UMASS/AMHERST 
 
 31EDt3t,0a5137Eb5 
 
 WMM^MMM^wMj? 
 
 ■U STORY 
 
 ERBY. STUD LEY 
 
 m^wW'^'''4'^ 
 
 SHORTHORNS 
 
 CARR 
 
LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS 
 AGRICULTURAL 
 
 '^GE 
 
 souR< S3^r")c UXS£-. 
 
THE HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE RISE AND PROG-RESS 
 
 or THE 
 
 KILLERBY, STUDLEY AND WARLABY 
 
 HERDS OP SHOBTHOENS. 
 
\ 
 
 \ 
 
 V 
 
 V 
 
)nc 7ic</i^y 
 
 THE HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE RISE AND PROGRESS 
 
 or THE 
 
 HERDS OF SHORTHORNS. 
 
 WILLIAM CARR. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 WILLIAM RIDaWAY, 169, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1867. 
 

 LIBRARY 
 
 ^r :, i; ■^' 
 
 YOF 
 
 IVliS3A(,Hy SETTS 
 i';E :lT, MASS. 
 
TO 
 
 RAYMOND a BEFERE, 
 
 OF BRAITHWAITE HALL, MIDDLEHAM, 
 
 THE FOLLOWING LITTLE WORK, 
 
 SO MUCH INDEBTED TO HIS KIND ASSISTANCE, 
 
 BY HIS FEIEND, 
 
 WILLIAM CAEE. 
 
 Stackhocse, Settle, 
 August 3ra, 1867. 
 
P K E F A C E. 
 
 The history of these important herds, which I now ven- 
 ture to submit to the public, has for the most part already- 
 appeared in the form of letters in the pages of The Marh 
 Lane Express and Farmer's Magazine. With the kind 
 permission of the Proprietor of those publications, I have 
 undertaken, at the request of numerous friends, to 
 reprint them in a collected form. This request and the 
 flattering reception of the letters on their first appear- 
 ance, alone encourage me in the arduous attempt to do 
 justice to a subject of such national importance as a 
 description of the rise, progress, and present excellence 
 of the Booth cattle, and the career, as breeders, of that 
 well known family which has given these cattle their 
 celebrity and their name. To the chronicle of the prin- 
 cipal facts and events which have conduced to this cele- 
 brity, I have added, I trust in no dogmatic spirit, a few 
 remarks on such of them as appear to illustrate the 
 science of breeding, concluding with some general obser- 
 vations on the principles which seem to have guided the 
 Messrs. Booth in effecting those gradual modifications 
 of form and character in their cattle which have now 
 become the distinctive and established traits of the 
 Warlaby Shorthorn. The public, will, I am sure, make 
 every allowance for the difficulties of a task which com- 
 uicnces with an account of what took place at a time 
 
Vlli PREFACE. 
 
 beyond the memory of living men, and which embraces 
 such a very extensive field of labour. For the materials 
 of the work, I have been largely indebted to my friend 
 Mr. Bruere of Braithwaite Hall, whose private memo- 
 randa of events in relation to those herds had been 
 authenticated by the late Mr. Eichard Booth. I am also 
 under great obligation to my friend the Eev. John 
 Storer of Hellidon, for his valuable aid in the contribution 
 of many interesting facts and suggestions, and much 
 original matter. 
 
 w. c. 
 
 Stackhousb, 
 Aug. 3rd, 18G7. 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 Foremost among the men to wliom Great Britain 
 is indebted for the improvement of her flocks and herds, 
 was Eobert Bakewell. To him it was first given to 
 make the grand discovery that Providence had permitted 
 man, not only to subjugate the animal creation to his 
 will, but also so to modify and alter tlie structure and 
 conformation of the animal itself, that it might be made 
 the more capable of ministering to his wants. The 
 animal on which Bakewell first tried his improving hand 
 was the sheep ; and, by a careful study of Nature's laws 
 of reproduction, and a studious selection of the best 
 animals within his reach, he succeeded, after the labour 
 of many years, in producing a new and improved breed, 
 the New Leicester, the great excellence of which soon 
 secured it universal approbation. He next carried out 
 the same principles of improvement with regard to cattle ; 
 and what those principles were will be more fully seen in 
 tlie ensuing work, for the true principles of breeding 
 are and ever must be as immutable as the laws of nature 
 on which they depend. Here, too, he was in a great 
 degree successful ; and if he was not so pre-eminently 
 successful as he was with regard to sheep, and if his 
 Improved Longhorns have not permanently established 
 themselves as a pervading breed, it is because he had 
 not in the Craven cattle such good material to work 
 
 B 
 
2 THE BOOTH HEEDS. 
 
 upon as his successors had in the Teeswater, and the 
 Longhorns have therefore given way to the superior 
 merit of the Improved Shorthorn. 
 
 Contemporaries of Eobert Bakewellin the later period 
 of his career, and imitators of his principles and success, 
 were the two brothers, Charles Colling of Ketton and 
 Eobert Colling of Barmpton,both in the county of Durham, 
 and both within a few miles of Darlington, which may be 
 said to be the metropolis of the Improved Shorthorns, 
 or, as they have been sometimes called, the Durhams. 
 Of these Improved Shorthorns the brothers Colling were, 
 about the year 1780, the most prominent cultivators. 
 From their blood all improved shorthorns of the present 
 day more or less derive, and many and eminent are the 
 names of those who, imitating their success, and availing 
 themselves of their cattle, have contributed to spread the 
 fame of the Shorthorn through this and other lands. 
 
 With these, however, we have no immediate concern. 
 It is my present object rather to trace the progress made 
 in this direction by the late Mr. Thos. Booth of Killerby 
 and Warlaby, and his sons ; a history intimately inter- 
 woven with and inseparable from the history of the 
 Shorthorn breed itself Tor Mr. Thos. Booth was no 
 servile imitator. He was a contemporary of the Ceilings, 
 and began his career quite independently of them, as an 
 improver of the cattle of the same district, and he com- 
 menced it nearly at the same time. Mr. Booth had been 
 a breeder of shorthorns many years when the celebrated 
 Durham ox, bred by Mr. Charles Colling, was first exhi- 
 bited throughout the kingdom, and drew universal atten- 
 tion to the shorthorns. He afterwards did what wisdom 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 3 
 
 dictated, availed himself of the Collings' best blood, and 
 incorporated it with his own ; while his sons and grand- 
 sons at Killerby, at Studley, and at AVarlaby, have con- 
 tinued the same herd down to the present time, and 
 given it a world-wide fame. 
 
 Previously to the year 1790 Mr. Thomas Booth, who 
 was then the owner of the Warlaby and Killerby estates, 
 and farmed them both, commenced at Killerby the breed- 
 ing of shorthorns. Long anterior to that time a race of 
 cattle had existed in the valley of the Tees, indigenous, 
 it was supposed, to that and the adjacent districts, and 
 technically known as the Teeswater. These cattle, which 
 had long been especial favourites of the Border forayers, 
 had excited the attention of the early improvers of horned 
 stock, as affording favourable materials from which to 
 make their selections. Under the auspices of several 
 enterprising country gentlemen, foremost among whom 
 were Mr. Milbank, Sir William St. Quintin, the Maynards, 
 and the Hutchinsons, these Teeswater Shorthorns had 
 undergone gradual, but not very systematic, improve- 
 ment until the days of the Collings. The most favour- 
 able specimens of the breed were wide-backed, well- 
 framed cows, deep in their fore-quarters, soft and mellow 
 in their hair and " handling," and possessing, with 
 average milking properties, a remarkable disposition to 
 fatten. Their horns were rather longer than those of 
 their descendants of the present day, and inclining up- 
 wards. The defects which Mr. Thomas Booth detected, 
 and determined to correct in these cattle, were such as 
 still betray the unimproved shorthorn. They were chiefly 
 those of an undue prominence of hip and shoulder point, 
 
 b2 
 
4 THE BOOTH HEEDS. 
 
 a want of length in the hind-quarter, of width in the floor 
 of the chest, of fuhiess generally before and behind the 
 shoulders, as well as of flesh upon the shoulder itself. 
 The cattle had a somewhat disproportionate abdomen, a 
 too lengthy leg, and a want of substance, indicative of 
 delicacy, in the hide. They failed also in the essential 
 requisite of taking on their flesh evenly and firmly over 
 the whole frame, which frequently gave them an unlevel 
 appearance. There was, moreover, a general want of 
 compactness in their conformation. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Booth obtained his rudimentary stock 
 from some of the best specimens of these Teeswater 
 Shorthorns. He appears to have proceeded on the prin- 
 ci;)le that whilst the general similitude and mingled 
 qualities of both parents descend to the oftspring, the 
 external conformation — subject, of course, to some modi- 
 fication by the other parent — is mainly imparted by the 
 male, and the vital and nutritive organs by the female. 
 Actiug on this hypothesis, he was careful to select such 
 w^ell-framed cows only as evinced, by an ample capacity 
 of chest, a robust constitution and a predisposition to 
 fatten, and such moderate-sized males as possessed in 
 the highest degree then attainable the particular external 
 points and proportions he deemed desirable to impress 
 upon his herd. A dairy farmer under Lord Harewood, 
 a Mr. Broader, of Fairholme, in the parish of Ainderby, 
 appears to have possessed some cows having the qualifi- 
 cations required. Tradition speaks of them as unusually 
 fine cattle for that period ; good dairy cows, and great 
 grazers when dry ; somewhat incompact in frame, and 
 steerish in appearance, but of very robust constitution. 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 5 
 
 Previously to the vear 1790, Mr. Thomas Booth had 
 bought some calves from these cows. Strawberry Pair- 
 holme, Hazel {i. e. flecked roan) Fairholme, and Eight- 
 and- twenty- shilling Fairholme, purchased from Mr. 
 Broader's farm, have the honour of being the ancestresses 
 of several illustrious families of shorthorns. 
 
 I have said that Mr. Thomas Booth selected moderate- 
 sized males. His observant eye had recognised, -as in- 
 dispensable to any improvement in the symmetry of these 
 Teeswater animals, the necessity of reducing in size and 
 stature their large, loosely-knit frames. With this view 
 he decided on selecting his bulls from the stock of his 
 contemporaries, Messrs. Eobert and Charles Colling, who 
 had themselves, to some extent, effected this reduction 
 of size, and improvement of form and fattening capacity 
 in their stock, chiefly through the use of Hubback, a 
 small short-legged bull. Twin Brother to Ben (660), bred 
 by the Ceilings, and Son of Twin Brother to Ben, were 
 the first bulls used by Mr. Thomas Booth to these Fair- 
 holme heifers. These bulls had the short legs, the long 
 and level hind quarters, the firm backs and good twists, 
 to which Mr. Thomas Booth attached so much importance, 
 and their offspring amply testified to his discrimination. 
 It is recorded that one cow by the former, and her 
 daughter by the latter bull, produced six calves in one 
 year, the dam having twice produced twins, and the 
 daughter once. Four of these calves were heifers. Some 
 of the offspring were very superior cows. In proof of the 
 excellent foundation they afforded for the formation of a 
 herd, it is affirmed on high authority that one of the 
 Twin-Brother-to-Ben cows produced, to Son of Twin 
 
6 THE BOOTH HEKDS. 
 
 Brotlier to Beu, a cow quite equal to Eaith by Raspberry, 
 the dam of the famous Hope. Many of the cows were 
 deep milkers, but running dry sooner tlian was thea 
 usual, wlien they gained flesh very rapidly. The late 
 Mr. Ewbank, of Sober Hill, questioning the milking 
 capacity of some of them in this condition, Mr. Thomas 
 Booth pointed to their broad backs, and exclaimed, 
 '• Look there ! that is worth a few pints of milk ! " These 
 cows were further open to Mr. Ewbank's criticism as 
 having raw noses, as he contemptuously termed that 
 feature when flesh-coloured; alleging that in his early 
 days the farm stock was nearly all black-nosed, and that 
 he never knew a raw-nosed cow that was not delicate, — 
 a prejudice which has long since passed away. 
 
 Having thus judiciously selected the best animals 
 procurable of both sexes, Mr. Thomas Booth was careful 
 to pair such, and such only, of the produce of these 
 unions as presented in a satisfactory degree the desired 
 characteristics, with animals possessing them in equal or 
 S greater measure, and unsparingly to reject — especially 
 from his male stock — all such as were not up to the 
 I required standard. Having by these means succeeded in 
 developing and establishing in his herd a definite and 
 ,( uniform character, he sought to ensure its perpetuation 
 by breeding from rather close affinities, as in his opinion 
 tiie only security for the unfailing transmission, and 
 transmission in an increased ratio, of these acquired dis- 
 tinctions to the offspring. In tracing the pedigress of 
 these herds, it will be seen that from the earliest period 
 the same system of breeding from close relations which 
 "ivas pursued by the CoUings was followed by the Booths. 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 An examination of the pedigree of Lady Maynard (alias 
 the cow Favourite) will show to what a length the sys- 
 tem was carried by the early breeders, and how closely 
 the first families of the Colling strain were allied to the 
 Booth tribes. Further proof of this may be found in 
 the pedigrees of the earliest bulls used by Mr. Thomas 
 Booth, namely. Twin Brother to Ben, Suworrow, Albion, 
 Pilot, and Marshal Beresford. Take, for example, the 
 three last named. Albion — purchased at Mr. Charles 
 Ceiling's sale in 1810, by Mr. T. Bootb, senior, for 60 
 guineas, when a calf— was by a bull which was both a 
 son and grandson of Favourite ; his dam was by a son 
 of Favourite, and his grandam by a bull who was not 
 only a son of Favourite but also of Favourite's half- 
 sister. Pilot, bred by Mr. Eobert Colling, was by Major 
 or "Wellington. Major was by a son and grandson of 
 Favourite, his dam by a son of Favourite, his grandam 
 by Favourite, and his great-grandam by Favourite. 
 "Wellington was by a son and grandson of Favourite, and 
 his dam was by Favourite. Marshal Beresford was by a 
 son and grandson of Favourite, his dam by a grandson 
 of Favourite, and his grandam by Favourite.* Marshal 
 Beresford came into the berd in an exchange for some 
 cows with Major Bower, Mr. Thomas Booth's brother- 
 iu-law, a shorthorn breeder, then living at Welham. On 
 returning home one day, Mr. E. Booth found, to his 
 great annoyance, that his father had resold the Marshal 
 to Major Bower. He thought that if either had been 
 
 * Ou this subject the reader is referred, for a particular considera- 
 tion of this point, to a very excellent and interesting communication 
 from the Rev. John btoicr. See Appendix. 1}^ /•^/J ^ /vt/l^ r* H^ 
 
8 THE BOOTH HEEDS. 
 
 parted witli it should have been Albion. It proved 
 fortunate, however, for the Booth herd that Albion was 
 retained; for though not so stylish as the Marshal in 
 appearance, he proved far superior to him as a sire. 
 ) Albion is said to have done more good in the herd than 
 any other of the earlier bulls, notwithstanding that he 
 had, through Washington (674), the alloys which was the 
 term of reproach cast upon Lady by Grandson of Boling- 
 broke and her descendants in the early days of shorthorn 
 breeding. The offspring of Albion were, in general, very 
 round, compact, and near the ground. 
 
 I must here, however, revert to the Fairholme calves. 
 A slight survey of the tribes which have sprung from 
 these early mothers of the herd may not be without 
 interest to some of my readers. "From them proceeded 
 the Fairholme or Blossom tribe, the old Eed Eose tribe, 
 and the Ariadne or Bright Eyes tribe. 
 
 Of the Eairholme or Blossom tribe, one branch ter- 
 minated in the bull Easby (232). Another, which Mr. 
 E. Booth took with him to Studley, produced Moss 
 Eose by Suworrow, Madame by Marshal Beresford, Eair 
 Maid by Pilot, Miss Eoote by Agamemnon, and Toung 
 Sir Alexander. A third division, which, in the cow Eve 
 passed into the hands of Major Bower, has representa- 
 tives in the herd of Lord Eeversham — Skyrocket, the 
 first prize bull at the Eoyal show at Leeds in 1861, being 
 one of them. Of a fourth branch — the descendants of 
 Beauty by Albion — one portion remained in the hands 
 of Mr. John Booth, and produced Modish, sold to Mr. 
 E. Holmes (who bred from her Belzoni); the other passed 
 into the hands of Sir Charles Knightley, who had at one 
 
THE BOOTH HEEDS. 9 
 
 time several representatives of it. Erom a fifth branch, 
 retained by Mr. Thomas Booth, sprang Twin Cow by 
 Albion, her son Navigator, whose spirited portrait adorns 
 the walls of the dining-room at Warlaby, and a long 
 array of prize animals, amongst which may be mentioned 
 Bloom, Plum Blossom, Nectarine Blossom, Venus Victrix, 
 Baron Warlaby, and "Windsor. 
 
 The old Eed Eose tribe is extinct, except in the pro- 
 geny of Julius CsBsar and Belshazzar. 
 
 From the Bright Eyes tribe, in the possession of Mr. 
 R. Booth, at Studley, came Ariadne, the prize cow Anna 
 by Pilot, and many other fine animals dispersed at the 
 Studley sale. 
 
 Besides these Pairholme tribes, there was the Halnaby 
 or Strawberry tribe, which also dates from this period. 
 The first of them was of that yellow red and white hue, 
 which, though out of favour at the present day, was then 
 the prevailing colour of the shorthorn. She was bought in 
 Darlington market, and one of the earliest recollections 
 of Mr. E. Booth was of that cow coming home. The type 
 of old Halnaby of 1797, who is said to have been a very 
 finely-made cow, has often been reproduced in her 
 descendants in the herd. Mr. Thomas Booth considered 
 this as one of his finest families, quite eqnal to the 
 Blossom and the Ariadne tribes. Young Albion (15) is 
 the first bull of note in the Halnaby family. He was 
 much used in the herd, and was one of the first that was 
 let out on hire. He went to Mr. Scroope's, of Danby 
 Hall, near Middleham, who had a fine, large, robust herd 
 of cattle, related, through some of the bulls used, to the 
 Colling blood. In 1812, the Squire of Danby challcuged 
 
10 THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Booth to show, " for rump and dozen " (the 
 usual stal^es at that day being rump steaks and a dozen 
 of wine) the best lot of heifers he had, against the same 
 number of his own, the match to be decided at Bedale. 
 Although a good lot, the Danby had to give place to the 
 Killerby and Warlaby contingent. Of the Halnaby 
 tribe came also the bull Eockingham, and Priam, the sire 
 of Necklace and Bracelet. The only female representa- 
 tives of the family are in the hands of the present Mr. 
 Booth of "Warlaby. From Strawberry 3rd came the 
 Bianca and Bride Elect branch ; whilst the famous cow 
 White Strawberry, the dam of Leonard, was the ances- 
 tress of Monk, Medora, Eed Eose, and her daughters, 
 the queenly quartette. Young Matchem (4422) is 
 descended from White Eose, own sister of Toung Albion, 
 and therefore, on the dam's side, of the Halnaby family? 
 and the same branch of it gives the dam, Toung Eachel, 
 of Mr Ambler's Grrand Turk. 
 
 The Bracelet tribe sprung from a cow by Suworrow, 
 of whose origin there is no record. She was the ances- 
 tress of a very superior cow, calved in 1812, Countess 
 by Albion, the alloy bull; also of Toy, and her twin 
 daughters Necklace and Bracelet, and of Col. Towneley's 
 Pearly, and Mr. Torr's Toung Bracelet tribe. 
 
 The early representatives of the above-mentioned 
 tribes formed the herd of Mr. Thomas Booth down to 
 the year 1814, when Mr. Eichard Booth, taking the 
 Studley Parm, near Eipon, left Killerby. Mr. Thomas 
 Booth was at this time the most enterprising and skilful 
 improver of cattle in his district, if not of his day. It 
 is said there were some cows in Mr. Thomas Booth's 
 
THE BOOTH HEEDS. 11 
 
 herd of tliat period as good as anj herd of the present 
 time can boast ; though, being bred for use rather than 
 show, the generality of them were wanting in the refine- 
 ment of the modern shorthorn. At that period there 
 were, happily, no shows to demand the sacrifice of the 
 best cattle in the kingdom, or the few that were held 
 could be reached by the majority of cattle attending 
 them only by such long journeys on foot as would be 
 impracticable by animals in such a state of obesity as is 
 now a sine qua non with the judicial triumvirate. High 
 feeding at that time meant no more than good pasture 
 for cow^s early dried of their milk ; and the term 
 " training" was never heard except in relation to horses. 
 The first breeder who introduced the system, which has 
 since run into such ruinous excess, of house-feeding 
 cows and heifers in summer on artificial food, was 
 Mr. Crofton ; and in that year he, of course, took all 
 before him in the show yards. The general treatment of 
 the females of a herd at that day was a simple hay diet 
 during the winter months. They were put early to 
 breeding, and generally calved at two years old. A few 
 were taken from the lot to milk. The remainder 
 suckled their calves until winter. They were then 
 taken up, dried, and fed ofi" by the time they were three 
 years old ; the same course being pursued, in their turn, 
 with their progeny. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Booth was as liberal as his successors in 
 allowing the free use of his bulls to his poor neighbours; 
 and, like most public benefactors, was occasionally 
 imposed upon. A ludicrous instance of this is still re- 
 membered. An old fellow at Ainderby, not contented 
 
12 THE BOOTH HEEDS. 
 
 witli the bull set apart for this purpose, and being 
 anxious to have a calf by another, that Mr. Booth 
 especially prized and kept exclusively for his own herd, 
 took his cow into the lane adjoining the field where the 
 prohibited animal was grazing. The bull broke through 
 the fence ; and — the old Torkshireman's object was 
 achieved. The latter, knowing how indignant Mr. Booth 
 would be, thought it safest to act on the principle of 
 taking the bull by the horns ; and, assuming an injured 
 air, at once repaired to him, exclaiming, " O maister, 
 maister ! sic an a thing has happened ! Tour gurt ugly 
 beast has broken through t'hedge, and I doubt he'll hae 
 gitten my cow wi' cauf. It's a sad bad job ; for I were 
 boun' to feed her off." 
 
 Mr. Eichard Booth's removal to Studley forms a new 
 era in the history of these herds. From 1814 down to 
 its dispersion in 1834, the Studley colony took pre- 
 cedence of the parent stock. We may now, therefore, 
 before proceeding with the history of the Kilierby Herd, 
 turn our attention to that of Studley. 
 
 THE STUDLEY HERD. 
 
 Mr. Eichard Booth inherited with his father's name 
 his full share of his father's skill as a Breeder, with 
 an equal fondness for the pursuit ; and his new farm, 
 which he held under the wealthy and well-known Mrs. 
 Lawrence, w^as speedily stocked with superior short- 
 horns. He began with his father's cattle, and carried 
 on to even greater perfection his father's work. Among 
 the first importations which were made from Killerby to 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 13 
 
 Studley, when Mr. Eichard Bootli went there in 1814, 
 the following maybe mentioned: — He purchased from 
 his father Bright Eyes, by Lame Bull, and her daughters 
 Ariadne, then a two-year-old, and Agnes, a yearling, 
 both by Albion. Ariadne was own sister to Agamemnon, 
 the grandsire of Isabella by Pilot. She was the dam of 
 the famous Anna by Pilot, who won numerous prizes at 
 the best shows of the day ; and who, in 1824, performed 
 the feat of walking from Studley to Manchester, taking 
 the first prize there, walking back, and producing within 
 a fortnight Young Anna. Anna is said, by those who 
 well remember her, to have borne a very strong resem- 
 blance in colour and character to Queen of the Ocean. 
 She was the dam of Adelaide, who, through her sire 
 Albert, was also grandaughter of Isabella. Adelaide 
 was the highest priced female sold at Mr. E. Booth's 
 Studley sale in 1834, and w^as the grandam of Mr. 
 Storer's cow Princess Julia. Prom Anna, more remotely 
 through her daughter Young Anna, are descended two 
 of Mr. Torr's families ; and from Agnes, daughter of 
 Bright Eyes, came Mr. Pawkes's Verbena and her des- 
 cendants. Agamemnon, the own brother of Ariadne, 
 was a bull of extraordinary substance, with good hind 
 quarters, heavy flanks, deep twist, and well covered hips. 
 He was eventually sold, with two heifers, to Mr. White, 
 of Woodlands, near Dublin. Even in these early days 
 Mr. Booth had bulls out on hire. Alonzo, a son of 
 Ariadne, by Eockingham, was let to Mr. Hutton, of 
 Marske, who, to promote the improvement of the breed 
 of cattle in his district, had at that time yearly shows 
 on his estate. Protector, another bull of the Bright 
 
14 THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 Eyes family, was hired by Mr. Powlett, of Bolton Hall. 
 He was a large red bull, and a capital sire. 
 
