126 CATTLE DEVONS 



often to be found in other breeds, but they are the sires of 

 oxen incomparably active in labour, full of that which in 

 horses is termed ' blood/ and of that superior grain which 

 gives Devon beef its high place in the market. ... It is 

 certain that this race, of which the whole produce is brought 

 to view, stands the confessed favourite or among the very 

 first at Smithfield, where ' prejudice cannot find the way. 

 Generally speaking, the bulls are, relatively to oxen, not of 

 a large size.' . . . The skin of the Devon is of the thinner 

 rather than the thicker class, and the hair is seldom hard 

 and wiry. . . . Great stress is laid upon colour, the mahogany 

 shades being most admired. Those with curled hair are 

 deemed excellent provers ; and a very glossy skin, paler or 

 lighter, with curls, like ripples of wind on a smooth mill- 

 pond, is also in the highest estimation.' The paler shades, 

 however, if the eye be good and clear, are second to none 

 in bearing hard work and in proof." 



The Rev. Richard Polwhele (1797) says of the Molton 

 and Barnstaple cattle : " These are the finest bullocks in the 

 Smithfield market ; they are a very healthy breed, and easily 

 fed ; they are fleshy, with small bones, and they ' bear the 

 best weight ' on the most saleable parts ; they are of a cherry 

 colour or bright red." As regards the wonderful prepotency 

 of the bulls within the true home of the breed a " space of 

 about 15 to 20 miles in diameter" he observes that, mated 

 with Guernsey cows, they produce crosses indistinguishable 

 from their sires, but that out of this space their descendants 

 of the third or fourth generation show a falling off" in quality. 

 He herein expresses a very common but, as since proved, 

 erroneous opinion of Devon people at the time, in face of his 

 own declaration that " numbers of bulls are bought at high 

 prices and sent even to Jamaica." He records the sale of a 

 North Devon heifer at 30 guineas, a price " frequently com- 

 manded " by the best bulls of the breed. 



John Lawrence, in A General Treatise on Cattle, etc. 

 (1805), discussing Devons, says : 



" From these have descended the Hereford, Old Gloucester 

 Red, and Sussex." ..." The red cattle of North Devon are 

 doubtless one of our original breeds, and one of those which 

 have preserved most of the primitive form. The excellence of 

 this form is best proved by the fact that the fashionable 

 substitution of horses has made no progress in the district 

 of these cattle, by their high repute as feeders, and by the 



