had wild bulls in days so early that even 350 years since they were spoken of as " times paste." Bishop ArcKLAND (Durham). — Previous to the Reformation, and again a hundred years later, the wild herd of the Bishops of Durham, which was of unknown antiquity, and kept in their park here, is mentioned by those who saw them. They seem to have been destroyed during the civil wars of Charles the First's time. Beatjrepaire (Durham), the hunting park of the Priors of Durham. — There seems fair reason for supposing that it contained wild cattle, and that these were destroyed by the Scots in 1315. Baby Castle (Durham), the principal seat of the Nevills. — ^Various circumstances render it most highly probable that the wild cattle were kept here. They were certainly kept at Babkabd Castle (Durham) — a seat of a younger branch of the Nevin fanuly, only six miles from Baby. These cattle are mentioned in a royal grant of 1626. HoGHTON TowEE (Lancashire) had in olden times a very ancient herd of wild cattle, which has probably been extinct 200 years or more. MiDDLETOX Hall (Lancashire), the seat of the Asshetons, and , close to Blakeley, had an old herd of wild cattle, described in 1700, and probably the descendants of the Blakeley bulls. BowLAND FoEEST (Lancashire) is traditionally believed to have been the source from which many wild herds sprang. "Whaixey Abbey (Lancashire) had a park which certainly con- tained them ; and they are traditionally believed to have been obtained from Bowland Forest in the times of the Lord Abbots. If not, they were introduced by the impropriators, the Asshetons, from Middleton. They came to an end about the year 1700. Gisbuene Park (Yorkshire). — Here was long kept a well-known wild herd, belonging to the family of Lister, now Lords E,ib- blesdale. It was brought from WhaUey Abbey either at the 378 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GBEAT BRITAIN. dissolution, or in the time of the Asshetons, or at both periods. It died out less than twenty years ago. B0KTON Constable (Yorkshire). — ^A large and good herd, of great antiquity but unknown origin. It belonged to the Clifford Constables, and came to an end in the latter part of the last century. WoLLATON Hall (Nottinghamshire).— Here, till about fifty years since, -was a beautiful herd, of unknown origin but of great antiquity, as is shown by the name they bore : " The Old Park Cattle." SoMERFOED Paek (Cheshire), Sir C. W. Shakerley's, contains a herd which has been here for several hundred years. Derived un- doubtedly at first from the wild herds of South Lancashire, it has been long domesticated, but strikingly preserves the ancient character of the breed. HoLDENBT (Northamptonshire). — A comparatively modem park, made in the time of Queen Elizabeth, but purchased and much enlarged by King James L, by whom, in aU probability, the wild cattle kept there were introduced. They were destroyed during the civil wars in the reign of his son, Charles I. EwELME (Oxfordshire). — An ancient royal park which the wild cattle inhabited in the time of James I. and in the early part of the following reign. There is, however, strong reason for believing that they were located here in much earlier times. Leigh Court (Somersetshire), near Bristol. — A very ancient park, belonging formerly to the Augustioian Canons near BristoL A wild herd flourished here till 1806, when they were destroyed on account of their ferocity. Their origin is uncertain : but they probably went back to the monastic period. The Gunton, Blickling, and 'Wgodbastwick Herds (Norfolk) were aU derived from the ancient wild herd of Middleton, in Lancashire. The first of them died out some thirty years since ; the two latter stiU exist, more or less pure. All were domesticated. Brooke Hall (Noifolk). — This herd, the property of the Kerrisons, was domesticated, but of the