 In the first year of his residence at Studley, Mr. E. 
 Booth bought in Darlington market the first of what 
 was afterwards known as the Isabella tribe. She was a 
 roan cow, by Mr. Burrell's bull of Burdon, and, for a 
 market cow, had a remarkably ample development of 
 the fore-quarters. She was put to Agamemnon. The 
 offspring was " "White Cow," which, crossed by Pilot, 
 produced the matchless Isabella, so long remembered in 
 show-field annals, and to this day quoted as a perfect 
 specimen of her race. Pedestrians crossing the fields to 
 the ruins of Pountains Abbey might generally see her 
 and Anna, perhaps the two best cows of their day, with 
 a blooming bevy of fair heifers, attended by Young 
 Albion ; and many a traveller lingered on his way to 
 admire their buxom forms, picturing to himself perhaps 
 how the monks of the old abbey would have gloried in 
 such beeves. Isabella was the Eev. Henry Berry's beau 
 ideal of a shorthorn. In 1823, Sir Charles Morgan 
 having oflTered a premium to promote a trial of merit 
 between Herefords and Shorthorns, Mr. Berry wrote to 
 the editor of the Parmers' Journal requesting him to give 
 publicity to the following ofiTer : " I will produce as a com- 
 petitor for Sir Charles Morgan's premium at Christmas 
 next a Shorthorned cow, then nine years old, expecting to 
 drop her eighth living calf, at separate hirths, in June now 
 next ensuing, against any Hereford in England, soA^en or 
 nine years old, having had calves for years in the same 
 proportion. I will also on the same occasion produce a 
 Shorthorn heifer, three years old, having had a liviiig 
 
THE BOOTH HEEDS. 15 
 
 calf, allowing to the Herefords the same ample scope — 
 all England — for the production of a competitor. It 
 will be obvious to your readers that in thus pitting two 
 individuals against so numerous a tribe as the Herefords, 
 I must entertain considerable confidence in their merits, 
 and it will be as easy to draw a correct conclusion 
 should my offer not be accepted." The cow and heifer 
 which, by permission of the owners, Mr. Berry proposed 
 bringing into competition with the Herefords, w^ere 
 Mr. Whitaker's cow Moss Eose and Mr. E. Booth's 
 heifer Isabella by Pilot. The challenge was not taken 
 up. 
 
 Isabella and her descendants brought the massive yet 
 exquisitely moulded fore-quarters into the herd, and also 
 that straight under-line of the belly, for which the 
 Warlaby animals are remarkable. That such a cow 
 should have had but three crosses of blood is striking 
 evidence of the impressive efficacy of these early bulls, 
 and confirms Mr. E. Booth's opinion that four crosses 
 of really first-rate bulls of sterling blood upon a good 
 market cow, of the ordinary Shorthorn breed, should 
 suffice for the production of an animal with all the 
 characteristics of the high-caste Shorthorn. In such an 
 opinion, confirmed by such an example as this, there is 
 much instruction and encouragement for tenant farmers 
 desirous of improving their stock. Female Shorthorns 
 of high pedigree are in general beyond the reach of their 
 class ; but if near neighbours w^ould but club together, 
 and procure for their joint use a succession of pure bred 
 males, of fixed and determinate character, the improve- 
 ment in a few years eftected in their stock, especially as 
 
16 THE BOOTH HEEDS. 
 
 regards early maturity and tendency to carry flesh, 
 would be such as materially to enhance their farming 
 profits. It is often difficult, however, to convince even 
 those amongst them who have used, and experienced the 
 benefits resulting from the use of a high bred sire, of 
 the expediency of continuing in the same course. Some 
 wretched cross-bred cow put to the " pedigree bull," 
 probably produces a bull-calf with all the characteristics 
 of its sire, all the more probably, perhaps, from her 
 being of no distinctive character herself. This the 
 farmer rears on something better than blue milk, in the 
 hope of getting a prize or two with him at local shows, 
 nine out of ten of which absurdly ignore the first deside- 
 ratum in a sire, pure descent, the bull of one cross being 
 allowed to compete with the possessor of half-a-dozen. 
 The mongrel gets the white ribbon, and immediately 
 becomes, in his owner's estimation, endowed with every 
 necessary qualification for a sire. The farmer thence- 
 fortb uses him to his own cattle, and perhaps those of 
 half the neiglibourhood. The result of this retrograde 
 step is soon apparent in the stock. Interesting traits of 
 the maternal aacestry of the parvenu bull re-appear in 
 his progeny — the brindle, it may be, of Pat O'Elana- 
 ghan's Kerry, the black nose and horns of Sandy Mac- 
 pherson's Kyloe, or the long legs and flat sides of Tafly 
 Owen's Glamorgan. But though the farmer sees that 
 he is rapidly losing all the ground he had gained, and 
 that his stock has ceased to be sought after, he rarely 
 admits the cause. 
 
 *' White cow," by Agamemnon, produced, besides the 
 famous Isabella, " own sister to Isabella," and Lady 
 
THE BOOTH HEEDS. 17 
 
 Sarah, and was then sold to Mr. Paley, of Gledhow. 
 Her dam, the Darlington cow, had previously been dis- 
 posed of to the master of a boarding-school at Eipon, 
 one of whose pupils, Mr. Bruere, of Braithwaite Hall — 
 a highly esteemed friend of the late Mr. Booth's — well 
 remembers the brimming pails of milk she gave. "Own 
 sister to Isabella'* was the dam of Blossom, by Memnon 
 (a son of Julius Caesar and Strawberry by Pilot), and 
 Blossom was the dam of Medora by Ambo, one of the 
 neatest cows Mr. Booth ever bred. Medora was sold to 
 Mr. Fawkes, in whose hands she was the progenitress of 
 his Grulnare, Haidee, Zuleika, and others. Mr. Pawkes's 
 Lord Marquis, the first prize three-year-old bull at the 
 Eoyal Show at Lewes in 1852, and the Yorkshire Show 
 at Sheffield in the same year, was also a descendant of 
 Medora's. " A gentleman," says the writer of ' Short- 
 horn Intelligence,' *' who has been intimately conversant 
 with the herds of Great Britain for at least a quarter of a 
 century, declares that one of the most interesting sights 
 he ever saw at an Agricultural Exhibition was on the 
 show-ground at Otley some years ago, when, after the 
 judging, the famous Booth cow Medora by Ambo was 
 led round the ring, followed by her six daughters, all 
 of them, as well as the mother, decorated with prize 
 favours. The daughters were Gulnare, Haidee, and 
 Zuleika (by Norfolk) ; Victoria, and Pair Maid of 
 Athens (by Sir Thomas Pairfax) ; and a heifer named 
 Myrrha, not in the herd book, under that name at 
 least, by Rockingham (2550)." Blossom was bought by 
 the Earl of Lonsdale at the Studley sale in 1834, and, 
 after breeding four calves, was slaughtered in 1840. 
 
 c 
 
18 THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 Own Sister to Isabella also had Imogen by Argus, 
 which was sold at the Studley sale to the Earl of Carlisle, 
 and became the dam of Isabel, by Belshazzar (1704). 
 This Belshazzar, who was contemporary with Mr. Booth's 
 Belshazzar of the old Eed Eose tribe, was from Lady 
 Sarah, the third sister of Isabella by Pilot. Lady Sarah 
 became the property of the Earl of Carlisle, and pro- 
 duced at Castle Howard three bulls and four heifers, one 
 of which was the dam of Lord Stanley, purchased by 
 Messrs. Booth and Maynard. 
 
 Isabella by Pilot, now the best knoAvn to fame of the 
 three sisters, produced, at Studley, Isaac by Young 
 Albion, Albert by the same bull, Isabella, sold to Mr. 
 Bolden, Young Isabella to Mr. Paley, and Belinda to 
 the Earl of Carlisle, and four others ; and on the sale of 
 the Studley herd she alone was retained, and transferred 
 to AYarlaby, where she gave birth, in her eighteenth 
 year, to Isabella Matchem, afterwards the dam, as will 
 be seen, of a numerous progeny. The fate of Isabella's 
 son Isaac was always looked back to by his breeder with 
 regret. The demand for bulls was then only commencing. 
 Isaac had been let for a year to Miss Strickland, of 
 Apperley Court, and on his return, Mr. Booth not 
 requiring him, he was unfortunately fed off to make 
 room for younger ones, before his eminent merits as a 
 sire had been discovered. The Isabellas had all great 
 capacity for rapidly acquiring ripe condition on pasture. 
 As an illustration of the fallaciousness of the usual mode 
 of judging cattle by the softness of their flesh, it may 
 be worthy of mention that at one of the Yorkshire Agri- 
 cultural Meetings held at Northallerton, a grass-fed 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 19 
 
 lieifer, a daughter of Isabella, by Ambo, was shown, and 
 rejected as being too hard-fleshed. Not breeding, she 
 was slaughtered at York for Christmas beef. Her two 
 successful rivals also failing to breed were slaughtered, 
 and the palm for the best carcase of beef was awarded 
 to Mr. Booth's heifer over her Northallerton rivals. 
 Nor is this case without many a parallel in the history 
 of Koyal Shows. Numerous as have been the prizes 
 whicb the Booth cattle have received, their number 
 would have been greatly increased if judges had always 
 carefully distinguished between flesh and fat. "When 
 their decisions have been on this ground — as they often 
 have been — adverse to tbe Booth cattle, many an expe- 
 rienced butcher has proclaimed a very different opinion ; 
 and could the appeal ad crumenam have been adopted by 
 an immediate sale of the rival animals to the shambles, 
 how useless would it have been in most instances to 
 contest the supremacy of the Booths ! 
 
 Another cow which Mr. Booth took with him to 
 Studley was Madame, by Marshal Beresford, also of the 
 Fairholme Blossom tribe. From her came Fancy and 
 Fair Maid, both by Agamemnon. The former was the 
 dam of Fatima, avery neat, middle-sized cow, which, put 
 to Mr. Maynard's Sir Alexander, produced the famous 
 bull Young Sir Alexander. This bull was the sire of 
 Strawberry, whose daughter White Strawberry by 
 Eockingham held perbaps equal rank in Mr. Booth's esti- 
 mation with Anna, Isabella, and her own contemporary 
 rivals, Necklace and Bracelet. Fair Maid, the other 
 daughter of Madame by Marshal Beresford, was the 
 dam of Miss Foote, whose descendants were very numer- 
 
 c2 
 
20 THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 ous, and were all disposed of at, or previously to, the 
 Studley sale. They united in a remarkable degree the 
 two properties of good milking and rapid fattening. 
 Pair Maid herself was sold to Mr. Ellison of Sizergh, 
 where she bred many calves, and proved herself an ex- 
 cellent dairy cow. Miss Toote was sold to Captain 
 Shawe, and Fair Helen, her daughter, who was the dam 
 of the noted bull Cossack, to Sir Charles Tempest, with 
 whom she bred four heifers. I remember, in 1853, a 
 stray waif of this famous tribe in the hands of an inn- 
 keeper, at Clapham, in Yorkshire. It was, in fact, the 
 broad level back and symmetrical proportions of this 
 cow that induced me to purchase my first shorthorn, her 
 bull calf. The cow was a grandaughter of Miss Eoote, 
 being a daughter of Lady Helen, then the property of 
 Mr. Foster of Clapham. She was sacrificed whilst still 
 in her prime, her owner being tempted by the offer of a 
 high price for her from a butcher. 
 
 Some mention of the bulls bred and used by Mr. Booth 
 during his residence at Studley seems here to be required. 
 
 One of the first bulls of superior mark bred by Mr. 
 Eichard Booth after his removal to Studley was Julius 
 Caesar, a buU of very symmetrical proportions, which he 
 had the merit of impressing in a surprising degree upon 
 his off'spring. No matter how dissimilar and opposite in 
 form and breed the cows to which he was put might be, 
 the produce all bore the unmistakeable stamp of their 
 sire. The offspring, by him, of the shabbiest lane-side 
 cow, had, it is said, all the character of the pure-bred 
 Shorthorn. It may be worth while to inquire how far 
 the remarkable property which distinguished this bull 
 
THE BOOTH HEEDS. 21 
 
 may be traced to the preponderating influence of any 
 particular progenitor or progenitors in his pedigree, an 
 investigation of which, it may here be sufficient to say, 
 will show him to be descended half a dozen times, and 
 some of them very nearly, from Twin Brother to Ben. 
 
 This circumstance lends weight to the opinion of many 
 experienced breeders, that, in general, the capability of a 
 bull to transmit to his ofispring his own peculiar mould 
 and properties depends upon his having inherited them 
 from a succession of ancestors endowed with similar 
 characteristics. It is doubtless to the concentration of 
 hereditary force thus derived that the extraordinary 
 transmissive power of such bulls as Comet, Favourite, 
 and Julius Caesar is to be attributed. At the same time 
 it is a curious circumstance, and one that should not be 
 forgotten — as often modifying to some extent the prin- 
 ciple above enunciated — that amongst animals similarly 
 bred there are some bulls, and some cows too, that possess 
 an immeasurably greater transmissive influence than 
 pertains to others. 
 
 Pilot, another of the bulls of this period, was bred by 
 Mr. E. Colling, and purchased by Mr. T. Booth at the 
 Barmpton sale in 1818 for 270 gs. He was used in all 
 the three herds, and there was no bull to which they 
 were more largely indebted. The close in-and-in breed- 
 ing of this animal has already been shown. He was let 
 to Mr. Eennie for a short time ; but his stock at home 
 proved so good, that he was recalled at the expiration of 
 his flrst season. Pilot was a small compact bull, some- 
 what undersized, but possessed of great thriving propen- 
 sity. He was a capital sire, and may be appropriately 
 
22 THE BOOTH TIEKDS. 
 
 cited as a striking example of the preceding remarks. I 
 am indebted for tliis account of Pilot to one who remem- 
 bers him well — that old friend of the Booths, the much 
 respected Nestor of the Shorthorns, Mr. Wetherell, who, 
 Hke his friend Mr. Wiley of Brandsby, is still hale and 
 strong, a living record of early Shorthorn times, from 
 whom younger men learn the lessons of the past. Isaac, 
 another bull of note, bred by Mr. Kichard Booth, has 
 already been referred to. Burley and Ambo, or Ambo 
 Dexter, both containing a large amount of the Pavourite 
 blood, were partially used in the herd during the last 
 three years before the sale. 
 
 In the year 1834 Mr. Richard Booth, finding that 
 some of his best pastures were required by their owner 
 for other purposes, gave up the farm at Studley, and 
 selling off the whole of his herd, with the exception of 
 Isabella by Pilot, retired to Sharrow, near Eipon. After 
 residing there for a year, which, from being bereft of his 
 favourites, he used to describe as the least happy period 
 of his life, Mr. R. Booth, in ^consequence of his father's 
 death, succeeded to the estate and shorthorn herd of 
 Warlaby. The sale of the Studley herd was a step which 
 Mr. Booth always regretted, for many of the animals it 
 contained were, in his opinion, every whit as good as any 
 he afterwards bred. They were dispersed into many 
 hands, and though Old Cuddy's assertion, that they have 
 *' a' swealed away," is certainly too sweeping, it may be 
 doubted whether, even in the hands of very celebrated 
 breeders, like Mr. Fawkes and others, the descendants 
 of these famous cattle have ever quite equalled their 
 coudins at Warlaby. 
 
THE BOOTH HERBS. 23 
 
 It is now necessary to go back a quarter of a centur)^ 
 to resume the history of the Killerby Herd. 
 
 THE KILLERBY HEED. 
 
 "We have seen that in the year 1814 Mr. Eichard 
 Booth took with him to Studley some of the animals then 
 forming the Killerby herd. Mr. Thomas Booth shortly 
 afterwards supplied the place of these with other cows, 
 which became the foundresses of three famous tribes — the 
 Farewell tribe, from which sprang Eaith, Hope, and 
 Charity ; the Broughton tribe, from whence came Bliss, 
 Blithe, and Bonnet ; and the Dairymaid, or Moss Eose 
 tribe, from which are descended Vivandiere, Camp Fol- 
 lower, and Soldier's Bride. The first of the Farewell 
 tribe came from Darlington ; the first of the Broughton 
 tribe from a dairy farmer in a village of that name, who 
 had some good cattle, but, pedigrees being slightly valued 
 in those days by the tenant-farmer class, nothing further 
 is known about them. The first of the Dairymaid tribe 
 came from an equally good stock in the village of Scorton. 
 
 In the year 1819, on the occasion of Mr. J. Booth's 
 marriage, Mr. T. Booth removed to Warlaby, giving up 
 to his son, Mr. J. Booth, the Killerby estate and a part 
 of the shorthorn herd, and taking the remainder with 
 him. A portion of the Fairholme or Blossom tribe, and 
 of the Old Eed Eose tribe, were removed to Warlaby, the 
 remain der being left with Mr. John Booth. The Hal- 
 naby family was also divided, but the famous Bracelet 
 tribe was all left at Killerby. From this period down to 
 the year 1835, whea Mr. E. Booth succeeded to his 
 
24 THE BOOTH HEEDS. 
 
 father's herd at "Warlaby. there is comparatively little 
 known of the two herds. The times were unpropitious 
 for the Shorthorn. The spirit of improvement which the 
 example of the Collings had evoked only partially sur- 
 vived. There was a general depression in all agricultural 
 produce, and consequently but little demand for animals, 
 the purchase of which appeared at that time to partake 
 so much of the nature of a speculation. Not yet did 
 
 " Generous Britons venerate the plough," 
 or regard wdth respect bucolic occupations. A man 
 gained more eclat by a display of science and judgment in 
 going across country than in the breeding of cattle. In 
 some districts, a gentleman almost lost caste by devoting 
 himself to such ignoble pursuits, and was sarcastically 
 dubbed, by his companions in the pink, " cow-scratcher." 
 But though " fallen on evil days," the stock at Killerby 
 wa8 of high character, and was frequently resorted to by 
 the few good breeders of that period for the purchase of 
 animals. It is a house where all comers were, and still 
 are, regaled with the welcome of the olden times. Kil- 
 lerby is one of the pleasantest of the pleasant homes of 
 England. It is a substantial square manor house, pic- 
 turesquely situated on a gentle eminence to the south of 
 the river Swale, and two miles from Catterick, the site of 
 the once important Eoman camp and city of Catarac- 
 tonium. The house occupies the site of the ancient castle 
 of Killerby, once a stronghold of great magnitude, 
 founded in the reign of Edward the Eirst by Sir Brian 
 Eitzalan, Earl of Arundel. It is approached by a road 
 winding through verdant pastures thrown together into 
 the form of a park, adorned here and there with noble 
 
THE BOOTH HEEDS. 25 
 
 elm and walnut trees. The estate consists of about 500 
 acres of arable and pasture land. The soil, which is very 
 mixed — gravel, strong clay, marl, and peat being some- 
 times found in the same field — is more adapted for sheep 
 than heavy cattle, though there are two or three ex- 
 cellent pastures. Several of the inferior grass fields have 
 been ploughed up of late, and beavy crops of oats and 
 turnips grown in their place, which has allowed the 
 number of sheep kept to be greatly increased. Although 
 half-bred sheep are occasionally seen on the farm for 
 summer grazing, the staple stock are pure Leicesters, for 
 the wool of which Mr. J. B. Booth, the present owner, 
 has gained several prizes at the Yorkshire sbows. 
 
 The late Mr. Booth, of Killerby, was known and beloved 
 throughout the county as a strikingly genial example 
 of the worthy and hospitable northern agriculturist, ever 
 devoting himself to the service of his friends (and he had 
 many) and to the advancement of agricultural improve- 
 ment. The humblest, equally witb the most important, 
 agricultural societies might always rely on his good offices, 
 whether as patron or judge, in which latter capacity being 
 confessedly unrivalled, he was in great request, and would 
 most good naturedly consent to officiate, though his doing 
 so involved the exclusion of his own cattle from com- 
 petition. As might have been expected, from his fine 
 and manly character, he was also a keen sportsman j like 
 Chaucer's squire, 
 
 " Well could he sitte a horse and faire y-ride ;" 
 and Yorkshire, that modern Thessaly of horsemen, knew 
 no more thorough judge of hack or hunter. His skill in 
 this respect still survives in his sons ; many a field and 
 
26 THE BOOTH herds. 
 
 many a showjard testify that in this regard, as in others, 
 Killerby has not degenerated from its ancient fame. He 
 had, too, a natural taste for the fine arts, and when from 
 illness he could not go far from home, he had his horses 
 led out, and would sit on the lawn, or in the hall, to 
 paint them. Here, too, his taste survives, and if I touch 
 lightly on the subject it is because more delicate fingers 
 now hold the brush, and I would not trespass unbidden 
 upon the elegant recreations of KUlerby's fair Mistress. 
 
 When, on the establishment of the national shows in 
 1839, the superiority of the Killerby Shorthorns had 
 been proved in contest with the best animab of the day, 
 the herd attracted many visitors, and its inspection was 
 as free to all classes as were the fruits of its owner's ex- 
 perience in breeding, which he was ever ready to com- 
 municate to the neophyte. It may not be uninteresting 
 to the present fair enthusiasts in shorthorn matters to 
 learn, that in the absence of her husband, the late Mrs. 
 Booth — a lady who will long be remembered in that 
 neighbourhood for her benevolent disposition and engag- 
 ing manners — would herself most affably do the honours 
 of the herd, leading the way to her especial favourites, 
 and expatiating on their pedigrees, points, and perfec- 
 tions, sometimes with a dash of arch humour, and always 
 with the grace and delicacy of the thorough-bred lady 
 that she was, Mrs. Booth's sister, j^iiss "Wright, had an 
 equally keen appreciation of the merits of a good short- 
 horn, and would stop any one of kindred tastes, who 
 happened to be passing through Cleasby, to have a chat 
 on her favourite topic, or to lead them to the Grarth 
 (since known by his name), where in the fulness of his 
 days and honours repose the remains of Comet. 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 27 
 
 For some years after the dispersion of the Studley 
 Shorthorns, in 1834, (until perhaps 1845-6, when Mr. E. 
 Booth's Faith and Hope were in the ascendant), the 
 Killerby herd, with the halo of its Bracelet and Manta- 
 lini triumphs, held a more conspicuous place in public 
 view than that of "Warlaby, and it is fitting, therefore, 
 that we should first turn our attention to the history of 
 its tribes, though the two herds, owing to their common 
 origin and the constant interchange of sires, are so 
 intimately allied as to make it difficult to dissociate one 
 from the other : thus, for example, Pilot was joint property 
 and used in both herds; Mr. E. Booth's Argus and 
 Priam were respectively the sires of Toy and her daughters 
 Necklace and Bracelet in the Killerby herd, while 
 Bracelet's son Buckingham became the eire of Charity 
 and a host of prize winners in that of "Warlaby. Again ; 
 Mr. E. Booth's Leonard, Vanguard, and Hopewell were 
 freely used in both herds. 
 
 Amongst the cows composing the Killerby herd in the 
 year 1835 were Toy by Argus, her daughter Little Toy 
 by Volunteer, and Ivory by Matchem, all of the Bracelet 
 tribe, and three other Matchem cows, namely. Maiden of 
 the Mantalini tribe. Landlady of the Lady Betty tribe, and 
 Ploranthethe grandam of Colonel To wneley's Beauty. 
 
 Toy was a very neat, thick-framed cow, with a magni- 
 ficent udder. Her milking capabilities were the boast of 
 the Killerby dairymaids, and were transmitted to her 
 famous twins Necklace and Bracelet. The latter were 
 bred from very close affinities ; thus Vestal, the dam of 
 Toy, was by Pilot ; Argus, the sire of Toy, was by Young 
 Albion out of Anna by Pilot ; Toy's two daughters. 
 
28 THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 Necklace and Bracelet, were by Priam, a grandson of 
 Pilot on his dam's side, and whose sire, Isaac, was by 
 young Albion, from Isabella by Pilot. Toy had twice 
 previously been put to Young Matchem, but the offspring, 
 Teetotum and Plaything, were not at all equal to the 
 twins. Teetotum, however, was the parent of Lady thorn 
 by Lord Stanley, whose portrait in the " Herd Book " — 
 evidently a portrait — unmistakeably proclaims her a good 
 cow ; and in truth she was second only to Birthday in 
 merit. She was sold to Mr. Banks Stanhope for 150 
 guineas, a great price in that day, and in 1845 won the first 
 prize at the Eoyal Exhibition at Shrewsbury in the cow 
 class ; her two daughters, Ladybird and Eevesby Thorn, 
 subsequently earning fame in the show-fields. Prom Toy 
 was also descended the cow Gertrude, purchased, together 
 with her lovely daughter Lady Hopetown, at Mr. Bolden's 
 sale, by Mr. Torr, who had previously bought, at the Kil- 
 lerby sale, Sylphide by Morning Star, also sprung from Toy. 
 Some others of her descendants are in the hands of Mr. 
 Pawlett, and Mr. Torr's noble bull Breastplate has well 
 kept up the honour of the family. But I must here re- 
 turn to the twin-born progeny of Toy, the all conquer- 
 ing Necklace and Bracelet. 
 
