BUTCH CATTLE. 35 



from 200 to 300 years since was totally different, both 

 in colour and in form, from what she is now. The 

 black cow is very rare in these pictures, and I have 

 never met with an instance of black-and-white ; mouse- 

 coloured ones are not uncommon, neither are white ones 

 with red ears, and sometimes with spotted necks or 

 bodies ; reds of different shades, and the greater number 

 of light tints, are the most common, sometimes self- 

 coloured, sometimes with the face or some other part 

 white. You may find among them many a striking 

 likeness of the old Yorkshire or Holderness cow ; some, 

 even, which might be taken for the improved Durham; 

 some which have a strong similarity to the Hereford ; 

 but nowhere any much resembling the present Dutch 

 cattle. Paul Potter's celebrated bull at the Hague is a 

 pregnant instance ; it is the exact counterpart of the 

 bulls I remember turned out upon the commons in some 

 of our eastern counties; and I have a strong impression 

 that the Yorkshire cow or the Lincoln bullock is the 

 nearest living type of the old Dutch cow or the ancient 

 Friesland ox. 



The causes for such changes in Holland were pro- 

 bably similar to those to which MM. Moll and Grayot 

 attribute them in Friesland — numerous crosses and 

 frequent importations, consequent upon destructive wars 

 and pestilences. At the latter end of the year 1714, the 

 great murrain, which then devastated Europe, reached 

 Holland, and there " at least two hundred thousand 

 cattle perished." " In 1745 it laid Holland waste a 

 second time. More than two hundred thousand cattle 

 now perished." No doubt with the importation of 

 other sorts fashion has also changed, and contributed 

 towards the difference; yet even now Nature, though 

 d 2 



