
WHITE CATTLE: AN INQUIRY INTO THEIR ORIGIN, ETC. 413 
descendants of these animals that we now call the wild forest 
breed ?+ 
Some tenants in former days had to pay a white bull as a fine. 
At Lodebrook, Warwick, tenants had to pay “swarf-money,” 
laying it in a hole; “if it be not paid, he giveth a great forfeiture, 
thirty shillings and a white bull.”? The white bull appears in 
another form—for instance, at Marlborough, Wilts, every freeman, 
by ancient custom, gave to the Mayor at his admission a couple 
of greyhounds, two white capons, and a white bull. On the arms 
of this town there are a bull, two capons, and three greyhounds. 
At Bitton it is stated in the Wew History of Gloucestershire 
(1779), that a peculiar agricultural custom formerly prevailed. 
Three proprietors owned three meadows; one of them had to 
place in his meadow “a white bull ;” the second, “a black boar ;” 
1 Mr. Edward Peacock, ¥'.S.A., has favoured me with the following 
notes on this subject :— 
‘“‘ WHITE BULL. Mantery of Saint Edmund’s Bury. 
** Among the lands with which the sacrist’s office was endowed were 
those of Haberdon, the tenantsof which were bound to provide a white 
bull as often as any matron of rank or other female should come, out of 
devotion, to make what were called the oblations of the white bull at the 
shrine of St. Edmund. On this occasion the animal, adorned with ribbons 
and garlands, was brought to the South gate of the monastery, and led 
along Church-gate, Guildhall, and Abbey-gate streets to the great West 
gate—the lady all the time keeping close to the animal. Here the pro- 
cession ended. The bull was returned to its pasture, and the lady made 
her offerings at the shrine, in the hope of becoming a mother.’”—Dugdale, 
Monasticon Anglicanum. Ed. 1846, vol. iij., p. 133, col. 1, n. 
A lease setting forth this service, dated 1533, is given on p. 169, vol. ij. ; 
also mentioned in Notes and Queries, first series, vol. viij., p. 1. 
I may add that G. R. Forlong, in his Rivers of Life (vol. ii., p. 281) 
writes—‘‘ The newly married ladies of Oxford once pressed forward to kiss 
the altar stone, after they had led up towards it with much caressing a 
white bull, kindly provided for such necessities as theirs by a countryman.” 
2 Mr. Peacock again favours me with the following notes:—A fine of 
a white bull is mentioned, but I do not know in what connection, in 
Delisle, Classe Agricole, p. 235. 
Certain parishes pay a fine to the Lord of the Manor of Knightton, co. 
Warwick. ‘‘ The fine for non-payment was, in the olden time, one pound 
for every penny not forthcoming, or else the forfeiture of a white bull with 
ared nose, and ears of the same colour.”—G. L. Gomme, Primitive Folk 
Moots, p. 110. 
