WHITE CATTLE: AX INQUIRY INTO THEIR ORIGIN, ETC. 415 



With that and fat bakon, till grasse biefe come in, 

 Thy folke shall loke cherely when others loke thin." 



The cattle were kept out in the fields, and Tusser tells us to 



" Give cattell their fodder, the plot drie and warme ; 

 And count them, for miring or other like harme. 





They calves then that come between new yere and lent, 

 Save gladly for store, lest thou after repent. 

 For all thing at that time that cold feleth some, 

 Shall better beare colde when the next winter come." 



What these animals got to eat show us why "grasse biefe" was 

 preferred and hung up for winter use. They got 



" Rie strawe. then wheate, and then pease ; 

 Then ote strawe, then barley, then hay if thou please." 



These ordinary cattle may in a sense be considered forest 

 and wdld cattle. Barnabe Googe, in the Four Bookes of 

 Husbandry (1577), informs us that a herdsman was necessary 

 for every 20 or 30 " bullockes and kine." The herd when small, 

 "and feeding not farre of, is brought home every day, chyldren 

 and young folkes are able to serve the turn"; yet, where the 

 numbers are great, " and must be kept night and day in 

 Forestes and wylde fieldes," they can only be herded " be men of 

 lusty age, strength, and diligence. "^ In Googe's "Thirde Booke 

 Entreating of Cattell," some of the opinions expressed by 

 " Euphorbus the Netheard " are worth noticing. He says : — 

 " What colour in horses count you the best ? The poet seemeth 

 to mislike the white, which others, again, as I have sundry 

 times heard, commende, especially in England, where they are 

 wel accounted of, and most esteemed." Then he goes on to say 

 with reference to oxen that — "The best were counted in the olde 

 time to be of the breede of Albania, Camj^ania, and Toscani: at 

 this day we take the best kinde to be in Hungary, Burgundy, 

 Frisland, Denmarke, and in England " (Appendix I.). It is rather 

 remarkable, I think, that in 1577 it should be stated that white 

 cattle were most esteemed in England, and that they should be 



1 In the time of the Tudors it was essential for a man of substance to 

 have herds of cattle and flocks of sheep ready at hand for the supply of 

 his great household and retinue. Husbandry he might give up — stock - 

 farming he had to continue. 



G 



