10 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK i. 



that the cattle are certainly as wild at the present time as in any past 

 record, and that though they will come down to the hay-cart to be i'ed 

 during the winter, they are almost unapproachable in the summer, 

 when the greatest care has to be exercised to obtain a view of the herd, 

 as at the least alarm they start off to their sanctuary, *' Robin Hood's 

 Bay." In 1749, May 24, Joseph Hutchinson, agent at Chillingham, 

 said in the course of a letter to Lord Tankerville, " Your Lordship has 

 now too great quantity of wild cattle that they will yearly die of old 

 age and the rot, and if the distemper comes all will go. With submis- 

 sion to your Lordship if any get fat this season, it would not be amiss, 

 with your Lordship's orders, to kill and lessen the breed. Fifty-one 

 destroy a vast quantity of hay." In 1793, February 22, John Bailey, 

 then agent, wrote with regard to the deficiency of the bulls, " I shall 

 only say that it was entirely owing to inattention, and that the breed 

 were within a hair's-breadth of being lost, which I think your Lordship, 

 as well as every naturalist in the kingdom, would have very much 

 regretted." In more recent years, when accurate accounts have been 

 kept, the number has varied from forty-nine in 1864 to seventy at the 

 beginning of 1889 (twenty bulls, thirty- six females, and fourteen oxen), 

 the highest birth-rate in any one year (1872) having been thirteen. 

 A careful record is now kept of the wild cattle killed from time to 

 time, from which it appears that the average weight of the bulls is 

 350 lb., and of the steers, 560 Ib. The case of the young bull sent 

 on January 30, 1866, from the Chillingham herd, at the Duke of 

 Hamilton's request, toCad/ow Forest, to improve the herd there, is 

 the first and only instance on record of any of the Chillingham wild 

 cattle being taken from the place alive> 



In 1876 Lord Tankerville, with the object of testing the theory 

 enunciated by the Rev. John Storer, author of " The Wild White 

 Cattle of Great Britain," that Shorthorns probably had their origin in 

 the wild herds of the country, tried to effect a cross between a wild 

 bull and some well-bred Shorthorn cows. The finest produce of 

 these were some very fine animals exhibited at the Royal Agricultural 

 Society's Show at Kilburn, in 1879, but as they did not come up to his 

 Lordship's expectations, the plan was abandoned until 1883. In the 

 latter year Lord Tankerville tried the alternative of a cross between 

 a Shorthorn bull and a wild cow, and magnificent specimens of the 

 result may be seen in the paddocks at Chillingham. 



Somerford. In July, 1887, the herd comprised thirty head three 

 bulls and twenty-seven cows and heifers. No steers were reared ; all 

 surplus bull calves were fed for veal. These cattle weigh up to fifteen 

 scores to the quarter when fed for beef. They are thoroughly domes- 

 ticated, and allow one to move freely among them. The cows are 

 regularly milked, and they are as a rule excellent milkers, whilst their 

 butter is pronounced to be the best in the country. One cow yielded up 

 to as much as thirty-three quarts of milk per day, but she^ died in four 

 months. These cattle are polled, and no exception is recorded. They 

 are black pointed, but there is considerable range in the markings far 

 more than in any of the other herds. About 1876 a young bull was 