 It does not appear that Mr. John Booth was a very 
 frequent competitor in the show-field until the establish- 
 ment of the Eoyal and Yorkshire Shows in 1839. Before 
 this time shorthorn cattle were kept chiefly for dairy 
 and grazing purposes ; the majority of the male stock were 
 steered, and many a fine heifer that took the butcher's eye 
 was converted into Christmas beef Necklace and Brace- 
 let shared the pasture and the straw-yard with the 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 29 
 
 ordinary stock of the farm until nearly two years old. 
 As calves they never had more milk than their dam, who 
 suckled them both, supplied ; and, throughout the whole 
 of their victorious career, they derived their chief sup- 
 port from the pasture, with a daily lonne louche of corn 
 and cake. Yet Bracelet won seventeen prizes at the 
 various meetings of the Eoyal Agricultural Society of 
 England, the Highland Society of Scotland, the York- 
 shire Society, and other local shows ; and at the York- 
 shire Show in 1841, where she won the first prize for 
 extra stock, the sweepstakes for the best lot of cattle not 
 less than four in number, was awarded to Bracelet, 
 Necklace, Mantalini, and Lady thorn. Necklace won 
 sixteen prizes and one gold and three silver medals at 
 the various meetings above mentioned, as well as at the 
 Smithfield Club, where she finished her career as a prize- 
 taker in 1846 by winning the first prize of her class and 
 the gold medal (for which there were thirty-seven com- 
 petitors) as the best animal exhibited in any of the cow 
 or heifer classes. At the Smithfield Show, in the follow- 
 ing year, the same prizes were awarded to Mr. Wiley, 
 and in 1849 to Mr. Cartwright, for animals bred from 
 the Killerby stock. In five years four first prizes for 
 the best Shorthorn cows at the Eoyal Agricultural 
 Society's meetings, were awarded to animals bred by Mr. 
 Booth, ofKiUerby ; in 1841, at Liverpool, to Bracelet; 
 in 1842, at Bristol, to Necklace; in 1844, at South- 
 ampton, to Birthday ; and in 1845, at Shrewsbury, to 
 Ladythorn. 
 
 To this day it is a moot question, amongst those who 
 remember the world-renowned twius, to which of them 
 
30 TITli; BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 could be most justly awarded the palm of beauty. Neck- 
 lace is said to have had neater fore-quarters, and to have 
 been rather better filled up behind the shoulders. Bracelet 
 had fuller, longer, and more level hind-quarters. Bracelet 
 was the dam of the famous bull Buckingham, by Mussul- 
 man, and of Morning Star, by Easpberry, which was 
 sold in 1844 to Louis Philippe. She also produced 
 Birthday by Lord Stanley, whose career as a prize cow 
 at the Eoyal, the Yorkshire, and the County of Durham 
 Shows, was eminently successful. Bracelet was also the 
 dam of Hamlet, by Leonard ; and whilst iu calf with him 
 her stifle joint was dislocated, and, being incapacitated 
 for further breeding, she was slaughtered. Birthday was 
 born in the field opposite the house on the 20th of May, 
 which happened to be Mrs. Booth's birthday. The 
 herdsman seeing that Bracelet had calved, hastened to 
 bring home the new arrival. The party sitting at dinner 
 observed him, and turned out to welcome Lord Stanley's 
 daughter, then approaching in a wheelbarrow, from 
 which (and it was accepted as an augury of her future 
 achievements^ and an indication that such vehicle was 
 all unworthy of its freight) she indignantly jumped, and 
 staggering on to all fours, assumed a show-yard atti- 
 tude. She was then and there unanimously ycleped 
 " Birthday " in honour of the occasion, and on many 
 happy returns of that day Birthday's health was drunk 
 together with that of the amiable mistress of the mansion ; 
 and as her yearly recurring triumphs in the show-field 
 were recounted, the episode of the wheelbarrow was not 
 forgotten. Birthday, like her dam, was unfortunately 
 injured in her stifle joint, and, after suff'ering for some 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 31 
 
 time, and consequently wasting considerably, was 
 slaughtered, when the flesh over her back and loin was 
 found to be 5^ inches deep, and her total weight of beef 
 87 stones, of 14 lbs. to the stone. Birthday bred Gem, 
 Genuine, Birthright, Lord George, and Brigadier. The 
 two first were supremely beautiful. Gem was described 
 by Mr. Booth as having been much like Queen of the 
 Ocean, and possessing very sweet fore- quarters. It is 
 said that Sir Charles Knightley — and England could 
 boast no higher authority, nor one more studious of fair 
 proportion — considered her the ne plus ultra of shorthorn 
 excellence. In a volume of the " Herd Book" at Kil- 
 lerby is a slip of newspaper with the following paragraph : 
 " At the Yorkshire Agricultural Show held this week at 
 Wakefield, six pure bred Shorthorns were exhibited for 
 competition by Mr. Booth, of Killerby, and each gained 
 a first prize in the different classes in which they com- 
 peted. "We question much if such another exhibition 
 could be produced by any other breeder of Shorthorns in 
 the kingdom." This was in 1846. The following are 
 the animals referred to : Pirst prize yearling bull, Ham- 
 let ; first prize cow, Mantalini ; second ditto. Alba ; first 
 prize three-year-old cow. Gem ; first prize calf, Bloom ; 
 first prize in extra stock. Birthday. The newspaper ver- 
 sion, it will be seen, is not quite accurate, for Bloom was 
 exhibited by Mr. Eichard Booth ; and one gained only a 
 second prize. She was, however, beaten by one of her 
 companions. 
 
 Another daughter of Bracelet was Pearl, by Leonard, 
 whose grandaughter Pearlywas purchased at the Killerby 
 sale by Col. Towneley. Pearly was by Eoyal Buck, who 
 
32 
 
 THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 was by Buckingham, a son of Bracelet ; lier dam was 
 Manille by Brigadier, who was by Morning Star, a son of 
 Bracelet, and out of Birthday, a daughter of Bracelet ; 
 and her grandam was Pearl, a daughter of Bracelet. 
 The close in-breeding of Bracelet herself has already been 
 shown. Pearly was the parent of Einglet, sold for 500 
 guineas to Mr. Douglas. She subsequently produced 
 Pride, Frederick's Bracelet, Pearl, and Precious Stone. 
 Bracelet's twin-sister. Necklace, has unfortunately now 
 no female representatives. She bred Diamond by Eu- 
 bens, Stanley by Lord Stanley, sold to M. St. Marie, and 
 Jewel, the dam of Jeweller. This bull was used in the 
 Towneley herd, and was the sire of the famous cow 
 Butterfly, and of many other prize animals. Jeweller was 
 by Hamlet, who was Bracelet's son by Leonard ; his dam 
 was Jewel by Leonard; his grandam was Necklace, 
 Bracelet's twin-sister ; so that it is most apparent, even 
 if this had been all, how much the Towneley herd was 
 indebted to the Booth element which it contained for its 
 great success. But this is not all ; for — not to mention 
 others -Valiant (12253), Master Butterfly the 4th 
 (14920), and Butterfly's Nephew (15714), which were 
 all used in the herd, were aU of Booth families, the first 
 of them being also principally of Booth blood, and the 
 others containing a large amount of it, while a fair pro- 
 portion of the young bulls and heifers owe their origin 
 to Baron Hopewell, a pure Booth bull, of the Mantalini 
 family, bred by Mr. Barnes. Jeweller was a small, rather 
 shabby-looking bull, but with great grazing propensity. 
 After the expiration of his first season at Towneley, he 
 was returned to Killerby, and Mr. Booth fed him off. 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 33 
 
 Just after his sale and delivery to the butcher, Mr. East- 
 wood drove over to Killerby, and, walking round the 
 yards, inquired for his shabby friend. " He has gone to 
 the butcher," was the reply. " "When ? I have come to 
 buy him," exclaimed Mr. Eastwood. " How could you 
 think of sacrificing such a bull ?" An express was sent 
 off to arrest the axe, but unfortunately it was too late. It 
 may be here observed that Mr. Eastwood at that time 
 superintended the management of the Towneley herd, as 
 well as of the estates, having first, by the sale to Col. 
 Towneley of his own well-selected herd, and then by the 
 excellent and judicious purchases which he made, laid 
 well and skilfully that foundation on which Mr. Culshaw 
 subsequently erected so grand a superstructure. 
 
 The Gaudy, alias Lady Betty tribe, originated in a cow 
 bought of Mr. Marmaduke Taylor of Catterick, whose 
 daughter's sobriquet, " Lady Betty," was bestowed upon 
 the new purchase. Mr. Booth described her as a very fine 
 cow, *• short in her hair, but as round as a roller, without 
 a hill or a hole in her." She was the dam of a cow very 
 famous in her day. Old Graudy by Suworrow ; fifth in 
 descent from whom came Madeline, the dam of Col. 
 Towneley's bull Hudibras, and his superb cow Alice. Tlie 
 latter had perhaps few, if any, equals in her day. Her 
 back was of astonishing width and levelness, her loin and 
 chine being remarkably wide, and her ribs boldly sprung. 
 Her fore-quarters and whole frame were very symmetrical, 
 with the exception that her tail was set on rather high, 
 and her "tuts" somewhat deformed with fat. She won the 
 Irish Farmer's Ga^e/^e cup, value 56120, in 1853, and the 
 first prize and gold medal at Smith field in 1851-. 
 
 D 
 
34 THE BOOTn HEEDS. 
 
 Towneley could formerly boast of the representatives 
 of another family of tlie Killerby Shorthorns descended 
 from the cow Floranthe, previously mentioned, as one of 
 Mr. J. Booth's breeding stock in 1835. They were 
 descended from Mr. Charge's cow Exhalation by Hulton. 
 Ploranthe's daughter Mantle, by Marcus, was sold by 
 Mr. Booth to Mr. Bannerman, and by him to Col. Towne- 
 ley. Mantle was the dam of Valiant, and the splendid 
 prize cow Beauty, both by Victor, of the Bracelet tribe. 
 Beauty was a fine, round-barrelled cow, of a rich roan 
 colour. She had rather large, but well cushioned hips, 
 exceedingly good breast, and very heavy top, but rather 
 light thighs and flank. She won the first prize of ^'20 
 at the Eoyal Society's Show at Lincoln in 1854. She 
 was the dam of Beauty's Butterfly and Beauty 3rd 
 whose son. Master Butterfly 4th, was sold to the Emperor 
 of the Erench. Beauty's Butterfly was one of the most 
 beautiful of shorthorn cows ; her lovely head, with its 
 open curly brows and delicately chiselled muzzle, its 
 waxy crescent horns and full lustrous eye -, her gracefully 
 swelling neck, well- sloped shoulders and broad full 
 breast ; her astonishing girth and rotundity of frame, 
 and the even development of muscle over every part 
 of it, composed a coiip d'oeil not easily forgotten. Her 
 transcendent beauty, when she was shown in Baker- 
 street, roused for a moment even Cockneys from the 
 phlegmatic apathy with whicK they usually regard all 
 pastoral subjects : she was the talk of " the town ;" and 
 Punch immortalized her in the elegant lines he put into 
 " Joe Culshaw's" mouth. To a critical eye, however, 
 Beauty's Butterfly was not exempt from failings : her 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 35 
 
 hindquarters rather wanted length, and her thighs and 
 twist fulness, to be in strict harmony with her otherwise 
 perfect proportions. Entomologists speak of the 
 " Twenty-plume Butterfly," a prefix which, I think 
 such an adept in nomenclature as Mr. Culshaw might 
 appropriately have bestowed on this Houri of the herd, 
 in token of some score of victories achieved by her. The 
 term " Butterfly," it is true, has been objected to alto- 
 gether by some, as conveying the idea of an airy, volatile, 
 sportive ephemera, rather than of a long-faced, pon- 
 derous, bellowing beast of the field ; but we have the 
 "Long-horn Moth," why not the '' Shorthorn Butterfly ?" 
 For my own part, I never penetrated into that Short- 
 horn Elysium, Towneley Park Farm, and witnessed the 
 comfortable quarters and comfortable case of its inmates, 
 without echoiug, with slight modification, the aspiration 
 of the old song — 
 
 " I'd be a Butterfly, bom in a Bt/re ! " 
 The Mantalini tribe, which has since attained a 
 European fame, came to Killerby from Cleasby by the 
 purchase from Miss Wright, Mrs. John Booth's sister, 
 of Sylph by E-emus, and it is a singular circumstance 
 that when it came to Killerby the family had already 
 passed through the hands of two of those four spirited 
 breeders who jointly purchased at Mr. C. CoUiog's sale 
 the bull Comet for the princely sum of 1000 guineas — 
 Colonel Trotter and Mr. Wright. In Colonel Trotter's 
 hands this family go back to those very early times of 
 which all records are lost ; and this probably accounts 
 for the circumstance that while, in modern times, the 
 pedigree of the Mantilinis concludes with " Strawberry 
 by Son of Favourite (252), dam Strawberry," in all the 
 
 D 2 
 
36 THE BOOTH HEEDS. 
 
 early pedigrees of Colonel Trotter's cattle the dam of 
 Strawberry by Son of Favourite is called " HoUon." In 
 one of them she is said to be " Hollon, bred by Mr. 
 Hollon, of Strepans, near Darlington;" and, in another, 
 " Hollon, by a son of (Mr. Charge's) Dalton Duke (188)," 
 whicb connects them witb the third of the four purchasers 
 of Comet. As migbt have been expected in cattle 
 coming out of such hands, Mr. J. Booth's new purchase' 
 Sylph, was full to overflowing of the blood of Favourite. 
 Her grandam, Alpine, and her great grandam, Straw- 
 berry, were both by sons of Favourite ; her dam, Matilda, 
 was by a son of Comet, who was both son and grandson 
 of Favourite, while she was herself by Eemus, whose 
 sire was not only a son of Comet, but whose dam and 
 grandam were both by sons of Favourite. It can be no 
 cause for surprise that such a family, descended from 
 such blood, and crossed by such bulls as Pilot, Alderman, 
 Matchem, and Marcus, gave origin to a cow so splendid 
 as Mantalini, the winner of twelve first-class prizes at 
 four years old. Mantalini, though on a less scale than 
 Bracelet or Charity, was a very true-made cow, on whom 
 it would have been difficult for any one to make a dis- 
 paraging criticism. Though wanting, perhaps, somewhat 
 of the imposing grandeur of the Isabellas, or the massive 
 development of Queen of the Ocean, she was a beautiful 
 animal, and an excellent dairy cow. Nor, though "War- 
 laby and Killerby see them now no more, is the fame of 
 this noble family yet extinct. Westland, the Killerby 
 of the Sister Isle, can boast of many worthy representa- 
 tives of it in the descendants of Modish and Milliner, a 
 sister and daughter of Mantalini, purchased by Mr. 
 
THE BOOTH HEEDS. 37 
 
 Barnes of the late Mr. J. Booth ; and from Mantalini's 
 daughter Pelerine (sold with her twin sister Polka to 
 Colonel La Touche) came Mr. Douglas's three Graces, 
 Eose of Autumn, E/Ose of Summer, and Eose of Athel- 
 stane, of whom it is sufficient to say that Eose of Summer 
 had the unparalleled honour of winning the first prizes 
 at the three national shows in 1854, and her daughter 
 Eose of Athelstane in 1857. Seventh in descent from 
 Sylph, and third from Mantalini, the beautiful cow 
 Parewell by Eoyal Buck, then a yearling heifer, was 
 sold at Mr. J. Booth's sale in 1852. She lived to the 
 age of fourteen years, during most of which she was 
 distinguished for her great milking powers ; and she was 
 the parent of ten live calves. The greater part of these 
 were born at Stackhouse, where her daughter Claribel 
 by Valasco, and her grandaughters, still carry on the line. 
 'Nov have her male descendants been less celebrated : of 
 these Imperial Windsor, the sire of Mr. Foljambe's 
 numerous prize-winners, and Mr. Ambler's well known 
 prize bull Prince Talleyrand, the son of her daughter La 
 YaUiere, deserve especial notice. 
 
 Prom another cow of Mr. J. Booth's, called Belinda, 
 sprang Young Matchem (2282), and from her gran- 
 daughter May Day, the bull Marcus. The latter, after 
 doing good service at Killerby, as may be seen in the 
 pedigrees of many of its best families, was sold with a 
 cow called Yorkshire Jenny to the Eev. John Bolden to go 
 to Australia. Unfortunately they were lost in a storm. 
 Yorkshire Jenny appears to have had no pedigree except 
 the cross of Priam.. She was the winner of the second 
 prize in the cow class at Northallerton in 1843. 
 
38 THE BOOTH HEEDS. 
 
 Another cow, called Eubicon, by Priam, appears to 
 have had numerous descendants, now dispersed. Mother 
 Eed Cap, which was sold to Mr. Pawkes, and her son 
 Eed Knight, winner of the first prize for two-year- old 
 bulls at Lewes, were descended from her. 
 
 The Belinda and Mother Eed Cap tribes seem to have 
 originated, like the Mantalini and Eloranthe families, in 
 the stocks of Miss Wright and Mr. Charge. 
 
 It is curious to trace the family connection that 
 existed between the first improvers of the Shorthorns. 
 Mrs. Thomas Booth was a sister of Major Bower. Mr. 
 Wright, one of the purchasers of Comet, was the father 
 of Mrs. John Booth, and brother-in-law of Mr. Charge ; 
 and the last gentleman's sister married Mr. Colling of 
 White House. In the Booth family alone the taste for 
 shorthorns seems to have been an hereditary predilection. 
 Whilst the names of nearly all the earlier breeders have 
 disappeared from the Herd Book, that of Booth is still 
 conspicuous ; and part of the old Killerby and Warlaby 
 herd is now in the hands of the third generation. 
 
 It has been observed that the bull Matchem appears 
 as the sire of some of the cows in the Killerby herd. 
 This is the same Matchem that Mr. Bates's Oxford tribe 
 derive from. He was purchased at Mr. Mason's sale, 
 by Mr. John Booth and Mr. Maynard of Harlsey. On 
 looking over the pedigrees of the Booth cattle, however, 
 it will be seen that a bull of alien blood has never been 
 used throughout the herd ; for Matchem and Exquisite 
 were only very sparingly employed, but one or more of 
 the best cows has been crossed with the bull selected, 
 and the male produce made use of If the progeny 
 
THE BOOTH HEEDS. 39 
 
 resulting from this half-cross proved unsatisfactory, they 
 were either disposed of, or subjected to a course of extra 
 close interbreeding. Of the early experiments of this 
 nature the cross of Matchem appears to have been the 
 most successful, and of the more recent ones the crosses 
 of Lord Lieutenant and Mussulman. The former of 
 these was adopted by Mr. Eichard Booth, in the year 
 1839, for his cow AVhite Strawberry, and the latter, in 
 the same year, by Mr. John Booth, who sent his famous 
 cow Bracelet to Colonel Cradock's Mussulman, of the 
 grand " Old Cherry" blood, and a son of the famous 
 old cow by Pirate, who bore that name. Grood as that 
 blood was, Mr. J. Booth does not appear to have intro- 
 duced that cross with a view to engrafting on his herd any 
 particular excellence exhibited by Mussulman which was 
 wanting in his own cattle, but rather to have been acting 
 in conformity with the general practice of cattle-breeders 
 of that day, who seemed to think it a matter of course 
 to effect, at certain intervals, some change or renewal of 
 strain in their stock. There is a prevalent idea that the 
 length of hind-quarter which distinguishes the Warlaby 
 cattle was derived from Mussulman, but for this there 
 seems to be no sufficient foundation. The lengthy hind- 
 quarters had long been a characteristic of the Booth herds. 
 The early bulls, Eockingham, Sir Henry, and Julius Csesar, 
 and the cows of that time, especially Gaudy, could not be 
 excelled in that point by any animal of the present day. 
 Bracelet, as many will remember, possessed this length of 
 quarter in a remarkable degree ; so also did her gran- 
 daughter G-em. It was sufficient for Mr. J. Booth that he 
 saw in Mussulman, not merely the fortuitous possessor of 
 
40 THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 equally valuable properties with those which his own herd 
 could boast, but the inheritor of them; for being descended 
 from the stocks of Messrs. Wright and Charge, who, as 
 we have seen, were of the family coterie of shorthorn 
 breeders, Mussulman's ancestry had all been well known 
 to Mr. Booth for generations. 
 
 It has been asserted by over-zealous advocates of the 
 system of close interbreeding, that the crosses of Mussul- 
 man, Lord Lieutenant, Matchem, and others, introduced 
 scarcely any fresh blood into the Booth herds ; for 
 inasmuch as no alien bulls were used but those whose 
 veins were surcharged with the blood of Favourite, tho 
 recourse to them was nothing more than a recurrence 
 to, or renewal of, the old family strain ; but this is really 
 only what is true of every well-bred shorthorn of the 
 period, and therefore proves nothing. Take any one 
 of them, and trace back the pedigree of each of its pro- 
 genitors (whose numbers of course increase each genera- 
 tion back in a geometrical progression), and this bull 
 Favourite will be found to recur directly and indirectly 
 a surprising number of times. The follovping elaborate 
 calculations, for which I am indebted to the Eev. J. 
 Storer of Hellidon, may be quoted in illustration of this : 
 — Mussulman is 64 times descended from Favourite ; 
 namely, through Magnum Bonum 30, through Pirate 22, 
 through Houghton 9, through Marshal Blucher 3 ; total 
 64 times. Lord-Lieutenant was 106 times descended 
 from Favourite, and Matchem 62 times. Crown Prince 
 is 1,055 times descended from Favourite, and Eed Eose 
 by Harbinger 1,344 times. So the produce of the two 
 are descended from him 2,399 times. But work out the 
 
THE BOOTH HEEDS, 41 
 
 Duchesses or any shorthorns of good blood, and the 
 result will be found very much the same. It will not do, 
 therefore, to claim bulls as of kindred blood on this 
 ground only. Moreover, it must in candour be admitted 
 by the advocates of in-and-in-breeding that a careful 
 consideration of the above facts leads to one unavoidable 
 conclusion. Very strong in-and-in breeding is a totally 
 different thing in our case from what it was in the case 
 of the earlier breeders, the Ceilings and Mr. Thomas 
 Booth — so different that there can be but little analogy 
 between the two cases. They bred in-and-in from 
 animals which had little or no previous affinity. We 
 breed in-and-in from animals full of the same blood to 
 begin with. In our case the via media, and therefore 
 the via salutis, would seem to lie in the adoption of two 
 apparently opposite principles — in-and-in-hr ceding , and 
 fresh hlood. It is manifest, however, that this latter 
 principle should be acted upon witb extreme caution, or to 
 a very limited extent, when it is desirable to preserve and 
 perpetuate the distinctive type of any particular tribe, es- 
 pecially when, as in the Warlaby herd, there is no visible 
 deterioration in symmetry, substance, or stamina, or any 
 want of fertility traceable to in-and-in-breeding. Yet 
 even in such cases it is doubtless advisable to have occa- 
 sional recourse to remote alliances, taking care to have 
 as many removes as possible between members of the 
 same family ; or, where using bulls nearly related to the 
 cows, giving the preference to such as have been subjected 
 to different conditions of life, it being a well-known phy- 
 siological fact that a change of soil and climate effects 
 
42 THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 perhaps almost as great a change in the constitution as 
 would result from an infusion of other blood. 
 
 In July, 1852, the Killerby herd was sold by auction; 
 and the sale was attended by breeders from all parts of 
 the kingdom. There was unfortunately, however, at this 
 time, a general depression in the value of all agricultural 
 produce, and the cattle did not realize prices at all ade- 
 quate to their merit and celebrity. Some of them have 
 since been resold for three times as much as they 
 fetched at the sale. Venus Victrix, the daughter of 
 Bloom, brought the highest price. She was purchased 
 by the late Mr. E. Booth for 175 guineas, and presented 
 to his brother. In the report of the sale in the Mark 
 Lcme Express it is stated that, " since the formation of 
 the Koyal Agricultural Society of England, in 1839, the 
 prize for the best cows has been gained either by the 
 Messrs. Booth or by animals bred from their stock, with 
 the exception of the two first meetings, when they did 
 not exhibit, and that of 3843. The animals which took 
 the prizes on the two former occasions were both after- 
 wards exhibited against, and defeated by. Bracelet," 
 
 After the dispersion of the herd, Mr. J. Booth entered 
 only very partially into the breeding of shorthorns. 
 Venus Victrix' s first calf died. She afterwards produced 
 the two well-known bulls King Arthur and King Alfred, 
 both by Crown Prince — the sires of many a noble Short- 
 horn, and the earners of many a golden guinea for the 
 treasury at Killerby — and two as beautiful heifers, Victrix 
 by Boyal Buck, and Venus de Medicis by Harbinger; 
 after which she fell into one of the ditches at "Warlaby, 
 
THE BOOTH HEEDS. 43 
 
 whither she had been sent to Crown Prince, and be- 
 coming partially paralysed in her hind-quarters, was fed 
 off. 
 
 Venus Victrix was a cow of exceedingly good form. 
 Her back was broad and level, her ribs well arched, her 
 breast heavy and wide, and her thighs full. Her weak 
 point was that which is usually found in conjunction with 
 good milking qualities — a little want of substance in the 
 neck and chine. She won five prizes at the Eoyal 
 and Yorkshire shows. Her daughter Victrix gave birth 
 to Venus Astarte, a lovely heifer by Baron "Warlaby, 
 which did not breed, but took the first prize for extra 
 stock at the fat show in York in 1861. Victrix's next 
 calf was retained for fifteen months in utero ; and after 
 getting rid of it she fell in-calf again to Windsor, and 
 aborted, when all hope of her breeding being at an end 
 she was slaughtered. 
 
