CHILLINGHAM WHITE CATTLE. 141 



a matter of lordly pride to their noble owners, that these 

 cattle are held to be of a distinct and untameable race. 



Feeling a full share of the interest attached to them, 

 and anxious to gain the most accurate and circumstantial 

 information, I was induced to pay a visit, during the 

 summer of 1845, to the beautifully wooded and undulating 

 Park of Chillingham, in which a herd of these cattle is 

 preserved ; and, although I have not been able to gather 

 material for a perfect history of these animals, I think it 

 will not be difficult to show that matters respecting them 

 have been set forth as facts which are fictions ; and that 

 from some points of their history which have been cor- 

 rectly detailed, inferences have been drawn, which are by 

 no means warranted by the facts. 



In endeavouring to point out these errors and false 

 reasonings, it will be necessary to make quotations from 

 the old history of the white cattle, in Culley 's ( Observa- 

 tions on Live Stock/ which has been so often repeated in 

 works on natural history, and is, moreover, so thoroughly 

 accredited, that it may now appear something like pre- 

 sumption to call it in question. To what extent it is 

 called in question on the present occasion, and the reasons 

 for so doing, will be seen in the running commentary 

 which accompanies these quotations. 



Culley says : " The Wild Breed, from being untameable, 



Wild Ox formerly roamed over Needwood Forest, and in the thirteenth 

 century, William de Farrarus caused the park of Chartley to be separated 

 from the forest, and the turf of this extensive enclosure still remains 

 almost in its primitive state. Here a herd of wild cattle has been pre- 

 served down to the present day, and they retain their wild characteristics 

 like those at Chillingham. They are cream-coloured, with black muzzles 

 and ears ; their fine sharp horns arc also tipped with black. They are 

 not easily approached, but arc harmless, unless molested. 



