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Only a few images will be presented below to give a viewer an idea about some of the lifestyle and hardships encountered by the drovers/herdsmen while moving cattle to market. There were several markets. It is believed that is how the Beardie-like also was called a "Smithfield." It was due to their association with moving cattle along the pathways to the Smithfield markets. There were other names as well, such as the Metropolitan Cattle Market.

The images below are not presented in a dated order.

 

 

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This image came from an original copy of The Illustrated London News, July 21, 1849. It was prepared by Harrison Weir (1824-1906). Weir was employed by The Illustrated London News in 1847. This image was entitled "Smithfield Market. The Drover's Goad" A goad is a spiked stick used to move cattle.

 
       
 

Images often appeared in The Illustrated London News which reflected current events. Louis Wain (1860-1939), a British artist, did a great number of the illustrations. It is not known if Wain did the engravings of his images. This image allows us to see the types of drovers' dogs that he sketched at the Metropolitan Cattle Market. The sketch appeared in the magazine in 1892. It is unfortunate that numerous dealers have advertised a copy of the image as being Rough Collies and Old English Sheepdogs (as opposed to rough coated collie types). Clearly, one of the dogs was drawn to be quite similar to the dog in the engraving presented on the "Drovers" page moving cattle at the Metropolitan Cattle Market. No one can say for certain that some of the shaggy coated dogs may have been called all kinds of names. Nor can anyone say for certain because the dog did not have a tail that it was an OES. Numerous Beardie-like dogs had stumpy tails. They exist even today.

 
       
 

In 1855, William Leighton Leitch, made a landscape drawing upon wood; he was in the area of Inverness-shire. The drove trails can be seen. Leitch was a landscape painter who also gave instruction to Queen Victoria and Members of the Royal Family.

A. MacGeorge wrote a Memoir book (published in 1844) about the artist after meeting him more than forty years prior to that date. They became very close during the last twelve or fourteen years of the artist's life.Leitch was born in Glasgow on November 2, 1804. The author said that:

"Leitch equaled Turner in hard work, but there was one quality in which Turner and he differed greatly—I mean the faithful accuracy of his pictures. When Leitch called a view by a particular name we might rely on its being a true representation of the place."

Many Leitch drawings were made into engravings, principally as book illustrations. Leitch passed away in 1882.

 
       
 

W. L. Leitch's composition entitled "Morning—View in the Highlands of Braemar showed Highland cattle stopping for a drink. Upon magnification, two men wearing kilts can be seen at the end of the long line of cattle (behind the rocks on the left side of the image). This image was originally done as a watercolour, but was later made into an etching which appeared in The Illustrated London News on March 14, 1868. The date of the original drawing is not known. The image presented here was scanned from a copy of the publication.

 
       
 

Sidney Richard Percy also painted many landscapes involving drovers and cattle. This particular painting was done near Grizedale in Cumbria, England. The year was 1873.

 
       
 

Sidney Richard Percy also painted near Snowdonia. The date is unknown, but the herdsman and dog can be seen. The cattle are in the background.

 
       
 

A watercolour image carried out by W. L. Leitch showing cattle and a drover near the River Clyde with Dunbarton Rock near. A dog is obviously present in this image.

 
       
 

William Henry James Boot was an English artist who did landscapes. The Craig Dhu image was reproduced from an engraved plate in the book Picturesque Europe: Delineation by Pen and Pencil, published in 1878. It is a pastoral view with cattle grazing above Kingussie, Scotland (Craig Dhu mountain (~2100 feet) is in the distance). This drawing was originally rendered as a woodcut. The date the image was originally prepared is unknown, but Boot passed away in 1918.

 
       
 

Louis Bosworth Hurt (1856-1929) completed many landscape paintings of cattle droving in the highlands. Was that dog a Beardie-like letting the cattle know that he meant business? The painting was dated from 1879.

 
       
 

The 1879 Louis Bosworth Hurt painting, was also cropped, to show the drover, his dog and the cattle. The date was 1891.

 
       
 

In this painting by Hurt, it looks as though the drover is crossing the water in a small boat. On close examination, his passenger could be a dog but that cannot be said with certainty.

 
       
 

Hurt's painting of cattle grazing. Notice the thatched roof on the house in the background. The date this was painted is unknown.

 
       
 

Another Hurt painting showing the herdsman and his dog.

 

 
       
 

This could not have been a pleasant day, but Hurt showed how the weather was not always in the favour of the drovers.

 

 
       
 

A cropped image of an etching from a Otto Weber drawing. This image allows a viewer to see how cattle were carried on ferry boats. The date was 1889.

 

 
       
 

An image of a painting of cattle was made into a postcard. Perhaps the cattle had been transported onto the shore by a ferry. A ferry is present in the middle of the loch (lake). A dog is also present in the scene. Unknown date.

 

 
       
 

A black and white image from a postcard demonstrating the mist of the mountainous areas. Unknown date.

 

 
       
 

This is a modern image of Highland cattle rendered as a watercolour by P. Turner.

 
       
 

One can see in the close-up view how the cattle went into the water for their drinks.

 

 

 

 
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