 Venus de Medicis was a very symmetrical heifer. She 
 was of great breadth, was thickly fleshed, and had very 
 finely-finished quarters. She was sold to Mr. Douglas 
 for 300 guineas, and sacrificed to the Goddess of Display. 
 After winning several prizes, she cast a calf at the Paris 
 Exhibition ; and so ended her chance of further increase. 
 
 In proof of the fluctuations to which, from various 
 causes, the procreative power of high bred bulls is subject, 
 it may be here mentioned that Venus's son. King 
 Arthur, soon after being hired for the first time, was 
 sent home as unfruitful. Shortly afterwards he was re-let 
 to Mr. Bruere, and became, in the first year, the sire of 
 eighteen calves. He was again let into Ireland, and 
 there begot only two calves. He returned home, was 
 
44 THE BOOTH HEEDS. 
 
 re-let to Messrs. Wood and Lawson, and gave entire 
 satisfaction. Mr. E. Booth's Prince George, half- 
 brother of Monk, affords another instance of this. He 
 was returned to "Warlaby as useless. Mr. Bruere had 
 been so successful with King Arthur under similar 
 circumstances, that Prince George was sent to him, 
 King Arthur's term having just expired. In his first 
 season at Mr. Bruere's Prince George was the sire of 
 twenty-eight calves. 
 
 It was matter of frequent experience with Mr. Booth 
 that bulls were sent back to Warlaby as unfruitful, 
 which yet impregnated cows the very week of their 
 return, and afterwards proved very useful in some 
 other herd. It is a fair inference from this fact, that the 
 fault in these cases lies quite as much in the herdsman, 
 the cows, the situation, or the diet, as in the bull. To 
 study the peculiar temperament of these sultans of the 
 herd is not the least important task 
 
 " That to the faithful herdsman's art belongs." 
 
 In one bull pride predominates — his dignity must be 
 respected —he must not be hurried or struck : in another 
 modesty prevails-:-he must not be watched ; one is 
 apathetic, and requires to be roused to exertion ; another 
 is timid, and encouragement is necessary ; one requires a 
 generous regimen and comfortable housing ; another (and 
 this is true of most bulls) requires natural food, grass, 
 hay, and turnips, and, above all things, that which is in- 
 dispensable to the vigour and potency of all animal life 
 — daily exercise. 
 
 Though the great Killerby Herd had been dispersed, 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 45 
 
 and its queenly matrons consigned to other hands, the 
 family taste for shorthorns lingered still, like a presiding 
 genius, on the accustomed spot. A few good animals 
 of shorter but distinguished lineage were retained, and 
 these have given rise to other families, which, if more 
 recent in their origin, are proud to trace that origin to 
 the hands of the Booths, and the quiet meadows of old 
 Killerby. Some of these were disposed of by the late 
 Mr. John Booth, while he yet lived, and several of them 
 came to Stackhouse. 
 
 One of these importations from the Valley of the 
 Swale to that of the Kibble, was Calomel, purchased 
 when an aged cow, with her bull calf, for 150 guineas. 
 She was a very useful white cow by Hamlet, tracing 
 back, through dams by Leonard and by Buckingham, to 
 the once celebrated herd of Sir Matthew White Eidley. 
 She bred several valuable things at Stackhouse, and her 
 daughters and grandaughters yet remain there, and in 
 the herds of Mr. Aylmer of West Dereham, and Mr. 
 Storer of Hellidon, whose fine cow Modred is the 
 daughter of another excellent shorthorn which Killerby 
 supplied to Stackhouse, Mistress Mary by Baron War- 
 laby, the other bulls in her pedigree being Eoyal Buck, 
 Hopewell, and Hamlet. 
 
 Of the cattle which remained at Killerby, and descended 
 at Mr. J. Booth's death in 1857 to his sons, I have pre- 
 viously mentioned Venus Victrix and her family : they 
 were the creme de la cr^me of the herd. Another most 
 valuable cow, though of more recent origin, remained at 
 Killerby at Mr. Booth's death — Hecuba, by Hopewell, 
 from a dam by Hamlet, out of a Leonard cow. This cow 
 
46 THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 has all the Booth character, and transmits it to her off- 
 spring. She is in colour a dense red ; a large animal on 
 short legs ; when not in milk, laying on flesh with wonderful 
 rapidity ; and when in milk, she is what every cow ought 
 to be, a great and deep milker, with an udder whose size 
 and form might provoke the cupidity of even a London 
 dairyman. When young she was pronounced by one of 
 the best of judges, Mr. Eastwood, to be the very type of 
 the true shorthorn, the very model of a bull breeder. 
 Hecuba, though born in the year 1851, and therefore 
 now about 16 years old, is as fresh as an eight-year-old 
 cow, and had a living calf last September. Besides 
 several bull calves, one of which is Trojan Warrior by 
 Windsor, she has bred eight heifers, and many of them 
 promise to be equally productive. It is impossible to 
 enumerate all of them, still more so to mention their 
 excellences, but her daughters Forest Queen by Koyal 
 Buck, and Queen of Trumps by Welcome Gruest are well 
 known to all who have visited Killerby, while her younger 
 daughters and many of her grandaughters by Valasco 
 are of at least equal promise. 
 
 But the pearl of pearls, the most valuable cow in the 
 present Killerby herd, remains to be mentioned last. 
 Soldier's Dream by Windsor, from Soldier's Nurse by 
 Crown Prince. Descended from the Moss Kose family, 
 a daughter of the unrivalled Windsor, and of a mother 
 who was own sister of Prince Alfred of Imperial and 
 Eoyal fame. Soldier's Dream is everything that might be 
 expected from her lineage, and gives fair promise of 
 shortly transmitting her perfections. Her dam Soldier's 
 Nurse was a present from the late Mr. E. Booth to his 
 
THE BOOTH HEEDS. 47 
 
 nephews when they lived together at Killerby, and was 
 second to few even in Warlaby's distinguished herd. 
 She was considered by many good judges, before she left 
 "Warlaby, to be superior to even Queen of the Yale ; but 
 Mr. Booth's practised eye saw the difference, and she 
 must be placed after, though at no long interval, the un- 
 rivalled Queen. She was not quite so large, and rather 
 darker in the red. She inherited from her mother an 
 almost Bride Elect breast, was beautifully ribbed up, 
 and, with faultless hair and touch, she was the very pic- 
 ture of a shorthorn. 
 
 Besides Soldier's Dream she left behind her the very 
 valuable, thick, heavy fleshed bull Brigade Major by 
 Yalasco. 
 
 THE WAELABY HEED. 
 
 It is now necessary to take a retrospect of the herd at 
 Warlaby, commencing with the year 1835, when Mr. 
 Eichard Booth, inheriting the estate, went to reside there. 
 Mr. Booth's residence at Warlaby is a modest, unassum- 
 ing, country house. It stands environed by well-timbered 
 paddocks in a rich meadowy tract of country bounded by 
 distant hills, and known as the Yale of the Wiske. It 
 is one mile from the village of Ainderby, of which it is a 
 hamlet, and about three from Northallerton, the central 
 town of the North-Eidiug. The farm as occupied by 
 Mr. Booth consisted of 310 acres, about half in pasture ; 
 other farms then let off, have since his death been added 
 to it. The land is better in character than that at Kil- 
 lerby ; it is chiefly clayey loam, and grows fine wheat and 
 turnips, and long hay. The pastures are well adapted for 
 
48 THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 covTs, but unsuited for sheep, because liable to be flooded. 
 The Eiver Wiske, which still retains its Graelic name, 
 Uisg (water), being the most sluggish of all the North 
 Yorkshire brooks, and having the shallowest stream- 
 channel, frequently overflows the lower pastures, and large 
 deep ditches, which have been fatal to many a good cow, 
 intersect the fields to carry off" the water. 
 
 The house was everything that an old bachelor or his 
 friends could require ; and many a visitor there can bear 
 testimony that within its walls reigned supreme the open- 
 hearted northern hospitality to an extent that Southrons 
 know not. Many a valuable cup and hard-won medal 
 may there be seen ; the portrait of many a prize- taker 
 decorates its rooms ; and many a pleasant hour has been 
 spent and ancient story told in that quiet Shorthorn 
 home, while the genuine old Squire 
 
 Refilled his pipe, " and showed how fields were won." 
 
 Shortly after settling at "Warlaby, Mr. Eichard Booth 
 had quite made up his mind to give up the breeding of 
 shorthorns, and had already sold individual animals from 
 the Strawberry and Moss Rose tribes, when a bantering 
 remark made by a gentleman in the neighbourhood, to 
 the eflect that "the Booths had lost their Blood," incited 
 him to change his purpose, and put his friend's assertion 
 to the proof. The Warlaby herd had for some years 
 past been kept very much in the shade, Mr. Thomas 
 Booth having been latterly intent only on breeding useful 
 animals, without aspiring to the honours, or courting the 
 notoriety of public exhibition ; but Mr. Eichard Booth 
 felt assured that it contained ample materials to enable 
 him to guard the laurels that had been bequeathed to him. 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 49 
 
 Amongst the cows then in the herd, and whose de- 
 scendants have earned a wide-spread renown, were Straw- 
 berry 2nd by Young Alexander, and Eally by Eowton, 
 both of the Halnaby or Strawberry tribe ; Flora by Isaac, 
 of the Earewell tribe ; Blossom by Young Eed Eover, and 
 Young Eed Eover himself, of the Blossom tribe ; Brough- 
 ton by Jerry, and her daughter Young Broughton by 
 Young Matchem, of the Broughton tribe ; Moss Eose 
 by Priam, of the Dairymaid tribe ; and Christon, also by 
 Priam ; to the number of which Mr. E. Booth now added 
 one of the best cows of her day, his own Isabella by 
 Pilot, then sixteen years old. 
 
 This cow Isabella, which has already been spoken of in 
 the account of the Studley herd, produced at Warlaby 
 Isabella Matchem, by Young Matchem, who gave birth 
 to Pitz-Leonard by Leonard, Vanguard, Innocence, and 
 Isabella Buckingham, all by Buckingham, and Isabella 
 Exquisite by Exquisite. Pitz-Leonard was a neat, 
 moderate-sized bull, standing on very short legs. What 
 higher merit can be ascribed to him than that he was the 
 sire of Crown Prince ? Vanguard was a noble bull, as 
 all the Buckingham bulls were. He was seven years on 
 hire at Mr. Torr's, who, in 1853, exhibited him at the 
 North Lincolnshire Agricultural Show, where he obtained 
 the first prize of £20 (open to all England), beating 
 several famous prize animals. Innocence was a small, 
 level cow, with a luxuriant coat of hair. Her calf 
 Leonidas by Leonard became a very fine bull, and was 
 the sire of the notable Monk, one of the best of the 
 Warlaby bulls. Leonidas' s hair was so long that it waved 
 about in the wind like the wool on a sheep's back. Isa- 
 
 E 
 
50 THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 bella Buckingham was a superb cow of great substance. 
 She weighed when slaughtered upwards of 100 stones of 
 14 lbs., though she had been previously much reduced by 
 the foot-and-mouth disease. She won seven prizes at the 
 !Royal, the Yorkshire, and the Highland Shows, including 
 two firsts and a second (to Charity) at the Koyal meetings. 
 Isabella Exquisite by Exquisite was a cow of only ordi- 
 nary appearance. 
 
 Isabella Buckingham was put to Exquisite ; but the 
 result of this cross, in the cow Sample, was equally un- 
 satisfactory. She was a plain animal, with scarcely any 
 of the Warlaby characteristics; nevertheless, her daughter, 
 Isabella Hopewell by Hopewell, which was sold at the 
 Killerby sale, under the name of Ecstasy, to Mr. Douglas, 
 was a good cow, and a very good breeder. Another 
 daughter of Sample's— Specimen by Crown Prince — was 
 herself put to Crown Prince three times, and produced 
 the prize cow Lady Grace and the bulls Sir Colin and 
 The Corsair, in all of whom the Warlaby type was com- 
 pletely restored. The Corsair was sold to Mr. McDougall 
 of Australia, but unfortunately died in crossing the Line. 
 Lady Grace took the first prize for the best cow in calf 
 or milk at the Cleveland Agricultural Show at Tarm in 
 1861, and was thus referred to in the report of the Show 
 in the Mark Lane Express : " Mr. Booth's Lady Grace 
 is a remarkable specimen, and a very fair specimen, of 
 what a shorthorn of Mr. Booth's blood really is, in its 
 natural state. Although she has gone to grass with 
 ordinary kine, and been fed as any ordinary cattle are 
 and should be, she is nevertheless exceedingly fleshy, and 
 displays all those variouspointsof excellence, particularly 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 51 
 
 about the shoulder and quarter bones, covered as they 
 are with a rich coating of elastic meat, for which the 
 Booth breed are distinguished." Lady Grace, a daughter 
 and grandaughter, as we have seen, of Crown Prince, was 
 herself put to a son of Crown Prince — Prince Alfred 
 — and the offspring, Grraceful, was all that her name 
 implies. She was one of the pair of heifers that took the 
 first prize at the "Worcester Eoyal, where she unfortu- 
 nately cast twin calves. Lady Grace and her daughter 
 Graceful, notwithstanding their in-and-in breeding, 
 showed every indication of the most robust constitution, 
 and had abundance of hair. 
 
 Whilst entirely concurring with Mr. Booth in the 
 opinion that, as a rule, family alliances have been followed 
 by more favourable results in the Warlaby herd than the 
 resort to extraneous blood, yet I should suggest that it 
 has been too much the fashion amongst " Booth men " to 
 form conclusions unfavourable to such bulls as Exquisite, 
 "Water King, and Lord Stanley, from the acknowledged 
 shortcomings of their immediate offspring. It is usual, for 
 instance, to cry down Exquisite, and to say that the use 
 of him was unsatisfactory. It undoubtedly was so, in the 
 first instance, in more cases than those above mentioned ; 
 and why ? Because the Booths deviated from their usual 
 course, and at one stroke introduced too much fresh blood. 
 They had previously introduced the fresh blood of Mus- 
 sulman, but in a modified form, through Buckingham, 
 and that of Lord-Lieutenant in an equally modified form 
 through Leonard ; but they infused the blood of Exqui- 
 site into the herd raw and undiluted. The result might 
 have been foreseen. 
 
 e2 
 
no> 
 
 THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 But the question really is, not what was the imme- 
 diate consequence of this overpowering dose of fresh 
 blood, but, what were the results when the Exquisite 
 blood became gradually more incorporated with the 
 Booth in the same manner and with the same 
 modification as that of Mussulman and Lord-Lieu- 
 tenant ? 
 
 The description of Lady G-race, just quoted from the 
 MarTc Lane Express, is a sufficient answer. Nor are there 
 wanting other examples than those of Lady Grace and 
 her blooming daughter to prove that the blood of Exqui- 
 site has done no more harm to the Booth cattle than did 
 the blood of Mussulman when they have it in their veins 
 in an equally diluted form. Not to mention others — 
 British Hope, purchased by the late Mr. Langston at 
 Lady Bigot's sale, was, in the opinion of good judges, 
 the best Booth bull sold there ; he was by British Prince 
 from Isabella Hopewell, a grandaughter of Exquisite, 
 and a cow which had previously bred, by a bull partially 
 Booth and of a Booth family, the celebrated Lamp of 
 Lothian. 
 
 Nothing could be more respectable than Exquisite's 
 lineage, combining as he did the best of the Chilton and 
 Wiseton blood ; and I am certainly justified in imagin- 
 ing that, as an animal, he must have been first-rate, or 
 three such unquestionable judges as the late Mr. John 
 Booth, Mr. Eichard Booth, and Mr. Torr would hardly 
 have given 370 guineas for him at the Wiseton sale at 
 thirteen months old, the highest price then on record of 
 any animal of that age sold by public auction. Exquisite 
 had plenty of substance, and a profusion of beautiful hair? 
 
THE BOOTK HERDS. 53 
 
 a characteristic which may often be observed in his 
 descendants. 
 
 In father illustration of my argument, I may here 
 refer to the fruit of the union between Mr. John Booth's 
 world-renowned cow Bracelet and Col. Cradock's Mus- 
 sulman — the bull Buckingham, whose name and fame 
 will endure as long as shorthorns exist. To superficial 
 observers, Buckingham was, as is well known, a plain, 
 ungainly animal, the result of the first cross with IMus- 
 sulman being apparently just the same as the first cross 
 with Exquisite. In the hands of a less discerning 
 judge Buckingham would probably have been steered; 
 but his owner's practised eye, accustomed to weigh the 
 relative values of points and proportions, and to detect 
 latent capabilities in animals bovine and equine, saw be- 
 neath Buckingham's plain exterior his high qualifications 
 for a sire. 
 
 Mr. Eichard Booth showed an equal appreciation of 
 the merits of this bull, and determined to secure him for 
 his own herd. An entry in the margin of the late Mr. J. 
 Booth's herd-book records the fact that he " sold Buck- 
 ingham to his brother Eichard for £150.'' It remained 
 for the future to demonstrate the wisdom of this pur- 
 chase. No visitor to Warlaby could ever appreciate the 
 merits of this bull until his oftspring proclaimed it. 
 Never were calves with backs so broad, ribs so round, 
 shoulders so shapely, flanks and fore-quarters so full 
 and deep. Buckingham's career was unfortunately brief. 
 Two distinguished breeders from the Emerald Isle, Mr. 
 Barnes of Westland and a brother breeder, arrived at 
 Warlaby in quest of a bull. After viewing the herd with 
 
54 THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 Mr. Booth, they retired to prepare for dinner, when Mr. 
 Barnes remarked to his friend, *' "We must hire Bucking- 
 ham.'* '* You cannot be serious," replied his friend, "in 
 proposing to hire such an ugly brute !" " Look at his 
 stock," said Mr. Barnes. " If you hire him, you must 
 hire him alone," rejoined his companion, " for I tell you 
 candidly I cannot join you." " I will," said Mr. Barnes ; 
 and he did so. The tragical issue of this hiring — how 
 the steamer conveying the bull caught fire in mid- channel, 
 and with what characteristic devotion his Irish conductor 
 shared the poor animal's funeral pyre on the burning 
 deck of that ill-fated bark rather than desert his charge, 
 are matters of history already chronicled. The loss of 
 this bull was a national one, as an enumeration of some 
 of the animals he bequeathed to Mr. Booth will show : 
 Charity, Plum Blossom, Bloom, Bagatelle, Bonnet, Me- 
 dora, Yivandiere, Isabella Buckingham, Vanguard, Hope- 
 well, Benedict, Baron "Warlaby — all not only famous in 
 themselves, but the parents of animals whose names are 
 as familiar in our ears as household words. 
 
 Moss Eose by Priam, one of the cows which came mto 
 Mr. B. Booth's possession in 1835, was the grandam of 
 Minette by Leonard, and of Mr. Mason Hopper's prize 
 buU Master Belleville, the sire of Mr. Storer's Eosey, and 
 through her grandsire of the Duke of Montrose's Eose- 
 dale. Minette was the dam of Yivandiere and Eoyai 
 Buck, both by Buckingham. Amidst the galaxy of prize 
 beauties hereafter to be mentioned, the modest Yivan- 
 diere, with her beautiful head, was frequently unobserved, 
 except by the admirers of a well-filled udder, unless 
 brought into notice by a quiet observation from her 
 
THE BOOTH HEEDS. 55 
 
 owner of, " Look at that head and hair !" She, however, 
 amply vindicated Mr. Booth's judgment, and her own 
 claim to something more than a passing notice. She had 
 ten calves. One of her sons, Prince Alfred, was a very 
 stylish bull, with just the mould and hair to ensure his 
 success in the show-field. In his youth, however, he was 
 only exhibited once — at Berwick-on-Tweed, where he 
 won the first prize as the best bull-calf. 
 
 " For other fortune then he did inquire, 
 
 And, leaving home, to Royal halls he sought, 
 Where he did let himself for yearly hire, 
 And in the Prince's service daily wrought.'* 
 
 In other words. Prince Alfred had the honour of serving 
 two years in the late Prince Consort's herd at Windsor, 
 and one year in the model farm of the Emperor of the 
 Erench at Pouilleuse; after which he had the further 
 distinction of spending two years on the farm of that 
 Queen of English Bucolics, Lady Pigot, who, like her 
 sprightly and bewitchingly-entertaining exemplar Lady 
 "Wortley Montague, seeks repose from the occupations 
 of the gay world in pastoral and agricultural pursuits. 
 In 1864-5 Prince Alfred, though then a veteran in the 
 decline of life, again entered the lists, and at least half, 
 a-dozen times vanquished all opponents. 
 
 Yivandiere produced, besides Prince Alfred, "Welcome 
 by Water King, Vivacity by Eitz-Leonard, Verity by 
 Vanguard, and Campfollower and Soldier's Nurse, both 
 by Crown Prince ; also Prince Arthur and Prince Oscar 
 by Crown Prince, and Knight Errant by Sir Samuel. 
 
 Water King, the sire of Welcome, was by Baron 
 
56 THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 Warlaby, his dam by Eourth Duke of Northumberland, 
 g. d. "Waterloo 3rd by Norfolk, g. g. d. by Waterloo, 
 g. g. g. d. by Waterloo. He was put to a few other 
 animals in the herd, but the cross not being thought to 
 have amalgamated well with the Booth blood, except in 
 the case of Peach Blossom and "Water Nymph, his use 
 was discontinued. "Welcome, however, it must be ad- 
 mitted, furnishes another illustration of my argument, 
 that, though the fruits of Mr. Booth's experiments in 
 crossing were not at first such as to encourage him to 
 depart from his usual course of adhering to proved blood, 
 it is hardly fair to jump to the conclusion that these 
 crosses were injurious, or even unproductive of good, 
 because their immediate results were unsatisfactory. 
 "Welcome, it is true, was a homely enough cow herself ; 
 in fact, one of the old-fashioned, unimproved type ; but 
 she gave birth to a heifer, "Welcome Hope by Hopewell, 
 little inferior in style and merit to any animal in the 
 herd. " Te ken," quoth old Cuddy, " some folks say we 
 sud gang for a change o' bull. Te see we did gang in 
 ould "Welcome. "Whya, she be a vara useful cow, and 
 mony a yan has nae sae gude a yan ; but is she to be 
 mentioned i' t' same day as Campfollower ? Nout o' t' 
 kind. She munnot be i' t' same year. See ye at Camp- 
 follower, doesn't she walk away frae ye like a Queen !" 
 " But her daughter, "Welcome Hope," we remark, " is a. 
 good animal." "Aye! Hopewell has putten in some 
 gude wark when he gat that there heifer. She wad mak' 
 up a slashin' cow, though she have a lile touch o' Bates 
 bluid in her ; but then, ye ken, ould Hopewell wad mak' 
 up a' deficiencies." 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 Vivacity by Fitz- Leonard, another daughter of Vivan- 
 diere*s, was sold by Mr. E. Booth to Mr. Bolden, toge- 
 ther with Young Eachel, the dam of Mr. Ambler's Grand 
 Turk, Bridget by Baron "Warlaby, and another. They 
 were purchased by Mr. S. E. Bolden, for his brother in 
 Australia, just at the time the gold discovery caused a 
 rush of emigrants to that country, and it was found im- 
 possible to ship them at anything like reasonable rates. 
 Mr. Bolden informed Mr. Booth of this, and offered to 
 return the heifers ; but Mr. Booth gave him the option 
 of retaining them himself, which he was glad to do. 
 Vivacity was a strikingly beautiful heifer, but unfor- 
 tunately died in giving birth to her first calf. May Duke 
 by Grrand Duke ; which was purchased for the Stackhouse 
 herd and afterwards sold to the Hon. Noel Hill, in 
 whose herd, and that of Mr. Eobinson of Clifton Pastures, 
 whose property he subsequently became, he did valuable 
 service. 
 
 Verity by Vau guard was the grandam of Sincerity, who 
 stood second to Queen of the Ocean at Guisboro', and 
 was oue of the six animals that won the silver cup at 
 Skipton. Her dam Truth died three weeks after calving, 
 and Sincerity was brought up amongsb the calves of the 
 nurse cows, skimmed milk and porridge being " the best 
 of her diet." She was calved in January 1859, and 
 through the winters of 1860 and 1861 she never had a 
 roof over her head. During the first winter Bridal 
 Wreath, Dora, and Blush were her companions; and 
 •through the next, Eosette and Princess Elizabeth shared 
 with these four the rigours of an unusually severe season. 
 Sincerity was taken up just before calving in 1862, and 
 
58 THE BOOTH HEEDS. 
 
 after producing twins it was determined to " put her in 
 training," as tlie slang phrase goes, for the show-yard. 
 After her successes in the INTorth, it was decided to enter 
 her for the Worcester Eoyal Show, but she unfortunately 
 displaced the patella of the stifle-joint, and was slaugh- 
 tered. Sincerity had much of the character of Nectarine 
 Blossom ; perhaps was even more cylindrical in her pro- 
 portions. Her fore-ribs were as round as a barrel. 
 
 Vivandiere's daughter, Campfollower by Crown Prince, 
 was a truly noble cow, with a queenly form and gait. 
 She bad capital crops, a broad flat back, and was very 
 wide between the legs. When she and Lady Grace were 
 heifers together, it was difficult to determine the point 
 of superiority between them. She was the dam of 
 Soldier's Bride by Windsor, General Hopewell by Hope- 
 well, Soldier's Joy and Soldier's Daughter, both by Lord 
 of the Valley, and of the splendid bull Commander-in- 
 Chief by Yalasco. 
 
