246 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



Henry IV., then Duke of Lancaster, and had his head 

 set on one of the highest turrets of that fortified city. 

 From these heroes the Leghs of Lyme descend ; and the 

 wild cattle have been there, it has always been believed, 

 ever since they and the park they inhabit were enclosed 

 together from Macclesfield Forest, nearly five hundred 

 years ago. The following is the account given of them 

 by Hansall, in his " History of Cheshire," in 1817. 



"In Lyme Park, which contains about 1,000 

 Cheshire acres, is a herd of upwards of twenty wild 

 cattle, similar to those in Lord Tankerville's park at 

 Chillingham — chiefly white, with red ears. They have 

 been in the park from time immemorial, and tradition 

 says they are indigenous. In the summer season they 

 assemble in the high lands, and in the winter they 

 shelter in the park woods. They were formerly fed 

 with holly branches, with which trees the park abounded ; 

 but these being destroyed, hay is now substituted. 

 Two of the cows are shot annually for beef." 



The park of Lyme was celebrated for the fine flavour 

 of its venison ; and here a curious custom was observed 

 formerly of collecting the red deer once a year — about 

 Midsummer, or rather earlier — in a body before the 

 house, and then swimming them through a pool of 

 water, with which the exhibition terminated. This 

 custom of driving deer like ordinary cattle is said to 

 have been perfected by an old park-keeper — Joseph 

 Watson, who died in 1753, aged 104, after having filled 

 that office for sixty-four years. This patriarch is believed 

 to have been in his 102nd year when he hunted a buck 

 in a chase of six hours' duration, and to have driven suc- 

 cessfully, in the reign of Queen Anne, twelve brace of 

 stags from Lyme to Windsor Forest. All this, I think, 



