WILD WHITE CATTLE 
Though Darwin and other naturalists considered our Park Cattle to be 
most likely directly descended from the Urus, Professor Owen, Dr. J. A. 
Smith, E. R. Alston and others do not hold this view, but look upon them 
as originally a domestic breed, whose wildness has been partly due to their 
environment. 
According to Mr. Harting (Extinct 'British Animals, p. 220) white 
cattle with red ears are referred to in the Welsh laws of Howell Dha about 
940 a.d. and wild cattle are mentioned in the forest laws of King Canute 
(a.d. 1014-1035). 
Again they are included among other wild beasts inhabiting the great 
forests around London by Fitz-Stephen about 1 1 74. In the great 
Caledonian woods of Central Scotland, pure white forest bulls, with manes 
like lions, are described by Hector Boece, which may possibly have been the 
ancestors of the herd which at one time existed at Blair Athole. 
As the land became more settled and the forests began to disappear, 
what were left of the cattle in various parts of Britain were driven into 
enclosures belonging to the great landed proprietors, where they still 
remain in one or two localities at the present day. 
Perhaps the best known and most famous of the remaining herds is 
the one at Chillingham Castle, Northumberland, owned by the Earl of 
Tankerville, where the park extends to about eleven hundred acres. This 
enclosure is referred to as far back as 1292 as containing wild animals, 
apparently those which had been driven in from the surrounding 
district. 
In Plate 41 I have shown the head of a Chillingham Bull drawn 
from life. 
In this breed the horns turn upwards and inwards, the inside of the 
ears and upper part of the muzzle are reddish brown, and the rest 
of the animal creamy white. 
