docile in the plough. Ox-ploughing, however,
is too slow for modern high farming. In the
Midland counties, and as far north as Norfolk,
the white face of the Hereford may be seen
placidly ruminating in root-feeding winter
yards; but, he is seldom to be found further
north than Norfolk, and, even there, the
Devon and Short Horn are preferred to him.

Inferior in size, but superior in quality,
comes the red curly-coated North Devon, the
Norfolk favourite, with his round mole-like
carcase, his neat thorough-bred head,
branching horns, and delicate limbs. The farmers
of Norfolk—the only county where he is
bred in any quantity out of Devonshire,
Somersetshire, and Dorsetshire—has, ever
since the time of Coke of Holkham (who
introduced him to supersede the unprofitable
Norfolk cattle) been fond of filling their winter
yards with delicate Devons. At one time, the
Norfolk farmers were the chief northern
customers; now, they find a difficulty in
getting their number, for they are intercepted
on the way; and even the slow Devonians
and slower Somersets find the advantage of
feeding fat the denizens of their damp hills.
The Devons are much in demand among
West-end-of-London and Brighton butchers
for their best customers. At the last Smithfield
Club Show a little Devon had the rare
honour of winning the gold medal, as the best
ox in the show.

Very much like the Devons in colour and
stamp of head, but altogether on a larger
scale, and I am afraid,—in the face of farmer
Wood, of Ockley Manor,—I must say
coarser and less refined by careful breeding,
are the Sussex; no doubt of the same breed
as the North Devon enlarged by richer
pastures, and not refined by the pedigree
breeding of a Quartley and a Turner, and the
Herd Book of a Davey—not Sir Humphry,
but Captain John, of Rose Ash. The
Sussex are unknown beyond the South-
coast and Metropolitan markets, and do not
seem to be increasing in number; they are
esteemed where known, and are often amongst
the earliest sold, being of great size and fine
quality; what butchers call a useful class of
animals.

In the place of honour, in the most fashionable
shed of the cattle market, under the
charge of the D'Orsay of cattle salesmen,
were to be found a large lot of the primest
meat of the highest price—the Scots, West
Highlanders, and Black Polled Angus. The
Scotch cattle are finished and fed fat all over
England, as far down as where they meet
the Herefords and Devons, but are only
bred in Scotland. The West Highlander,
when fat, seems a curious compound of two
animals—one savage and untameable; the
other tamest of the tame. A wild head, with
sharp threatening horns and savage little
eyes, gleaming beneath a shaggy
forehead, is attached to one of the fattest,
roundest, and most plump and mole-like
of bodies, covered with a thick curly hair,
supported on four delicate limbs, and finished
off with a long meteor-like tail. This
admirable beast, reared among storms and
mists, fed and thriving for two or three years
on the coarse scanty herbage and heather of
Scotch mountains, no sooner reaches southern
pastures, sheltered in southern show-yards,
or the snug Scotch homesteads, where roots
and cake supply him with breakfast, dinner, and
supper, than he does credit to his keep; and,
without losing his wild quality and flavour,
lays on flesh of the juiciest, so that when driven
to slaughter, he tops the more effeminate and
artificial breeds by from sixpence to a shilling
per stone of eight pounds. The West
Highlander is deservedly a favourite in parks,
where he is almost as picturesque, if dun or
red, as, and is much more profitable and hardy
than, fallow deer. It is worth a journey into
Notts to see them, as I saw them last winter,
browsing under the oaks, alongside the lake
at Clumber, or wildly dashing away in twos
and threes, when startled by the cry of hounds
and rush of scarlet-coated horsemen.

It is a hundred years since Jennie Dean's
Duke of Argyle began to improve the West
Highlander; but, the savage mountaineer
never came to perfection until he tasted
oil-cake, mangolds, Swedes, and with straw
to eat and to lie on. Equal in fine grain
and quality of meat, larger in carcase, nearly
equal in hardiness of constitution, more
useful in the plough and dairy, but very different
in personal appearance, is the improved
Black Polled Angus, by exception only, dun,
red, or white. This breed, within the last
quarter of a century brought to perfection,
has for want of horns a sort of elk-like
unfinished look, and a peculiarly mild
expression. Like the Highlander, he is only
bred in Scotland, but is a great favourite with
all the high-class farmers of England, as well
as of Scotland, especially in the Lincolnshire
yards, where his hornless head makes it
possible to pack a larger number together
than of any other kind. Besides these
distinct breeds, there are always in the
market odd animals of every and of no local
breed, and some elephantine aged fat bulls,
intended for workhouse or emigrant ship
consumption. Foreigners were represented,
as before observed, by a lot of black and
white Dutch cows, probably fattened on
distillery grains—lumpy, uneven, coarse-
looking animals, sadly in want of a good
Short Horn cross, yet supplying every week,
with Danish, Rhenish, and other strangers, a
very seasonable quantity of low-priced beef.
The Dutch were in the care of a mild, stout,
close-shaven dealer, in a pair of high boots,
and an overcoat of sealskin.

The population, or passengers, met in
perambulating the streets between the cattle's
tails, consisted of a very few classes, and
all well to do. In greatest numbers were
the butchers with eager looks; graziers