NOTICES OF WE ALLEY ABBEY. 281 



supposition are, that in the account of the visitation of 

 1320 no wild cattle are specifically mentioned; and 

 that, when the Abbey was dissolved — John Paslew, its 

 last Lord Abbot, being hung for the part he had taken 

 in the " Pilgrimage of Grace " on March 12th, 1536-7— 

 the cattle were sold off, and the lands let by the king's 

 commissioner. But neither of these circumstances has, 

 I think, much weight. In the first place, it is probable 

 that in the account of the property of the Abbey, in 

 1320, wild cattle would be placed in the same category 

 as deer, and, like them, not mentioned ; and even if they 

 were reckoned in with the other cattle, I should scarcely 

 expect to find them specified : for monastic accounts of 

 cattle, while they classify them according to age and sex, 

 give, with scarcely an exception, no description whatever 

 of the breed or variety to which they belonged. Besides, 

 it is quite possible that the " park breed " may not have 

 been obtained till a later period. And as regards what 

 took place at the dissolution, it seems to me both 

 possible and probable that some of the deer and wild 

 cattle would be retained in the park as the property of 

 the Crown. Nothing more is reported of Whalley for 

 two years; and ,then, on April 12th, 1539, John 

 Braddyll, Gent., of Braddyll and Brockhole, had the 

 bailiwick of the demesnes (as the property of the Crown) 

 committed to him. Under his control, on behalf of the 

 Crown, the Abbey estates remained for fourteen years 

 more; till, twenty days only before the death of Edward 

 VI., they were purchased conjointly by the above 

 John Braddyll and Richard Assheton, a younger son of 

 the house of Assheton, of Leaver, for the sum of 

 £2,132 3s. 9d., and partitioned between the two 

 purchasers. Richard Assheton took the Abbey itself, 



