The Wild Cattle of Chillingham. 135 



in truth, " Well, be thanked, the fox and the hounds 

 have their liberty." Kyloe Crags, the Field of Flod- 

 den, Ford Castle, on whom old Cheviot himself looks 

 down, Ross Castle with its heronry, and Hepburn 

 Wood, dear to the woodcock, are all in that expanse 

 of rock and ling, while Chillingham Park rises as it 

 were terrace upon terrace, with the white dots not far 

 below the sky-line, which tell of its famous " cattle." 

 There 



" They are grazing, their heads never raising 

 There are forty feeding like one," 



and we have to discard at the first glance every wild- 

 bull-thought for Wordsworth's milder rhymes. Our 

 ideas change an hour after, as on the keeper's old 

 horse we ride the hill, and cautiously keeping near a 

 strongly-fenced plantation, so as to be able to abandon 

 the horse on an emergency, and retreat over the rails, 

 we get within a hundred yards of them. We might 

 have got nearer ; but a herd of startled bucks trotted 

 past them, and as one rose they all rose, and moved 

 off at a foot's pace, the old bull behind, and the king 

 bull leading. The latter will find years tell on him 

 in his turn, and when he is seven or eight, two younger 

 ones will attack him fore and aft and he will walk 

 moody and downcast like that deposed monarch in 

 the rear. The herd is generally kept up to 1 1 bulls, 

 17 steers, and 32 females, or three score in all. They 

 are made steers of even up to four years old, and it is 

 found even at that stage to improve the beef. It was 

 the practice to do so when they were dropped ; but it 

 was a very dangerous one, and spoilt the bull selec- 

 tion as well. They are tempted into a yard with hay, 

 and there snared, and tied by the neck and horn 

 during the process, and returned next day without 

 any cautery. The steers always grow larger horns, 

 and weigh from 4Ost. to 5ost. of I4lbs. If it is fair 

 weather they go up the hill, and if stormy they re- 

 main below. They eat very much at night, and mostly 



