CHAPTER III. 



THE MIDDLE HORNS. 



THE DEVONS. 



The north of Devon has been long celebrated for a breed of cattle 

 beautiful in the highest degree, and in activity at work and aptitude 

 to fatten unrivalled. The native country of the Devons, and where 

 they are found in a state of the greatest purity, extends from the 

 rive'r Taw westward, skirting along the Bristol Channel : the breed 

 becoming more mixed, and at length comparatively lost before we ar- 

 rive at the Parrett. Inland it extends by Barnstaple, South Molton, 

 and Chumleigh, as far as Tiverton, and thence to Wellington, where 

 again the brewed becomes unfrequent, or it is mixed before we reach 

 Taunton. More eastward the Somersets and the Welsh mingle with 

 it, or supersede it. To the south there prevails a larger variety, a cross 

 probably of the Devon with the Somerset ; and on the west the 

 Cornish cattle are found, or contaminate the breed. The Devonshire 

 man confines them within a narrower district, and will scarcely allow 

 them to be found with purity beyond his native county. From Port- 

 lock to Biddeford, and a little to the north and the south, is, in his 

 mind, the peculiar and only residence of the true Devon. 



From the earliest records the breed has here remained the same ; 

 or if not quite as perfect as at the present moment, yet altered in no 

 essential point until within the last thirty years. That is not a little 

 surprising when it is remembered that a considerable part of this 

 district is not a breeding country, and that even a proportion, and 

 that not a small one, of Devonshire cattle, are bred out of the county. 

 On the borders of Somerset and Dorset, and partly in both, extend- 

 ing southward from Crewkern, the country assumes the form of an 

 extensive valley, and principally supphes the Exeter market with 

 calves. Those that are dropped in February and March, are kept 

 until May, and then sold to the drovers, who convey them to Exeter. 

 They are there purchased by the Devonshire farmers, who keep 

 them for two or three years, when they are sold to the Somersetshire 

 o-raziers, who fatten them for the London market ; so that a portion 

 of the Devons, and of the very finest of the breed,corae from Somer- 

 set and Dorset. 



