152 CATTLE ENGLISH WHITE POLLS 



some years afterwards a good many cows were kept which 

 were black and white or mottled, but in 1904 nearly all had 

 returned to the breed-marking, viz., white with black stockings, 

 ears, and muzzle, with a little black ring round each eye. The 

 sire of the herd bull came from Woodbastwick in Norfolk, 

 and he developed loose horns at two years old. A good many 

 of the cows by the Shorthorn bull grew loose horns, and again 

 they have appeared since the arrival of the Woodbastwick 

 bull. The old bull in his fifth year (1904) developed a small 

 horn. The breed is now well fleshed and massive. The 

 whole appearance of the animals is striking and attractive, 

 the head and neck being specially handsome. The rudi- 

 mentary mane present in the bull when in full coat is not 

 only an ornament, but also an additional indication of the 

 connection of the breed with the ancient " wild beasts " of the 

 forest. This is one of the most interesting breeds of British 

 cattle, as it forms (with the related polled whites in Norfolk) 

 the " missing link " between the wild cattle and the breeds 

 under domestication, and supplies a connection between the 

 horned and polled varieties. It also tends to prove the 

 existence of a superior power of milk production in the 

 aboriginal race of our island, or at all events in the 

 domesticated branch of it. 



The cattle of Blickling Hall and Woodbastwick, in 

 Norfolk, form the only remaining White Polled herds of any 

 importance in the country. They had a common origin in 

 the White Polled cattle of Whalley Abbey, Lancashire, 

 probably saved from destruction by the abbots of Whalley in 

 the " Lords' Park." Tradition says that this herd, which 

 ceased to exist at W'halley in 1697, was transferred to Middleton 

 Park, also in Lancashire, and to Gisburne Park in Yorkshire. 

 To Gisburne they are supposed to have been " drawn by the 

 power of music." There some specimens were " perfectly 

 white, except the insides of the ears," which were brown. The 

 Middleton cattle were also white, but " some had black, others 

 brown ears." They were transferred to Gunton Park, 

 16 miles north of Norwich, the Norfolk seat of the first Lord 

 Suffteld (created 1786), after the death of his father-in-law in 

 1765. The herd died out there not later than 1853 ; but 

 some animals had, about half a century before, between 

 1793-1810, been removed to Blickling Hall, to establish the 



