300 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



this seems to be the natural fate of a wild race long 

 habituated to and cared for by man, unless placed in cir- 

 cumstances peculiarly favourable for the retention of 

 their wildness. At any rate, the descendants of the 

 Blakeley " Wild Bulles " became thoroughly tame and 

 domesticated in Norfolk, though they lost none of the 

 other characteristics of their race. 



The extensive Park of Gunton is in the north- 

 eastern part of Norfolk, sixteen miles north of Norwich, 

 and four of Aylsham, Cromer, on the coast, being six 

 miles distant. The present Lord Suffield, though the 

 fifth who has held the title, is grandson only of the first 

 lord, who brought these cattle from Middleton some- 

 thing more than a hundred years since ; and through his 

 kindness I am able to give an exact copy of an old 

 picture he possesses, which, family tradition says, is the 

 very bull originally brought from Lancashire. Though 

 roughly executed, it gives a good idea of what the 

 old Middleton cattle and their descendants at Gunton 

 were, forming as it does the connecting link between 

 them. 



The Gunton herd was in its greatest perfection in 

 the time of Edward, third Lord Suffield, second son of 

 the first lord, and father of the present peer. He died 

 in 1835. The herd seems to have declined and come 

 to an end in the time of Edward Vernon (fourth lord, 

 and half-brother of the present), who did not care 

 about it, and who also sold Middleton Hall. He died, 

 without issue, in 1853. The present Lord Suffield 

 says : — " I perfectly recollect the animals, with their 

 ears black inside and white outside, and black noses ; I 

 forget the colour of their tails. I find upon inquiry 

 that there were here twenty-two cows of this breed 



