422 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



their passage to Antwerp, has resolved to land them at Ostend ; the 

 writers have therefore taken up a ship for the purpose, and contracted for 

 freight, provisions, and fitting of partitions for each beast apart. They 

 are to be received at Tower Wharf on Wednesday next, and the whole 

 charge is £50. [One page. Nicholas endorses the letter as relating to the 

 transport of ' tht loild cows.'' "] 



The second entry is under the date 1632, February 18, and is 

 to the following effect : — 



" Minutes by Nicholas of business to be transacted by the Lords of the 

 Admiralty. The business of the Saltpetremen ; Captains' names to be 

 presented to the King [delivered to Sec. Coke] ; letter of Officers of Navy 

 respecting the transport of wild cows." 



What were these " wild cows ? " — were they of the white breed ? 

 This, of course, is both possible and probable. We have heard of 

 " wild cows " in different lands. For example, Leslie, in De 

 Origine, Moribus, et Rebus Scotorum (1678), says that herds 

 of Vaccm frequented the mountainous districts of Argyle and 

 Ross (Appendix III.). But the wild cattle that in this instance 

 were exported to Belgium may have been simply what would now 

 be termed ranche cattle. From the Calendar of State Pape7's, 

 (Domestic Series), time of Charles II., we learn that cattle ranged 

 freely, and were branded. Under date August 12th, 1671, 

 Gulielmus [Fuller], Bishop of Lincoln, writes — " In my visitation 

 of Leicestershire I met with such an odd kind of disturbance 

 among the people that it startled me very much. A strong report 

 ran like wildfire all over that county, and others adjacent, that all 

 cattle of whatsoever kind which were not branded the King would 

 seize upon." . . . " It is reported (how true I know not) that 

 the Duchess of Newcastle was very severe in punishing those of 

 the forest in Nottinghamshire, taking away all the cattle that 

 were not branded, as legally they ought to be." 



Under date August 20, 1671, Sir William Hartopp, in a letter 

 about the alarm in Lincolnshire, writes — " Many thousands of 

 cattle were marked, and it came about (according to the best 

 intelligence) from some forest lands, where it was a custom to 

 mark their cattle." 



Forest lands may have been common grazing ground, and cattle 

 would therefore require to be branded so as to be distinguished. 

 The modern ranche is our equivalent for the seventeenth-century 



