PROBABLE ORIGIN OF TEE HERD. 265 



much longer. They may have been derived from some 

 ancient monastery, one of which — Yale Royal — only 

 some twelve miles distant, had a somewhat similar 

 breed ; or they may have come from Gisburne Park, or 

 from the kindred herds at Whalley Abbey and at Mid- 

 dleton, of the Lancashire Asshetons, many of whom 

 married into Cheshire ; or they may have been, like 

 those at Chartley and at Lyme — when first introduced 

 to Somerford — wild denizens of the adjacent wild 

 forests ; but which of these they were originally, no one 

 can now say. 



The Somerford herd is of great importance, as 

 showing what and of how great value the numerous 

 ancient herds of white polled cattle were. Perfect and 

 in working order — retained, too, as pure as is compatible 

 with continuance — it gives us an excellent idea of what 

 the Grisburne and the Hamilton cattle were originally. 

 This herd seems to be also a connecting link between 

 the domesticated white cattle and the wild, and also 

 between those which had horns and those which were 

 polled : for while the Somerford cattle are, in character 

 and in type, nearly allied to those at Grisburne Park — 

 themselves wild, but many of whose congeners were 

 domesticated — an experienced eye cannot fail to trace a 

 very close resemblance between them and the wild 

 horned breed at Chartley. The mere circumstance of the 

 want of horns bespeaks only an originally accidental, 

 but perhaps long continued, variety ; and I think that 

 if the Chartley horns could be added to the Somerfords, 

 or the Chartleys become polled, small indeed would be 

 the differences of appearance between the two. 



But it seems to me that one of the circumstances 

 which makes the Somerford herd of the greatest im- 



