18 A HISTORY OF SHORT-HORN CATTLE. 



well as authentic records, recognized the pro- 

 genitors of the modern type in the Counties of 

 Northumberland, Durham, York and Lincoln 

 for several centuries prior to the final crystal- 

 lization of the breed in and about the Tees- 

 water Valley. So much of a speculative char- 

 acter has been published relating to the grad- 

 ual evolution in Northeastern England of the 

 established type of which we write that it is 

 not essential, nor would it be of any special 

 profit, for us to undertake to travel extensively 

 over that uncertain ground in this volume. 

 For centuries it is said that Northern England 

 was the home* of a horned black breed, and 

 black cattle predominated in Yorkshire and 

 adjacent counties until the seventeenth cen- 

 tury. At this date two other well-known types 

 existed in England, the a pied" cattle of Lin- 

 colnshire, with "more white than other colors," 

 and the red stock of Somerset and Gloucester- 

 shire. By the middle of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury, although the Yorkshire cattle were still 

 largely black, mixed colors began to make 

 their appearance. "But of all the cows in 

 England," wrote William Ellis in 1744, "I think 

 none comes up to the Holderness breed for 

 their wide bags, short horns and large bodies, 

 which render them (whether black or red) the 

 most profitable beasts for the dairyman, grazier 

 and butcher. Some of them have yielded two 



