78 WILD WRITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



their hides well feathered with those marks of human 

 enmity." * 



We know that the tale from which this is taken, 

 though founded on certain well-known facts, is in many 

 of its circumstances a fictitious narrative. So also were 

 Shakspere's plays. But the merit of both authors was 

 that they were so true to nature and reality. The 

 description of this hunting match is as true to the 

 history and traditions of the locality and the period, as 

 that of Sherwood forest, its oaks, and its fallow-deer, 

 in " Ivanhoe," is known to be historically and tradition- 

 ally correct upon the banks of the Trent. The prevalence 

 of these cattle in numerous parks dating from very 

 ancient times is also proved by history. Bewick, 

 writing ten years before the close of the last century, 

 says : — " There was formerly a very singular species of 

 wild cattle in this country, which is now nearly extinct. 

 Numerous herds of them were kept in several parks of 

 England and Scotland."-}- Professor Low, in his 

 " Domesticated Animals," published about forty years 

 since, tells us that " part had been preserved in some of 

 the parks attached to the religious houses, their flesh 

 being more esteemed than that of their 'awin tame 

 bestial.' "| Numerous instances of their being kept in 

 parks I can give, in some cases from very early times, 

 going back to what may be called the forest period, as 

 described above by Scott; and in a few instances 

 bringing them down to the present day. I begin with 



* " Castle Dangerous," chap. vii. 



+ " History of Quadrupeds," 1st edition, 1790. 



X " Domesticated Animals of the British Islands," chap, iii., p. 235, 

 8vo edition. I much regret that I have not been able to discover from 

 what author Professor Low makes this quotation, which appears to be of 

 some antiquity. 



