The evolution of British cattle and the fashioning of breeds/The Foundlings
VII
THE FOUNDLINGS
So far we have dealt with the different races of cattle that have come to Britain according to the order of their arrival. Now we have to deal with a race whose presence in Britain is a puzzle; for not only must we confess ignorance as to the date of its arrival, but even doubt as to whether it ever arrived at all. At the present day, animals of this race have an unpleasant habit of turning up unasked in several breeds, most notably among Highlanders and Longhorns. Among Highlanders these unwelcome visitors are almost black in colour with a brownish stripe along the back and a ring of similar colour round the muzzle. They are seldom retained for breeding purposes, unless they are unusually good heifers: in which cases they are registered as some shade of brown—in Gaelic donn—sometimes as a brindle.
In former times there were far more of these blackish-brown cattle in the Highlands than now. Indeed, early in the nineteenth century they were found wherever the old Celtic black cattle were found in Scotland, the north of England, Wales, and Ireland—but, since the establishment of pure breeds, and perhaps before that, they have gradually disappeared: the Highland breed being the last of the Celtic breeds to give them a lodging. There are still a few among the non-pedigreed Irish black cattle, but very few in the territories of the Welsh, the Galloways, or the Aberdeen-Angus.
Being registered among Highlanders, it is among them we must first look for the link that may connect these cattle with other breeds and perhaps with the race to which they belong; and an examination of the Highland Herd- Book shows that the Highland brindles have been produced by crossing this blackish-brown race with the other three fundamental colours belonging to the breed, viz. black, red, and light dun (sometimes in other breeds described by such words as "grey" and "silver grey").
Is there any other British breed of cattle in which brindles are known, and, if so, what is their origin? There is one breed, the Longhorns, and the Longhorn brindles also revert back to a similar ancestral race, which is described, however, not as brown or donn, but as mulberry or plum coloured. Are there any other cattle in which these same phenomena can be traced? There is one other breed, almost at Britain's doors, in which this same brown, or plum, or mulberry colour Is quite common, namely, the Jersey; and when the Jersey cattle of this colour are crossed with red or black cattle, the brindles of the Longhorns and Highlanders are produced.[1] And from Jersey it is but a step to France and another to Switzerland for catde of the same colour.
These four sets of cattle—the Highlanders, Longhorns, Jerseys, and Swiss—being thus connected, the question next arising is, when and how did these blackish-brown cattle come to Britain? There is no clear mention of them till about a hundred years ago; but even then they were numerous. During the eighteenth century the cattle by which it was most sought to improve all others were the Longhorns. They were carried in great numbers to Ireland, to other parts of England and Wales, to Scotland, and even to the Orkneys. Many of them, as we know, were brindled, and when their brindled descendants were bred together the ancestral blackish-brown was bound to appear. Hence the suggestion in the beginning of this chapter that we do not know that the blackish-brown cattle themselves came to Britain. Their parents may have come.
But where did the Longhorns get their brindled colour? They originated in that part of England where the Celtic, the Roman, the Anglo-Saxon, and the Dutch races met. The Roman and the Anglo-Saxon races were white and red respectively. There remain only the Dutch and the Celtic. But the authorities we have quoted are all so emphatic that the cattle imported from the Low Countries were red and white, pied, not brindled, that the Dutch must also be absolved. There is but one weak spot in their defence, and that is a small one. The Low Countries, and some parts of France—say Normandy—were neither so far apart nor so definitely separated in an Englishman's mind, but that some of the cattle imported as from the Low Countries may have come from France. In this connection the "lyery" fleshed cattle referred to by George Culley must not be forgotten.
But, if the defence of the Dutch cannot be penetrated, then the blame lies with the Celtic cattle, and the Longhorns acquired their brindled colour from the blackish-brown cattle that were hiding, as it were, among the Celtic black ones. That being so, how long had this hiding continued? The answer to this question is the answer to the further question: which of these two races, the real black or the pseudo-black, arrived first in Britain? To that we can as yet give no answer. We can only suggest, since the pure black cattle in Britain were far more numerous than the brownish-black, since brownish-black cattle are also found in Jersey, Western France, and Switzerland, and remembering who were the early inhabitants of these places and of Northern France, that the brownish-black cattle may have been brought to Britain by the maritime inhabitants who had crossed over from the country of the Belgae for the sake of plunder and war before Cæsar's day.[2]