LANARKSHIRE RAMBLES. II 



an untamed native breed. They seemed to differ in nothing from 

 the domestic kind, excepting that they were all over white, with 

 black or brown ears or muzzles ; and from their manner of life 

 very shy and even fierce when they had not room to fly. They 

 were exterminated, from economical motives, about the year 1760." 

 This careful note by a resident in the district is, I take it, of much 

 weight. 



The statement as to the extermination is supported by Heron, 

 who made a tour in 1793, and by Denholm, who visited Hamilton 

 about the year 1800. Prof. John Walker, of Edinburgh 

 University, wrote his treatise on Mammalia Scoiica towards the 

 end of the 18th century, and under Bos Scoticus he says that they 

 only now continue in the woods about Drumlanrig. 



Sir Walter Scott spent the Christmas of 1801 at Hamilton 

 Palace. A morning ramble to the ruined castle suggested the 

 ballad, in a note to which he says the cattle were extirpated about 

 forty years before. 



In the face of all this I think it is clear that the herd as such 

 did not exist at Cadzow for about forty years. 



As the cattle are now in the park, the question arises, When 

 were they re-introduced ? It is highly probable that Sir Walter 

 Scott's ballad awakened the interest of the ducal family, and that 

 a successful attempt to form or collect a herd was made, either 

 from a few survivors of the former one that had been kept 

 somewhere else, or from a distinct one. Under any circum- 

 stances a small herd of white cattle, numbering about a score, 

 were browsing in Cadzow by 1809, and the cows being horned 

 and the bulls humble would seem to indicate a herd in process 

 of formation from different sources. Later the whole herd 

 became humble. For twenty-five years past, at least, they have 

 been all horned. 



In 1866 the herd came very near its end. Rinderpest broke 

 out among them, and by law they became subject to slaughter. 

 A few young animals were hidden away in the deep gorge of the 

 Aven, and from the survivors — some eight in all and only one of 

 them a bull — the present herd is descended. Of recent years, in 

 order to infuse some new blood, a Highland bull and one from 

 Chillingham were introduced to the herd. 



In conclusion, I take it as established that white cattle have 



