98 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



for in 1608 it was "impaled," 109/. 10*. Qd. being 

 allowed in the king's " extraordinary " accounts for that 

 purpose. Holdenby was seized during the civil war, 

 with other demesnes of the crown, and granted by the 

 Parliament to Thomas, Lord Grey, of Groby, who 

 sold it to Adam Baynes, of Knowsthorp, in Yorkshire, 

 captain, and M.P. for Leeds. He destroyed the park 

 and pulled the mansion down in the year 1650. At 

 the time of the sale the park contained 500#. \r., and 

 was " stocked with upwards of 200 deer of different 

 kinds, worth 200/. ; and 11 cows and calves of wild 

 cattle, worth 42/." * The passage means, I suppose, 

 eleven cows, besides their calves ; even then their value, 

 relatively to that of the deer, seems high. It appears to 

 me nearly certain that they were introduced here by 

 King James I. himself, who made the place. He was 

 passionately fond of hunting, and being so, we may well 

 believe that he felt an attachment to the ancient wild 

 breed which existed also in his own native country. 



It is rather singular that another of these few re- 

 corded instances of parks containing wild cattle remote 

 from their native district, should also have been a royal 

 demesne, and have passed through the hands of James I. 

 Ewelme, in South Oxfordshire, near to Wallingford, in 

 Berkshire, belonged to the De la Poles, Dukes of 

 Suffolk, but, reverting to the Crown, Edward Ashfield 

 was appointed by King Henry VIII., in 1536, "Keeper 

 of the Park of Ewelme and Master of the Wild Beasts 

 there." In 1551-2 King Edward VI. conveyed the 

 manor and park to his sister, the Princess Elizabeth, 

 for life. In 1609 Lord William Knollys was "Keeper 

 of the Park and Master of the Wild Beasts in the 



* Baker's " History of Northamptonshire," 1822, vol. i., p. 197. 



