No. 10. 



The Old Craven Bull 



305 



THE OLD CRAVEN BULL. 



In the district of Craven, a fertile corner of the West Riding of Yorkshire, bordering on 

 Lancashire, there has been, from the earliest records of British agriculture, a peculiar and 

 valuable breed of cattle. They were distinguished from the home-breeds of other counties 

 by a disproportionate length of horn, and in the old breed this horn frequently projected 

 nearly horizontally on either side; but as the cattle were improved, the horn assumed other 

 directions. The cut of the Irish Cattle, p. 113 of the present volume of the Cabinet, gives 

 no unfaithful representation of their general appearance and form, and the breed became 

 distinguished by the name of "The Long-horns;" but whence they were derived was, and 

 still is, a disputed point, although they seem to have first appeared in Craven, and gradually 

 to have spread along the western coast, until they occupied, almost exclusively, the midland 

 counties. There are two distinct breeds of these cattle; the smaller, inhabiting the moun- 

 tains, hardy, useful, valued by the cottager and small farmer on account of the ease with 

 which they are kept, the superior quantity and excellent quality of their milk, and the apti- 

 tude with which they fatten when removed to better pasture: the larger, occupying a more 

 level and richer pasture, are very fair milkers, although, in proportion to their size, not equal 

 to the others; but they possess a tendency to fatten, and acquire extraordinary bulk, scarcely 

 inferior to that of the Short-horns of the present day. 



The foregoing cut exhibits the portrait of a Craven Bull of the present day, but supposed 

 to bear about him many of the characteristics of the old breed : he was drawn as he stood in 

 Smithfield market. Here were evident materials for a skilful breeder to work upon — a 

 connexion of excellencies and defects by no means inseparable; that which was good might 

 easily be rendered more valuable, and the alloy be thrown off. A blacksmith and farrier of 

 Linton, in Derbyshire, whose name was VVelby, has the honour of undertaking the task : 

 he prided himself much in them, and they deserved the care which he took in improving 

 them. After him appeared the master-improver of the Long-horns, Bakewell, to whom 

 contemporaries and posterity have adjudged the merit of creating, as it were, a new breed 

 of cattle, unrivalled for roundness of form, smallness of bone, and aptitude to acquire external 

 fat, although the dairyman and small farmer still clung to the old breed, as most useful for 

 their purpose. 