 Soldier's Bride, with her broad, deeply-covered back 
 and circular frame, her wonderfully expansive shoulders, 
 girth, and bosom, is too well-known to require any 
 description here ; it is enough to say, that a slight droop 
 of the hind- quarters forms 
 
 " The sole alloy of her most lovely mould." 
 
 At the Eoyal Agricultural Meeting at Worcester in 1863, 
 she shared with Queen of the Ocean the honour of the 
 first prize for the best pair of cows, and has won nine 
 other prizes at the principal shows. When she was ' 
 exhibited as a yearling at the Northern Counties Show 
 at Darlington, where she won the Founder's cup as the 
 
THE BOOTH HEEDS. 59 
 
 best animal in the yard, her estimated dead-weight, she 
 being then only one year and eleven months old, was 
 70 stones of 14 lbs. — an instance of early maturity of 
 which there is no parallel on record. Her half-brother 
 General Hopewell was one of the neatest and best-framed 
 bulls I have ever seen at "Warlaby. 
 
 Soldier's Nurse, Vivandiere's fourth daughter, has 
 already been spoken of in the account of the Killerby 
 herd, in which she bore the bell. 
 
 Flora by Isaac, of the tribe then known as " the Hope 
 tribe," but since distinguished as '*the Farewell," was 
 another of the cows which Mr. Booth inherited with his 
 paternal fields. She was the dam of Farewell by Young 
 Matchem, from whom came in successive generations 
 the ever memorable cows Faith by Easpberry, Hope by 
 Leonard, and Charity by Buckingham, besides being the 
 ancestress, through Hope, of Harbinger and Hopewell, 
 and through Charity of the most famous bull of recent 
 times — Crown Prince. Faith was a large, fine, but rather 
 masculine cow. She stood second to Necklace at Don- 
 caster in 1843, and second at Eichmond in 1844. Her 
 daughter Hope by Leonard was a magnificent cow, some 
 even venturing to affirm, better than Charity. She won 
 five first prizes. 
 
 Of Charity, who so long graced the Warlaby pastures, 
 it is sufficient to say that she was the personification of 
 all that is beautiful in shorthorn shape. Such was her 
 regularity of form, that a straight wand laid along her 
 side longitudinally from the lower flank to the fore-arm 
 and from the hips to the upper part of the shoulder 
 blades, touched at almost every point ; her quarters were 
 
GO TEE BOOTH HEEDS. 
 
 SO broad, her crops and shoulders so full, her ribs so 
 boldly projected, and the space between them and the 
 well-cushioned hips so arched over with flesh as to form 
 a continuous line. It was difficult for the most hyper- 
 critical eye to detect a failing point in this perfectly- 
 moulded animal, and it was in consequence of Mr. 
 Booth's high appreciation of her merits and those of her 
 son that he made such free use of Crown Prince. Charity 
 won every prize for which she was shown save one, when 
 she w^as beaten as a calf by another of the same herd, 
 after which her career was one of unvaried success. She 
 was thrice decked with the white rosette at the Eoyal 
 and thrice at the Yorkshire meetings. 
 
 Hope's son, Harbinger, by Baron Warlaby, with the 
 exception of a little too much prominency of hip, was a 
 very first-rate bull. He was let for a higher rent than 
 any previous bull had been — 250 guineas a-year. He 
 was the sire of Mr. Booth's prize cow Bridesmaid, and 
 of Eed Eose, the dam of the incomparable Queens. 
 Harbinger won the first prize in the bull-calf class at the 
 Eoyal at Exeter in 1850, the only time he was shown. 
 
 Hopewell, another son of Hope's, and by Buckingham, 
 was a fine lengthy bull, with a grand head and crest, and 
 remarkably soft well-covered hips. He was exhibited at 
 the Eoyal at Norwich in 1849, and with the whole class 
 in which he stood, was condemned as not worthy of a 
 place. At the Yorkshire show at Leeds the same year 
 he was first in his class, and subsequently made nearly 
 ^1000 in hire. 
 
 Charity's world-renowned son, Crown Prince, needs 
 no panegyric here. To the visitor at Warlaby I would 
 
THE BOOTH HEEDS. 61 
 
 say : " Si monumentum quseris, circum spice." Nor are 
 the memorials of his achievements confined to Warlaby : 
 they may be traced in a hundred herds to which his sons 
 have transmitted the virtues of their sire. Crown Prince 
 was never exhibited; but Mr. Booth truly said of him 
 that " though he was not a prize-winner he was a prize- 
 getter^"* an assertion which the records of almost every 
 important showfield in the kingdom will verify. At one 
 time Mr. Booth had sixteen bulls by him, let at once, at 
 from 100 to 250 guineas each (his total number out at 
 hire being then 26). He refused an offer of 300 guineas 
 for a year's use of him in the Stackhouse herd, and a 
 similar offer, it is said, from Aylesby. 
 
 Fame — a sister of Faith — which was sold to Mr. 
 "Walker of Maunby, produced Fanchette by Petrarch, 
 Fay by Foigh-a-Ballagh, and Florence by 2nd Duke of 
 York. From Fanchette are descended Mr. Torr's Fair- 
 maid by Usurer, Mr. Pawlett's Fairy by The Corsair, 
 and Mr. Barclay's Faith by Sir Charles. Four of this 
 family, two cows and two heifers, were sold at Mr. 
 Sanday's sale in 1861 for the large sum of 675 guineas. 
 Fay produced Mr. Bolden's Fenellas by Grand Duke ; 
 and Florence was the dam of that gentleman's Duke 
 of Bolton by Grrand Duke, and of Little Eed Eose by 
 Petrarch. The latter, which was sold by Mr. Bolden to 
 Mr. Douglas, was the dam of Norma, who has, in the 
 hands of Mr. "Wood of Castle Grove, given rise to a 
 numerous and most valuable family, one of which is 
 Mr. Wood's splendid cow Coquette, whose daughters, 
 Clarionette and Castanet, have not been without renown 
 in English showfields. BelVs Weekly Messenger, in a 
 
62 THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 notice of tlie Castle Grove herd, mentions the descendants 
 from Norma as " Mr. "Wood's favourite family, ' the best 
 he ever had ;' " and gives the following particulars in 
 relation to them : — *' Fame, Farewell's daughter by 
 Easpberry, having been put to the Bates bull 2nd Duke 
 of York (5959), ' a beautiful little bull,' the son of Duke 
 of Northumberland and Duchess 41 by Belvedere, pro- 
 duced, in the hands of Mr. Carruthers, the large and 
 noble cow Florence, in whom the Booth blood of her 
 predecessors received its first dilution, to the extent of 
 one half. Whilst in the hands of Mr. Douglas of Athel- 
 staneford, Florence calved Little Eed Eose by Mr. 
 Whitaker's Petrarch, ' an extraordinary good bull,' 
 according to competent judges who knew him, and a 
 quarter Booth ; and from Little Eed Eose Sir H. H. 
 Bruce bred Norma by Druid (10140), a son of Baron 
 Warlaby. In the person of Norma, the family came 
 into the possession of Mr. J. Grove "Wood, and her first 
 female off'spring at Castle Grove was Coquette, got by 
 Comet (11298), a son of the Usurer bull Broker (9993), 
 and out of Fair Frances by Sir Thomas Fairfax. Beyond 
 Coquette by Comet the additions are due to Mr. Wood, 
 and they indicate his leading partialities. The character 
 of the original family blood is restored; the course so 
 long deviated from is resumed ; Prince Arthur (13497) 
 was used, and King Arthur (13110) ; then Sir Eoger 
 (16991), Elfin King (17796), Sir James (16980), and, 
 lastly, British Crown (21322), a son of Lord of the 
 Valley and Bridal Wreath by Crown Prince. Some of 
 these sires were used to some of the tribe, and some to 
 others. Three crosses are the greatest number added 
 
THE BOOTH HEEDS. 63 
 
 by Mr. "Wood to the pedigrees of Norma and Coquette. 
 It is but a small number in sound, or to the eye ; but it 
 makes, when occurring as it does in these and similar 
 cases, no less than seven-eighths of an animal's ancestry." 
 
 Farewell, after giving birth to the above mentioned 
 produce at Warlaby, was sold by Mr. Booth to Mr. 
 Walker of Maunby. It seems singular that Mr. Booth 
 should have parted with so very valuable a cow; but 
 probably he did not then anticipate the world-wide fame 
 which awaited her descendants. In Mr. "Walker's hands 
 she gave birth to several calves ; but two only of these 
 have maintained the family. These were her tvdn- 
 daughters Clementina and Clematis by Clementi (3399). 
 The well-known prize bull Clementi was bred by Mr. 
 Parkinson, and, like his own and equally celebrated 
 brother Collard, was half Booth, being a son of Mr. 
 Booth's Cossack (1880), from Mr. Shafto's famous cow 
 Cassandra by Miracle. Of his twin-daughters from 
 Farewell, Clementina and her descendants were unfor- 
 tunately crossed with other blood, but have produced 
 vahiable animals in the herds of Mr. Foljambe of Osber- 
 ton and Mr. Lynn of Stroxton. 
 
 Fortunately, Farewell's other twin-daughter, Clematis, 
 met with a better fate ; and her descendants by Booth 
 bulls continue the royal line. I say fortunately; for, 
 alas ! the Farewell family are extinct m the female line 
 at Warlaby; and if it were not for Clematis and her 
 descendants, we should look in vain for pure Booth 
 animals which trace their origin to Farewell. While 
 yet at Mr. Walker's, Clematis gave bh'th to Baroness by 
 Baron Warlaby ; and Barouess, after passing through the 
 
04 THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 hands of Mr. Harvey Combe, became, while the property 
 of Mr. Crawley, the dam of Barmaid by British Prince. 
 
 Barmaid, a large framed massive cow with much Booth 
 character, but also with something of the masculine 
 character which was observed in Faith, was transferred 
 to the Stackhouse herd, and there was fortunately put 
 to Yalasco so celebrated for his excellent heifers. The 
 bull exactly suited her, and the produce was Dame 
 Quickly — now happily no longer the last representative 
 of the old Farewells ; for two fair scions have sprung 
 from her, Dame Patience and Dame Margery, and these, 
 like Faith and Hope revived, give fair promise of con- 
 tinuing a family so celebrated ; while their dam's value 
 is attested by the post her son, Knight of the Garter, 
 fills in the eminent herd of Mr. Foljambe. Dame 
 Quickly is pure Booth, with the exception of a remote 
 half-cross, which causes one thirty-second part of her 
 blood to be that of the famous cow Cassandra — so that 
 this family may fairly claim the first place as representa- 
 tives of that noble line which no longer perpetuates itself 
 at Warlaby. 
 
 The Strawberry or Halnaby tribe next claims our 
 attention. We have seen that on Mr. Eichard Booth's 
 accession to the herd in 1835, it contained two cows of 
 this family, Strawberry 2nd by Young Alexander, and 
 Eally by Eowton. 
 
 Third in descent from Eally came Young Eachel by 
 Leonard, previously mentioned as one of the four sold 
 to Mr. Bolden. She gave birth while at Springfield to the 
 lordly Grrand Turk by G-rand Duke, afterwards the pride 
 and glory of Mr. Dodds and the Watkinson Hall herd. 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 65 
 
 Strawberry 2nd by Young Alexander, dam Strawberry 
 by Pilot, grandam Strawberry by the Lame Bull, was 
 dam of the famous cow White Strawberry by Eocking- 
 ham. This cow, White Strawberry, was bred in every 
 direction from the closest affinities of blood, her ancestors 
 male and female being filled by repeated crosses with the 
 blood of Albion and Pilot. She was a magnificent, 
 broad-backed, wide-breasted animal, quite equal in merit 
 to Anna and Isabella by . Pilot, the two best cows that 
 any of the three herds had previously to 1835 produced. 
 
 White Strawberry was the dam of Leonard by Lord 
 Lieutenant, and the ancestress of that branch of the 
 Halnabys that produced Monica by Easpberry, and her 
 ofi'spring Prince G-eorge by Crown Prince, Monk by 
 Leonidas, and Modesty, Medora, and British Queen, by 
 Buckingham, Monk, a magnificent bull, was absent from 
 Warlaby on hire for ten years, and Prince George for 
 nearly as long. Modesty, though the twin sister of the 
 handsome Medora, was not much in herself to boast of, 
 unless the old adage be applied to her of " hand- 
 some is that handsome does." She had twelve calves, 
 among which were the well-known animals Water 
 Nymph, Chastity, and Majestic. Water Nymph did not 
 breed, and was fed ofi". Though entirely grass-fed, never 
 having been in the house summer or winter, she won the 
 first prize as the best fat heifer at the Yorkshire show in 
 1856. Chastity, but for the one failing of a rather up- 
 right shoulder, was a very superior cow of true propor- 
 tions. She was the dam of Sir Eoger by Windsor. She 
 was drowTied in the Wiske owing to the ice on which 
 
66 THE BOOTH HEEDS. 
 
 she had ventured giving way. Modesty's two last calves 
 were heifers by Lord of the Yalley : the elder one, 
 Maiden's Blush, is a full-haired, short-legged, deep- 
 breasted cow, though she has had, as Cuddy says, 
 " nobbut a poorish putting on." 
 
 Modesty's twin sister Medora was a very stylish 
 heifer, of great promise, which she did not live to fulfil ; 
 for 
 
 " She, to give the herd increase, 
 Forfeited her own life's lease," 
 
 and died after giving birth to her first calf, Eed Eose by 
 Harbinger. 
 
 No cow ever trod the Warlaby pastures with a more 
 becoming grace than Eed Eose. With the exception 
 that her hips were what the French would call a little 
 too prononcee, a failing to which Harbinger's stock were 
 rather prone, she was the perfection of proportion. The 
 Eev. J. B olden, one of the best judges of shorthorns 
 in the county of Lancaster, ofiered for her, when a heifer, 
 a blank cheque to be filled up by Mr. Booth with any 
 amount he thought proper. Though Eed Eose never 
 aspired to personal distinction, she has not gone without 
 her fame, having given birth to the peerless Queens — 
 Queen of the May, Queen Mab, Queen of the Vale, and 
 Queen of the Ocean — all by Crown Prince — four sisters 
 more remarkable than any one cow has ever before pro- 
 duced — and also to Lord of the Valley by Crown Prince 
 (the sire of almost all the young stock now at Warlaby), 
 Lord of the Hills, Eavenspur, and another young bull by 
 Sir Samuel. 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 67 
 
 Some space must here be devoted to tlie description of 
 the four royal daughters of Eed Eose, and first a word 
 as to their names. To judge from the ludicrously un- 
 meaning and inelegant appellations which offend one's 
 eye on almost every page of the Herd Book, few people 
 would appear sufficiently to appreciate the importance of 
 a good name, which, to be good, should be either appro- 
 priate and euphonious in itself, or suggestive of pleasant 
 associations. Nothing can be more graceful than such 
 titles as Queen of the May, Queen Mab, Queens of the 
 Yale, of the Ocean, and the Forest, Lord of the Hills, 
 Mountain Chief, &c. The very mention of them calls up 
 visions of beauty ; the month of Love, with all its flowers; 
 the I'airy Queen, with all her elves, tripping o'er hill and 
 dale, forest and mead, 
 
 *' Or on the beaclied margent of the sea." 
 
 It is impossible for a man to be pros?/ in writing of the 
 possessors of such romantic titles. 
 
 Queen of the May was in almost every respect a model 
 of what a Shorthorn cow should be. Her loins and chine 
 were very wide, flat, and deeply fleshed ; her quarters 
 long and level; her head sweet and feminine; her 
 shoulders, girth, and bosom, magnificent. Her only 
 failing point was a want of fulness in the thighs, propor- 
 tionate to the even massiveness of development displayed 
 everywhere else. During her short career — for she was 
 permanently injured in a railway journey, being then for 
 the first time in calf— she won six prizes at the Eoyal, 
 the Yorkshire, and the county of Durham shows, being 
 awarded at one of the latter the 100-guinea challenge 
 cup in 1857. 
 
 T 2 
 
68 THE BOOTH HEEDS. 
 
 It has been reported that Mr. Booth refused for Queen 
 of the May an offer of 1500 guineas, the highest price 
 ever bidden for a Shorthorn. The circumstances — which 
 are given on the late Mr. E. Booth's authority — are 
 these : — two gentlemen from America, apparently agents 
 for an American company, came to see the herd, and 
 when they saw Queen of the May were completely riveted 
 by the fascination of her beauty. After dwelling for some 
 time upon her perfections, they inquired of Mr. Booth 
 whether he would part with her. He replied that he 
 " would not sell her for the highest price ever given for a 
 Shorthorn." " That, sir," said one of them, " was, I 
 believe, 1200 guineas ?" Mr. Booth answered in the 
 affirmative. They consulted together, and asked him 
 whether he would take 1500 guineas, which Mr. Booth 
 declined to do, remarking that if she bred a living calf, 
 and he had the luck to rear it, she was worth more to him 
 to keep, and they relinquished her with regret, leaving 
 on Mr. Booth's mind the impression that, if he had enter- 
 tained the idea, even that large amount might possibly 
 not have been their final offer. 
 
 Of Queen Mab and Queen of the Yale no better de- 
 scription can be written than one that was furnished to 
 the Highland Agricultural Society's Journal after the 
 Perth show in 1861, when Queen of the Vale was first in 
 the cow class, and Queen Mab second. " Queen of the 
 Vale is a cow of faultless proportions, a perfect parallelo- 
 gram in form, with well-fleshed, obliquely-laid shoulders, 
 a good head, and very sweet neck and bosom, sweeping 
 finely into the shoulders, the points of which are com- 
 pletely hidden by the full neck-vein. Queen Mab is, if 
 
THE BOOTH HEEDS. 69 
 
 possible, still more remarkable than her sister for her 
 broad, thick level loins, depth of twist, and armful of 
 flank ; but she is now perhaps less faultless, as her hind- 
 quarters are becoming plain, and patchy from fat. She 
 is, however, equal, if not superior, to Queen of the Yale 
 in her marvellous capacity of girth, fore rib, and bosom. 
 Like her sister, she maintains her cylindrical proportions 
 wonderfully throughout, the ribs retaining their circular 
 form up to the shoulders, with which they blend without 
 any depression either at the crops or behind the elbow, 
 and from thence the fore-quarters taper beautifully to 
 the head." Cuddy used to say, " I dinna ken whether on 
 'em I sud choose : Queen Mab's t' grander colour, but 
 then Queen o' t' Yale walks wi' sic an air ! There be ya 
 thing — yan could na be far wrang whichever on 'em yan 
 tuke ;" an opinion in which the visitor would have agreed 
 with Cuddy. 
 
 * ' Yours is, he said, the nobler hue. 
 And yours the statelier mien ; 
 And, till a third siu^jDasses you, 
 Let each be deemed a Queen." 
 
 Queen Mab was the winner of twelve prizes at the prin- 
 cipal shows, amongst them the Durham County hundred- 
 guinea challenge cup in 1859, which had been won the 
 previous year by Nectarine Blossom, and which having 
 been also won by Queen of the May in 1857, as we have 
 previously seen, now became the property of Mr. Booth, 
 and an heirloom of the House of Warlaby. Queen of 
 the Yale w^as the winner of nine prizes. 
 
 It may be worthy of mention that when Queen of the 
 Yale was shown as a yearliug at the Koyal exhibition at 
 
70 THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 "Warwick, she obtained no notice whatever from the 
 judges. She had not gone through the all-essential 
 " training !" 
 
 Sister to Windsor, one of the best of the Warlaby 
 herd, and which had shortlj^ before been pronounced by 
 an eminent Shorthorn breeder to be perhaps the most 
 perfect model of Shorthorn conformation in the kingdom, 
 was shown, together with Chastity, fresh from the pas- 
 ture, and they were both unsuccessful. Happening to 
 be at Warlaby a fortnight before the Warwick meeting, 
 Mr. Booth showed me these cows in the pasture, point- 
 ing with pride to the extraordinary depth and firmness 
 of the flesh on their backs and ribs, which being the 
 product of natural food, naturally acquired by grazing, 
 was just what a butcher likes—" solid," as Mr. Booth 
 expressed it, " as a well-stuffed wool-pack." They were 
 destined for Warwick. 
 
 " Oh ! that this too too solid flesh would melt," 
 
 thought I. The cows had no *' quality P They were 
 signal examples of what animals of uufashionably robust 
 constitutions are brought to by pasture grass, open air, 
 and exercise. The lean flesh was evidently in excess of 
 the fat ; and the fat was evidently blended with the lean, 
 instead of being all outside of it. Moreover, the fat 
 was not of that nice soft unctuous nature which is ac- 
 quired by close confinemeut and liberal supplies of new 
 milk, linseed-cake, and linseed-oil, but of the firm waxy 
 consistence, so unpleasant in venison. I felt convinced 
 that cows in this untrained condition had no chance of 
 favourable recognition in the show-field, and ventured 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 7l 
 
 to express this conviction to Mr. Booth — a conviction 
 which was fully realized. There are those who con- 
 tend that agricultural associations, professedly formed 
 for the improvement of animals designed for the food of 
 man, and the encouragement of tenant farmers to 
 vie with their richer rivals in effecting this improvement, 
 ought not to discountenance the natural and inexpensive 
 system of feeding which induces a healthy and vigorous 
 development of flesh, and encourage the artificial mode, 
 which results in a diminution of flesh, and that substitu- 
 tion of flabby fat to which some attach the name of 
 " quality ;" but these people appear to look at the matter 
 in a vulgarly utilitarian point of view. 
 
 Few people are aware what this " quality" represents. 
 It represents the liberality of the owner, the lavish ex- 
 penditure of costly food upon the animal that possesses 
 it, the overflowing pails of new milk, the superabundant 
 supplies of cake, corn, and condiment, and the luxurious 
 repose and warm housing and clothiug it has enjoyed. 
 Some readers will add — '* it also denotes the torpor and 
 derangement of all the animal functions which result 
 from this liberality and indulgence — this eating of the 
 bread of idleness in the lap of luxury.'* Be it so : 
 Nature, in default of other outlets for this excess of 
 nutrition, deposits it — no matter whether by an unna- 
 tural and morbid process or not — in the shape of fat, 
 where it " communicates a pleasurable and delightful 
 sensation" to judicial fingers, and valuable parings for 
 the tallow tub. Once do away with this " quality" test, 
 disqualify animals with soft, or what some irreverently 
 call " flabby," handling, and you abolish the forcing 
 
72 THE BOOTH HEEDS. 
 
 system. 'For \ijirm substance were insisted on, it would 
 be necessary to develop lean flesh, or in other words, 
 muscle ; and, to do this, the animal would require to have 
 constant exercise, and therefore to be what 'Nature 
 doubtless designed a beef-growing animal to be, a graz- 
 ing animal. Under such conditions it would no longer 
 be those animals that had cost the most money to rear 
 and feed that would take the prizes ; but such as had the 
 greatest natural aptitude and caj)acity for healthy and 
 ample development. The triumph of skill, which consists 
 in " training " animals destitute of any natural disposi- 
 tion to acquire flesh, and in filling out their points and 
 covering their defects by the long-continued use of rich 
 and costly food, would fail of its reward. Then the 
 Boyal Agricultural arena would lose much influential 
 patronage. It would be thrown open to all sorts and 
 conditions of men. We should have farmers and men 
 of moderate means competing with men of affluence ! 
 We should have horrid butchers speaking approvingly 
 of a "carcase "as being "hard fat," being "grandly 
 marbled," and "prime flavoured;" and telling us that 
 " such like could never be too fat, for that every ounce 
 of them would sell at top prices like a pound o' butter!" 
 What would become of the artistic and artificial graces 
 of Shorthorn breeding ? Once admit that beauty in a 
 Shorthorn, like beauty in architecture and in many a 
 work of art, should be the handmaid of practical utility, 
 and perchance the pampered herds of Croesus may display 
 their meretricious charms before obdurate and hostile 
 
 judges— 
 
 *' May I lie low before that dreailful day, 
 Press'd with a load of monumental clav." 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 73 
 
 Thanks to the discrimination of our judges, a " wealthy" 
 heifer has hitherto implied as its counterpart a wealthy- 
 owner ; an animal of " quality" and substance, a man of 
 quality and substance ; a well-lined hide, a well-lined 
 purse; a quadruped rolling in fat, a biped rolling in 
 riches ; in short, it has hitherto been a matter of neces- 
 sity that he " who feeds fat oxen should himself be fat." 
 It is this that has maintained the exclusive and gentle- 
 manlike character of these yearly contests ; but from the 
 moment that we disqualify " quality," we admit " the 
 vulgar herd " in a double sense. Nor would the mischief 
 stop here ; foreigners would buy prize animals whose 
 constitutions had not been undermined ; they would have 
 calves from them, and consequently become independent 
 of us ! No, let soft touch ever continue to be the 
 touchstone of merit, and all these evils will be averted ! 
 