same type. The origin of it has not been ascertained. INDEX Aberfxaw, Elngdom of, 109. Aislabies of Stadley Boyal, White Steed of the, 112. Ancient domestic races of White Cattle, 50, 103 et seg., 117. Ancient Tcligions ceremonies, White Oattle preferred in, 18. Ardrossan Herd, 330 et seq. Arnolds biggin, 283. Assheton pedigree, The, 284. Athole Herd, 345; lost Breadalbane portion, 346 ; Dake of Baccleach's portion of the, ib. AnchencnuTe Herd, 329. Bailey, John, steward at Chillingham ■ Park, 145. Bakewell, his discoveries, 212, 216. Bellenden, John, Archdeacon of Moray, 132. Beskwood Park, 274. Bewick, Thomas, author of the " Ge- neral History of Qoadmpeds," 145 ; engraving of a ChiUingham Wild Bnll by, 195 ; on the rich pasturage at Holdemess, 254. Bison of Bialowitz, 165; of the Mis- sissippi, 295. Black Calves, 237. BlickUng Hall Herd, descended from the Guuton Park Herd, 306 ; Eev. G. Gilbert's Report in 1875, 307 et seq. ; severely injured by the oattle plague, 308 ; characteristics of the, 309 et seq. ; Woodbastwick Calves exchanged with those of, 313. " Boar Green," 297. Boethius, 125, 139. Booth's celebrated White Bull, 196. Bos bubalus, 19. , frontosus, 3. , Gaums, 9. , Indicus, 1. , Longifrons (alias Brachyceros), 2 et seq., 109, 142, 185. , Primigenius (i«de Urus). , Scoticus, Foreign writers on the, 132. , Taurus, 1. , Trochoceros, 3. Bower, Eemarkable discovery at, 143. Boyd Dawkins' " Cave Hunting," 4 et seq. ! " British Fossil Oxen," 9. Breediug, Old theories respecting, 211. Brense, Maud de, 107. "Bride of Lammermoor," 123. British Wild Cattle, similar in all im- portant characteristics, 49. Brooke House, White Cattle of, 317. Brown's description of the Hamilton Herd, 338 et seq. Bucclench, Duke of, as a breeder of cattle, 346. Bugge, Balph, ancestor of the WU- loughbys, 269. Bull, An encounter with a, 190. Burton Constable, The Manor House at, 253. Burton Constable Herd, 253 ; Bewick's account of, 254. Burton, Mr. Thomas, 270. Cssar, Allusion to the Bos prvmigenius by, 128, 186; Celtic civilisation at the time of his invasion, 4. Caledonian Forest, History of the, 140. 380 UTDEX. " Careotonia," probably Carriok, 139. " Castle Dangerous," Account of a Wild Cattle hunt in, 122. Cator, Mr., of Woodbastwiok Hall, 309. Celtic Cattle, Small (aee Bos longifrons). Cbarolais Breed, The, 30. Chaxtley Herd, early notices of these cattle as " Wild Beasts," 220; black calves considered a family omen, 221 ; Author's first visit to the, 223 ; essentially Long-horns, 225 ; Author's second visit to the, 226; peculiar characteristics of the, 231 et seq. ; resemblance between cattle at So- merford Park and, 233 ; not so wild as the ChlUingham Cattle, 235 ; at- tempts to cross the herds, 288 ; white cattle in the neighbourhood of the, 239 ; Messrs. Pole-GeU and Thornton on the, 240 ; size of the cattle, 243. Chartley Park, Erdeswick's account of, 219; extract from an old steward's account-book at, 220. ChattoD, formerly a royal residence and demesne, 172. Chillingham Herd, Bewick's Account of the, 145 et seq.; mentioned by Messrs. CuUey and Pennant, ib. ; Lord Tankerville's account of the, 152 et seq.; colour of the ears, 155 ; Jesse's statement incorrect, 158 ; Mr. Hindmarsh's account, 159 j " The Drnid " on the, 163 ; Bull shot by H.E.H. the Prince of Wales, 165 ; visit of Messrs. Pole-Gell, Booth, and Thornton to, 168 et seq. ; Author's visit to in 1874, 172 ; length of time for suckling calves, 180; Nathuslns on the CMUingham skull,' 170 ; essentially wild cattle, 184 ; attack upon Mr. Hope by a steer of this breed, 187 ; attack upon Lord Ossnlston, 188 ; attack upon a keeper, 190 ; thin red line above the muzzle characteristic of the, 193 the mane mentioned by Boethius, 194 other characteristics of the, 197 specimens preserved by Mr. Briggs of Wooler, 197 ; constitution and government of the, 200 ; a fight for the kingship, 201 ; calving in the, 203 ; weight and quality of the meat, 204 ; sick animals often gored, ib. ; past and present statistics of the, 205; uncommonly fine and delicate bones, 206 ; questions of fecundity and inter-breeding, 209 ; no proof that it has never been crossed, 210 ; bulls mated with Short-horn heifers, 217 ; Mr. Culley on the purity of the breed, 270. ChlUingham, A brief account of, 1 47 ; the Castle at, 150 ; ancient British encampment at, ib. ; magnificent view near, 172. ClanwiUiam, Earl, bull shot by, 161. Clifford-Constable, Sir F. A. Talbot, 253. Clitumnus, Virgil on the White Cattle of, 20. " Coil More," 119. Culley, Mr. George, historian of the Chillingham Herd. 144, 270. Cumbernauld Herd, mentioned by Boethius, 135 ; history of the, 322 et seq. Creswell Moss, probable fossil remains of the Bos primigenius in, 182. Dalkeith Herd, Aitohison's account of the, 346 ; only one bull left, 347. Dark-coloured calves. Destruction of, 266. Darwin, Professor, on the origin ;of the White Cattle, 1, 3. "Death of the Bull," by Landseer, 188. Deer-driving, Old Joseph Watson's method of, 246. De Musco Campo, The ancient House of, 151. Devereux, Sir Walter, 219. Dickinson's description of the Lyrick Hall Herd, 115; of CaledonianForest Wild Cattle, 197. Dixon, Mr. H. H., on the Chillingham Cattle, 130. Druidism, British, 19, 109. Drumlanrig Herd, 328. " Dunoraggan's Milk-white Bull," 124. Dnnsmore Heath, Legend of the Wild Cow of, 104. Durham, Bishops of, 255. Dynevwr, 109. E. Eilean nan Con, 119. Epirus, White Cattle of, 23. Extinct British Herds, 320 et seq. Ewelme Park, 99. INDEX. 381 P. Falkland Islands, Cattle of the, 213. Ferrers, Lord, his efforts to improve the Ohartley breed, 238. Ford, Bailiff at Somerford Park, 258. Forest of Macclesfield, 247. Fossil species, 1 et seq. Fountains Abbey, Cattle of, 213. Friar Tuck, 257, Friesland Ox, 33. G. Oayot, M., on the Hungarian Cattle, 39. Gilbert, Ker. George, on the Gunton Park Herd, 303 ; on the Woodbast- wick cattle, 314. Gisbome Park Herd related to the Middleton Herd, 277 ; Bewick's de- scription in 1790, 278 ; Whitaker's description in 1804, 279 ; a Polled Herd, ib. ; originally from Whalley Abbey or Middleton, ib.; semi-do- mesticated character of the, 286 ; Lord Bibbleadale's acconnt of, 287 ; Bey. T. Stanifoith's account of, 287 ; Mr. Assheton's account of, 280; last animal killed, 290 j causes of its extinction, 292. Glendole Ward, 147. Grace Darling, scene of her exploit,, 172. Griffith's "Animal Kingdom," 27. Golyas, 41. Gunton Park Herd, originally from Middleton, 299; at its perfection, 300; Lord Suffield's description of the, ib. ; Messrs. Coleman and Gilbert on the, 303 ; its resemblance to the Polled Cattle of Somerford Park, 304 ; Extinct save in offsets, 305 ; its influence in the district : ancestors of Woodbastrrick, 312. H. Half-horns, 240. Hamilton Herd, Professor Low on a common tendency in the Chilling- ham cattle, &c., 266 ; acconnt of the, 338 ; and the Chillingham Cattle, 339; During the CromweUian period, 340; when crossed, 342; formerly harmless, ib. ; Mr. Chandos-Pole- : Gell's account of the, 344, Earbord, Sir H., 298. Hepburn Wood, 150. Herodotus, his account of the Wild Bulls of Crestonia, 11 ; Hippocrates, on the Wild Bulls mentioned by Herodotus, 12. Holdenby Herd, The, 97. Holstein Cattle, 34. Howel Dha, Code of laws ascribed to, 106. Hughes, Mr. G. H., of Middleton Hall, 181. " Hughie the GrsBme," Ballad of, 113. Hungarian Cattle, Characteristics of the, 37 et seq. ; Professor Wrightson on the, 41 ; Dr. Hlubeck on the, 42. Hyroinian Forest, Wild Beasts of the, 13. Improved Long-horns, 228 et seq. lu-breeding. Evil effects of, 209, 294, 360 et seq. ItaUan Cattle, Varro on the colour of, 19. Jesse's Natural History, 18. K. Kadyll, William, " White Calfe " of, 155, 214. £aormaosd breed. The, 40. Eilmonivaig, 119. Kilmony Herd, semi-wild, 348 ; how Sir John Orde formed it, ib; last cross with the, S51 ; present con- dition of the, ib. ; Mr. Chandos-Pole- Gell's account of the herd, 355. Kincardine of Bishop Leslie, where situated, 135. "King's Hag of Beskwood," 273. Knightlow Cross, The Custom of, 103J KnoUys, Lord William, 98. Kjokken-mSdden, 10. Kyloe Breed, 136. L. " Lady of the Lake," Douglas's home as described in the, 123. Lancashire Bull, The original, 300. Landseer, Sir Edwin, 130, 170, 188, 196. 