BRITISH PARK-CATTLE 71 
breed in its pristine purity. Possibly also the 
extinction was accelerated by the vigorous elimina- 
tion of all black calves, which not improbably 
represented the strongest and hardiest type of the 
breed. Although it is stated that during a great part 
of the nineteenth century the number of these cattle 
did not exceed thirty, it is known that in the spring 
of 1 85 1 there were eight-and-forty head. By the 
summer of 1874 these had, however, diminished to 
twenty-five, of which fifteen were cows and heifers. 
Three years later the herd comprised only twenty 
head, of which no fewer than ten or eleven were 
bulls, the large number of that sex being of itself 
a clear sign of decadence and degeneration. Between 
1877 1903 there is a dearth of information, but in 
March of the latter year, when Chartley was purchased 
from Lord Ferrers by Colonel W. N. Congreve, only 
eight head of cattle remained. These were 
purchased on behalf of the Duke of Bedford, and 
removed to the park at Woburn, in the hope that it 
might be possible to resuscitate the breed. It was, 
however, soon found that nearly all the members of 
the remnant of the herd were more or less severely 
affected with tuberculous disease, and the cows 
rapidly died off, till in 1908 only one black bull and 
a white bull and cow remained. Of these the two 
latter were returned for a time to Chartley, but were 
once more brought back to Woburn, with the under- 
standing that after death they should become the pro- 
perty of Colonel Congreve. The white bull — the last 
pure-bred white one — was killed in 19 10, and is now 
exhibited in the Natural History branch of the British 
Museum. At that date there remained at Woburn a 
pure-bred black bull and a white cow. There was a 