 But to turn from this digression. Queen of the 
 Ocean is a superb Shorthorn — a queen of cows. She is 
 described in the Eeport of the Battersea Meeting, in the 
 E.A.S.'s Journal, as "a short-legged, well-framed, useful 
 animal, and by far the best female in the yard, with 
 shoulders and houghs as near perfection as possible." 
 At the Eoyal Agricultural Society's Meeting at Bat- 
 tersea, in 1862, she won the first prize and gold medal 
 in the cow class, and at the County of Durham Show, in 
 the same year, the hundred-guinea cup. At the Eoyal 
 Society's Meeting at Worcester, in 1863, she gained the 
 first prize jointly with Soldier's Bride for the best pair of 
 cows. At this meeting the whole of the five entries from 
 "Warlaby (four of which were pairs) were prize-takers. 
 Queen of the Ocean was not forced for show until the 
 
74 THE BOOTH HEEDS. 
 
 February before tbe Battersea Meeting : but ran out at 
 pasture with the other milk cows. She has gained, in 
 all, ten prizes. Her young bull Prince of Battersea, 
 when only a yearling, had won splendid credentials — no 
 less than seven first prizes, when the heat and excite- 
 ment of the Koyal Show Yard at Newcastle brought on 
 inflammation of the lungs of which he died. Mr. Booth 
 had refused an oifer of 800 guineas for him, and 300 
 guineas for his yearly rent. 
 
 Queen of the May the 2nd, the daughter of Queen of 
 the Vale, by Sir Samuel or Windsor, next claims the tri- 
 bute of our admiration as a nonpareil of beauty. She was 
 a heifer of faultless symmetry, and gained no fewer than 
 fourteen prizes, including a first and second at the Eoyal 
 Show at Battersea and Worcester. 
 
 Another branch of the Halnabys springs from the 
 Sister of White Strawberry — Strawberry 3rd, by Toung 
 Matchem, himself of the Halnaby family. Prom her 
 descended Bagatelle by Buckiogham, a fine large cow, 
 very wide in the floor of the chest, and with capital thighs, 
 back, and loins. Her only weak point was a rather too 
 upright shoulder ; she was not however quite so elegant 
 in form as Isabella Buckingham, to whom she stood second 
 at the Exeter Eoyal in 1850, and at the Leeds Yorkshire 
 Show in 1849. Bagatelle produced five calves — White 
 Knight, presented to Mr. John Booth ; Warrior, sold to 
 go to America ; Butterfly, and Benevolence, and Bianea 
 by Leonard. Bianea gave birth to Bridesmaid by Harbin- 
 ger, Bride Elect by Vanguard, and Prince of Warlaby 
 by Crown Prince, a bull which in Mr. Booth's opinion 
 possessed more of the character of Crown Prince than 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 75 
 
 any bull he had bred. Prince of "Warlaby was for 
 many years on hire in Ireland, where he became the sire 
 of innumerable prize animals. The cow Bridesmaid, of 
 which an admirable portrait hangs over the sideboard at 
 "Warlaby, was an animal of deep, circular, and beautifully 
 symmetrical frame, with a wide-spread back and loin, 
 long, well-filled quarters, and magnificent bosom. She 
 won nine prizes, including one second and two first 
 prizes at the Eoyal Meetings at Lewes, Grloucester, and 
 Carlisle. 
 
 Bride Elect was remarkable for the extraordinary 
 development of her fore-quarters, and particularly of her 
 breast, the depth and massiveness of which so far ex- 
 ceeded that of any Shorthorn hitherto known, as to 
 have passed into a proverb. She was in all other re- 
 spects an excellent animal, with beautiful head and horns, 
 and admirable quality of flesh : but I shall call upon 
 Cuddy again, to describe his old fav.ourite ; for I have 
 almost exhausted my descriptive powers ; and, indeed, 
 when you have once done justice to the points and pro- 
 portions of a single average "Warlaby Shorthorn, it is 
 but as a twice-told tale to describe others of the sister- 
 hood ; for it is the peculiarity of these tribes, and their 
 distinguishing merit, that they are all cast in the same 
 mould. With shades of diflference and gradations of 
 excellence that suffice for the charm of variety, their 
 conformity in all important points to one standard is so 
 remarkable that it may be truly said of them ex und 
 disce omnes. " Aye ! yon's poor ould Bride Elect. Did 
 ter ivver see sic an a breast and sic leeght timbers ? Tan 
 wad wonder how sic lile bane could hus sae mickle 
 
te THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 beef. Look at her rumps and thighs, and loins, 
 and aboon au, that breast. Why, there be amaist 
 plenty for twa beasts." Bride Elect was the winner 
 of six prizes. Her calves were three heifers — Royal 
 Bride and Bridal Wreath by Crown Prince, and Bridal 
 Eobe by Lord of the Valley ; and two bulls — Eoyal Bride- 
 man by Crown Prince, and a roan bull by Lord of the 
 Yalley. The former was found hanged at his stake on 
 the eve of starting for his first year's service. He had 
 been let for 200 guineas a year. Eoyal Bride was a 
 beautiful heifer, with all the substance and shapeliness of 
 her dam. She unfortunately took cold, which brought on 
 inflammation in the feet, from which she never recovered. 
 She left behind her one daughter, Eoyal Bridesmaid by 
 Prince Alfred, a lovely white heifer, with her grandam's 
 massive bosom and girth. BriJal Wreath, a beautiful 
 young cow, of a rich creamy white colour, also inherited 
 her dam's fine ribs and deep capacious fore-quarters, and 
 was what Cuddy called "a rale cloggy beast." There 
 were good judges who considered her the best cow for 
 breeding purposes then in the Warlaby herd, though she 
 had never been under the shelter of a roof until she gave 
 birth to the now well known British Flag by Lord of the 
 Valley. She afterwards bred another very promising 
 roan bull calf by the same sire. Bridal Eobe, the 
 third daughter of Bride Elect, was a shapely heifer of 
 that rich purple and primrose colour so pleasing to 
 the eye. 
 
 The next tribe of Warlaby cattle whose history I shall 
 endeavour to trace is that of the Broughtons. I have 
 mentioned Broughton by Jerry as one of the small herd 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 77 
 
 with wWcli Mr. E. Booth, on removing to his late father's 
 residence at "Warlaby, recommenced the breeding of 
 shorthorns. She was a cow of a superior stamp, and 
 more than average milking capacity, and was highly 
 thought of by Mr. Booth. She was the dam of Easpberry 
 by young Eed Eover, a very fine bull, though rather 
 larger than Mr. Booth approved. He was accidentally 
 hanged by getting too far back in his stall. Broughton 
 also gave birth to Young Broughton by Young Matchem, 
 and Lady Stanley by Lord Stanley. 
 
 Young Broughton's daughter, Bliss by Leonard, who 
 gave rise to the celebrated family since known by her 
 name, was a neat, medium-sized cow, of a good roan colour 
 and with good hair. Being a very heavy milker and 
 regular breeder, she was wont to get low in condition ; 
 but when dry, like all of her family, got rapidly into good 
 case, and looked very attractive in her holiday trim. She 
 gave birth to Blithe by Hopewell, Bonnet by Buckingham, 
 and Bridget by Baron "Warlaby. 
 
 Blithe, whose descendants continue the family at 
 "Warlaby, was a very neat little roan cow, with remark- 
 ably well-sprung ribs ; like her dam she was a great 
 milker, and when dry, which was seldom the case, got 
 quickly fat. She has been known to produce two or 
 three calves in as many successive years without ever 
 ceasing to yield her daily supply of milk. She was the 
 dam of an excellent bull, Valasco by Crown Prince : an 
 indifferent one, Knight of "Warlaby by "Windsor ; and a 
 pretty little white cow, Lady Blithe, by the same sire. 
 Lady Blithe has been very prolific ; when only seven 
 years old, she had produced six calves, and all of them 
 
78 THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 heifers. Of these, Lady Mirth by Sir Samuel is a good 
 thick cow, with excellent rib and loin, and great girth ; 
 Lady Joyful by Lord of the Valley (one of the pair of 
 prize heifers at Worcester) is a massive, compact animal, 
 full of hair ; and Lady Blithesome, her own sister, is 
 equally promising. Lady Blithe produced twin roan 
 heifers by Lord of the Valley, whose propensity to beget 
 twins is remarkable. The remainder of the Bliss family 
 descended from Blithe' s other daughters — Bonnet by 
 Buckingham, and Bridget by Baron Warlaby — chiefly 
 belong either to Mr. Peel or to the Stackhouse Herd. 
 The few which do not are the property of Lady Pigot. 
 
 Bonnet by Buckingham was a compact, well-framed 
 cow, with beautifully-laid shoulders. Though a great 
 milker, she had plenty of substance, and when sold at the 
 Killerby sale had a remarkably fine coat of long silky hair. 
 She had been presented by Mr. Eichard Booth to his 
 brother, being at the time in calf to Eoyal Buck. The 
 offspring was "Wide Awake w^ho was therefore a gran- 
 daughter of Buckiugham on both sides and had Leonard 
 as his great grandsire on both sides also, and who 
 inherited and transmitted their perfections. Wide 
 Awake was purchased at the Killerby sale in 1852, being 
 then a yearling heifer, by Mr. E. Emmerson of Eryholme, 
 and bred him three calves, one of which. Lady Grandison, 
 afterwards became the property of Lady Pigot. From 
 Eryholme she was transferred to Stackhouse, where she 
 was for ten years well known as the head of its proudest 
 family and the dam of the two beautiful cows Lady of 
 the Valley by Lord of the Valley, and Windsor's Queen 
 by Windsor. Unfortunately the first of them produced 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 79 
 
 only bulls, so that her female descendants find their sole 
 representative in Windsor's Queen ; but the sons and the 
 grandsons of Wide Awake have been purchased at high 
 prices and used in many a first class herd, and when used, 
 unfailingly appreciated. 
 
 Bonnet herself was purchased at the Killerby sale by 
 Mr. Anderson, by whom she was sold to Mr. Wood 
 of Castle G-rove, in whose judicious hands she was 
 destined to give birth to other offspring of equally 
 distinguished merit. There she bred Prince Patrick by 
 Prince Arthur, the property of those spirited breeders 
 the Messrs. Atkinson of Peepy ; but, above all, she pro- 
 duced, at Castle Grove, Bustle by Valiant (10989). 
 Mr. Wood more than once refused 500 gs. for Bustle, and 
 finally sold her to Lady Pigot, at 8 years old, for 450 gs.; 
 and she has since bred a heifer, Bellona, to Sir Eoger. 
 Bustle produced in Mr. Wood's hands Princess Eoyal, 
 Princess Maude, and Princess Helena, all by Prince 
 Arthur, and Princess Louise by King Arthur. Princess 
 Soyal, for whom Mr. Wood refused an ofier of 400 gs., 
 died of apoplexy a month before calving ; but Mr. Wood 
 had, in 1861,_the satisfaction of disposing of Bustle's three 
 remaining Princess daughters, with her grandaughter 
 Belle Etoile by King Arthur and from Princess Maude, 
 to Mr. Carr for the sum of ^1200, two of them being 
 calves. Lady Pigot became the possessor of Belle Etoile, 
 Mr. Peel of Princess Maude. The Stackhouse herd re- 
 tained Princesses Helena and Louise. With the excep- 
 tion of Princess Louise, who has given birth to two very 
 good heifers — Princess Beatrice (now the property of Lady 
 Pigot) and Princess of the Blood— these fine and valuable 
 
80 THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 COWS have only produced bull calves. Princess Helena 
 was obliged to be slaughtered, but she had previously 
 bred Prince of the Purple by War Eagle, which was sold 
 to Mr. M'Dougall, of Australia ; and Princess Maude, a 
 most excellent cow, presented Mr. Peel with four bulls, 
 of which her twins, Hengist and Horsa by "War Eagle 
 (the former of them the second, in the two year old class 
 atthe Eoyal show at Worcester) and Abbot of Knowlmere 
 by Monk, a young bull displaying very remarkable ex- 
 cellences, are well known. Unfortunately Lady Pigot's 
 Belle Etoile has hitherto followed the same course, and 
 added to the Branches Park herd members of the male 
 sex only. 
 
 In speaking of the value of the Booth blood, it seems 
 proper to dwell for an instant on the extraordinary 
 prices realised by this one family. Assuming the value 
 of Princess Maude to have been the 400 gs. which Mr. 
 Wood had refused to take for her, the price of Bustle, 
 her four daughters, and her grandaughter — six in all, two 
 being calves — was j62092. 10s, or an average of £348. 15^, 
 an amply sufficient proof of the high value of the Booth 
 blood. IN'or is this all. Offers equally large have been 
 made for the females of the Wide Awake branch of this 
 family. One such is thus alluded to in Bell's Weekly 
 Messenger of October, 1865, under the head of Shortliorn 
 Intelligence : — '* Eor Lady of the Valley, when a yearling, 
 Mr. Carr declined an offer of 400 gs. ; a similar sum of 
 money for Wide Awake when nine years old ; and 250 
 for Windsor's Queen, Wide Awake's daughter by 
 Windsor, when a monthling : no less than 1050 gs. for 
 three animals. These we know were bond Jide offers." 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 81 
 
 Of the animals which were thus valued by the public no 
 more need be said. I may here, however, mention that Mr. 
 Booth, shortly before he died refused an ofter of ^615,000 
 for his herd, then consisting oisome thirty animals. 
 
 But to return to the remaining daughters of Bliss — 
 Bridget by Baron. Warlaby has been already mentioned 
 as one of the animals sold to Mr. S. E. Bolden. She was 
 in calf by Crown Prince, and produced one of the loveliest 
 shorthorns in the world in Mr. Bolden' s well-known 
 Bridecake, and afterwards two good cows, Mr. Torr's 
 Britannia and Mr. PeeFs Blissful, both by Grrand Duke. 
 Bridecake was the dam of Mr. Peel's Bride by Duke of 
 Bolton, a short-legged, deep-framed, wide-backed cow ; 
 and Blissful was the ancestress of the rest of the Knowl- 
 mere Bliss family, amongst which is a cow by Monk, 
 *' Boundless " by name, of which it is not too much to 
 say that she almost rivals her queenly relative Bridecake. 
 And indeed it may be observed generally of the Knowl- 
 mere herd that besides containing Bridecake's daughter 
 and grandaughter. Bride, and Bride of the Isles, which 
 are nearly pure Booth, it contains also several females 
 descended from Bliss's daughter Bridget, which have 
 been crossed by the first Bates bulls ; and to those who 
 admire the combination of the Booth and the Bates blood 
 it may be said that nowhere can that combination be 
 seen in greater perfection than at Knowlmere, while 
 Mr. Peel's judicious skill in using to cows so bred such 
 bulls as Sir Samuel and Sir James has been attended with 
 the best results. 
 
 Broughton by Jerry was also the dam of Lady Stanley 
 by Lord Stanley. Lady Stanley produced Silk, which 
 
82 THE BOOTH HEEDS. 
 
 was sold to Mr. Pollock, of Mountainstown, and Satin, 
 both by Buckingham, and was herself sold to Mr. Bolden, 
 of Hyning. 
 
 Satin was all a dairyman could desire. In the full 
 flush of her milk she was wont to suckle two calves and 
 require milking dry after them, 
 
 " Bis venit ad mulctram, binos alitubere fetus." 
 
 Mr. Booth was recommended to enter her in the dairy 
 cow class at the Eoyal Exhibition ; but the great quanti- 
 ties of rich milk which she pelded so absorbed her fat- 
 tening properties that she was seldom what Cuddy calls 
 *' men ceful" enough for show. She produced but one 
 daughter, Sarcenet, who leaves no offspring, and seven 
 bulls, amongst which was — besides "Windsor 2nd, and 
 Messrs. Booth's very good and very useful animal Knight 
 of Windsor — Mr. Housman's admirable bull Duke of 
 Buckingham by Crown Prince. This grand and massive 
 animal, who, at one time weighed 25 cwt. live weight, 
 was the only instance ever known in the annals of the 
 "Warlaby reign of a Crown Prince bull becoming the 
 property of a subject. He was presented by Mr. Booth 
 to his nephews at Killerby, who sold him to Mr. Hous- 
 man. Many a neighbouring herd bears the impress of 
 his worth : his son Lord of the Harem has spread wide 
 his name ; while at Lune Bank many of his valuable de- 
 scendants, and particularly I may name his beautiful 
 daughter, Queen of the Harem, still remain. His own 
 brother. General Havelock, whom Mr. Booth retained, 
 proved himself also a most excellent sire when let to 
 Mr. Sanday. 
 
 The Princess Elizabeth tribe, the original progenitress 
 
THE BOOTH HEEDS. 83 
 
 of wliicli was bought by the late Mr. Booth of a dairy- 
 farmer at Ainderby, has now no representatives. Princess 
 Elizabeth by Crown Prince, was a large, lengthy roan 
 cow, not quite so short-legged or thick-set as some of her 
 companions, but combining milking and grazing qualities 
 in a very unusual degree. Her own sister, Princess Mary, 
 a compact, heavily-fleshed heifer, proved sterile; as 
 did also Princess Elizabeth's daughter, the victorious 
 Queen of the Isles. The latter carried all before 
 her as a yearling in 1858, being first at the Eoyal 
 Meeting at Chester, where she outshone all the gems in 
 the Towneley diadem ; first at the Yorkshire Meeting at 
 Northallerton, where she also won the special prize of 
 5620, and first at the county of Durham Show at Sunder- 
 land. 
 
 Christen, another of the animals with which Mr. E,* 
 Booth commenced his second herd, was from an Ainderby 
 cow by Mr. Thomas Booth's bull Jerry, of the Lady 
 Betty tribe. Christen herself was by Priam, of the 
 Halnaby tribe; her daughter by Eoseberry, of the 
 Blossom tribe ; and her great grandaughter was Caroline 
 by Eitz-Leonard, of the Isabella tribe. Caroline had 
 twelve calves. Her first were twins, calved when she 
 was very young, and with such difficulty as to per- 
 manently distort her spine. She was a prodigious milker, 
 giving, it is credibly affirmed, when in the prime of her 
 life, four average pailfuls of milk in the day. These two 
 circumstances combined to make her a plain cow, but the 
 merits of her daughter Alfreda by Prince Alfred, an ex- 
 cellent, round-ribbed, strong-backed, massive white cow 
 with a true Leonard head, and an apparently very robust 
 
 g2 
 
84 THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 constitution, indicate what her dam, with her beautiful 
 shoulders and rich hair and colour, might have been but 
 for her accident, and her too copious contributions to 
 the milk-pail. Constance by Lord of the Valley, a 
 grandaughter of Caroline, has also produced twins. 
 
 Perhaps none of the Warlaby families has been more 
 illustrious at home and more renowned in the field than 
 the ancient family of the Blossoms. "We find Blossom, 
 daughter of Young Eed Eover, and seventh in descent 
 from Blossom of Fairholm, settled with other distin- 
 guished descendants of Hubback, on the lands of Warlaby, 
 in 1835. She had issue Eoseberry by Easpberry, Haw- 
 thorn Blossom by Leonard, and Baron "Warlaby and 
 Cherry Blossom, both by Buckingham. 
 
 Cherry Blossom was of a fine blood-red colour, with a 
 little white. She was a noble animal, with massive fore- 
 quarters, and of stately presence. She gained four first 
 prizes at the Eoyal and Yorkshire Shows, vanquishing 
 at one of them Mrs. Mason Hopper's all-conquering 
 Violet, for which 350 guineas had been given at Mr. 
 Carruthers' sale. 
 
 Baron Warlaby was a rather small, but very hand- 
 some, well-proportioned bull, and a most impressive sire. 
 He was out on hire for nine years, several of which he 
 spent in Ireland, where he well upheld the honour of his 
 family. In Mr. Dudding's herd he did such wonders 
 that there was quite a run upon the Panton heifers, some 
 of which might have challenged comparison with any 
 shorthorns of the day. 
 
 Hawthorn Blossom was a fine, level, white cow, with 
 great milking capacity. She had eight calves — Benedict, 
 
THE EOOTH HEEDS. 85 
 
 Bloom, and Plum Blossom, by Buckingham ; Eose Blos- 
 som, by Eoyal Buck ; Thornberry and Highthorne, by 
 Hopewell ; Orange Blossom, by Vanguard ; and Nectarine 
 Blossom by Crown Prince. 
 
 Bloom was a large cow, of an evidently robust con- 
 stitution ; she had not the refinement of form which dis- 
 tinguished her sister Plum Blossom, but was withal a 
 very noble cow, and had a fine udder. She was never 
 exhibited except as a calf, at the Yorkshire Show, in 1846, 
 where she won the first prize. She was a gift from Mr. 
 K. Booth to the late Mr. John Booth, and gave birth at 
 Eallerby to Yenus Yictrix (who, with her progeny, has 
 already been described in the account of the Killerby 
 herd), and to four bulls, of which two, Neptune by "Water 
 King, and Dr. Buckingham by Hopewell, eventually 
 found their way to America. Dr. Buckingham was bred 
 by Mr. Ambler, who had purchased Bloom at the Killer- 
 by sale, by the advice of his bailiff, Mr. Dodds, a very 
 superior judge of shorthorns, especially, where superiority 
 of judgment is chiefly shown, in estimating tbe merits 
 and future capabilities of an animal in a lean state. Dr. 
 Buckingham was used for some time in the Sittyton herd, 
 and from thence transferred to that of Mr. Alexander, of 
 Kentucky. Bloom unfortunately broke her thigh in 
 turning out of the cow-house in a hard frost, and was 
 slaughtered when five months in calf by Grand Duke. 
 
 Bose Blossom, by Boyal Buck, was a first rate animal ; 
 her loin, ribs, and chine were perfect, her shoulders neat 
 and well out, but her hips were rather high and round, 
 giving her very broad back a slightly hollow appearance 
 along its otherwise level top. She won four prizes, in- 
 
86 THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 eluding a first and second at the Eoyal Meetings in 1852 
 and 1853. She left no offspring. 
 
 Orange Blossom, by Vanguard, a rich creamy 
 white cow, was perhaps even superior to her sister, 
 but also proved barren. No one could see her 
 without regretting that Blossom so fair should fail 
 to fructify. 
 
 Plum Blossom by Buckingham was a level, lengthy, 
 short-legged cow, of great substance. She had abundance 
 of hair, of a rich purple roan, a very sweet head, and high- 
 bred appearance. While still but a slip of a heifer (for 
 Plum Blossom was no hot-house nursling, but a wilding 
 of the fields from her birth), Mr. Eastwood, visiting 
 Warlaby with the late Mr. Booth, had the sagacity to 
 foresee the perfection to which she would mature. He 
 made tempting overtures to Mr. E. Booth to compass 
 her transfer to Towneley, which he flattered himself the' 
 latter did not seem disinclined to entertain ; but on 
 reviving the subject after dinner, Mr. Booth dashed his 
 hopes, by intimating that he could not allow him to " put 
 in his thumb and pull out this plum.^^ Plum Blossom 
 was the first prize cow at the Eoyal Meeting at AYindsor, 
 in 1851, and the second at the Yorkshire Show at 
 Burlington the same year, her dam's sister Cherry 
 Blossom being first. Plum Blossom was the parent of 
 Peach Blossom by Water King, and of Windsor, and 
 Own Sister to Windsor, by Crown Prince. 
 
 Peach Blossom was* a handsome heifer, whose only 
 faults were that her back rather wanted width, and her 
 tail stood up a little higher than is consistent with neat- 
 ness. She was only second to Bridesmaid in the two- 
 
THE BOOTH HEEDS. 87 
 
 year-old class at the Eoyal Show at Grloucester in 1852. 
 She never bred. 
 
 Windsor — whose portrait forms the frontispiece of this 
 work — may be said to be the Comet of modem times ; 
 he was a very symmetrical animal, of extraordinary 
 length, with a good masculine head and horn, a well 
 formed neck, a very deep and prominent breast, and well 
 covered obliquely-laid shoulders ; his back was admirably 
 formed — firm and level — and his ribs were finely arched 
 up to the shoulders, forming a cylindrical shape through- 
 out; his quarters were very long and flat, his thighs, 
 flank, and twist remarkably deep and full, and his legs 
 short, and fine below the knee. Prom the top of his 
 shoulder to the tip of his brisket he measured no less than 
 4 ft. 10 in. In the report of the Mark Lane Express 
 upon the E-oyal Agricultural Meeting at Carlisle, whither 
 Windsor had been sent straight from the pasture field, 
 the following pertinent remarks upon him occur : " The 
 first prize bull is worthy of special commendation, and 
 this not only for his real merit in form and touch, his 
 extraordinary length, that long, low, and even look, 
 which argues so much for perfection of form ; it is not 
 only for this we would uphold him, but perhaps even more 
 so for the condition in which — to borrow from another 
 pursuit a most significant expression — he was brought 
 to the post. Of all the bulls entered at Carlisle, Mr. 
 Booth's white ' Windsor' was not only the best for shape 
 and symmetry, but he was the bjest fitted to breed from. 
 Compared, indeed, with some of the over-fed animals 
 which stood near him, the superficial observer might 
 wonder how he came to be placed first. It is, however. 
 
