1 903 The White Cattle of Chart ley 1 2 1 



And finally Mr Hedger Wallace says : — 



The white breed which we are in the habit of calling " park cattle " 

 and " white cattle " can only be the descendants of a domesticated 

 breed let loose, for they retain and possess all the useful properties 

 of domesticated cattle as permanently as the wild horses of the 

 savannahs of South America and the steppes of Tartary now do, and 

 we know these horses are descendants of the domesticated horse let 

 loose. . . . The source of origin of the present English herds of 

 white cattle is probably Scotland. . . . We cannot but agree with 

 the opinion expressed by Professor Owen {re Chartley cattle) — 

 namely, that they are descended from domestic, or rather domesti- 

 cated, cattle, introduced by the Romans, which became half wild 

 from breeding together for many years in an unreclaimed state. 



Professor Boyd Dawkins in 1899 came very much to the 

 same conclusion, and then stated that in his opinion — 



1. The beautiful Chartley breed were originally introduced into 

 this country, along with the closely allied breeds of Chillingham and 

 other places, in a domesticated condition from the Continent, where 

 they had been carefully selected by man during long ages. 



2. They were introduced about the time of the English or Danish 

 conquests. 



3. And lastly, that the shyness and wildness of the breed is due 

 to the fact of their never having been confined in small enclosures 

 where they would come into close contact with man. 1 



There the matter rests at the present time, and every 

 impartial reader, after a careful perusal of the papers from 

 which we have quoted, will no doubt agree with the writers 

 in the conclusions at which they have arrived : that the so- 

 called Wild White Cattle of our parks are descended through 

 a domestic strain, and further, that they have preserved their 

 distinctive characteristics by careful selections from time to 

 time, and by killing off all calves which vary in any way from 

 the type of the herd. 



The most important of these characteristics in the 

 Chartley herd are a heavy and deep, almost rectangular, 

 body, with a long and level back. The horns are long, 

 growing out of the head almost horizontally, then turning 

 slightly downwards, and curving upward at the tip. The 

 legs are short and stout. The colour is white, but with jet- 



1 Transactions, North Staffordshire Field Club, 1899, p. 4S. 



