30 THE DISEASES AND DISORDERS OF THE OX. 



the latter were driven to the lands of some friendly baron, or 

 concealed in some recess. When, however, the government 

 became more powerful, and a settled peace and freedom from 

 internecine struggles and internal dissensions became the order 

 of the day, property of every description was far more secure and 

 also more equally divided. The plough, too, then gradually 

 came into general use ; for then it was reasonably to be expected 

 that the reaping of agricultural products might be fairly antici- 

 pated, when once they had been sown. At about this period 

 cattle were somewhat neglected, and both the number and the 

 size of them gradually became less. Indeed, it has been only 

 within the last fifty years or so that serious and successful 

 attempts have been made for the purpose of improving our breeds 

 of cattle. As our ancestors roved about, their cattle were apt at 

 times to stray and to be lost. The country at that time con- 

 tained a great many forests, and the oxen which had strayed 

 betook themselves to the recesses of these woods, and became 

 wild, and at length so numerous and ferocious as to be a source 

 of danger to the people living near. There were, at one time, a 

 great number of these savage animals in the forests situated near 

 the metropolis. As the country gradually became more and more 

 highly civilised, and the forests were thinned, these creatures were 

 almost entirely stamped out. A few of them, however, still 

 remain in Chatelherault Park, belonging to the Duke of Hamil- 

 ton, in Lanarkshire, and also in the park of Chillingham Castle, 

 in Northumberland, the seat of the Earl of Tankerville. 



These peculiar wild cattle we shall describe later on ; but our 

 consideration of them will best come in our remarks on the 

 different breeds of cattle, which topic we shall shortly proceed to 

 discuss. 