88 THE BOOTH HEEDS. 
 
 only the superficial that can be deceived in this way, 
 while it is a very great fact to establish that a lean and 
 really used bull did beat on his innate merit all that 
 pampering and over-feeding could make up to show 
 against him. As was well said by those who knew him 
 best, he was too good for that." The writer of this 
 report had an evidently just appreciation of the true 
 build of a shorthorn bull. It was this " long, low, and 
 even look, which argues so much for perfection of form," 
 that made Windsor's tout ensemhle so complete ; with 
 such symmetry and utility of form he could not but 
 come with honour out of every contest ; and, indeed, his 
 motto might have been, " Yeni, Vidi, Vici,'' for though 
 he entered the lists but ten times (at the National and 
 Northern county shows), he won, besides other trophies, 
 nine first prizes, and one second, being, to the surprise 
 of many good judges, placed second to Lord Spencer's 
 Vatican at Lincoln. After the Eoyal Agricultural Meet- 
 ing at Carlisle, Mr. Booth refused an ofi'er of 1000 gs. 
 for him from an Australian breeder, who subsequently 
 raised his bid to 1100 gs. A very beautiful, and 
 symmetrical cow was the " Own Sister to Windsor," with 
 her brother's splendid forehand, finely curved ribs, and 
 firm loin. She unfortunately bred but one calf — the 
 bull First Pruits by Sir Samuel, who, though not himself 
 a handsome animal, has left excellent stock in the herds 
 of Messrs. Willis, Mitchell, Stewart, and others. 
 
 Nectarine Blossom by Crown Prince was another ad- 
 mirable specimen of the Blossoms, the heroine of many a 
 field day. She won five first prizes at the Eoyal, the York- 
 shire, the North Lancashire, and the County of Durham 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 89 
 
 Shows. At the latter, in 1858, she carried off the 100- 
 guinea challenge cup, in the cow class. The following 
 year she was specially entered as extra stock and in-calf 
 to compete for the cup again, a course which the words 
 of the programme *' for the best breeding animal in the 
 yard " appeared in no way to prohibit. No objection 
 had been made to the entry, and she was allowed to go 
 into the ring with the rest before a word was said against 
 it ; and then proceedings were stopped, a special com- 
 mittee called, and after half-an-hour's deliberation, it was 
 decided that Nectarine Blossom having won the cup the 
 previous year was not entitled to compete again, and she 
 was dismissed from the arena. Never since the news of 
 poor Queen Caroline's dismissal from the doors of West- 
 minster Abbey on presenting herself for coronation with 
 our most religious and gracious king George lY.had popu- 
 lar feeling so unmistakeably manifested itself in the good 
 town of Hartlepool ; but the ferment suddenly subsided 
 when the white rosette was seen gleaming on the frontlet 
 of Queen Mab. Three lusty cheers rang out for the 
 Fairy Queen, and one more for Warlaby and its victorious 
 lord. Cuddy's beams, of which he had been so lately shorn, 
 shone out again as he exultingly reiterated his accus- 
 tomed vaunt : *' They canna come ower me in a just 
 cause." Nectarine Blossom gave birth to Fitzclarence 
 by Clarence, a massive, short-legged, useful bull ; Sir 
 James by Sir Samuel, a remarkably handsome, robust, 
 substantial animal, and excellent sire, as the herds of Mr. 
 Peel, Mr. Pawlett, and Mr. Wood of Castle Grove attest ; 
 and Sir Eobert, also by Sir Samuel, who dislocated his 
 shoulder, and was slaughtered. 
 
90 THE BOOTH HEEDS. 
 
 It is to be regretted that so many of this valuable tribe 
 were dispersed at the Studley sale, to be frittered away 
 or lost sight of through incongruous crossing. The 
 "Warlaby Branch appears to have had a most destructive 
 propensity to breed bulls. Though the tribe has produced 
 seventeen males (all of which, with the exception of Sir 
 Eobert, have been used in different herds), the parent 
 stem from whence they sprung has broken down, and I 
 have not unfrequently heard the fact of the exhaustion of 
 this and the Charity tribe adduced to point a moral 
 against in-and-in breeding, and to support the idea that 
 fresh blood is required by the "Warlaby herd. The illus- 
 tration, however, would seem rather to warrant the 
 opposite conclusion, for Charity was a daughter of Buck- 
 ingham (half Craddock's blood), and grandaughter of 
 Leonard (half Eaine's) ; and of the three daughters of 
 Hawthorn Blossom which failed to breed, Eose Blossom 
 and Orange Blossom were by sons of Buckingham and 
 their dams by Leonard, and Peach Blossom was by Water 
 King (half Bates), and her dam and grandam by Buck- 
 ingham and Leonard. 
 
 I believe that where infertility has occurred in the 
 / "Warlaby herd it can in no instance be justly attributed 
 ~, to in-and-in breeding, but generally to causes which have 
 / led to the decline and extinction of States as well as of 
 I Shorthorn tribes. 
 
 / Those causes I believe to be luxury and indolence. It 
 will be observed that nearly all of this Blossom family 
 have been more or less "trained" for exhibition, and 
 have, therefore, necessarily been subjected to that sys- 
 
 ' ; tern of forcing, which, by concentrating the vital energy 
 
 1 
 
THE BOOTH HEEDS. 91 
 
 and circulation round the digestive organs, deprires the ' 
 generative ones of their due share of those important 
 principles, and eventually the animal system of the power 
 of reproduction. 
 
 In the human family the proportionate infecundity of 
 the wealthy and the labouring classes is said to be as six 
 to one, the advantage which the latter have over the 
 former being doubtless attributable to their more frugal 
 diet and active out-of-door life. It is fair to infer from 
 analogy that the same causes produce the same effect in 
 cattle. In both alike, too much and too rich food and too 
 much ease sap the constitution, by inflaming and vitiat- 
 ing the blood, and impeding, by inaction, the process 
 necessary for its purification. Thus the interior organs, 
 which are dependent for their healthy action upon 
 wholesome supplies of the vital fluid, assume a morbid 
 condition, and become incapable of adequately perform- 
 ing their functions. It appears to have been wisely 
 provided by Nature that the organs concerned in repro- 
 duction should be the first to refuse their office under 
 this state of things ; for where the various vital organs 
 of the dam have been impaired, the offspring (which, as is 
 generally supposed derives these portions of its structure 
 from her) could not inherit perfect ones, and therefore a 
 sound constitution. In confirmation of the preceding 
 remarks I need only point to the fact that the greater 
 proportion of prize animals do not breed at all, and the 
 remainder rarely more than once or twice, whilst the 
 offspring of the latter seldom attain to the dignity of 
 prize animals themselves or can boast of average fruit- 
 fulness. 
 
92 THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 I would not, however, be understood to imply that 
 the oiFspring of prize animals must necessarily be of en- 
 feebled constitution. There may be, and doubtless are, 
 animals so robustly organised that they may be subjected 
 to this unnatural treatment without suffering such con- 
 stitutional injury as to incapacite them for the pro- 
 duction of healthy offspring; but I believe that these 
 are exceptions which rarely occur, except, perhaps, in the 
 case of cows of such naturally-hardy constitutions as were 
 the daughters of Hawthorn Blossom, some of whom 
 have been seen camping out, day and night, when the 
 surrounding hawthorns bore no other blossom than the 
 snow-wreath. The mischief appears to lie less in the 
 amount than in the kind of condition required by the 
 judges, a condition which can only be acquired by an un- 
 natural process. '* Ask now the beasts, and they shall 
 teach thee." Nature has provided that the cow should 
 obtain her aliment only by that exercise of her muscles 
 which ensures circulation and health ; and she appears, 
 with this view, to have inspired the animal with a capri- 
 cious taste, so that, however plentiful the herbage may 
 be, she never takes her fill from the grass immediately 
 around her, but keeps constantly moving, as she grazes, 
 from place to place. Under these conditions, the 
 muscular and nervous system is healthily developed, 
 and the fatty matter is dispersed through the muscular 
 tissues to aid this development. Hence, as the animal 
 ripens, it acquires firmness, and when mature, is what is 
 called " Aar J y«^." But the judges, it is said, require 
 soft fat — even in ripe-fed animals — that the skin should 
 "handle" as though floating upon butter. The ex- 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 93 
 
 perienced herdsman knows that there is but one way of 
 acquiring this butyraceous superstratum on a healthy 
 animal, and that is by depriving her of the exercise 
 which is necessary to the growth of muscle, or lean flesh, 
 and cramming her with rich, fat-forming food. Under 
 this system, which is called " training,'* almost all the 
 fat which does not accumulate round the heart, liver and 
 kidneys, is deposited externally, above the muscular 
 substance, which it gradually in great part supersedes. 
 The animal has now acquired " quality," and is competent 
 to undergo the established ordeal by touch ; and if, on 
 being tried by the " ride of thumb" and fore-finger, she 
 is found to have been sujficiently mollified to communi- 
 cate a pleasurable sensation to the judicial feelers, she 
 will probably become the sensation beast of the show- 
 yard. It matters not that Science declares and Experi- 
 ence proves this obesity to be but the mask of disease, 
 and the system which conduces to it most erroneous in 
 principle and pernicious in practice : it is the policy of all 
 aspirants to show-field renown to cater to the prevailing 
 fashion. 
 
 " Et omnes 
 Impendunt curas denso distendere pingui." 
 
 Mr. Booth strongly deprecated the system, yet was obliged 
 in great measure to conform to it. Though his cattle 
 were absolutely unrivalled in their aptitude for healthy 
 and ample development on pasture, and he repeatedly 
 sent them in blooming health and burly case from the 
 pasture to the show-field, and occasionally with success, 
 he too frequently, on such occasions, came off second- 
 best. Hence it was found necessary to subject, for an 
 
94 THE BOOTH HEEDS. 
 
 adequate period, such of them as were desigUTed for exhi- 
 bition to a system whose disastrous effects even the 
 vigorous constitutions of his cattle were unable finally to 
 counteract. Hence the failure of female representatives 
 of the Blossom and Charity tribes, and that in a herd 
 whose unforced members are so prolific that no less than 
 six cases of twins occurred at "Warlaby in the first four 
 months of 1864, in every instance the sire being a Warlaby 
 bull, and in four cases the dams pure-bred Shorthorns. 
 
 Erom a book lately published by M. Cauniere, entitled 
 " De la Medicine Naturelle, Indo-Malgache," it appears 
 that in a well-constituted adult the proportion of fat is 
 not more than about a twentieth of the weight of the 
 whole body. It may exceed that proportion to a certain 
 extent without inconvenience, but it becomes a regular 
 disorder when it reaches one-half. If there be any 
 analogy between the human and bovine animal economy, 
 as is generally supposed, what must be the state of a 
 beast in whose system (as is not unfrequently the case 
 amongst prize cows and sheep) these proportions of flesh 
 and fat are reversed ? It is idle, however, to condemn 
 those who adopt this ruinous system, so long as the judges 
 award their prizes and the public their commendations to 
 animals in this unnatural state. The breeder must follow 
 the fashion, or be left behind in the race. As systemati- 
 cally as the ancient husbandman selected from his herd 
 this to propagate the breed, and that to bleed a victim at 
 the sacred shrine, must the modern shorthorn breeder, 
 who would maintain his position before the world, yearly 
 single out the choicest of his herd for immolation on the 
 altar of the Eoyal Agricultural Moloch. Nevertheless, 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 95 
 
 hard as it miglit be, with such cattle, to forego the 
 triumphs of conquest, good sense would seem to say — if 
 such be the cost at which renown is to be purchased — 
 
 " Then rather let my herd, as leisure leads, 
 Wanton mglorious o'er the grassy meads." 
 
 But though Mr. Booth deeply regretted the necessity 
 of showing his cattle, he still felt himself compelled 
 to do so even to the last, and he showed Prince of 
 Battersea, at Newcastle, only a few months before his 
 death. Still, owing partly to his unwillingness, partly 
 perhaps to the increasing infirmities of old age he scarcely 
 showed so many of them, or showed them so extensively 
 as he had once done. But notwithstanding this the 
 Booth blood was fated still to maintain that proud pre- 
 eminence which it has always held when fairly tested. 
 Animals of kindred blood, in the language of the Turf, 
 *' took up the running." To this blood Colonel Towneley's 
 splendid and unconquered bulls Master Butterfly and 
 Eoyal Butterfly were in some measure indebted for their 
 victorious career, the common dam of them both being 
 by the Booth bull Jeweller, while many others of Colonel 
 Towneley's numerous prize-winners had a still larger 
 amount of it in their veins. Mr. Ambler's well-known 
 success was also in a great measure due to animals 
 wholly or principally of the Booth blood. 
 
 But Warlaby's great supporter in the last days of 
 its late owner was Mr. Booth's fair friend and ally, Lady 
 Pigot. A devoted and enthusiastic admirer of the 
 Booth cattle, she purchased them at the highest cost, 
 showed them most extensively, and conquered iu a 
 hundred fields. 
 
96 THE BOOTH HEEDS. 
 
 To enumerate all these prize- takers would be impossible 
 and superfluous, but one we must mention, Bosedale — 
 a name which must last as long as Shorthorn records 
 may endure; Eosedale, perhaps, the most beautiful heifer 
 England had ever seen in her show-yards since the time 
 when Queen of the May electrified them, and whose many 
 victories recalled the memory of the proud triumphs of 
 Necklace and of Bracelet. Descended from a celebrated 
 Booth cow of Mr. Maynard's, and herself a daughter of 
 Valasco, to whom her dam, Eosey, was in calf when trans- 
 ferred from Stackhouse to Branches Park, this lovely 
 heifer was wholly Booth with the exception that one-eighth 
 of her blood was derived from the never-beaten prize bull 
 Belleville. All her victories were won before she had 
 completed the age of two years and a half ; while nothing 
 can show more positively the strength and stamina of 
 the Booth cattle than the circumstance that Eosedale, 
 now the property of the Duke of Montrose, notwith- 
 standing all her training, has since bred with the great- 
 est regularity ; while her dam, Eosey, the property of 
 Mr. Storer of Hellidon, though now between 14 and 15 
 years old, continues to give birth annually to a living 
 calf, and after her last milked well for eight months, 
 the last five of which she was again in calf 
 
 The farm at Warlaby lies well together, and grows 
 large crops of wheat and beans, and fine turnips, and, 
 since it has been drained, good oats. The land is very 
 clean, and kept in good heart. Willie Jacques, the Tore- 
 man, " reckons nout o' your hawf muckins ; it's all gane 
 in a minute, it is. Aye, gie it planty, and ye' 11 git 
 summat out. Whats t' use o' fiddlin o'er nowt ?" The 
 
THE BOOTH HEEDS. 97 
 
 pasture land yields a luxuriant herbage, of mediocre 
 quality, which appears, however, to suit cattle admirably. 
 The usual mode of rearing the calves is by allowing them 
 to suck either their dams or nurse-cows, giving them, in 
 addition, after three months old, a little cake and corn. 
 They are allowed daily exercise in fine weather, and after 
 the first winter many of them are never housed again 
 till near calving. 
 
 The nurse-cows were put to the high-bred bulls, and their 
 calves were reared on porridge made of blue milk and oat- 
 meal. The males were steered, and fed ofi" at pasture on 
 grass, hay, and turnips. They were generally sold at about 
 30 months old, at from 5^30 to £40. Some of the females 
 were also fed ofi" : others recruited the stafi" of nurses. 
 Many of the half-castes had to rough it in the pastures, 
 even through their first winter, and, indeed, not a few of 
 the shorthorus had only another year's grace before being 
 exposed to the like hardships. The innutritions winter 
 herbage was occasionally eked out by a supply of turnips 
 scattered over the pastures, and when the ground was 
 covered with snow the cattle were supplied with hay, 
 which was stacked in the middle of some of the fields ; 
 but in an open winter they were left to earn their own 
 livelihood. 
 
 A visit to the old Squire of Warlaby reminded one of 
 the visit to Sir Eoger de Coverley, in the Spectator. His 
 establishment in-doors and out-doors consisted chiefly 
 ''of sober and staid persons; for as he was the best 
 master in the world, he seldom changed his servants ; and 
 as he was beloved by all about him, his servants never 
 cared for leaving him ; by this means his domestics were 
 
 H 
 
98 THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 almost all in years, and grown old with their master." 
 Nor did the parallel stop here ; there was between Mr. 
 Booth and the worthy vicar of his parish, Mr. Eaw, the 
 same mutual esteem for each other, and hearty concur- 
 rence in works of charity and benevolence that subsisted 
 between the good old knight and his chaplain. But 
 though he, alas ! is gone the presiding genius of the place, 
 the memory of many friends yet recalls the image of the 
 good old man, and of Warlaby as it was when Mr. 
 Eichard Booth was still alive. 
 
 Why should I speak of Cuddy, that renowned custodian 
 of the herd, " whom not to know argues oneself un- 
 known," but to say that Cuddy at home and Cuddy in 
 the showyard were one and the same Cuddy from top to 
 toe ? The same brown wide-awake, the same variegated 
 kerchief knotted round his neck, the same brown " kytle," 
 and leather gaiters, and the same bland smile of welcome 
 and reverential Eastern salaam, met you at the fold-yard 
 gate, as in the avenues of the show-field. !No Jack-a- 
 Dandy " airs in dress or gait" ever took possession of 
 this bronzed and horny-handed receiver of first-class 
 medals. '* Wad it beseam me to be donnin', and 
 prenkin*, and dizenin' ? Is'e nobbut Cuddy, please yer 
 honour." 
 
 If ever there was anything wrong in the showyard. 
 Cuddy was the foremost man to lend a helping hand, and 
 it was he who courageously grappled and held Lord Fever- 
 sham's great red bull when he unfortunately killed a 
 poor fellow at Northallerton. Mr. Eaw was nomen- 
 clator of the Warlaby herd, or as Cuddy expressed it, 
 t'parson kersen'd 'em, and it was not the least onerous 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 99 
 
 part of the old herdsman's work to burden his memory '*wi' 
 sic like new-fangled names. Tan canna bethink yansel on 
 'em. If yan du nat bottle 'em up vara tight they gang 
 clean out o' yan's mind. It's a wonder where foaks rakes 
 'em up." On one occasion Mr. Booth had been so long 
 confined to the house that one or two of the calves had 
 grown quite out of his remembrance. " Cuddy," said he, 
 " what is this calf?" Cuddy tucked his whip under his 
 arm that he might be free to scratch his " pow," and 
 grasp at any mote of recollection that might float before 
 his mental vision, and after standing for some seconds 
 in the attitude of a meditative jackdaw, thus delivered 
 himself: '* Weel, sir, I canna reeghtly think on of it 
 names, but it's t'calf as were calven t'neeght as ye 
 runned for t'bellowses." I need not say that this little 
 incident proved a sufficient remembrancer to Mr. Booth. 
 Cuddy had been Mr. Booth's herdsman forty years, and 
 his wife had assisted him in that capacity about twelve. 
 
 Mrs. Cuddy, the foddering and littering wife, a small 
 spare form well stricken in years, was always to be seen 
 briskly stepping about, broom in hand, now sweeping the 
 causeways or cow-byres, now distributing " skeps" of cut 
 turnips to the inmates of the various loose boxes, now 
 bobbing her quick curtsey to the visitor. A very pattern 
 to her sex was the industrious dame in her ^severe dis- 
 countenance of all idle gossiping. Her voice was seldom 
 heard except in an occasional snap at her lord and master, 
 Cuddy, when all was not to her mind, or her spouse had 
 paused from his work to have a crack aboot the beeas. 
 IS'anny — for such was Mrs. Cuddy's christian name- — was 
 acknowledged to be " a Britoner for bravery." " Tak 
 
 H 
 
100 THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 care," sbe would say to a visitor going up to Crown 
 Prince, "he is not to depend oa," and sbe would 
 step up to him with a basket of turnips, and rub his 
 old bead confidingly. " Hearing," says a visitor, " a 
 cry of ' Cuddy ! Cuddy ! come here ! here's Prince o' 
 t' Isles loose,' I went to the yard, and there was Nanny 
 waving ber broom about, and keeping the buge animal 
 at bay. *I wad bae teed bim up,' said sbe, apologeti- 
 cally, ' but be is sae high I canna reach bis cbain round 
 bis neck to fasten bim.' " 
 
 Cuddy bad a valuable coadjutor in that ubiquitous 
 factotum, trusty John White, who was butler, waiting- 
 servant and valet to Mr. Booth, and registrar-general 
 of the births, deaths, and marriages, and all else that 
 transpired in the Warlaby herd. John's father bad been 
 thirty years on the farm, and he bad himself lived there 
 in various capacities from bis boyhood, and remembered 
 the jubilation occasioned by the birth of Monica's twin 
 daughters — Medora and Modesty. When illness bad 
 confined Mr. Booth to the house, and Cuddy had become 
 less active, John made it his business, in addition to bis 
 household duties, to keep a watchful eye on the cattle — 
 especially the young or ailing ones — in the neighbourhood 
 of the house. So admirably did he discharge this self- 
 imposed duty, so methodical were his habits, so retentive 
 bis memory, and so scrupulous his observance of his 
 master's orders, that the active management of the herd 
 mainly devolved upon bis shoulders, and Mr. Booth 
 found bim an invaluable auxiliary. 
 
 Last, not least, came doughty Willie Jacques, the 
 farm-bailiiF, who had been upwards of forty years in the 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 101 
 
 family. He first lived with Mr. E. Booth at Studley, 
 who sent him to Warlaby in the old master's time, to 
 take the management of the arable land and work-people. 
 "Willie Jacques's pride was rather in the nameless non- 
 descripts of the farm, the bullocks and half-bred heifers, 
 which converted his marvellous root and clover crops into 
 goodly rounds and lordly barons of marbled beef, than 
 in the pampered aristocrats of the herd, born to consume 
 the fruits of the soil whether earned or not. Proud as 
 "Willie was of their triumphs in the show-field, nothing 
 exasperated him like the failure on the part of any of 
 them to contribute their yearly quota towards the increase 
 of the herd. "Willie Jacques had a capital head for 
 tillage and general farming, and was always at his post, 
 from which nothing could move him but the Christmas 
 Pat Show at Smithfield. "I'se seea thrang I canna 
 gang," was his answer to all other invitations. Curt of 
 speech and unceremonious in bearing was Willie Jacques 
 in his sturdy northern independence ; but get him upon 
 the subject of his kind old master, and all the frost of 
 his nature melted away, and you found that under that 
 dry, almost blunt manner, a heart as kindly as a child's 
 was hidden. In one of the rooms at Warlaby hung an 
 admirable portrait of this highly-respectable and respected 
 steward of the "Warlaby estate. 
 
 But there was one other personage, to forget whom 
 in a sketch of "Warlaby would be fatal to the character 
 of any historian — a personage who, though seldom visi- 
 ble, has contributed to the visitor, perhaps not the least 
 comfortable reminiscence which an Englishman carries 
 away with him from any place of passing interest ; and 
 
102 THE BOOTH HEEDS. 
 
 that is Ann, faithful Ann, that white-bibbed paragon of 
 natty spruceness— the housekeeper. She came nobody- 
 knows how many years ago, to nurse the former house- 
 keeper, an old friend of hers, who was ill, and who died 
 at Warlaby ; and Ann continued until Master could find 
 one to suit him, which he never did, and so Ann remained 
 still ; and many are the visitors who can testify to the 
 excellence of the pigeon pies, apricot tarts, and other 
 delectable cates, which those brisk and clever hands have 
 fabricated. 
 
 If I have not been deterred from attempting this sim- 
 ple portraiture of rural life by any alarm, lest 
 
 " Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile 
 The short and simple annals of the poor," 
 
 it is because in the most imperfect sketch of their homely 
 joys and hopes and fears, there are touches of nature 
 that prove how near is their kinship to the possessor of 
 the most illustrious pedigree in Burke's Human Herd 
 Book, and how false is the philosophy that would ignore 
 it ; and also because it is certain that much of the happi- 
 ness of Mr. Booth's useful, though unostentatious life, 
 was reflected from the happy faces around him ; much of 
 his prosperity from the feeling in which he and they 
 alike participated — that they were all, master and ser- 
 vants, members of one body, with a common weal, a 
 common interest ; and that in caring for the well-being 
 of each other they were caring for themselves — a truth 
 on the practical recognition of which the happiness and 
 prosperity of agriculturists in general, doubtless, in great 
 measure depends. The grand principle which has been 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 108 
 
 preached for 1800 years, and of which Thackeray aud 
 Garibaldi have been the latest and most eloquent expo- 
 nents — that true nobility has no necessary connexion 
 with noble blood, but with honesty, gentleness, self- 
 denial, and courageous endurance of hardship — is begin- 
 ning to come home to us at last ; and when we consider 
 how faithful to the trust reposed in them are the majority 
 of these sons and daughters of toil, how respectful to 
 their masters, and generally considerate of the feelings 
 of each other, how unselfishly helpful of their neighbours 
 in want and sickness, and how heroically patient and 
 cheerful under their own many privations, we cannot but 
 admit the truth of the doctrine, that there may be true 
 nobility at the plough, and in the cottage. 
 
 " Honour and shame from no condition rise ; 
 Act well your part ; there all the honour lies." 
 
