THE LIVING GARMENT 35 



roads in this cattle-breeding district, says : " Here I 

 had a sight, which indeed I never saw in any other 

 part of England, namely, that going to church in 

 a village not far from Lewes, I saw an ancient lady 

 of very good quality drawn to church in her coach 

 with six oxen : nor was it done but out of mere 

 necessity, the way being so stiff and deep that no 

 horses could go in it." The necessity no longer 

 exists ; and the horse is rapidly taking his place 

 even in the oxen's proper work. Down to 1834, 

 according to Ellman, the well-known improver of the 

 South Down sheep, almost every farmer in Sussex 

 worked oxen as well as horses. What a change to 

 the present time, when the few farmers who still 

 make use of oxen tell you that even those few are 

 not bred in the county, that Sussex is now obliged 

 to go into other counties to get its cattle ! Within 

 the last five or six years I have seen the use of 

 oxen given up in farms where they had always been 

 employed, and I greatly fear that those who will 

 walk on the downs a quarter of a century hence will 

 see no patient team of " slow black oxen." 



It is possible that black oxen similar to those of 

 Sussex may be still used in farm-work in some parts 

 of Ireland : I have not penetrated far into the in- 

 terior of that distant country. At all events, it seems 

 unlikely that a Nationalist and leader of the " Celtic 

 School," Mr, W. B. Yeats, should have come to the 

 most Saxon district in England to get that grand 



