THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE OX. 
39 
neys, because the grasses, his natural food, are burned up during 
a great part of the year, leaving plants for him to subsist upon as 
innutritious as the heaths of the northern isles. But where the 
grasses abound, and where the heat of the climate is not suffi- 
ciently great to wither them up during a greater part of the year, 
the ox assumes an entirely different character with respect to 
magnitude and strength. We shall have many opportunities of 
illustrating this well-known fact, when alluding to the history 
of the different breeds which diversify our soil. 
A question which has already excited considerable attention 
naturally presents itself here : — What were the particular charac- 
ters of the breed of cattle which Caesar found on visiting our 
shores ? By some it has been conjectured that the original native 
breed of Britain was of a white colour, similar to those wild or 
feral breeds now preserved in some of the northern parks of Eng- 
land and in the south of Scotland, and formerly in Wales. We 
shall proceed to consider this question at some length. 
In a work published about 240 years ago, by John Leslie, 
Bishop of Ross, it is stated that a wild and savage race of oxen, 
of a white colour, were found in the woods and forests of Scotland. 
Hector Boece also mentions the same circumstance, of their being 
found near London, and says that they were “ mair wild than 
ony oither beastis* The same author describing the bull of the 
white breed, says, he has “ a crisp and curland mane like feirs 
Hones.” Here is evidence sufficient to prove that cattle of this 
description were sometimes found in their time running wild in 
the woods and forests of merry England ; but a very interesting 
question is here to be considered, — whether the wild race were 
descendants of the native aboriginal stock, or derived from a do- 
mestic race fortuitously escaped from servitude. We believe we 
shall be able to prove the latter position. In the reign of William 
the Conqueror, who is said to have possessed sixty-eight forests, 
besides chases and parks innumerable, we have accounts of the 
different wild animals of venery or chase, such as the hart, hind, 
buck, hare, boar, and wolf, but no mention whatever of wild 
cattle. In consequence of the unsettled life which many of our 
early and later ancestors led, their cattle would sometimes stray 
and be lost in the woods and forests, and consequently became wild, 
and sometimes ferocious, we have no doubt : besides, we have 
authentic accounts which prove that white cattle, similar to those 
now preserved in the north of England, were carefully treasured 
in the domains of monasteries and nobles as early as the reign of 
John, and that they were sought after even by princes and kings. 
These facts sufficiently prove that the white race were not com- 
mon in those days, and, therefore, any of the breed that happened 
