14 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 



use, or varieties than we know of the foxes, hares and badgers, in 

 which the outskirt lands of the nobility abounded. We have 

 labored descriptions and illustrations of the costumes of the people, 

 their amusements, games, tournaments faithful chronicles of the 

 times, no doubt but not a word of their domestic animals, save now 

 and then an allusion to the horses of the realm, but of them, even, 

 no definite idea is given of either breed, conformation, or their 

 adaptation to different uses. 



In view of this dearth of information we have to resort somewhat 

 to conjecture, and that conjecture drawn from collateral testimony, 

 and incidents occasionally cropping out through historical events. 

 Until, therefore, we can strike a vein of information with apparent 

 truth and probability on its side, we must, as best we can, grope 

 through the clouds of tradition mainly for an earlier account of the 

 Short-horns. 



For some centuries previous to the advent of the Normans under 

 William the Conqueror, and while under Saxon, and probably the 

 anterior Roman rule, the warlike Scandinavians of Denmark, Sweden 

 and Norway, invaded the north-eastern coasts of England, compris- 

 ing the counties which we have named, then called Northumbria, and 

 held them for longer or shorter terms in subjection. The Scandina- 

 vians were skilled in the use of arms, bold navigators, pirates, both 

 on sea and land, raiding upon all the weaker peoples which they 

 could reach, and holding them subsidiary to their own power and 

 purposes. With all these peoples, which, to a greater or less extent, 

 they subjected to their rule, they established trade and commerce, 

 and interchanged commodities, for they were as enterprising and 

 sagacious in trade as they were daring in their conquests and rob- 

 beries. They may not have carried away prisoners from England 

 to their own lands, but more or less of their adventurous men i set- 

 tled themselves and made homes among the conquered people, mar- 

 ried their women, and the children became Northumbrians in birth, 

 habits and permanent abode. 



At the time of the Norman conquest, in the year 1066, the people 

 of Northumbria presented a mixture of ancient Britons, Saxons and 

 Scandinavians, in blood, name and identity of character. Its cli- 

 mate was the most rigorous of the territory lying south of Scotland ; 

 its coast looked out on the bleak German ocean ; its soil was moist, 

 readily worked, rich in the natural elements of fertility, and emi- 

 nently fitted for pasturage and the production of the better grasses ; 

 yet its agriculture, like all the northern English counties of that day, 