382 HWEX. Leacndbagill, 122. Legh, Sir Piers, 245. Leland, Mb accoont of the antiquity of the Middleton Park Herd, 297. Lenton, Shorthorns at, 272. Leslie, Bishop, 132, 135, 139. Lincohi BuUook, The, 35. Long-horns, Account of the, 225 ; Mr. Chapman's, 242 ; farther particulars respecting, 251. Lothifin, Lord, 313. Louis Bous, author of " India and its Native Princes," 18. Low, Professor, on the English Forest Breed, 28; on the Welsh White Cattle, 105, 266. Ludchurch, 257. LyeU, Sir Charles, on Colour in Human Baces and Cattle, 216. Lyme Park Herd, An account of the, 245 et seq. ; HansaU's account of the, 246 et seq. ; Author's visit to in 1875, 247 ; attempt to procure a cross with ibe, 249 ; the Chartley cross, ib. ; the Polled Gisbume cross, 250; habits of the old cattle, 251 ; the largest Wild Breed known in this country, 252. Lyrick Herd, Particulars respecting the, 114 et seq. M. Maokensie's " View of the County of Northumberland," 154. MariahoS Oz, Measurement of a, 44. Meaux, The Cistercian Abbey of, 255. Michie, head keeper at Chillingham, 166, 203; on the goring of the sick cattle, 204. Hiddleton Park Herd, Dr. 'Leigh's account of, in 1700, 294; probable origin of the, 297 ; finally removed to Gunton Park, 298 Miles, Sir William, of Leigh Court, 99. Moldavia, Oxen of, 23. Monadh-Liadh, 119. Moody, Mr. Henry, 271. N. Nathusius, Herman von, 153 ; on the Chillingham sknU, 170. Naworth Castle, 149. Needwood, Forest of, 220. Nilsson, Professor, on the Bos longi- frons, 2, 4; on the tendency of Cattle to grow smaller in process of domestication, 185. O. OsSky, Count, breeder of the Kaor- maosd White Cattle, 40. Ossulston, Lord, his experience of Chillingham Cattle, 157. Owen Professor, on the proper number of breeding cows in a herd, 171. Owen's College, Manchester, Stuffed White Cow at, 291. P. Paul Potter's Bull, 35. Pennant's "British Zoology," 145. PUny, on White Cattle sacrificed in British ceremonies, 19. Podolian race of White Cattle, 44. " Prince of Wales' Plain," 175. Bannock, Black Wood of, 120. " Bed Comyn," 332. Eobert Bruce, Narrow escape of, 127. Bobin Hood's Bog, 175. Bussian Steppes, Cattle of the, 47, 234, 267. Biitimeyer, Professor, on the Bos trocho- ceros in fossil remains of the Bos primiyenius in Swiss lake-dwelling district, 11 ; his opinion of the, 153 ; the anatomical investigations of, 185. S. Saint Bobert, Tradition of, 83. Scott, Sir W, his allusions to Wild White Cattle, 122. Shakerley, Sir C. W., 256. Shirley, Mr., 220. Short-homSj Yonatt on the red ears of White, 193 ; at Lenton, 272. Sibbald, Sir Bobert, author of " Scotia Ulnstrata," 136. Sinclair, Sir John, author of a " Sta- tistical Account of Scotland," 118. Smith, Br. J. A., on the Urus of Cale- donia, 140. TNVEX. 383 Somerf ord Park Herd, Some accoimt of the, 256; probably connected with the Lyme Park and Chartley, 257 j Author's visit to in 1875; 258; a pnre white breed, 259 ; pnre milking qualities of the, 263 ; probable use of diluted crosses in the, %64i ; antiquity of the herd, ib. ; its probable origin, 265 ; interesting proof of the slight variability in colour, 266. Stark, The name of, 324 Staunton Harold, Lord f errers' estate, 221. Stirling, Wild Bulls formerly kept for royal sport at, 135. SufEield, Lord, his herd in Norfolk, 97. £iits sorofa, Genuine specimen of the, 239. Swart Money, 