296 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



a decided mark of degeneracy. It is, I think, certain 

 that Dr. Leigh would be well acquainted with the de- 

 scriptions of the above Scottish writers, and it was this, 

 I think, which made him " presume " that the Mid- 

 dleton cattle " were first brought from the high-lands 

 of Scotland." He probably recognised their likeness 

 to the description of the American bison, and to the 

 statements of Boethius and Leslie respecting the simi- 

 larly maned Scottish mountain bull, and therefore con- 

 sidered them, as I do, nearly allied to the latter. On 

 any other supposition there would have been no pre- 

 sumption that they came from the Highlands of Scotland 

 rather than from elsewhere. It would seem, then (from 

 the statement of Dr. Leigh, who wrote 176 years since, 

 at a period of time just about equi-distant from these 

 Scottish historians and ourselves), that at this time some 

 at least of the wild bulls still retained to a considerable 

 extent the hairy honours of their ancestors, and that a 

 large amount of degeneracy has taken place since; which, 

 indeed, the gradual decay and the ultimate extinction of 

 so many of the wild herds, and the difficulty experienced 

 in keeping up others, would lead us to expect had been 

 the case. That the Lancashire wild bull especially may 

 have been " maned " is much confirmed by the circum- 

 stance that when, nearly 300 years since, the Heralds' 

 College confirmed and restored to the Hoghton family, 

 as their crest, the wild bull which it was then shown 

 they had borne ages before (the description of the 

 animal being strikingly distinctive), the mane is pecu- 

 liarly mentioned ; and a further corroboration, at a 

 much later period, is to be deduced, as I have before 

 shown, from Bewick's engraving of the Chillingham 

 wild bull. 



