INFLUENCE ON DOMESTIC RACES. 319 



It is quite possible that these Kerrison white cattle 

 may have come from Ghmton towards the close of the 

 last century, as those at Blickling did at about the same 

 time ; but Mr. Gilbert has pointed out to me that they 

 may possibly have been derived from another source. 

 It appears, from Blomefield's "History of Norfolk," that 

 at Seething (adjoining Brooke) was a monastery of the 

 Premonstratensian Order, which enjoyed the privilege of 

 keeping a bull free to roam at will throughout certain 

 manors. These included Brooke and Kirstead, in both 

 of which parishes Sir Eoger Kerrison's ancestors had 

 long lived ; and his cattle may have been derived from 

 this monastic origin. Whichever was the case, the 

 Kerrison cattle were undoubtedly of the same breed as 

 the other polled white English races, and had a near 

 relationship to the other Norfolk herds * whose descent 

 has been historically traced for centuries. The whole 

 chapter forms a capital conclusion to the history of the 

 British wild herds ; for it demonstrates, by the clearest 

 evidence, how strong has been the influence of the wild 

 forest breed upon our domestic cattle ; how wonderfully 

 persistent is the type ; and how it reproduces itself 

 under the most unlikely circumstances — often, perhaps, 

 when its very existence is altogether unsuspected. 



* Mr. Gilbert remarked to me what a striking resemblance the picture 

 of Lord Suffield's bull bore to his mother's cattle as he remembered them 

 when a boy. 



