240 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



Earl Ferrers. About two months before my visit I 

 had seen those at Chillingham Castle, and was anxious 

 to compare the two herds, having always understood 

 that the animals were similar, with one exception: 

 namely, that the cattle at Chillingham had red ears, 

 while those at Chartley had black ones. My visit took 

 place on a dull, murky autumn day, and as I drove 

 up to the keeper's lodge I saw the cattle grouped close 

 against the park palings. Not being aware how near 

 they would allow us to approach them, I at once stopped 

 in order to examine them through my opera-glass. My 

 astonishment was great at finding that, instead of re- 

 sembling the Chillingham animals, they were of a 

 different variety, and were really ' Long- horns ; ' their 

 general character being the same as the old Long-horn 

 breed, which were the ordinary stock of Derbyshire and 

 Staffordshire till about fifty, or perhaps sixty, years ago. 

 With these I had been acquainted from my boyhood, 

 as my father kept a herd of them, and many of the farms 

 in his neighbourhood were stocked with the same de- 

 scription of cattle, or with crosses from them, locally 

 termed in those days ' Half-horns.' I had also at one 

 time kept a few of them myself. 



" The colour of the Chartley cattle is, however, 

 white, the ears being black, and they have black spots 

 on the legs above the hoofs, and in some of them a few 

 black spots about the neck. On examination I found 

 these cattle to be what is technically called very ' true 

 made.' They are long and low in form; their backs 

 level, loins strong but not very wide, hook-bones not 

 too prominent ; the under-line very straight, the 

 shoulders oblique and well laid back (giving them a 

 majestic walk), and the ribs fairly well arched. Some 



