34 NATURE IN DOWNLAND 



thousands of years to come ; but these great, slow, 

 patient oxen cannot go on dragging the plough much 

 longer ; the wonder is that they have continued to the 

 present time. One gazes lovingly at them, and on 

 leaving casts many a longing, lingering look behind, 

 fearing that after a little while their place will know 

 them no more for ever. 



I have described these oxen used in farm-work 

 on the downs as black in colour, and very nearly 

 all of them are black; but the fact is, this variety 

 only dates back about a century in this district, and 

 was introduced from Wales, though for what reason no 

 one appears to know, since the original red Sussex 

 ox was always a "kindly and handsome" beast and 

 a good worker. A few teams of the red oxen may 

 still be seen among the downs; probably some of 

 these, as on the Earl of Chichester's farm at Stanmer, 

 being kept more for the sentiment of the thing than 

 for any other reason. They are noble-looking animals, 

 well-shaped, long-horned, of a deep rich red colour, a 

 very much deeper red than the Devonshire cattle, 

 but not brown. These are of the original Sussex 

 breed, for which this county was once famous when 

 it was undoubtedly the greatest cattle-breeding district 

 in England. " How great on all sides is the abund- 

 ance of cattle, but how strange a solitude of men ! " 

 says an old traveller, when speaking of the Sussex 

 weald. And Arthur Young, in his famous Tour 

 through the Southern Counties (1768), telling of the bad 



