364 



Forrest: British ' Wild' Cattle. 



the heights by men armed with scythe-blades fastened to poles, 

 who endeavoured to hamstring the animals as they rushed by. 

 An old gentleman, still residing near Aberystwyth, remembers 

 having seen one of these weapons in his youth, and, from the 

 details which he then heard, the period referred to would be 

 about the middle of the eighteenth century. The colour of 

 these beasts does not appear to have been noted, but domestic 

 cattle pure white, some with black and others with red or brown 

 ears and muzzles, are not at all uncommon in the district at 

 the present day. 



At Lamphey Court, Pembrokeshire, there is a herd of 

 long-horned White Cattle so closely resembling the Chartley 

 Cattle, that Mr. J. R. B. Masefield (who first noted the remark- 

 able likeness in 1892), suggested the introduction of some of 

 the Lamphey animals into the Chartley herd, in the hope that 

 the new blood might prevent the impending doom of the old 

 race, reduced to a mere remnant by disease and in-breeding. 

 Had this course been adopted in time, the Chartley Cattle 

 might have been saved. Mr. Masefield tells me that the Lam- 

 phey herd was produced by selection of white animals from 

 amongst various herds of Welsh cattle, and breeding from 

 these. None ol the stock was related to any of the old herds 

 of White Park Cattle. 



In March 1905, the remaining herd at Chartley was pur- 

 chased from Lord Ferrers by Mr. Masefield, on behalf of the 

 Duke of Bedford, and removed to Woburn. It consisted of 

 eight beasts. Of these, only one, a black bull, now remains, 

 but a bull and cow have been returned to Chartley. The 

 Chartley bulls at Woburn have been mated with white cows 

 of other breeds, and the results are published in the ' Tran- 

 sactions of the North Staffordshire Field Club*.' where full 

 details may be found. Of these experiments, the most striking 

 results were obtained by mating the black Chartley Bull with 

 a w^hite Welsh cow : the calf produced was a quite typical 

 Chartley animal — white with black nose, and black markings 

 on legs. Another calf produced at Chartley by a white Chartley 

 bull and Lamphey cow, was white with black nose and ears, but 

 the legs not marked. By mating a pure Chartley bull with 

 these half-breeds, it is hoped to get back the original Chartley 

 breed as nearly as possible, but, as stated at the beginning of 



* Vol. XLIL, 1908, pp. 61-63. 



Naturalist, 



