252 MIXED CAUSES OF 



bridge to the large, beautiful, riverine meadow called tlie 

 North Inch known to fame in Sir Walter Scott's 'Fair 

 Maid of Perth : ' to this open space it made its way, gal- 

 loped to its further end, and there, espying a herd of cattle 

 grazing quietly on the opposite side of the river (Tay), on 

 the meadows of Scone Palace, and being then unharassed 

 by its human enemies, whom it had out-distanced in the 

 race, it swam or forded the Tay to its companions, was 

 accepted by them without objection, and began to browse as 

 quietly as if it had not been the hero of an ' accident ' and 

 the object of so much human excitement. On another occa- 

 sion -also in Perth which, however, is a quiet provincial 

 town, whose streets are habitually nearly empty, an over- 

 driven, excited ox was most judiciously directed into 

 the courtyard of a church, where it was left fuming 

 and fretting only till a few quiet cattle could be driven 

 beside it. The result of the companionship was instant 

 quietude, and that it could then be led or driven in the desired 

 direction probably the slaughter-house. 



Now I find that farmers, or other breeders of cattle for 

 the butcher, are familiar both with the peculiar mental con- 

 dition of stall-fed cattle and with its causes. In certain 

 cases they act practically, judiciously, and humanely on their 

 knowledge or opinions : such as by slaughtering specially 

 excitable cattle on the farm, being afraid of the risks to 

 human life of driving or over-driving to market; or by send- 

 ing them securely led by ropes, or at such hours as would 

 secure transit during the greatest quiet and the least public 

 traffic of the day, in country as well as in town. 



But in other cases, regardless of anything save convert- 

 ing their cattle into cash, and complying with the printed 

 letter of loose municipal or other regulations, their owners 

 or drovers simply take the speediest and cheapest means of 

 conveying them from their byre in the country to the 

 shambles in the town. 



It does not come within the scope of such a work as the 

 present to indicate, to those whom it may most concern, how 

 best to obviate the present evils arising from the driving of 

 exhausted, excitable, or excited cattle, during the hours of 