104 Swiss lake-dwelling district, The Urns in the, 11, 186. Symsoii's " Large Account of Gallo- way," 214. Tacitus on the Friesland Oxen, 33. Tankerville, Earl of, 148, 156, 158, 166, 180, 190, 196, 205. Taylor, Mr. William, of Hendon Grange, 155. Teutonic tribes, their influence on Celtic civilisation, 6. Thorpe, Mr., arcMtect of Wollaton Hall, 269. Transylvanian Ox, 43 et seq. Tumbull legend. The, 127, 368. " Twopenny," Bakewell's celebrated bull, 226. Tyler's " Early History of Mankind," 9. TJ. Urus {Bos primvigenius). Origin of the, 4 et seq. ; not to be confused with the bison, 9 ; objections to the designation Bos pri/migenms, 10; dis- tinct from the buffalo, ib, ; details in ancient writers respecting the, 11 et seq.; characteristics of the, 13 ; allusion in the Niebelvmgen Lied to the, 14 ; apparent resemblance between various domestic races of White Cattle and the, 23 et seq. ; not black, 24; in ancient Britain, 50 ; fossil remains in the Stone and Bronze Ages of the, 52 et seq.; likely to survive longer in Scotland and ITorth of England, 54 ; other allu- sions to the, 109, 121, 182, 186 ; of the Hyroinian Forest, 128 ; Boethins, regarding the mane of the, 135 ; discovery of bones in Scotland, 141 ; colour of the, 266. Vaie Eoyal, Herd at, 110. Yarro upon the colour of the Italian Cattle, 19. Virgil mentions certain White Cattle, 20. W. Wales, Wild White Cattle of, 105 et seq, Walsh, Captain, 226, 236. Welsh Laws, Notices of White Cattle in ancient, 106. Whinburgh Park Farm, 305. Whitaker, Dr., Author of " History of Craven," 279. White Cattle, Origin of British, 1 et seq. ; unfounded prejudice against, 16 ; allied race of, ib. ; antiquity and high appreciation of the colour, 18 ; of CUtumnus, 20 ; of Epirus, 23 ; Charolais breed of, 30 ; Kaormaosd breed of, 40 ; early notice of, 56 ; their last home in Britain, 60 et seq. ; forest breed of, 74 ; in parks, 76 et seq.; Podolian race, 44; an- cient domestic race of, in England and Wales, 102 et seq.; no notice of in monastic records, 103 ; in Wales, and especially in Pembroke, 105; notices of in ancient Welsh laws, 106 ; Maud de Brense's present of to King John's queen, 107; Author's remarks upon those of Wales, 108 et seq. ; Lyrick Herd of, 114; traces of in Scottish local names, 117 ; in ancient Scotland, ib. ; allu- sions to in Sir Walter Scott's works, 122 ; clearly distinguished from Kyloe breed, 136; Chillingham Herd of, 144 et seq. ; strongest tendency to black in Southern herds, 276 ; proofs of the influence of the wild breed upon English domesticated cattle, 819; existing Scottish herds of, 338; Author's final observations 384 INDEX. on, 357 et seq. ; general resemblanoe in the herds, ib. ; and to the ancient TJrua, ■i5. ; diffierenoes extending even to stractnre, 359; proofs furnished by them of the destractive effects of in-breeding, 360 et seq. ; list of the localities in England and Scotland where they have existed, or still exist, 375 et seq. Whitton, George, on the Chartley Herd, 223. Willdnson's Short-horn Herds at Lenton, 272. Willonghbys, Barons Mlddleton, 269. "Windsor," Mr. Booth's celebrated White Ball, 196. Wollaton Hall Herd, existing in 1790, 269 ; was a Polled herd, 271 ; Bur- ton's account of the, ib. ; Willonghby's acconnt of the, ib.; semi- domes- ticated, 273; extinguished by neg- ligence and in-breeding, ib.; pro- bable origin of the herd, ib. Woodbastwick Hall Herd, Mr. Gator's, 309 ; also from the Gnnton Cattle, 812 ; calTes exchanged with Blick- ling,crossed with Short-horns in 1864, 314; Eev. G. Gilbert's report on the herd at, ib. ; distinct from Polls of Scotland and Eastern Counties, 316 et seq. Wooler, 148. Wyolifife Hall, the seat of the Con- stable family, 255. T. Yorkshire Cow, 35. Youatt, Mr., 106 ; on the red ears of the White Short-horns, 193. CASSELL PETTEK & GALPllT, BKIXE SAtJVAGE WOBES, LONLON, E.C.