100 EIGHTH REPORT — 1833. 



ZOOLOGY. 



On the Wild Calile of ChiUingham Park. By J. Hikdmarsh, of 

 Almoick. 



The author stated that he had been obligingly assisted in his present 

 attempt to give an account of the wild cattle of ChiUingham, by the 

 following communication from their noble proprietor : 



" Grosvenor Square, Blh June, 1838. 

 " Sir, — Some time since I promised to put down upon paper what- 

 ever I knew as to the origin, or thought most deserving of notice, in 

 respect to the habits and peculiarities of the wild cattle at ChiUingham. 

 I now proceed to redeem my promise, begging pardon for the delay. 

 In the first place, I must premise that our information as to their origin 

 is very scanty; all that we know and believe in respect to it rests in 

 great measure on conjecture, supported, however, by certain facts and 

 reasonings, which lead us to believe in their ancient origin, not so much 

 from any direct evidence, as from the improbability of any hypothesis 

 ascribing to tliem a more recent date. I remember an old gardener of 

 the name of Moscrop, who died about thirty years ago, at the age of 

 perhaps eighty, who used to tell of what his father had told him as hap- 

 pening to him, when a boy, relative to these wild cattle, which were 

 then spoken of as wild cattle, and with the same sort of curiosity as 

 exists with regard to them at the present day. In my father's and grand- 

 father's time we know that the same obscurity as to their origin pre- 

 vailed ; and if we suppose (as was no doubt the case) that there were 

 old persons in their time capable of carrying back their recollections 

 to the conversation still antecedent to them, this enables us at once to 

 look back to a very considerable period, during which no greater know- 

 ledge existed as to their origin than at the present time. It is fair, 

 however, to say, that I know of no document in which they are men- 

 tioned at any past period. Any reasoning, however, that might be 

 built on their not being so noticed, would equally apply to the want 

 of evidence of that which would be more easily remembered or recol- 

 lected — the fact of their recent introduction. The j^robability is, that 

 they were the ancient breed of the island, inclosed long since within 

 the boundary of the park. Sir Walter Scott rather particularly sup- 

 poses that they are the descendants of those which inhabited the Great 

 Caledonian Forest, extending from the Tweed to Glasgow, at the two 

 extremities of which, namely, ChiUingham and Hamilton, they are 

 found. 



" I must observe, however, that those of Hamilton, if ever they were 

 of the same breed, have much degenerated. 



" The park of ChiUingham is a very ancient one. By a copy of the 

 endowment of the vicarage, extracted from the records of Durham, 

 and referring to a period certainly as early as the reign of King John, 

 about wiiich time, viz. 1220, the church of ChiUingham was built, the 



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