22 NOTES ON FIELDS AND CATTLE. 



One of the best black cows, I am bound to confess, 

 that I saw in the country last year was not pure 

 bred. She was in a field overlooking the Menai on 

 the Carnarvonshire side, just a mile short of Telford's 

 elegant suspension-bridge. A well-to-do innkeeper 

 kind of man was feeding her, as though she were a 

 pet, from an armful of vetches, as he kept his eye 

 on a gang of mowers below, and conversed inter- 

 mediately with such as, like ourselves, might happen 

 to pass by. " A nice cow that ! Is she a good one ? " 

 " The best in the county." " She's not quite pure 

 Welsh, is she ? " " Nay, she's not ; she's a touch of 

 the Guernsey in her : " as, indeed, was apparent. 

 That meek eye and silky skin had not quite the 

 Celtic character. She was well-grown too, and indi- 

 cated careful nursing from a calf. 



Since writing the above, I notice that the same 

 Guernsey cross occurred in Mr. "Watson's exquisite 

 Angus heifer, of which Youatt gives a drawing in 

 his work. One black cow subsequently caught my 

 eye in a paddock near the Penrhyn quarries, and 

 another in a wood by the small stream not far from 

 Penmaen Mawr, which, with a couple more by the 

 shores of Bala Lake, had so much promise and style 

 about them, and were of so,kindred a type, that one 

 quite longed to possess them, with the means and 

 time to devote to their cultivation. This breed was 

 allowed to drift back very much during the French 

 revolutionary war, when farmers were tempted to 

 break up their pastures by the excessive price of 

 corn. 



The once famous Glamorganshire cow, a number 



