2 



NOTES AND QUERIES* 



4-J- 



[:^o. 192. 



sentatives of the race whose bones are found in a 

 fossil state in England and some parts of the Con- 

 tinent in the " diluvium " bone-caves, mixed with 

 the bones of bears, hyenas, and other wild ani- 

 mals, now the cotemporaries of the Bos Gour, or 

 Asiaiic Ox, upon mountainous slopes of Western 

 India. I have read that white cattle resembling 

 the wild cattle of Chillingham exist in Italy, and 

 that it has been doubted whether our British wild 

 cattle are descendants of an aboriginal race, or 

 ■w&e imported by ecclesiastics from Italy. But 

 t^is'seems unlikely, because they were not so easily 

 brought over as the Pope's bulls (the pun is quite 

 unavoidable), and were undoubtedly inhabitants 

 of our ancient forests at a very early period. 



However, my present object is only to inquire 

 for any other instances of the custom of offering a 

 white bull in honour of a Christian saint. Perhaps 

 funeae of your correspondents would elucidate this 

 «Ingular oblation. 



I am not able to refer to Col. Hamilton Smith's 

 ihjrk on the mythology and ancient history of the 

 bx{ Which mr.y possibly notice this kind of offering. 



W.S.G. 

 ■ Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 



NEWSTEAD ABBET. 



■■'The descent of property, like the family pedi- 

 ^i^ei occasionally exhibits the most extraordinary 

 ais'ttrptions ; and to those who may be ignorant of 

 tl^p^cause, the effect may appear as romance. I 

 nfliT'e been particularly struck with the two inte- 

 resting papers contained in the April number of 

 ^e Archaological Journal, having reference to the 

 Newstead Abbey estate, formerly the property of 

 Lord Byron's family, which, amongst other mat- 

 ters, contain some severe remarks on the conduct 

 of one of its proprietors, the great uncle and pre- 

 i^ecessor of our great poet, and having reference 

 fo dilapidation. Mr. Pettigrew, in his paper, states 

 ffiat— 



" Family differences, particularly during the time of 

 the fifth Lord Byron, of eccentric and unsocial manners, 

 suffered and even aided the dilapidations of time. 

 The castellated stables and oflBces are, however, yet to 

 be seen." 



And Mr. Ashpitel adds that — 



" The state of Newstead at the time the poet suc- 

 ceeded to the estate is not generally known : ' the 

 wicked lord'' had felled all the noble oaks, destroyed the 

 finest herds of deer, and, in short, had denuded the 

 estate of everything he could. The hirelings of the 

 attorney did the rest : they stripped away all the fur- 

 niture, and everything the law would permit them to 

 remove. The buildings on the east side were unroofed ; 

 the old Xenodochium, and the grand refectory, were 

 full of hay ; and the entrance-hall and monks' parlour 

 were stable for cattle. In the only habitable part of 

 the building, a place then used as a sort of scullery, 



under the only roof that kept out wet of all "this vast 

 pile, the fifth Lord Byron breathed his last ; and to 

 this inheritance the poet succeeded." 



It is not necessary for me to refer to the lofty 

 expression of the poet's feelings on such his in- 

 heritance, nor to the necessity of his parting from 

 the estate, which appears now to be happily re- 

 stored to its former splendour ; but possessing 

 some knowledge of a lamentable fact, that neither 

 Mr. Pettigrew nor Mr. Ashpitel appears to be 

 aware of, I feel inclined to soften the asperity of 

 the reflectlo'ns quoted; and palliate, although I 

 may not justify, the apparently reckless proceed- 

 ings of the eccentric fifth Lord, as he is called.- 

 In the years 1796 and 1797, after finishing my 

 clerkship, I had a seat In the chambers of the late 

 Jas. Hanson, Esq., an eminent conveyancer of 

 Lincoln's Inn ; and while with him, amongst other 

 peers of the realm who came to consult Mr. 

 Hanson regarding their property, we had this 

 eccentric fifth Lord Byron, who apparently came 

 up to town for the purpose, and under the most 

 painful and pitiable load of distress, — and I mus^ 

 confess that I felt ibr him exceedingly ; but his case 

 was past remedy, and, after some daily attendance, 

 pouring forth his lamentations, he appears to have 

 returned home to subside Into the reckless opera- 

 tions reported of him. His case was this : — Upon 

 the marriage of his son, he, as any other father 

 would do, granted a settlement of his property, 

 including the Newstead Abbey estate ; but by 

 some unaccountable Inadvertence or negligence of 

 the lawyers employed, the ultimate reversion of the 

 fee-simple of the property, instead of being left, as 

 it ought to have been, in the father as the owner of 

 the estates, was limited to the heirs of the son. 

 And upon his death, and failure of the Issue of the 

 marriage, the unfortunate father, tJiis eccentric lord, 

 found himself robbed of the fee-simple of his own 

 inheritance, and left merely the naked tenant for 

 life, without any legal power of raising money upon 

 it, or even of cutting down a tree. It Is so many 

 years ago, that I now do not remember the detail 

 of what passed on these consultations ; but it would 

 appear, that if the lawyers were aware of the effect 

 of the final limitation, neither father nor son ap- 

 pear to have been Informed of it, or the result 

 might have been corrected, and his lordship would 

 probably have kept up the estate in its proper 

 order. Whether this case was at all a promotmg 

 cause of the alteration of the law, I do not know ; 

 but, as the law now stands, the estate would revert 

 back to the father as heir of this son. This case, 

 made a lasting impression on me, and I onoe_ had 

 to correct a similar erroneous proposition in a 

 large intended settlement; and I quoted this un- 

 fortunate accident as an authority. Now, although 

 this relation may not fully justify the reckless 

 waste that appears to have been committed, it cer- 

 tainly is a palliative. I do not recollect whether 



