

DAIRYING 169 



Defoe tells us that most of the Scottish cattle which came 

 early into England were brought to the village of S. Faiths, 



rth of Norwich, ' where the Norfolk graziers go and buy 

 them. These Scots runts, coming out of the cold and barren 

 highlands, feed so eagerly on the rich pasture in these marshes 

 that they grow very fat. There are above 40,000 of these 

 Scots cattle fed in this county every year. The gentlemen 

 of Galloway go to England with their droves of cattle and 

 take the money themselves.' ^ It was no uncommon thing for 

 a Galloway nobleman to send 4,000 black cattle and 4,000 

 sheep to England in a year, and altogether from 50,000 to 

 60,000 cattle were said to come to England from Galloway 

 yearly. Gentlemen on the Border before the Union got 

 a very pretty living by tolls from these cattle ; and the Earl 

 of Carlisle made a good income in this way. 



Cattle were sometimes of a great size. In 1697, in the 

 park of Sir John Fagg near Steyning, Defoe saw four 

 bullocks of Sir John's own breeding for which was refused in 

 Defoe's hearing £26 apiece. They were driven to Smith- 

 field and realized £2,^ each, having probably stink on the 

 way, but dressed they weighed 80 stone a quarter ! ^ These 

 weights must have been very exceptional, but go to prove 

 that cattle then could be grown to much greater size than 

 is generally credited. A good price for a bullock in the first 

 half of the eighteenth century was from £y to i^io. 



The best poultry at the same date (1726) were said to be 

 ' the white-feathered sort ', especially those that had short 

 and white legs, which were esteemed for the whiteness of their 

 flesh ; but those that had long yellow legs and yellow beaks 

 were considered good for nothing.^ Care was to be used in 

 the choice of a cock, for those of the game kind were to be 

 avoided as unprofitable. Bradley gives a balance sheet for 



1 Tour (ed. 1 724), i. (i) 97, and iii. (2) 73. 



2 Ibid. i. 63. 



' J. Lawrence, A^ew System of Agriculture ^ p. 151. 



