34 AGRICULTURE. 



ever one appeared somewhat better than her neighbours, 

 the invariable explanation was, " She has a good cross in 

 Tier." When Bakewell died he left on his farm a good 

 flock of sheep, perhaps for their purposes the best in 

 the kingdom. His successor imagined that a breed had 

 been created which could perpetuate itself and its merits ; 

 but, under that system, and in his hands, the flock came 

 to a melancholy end size, constitution, fertility, flesh, 

 wool all gone ; nothing but a little tallow left. The 

 successor of this gentleman was a Derbyshire man ; and 

 he brought with him on to the farm a good flock of sheep. 

 They had in them a good deal of Bakewellian blood ; but 

 when their owner saw them dwindle, he had recourse to a 

 large roughish ram from the limestone district of his 

 native county : a big-headed, big-boned, big-rnuscled ani- 

 mal : 



" omnia magna, 

 Pes etiam." 



Under such management this flock, of which we have now 

 lost sight, for a long time retained its celebrity. 



We have appealed to self-colour as one characteristic of 

 a race of cattle. We have done so partly because, with 

 few exceptions, quadrupeds in a state of nature are self- 

 coloured ; and we are not aware of any wild animal whose 

 colours are patchy or glaring, The British wild cattle, as 

 preserved in the parks at Chillingham, Cadzow, Chartley, 

 and Lyme, are of a dingy white, with tawny ears. The 

 cattle of mountainous countries, which have been very in- 

 accessible to agriculture, are always of self-colours black, 

 red, or dun. The Caffrarian cattle are black. The queer 

 little cow which, within the memory of man, had a pure 

 existence in Normandy and the Channel Islands, and which, 

 being celebrated for the richness of its milk, came to our 

 markets under the name of an Alderney, was fawn-colour, 

 with tawny ears. So-called Alderneys are still brought 

 to those vicinities in which gentlemen's seats abound ; but 

 by crossing they have lost their uniform colour, and some 



