Two stout horses and a bull

One of our favourite recent publications was the one on Oxen. Our resident historian (GH) is a retired farm worker, and loves this sort of historical venture. (He is also a keen cricketer, hence the number of cricketing news items)

It all came about when GH was reading his Farmers Weekly, and came across the article on Oxen by Micheal Williams. A letter to the magazine soon resulted in permission to republish, but we wanted to go one better

When I read the article, something jogged my memory and I felt I ought to have a look in my old copy of 'The Gentleman Farmer'. There was a long chapter extolling the virtues of Oxen. GH went hope happily clutching it and transcribed it for the website. A paragraph caught his eye

In the road from Leeds to Wetherby, I saw a loaded cart drawn by two stout horses and a bull, all in a line, the bull in the middle. That draught was not slower than those before or after in the same road, and surely the bull would not have been added had it retarded the horses

It would be a cold fish indeed whose imagination was not moved by such a description. Tom showed the paragraph to our President, Ashley Cooper, who showed his credentials by being so deeply moved as to commission an illustration especially for the website by the famous historical illustrator Ben Perkins.

In the road from Leeds to
Wetherby, I saw a loaded cart drawn by two stout horses and a bull, all
in a line, the bull in the middle. That draught was not slower than those
before or after in the same road, and surely the bull would not have been
added had it retarded the horses.

Ben Perkins is probably best known for his wonderful illustrations of Ashley Coopers books. He has excelled himself with this illustration, which must have been a very tricky one to get right. What a wonderful Christmas Present for the Website, and to all our regular visitors

it has been added to the publication for which it was intended, 'No Beasts for draught but Oxen'