"The Great Wood" of Chillingham (in Britain), as it was known, became the final retreat to which the beasts were driven by hunting and by increase of population. Those at Chillingham may have formed part of the aboriginal herds that roamed the mighty Caledonian Forest, which covered much of Scotland. In the Great Wood of Chillingham the cattle were able to breed in comparative security until the park was enclosed, when the barons preserved them for the purposes of the chase. The herd is recognised as the best representative of white park cattle in Britain, and since Chillingham Wood was enclosed. The Chillingham bulls are notoriously short of temper, particularly those that have been deposed by a younger and stronger bull.
Great pains have been taken to keep the breed pure. There seems little evidence of any admixture of other blood. It is not surprising that the Chillingham beasts are extremely wild, and perhaps old Hector Boece, the fifteenth century Scottish historian, was not greatly exaggerating when he described them, after they had "run wild" for a thousand years, as "mair wild than ony uthir beistis."
Although enclosed for so many centuries it is still not safe for any stranger to approach them. The only safe way to get near is to travel on one of the carts that are used in winter for taking hay to them. In summer the park supplies sufficient food. They favour the bracken-clad slopes of the highest part of the park, hiding among the trees with the timidity and cunning of wild deer. All are shy and suspicious, viewing an approaching person with apprehension. Both Bewick, the famous engraver-one of his finest blocks is "The Chillingham Bull"-and Land-seer, the eminent painter of animals, were glad to escape from the attentions of the herd. When the former was making drawings the reigning bull of the herd gave chase, and the artist escaped only by climbing a tree. Land-seer was tracked by some of the herd when making sketches for his pictures. He had to seek refuge in the thickets.
The cattle have habits peculiarly their own, some of which have undoubtedly come down from prehistoric times. The herd belongs to the Earl of Tankerville, and a former bailiff of the family, who knew them over a long period, and who was as familiar with their characteristics as anybody, describes some of them thus: "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 comes 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.... When any one of the herd happens to be wounded, or grown weak and feeble through age or sickness, the rest of the herd set upon it and gore it to death."
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