34 NATURE IN DOWNLAND 



thousands of years to come ; but these great, slow, 

 patient oxen cannot go on dragging the plough much 

 longer ; the wonder is that they have continued to the 

 present time. One gazes lovingly at them, and on 

 leaving casts many a longing, lingering look behind, 

 fearing that after a little while their place will know 

 them no more for ever. 



I have described these oxen used in farm-work 

 on the downs as black in colour, and very nearly 

 all of them are black ; but the fact is, this variety 

 only dates back about a century ia this district, and 

 was introduced from Wales, though for what reason no 

 one appears to know, since the original red Sussex 

 ox was always a " kindly and handsome " beast and 

 a good worker. A few teams of the red oxen may 

 still be seen among the downs; probably some of 

 these, as on the Earl of Chichester's farm at Stanmer, 

 being kept more for the sentiment of the thing than 

 for any other reason. They are noble-looking animals, 

 well-shaped, long-horned, of a deep rich red colour, a 

 very much deeper red than the Devonshh-e cattle, 

 but not brown. These are of the original Sussex 

 breed, for which this county was once famous when 

 it was undoubtedly the greatest cattle-breeding district 

 in England. " How great on all sides is the abund- 

 ance of cattle, but how strange a solitude of men ! " 

 says an old traveller, when speaking of the Sussex 

 weald. And Arthur Young, in his famous Tour 

 throiujh the SuiUhern Counties (1768), telling of the bad 



