Mr. Westmacott’s Cows Symbol Analysis

To Mr. Metcalfe, the cows in Mr. Westmacott’s field represent the simple charm and beauty of country life. They appear for the first time in Mr. Metcalfe’s internal ode to the heart of the countryside, sandwiched between lavish descriptions of budding trees and the aroma of wet soil. These, in his mind, are the greatest features of his rural home, and it soothes him that he can see these things from his own yard and imagine himself at their center. In this way, watching Mr. Westmacott call his cows also reinforces his own sense of belonging, which is not at all stable as the story opens. It’s no coincidence, then, that when a threat to both the serene prospect of the village and Mr. Metcalfe’s fragile authority arrives, Mr. Metcalfe first spots it among Mr. Westmacott’s cows. “Unfamiliar figures” in “dark, urban clothes,” Mr. Hargood-Hood and his “lawyer” couldn’t be more out of place against the backdrop of a peaceful, mundane cattle pasture. Their proposition to build an industrial laboratory in that exact field causes the gentry of Much Malcock to imagine a more extreme, apocalyptic version of the image that Hargood-Hood and his “lawyer” create while standing among the herd. In Waugh’s final mention of Mr. Westmacott’s cows, Mr. Metcalfe observes the valley with misery, intending to leave Much Malcock and abandon the field to Mr. Hargood-Hood’s plans. Watching Mr. Westmacott again call his cattle, he compares their future to his own: “Next week building was to begin and they must seek other pastures. So, in a manner of speaking, must Mr. Metcalfe.” Contemplating the cows no longer brings him a sense of joy and belonging, but the fact that Lady Peabury gazes upon her own land on the opposite hill and has the same misgivings ultimately suggests that the cows remind both her and Metcalfe what is really at stake in their squabble—thus setting the scene for their reconciliation.