8 
QUADRUPEDS. 
[ Clafs I. 
much later times; and continued equally pre¬ 
valent during the whole period of our feodal 
government: the chieftain, whofe power and 
fafety depended on the promptnefs of his vaf- 
fals to execute his commands, found it his in- 
tereft to encourage thofe employments that 
favoured that difpofition; the vaflal, who made 
it his glory to fly at the firfl: call to the ftand- 
ard of his chieftain, was fure to prefer that 
employ, which might be tranfa&ed by his fa¬ 
mily with equal fuccefs during his abfence. 
Tillage would require an attendance in¬ 
compatible with the fervices he owed the 
Baron, while the former occupation not only 
gave leifure for thofe duties, but furnilhed the 
hofpitable board of his Lord with ample pro¬ 
vision, of which the vaflal was equal partaker. 
The reliques of the larder of the elder Spencer 
are evident proofs of the plenty of cattle in 
his days y for after his winter provifions may 
have been fuppofed to have been moftly con- 
fumed, there were found, fo late as the month 
of May in fait, the carcaflfes of not fewer than 
80 beeves, 600 bacons, and 600 muttonsf. 
The accounts of the feveral great feafts in 
after times, afford amazing inftances of the 
quantity of cattle that were confumed in them. 
This was owing partly to the continued attach¬ 
ment of the people to grazing^ j partly to the 
preference, that the Englifh at all times gave 
to animal food. The quantity of cattle that 
appear from the lateft calculation to have been 
confumed in our metropolis, is a fufficient argu¬ 
ment of the vaft plenty of thefe times $ par¬ 
ticularly when we confider the great advance¬ 
ment of tillage, and the numberlefs variety of 
•f- Hume’s hiftoryof England 2. 153. 
$ Polid. Vergil Hift. Angl. I. 5. who wrote in the time of 
Henry the 8 th. fays Angli plures pecuarii quam ar at ores. 
provifions, unknown to pad ages, that are now 
introduced into thefe kingdoms from all parts 
of the world. 
Our breed of horned cattle, has in general 
been fo much improved by a foreign mixture, 
that it is difficult to point out the original 
kind of thefe iflands. Thole which may be 
fuppofed to have been purely Britijh are far 
inferior in fize to thofe on the northern part 
of the European continent: The cattle of the 
highlands of Scotland are exceeding fmall, and 
many of them males as well as females are 
hornlefs : The TEeljh runts are much larger: 
The black cattle of Cornwall are of the fame 
fize with thejaft. The large Ipecies that is 
now cultivated thro’ moll parts of Great - 
Britain are either entirely of foreign extrac¬ 
tion ; or our own improved by a crofs with 
the foreign kind. The Lincolnjldre kind 
derive their fize from the Holftein breed y and 
the large hornlefs cattle that are bred in fome 
parts of England came originally from Poland, 
As to the wild cattle of Scotland\ which 
Jonfton mentions under the name of Bifon 
Scoticus , and defcribes as having the mane of 
a lion, and being entirely white,** The breed 
is now extin£f; nor is there to be found at 
prefent in any part of thefe kingdoms a wild 
breed of any fort of cattle, analogous to th§ 
domeftic kinds. 
The ox is the only horned animal in thefe 
iflands that will apply his ftrength to the fer- 
vice of mankind. It is now generally allow¬ 
ed, that in many cafes oxen are more profit¬ 
able in the draught than horfes - y their food, 
harnefs, 
*f" _That inquifitive and accurate hiftorian Maitland furnifhes 
us with this table of the quantity of cattle that were confumed in 
London above 30 years ago, when that city was far lefs populous 
than it is at prefent. 
Beeves 98,244. Pigs 52,000. 
Calves 194,760. Sheep and] 
Jdogs 186,932. Lambs \ 7 ll A 2 Zy 
f* JonJlon. nat. hift. I. 37. 
