
WHITE CATTLE: AN INQUIRY INTO THEIR ORIGIN, ETC. 269 
religious houses, their flesh being more esteemed by 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 
hundredweight, while there was no great variety of breed. Pro- 
fessor 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 
five hundredweight.!. England once did a large trade in cattle 
and meat with Germany and the Continent, but it was in the 
twelfth century. 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 country, and to-day 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 ve 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 
Treland, we have Anglesea famous as the “isle of cows,” and Jona, 
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 

1 The average produce of the carcases of Chillingham cattle is, I believe, 
about 560 Ibs., and this represents the average weight of carcases sold at 
Smithfield two centuries ago, before the modern improvement in breeding 
began. 
2A German Prince is stated to have hunted and killed at Glengariff, in 
Treland, a wild bull about 1828-29. 
