358 THE OX. 



of society, the improvement of breeds of cattle by foreign im- 

 portations, could scarcely take place. Approaching nearer 

 to our own times, when freedom of intercourse between dif- 

 ferent parts of the country was established, it may be sup- 

 posed that cattle from other districts found their way into 

 Glamorganshire, but not in sufficient numbers to obliterate, 

 or change essentially, the characters of the native cattle. 

 These, from some old notices, seem to have been of a red- 

 dish colour. A Welsh writer, upwards of a hundred years 

 ago. describes the Cows as being of large size, some red and 

 some pied ; which sufficiently agrees with the aspect of 

 the present breed, whose colour is a dark reddish-brown, 

 broken with white. Within the last forty or fifty years, in- 

 deed, various attempts have been made to improve the attle 

 of Glamorganshire by crosses with the Hereford, Devon, 

 and other breeds ; but still the essential characteristics of 

 the native race remain sufficiently distinct and uniform to 

 constitute a well-defined breed. 



The breed of Glamorganshire differs in the size of the in- 

 dividuals, according as they are the natives of the hilly parts 

 of the country, or of the lower and maritime. The breed, 

 however, is essentially the same in both districts, and varied 

 only by the condition of the country, and the care with which 

 the animals have been selected and reared. In the higher 

 country, where their food is the rough herbage of mountains, 

 the cattle are in a corresponding degree small, but coarse 

 and robust in form, active like other mountain cattle, but 

 slow in arriving at maturity. In the Vale, where the her- 

 bage is fine, and the means exist of cultivating artificial pro- 

 vender, the cattle become of larger size, of more developed 

 forms, and having a greater aptitude to fatten readily. The 

 Glamorgans of the lower country fall short of the ordinary 

 size of the Durhams and Herefords ; but yet they are of the 

 larger class of cattle. Their horns are small, fine, and point- 

 ing somewhat upwards; and in the breed of the hills, the horns 

 have yet more of the upright curvature. The skin is generally 



