176 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



the late Lord Tankerville " their sanctuary," and by 

 Mr. Hindmarsh " their forest sanctuary." It is a large 

 and extensive bog, several acres in extent, in the middle 

 of which grow alders, birch, hazel, and a few stunted 

 oaks ; while connected with it, but on the drier ground, 

 is a wood of beech, larch, &c. The whole forms the 

 " forest sanctuary " of the wild cattle. Is it possible, 

 from its traditionary name, that the celebrated outlaw 

 of the Middle Ages, when he wanted change, or when 

 his loved Sherwood had been rendered unsafe in con- 

 sequence of his predatory incursions, may have left the 

 latter for a time, and struck down with his good long- 

 bow the ancestors of Chillingham's wild bulls ? 



Having traversed the lower part of the park, we 

 crossed one of the small brooks I have mentioned ; where 

 a wide and good ford, well stoned, had been made. This, 

 we were informed, was quite necessary, for if the passage 

 was narrow, and the cattle when alarmed crossed the 

 brook en masse and with great rapidity — as was then their 

 wont — they would get so jammed and crushed together 

 that accidents to the younger ones would certainly 

 occur. Not far also from Robin Hood's Bog we saw 

 the deer-hamel, near which the wild cattle are fed in 

 winter. Formerly they were fed in the winter season 

 with hay only, but in the winter of 1873-74 they were 

 for the first time fed with cut hay mixed with meal, of 

 which they are very fond. This food "is put into 

 boxes set down in a large circle, at from eight to ten 

 yards apart." We next examined the very ingeniously 

 constructed "trap " in which one of them is occasionally 

 secured for the purpose of castration, &c. Its dimensions 

 are eighteen feet long by eight wide, with a gate at each 

 narrow end. These are fastened open, and the cattle 



