Wild Animals

: The Relapse into Barbarism
: After London

When the ancients departed, great numbers of their cattle perished. It

was not so much the want of food as the inability to endure exposure

that caused their death; a few winters are related to have so reduced

them that they died by hundreds, many mangled by dogs. The hardiest that

remained became perfectly wild, and the wood cattle are now more

difficult to approach than deer.



There are two kinds, the wh te and the black. The white (sometimes dun)

are believed to be the survivors of the domestic roan-and-white, for the

cattle in our enclosures at the present day are of that colour. The

black are smaller, and are doubtless little changed from their state in

the olden times, except that they are wild. These latter are timid,

unless accompanied by a calf, and are rarely known to turn upon their

pursuers. But the white are fierce at all times; they will not, indeed,

attack man, but will scarcely run from him, and it is not always safe to

cross their haunts.



The bulls are savage beyond measure at certain seasons of the year. If

they see men at a distance, they retire; if they come unexpectedly face

to face, they attack. This characteristic enables those who travel

through districts known to be haunted by white cattle to provide against

an encounter, for, by occasionally blowing a horn, the herd that may be

in the vicinity is dispersed. There are not often more than twenty in a

herd. The hides of the dun are highly prized, both for their intrinsic

value, and as proofs of skill and courage, so much so that you shall

hardly buy a skin for all the money you may offer; and the horns are

likewise trophies. The white or dun bull is the monarch of our forests.



Four kinds of wild pigs are found. The most numerous, or at least the

most often seen, as it lies about our enclosures, is the common

thorn-hog. It is the largest of the wild pigs, long-bodied and

flat-sided, in colour much the hue of the mud in which it wallows. To

the agriculturist it is the greatest pest, destroying or damaging all

kinds of crops, and routing up the gardens. It is with difficulty kept

out by palisading, for if there be a weak place in the wooden framework,

the strong snout of the animal is sure to undermine and work a passage

through.



As there are always so many of these pigs round about inhabited places

and cultivated fields, constant care is required, for they instantly

discover an opening. From their habit of haunting the thickets and bush

which come up to the verge of the enclosures, they have obtained the

name of thorn-hogs. Some reach an immense size, and they are very

prolific, so that it is impossible to destroy them. The boars are fierce

at a particular season, but never attack unless provoked to do so. But

when driven to bay they are the most dangerous of the boars, on account

of their vast size and weight. They are of a sluggish disposition, and

will not rise from their lairs unless forced to do so.



The next kind is the white hog, which has much the same habits as the

former, except that it is usually found in moist places, near lakes and

rivers, and is often called the marsh-pig. The third kind is perfectly

black, much smaller in size, and very active, affording by far the best

sport, and also the best food when killed. As they are found on the

hills where the ground is somewhat more open, horses can follow freely,

and the chase becomes exciting. By some it is called the hill-hog, from

the locality it frequents. The small tusks of the black boar are used

for many ornamental purposes.



These three species are considered to be the descendants of the various

domestic pigs of the ancients, but the fourth, or grey, is thought to be

the true wild boar. It is seldom seen, but is most common in the

south-western forests, where, from the quantity of fern, it is called

the fern-pig. This kind is believed to represent the true wild boar,

which was extinct, or merged in the domestic hog among the ancients,

except in that neighbourhood where the strain remained.



With wild times, the wild habits have returned, and the grey boar is at

once the most difficult of access, and the most ready to encounter

either dogs or men. Although the first, or thorn-hog, does the most

damage to the agriculturist because of its numbers, and its habit of

haunting the neighbourhood of enclosures, the others are equally

injurious if they chance to enter the cultivated fields.



The three principal kinds of wild sheep are the horned, the thyme, and

the meadow. The thyme sheep are the smallest, and haunt the highest

hills in the south, where, feeding on the sweet herbage of the ridges,

their flesh is said to acquire a flavour of wild thyme. They move in

small flocks of not more than thirty, and are the most difficult to

approach, being far more wary than deer, so continuously are they hunted

by the wood-dogs. The horned are larger, and move in greater numbers; as

many as two hundred are sometimes seen together.



They are found on the lower slopes and plains, and in the woods. The

meadow sheep have long shaggy wool, which is made into various articles

of clothing, but they are not numerous. They haunt river sides, and the

shores of lakes and ponds. None of these are easily got at, on account

of the wood-dogs; but the rams of the horned kind are reputed to

sometimes turn upon the pursuing pack, and butt them to death. In the

extremity of their terror whole flocks of wild sheep have been driven

over precipices and into quagmires and torrents.



Besides these, there are several other species whose haunt is local. On

the islands, especially, different kinds are found. The wood-dogs will

occasionally, in calm weather, swim out to an island and kill every

sheep upon it.



From the horses that were in use among the ancients the two wild species

now found are known to have descended, a fact confirmed by their evident

resemblance to the horses we still retain. The largest wild horse is

almost black, or inclined to a dark colour, somewhat less in size than

our present waggon horses, but of the same heavy make. It is, however,

much swifter, on account of having enjoyed liberty for so long. It is

called the bush-horse, being generally distributed among thickets and

meadow-like lands adjoining water.



The other species is called the hill-pony, from its habitat, the hills,

and is rather less in size than our riding-horse. This latter is short

and thick-set, so much so as not to be easily ridden by short persons

without high stirrups. Neither of these wild horses are numerous, but

neither are they uncommon. They keep entirely separate from each other.

As many as thirty mares are sometimes seen together, but there are

districts where the traveller will not observe one for weeks.



Tradition says that in the olden times there were horses of a slender

build whose speed outstripped the wind, but of the breed of these famous

racers not one is left. Whether they were too delicate to withstand

exposure, or whether the wild dogs hunted them down is uncertain, but

they are quite gone. Did but one exist, how eagerly it would be sought

out, for in these days it would be worth its weight in gold, unless,

indeed, as some affirm, such speed only endured for a mile or two.



It is not necessary, having written thus far of the animals, that

anything be said of the birds of the woods, which every one knows were

not always wild, and which can, indeed, be compared with such poultry as

are kept in our enclosures. Such are the bush-hens, the wood-turkeys,

the galenae, the peacocks, the white duck and the white goose, all of

which, though now wild as the hawk, are well known to have been once

tame.



There were deer, red and fallow, in numerous parks and chases of very

old time, and these, having got loose, and having such immense tracts to

roam over unmolested, went on increasing till now they are beyond

computation, and I have myself seen a thousand head together. Within

these forty years, as I learn, the roe-deer, too, have come down from

the extreme north, so that there are now three sorts in the woods.

Before them the pine-marten came from the same direction, and, though

they are not yet common, it is believed they are increasing. For the

first few years after the change took place there seemed a danger lest

the foreign wild beasts that had been confined as curiosities in

menageries should multiply and remain in the woods. But this did not

happen.



Some few lions, tigers, bears, and other animals did indeed escape,

together with many less furious creatures, and it is related that they

roamed about the fields for a long time. They were seldom met with,

having such an extent of country to wander over, and after a while

entirely disappeared. If any progeny were born, the winter frosts must

have destroyed it, and the same fate awaited the monstrous serpents

which had been collected for exhibition. Only one such animal now exists

which is known to owe its origin to those which escaped from the dens of

the ancients. It is the beaver, whose dams are now occasionally found

upon the streams by those who traverse the woods. Some of the aquatic

birds, too, which frequent the lakes, are thought to have been

originally derived from those which were formerly kept as curiosities.



In the castle yard at Longtover may still be seen the bones of an

elephant which was found dying in the woods near that spot.