Page:The Evolution of British Cattle.djvu/98

 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-