XI
BLENDING AND SORTING
The East-country Dutch cattle—the Shorthorns—pursued a course somewhat similar to that of the Longhorns, In the territory they had won, however, they mingled much less with the natives, but rather drove them out before them. As we have already seen, they pressed northwards, and a branch, bending westwards, shared in producing the modern Ayrshire. No doubt, native blood was absorbed here and there, only for its outward tokens to be eliminated again in a few generations.
But in Yorkshire there was a permanent amalgamation from which the modern Shorthorn is descended. Storer[1] mentions a number of herds of domestic white cattle in the north of England, some of which, if not all, were in existence before the Dutch invasion. In the first half of the eighteenth century stock were distributed from at least one of these herds, Studley Royal, near Ripon, which had at that time a high reputation over West Yorkshire
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