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LETTER XIV. 



Bally Castle, August 22, 1813. 



IF I have hitherto in my letters disregarded 

 the neat stock of the country, it has not arisen 

 from inattention, but from inability to trace 

 those I have seen, up to any distinct breed. 

 The milch cows are a mixed race, sprung from 

 long-horned ancestors, without either beauty or 

 symmetry to recommend them. None of the 

 white cows spoken of by Giraldus Cambrensis 

 are now to be heard of. Their existence in 

 Ireland is imputed to him as a fiction. I do not 

 see what object was to be gained by it. White 

 cattle still exist in the Highlands, and seem to 

 have been amongst the most ancient breed, 

 both in England and Scotland. 



In the treaty made in 1642, between the Mar- 

 quis of Ormond and the Commissioners authoriz- 

 ed by the Council of Kilkenny, a sum of seven 

 thousand five hundred pounds sterling was to be 

 paid to King Charles the First in good beeves, 



