PREFACE. xi 



vation, and where our very wastes are more or less arti- 

 ficial, it is refreshing to find ourselves breathing a new 

 atmosphere, so to speak ; roaming through the primaeval 

 forest, and pondering on its wild yet fruitful life. This 

 is the spirit which takes men into the heart of countries 

 now desert, and makes them the companions of wild 

 beasts and savages. It arises from that love of nature 

 and of adventure which is the salt of life ; and hardly in 

 any form can it be more harmlessly and profitably em- 

 ployed than when it leads us to a retrospect of our own 

 country in ages past, and to a study of the animals 

 which wandered wild in its then vast woods and wastes. 

 Whether the declining herds of our Wild Cattle now 

 existing are lineally descended from the Urus, or have 

 some other origin, is a question of high interest, though 

 only to a few ; but a picture, such as the author has 

 endeavoured to give us, of our native England as it once 

 was, has, I should say, a wider interest. 



When the author died I found the work, although 

 quite sufficiently advanced for publication, yet not al- 

 together finished. The accounts of the several herds, 

 with two exceptions (those of Hamilton and Kilmory), 

 may be, I think, regarded as having received all but the 

 last verbal corrections of the writer, and are sub- 

 stantially as he would have published them. The earlier 

 portion of the book, too, was in a very forward state, as 

 will be seen, and contains a succinct yet complete 

 general history of the Wild Cattle of this country, and 

 of kindred races abroad. Still, I am inclined to believe 

 that, if Mr. Storer had lived, this part of the book 

 would have been at least partially re-written and re- 



