uable which could be secured within the walls
of the castle, or driven beyond the assailant's reach--an immense stock
of provisions was always stored up in the various fortresses, both for
the vassals and the cattle; or it was contrived that the latter should
be driven to the domains of some friendly baron, or concealed in some
inland recess.

When the government became more powerful and settled, and property of
every kind was assured a proportionate degree of protection, as well as
more equally divided, the plough came into use; agricultural productions
were oftener cultivated, the reaping of which was sure after the labor
of sowing. Cattle were then comparatively neglected and for some
centuries injuriously so. Their numbers diminished, and their size also
seems to have diminished; and it is only within the last century and a
half that any serious and successful efforts have been made materially
to improve them.

In the comparatively roving and uncertain life which the earlier
inhabitants led, their cattle would sometimes stray and be lost. The
country was at that time overgrown with forests, and the beasts betook
themselves to the recesses of these woods, and became wild and sometimes
ferocious. They, by degrees, grew so numerous as to be dangerous to the
inhabitants of the neighboring districts. One of the chronicles asserts
that many of them harbored in the forests in the neighborhood of London.
Strange stories are told of some of them, and, doubtless, when
irritated, they were fierce and dangerous enough. As, however,
civilization advanced, and the forests became thinned and contracted,
these animals were seen more rarely, and at length almost disappeared. A
few of them, however, are still to be found in the parks of some of the
leading English noblemen, who keep them for ornament and as curiosities.

The color of this wild breed is invariably white, the muzzle being
black; the whole of the inside of the ear, and about one-third of the
outside, from the tips downward, red; horns white, with black tips, very
fine, and bent upward; some of the bulls have a thin, upright mane,
about an inch and a half or two inches long. The beef is finely marbled
and of excellent flavor.

At the first appearance of any person they set off in full gallop, and
at the distance of about two hundred yards, make a wheel around and come
boldly up again in a menacing manner; on a sudden they make a full stop
at the distance of forty or