242 WILD WHITE CATTLE. 



blue approaching to black. The horns are of an 

 intermediate character between those of the Chilling- 

 ham and Chartley breeds. 



Middleton Park, Lancashire, the ancient seat 

 of the Asshetons, was originally part of the great 

 forest of Bowland, whence possibly the ancestors of 

 the herd of white cattle which existed here were 

 driven in on the inclosure of the park. At Blakeley 

 (about a mile from Middleton Hall), says Leland, 

 " wild bores, bulles, and falcons bredde in times 

 paste. "* Tradition, however, affirms that the Middle- 

 ton herd originally came from "Whalley Abbey, and 

 the family connection which existed between the 

 Asshetons of Middleton, the Asshetons of Whalley, 

 and the Listers of Gisburne renders it, in the words 

 of Mr. Assheton, "highly probable that had either 

 family by any means acquired the wild cattle, they 

 were very likely to have spread from them to 

 the others." The cattle in this herd were white 

 ^andpolled ; some had black, others brown ears. 

 Dr. Leigh/ in his "Natural History of Lancashire, 

 Cheshire, and the Peak of Derbyshire" (bookii. p. 3), 

 published in 1 700, thus alludes to them : " In a park 

 near Bury in Lancashire are wild cattel belonging to 

 Sir Ralph Ashton, of Middleton ; these, I presume, 

 were first brought from the Highlands of Scotland [a 

 mere surmise, probably founded on his acquaintance 

 with the accounts given by Boethius and Leslie of the 

 Caledonian bull]. They have no horns, but are like the 

 wild bulls and cows upon the continent of America :" 



* Leland, "Itiu.," vol. vii. p. 47 (ed. Hearne). 



