THE VALE ROYAL HEED. Ill 



third year of King Henry VIII., to Sir Thomas Hol- 

 croft ; in whose family it continued for two generations, 

 till purchased in 1616 by Lady Cholmondeley, called by 

 King James, who visited her here in 1617, "the bold 

 ladie of Cheshire," and in the possession of whose 

 descendants, the Lords Delamere, it still remains. Here 

 was an ancient domestic herd of white cattle with red 

 ears, which, though now crossed out and extinct, was 

 kept up, partially pure only, in the time of the late 

 lord. They are supposed to have belonged to the 

 Abbey ; and a singular tradition, the truth of which 

 the late Lady Delamere believed she had verified, was 

 prevalent, to the effect that some of Cromwell's troopers 

 drove off most of them, but that one cow, after being 

 driven with the rest seven or eight miles, escaped from 

 them and returned home. They were white with red 

 ears, and were in all probability derived from North 

 Wales, as from thence the original monks of Vale Royal 

 came. 



There is one singular case of a white domestic breed 

 in the eastern part of England, but it is a comparatively 

 modern one, and nothing can be discovered respecting 

 its origin or antiquity. 



Professor Low mentions that, when he wrote, cattle 

 of this sort were "in considerable numbers between 

 Stafford and Lichfield." And he says * " they were here 

 destitute of horns, in which respect they resembled those 

 which were kept at Eibblesdale " — Grisburne Park, I 

 presume, is meant. The only authentication of this I 

 have been able to procure is that, a good many years 

 since, white cattle with small snags, which could 

 scarcely be called horns, were very occasionally brought 



* " Domesticated Animals," chap, iii., p. 296. 



