THE GLAMORGAN BREED. 
PLATE XII. 
COW, Five Years Old, bred by Edward Bradley, Esq., Treguff Place, near Cowbridge, Glamorganshire. 
The county of Glamorgan is a district of the coal-formation situated on the Bristol Channel. In its geological characters it 
differs entirely from the elevated parts of Wales, with which it is in contact. Towards the north it consists of mountains, pro¬ 
ducing a coarse herbage of grasses, largely mixed with sedges, rushes, and other innutritious plants; its central part is less 
elevated and more productive, but still chiefly adapted to pasturage; its southern division lying on the coast, and extending from 
six to ten miles inland, forms a fine undulating vale mostly on a substratum of carboniferous limestone. From time immemorial 
this part of Wales has been distinguished for the production of numerous herds of cattle. “ The air,” says Speed, u is temperate, 
and gives more content to the mind than the soile doth fruit, or ease unto travellers; the hills being high and very many, which, 
from the north notwithstanding, are lessened as it were by degrees ; and towards the sea-coasts the country becometh somewhat 
plain, which part is the best, both for plenty of grain and populous of inhabitants. The rest, all mountain, is replenished with cattel, 
which is the best means to wealth which this shire doth afford; upon whose hills you may behold whole herds of them feeding; 
and from whose rocks most clear springing waters through the valleys trinkling, which sportingly do pass with a most pleasant 
sound—.” 
The cattle of Glamorganshire, naturalized in a tract of country differing somewhat in its vegetable productions from the 
higher parts of Wales, have assumed a class of characters proper to themselves. The colour of the hair, like that of the Devons, 
tends to red, in place of the black characteristic of the races of the higher country; but the skin possesses the same orange 
colour which distinguishes the Pembroke and allied breeds, manifesting an identity of origin in these races. It has been imagined 
by some that the peculiarities of the Glamorgan breed are due to foreign intermixture, and this has been referred to so remote a 
period as the age of William Rtjfus, when certain Norman knights seized violently upon the country, and partitioned it amongst 
themselves and their retainers. But this country possessed its native cattle long before the Normans had acquired a footing in it, 
and the pursuits of these barbarous soldiers were far other than the improvement of flocks and herds. Bapine, the chase, and 
warlike exercises occupied their thoughts, and the occupations of peaceful industry were left to their dependants, too ignorant and 
oppressed to think of any thing beyond the rude wants of their condition. In such a state of society the improvement of breeds of 
cattle, by foreign importations, could scarcely take place. Approaching nearer to our own times, when freedom of intercourse 
between different parts of the country was established, it may be supposed that cattle from other districts found their way into 
Glamorganshire, but not in sufficient numbers to obliterate, or change essentially, the characters of the native cattle. These, from 
some old notices, seem to have been of a reddish colour. A Welsh writer, upwards of a hundred years ago, describes the Cows 
as being of large size, some red and some pied; which sufficiently agrees with the aspect of the present breed, whose colour is a 
dark reddish-brown, broken with white. Within the last forty or fifty years indeed, various attempts have been made to improve 
the cattle of Glamorganshire by crosses with the Herefords, Devons, and other breeds ; but still the essential characteristics of the 
native race remain sufficiently distinct and uniform to constitute a well-defined breed. 
The breed of Glamorganshire differs in the size of the individuals, according as they are the natives of the hilly parts of the 
country, or of the lower and maritime. The breed, however, is essentially the same in both districts, and varied only by the con¬ 
dition of the country, and the care with which the animals have been selected and reared. In the higher country, where their food 
is the rough herbage of mountains, the cattle are in a corresponding degree small, but coarse and robust in form, active like other 
mountain cattle, but slow in arriving at maturity. In the Vale, where the herbage is fine, and the means exist of cultivating artificial 
provender, the cattle become of larger size, of more developed forms, and having a greater aptitude to fatten readily. The Glamor¬ 
gan of the lo wer country fall short of the ordinary size of the Durhams and Herefords; but yet they are of the larger class of cattle. 
Their horns are small, fine, and pointing somewhat upwards ; and in the breed of the hills the horns have yet more of the upright 
curvature. The skin is generally orange-yellow, and the individuals are most esteemed in which this colour prevails. The hair is 
dark brown, usually broken with white, and very generally there is a uniform marking of the latter colour extending along the 
belly and forming a streak along the back. Their chests are well formed, with moderate dewlap, and their beef is excellently marbled. 
