month of May, in falt, the carcafes of not fewer than 80 beeves, 600 bacons, and 600 muttons. 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 attachment of the people to grazing; partly to the preference that the Englim at all times gave to ani. mal food. The quantity of cattle that apyear from the latest calculation to have been confumed in our metropolis, is a fufficient argument of the vaft plenty of these times; particularly when we confider the great advancement of tillage, and the numberlefs variety of provifions, unknown to paft 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 thele iflands. Thofe which may be fuppofed to have been purely Britith, are far inferior in fize to thole on the northern part of the European continent; the cattle of the highlands of Scotland are exceeding fmall, and many of the..., males as well as f. males, are hornlefs: the Welsh runts are much larger; the black cattle of Cornwall are of the fame size with the laft. The large fpecies that is now cultivated through most parts of Great Britain are either entirely of foreign extraction, or our own improved by a crofs with the foreign kind. The Lincolnshire kind derive their fize from the Holstein breed; and the large hornlefs cattle that are bred in fome parts of England come originally from Poland, About two hundred and fifty years ago there were found in Scotland a wild race of cattle, which were of a pure white colour, and had (if we may credit Boethius) manes like lions. I cannot but give credit to the relation; having feen in the woods of Drumlanrig in North Britain, and in the park belonging to Chillingham caftle in Northumberland, herds of cattle probably derived from the favage breed. They have loft their manes; but retain their colour and fiercenefs: they were of a middle fize; long legged; and had black muzzles, and ears: their horns fine, and with a bold and elegant bend. The keeper of thofe at Chillingham faid, that the weight of the ox was 38 ftones: of the cow 28: that their hides were more efteemed by the tanhers than those of the tame; and they would give fix-pence per ftone more for them. These cattle were wild as any deer: on being approached would inftantly take to flight and gallop away at full speed: never mix with the tame fpecies; nor come near the house unless constrained by hanger in very fevere weather. When it is neceffary to kill any they are always fhot: if the keeper only wounds the beast, he muft take care to keep behind fome tree, or his life would be in danger from the furious attacks of the animal; which will never defift till a period is put to its life. Frequent mention is made of our favage cattle by hiftorians. One relates that Robert Bruce was (in chafing these animals) preferved from the rage of a wild Bull by the intrepidity of one of his courtiers, from which he and his lineage acquired the name of Turn-Bull, Fitz Stephen names thefe animals (Uri Sykeftres) among thofe that harboured in the great foreft that in his time lay adjacent to London. Another enumerates, among the provifions at the great feast of Nevil archbishop of York, fix wild Bulls; and Sibbald affures us, that in his days a wild and white fpecies was found in the moun tains of Scotland, but agreeing in form with the common fort. I believe these to have been the Bifontes jubati of Pliny, found then in Germany, and might have been common to the continent and our finds: the lofs of their favage vigour by confinement might occafion fome change in the external appearance, as is frequent with wild animals deprived of liberty; and to that we may afcribe their lofs of mane. The Urus of the Hercynian foreft, defcribed by Cæfar, book VI. was of this kind, the fame which is called by the modern Ger mans, Aurochs, i. e. Bos fylveftris. The ox is the only horned animal in these islands that will apply his ftrength to the fervice of mankind. It is now generally allowed, that in many cafes oxen are more profitable in the draught than horses; their food, harnefs, and fhoes being cheaper, and fhould they be lamed or grow old, an old working beaft will be as good meat, and fatten as well as a young one. There is fcarce any part of this animal without its ufe. The blood, fat, marrow, hide, hair, horns, hoofs, milk, cream, butter, cheefe, whey, urine, liver, gall, fpleen, bones, and dung, have each their particu lar ufe in manufactures, commerce, and medicine. The The skin has been of great ufe in all ages. The ancient Britons, before they knew a better method, built their boats with ofiers, and covered them with the hides of bulls, which ferved for thort coafting voyages. Primum cana falix madefacto vimine parvam The bending willow into barks they twine; RowE. Veffels of this kind are ftill in ufe on the Irish lakes; and on the