CHAPTER VII. 



MIDDLE-HORNED CATTLE THE DEVONS. 



THIS beautiful race has been -considered, by some authors, 

 aboriginal, and are claimed to have been known in England at 

 the time of its invasion by the Romans. It is certain that their 

 fineness of limb, uniformity of color, delicacy of proportion, and 

 depth of breeding, give them claims to a distinction which no 

 other race of English cattle exhibit; and be the fact of their 

 remote origin as it may, there is no necessity of disputing it, or 

 speculating on other probabilities. They are like no others, and 

 by no intermixture of any other known breeds have they been, 

 or can they be produced. 



In what degrees of excellence the Devons existed during past 

 centuries, we are unable to say; but that they possessed valuable 

 qualities which endeared them strongly to the people who bred 

 them is certain. Great attention has been paid to their improve- 

 ment during a century past, and probably not neglected for 

 centuries before. Not a single infusion of the blood of other 

 known cattle can be detected in them, and for their improve- 

 ment, as Devons, none other can be devised. In the good judg- 

 ment, sagacity, skill, care, and pains-taking of their breeders 

 alone, must be sought the means by which they stand in their 

 present condition of excellence and beauty. 



As no written description can convey to the unpracticed eye 

 their exact appearance, we shall illustrate them by accurate 

 portraits, taken from life, and as the portraits cannot show them 

 in all their points, a more particular description is added. 



