Page:The Evolution of British Cattle.djvu/59

 Scotland and also in Ireland. It will be necessary to marshal some part of what is known about each of these breeds seriatim.

The Suffolk Duns.—Although Suffolk was renowned for its dairy products four or five centuries ago, we have no earlier description of the Suffolk cow herself than one written in 1735. In 1586, Camden wrote that in Suffolk "They also make vast numbers of cheese, which, to the great advantage of the inhabitants, are carried into all parts of England, nay, into Germany also, with France and Spain, as Panteleon Medicus has told us, who scruples not to compare them with those of Placentia both in colour and taste; " and Speed wrote: "The commodities of this Shire are many and great, whereof the chiefest consist in Corn, in Cattle, Cloth, Pasturage, Sea-Fish, and Fowle; and as Abbo Floriescensis hath depainted. This country is of green and passing fresh hucy pleasantly replenished with Orchards, Gardens, and Groves: thus he described it above six hundred years since, and now we find as he hath said; to which we may add their gain from the Pail; " but John Kirby in his "Suffolk Traveller," published in 1735, describes the cow herself as having "a clean throat, with little dewlap, a snake head, thin and short legs, the ribs springing well from the