188 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



he rose, and finding himself in some measure closed in, 

 he charged with the greatest fury. Mr. Hope had 

 barely time to escape to the cart when the ox, dis- 

 appointed of his revenge, attacked the cart itself, and 

 made it ring with the strokes of his horns. Fortunately, 

 he butted at it behind, or it might have been upset. 

 Still more dangerous would it have been if he had 

 attacked the horse. However, he did not ; and at last, 

 tired of these unavailing efforts, he drew off. 



To even greater danger was the present Earl of 

 Tankerville, when Lord Ossulston, once exposed. A 

 bull had been shot at and wounded, it was supposed 

 mortally. The pursuers, and among them his lord- 

 ship, were under cover in a wood ; the bull was in the 

 open, not far off. Lord Ossulston advanced on horse- 

 back, rifle in hand, to despatch him. The wounded 

 bull charged in an instant furiously and suddenly ; and 

 before the horse could be completely turned round, and 

 got quite out of the way, he was gored and disem- 

 bowelled. Staunch, however, to the last, the noble 

 horse carried his master away at a gallop ; but after 

 traversing 300 or 400 yards, he fell dead in a moment. 

 Nothing could have saved Lord Ossulston, for the place 

 was quite open, had not the attendants previously seen 

 the danger, and succeeded in diverting towards them- 

 selves the attention of the bull. The steed lay dead, 

 but the rider almost miraculously escaped. I stood 

 upon the spot, and retain a vivid recollection of it. 



The following incident has been immortalised by 

 Landseer's magnificent picture, " The Death of the 

 Bull," which hangs over the sideboard in the dining- 

 hall at the Castle. In it also, as in the preceding one, 

 the present earl, when still Lord Ossulston, was 



