WHITE CATTLE : AX INQUIRY INTO THEIR ORIGIN, ETC. 269 



religious houses, their flesh bein^' more esteemed bv the abbots 

 and monks, we are told, than that of their " awne tame bestial,'' 

 and even, as I shall show further on, used in religious ceremonies. 



From the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries. Professor Thorold 

 Rogers says, the cattle of England were small, averaging four 

 hundredweisjht, while there was no sjreat varietv of breed. Pro- 

 lessor Thorold Rogers adds — "In all likelihood the breed was the 

 small one now found in Scotland and other mountainous regions." 

 Between 1583 and 1702 cattle seemed to have improved, as in 

 that period. Professor Rogers says, the average weight rises to 

 live hundredweisht. ^ Ensjland once did a large trade in cattle 

 and meat with Germany and the Continent, but it was in the 

 twelfth centurv. It would be interesting: if we could find out 

 whether this trade was in the ordinary dark-coloured Bos 

 longifrons or in white cattle, which were, as we have abundant 

 evidence to show, in favour and demand in England at that period. 



In Switzerland we find confirmation of the theory offered 

 regarding our own cattle. The Celtic Shorthorn is the indigenous 

 ox of the countrv, and to-dav we find in the mountains, breeds that 

 are whole-coloured, with horns placed outwards from the side of 

 the head and turning more upward and forward, while in the 

 lowlands the breeds are simply of the Italian type. It is strange 

 that herds of white cattle do not exist in Ireland, and that no 

 claim has been made on our imagination for wild white cattle, 

 huge as elephants and maned like lions, to be allowed to roam 

 through impenetrable forests in that island.- Yet, in the earliest 

 Irish annals we read of the "island of the white cow"' and the 

 " lake of the white cow." As stepping-stones, so to speak, to 

 Ireland, we have Anglesea famous as the " isle of cows," and lona, 

 but here we learn there were no cows, as St. Columba wisely ruled 

 that " where there is a cow there will be a woman, and where 

 there is a woman there will be mischief.'"* Perhaps St. Patrick 



^ The average produce of the carcases of Chillingham cattle is, I believe, 

 about 560 lbs., and this represents the average weight of carcases sold at 

 Smithfield two centuries ago, before the modern improvement in breeding 

 began. 



- A German Prince is stated to have hunted and killed at Glengariff, in 

 Ireland, a wild bull about 1828-29. 



