46 WILD WHITE CATTLE 



hips not very prominent ; hind quarters long, with tail square 

 behind, at nearly right angles to the back-bone, but from the 

 hips to the " touch " slightly drooping. The thighs were 

 rather light, but the flank good ; neck slightly lower than the 

 body. The bulls were deeper in the body, and perhaps 

 shorter in the leg; but the head was still more strikingly 

 different The cows' heads were very long the bulls' short, 

 with a very broad forehead, almost triangular. The chin of 

 the bull was thick, and there was a great deal of loose skin 

 about the throat, neck, and dewlap. The different character 

 of the male and the female is very striking. On the whole it 

 would seem that these were a breed of Longhorn cattle with 

 almost Shorthorn shapes. Although other breeds of cattle 

 may have been brought to a state of earlier maturity, little or 

 no improvement in conformation and symmetry has been 

 made in them." 



Low's opinion is also suggestive when he says " that the 

 wild white Forest breed, though reared for ages in parks in 

 the west of England and Scotland, never assumes the char- 

 acters of the Longhorned race." 



The cattle resemble those at Hamilton in not being so 

 wild as the cattle at Chillingham ; yet they refuse to be driven. 



Till near the close of the nineteenth century the animals 

 exceeded those of both the Northern breeds in size and sub- 

 stance, conspicuously in the weight of their fore quarters, but 

 about that time they decreased rapidly in size and in consti- 

 tutional vigour, as a result of intense consanguineous breed- 

 ing, increasing in power for evil with decreasing numbers of 

 animals. One fatal result is the serious loss of numbers by 

 death from miliary tubercle since the closing years of the nine- 

 teenth century. Practically all the animals slaughtered have 

 exhibited what butchers term " grapes " the lungs appearing 

 as if they had been peppered with yellow rice, and the unnatural 

 growths also extending to the web-fat (great omentum) 

 enveloping the bowels. 



W. Carless, the veterinary surgeon from Stafford, who was 

 in attendance during the last four years at Chartley Park, was 

 summoned also in the seventies, when several animals died. 

 In a letter to the Author, dated 5th February 1905 (indebted- 

 ness to which is acknowledged for the following technical 

 information), he reports "that post-mortem examination then 

 revealed tuberculosis." Those visibly affected were slaughtered, 



