30 WILD WHITE CATTLE 



this bull, that not only would it when irritated madly overthrow 

 horsemen, but even when provoked ever so little, it would attack 

 all men promiscuously, both with horns and hoofs, and it would 

 utterly despise the attacks of our dogs, which are of the most 

 ferocious kind. Its flesh is cartilaginous, but of the sweetest 

 flavour. It was formerly common throughout that most vast 

 Caledonian Wood, but, destroyed by man's gluttony, it remains 

 in three places only: Stirling, Cumbernauld, and Kincardine." 



The Forest of Torwood connected the Royal Forest of 

 Stirling with the Cumbernauld Forest. Strangely, no 

 mention is made of Hamilton, where alone the white cattle 

 now survive in Scotland, but they were there confined in a 

 royal chase not in, but on the borders of, the Caledonian Forest. 



As population increased and encroached upon the vast 

 forests that covered the surface of the country, the numbers 

 of wild cattle declined with those of wild beasts generally, 

 and, to preserve them from extinction, the crown, the great 

 lords, and the monastic bodies enclosed and protected the 

 decreasing remainder. The small numbers and the con- 

 finement within restricted areas subjected them to an undue 

 amount of in-and-in breeding, and the large majority of the 

 herds in question " have bred themselves out" and disappeared ; 

 while in those that remain, by diminished size, refined bone, 

 and in some instances a tendency to barrenness, show that 

 whatever the cattle may have gained by protective measures 

 they have also suffered from close consanguineous breeding. 



Storer has produced ample evidence to prove that the few 

 herds that survive most probably owe their existence to the 

 introduction of fresh blood, carried on systematically for many 

 years, after they were confined, in conformity with the general 

 belief of all high authorities on breeding before Bakewell's 

 time that in-breeding was wholly detrimental. At one time 

 common cows were freely admitted to the wild bulls of both 

 the Chillingham and the Chartley herds, and it is supposed to 

 have been from the first crosses born of those animals that 

 bulls were selected, as they generally possessed the colour and 

 type of the wild sires. Some of the first cross females were 

 excellent milkers. 



Harting refers to twenty-two herds which are believed 

 to have been enclosed at various dates by royal assent or 

 charters from the herds of " wild beasts." Storer also gives 



