3-047-065 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Head of the Chillingham bull shot by the Prince of Wales, 1872. 'The Prince of Wales [future King Edward VII], while staying with the Earl of Tankerville at Chillingham Castle, Northumberland, on the 10th October, spent a morning in the chase of the famous wild cattle preserved in that extensive park. His Royal Highness brought down the king of the herd by a single rifleshot, his bullet entering the neck and severing the spinal cord. It was a fine bull, seven years old, and weighing 70 st. We give an Illustration of the head of this noble animal. The colour of the head, body, and limbs is white; the muzzle, hoofs, and tips of horns are black. The breed, now extremely rare,...exists, we believe, nowhere in England but at Chillingham; in Scotland, it is to be found in the demesne of Cadyow, at Hamilton, on the Clyde...The Prince of Wales, as we have seen, had a better weapon than the lance or spear to use at Chillingham; but the wild beast he slew there was one of the same kind as that which is described by Sir Walter Scott. The head has been mounted as a trophy, by Mr. Edwin Ward, naturalist, of Wigmore-street. It stands boldly out from a shield of blue and gold, with a most successful effect'. From "Illustrated London News", 1872.