Dee and Severn: in Ireland they are called Curach, in England Coracles, from the British Carwgl, a word fignifying a boat of that structure. At present, the hide, when tanned and curried, ferves for boots, fhoes, and numberlefs other conveniencies of life. Vellum is made of calves fkin, and goldbeaters fkin is made of a thin vellum, or a finer part of the ox's guts. The hair mixed with lime is a neceffary article in building. Of the horns are made combs, boxes, handles for knives, and drinking veifels; and when foftened by water, obeying the manufacturer's hand, they are formed into pellucid laminæ for the fides of lanthorns. These last conveniencies we owe to our great king Alfred, who firft invented them to preferve nis candle time measurers from the wind; or (as other writers will have it) the tapers that were fet up before the reliques in the miferable tattered churches of that time. In medicine, the horns were employed as alexipha mics or antidotes against poifon, the plague, or the fmall-pox; they have been dignified with the title of Englifh bezoar; and are faid to have been found to answer the end of the oriental kind: the chips of the hoofs, and paring of the raw hides, ferve to make carpenters glue. The bones are ufed by mechanics, where ivory is too expensive; by which the common people are ferved with many neat conveniencies at an eafy rate. From the tibia and carpus bones is procured an eil much ufed by coach-makers and others in dreffing and cleaning harness, and all trappings be onging to a coach, and the bones calcined afford a fit matter for tells for the use of the refiner in the fmelting trade. The blood is used as an excellent manure for fruit-trees; and is the basis of that fine colour, the Pruffian blue. The fat, tallow, and fuet, furnish us with light; and are alfo ufed to precipitate the falt that is drawn from briny fprings. The gall, liver, fpleen, and urine, have alfo their place in the materia medica. The ufes of butter, cheese, cream, and milk, in domestic economy; and the excellence of the latter, in turnifhing a palatable nutriment for most people, whofe organs of digeftion are weakened, are too obvious to be infifted on. § 3. The SHEEP. It does not appear from any of the early writers, that the breed of this animal was cultivated for the fake of the wool among the Britons; the inhabitants of the inland parts of this ifland either went entirely naked, or were only cloathed with fkins. Those who lived on the fea-coafts, and were the moft civilized, affected the manners of the Gauls, and wore like them a fort of garments made of coarfe wool, called Bracha. These they probably had from Gaul, there not being the leaft traces of manufactures among the Britons, in the hiftories of those times. On the coins or money of the Britons are feen impreffed the figures of the horse, the bull, and the hog, the marks of the tributes exacted from them by the conquerors. The Reverend Mr. Pegge was fo kind as to inform me, that he has feen on the coins of Cunobelin that of a sheep. Since that is the cafe, it is probable that our ancestors were poffeffed of the animal, but made no farther ufe of it than to itrip off the skin, and wrap themfelves in it, and with the wool inmoft obtain a comfortable protection against the cold of the winter feafon. This neglect of manufacture may be eafily accounted for, in an uncivilized nation whofe wants were few, and thofe eafily fatisfied: but what is more furprifing, when after a long period we had cultivated a breed of sheep, whofe fleeces were fuperior to those of other countries, we fill neglected to promote a woollen manufacture at at home. That valuable branch of bufinefs lay for a confiderable time in foreign hands; and we were obliged to import the cloth manufactured from our own materials. There seems indeed to have been many unavailing efforts made by our monarchs to preferve both the wool and the manufacture of it among ourfelves: Henry the Second, by a patent granted to the weavers in London, directed that if any cloth was found made of a mixture of Spanith wool, it fhould be burnt by the mayor: yet fo little did the weaving bufinefs advance, that Edward the Third was obliged to permit the importation of foreign cloth in the beginning of his reign; but foon after, by encouraging foreign artificers to fettle in England, and instruct the natives in their trade, the manufacture increased so greatly as to enable him to prohibit the wear of foreign cloth. Yet, to fhew the uncommercial genius of the people, the effects of this prohibition were checked by another law, as prejudicial to trade as the former was falutary; this was an act of the fame reign, againft exporting woollen goods manufactured at home, under heavy penalties; while the exportation of