Wild Cattle of Chillingham Park, 281 



the facts and reasonings contained in the Earl of Tankerville's 

 letter are sufficient proof. The testimony of the two Moscrops, 

 connected with the contemporaries of the first Moscrop, would 

 almost carry us back a period of 200 years, when their origin 

 seemed to be veiled in the same obscurity as at present exists 

 respecting it. To this must be added the negative proof de- 

 rivable from the absence of all record of their introduction 

 into the park ; for had they been brought there in times in 

 any degree modern, a circumstance so remarkable was almost 

 sure to have been recorded and handed down in a place that 

 has so long been the principal residence of a noble family. 

 On the contrary supposition that they are the native inhabit- 

 ants of the park; no such record was to be expected; for suc- 

 ceeding generations growing up with this familiar knoM'ledge, 

 were no more likely to register the circumstance than that the 

 sun had risen and set every day during their lives. Their 

 antiquity is unquestionable ; and when we connect this fact 

 with their natural wildness and characteristic purity, we can 

 scarcely doubt that they are the genuine remains of the ab- 

 original cattle of the north of England or of Scotland. Of the 

 ancient cattle of this district no historic record can be found 

 sufficient to mark their character and pecuharities ; but of the 

 Caledonian wild cattle we find a very particular and cm'ioua 

 account in Boethius, who was born in 1470, and published his 

 *Historia Scotorum' at Paris in 1526. From the edition of 

 1574, fol. 6, line 63, we extract the following passage : — 



" Adjacet Argadise ac Lennos in mediterraneis ager Stil- 

 ling! et Monteth, inde haud procul ejusdem nominis oppidum 

 Stirlingum cum fortissimo Castello, cui olim nomen fuit Monti 

 doloroso. Hie initia olim fuere Calidonise sylvae, manentibus 

 videlicet veteribus adhuc nominibus Callendar et Gaidar. Ex- 

 currens per Monteth et Erneuallem longo tractu ad Atholiam 

 et Loquhabriam usque, gignere solet ea sylva boves candi- 

 dissimos in formam leonis jubam ferentes, caetera mansuetis 

 simillimos, verum adeo feros indomitosque atque humanum 

 refugientes consortium, ut quas herbas, arboresque, aut fru- 

 tices humana contrectatas manu senserint plurimos deinceps 

 dies fugiant : capti autem arte quapiam (quod difficillimum 

 est) mox paulo pree moestitia moriantur. Quum vero sese peti 



