Not far from Nichols's place, Karen Duffy, the Revlon spokeswoman, and her husband, John Lambros, raise an exotic breed of exceptically photogenic Scottish cattle called Belted Galloway.

The formal frontier between the two countries was re-established, with customs duties which, while they protected Scottish cloth industries from cheap English imports, also denied access to English markets for Scottish cattle or Scottish linens.

These aren't Scottish cattle, they're our own; and sheep and hacks too.

The demand for our Scottish cattle is increasing in England, and we should take every advantage of the need.

"MacWhirter, however, was a Scot, and his painting, entitled The Vanguard, was soon discovered to have been a depiction of Scottish cattle in a storm in Scotland," according to a company called Chicago Stamps.

The importation of Irish and Scottish cattle through Fleetwood enabled a fortnightly cattle market to be held in Poulton.

"I want a couple of Scottish cattle, with shaggy forelocks and long eyelashes, and some red pigs, three little pigs," he said.

The Scottish cattle are accustomed to being outside in cold weather, and they have adapted to it by growing a heavy hairy coat rather than an extra layer of fat.

Soon, the party is joined by a confident and sociable Scottish "cattle dealer", Campbell.

One is that the dish originates from the days of the old Scottish cattle drovers.