weather; during the fummer it ferves, by its pliancy and agility, to brush off the fwarms of infects which are perpetually attempting either to fting them, or to depofit their eggs in the rectum; the fame length of hair contributes to guard them from the cold in winter. But we, by the abfurd and cruel cuftom of docking, a practice peculiar to our country, deprive thefe animals of both advantages: in the laft war our cavalry fuffered fo much on that account, that we now feem fenfible of the error, and if we may judge from fome recent orders in respect to that branch of the fervice, it will for the future be corrected. Thus is the horfe provided against the two greatest evils he is fubject to from the feafons: his natural difeafes are few; but our ill ufage, or neglect, or, which is very frequent, our over care of him, bring on a numerous train, which are often fatal. Among the distempers he is naturally fubject to, are the worms, the bots, and the ftone: the fpecies of worms that infect him are the lumbrici, and afcarides; both thefe refemble thofe found in human bodies, only larger: the bots are the eruce, or caterpillars of the oeftrus, or gadfly: thefe are found both in the rectum, and in the ftomach, and when in the latter bring on convulfions, that often terminate in death. The flone is a difeafe the horfe is not frequently fubject to; yet we have feen two examples of it; the one in a horfe near Highwycombe, that voided fixteen calculi, each of an inch and a half diameter; the other was of a ftone taken out of the bladder of a horse, and depofited in the cabinet of the late Dr. Mead; weighing eleven ounces. Thefe ftones are formed of feveral crufts, each very smooth and gloffy; their form triangular; but their edges rounded, as if by collifion against each other. The all-wife Creator hath finely limited the feveral fervices of domestic animals towards the human race; and ordered that the parts of fuch, which in their lives have been the most useful, fhould after death contribute the leaft to our benefit. The chief ufe that the exuvia of the horse can be applied to, is for collars, traces, and other parts of the harness; and thus, even after death, he preferves fome analogy with his former employ. The hair of the mane is of ufe in making wigs; of the tail in making the bottoms of chairs, floor-cloths, and cords; and to the angler in making lines. § 2. The Ox. The climate of Great Britain is above all others productive of the greatest variety and abundance of wholesome vegetables, which, to crown our happiness, are almost equally diffufed through all its parts: this general fertility is owing to thofe clouded kies, which foreigners mistakenly urge as a reproach on our country; but let us chearfully endure a temporary gloom, which cloaths not only our meadows but our hills with the richeft verdure. To this we owe the number, variety, and excellence of our cattle, the richness of our dairies, and innumerable other advantages. Cæfar (the earlieft writer who defcribes this island of Great Britain) fpeaks of the numbers of our cattle, and adds that we neglected tillage, but lived on milk and flesh. Strabo takes notice of our plenty of milk, but fays we were ignorant of the art of making cheefe. Mela informs us, that the wealth of the Britons confifted in cattle: and in his account of Ireland reports that fuch was the richness of the paflures in that kingdom, that the cattle would even burst if they were fuffered to feed in them long at a time. This preference of pafturage to tillage was delivered down from our British anceflors to much later times; and continued equally prevalent during the whole period of our feodal government: the chieftain, whofe power and fafety depended on the promptnefs of his vaffals to execute his commands, found it his intereft to encourage thofe employments that favoured that difpofition; that vaffal, who made it his glory to fly at the first call to the standard of his chieftain, was fure to prefer that employ, which might be tranfacted by his family with equal fuccefs during his abfence. Tillage would require an attendance incompatible with the fervices he owed the baron, while the former occupation not only gave leifure for thofe duties, but furnished the hofpitable board of his lord with ample provifion, of which the vaffal was equal partaker. The reliques of the larder of the elder Spencer are evident proofs of the plenty of cattle in his days; for after his winter provisions may. have been fuppofed to have been mofly confumed, there were found, fo late as the 3 Q2 month 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 English at all times gave to animal food. The quantity of cattle that appear from the latest calculation to have been confumed in our metropolis, is a fufficient argument of the vaft plenty of thefe times; particularly when we confider the great advancement of tillage, and the numberless 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 these islands. Those which may be fuppofed to have been purely Britifh, 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 Welsh runts are much larger: the black cattle of Cornwall are of the fame fize 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 Holftein breed; and the large hornless cattle that are bred in fome parts of England come originally from Poland. About two hundred and fifty years ago there was 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 legg'd; 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 esteemed by the tanners 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 instantly take to flight and galop away at full speed: never mix with the tame fpecies; nor come near the house unless constrained by hunger in very fevere weather. When it is neceffary to kill any they are always fhot: if the keeper only wounds the beaft, he must 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 his 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. FitzStephen names these animals (Uri-Sylveftres) 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 mountains of Scotland, but agreeing in form with the common fort. I believe thefe to have been the Bifontes jubati of Pliny, found then in Germany, and might have been common to the continent and our island: 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 forest, described by Cæfar, book VI. was of this kind, the fame which is called by the modern Germans, Aurochs, i. e. Bos fylveftris. The ox is the only horned animal in thefe 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, harness, and fhoes being cheaper, and fhould they be lamed or grow old, an old working beast 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, but ter, cheese, 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 use 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 short coafting voyages. Primum cana falix madefacto vimine parvam Veffels of this kind are still in use on the Irish lakes; and on the Dee and Severn: in Ireland they are called Curach, in England Coracles, from the British Cwrwgl, a word fignifying a boat of that ftructure. At