THE LYME PARK HKRD OF WILT) WHITE CATTLE. 



85 



the place assisted in the task, and enjoyed the fun " as much as 

 any wakes." A terror to poachers and others who invaded their 

 haunts, the cattle retained their hereditary wildness and timidity 

 to the last, and the discharge of a gun was sufficient to send them 

 off at a rattling pace with heads and tails erected. 



So long as the size of the herd permitted, one or two animals 

 were shot at Christmas, and some of the beef (which has been 

 described to me by those who have tasted it as beautifully 

 marbled, and of excellent flavour) was always forwarded to Her 

 Majesty the Queen. 



Form of Horn after the Gisburne cross. 



The Lyme cattle were larger than those of any of our existing 

 park breeds, and are described as having been long in the body, 

 with strong bone, much substance, and a large amount of flesh 

 about the head and dewlap. They had an abundance of long 

 rough hair, which was curly and mane-like on the head and fore- 

 quarters in the males.* The general coloration seems to have 

 been white, with black muzzles and hoofs, and frequently some 

 black on the fore legs. The ears were black or red, but seem 

 latterly, at any rate, to have varied considerably, and were 

 occasionally, as at Chartley and Somerford, entirely white. 

 Mr. Storer says there was a black circle round the eyes,f but no 

 trace of this is present in either of the stuffed heads I have seen. 

 There is no record of any departure from the legitimate white 

 ground-colour, though Hansall speaks of the cattle as " chiefly 

 white," until the birth of the black calf, so often mentioned in 



* See Dr. Sainter's paper on Lyme Park, Proc. North Staffs. Field Club, 

 1877 ; and Harting, ' Extinct British Animals,' p. 241. 

 j Storer, op. cit., p. 252. 



