Today being the centenary of Oscar Wilde's death, it seems appropriate
to point out that a detailed early description of 'Celtic shorthorn'
cattle was given by Oscar's father, Dr William Wilde, noted antiquarian
and ear-surgeon. If you would like a xerox of the transcript of his
talk, Jennifer, I'll get mine copied.
More to the point, it is a little alarming to find that such archaic
terminology (even Wilde was a little wary of its validity) is still
being bandied about, though I admit to having used the term in the past
as a handy label.
Terry O'Connor
Jennifer Thoms wrote:
>
> I have received an email enquiring as to the size of Celtic shorthorn
> cattle. Trawling the internet and the books to hand tells me they
> were about the same size as Dexter and Kerry cattle are now. But my
> emailer wants to know "measurements". (I suspect, from the nature
> of the question that he wants width and length type measurements,
> rather than withers height.)
>
> My natural response would be to waffle about variation in size
> according to nutrition, genetics etc. etc and a warning about the
> impossibility of reconstructing stature (from bones) in the past. I
> might mutter about lengths of string too!! Politically, however,
> this response would be unwise!!!
>
> Can anyone do any better??
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jennifer
>
> Jennifer Thoms
> Dept of Archaeology,
> University of Edinburgh,
> 12 Infirmary Street,
> Edinburgh,
> EH1 1LT
> Tel: 0131 650 2373 / 2384
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