264 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



of its ancient type. Yet I think there can be no donbt 

 that highly diluted crosses have occasionally been taken, 

 and that to this the continuation of the herd, when so 

 many similar ones have perished, is chiefly due ; indeed, 

 the bailiff admitted both the fact and the result. It 

 has, however, been done with consummate skill, and 

 evidently to no greater extent than imperative necessity 

 required. As it is, perhaps, there are some indications of 

 infertility. The cows indeed seem to be regular breeders, 

 but the bull was found fault with; and the number of 

 young females is not so great as might have been ex- 

 pected. To this it was replied that for a year past the 

 calves had been almost entirely bulls ; and it is also 

 certain that a herd of this kind, kept for the purposes 

 it is, does not require the rearing of much young stock, 

 and that no more are reared than are entirely approved 

 of and are likely to be wanted. The four half-breeds, 

 however, seem to show that the herd has fallen some- 

 what short of its own requirements. 



No calves are sold for breeding purposes, and at 

 present all the bulls are reserved for the exclusive use 

 of the proprietor ; but I understand that formerly this 

 was not to the same extent the case, and that the 

 tenants' and neighbours' cows were occasionally admitted 

 to the Somerford bulls. 



It is to be regretted that no record, or even tradition 

 with regard to the origin of this herd exists, for its ap- 

 pearance bespeaks great antiquity. Sir Charles Shakerley 

 says : — " We have no history of how they came or how 

 long they have been here. I am of the third generation 

 which has known nothing about them. The tradition 

 is that they have been here two hundred years." The 

 probability seems to me to be that they have been there 



