104 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



the Lord of the Hundred of Knightlow of " Wroth or 

 Ward Money," otherwise called " Swart Money." The 

 villagers, and those who owe suit and service, attend ; 

 the steward of the Lord of the Hundred, now the Duke 

 of Buccleuch and Queensberry, reads the names of the 

 parishes and persons liable, and gives notice requiring 

 payment, proclaiming that in default of payment the 

 forfeit will be " twenty shillings for every penny, and a 

 white bull with red ears and a red nose." There is a 

 tradition in the neighbourhood of the forfeiture of 

 a white bull having been demanded and actually made, 

 but of late years the pecuniary part of the forfeit only 

 has been exacted.* I think it ought to be observed that 

 this proof of the existence formerly of the domesticated 

 white bull with red ears — for tame this animal must have 

 been — one quite unique as regards central England, is 

 found at Stretton-upon-Dunsmore ; the very place where, 

 in Saxon times, Guy Earl of Warwick was supposed to 

 have killed the wild " cow of Dunsmore Heath," and 

 that the custom dates from Saxon times too. My idea 

 is that the two circumstances possibly tend to throw 

 light upon and to corroborate each other. The domestic 

 white bulls with red ears in that neighbourhood are not 

 unlikely to have derived their descent, at least in some 

 measure, and their peculiarities of colour, from the wild 

 white forest breed which inhabited it, and of which 

 Sir Guy's cow was one. Many such instances shall we 

 see, as we proceed, of domestic cattle springing from 

 this source. 



* This statement is principally taken from an account of the custom 

 given in the Graphic newspaper of December 19th, 1874 ; but every par- 

 ticular has been confirmed by the information I have received from credible 

 persons living in the neighbourhood, which is ouly a few miles distant 

 from the place where I now write. 



