242 WILD WHITE CATILE. 
blue approaching to black. The horns are of an 
intermediate character between those of the Chilling- 
ham and Chartley breeds. 
Mippieton ParK, LANCASHIRE, the ancient seat 
of the Asshetons, was originally part of the great 
forest of Bowland, whence possibly the ancestors of 
the herd of white cattle which existed here were 
driven in on the inclosure of the park. At Blakeley 
(about a mile from Middleton Hall), says Leland, 
“wild bores, bulles, and falcons bredde in times 
paste.”* Tradition, however, affirms that the Middle- 
ton herd originally came from Whalley Abbey, and 
the family connection which existed between the 
Asshetons of Middleton, the Asshetons of Whalley, 
and the Listers of Gisburne renders it, in the words 
of Mr. Assheton, ‘ highly probable that had either 
family by any means acquired the wild cattle, they 
were very likely to have spread from them to 
the others.” The cattle in this herd were white 
and polled; some had black, others brown ears. 
Dr. Leigh, in his ‘“ Natural History of Lancashire, 
Cheshire, and the Peak of Derbyshire” (book 11. p. 3), 
published in 1700, thus alludes to them: “ In a park 
near Bury in Lancashire are wild cattel belonging to 
Sir Ralph Ashton, of Middleton ; these, I presume, 
were first brought from the Highlands of Scotland [a 
mere surmise, probably founded on his acquaintance 
with the accounts given by Boethius and Leslie of the 
Caledonian bull]. They have no horns, but are like the 
wild bulls and cows upon the continent of America :” 
* Leland, “ Itin.,” vol. vu. p. 47 (ed. Hearne). 