wool was not only allowed but encouraged. This overfight was not foon relied, for it appears that, on the alliance that Edward the Fourth made with the king of Arragon, he prefented the latter with fome ewes and iams of the Cotefwold kind; which is a proof of their excellency, fince they were thought acceptable to a monarch, whofe dominions were to noted for the fineness of their fleeces. In the first year of Richard the Third, and in the two fucceeding reigns, our woollen manufactures received fome improvements; but the grand rife of all its profperity is to be dated from the reign of queen Elizabeth, when the tyranny of the duke of Alva in the Netherlands drove numbers of artificers for refuge into this country, who were the founders of that immenfe manufacture we carry on at prefent. We have frong inducements to be more particular on the modern ftate of our woollen manufactures; bat we defift, from a fear of digreing too far; our enquiries must be limited to points that have a more immediate reference to the ftudy of Zoology. No country is better fupplied with materials, and thofe adapted to every fpecies of the clothing bufineis, than Great Bri tain; and though the sheep of these islands afford fleeces of different degrees of goodnefs, yet there are not any but what may be used in fome branch of it. Hereford. thire, Devonshire, and Cotefwold downs, are noted for producing theep with remarkably fine fleeces; the Lincolnshire and Warwickshire kind, which are very large, exceed any for the quantity and goodness of their wool. The former county yields the largest sheep in these islands, where it is no uncommon thing to give fif ty guineas for a ram, and a guinea for the admiffion of a ewe to one of the valuable males; or twenty guineas for the use of it for a certain number of ewes during one feafon. Suffolk alfo breeds a very valu able kind. The fleeces of the northern parts of this kingdom are inferior in finenefs to thofe of the fouth; but ftill are of great value in different branches of our manufactures. The Yorkshire hills furnifh the looms of that county with large quantities of wool; and that which is taken from the neck and fhoulders is ufed (mixed with Spanish wool) in fome of their fineft cloths. Wales yields but a coarfe wool; yet it is of more extenfive ufe than the fineft Segovian fleeces; for rich and poor, age and youth, health and infirmities, all confefs the univerfal benefit of the flannel ma nufacture. The sheep of Ireland vary like thofe of Great Britain. Thofe of the fouth and eaft being large, and their flesh rank. Thofe of the north, and the mountainous parts, fmall, and their flefh fweet. The fleeces in the fame manner differ in degrees of value. Scotland breeds a fmall kind, and their fleeces are coarfe. Sibbald (after Boethius) speaks of a breed in the ifle of Rona, covered with blue wool; of another kind in the ifle of Hirta, larger than the biggest he-goat, with tails hanging almoft to the ground, and horns as thick, and longer than thofe of an ox. He mentions another kind, which is cloathed with a mixture of wool and hair; and a fourth fpecies, whole flesh and fleeces are yellow, and their teeth of the colour of gold; but the truth of thefe relations ought to be enquired into, as no other writer has mentioned them, except the credulous Boethius. Yet the laft particular is not to be rejected: for not withstanding I cannot inftance the teeth of fheep, yet I faw in the fummer of 1772, at at Athol house, the jaws of an ox, with teeth thickly incrufted with a gold-coloured pyrites; and the fame might have happened to thofe of fheep had they fed in the fame grounds, which were in the valley beneath the house. Befides the fleece, there is fcarce any part of this animal but what is ufeful to mankind. The flesh is a delicate and wholefome food. The fkin dreffed, forms different parts of our apparel; and is ufed for covers of books. The entrails, properly prepared and twitted, ferve for frings for various musical instruments. The bones calcined (like other bones in general) form materials for tests for the refiner. The milk is thicker than that of cows, and confequently yields a greater quantity of butter and cheese; and in fome places is fo rich, that it will not pro. duce the cheese without a mixture of water to make it part from the whey. The dung is a remarkably rich manure; infomuch that the folding of fheep is become too ufeful a branch of hufbandry for the farmer to neglect. To conclude, whether we confider the advantages that refult from this animal to individuals in particular, or to these kingdoms in general, we may with Columella confider this in one fenfe, as the first of the domestic animals. Poft majores quadrupedes ovili pecoris fecunda ratio eft; quæ prima fit fi ad