150 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



portion of this great forest was formerly Chillingham 

 itself. Very woody is it now. The large and ancient 

 Hepburn Wood adjoins the park on one side ; on the 

 other scarce anything but high and open moors inter- 

 venes between it and the sea-coast. Yet the whole was 

 much more woody formerly. * When the church of 

 Chillingham was built, and the vicarage endowed, as 

 appears by a copy of the endowment extracted from the 

 records at Durham, circa 1220, the vicar was, by an 

 agreement with Eobert de Muschampe, to be allowed as 

 much timber as he wanted for repairs, of the best oak, 

 out of the Great Wood (Magno Bosco) of Chillingham ; 

 and the late Lord Tankerville states that the remains 

 of this wood " were extant in the time of his grand- 

 father." 



The Castle of Chillingham is pleasantly situated on 

 a slightly rising ground in the valley above the river 

 Till, and the village nestles under its shelter. The 

 park is contiguous on its southern side ; some part of it 

 is in the valley, on a level with the castle, but it 

 gradually widens and rises, till at last, in terrace after 

 terrace, it ascends the hill, the summit of which, called 

 Ross Castle, it encloses. Here is an ancient British 

 encampment, and though only about ten miles distant 

 from the sea, this part of the park is 1,036 feet above 

 the sea-level. Containing as it does within itself so 

 much variety of pasturage and climate, it is eminently 

 adapted to be the residence of wild animals. Of the 

 date of its enclosure no record remains, and the 



* This and the subsequent statements of the late Lord Tankerville, 

 and of Mr. Hindmarsh, are all taken from Mr. Hindmarsh's paper " On 

 the Wild Cattle of Chillingham Park," containing- a letter from Lord 

 Tankerville, read before the British Association in 1838, and published in 

 Annals of Nat. Hist, vol. ii., p. 274. 



