POLLED CATTLE IN ANGUS. 29 



stances relating to the matter has led us to believe that, 

 towards the end of the last century and beginning of the 

 present, the higher parts of that section of the north-east 

 of Scotland comprising the counties of Forfar, Kincardine, 

 Aberdeen, and Banff had been occupied by a horned race 

 of cattle, and the lower districts partly, perhaps mainly, 

 by the same race, and in part also by a polled variety. 

 In arriving at that conclusion, we have to some extent 

 been influenced by circumstantial as well as by direct 

 evidence. We have already noticed the perplexing ab- 

 sence of precise descriptions of cattle in the earlier works 

 relating to the agriculture of the north, as well as of other 

 parts of the country. In several of the earlier books 

 dealing with rural matters in the north-east of Scotland, 

 reference is made to the varieties of cattle which then 

 existed ; but, as a rule, they are simply described as 

 having been large or small, as useful and docile, or as 

 wild but handsome. In none of these publications do 

 we find what could be called a complete and minute 

 sketch of the animals referred to. It is thus found that 

 the identification of some of the varieties spoken of by 

 writers whose works appeared towards the close of the 

 last century or the beginning of the present is a matter 

 of considerable difficulty. 



The breed takes one of its sub-titles from the old dis- 

 trict of Angus, now mainly comprised in the county of 

 Forfar. It is proved that there have been polled cattle 

 in that district for a very long period of time. In a 

 pamphlet issued in March 1882, Mr James C. Lyell, 

 Monifieth House, Forfarshire, says : " That a breed of 

 hornless cattle existed in Strathmore [a strath which 

 runs through Forfarshire] in very early times, is attempted 

 to be proved from one of the ancient sculptured stones of 

 Meigle, which is figured on Plate LXXVII. of the Spalding 

 Club's ' Sculptured Stones of Scotland.' This stone is now 

 in the old schoolhouse of Meigle, which has been set apart 