utilitatis magnitudinem referas. Nam id præcipue contra frigoris violentiam protegit, corporibufque noftris liberaliora præbet velamina; et etiam elegantium menfas jucundis et numerofis dapibus exornat. The fheep, as to its nature, is a moft innocent, mild, and fimple animal; and, confcious of its own defenceless state, remarkably timid: if attacked when attended by its lamb, it will make fome fhew of defence, by ftamping with its feet, and pushing with its head: it is a gregarious animal, is fond of any jingling noise, for which reafon the leader of the flock has in many places a bell hung round its neck, which the others will conftantly follow: it is fubject to many difeafes: fome arife from infects which depofit their eggs in different parts of the animal; others are caufed by their being kept in wet paftures; for as the fheep requires but little drink, it is naturally fond of a dry foil. The dropiy, vertigo, (the pendro of the Welsh) the phthific, jaundice, and worms in the liver, annually make great havoc among otr flocks: for the firft difeafe the shepherd finds a remedy by turning the infected into fields of broom; which plant has been allo found to be very efficacious in the fame diforder among the human fpecies. The fheep is alfo infefted by different forts of infects: like the horse it has its peculiar ceftrus or gadfly, which depofits its eggs above the nofe in the fronted sinuses; when thofe turn into maggots they be come exceffive painful, and caufe thofe violent agitations that we so often see the animal in. The French fhepherds make a common practice of eafing the fheep, by trepanning and taking out the maggot; this practice is fometimes ufed by the English fhepherds, but not always with the fame fuccefs: befides thefe infects, the fheep is troubled with a kind of tick and loufe, which magpies and ftarlings contribute to eafe it of, by lighting on its back, and picking the infects off. § 4. The DOG. Dr. Caius, an English phyfician, who flourished in the reign of queen Elizabeth, has left, among feveral other tracts relating to natural history, one written exprefsly on the fpecies of British dogs: they were wrote for the ufe of his learned friend Gefner; with whom he kept a ftrict correfpondence; and whofe death he laments in a very elegant and pathetic manner. Befides a brief account of the variety of dogs then exifting in this country, he has added a fyftematic table of them: his method is fo judicious, that we fhall make use of the fame; explain it by a brief account of each kind; and point out those that are no longer in ufe among us. SYNOPSIS The first variety is the Terrarius or Terrier, which takes its name from its fubterraneous employ; being a small kind of hound, ufed to force the fox, or other beafts of prey, out of their holes; and (in former times) rabbets out of their burrows into nets. The Leverarius, or Harrier, is a fpecies well known at prefent; it derives its name from its ufe, that of hunting the hare: but under this head may be placed the foxhound, which is only a stronger and fleeter variety, applied to a different chase. The Sanguinarius, or Blood-hound, or the Sleuthounde of the Scots, was a dog of great ufe, and in high esteem with our anceftors: its employ was to recover any game that had escaped wounded from the hunter; or been killed and ftole out of the forest. It was remarkable for the acutenefs of its fmell, tracing the loft beaft by the blood it had fpilt: from whence the name is drived: This fpecies could, with the utmot certainty, difcover the thief by following his footsteps, let the distance of his flight be ever fo great, and through the et fecret and thickeft coverts: nor would Wappe it ceafe its purfuit, till it had taken the felon, They were likewife ufed by Wallace and Bruce during the civil wars. The poetical hiftorians of the two heroes frequently relate very curious paffages on this fubject; of the fervice thefe dogs were of to their mafters, and the eícapes they had from thofe of the enemy. The blood-hound was in great request on the confines of England and Scotland; where the borderers were continually preying on the herds and flocks of their neighbours. The true blood-hound was large, ftrong, mufcular, broad breafted, of a stern countenance, of a deep tancolour, and generally marked with a black fpot above each eye. The next divifion of this fpecies of dogs, comprehends thofe that hunt by the eye: and whofe fuccefs depends either upon the quickness of their fight, their swiftness, or their fubtilty. The Agafæus, or Gaze-hound, was the firft: it chafed indifferently the fox, hare, or buck. It would felect from the herd the fatteft and faireft deer; purfue it by the eye: and if loft for a time, recover it again by its fingular diftinguishing facul ty; |
