TEE LAST REALLY FOREST HEED. 321 



country beyond it. The wild bull of the North had, 

 therefore, anciently free access to the whole of Southern 

 Scotland, and to the mountains, wastes, and forests of 

 Northern England also. 



In another respect the Cumbernauld herd is remark- 

 able. It is the connecting link between history and 

 tradition, and firmly unites the two together. Boethius 

 and Leslie combine in declaring that this was one of the 

 few places where the Scottish wild bull, said by tradition 

 to have been formerly so common, still remained in their 

 days — an undoubted evidence of his previous existence. 

 Boethius says that Cumbernauld was the only place in 

 Scotland where the wild bull yet survived ; but Leslie 

 says that it was still kept in the royal Forest of Stirling, 

 in which Kincardine was included. This last statement 

 is the more probable, for the near contiguity of the 

 Forests of Stirling and Cumbernauld would much facili- 

 tate the keeping up of both herds, and enable the kings 

 of Scotland to extend their hunting. It seems likely, 

 however, that the royal herd at Stirling succumbed 

 under the constant aggressions made upon it during 

 the state of anarchy which prevailed after the im- 

 prisonment of Queen Mary in England ; for the one 

 at Cumbernauld suffered then severely from the same 

 cause, though it continued in a declining state for some 

 time after — the surviving relic of the Scottish Urus as 

 he was when free and unconfined. Cumbernauld, and 

 Stirling in a less degree, present the last instances in 

 Great Britain of the ancient forest breed still continuing 

 as wild denizens of an ancient wild forest ; elsewhere I 

 believe the wild cattle had been universally enclosed in 

 parks. Still, in the rather limited space of forest which 

 they occupied here and at Stirling, they could scarcely 

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