502 British Association. 



marsh, of Alnwick, who read a paper upon these animals, the 

 history of which must be deeply interesting to all British Zo- 

 ologists. 



"Grosvenor Square, 8t)i June, 1838. 



" Sir, 



" Some time since I promised to put down upon paper 

 whatever I knew as to the origin, or thought most deserving 

 of notice, in respect to the habits and peculiarities of the wild 

 cattle at Chillingham. I now proceed to redeem my promise, 

 begging pardon for the delay. In the first place, I must pre- 

 mise that our information as to their origin is very scanty ; all 

 that we know and believe in respect to it rests in great mea- 

 sure on conjecture, supported, 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 improba- 

 bility of any hypothesis ascribing to them a more recent date. 

 I remember an old gardener of the name of Moscrop, who 

 died about thirty years ago, at the age of perhaps eighty, 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 curi- 

 osity as exists with regard to them at the present day. In 

 my father and grandfather's time we know that the same ob- 

 scurity as to their origin prevailed ; and if we suppose (as 

 was no doubt the case) that there were old persons in their 

 time capable of carrying back their recollections to the con- 

 versation still antecedent to them, this enables us at once to 

 look back to a very considerable period, during which no 

 greater knowledge existed as to their origin than at the pre- 

 sent period. It is fair, however, to say, that I know of no 

 document in which they are mentioned at any past period. — 

 Any reasoning, however, that might be built on their not be- 

 ing so noticed, would equally apply to the want of evidence 

 of that which would be more easily remembered or recollect- 

 ed — the fact of their recent introduction. The probability is, 

 that they were the ancient breed of the island, inclosed long 

 since within the boundary of the park. Sir Walter Scott ra- 

 ther particularly supposes that they are the descendants of 

 those which inhabited the Great Caledonian Forest, extend- 

 ing from the Tweed to Glasgow, at the two extremities of 

 which, namely, Chillingham and Hamilton, they are found. 

 His lines in the ballad c Cadyow Castle ' describe them pretty 

 accurately at the present day : — 



