kingdom, are in the park at Chillingham-castle, in Northumberland; at Wollaton, in Nottinghamshire, the seat of Lord Middleton; at Gisburne, in Craven, Yorkshire; at Lime-hall, in Cheshire; and at Chartley, in Staffordshire.

The principal external appearances which distinguish this breed of cattle from all others, are the following: Their colour is invariably white; muzzles black; the whole of the inside of the ear, and about one third of the outside, from the tip downwards, red*; horns white, with black tips, very fine, and bent upwards: some of the bulls have a thin upright mane, about an inch and a half, or two inches long.

At the first appearance of any person, they set off in full gallop, and, at the distance of two or three hundred yards, make a wheel round, and come boldly up again, tossing their heads in a menacing manner: on a sudden they make a full stop, at the distance of forty or fifty yards, looking wildly at the object of their surprise; but upon the least motion being made, they all again turn round, and fly off with equal speed, but not to the same distance forming a shorter circle, and again returning with a bolder and more threatening aspect than before, they approach much nearer, probably within thirty yards;

• About twenty years since, there were a few, at Chillingham, with BLACK EARS, but the present park-keeper destroyed them; since which period there has not been one with black ears. The ears and noses of all those at Wollaton are BLACK. At Gisburne there are some perfectly WHITE, except the inside of their ears, which are BROWN. They are without horns, very strong boned, but not high. They are said to have been originally brought from Whalley-abbey, in Lancashire, upon its dissolution in the thirty-third of Henry the Eighth. Tradition says, they

were drawn to Gisburne by the power of music.'

when they make another stand, and again fly off: this they do several times, shortening their distance, and advancing nearer, till they come within ten yards; when most people think it prudent to leave them, not chusing to provoke them further; for there is little doubt but in two or three turns more they would make an attack.

The mode of killing them was, perhaps, the only modern remains of the grandeur of ancient hunting. On notice being given that a wild Bull would be killed on a certain day, the inhabitants of the neighbourhood came mounted, and armed with guns, &c. sometimes to the amount of an hundred horse, and four or five hundred foot, who stood upon walls, or got into trees, while the horsemen rode off the Bull from the rest of the herd, until he stood at bay; when a marksman dismounted and shot. At some of these huntings twenty or thirty shots have been fired before he was subdued. On such occasions, the bleeding victim grew desperately furious, from the smarting of his wounds, and the shouts of savage joy that were echoing from every side: but, from the number of accidents that happened, this dangerous mode has been little practised of late years; the park-keeper alone generally shooting them with a rifled gun, at one shot.

When the Cows calve, they hide their calves for a week or ten days in some sequestered situation, and go and suckle them two or three times a-day. If any person come near the calves, they clap their heads close to the ground, and lie like a hare in form, to hide themselves this is a proof of their native wildness, and is corroborated by the following circumstance that happened to the writer of this narrative, who found a hidden calf, two days old, very lean and very weak :-On stroking its

head, it got up, pawed two or three times like an old Bull, bellowed very loud, stepped back a few steps, and bolted at his legs with all its force; it then began to paw again, bellowed, stepped back, and bolted as before; but knowing its intention, and stepping aside, it missed him, fell, and was so very weak that it could not rise, though it made several efforts: but it had done enough; the whole herd were alarmed, and coming to its rescue, obliged him to retire; for the dams will allow no person to touch their calves, without attacking them with impetuous ferocity.*

When any one happens to be wounded, or is grown weak and feeble through age or sickness, the rest of the herd set upon it, and gore it to death.

The weight of the Oxen is generally from forty to fifty stones the four quarters; the Cows about thirty. The beef is finely marbled, and of excellent flavour.

Those at Burton-Constable, in the county of York, were all destroyed by a distemper a few years since. They varied slightly from those at Chillingham, having black ears and muzzles, and the tips of their tails of the same colour: they were also much larger, many of them weighing sixty stones; probably owing to the richness of the pasturage in Holderness, but generally attributed to the difference of kind between those with black and with red ears, the former of which they studiously endeavoured to preserve. The breed which was at Drumlanrig, in Scotland, had also black ears.

* Tame Cows, in season, are frequently turned out amongst the Wild Cattle at Chillingham, and admit the Bull. It is somewhat extraordinary, that the calves produced by this means are invariably of the same colour with the wild breed, (white, with red ears) and retain a good deal of the fierceness of their sire.

F.