prefent, the hide, when tanned and curried, ferves for boots, fhoes, and numberlefs other conveniences of life. Vellum is made of calves fkin, and goldbeaters skin 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 veffels; and when softened by water, obeying the manufacturer's hand, they are formed into pellucid laminæ for the fides of lanthorns. These last conveniences we owe to our great king Alfred, who firft invented them to preferve his 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 alexipharmics 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 used by mechanics, where ivory is too expenfive; by which the common people are served with many neat conveniences at an eafy rate. From the tibia and carpus bones is procured an ail much used by coach-makers and others in dreffing and cleaning harness, and all trappings belonging to a coach; and the bones calcined afford a fit matter for tests for the use of the refiner in the smelting trade. The blood is ufed as an excellent manure for fruit-trees; and is the bafis of that fine colour, the Pruffian blue, light; and are alfo ufed to precipitate the The fat, tallow, and fuet, furnish us with falt that is drawn from briny fprings. The gall, liver, spleen, and urine, have also their place in the materia medica. The uses of butter, cheese, cream, and milk, in domeftic economy; and the excellence of the latter, in furnishing a palatable nutriment for most people, whose organs of digeftion are weakened, are too obvious to be insisted on. § 3. The SHIP. 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 island either went entirely naked, or were only clothed with skins. Those who lived on the fea-coasts, and were the most civilized, affected the manners of the Gauls, and wore like them a fort of garments made of coarse wool, called Brache. Thefe they probably had from Gaul, there not being the leaft traces of manufactures among the Britons, in the hiftories of thofe 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 seen 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 use of it than to ftrip off the skin, and wrap themselves in it, and with the wool inmoft obtain a comfortable protection against the cold of the winter season. This neglect of manufacture, may be eafily accounted for, in an uncivilized nation whofe wants were few, and those easily fatisfied; but what is more furprifing, when after a long period we had cultivated a breed of fheep, whofe fleeces were fuperior to those of other countries, we still ne glected to promote a woollen manufacture 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 feems indeed to have been many unavailing efforts made by our monarchs to preferve both the wool and the manufacture of it among ourselves: Henry the Second, by a patent granted to the weavers in London, directed that if any cloth was found made of a mixture of Spanish 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 inftruct the natives in their trade, the manufacture increased fo 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, against 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 rectified, 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 rams of the Cotefwold kind; which is a proof of their excellency, fince they were thought acceptable to a monarch, whofe dominions were fo 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 strong inducements to be more particular on the modern ftate of our woollen manufactures; but we defift, from a fear of digreffing 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 ma-, terials, and thofe adapted to every fpecies of the clothing bufinefs, 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. Herefordfhire, Devonshire, and Cotefwold downs are noted for producing fheep 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 fifty guineas for a ram, and a guinea for the admiffion of a ewe to one of the valuable males; or twenty guineas for the ufe of it for a certain number of ewes during one feafon. Suffolk alfo breeds a very valuable 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 cur manufactures. The Yorkshire hills furnifh the looms of that county with large quantities of wool; and that which is taken from the neck and shoulders 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 finest Segovian fleeces; for rich and poor, age and youth, health and infirmities, all confefs the universal benefit of the flannel manufacture. The fheep of Ireland vary like thofe of Great Britain. Thofe of the fouth and eaft being large, and their fleth rank. Thofe of the north, and the mountaincus parts, fmall, and their fleth fweet. The fleeces in the fame manner differ in degrees of value. Scotland breeds a small kind, and their fleeces are coarse. 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 hegoat, with tails hanging almost to the ground, and horns as thick, and longer than thofe of an ox. He mentions another kind, which is clothed with a mixture of wool and hair; and a fourth species, whofe 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 lai particular is not to be rejected: for notwithstanding I cannot inftance the teeth of fheep, yet I faw in the fummer of 1772, at at Athol houfe, 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 twifted, ferve for ftrings for various mufical inftruments. 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 cheefe; and in fome places is fo rich, that it will not produce the cheefe 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 thefe kingdoms in general, we may with Columella confider this in one fenfe, as the first of the domeftic animals. Poft majores quadrupedes ovilli 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 menjas jucundis et numerofis dapibus exornat. The fheep, as to its nature, is a most 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 noife, 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 caused by their being kept in wet paftures; for as the fheep requires but little drink, it is naturally fond of a dry foil. The dropfy, vertigo (the pendro of the Welth) the phthific, jaundice, and worms in the liver, annually make great havock among our flocks: for the first difeafe the fhepherd finds a remedy by turning the infected into fields of broom; which plant has been alfo 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 horfe it has its peculiar oeftrus or gadfly, which depofits its eggs above the nofe in the frontal finuses; when those turn into maggots they become exceffive painful, and caufe those violent agitations that we so often see the animal in. The French fhepherds make a common practice of eafing the sheep, 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 starlings 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 expressly on the fpecies of British dogs: they were wrote for the ufe of his learned friend Gefner; with whom he kept a ftrict corre fpondence; 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 shall make ufe of the fame; explain it by a brief account of each kind; and point out those that are no longer in ufe among us. |
