32 WILD WHITE CATTLE 



which varied extremely in length, in form and in set, at least 

 among those that are left or of which there are records. No 

 less than five original enclosed herds had no horns those 

 at Ardrossan and Cadzow in Scotland, Whalley in Lancashire, 

 Somerford Park, Cheshire, and Wollaton Park, Nottingham. 

 What remain of the progeny of the polled herds are all 

 domesticated, and are cattle of good milking tendencies, but 

 all have had other (domesticated) blood introduced. 



No white wild herd was originally enclosed in any park 

 in the Principality of Wales, but probably the Welsh 

 prototype of the Scottish and English forest breed was 

 domesticated instead, as it is recorded that " four hundred 

 cows and a bull, all white with red ears," were sent from 

 Brecknockshire to the court of King John as a peace offering. 

 In consideration of the distance to be travelled, it is highly im- 

 probable that these were wild animals, impossible to control ; 

 and this conclusion is confirmed by the fact of the frequent 

 appearance among Pembrokeshire cattle of white calves with 

 black ears, bearing a very strong family likeness to the 

 Chartley cattle. The Lamphey Court herd (Plate IX. [a]) 

 has been developed from these reversions to a parent type. 



Low confirms the view above adopted, that the origin of 

 the wild white cattle was the remnant of the Bos urus which 

 lingered in the 400 miles of primeval forest covering the 

 north of England and Scotland. He says : 



" WQ have all the evidence which the question admits of, 

 that no real distinction exists between the wild oxen of the 

 parks and those which have for ages been subjected to 

 domestication in the same country ; and that these wild oxen 

 are no other than the uri of the ancient forests of Europe." 



Professor Boyd Dawkins 1 takes another view, against 

 which there is a vast amount of negative evidence. He 

 states that the sole aboriginal race of domesticated British 

 cattle was the tiny, slender, dark-coloured, short-horned 

 animal, longifrons, which " came from Central Asia by gradual 

 migrations as a domesticated race." And he declares that 

 the large long-horned race was introduced at the time of the 

 English invasion, and that its early wild prototype had 

 become extinct before the termination of the Bronze Age ; 



1 Transactions of the North Staffordshire Field Club for 1898-9, vol. 

 xxxiii. 



