RECENTLY EXTINCT HERDS. 97 



existence so much evidence has been given, were all 

 confined to the regions of the English Apennines or 

 of the great forests and wastes bordering thereupon. 

 With the exception of some trifling differences — the 

 most important of which is that some of them were 

 horned, some polled or hornless — they were everywhere, 

 in colour and in form, alike : one race, and all wild. 

 But besides these, there were in England a few parks, 

 remote from this great chain of central mountains, in 

 which this same white wild breed were formerly kept, 

 and there are also a few well authenticated instances 

 of ancient domestic cattle strongly resembling them. 

 These it seems desirable to mention before we go on 

 to narrate the ancient history of the Scottish wild cattle. 

 I feel little doubt that in the instances I am about to 

 give — as I shall be able to show hereafter was the case 

 with Lord Suffield's herd in Norfolk — these were off- 

 shoots of the great forest breed, introduced from a 

 distance, and from places near to the aboriginal domi- 

 cile of the race. 



The first herd of this description I wish to name 

 is the one — extinct towards the close of the last 

 century — in the park at Burton Constable, half-way 

 between Hull and the east coast of Yorkshire, of which, 

 as some description of them can be given, a more full 

 account will appear in its proper place. 



There was formerly another such herd in a park at 

 Holdenby, ten miles north-east from Daventry and six 

 and a half north-west from Northampton, in that 

 county. Though the park here was licensed to be 

 imparked in 1578, it was certainly much enlarged when 

 King James I. purchased of Sir Christopher Hatton the 

 whole estate, and made here a royal residence in 1606 ; 



H 



