THE KERRISON WHITE CATTLE. 317 



way, Angus, or Norfolk cow, as they were then, with the 

 even then deteriorating polled white cattle of Gisbume, 

 Somerford, and Gunton ; and no one who has fairly 

 studied the subject can, I think, doubt that Mr. Gilbert's 

 conclusion is the true one, and that the ancient white 

 polled breed " was the largest of polled varieties." 



There were several other herds of white polled cattle 

 in Norfolk, which may or may not have been derived 

 from Gunton, as the origin of them cannot be exactly 

 ascertained ; and, curiously enough, some cows of one 

 strain belonged to Mr. Gilbert's mother, and are well 

 remembered by him. The parent herd was kept at 

 Brooke House, between the rivers Yare and Waveney, in 

 the south-eastern corner of Norfolk, late in the last or 

 early in the present century, by Sir Eoger Kerrison. It 

 is now the property of Viscount Canterbury. These 

 white cattle, which were used as dairy cows, were 

 once highly valued, and carefully kept as heir-looms in 

 the Kerrison family ; and Sir Eoger gave some of them 

 to his sister, the wife of Freeman Denny, Esq., of 

 Bergh-Apton. Mr. Gilbert's mother was the daughter 

 of this lady, and the niece of Sir Eoger; and when 

 she married (about the year 1812) and settled with her 

 husband at Chedgrave Manor House, in the same neigh- 

 bourhood, she took with her two of these cows — " white, 

 with black ears." For some time after this the Chedgrave 

 cows were regularly sent to the Brooke House bull for 

 service, as the Bergh-Apton cows had been long pre- 

 viously. They were called " the old-fashioned sort " and 

 " old Madam's cows," in allusion to Mrs. Denny, from 

 whom they came. As Mr. Gilbert's father did not him- 

 self keep a bull, when Brooke House was sold and the 



