272 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



information from a fine old man who was formerly con- 

 nected with the Wollaton stables, and who now lives at 

 Radford. ' He tells me that fourteen of them died at 

 one time from eating dead branches cut from the trees 

 near the Hall ; and that, as they would breed no longer, 

 and were so thinned by this accident, Mr. Chouler 

 ordered them to be sold and slaughtered, which the 

 then lord afterwards regretted. He says they were 

 pure white in colour, with black at the tips of their noses 

 and tails and some of their feet, but spotless elsewhere. 

 He speaks in the highest terms of their s} 7 mmetry and 

 fine size, and declares that nothing he has ever seen, at 

 Smithfield or elsewhere, has been at all comparable to 

 these white cattle.' " * 



The last strongly expressed opinion is corroborated 

 by Mr. Burton, who says that they were " fine beasts," 

 and that they were " larger and finer than the Devons " 

 — and this, it must be remembered, at a time when " they 

 began to deteriorate and fall off in size." What must 

 the "old park breed" at Wollaton have been ere such 

 deterioration and diminution in size commenced ? And 

 the above statement is the more remarkable because, 

 within a mile of the park gate, and on the direct road 

 from Wollaton to Nottingham, was then kept, and 

 paraded night and morning the public road on its way 

 to and from its pastures near the Trent, one of the finest 

 Short-horn herds in the kingdom — that of Mr. John 

 Wilkinson, of Lenton — which, derived at first from cattle 

 purchased at an early period from Mr. Charles Colling, 

 had since been bred with consummate skill and judg- 

 ment ; and then enjoyed a local celebrity so great that 



* This description is from a letter of Mr. Willoughby quoting one from 

 Mr. Moody. 



