Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

10" CATTLE.
The parent race of the ox is said to have been much larger than
any of the present varieties. The Urus, in his wild state at least,
was an enormous and fierce animal, and ancient legends have thrown
around him an air of mystery. In almost every part of the Continent,
and in every district of England, skulls, evidently belonging to
cattle, have been found, far exceeding in bulk any now known.
There is a fine specimen in the British Museum : the peculiarity of
the horns will be observed, resembling smaller ones dug up in the
mines of Cornwall, preserved, in some degree, in the wild cattle of
Chillingham Park, and not quite -lost in our native breeds of Devon
and East Sussex, and those of the Welsh mountains and the Highlands.
We believe that this referred more to individuals than to the
breed generally, for there is no doubt that, within the last century,
the size of the cattle has progressively increased in England, and kept
pafte with the improvement of agriculture.
We will not endeavor to follow the migrations of the ox from
Western Asia, nor the change in size, and form, and value, which it
underwent, according to the difference of climate and of pasture, as
it journeyed on toward the west, for there are no records of this on
which dependence can be placed ; but we will proceed to the subject
of the present work, the British Ox.