 The scene I have described, and many of its features 
 are no more. The good old man,* of whom it may be 
 said most justly 
 
 " Multis ille bonis 
 Flebilis occidit," 
 
 has met with the resignation of a Christian that last 
 summons " for which," as was said at the time in one of 
 his obituaries, " his whole life had been one long prepara- 
 tion." He sleeps in peace beneath the shade of the old 
 grey tower of Ainderby, which looks down upon the 
 scene of his useful and quiet labours. But Warlaby is 
 there still, and his kith and kin retain its hall and herd. 
 
 * Mr. Eichard Booth died on the 31st Oct. 1864, at the age of 70 
 years. 
 
104 THE BOOTH HEEDS, 
 
 And it may be added — for it is a circumstance too well- 
 known to savour at all of flattery — that his nephew and 
 successor, Mr. T. C. Booth, is no unworthy or unskilful 
 heir ; while his amiable wufe lends a new charm to the 
 old place ; and his rising family gives the promise of the 
 continuance of the long-continued Warlaby herd for 
 generations yet to come. 
 
 But to return. Before hazarding any remarks of my 
 own upon the principles and practice of breeding pur- 
 sued by Mr. Booth, I propose to introduce some remarks 
 upon that subject, written by Mr. "Wood, of Castlegrove, 
 a gentleman whose excellent and well-known herd, bred 
 for a length of time under his own careful superintend- 
 ence, adds ten-fold weight to his long-weighed opinions. 
 
 " Castle Grove, March 29, 1864. 
 
 " The following remarks on one particular branch of 
 the subject of shorthorn breeding are the result of many 
 years experience, but they are suggested to me at present 
 by some facts which have recently come under my notice. 
 It must frequently have been observed that animals sold 
 at shows and at Shorthorn sales, though good in them- 
 selves, and, it may be, descended by several crosses from 
 purely bred and perhaps well-formed shorthorns, rarely 
 in their progeny meet the expectations of their pur- 
 chasers. "What is the reason of this, and why are the 
 hopes of those persons so often disappointed ? If you 
 look into the Herd Book and examine the pedigree of 
 these animals, I think you will almost invariably find in 
 them recent netv crosses — that is, recent crosses of 
 animals of different families not related in blood. The 
 
THE BOOTH HEEDS. 105 
 
 progeny of such crosses, when good, I can never consider 
 otherwise than as good only hy accident ; for however 
 excellent the parents themselves may have been, I believe 
 that the chance of their producing good animals was in 
 proportion, not so much to their own apparent excellence, 
 nor even to the number and qualities of their ancestors 
 of different families, as to the number of recent good 
 crosses they may have had of the same blood or family- 
 It is this continued relationship in blood which gives 
 character to a stock, and fixes its qualities, either good or 
 bad, according to the skill and perseverance of the 
 breeder. It would seem as if every ancestor or cross 
 introduced more or less new elements, and that every new 
 element multiplied immensely the possible number of 
 new combinations in the progeny. When many of the 
 elements introduced by a cross are similar to those already 
 possessed by the cow or the herd, as the case may be, the 
 chance of producing animals resembling the parents is 
 greatly increased, and character and uniformity in the 
 herd is obtained or approached ; but where many of those 
 new elements introduced by a cross are dissimilar to those 
 already obtaining in the herd, the number of possible new 
 combinations is increased, and of course the chance pro- 
 portionally increased of producing animals unlike their 
 progenitors, and unlike each other, and greater variety 
 and uncertainty is the result ; hence in herds so bred 
 there is little uniformity of type. We sometimes see in 
 them a good animal, very often a bad one, and we fre- 
 quently see own brothers and own sisters with little or no 
 resemblance. The principle enunciated above, if carried 
 to an extreme, would lead to the conclusion that the 
 
106 THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 closer the affinity of the animals bred from, the greater the 
 probability of good produce, provided those put together 
 were themselves good ; so that when own brothers and 
 sisters are both good, they ought to be put together ; and 
 if their produce should prove good, they also ought to be 
 put together, and so on. Now, the mistake in the above 
 deduction would seem to me in the so on, or in carrying 
 the argument to extremes. In fact the practice of 
 breeding from animals allied in blood has been followed 
 by the Messrs. Colling and other eminent breeders, 
 with results so satisfactory that it would seem, if not 
 carried to an extreme, to be the best, as it certainly 
 seems to be the most natural, course in breeding. 
 We know that gregarious animals in a state of nature 
 roam in flocks, to which they are very jealous of admit- 
 ting strangers, so that the animals of each flock must 
 be related in blood, probably, by many different 
 relationships. Perhaps from this cause, as well as from 
 similarity of habits and feeding, uniformity results, and 
 these flocks have a fixed and steady type, and are not 
 found to degenerate. But the case of the Chillingham 
 wild cattle sprung from one cow and her bull calf, offers 
 a still more striking proof that animals may be bred from 
 near relationships for many generations without suffering 
 any diminution of their hardiness, or of their original good 
 qualities. The Messrs. Booth's herd has been bred for 
 many years from animals related in blood by manifold 
 relationships — there is no animal in their herd that is not 
 related to each of the others in many different ways ; but 
 the practice of breeding from the closest affinities (that is 
 from brother and sister and from parent and offspring) 
 
THE EOOTK HEEDS. 10 7 
 
 has not been adopted by them as a general rule— never 
 beyond what was considered the necessity of the particular 
 case, or as a mere experiment. If there be then any error 
 in breeding in-and-in, as it is called, from good animals — 
 and I confess I think there is — it can only be in carrying 
 the practice to an extreme, or continuing to breed from 
 the closest affinities. The laws of nature have limits which 
 cannot be passed with impunity ; what is good in certain 
 quantity is not necessarily so in double that quantity. 
 What is good in moderation is invariably bad in excess. 
 The practice of breeding from animals related in blood 
 has, in the hands of the gentlemen above named, produced 
 the happiest results ; but in less judicious hands it might 
 no doubt be carried too far. Erom what has been said, 
 another question will suggest itself. If it be true that 
 breeding from a good sire and dam does not necessarily 
 ensure a good progeny, can it be true that " like begets 
 like "? I answer, that I believe that maxim to be true in 
 a certain sense, but it undoubtedly is not true in the 
 popular sense in which it is used, and I believe it has 
 led many a young breeder astray, by inducing him to 
 believe that when he had purchased a good-looking sire 
 and dam he had secured all the necessary conditions for 
 a good progeny. There is no more prevalent error 
 among young breeders, and there can scarcely be a more 
 fatal one. An animal has certain qualities apparent to 
 the hand and eye ; it also has hidden qualities that nei- 
 ther the hand nor eye can detect, but which hidden or 
 latent qualities descend to the offspring, and, when the 
 animal has been crossed with another animal of different 
 
108 THE BOOTH HEEDS. 
 
 blood, will produce new combinations palpable and unex- 
 pected. The above maxim is true then in this sense, that, 
 though the offspring may appear unlike either parent, 
 yet the peculiar properties of the parents are not lost in 
 the offspring — they are inherited, but in combination may 
 have produced effects that probably had not, and could 
 not with any degree of certainty, have been foreseen. 
 That these qualities are not lost would appear evident, 
 as it is found that peculiarities of even remote ancestors 
 will from time to time, more or less frequently, according 
 to the skill and perseverance of the breeder, show them- 
 selves, or crop out, to use a geological expression. 
 
 " The Messrs. Booth have by long-continued and skilful 
 selection produced good animals, and by persistently using 
 (with occasional exceptions) animals of the same blood or 
 family, they have obtained uniformity of type ; the result 
 is, that a bad or indifferent animal is rarely if ever pro- 
 duced in their herd — that is, the chance of producing one 
 is reduced to a minimum, and so fixed are its qualities, 
 that, to whatever part of the world members of it are 
 removed, whether to any part of this kingdom or abroad, 
 ''per varios casus per tot discrimina rerum^ they invariably 
 preserve their uniformly high character. 
 
 " I would guard against being understood to say that 
 a cross of new blood ought never to be introduced into 
 even old-established and good herds ; but I do say that 
 such crosses, in such herds, ought to be used rarely and 
 with great caution, and that their use should be confined 
 to a portion only of the herd, until the full effect can be 
 ascertained. 
 
THE BOOTH HEEDS. 109 
 
 ^' There are then, I conceive, latent qualities in animals, 
 the effect of which in new crosses cannot be foreseen by 
 the most skilful breeders, and the result of such crosses 
 can only be satisfactorily known after several generations 
 of the animals have passed. The reasons I have above 
 assigned may be true or not ; their truth does not admit 
 of mathematical demonstration, and I do not pretend to 
 insist on it dogmatically. I merely suggest them as pos- 
 sible operating causes of results that all experience 
 proves, viz.. That uniform qualities in a shorthorn herd 
 can only be secured by breeding from animals related 
 in blood, and high probability of excellence only by 
 continued and skilful selection from such animals ; but 
 yet, that there is a limit in the affinity of those to be put 
 together that it would not be safe frequently to overstep. 
 
 " That continued breeding from the closest affinities 
 would eventually cause delicacy of constitution and 
 diminished fertility I have good reason to believe ; but 
 I do deny that to breeding in-and-in is to be attributed 
 the want of fruitfulness which is so generally complained 
 of by breeders of what are called improved herds. Among 
 the causes at work to produce that defect (for it cannot 
 be denied that it does exist to some extent), the prin" 
 cipal I conceive to be the three following: Eirst, the 
 forcing system ; second, the unnatural treatment of the 
 animals, the bulls in most cases being kept in the house 
 all their lives ; third, but not least important, is the 
 tendency to admire and use bulls of effeminate appear- 
 ance — bulls with wliat is called siueet heads and horns, 
 that without close inspection one would mistake for 
 steers. This is a crying evil, and the popular taste is 
 
110 THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 too mucli encouraged by the decisions of judges in public 
 sbow-yards. 
 
 " J. G. Wood." 
 
 The force of Mr. "Wood's remarks on the uncertainty 
 of breeding from omnium gatherum herds will be readily 
 admitted by every scientific breeder. Unexpected varie- 
 ties of form and qualities must result from a hodge-podge 
 of heterogeneous elements, got together by miscellaneous 
 selections from various sources. AVhere this diversity 
 prevails in a herd (and in how many herds, accumulated 
 by the most lavish expenditure, does it not prevail ?) it 
 is sufficient proof that the owner has no clear or well- 
 defined standard of structure in his own mind to which 
 lie is aiming to assimilate his stock, and that, however 
 he may pride himself on his independent judgment and 
 his freedom from prejudice, he is but a novice in breeding 
 after all. 
 
 Uniformity, or " the counterpart presentment" of the 
 same type in every member of a herd or flock, is the 
 true test of a breeder's skill ; and in this particular the 
 Warlaby herd bears striking testimony to the master- 
 band of its founder. The late Mr. Booth prided himself 
 on having them all of one sort, and held the opinion 
 that to have them of one sort you must breed them from 
 one sort; and that this system is especially necessary 
 where your object is to produce male animals that may 
 be depended upon to transmit a definite character to 
 their ofi'spring. This family likeness running through 
 the Warlaby cattle, the well-known propensity of its 
 bulls to transmit it, and their consequent value to all 
 
THE BOOTH HEEDS. Ill 
 
 breeders who wish to establish in their herds uniformity 
 of character, has conduced to the supremacy of the Booth 
 blood throughout this country. But if in England and 
 Scotland the Booth cattle incontestably stand first, in 
 Ireland they are all-in-all, as the records of almost every 
 show-field attest, so that Ireland may be said to be 
 virtually a Booth province. A striking example of this 
 may be mentioned. At the Eoyal Irish Show, held at 
 Kilkenny in August 1863, two splendid bulls contested 
 for the championship of Ireland. Three eminent English- 
 men were the judges, and it was long before they could 
 arrive at a decision, so nearly balanced were their merits ; 
 yet it w^as not a question of rival strains of blood. Both 
 the competitors were virtually Booth bulls ; they were 
 Soubadar by Prince of Warlaby, the property of Mr. 
 Eichardson, of Glenmore, and Paterfamilias by Lord of 
 the Valley, then the property of Mr. Cooke, of Ballyneale 
 House, and since of Mr. Storer, of Hellidon. 
 
 It may be worth while to remark here, as illustrative 
 of the influence to which I have before adverted, of 
 change of climate on the Shorthorn, that the change to 
 Ireland has been observed by attentive breeders to pro- 
 dace greater development of hair ; and partially the same 
 efi'ect is produced at home by a more natural treatment 
 than is usually pursued — namely, allowing the young 
 cattle, when old enough to bear it, to live summer and 
 winter in the open field, being there supplied with such 
 food as they require, and having the shelter of an open 
 hovel. Such a change in some respects neutralizes in 
 the ofi'spring the ill-effects of that confinement and high 
 feeding which the necessities of the show-yard too often 
 
112 THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 require one or both of the parents to be subjected to, 
 and restores again the wonted vigour. 
 
 Intimately connected with change of climate, and, 
 indeed, inseparably united with it, is change of food ; for 
 the former necessarily involves the latter. "When cattle 
 are removed only from one county to another, or from one 
 to another part of the same county, or even to a different 
 farm only, supposing the mode of treatment to remain 
 the same, yet is there necessarily a change of food. This 
 the very pastures themselves will supply ; the grass, the 
 hay, the mangold, the turnips which their new residence 
 produces will essentially differ from the products of the 
 old one, and have the charm of freshness ; and the conse- 
 quence frequently is that under such a change cattle 
 rapidly improve without there being any sufficient cause 
 to account for such improvement beyond the mere change 
 of climate, scene, and diet. Such a change appears to 
 cause that beneficial effect in the bovine constitution 
 which it is well known is produced upon man. Is it not 
 well authenticated in the history of various animals, that 
 one known and recognised aboriginal type has given rise 
 to endless and wonderfully differing varieties, which the 
 naturalist accounts for by the difference of food and 
 climate to which they have been for generations sub- 
 jected ? And what is true of the dog, or of the sheep, is 
 true also of the cow. 
 
 One instance which has occurred almost within the 
 memory of man may be adduced as an example. The small 
 polled Galloways of Scotland — which some even of our- 
 selves in our younger days may remember travelling in 
 large droves to the eastern counties of England, the size 
 
THE BOOTH HlEEDg. 113 
 
 of them being on the average about that of a medium- sized 
 donkey — have given rise to those large, stately, and heavy 
 beeves which we now dignify with the name of Norfolks, 
 and of which the eastern counties are so justly proud. 
 Even in the individual, change of food and climate com- 
 bined not unfrequently produces an extraordinary effect. 
 Many instances might be given where, in consequence, 
 fertility, has been renewed, and where cows which were 
 considered hopeless have again become breeders. And no 
 wonder ; for, as an experienced breeder and highly scien- 
 tific gentleman has well remarked, " Animals living 
 year after year in the same place are eating themselves 
 over and over again. ' ' In many respects, therefore, change 
 of food and climate may be considered equivalent to 
 change of blood, and the greater -the cbange propor- 
 tionably greater the effect. So that there was some 
 scientific skill as well as some pecuniary profit in the 
 re-importation of Duchess bulls from America, to which 
 the admirers of the Bates blood recently resorted. 
 
 The views and practice of the Messrs. Booth appear 
 to have been in conformity with those of all early im- 
 provers of domestic cattle. Their principal aim was to 
 raise a usefal sort, a sort that, besides possessing beauty 
 of form, would milk copiously, fatten readily, and when 
 slaughtered turn out satisfactorily to the butcher and 
 the consumer. With this view they sought to reduce 
 the bone of the animal, especially the length and coarse- 
 ness of the leg, the prominency of the hips, the heavy bone 
 of the shoulders, and those unsightly projections called 
 shoulder-points. Mr. Eichard Booth's preference for a 
 moderate- sized animal was even more decided than that of 
 
 I 
 
114 THE^OOTH HERDS. 
 
 his predecessors ; for, apart from the difficulty he saw in 
 obtaining neatness of form in a large animal, it was his 
 persuasion that a moderate-sized beast was moregenerallj 
 useful and profitable, as yielding more milk and more 
 beef in proportion to the food consumed by it, than one 
 of larger size. He endeavoured, therefore, to reduce the 
 frame into still more compact dimensions, and to improve 
 its contour by shortening and lifting the loin, and giving 
 it firmness and thickness, thereby further securing con- 
 vexity to the back ribs, and contracting the space be- 
 tween them and the hips. It is this that has imparted 
 to the Warlaby cattle that support, tenseness, and con- 
 sequent straightness of the paunch, which Mr. Booth 
 deemed all-essential to quick and economical fattening. 
 He saw that these deviations from the then recognized 
 standard of form would efiect a reduction of the inferior 
 meat, and augment the proportion of the more valuable 
 joints by increasing the quantity and improving the 
 quality of the flesh on the loins, rumps, and fore and mid 
 ribs. 
 
 In a letter which appeared some time ago in one of the 
 journals, under the signature of " Meliboeus," occur the 
 following remarks on the points and capabilities of the 
 "Warlaby cattle : — " A recent visit to Warlaby, with a 
 view to hire a bull, has confirmed my own opinion, and 
 justified the general decision of competent judges, that 
 there is no herd in Glreat Britain at all fit to be compared, 
 for breeding purposes, with that of Mr. Eichard Booth. 
 The tendency of the Warlaby animals to put on flesh 
 in the best places^ and to put that flesh on quickly with 
 ordinary keep ; their ample dimensions of structure, indi- 
 
THE BOOTH HEEDS. 115 
 
 eating capacity for healthy organization, and accordingly 
 promising robust and enduring constitutions ; the invari- 
 ably strong deep loin, round prominent fore-rib, barrel- 
 shaped crops, large girth, deep heavy flank, and almost 
 perpendicular fore flank ; the long level side-line below 
 the ribs from flank to hockster or elbow ; the straight 
 under-line of the belly, the full thigh descending low 
 down, and the twist abundantly developed ; the back, 
 straight in profile, wide and flat upon the top, and padded 
 thickly with fine lean flesh ; the quarters long, level, and 
 well-packed ; and the bosom, grandly built out, massive 
 and symmetrical, with shoulder points buried in flesh ; 
 the short fine-boned legs, waxy horn, and thick mossy 
 hair — these are characteristics prominently exhibited in 
 the shorthorns of Mr. Eichard Booth ; and these, com- 
 bined as they are with excellent milking qualities, as ex- 
 emplified more or less in all the unforced cows, are 
 characteristics which sufficiently declare the value of his 
 herd. No wonder, indeed, that the bulls of Warlaby 
 should be eagerly engaged ; for the man who introduces 
 a Booth bull among his cows is taking the best method 
 of securing a good herd with the least loss of time, and, I 
 may add, with the least expense too. The eflect of such 
 an introduction is immediate, and he who judiciously 
 adventures it is surprised to find, within an incredibly 
 brief period, animals of both sexes adorning his pastures, 
 bearing the unmistakeable stamp of Warlaby. I have seen 
 no bulls from any other herd which so quickly produce 
 an improvement in the stocks among which they sojourn, 
 and which are so frequently the su'es of animals winning 
 honours in the show-field. ' It is patent ' — as Mr. 
 
 i2 
 
116 THE BOOTH HEEDS. 
 
 Douglas well observed in his admirable speech at the 
 dinner given in his honour at Haddington — ' that nearly 
 three-fourths of all the prize animals at the national and 
 other important shows are of the Booth blood, and not a 
 few of the most successful exhibitors of the present day- 
 owe in a great measure their position and popularity to 
 this strain.' " 
 
 As the opinions of so successful a breeder as Mr. 
 Douglas must ever carry with them great weight, it may 
 not be out of place here to give a further quotation from 
 the speech above referred to. " It is not,'* said Mr. 
 Douglas, " animals of a large scale that are wanted. In 
 such subjects there is generally a preponderance of bone, 
 long back, weak loins, flat ribs, and much coarse beef ; 
 what we want, in my opinion, is an animal of apparently 
 small scale — but in reality not so — having a great 
 propensity to fatten ; on short legs, with fine bone, 
 massive compact body, wide chest, ribs well sprung, 
 thick loins, and well. fiUed-up quarter, with deep twist, 
 body all equally covered over with heavy flesh, and plenty 
 of soft hair, and having no coarse beef on any part. This 
 is my standard of a shorthorn, and when I speak of such 
 I have in my mind's-eye many of Mr. Booth of AYarlaby's 
 best animals. Look at the docile, even intelligent ex- 
 pression of countenance, the waxy horn, moderately-short 
 neck, full neck vein, prominent bosom, beautifully-laid 
 shoulder, capacious chest, ribs w^ell sprung from the back, 
 thick-fleshed strong . loins, deep flanks, hoggins well 
 covered, lengthy well-packed hind-quarter, with deep 
 twist, on straight legs, and fine bone — such are nearly all 
 the animals that constitute Mr. Booth's celebrated tribes 
 
THE BOOTH HEEDS. 117 
 
 or families of shorthorns. There can be no mistake about 
 the character of this herd : it is so indelibly stamped, 
 that any person once seeing them would again detect the 
 likeness of the herd, even in the killing-booth. In brief, 
 I consider a perfect specimen of the shorthorn one of the 
 most beautiful objects in creation." 
 
 Under the plastic hands of the great breeder, the 
 "Warlaby cattle have perhaps assumed as much beauty of 
 outline as is consistent with that utility of form, at which 
 (whilst studying to combine the two) Mr. Booth has 
 primarily aimed. It was said by Mr. Gladstone of a man 
 not more remarkable for the consistency and tenacity 
 with which he applied the principles of true art to the 
 manufacture of earthenware, than Mr. Booth has been 
 in moulding the fickle forms of animated nature to his 
 will, that " his most signal and characteristic merit lay 
 in the fineness and fulness of his perception of the law 
 which teaches us to aim, first, at giving to every object 
 the greatest possible degTee of fitness and convenience 
 for its purpose : and, next, at making it the vehicle of the 
 highest degree of beauty compatible with that fitness 
 and convenience which it will bear. It does not substi- 
 tute the secondary for the primary end, but recognizes as 
 part of its business the study to harmonize the two." 
 
 Mr. E. Booth's success as a breeder was due to his 
 clear conception and persistent adoption of this principle. 
 Eegarding economy of production, and adaptation to use, 
 as the primary objects which a shorthorn breeder should 
 keep in view, his exertions were mainly directed to the 
 promotion in his herd of the tendency to early maturity 
 and rapid fattening. His object was to produce animals 
 with constitutions suited to the severity of our climate, 
 
118 THE BOOTH HEEDS. 
 
 and with a natural aptitude to convert tLat sustenance to 
 which Nature has adapted all the organs of a grazing 
 animal — pasture grass — into flesh of a superior quality. 
 Complete and unrivalled as was the success of Mr. 
 Booth's efforts in this direction, he did not achieve it at 
 the sacrifice of Taste, but succeeded in combining with 
 these more sterling qualifications those pleasing features 
 and proportions of structure which an immense majority 
 of show-yard awards has stamped as the highest existing 
 standard of Shorthorn excellence. 
 
 The late Mr. Booth succeeded in imparting to his 
 cattle a length of quarter such as no other herd can boast, 
 a marvellous fulness and depth of thigh, and of the twist, 
 or junction of the inside of the thighs, and a perfectly 
 parallel and almost perpendicular position of the hind-legs. 
 
 It was, however, to the ample and symmetrical de- 
 velopment of the fore-quarters that Mr. Booth's especial 
 attention was directed. He increased the obliquity or 
 backward inclination of the shoulder-blades, thereby 
 preserving the level line of the back, and promoting the 
 free and graceful carriage of the animal, and under the 
 conviction that ample scope for the vigorous action of 
 the heart and lungs was an essential condition to the 
 formation of good blood, and therefore of good beef, it 
 was his aim to improve the form and enlarge the capacity 
 of the chest. "With this view he endeavoured to augment 
 the prominence or circularity of the fore-rib, and the 
 width of the sternum or floor of the chest between and 
 behind the fore-legs. 
 
 It is to the success of Mr. Booth's efforts in this direc- 
 tion, and the extension of surface which this improved 
 formation of the chest affords for the accretion of flesh, 
 
TnE BOOTH HEEDS. 119 
 
 that we are indebted for those valuable and almost pecu- 
 liar characteristics of the Warlaby cattle— the perpendi- 
 cular fore-flank, which drops even with the arm, the 
 roundness of the barrel-shaped crops, and the width and 
 massiveness of the projecting bosom. 
 
 To this conformation also may probably be due the 
 very remarkable immunity from pleuro-pneumonia and 
 other chest afiections which the "Warlaby and its kindred 
 herds have hitherto enjoyed. It may here be remarked 
 that this development of the fore-quarters was mainly 
 effected by the free use of the male descendants of Isa- 
 bella by Pilot. 
 
 The necks of the Booth shorthorns are worthy of note. 
 "Whilst displaying at their junction with the head much 
 of that fineness and cleanness which characterise the 
 dairy cow, they are remarkable for the bulky, yet symme- 
 trical development into which they gradually swell as 
 they approach and blend with the shoulders and breast, 
 completely hiding, even in the unforced animal, the 
 shoulder points. Ask the butcher or the grazier why he 
 passes his hand over the base of the neck, and he will tell 
 you that the fulness of muscle and neck vein there, afford 
 the surest token of substance, or tendency to substance, 
 over the whole frame. 
 
 It has been objected to the Booth cattle that their 
 necks, though fine enough at the setting on of the head, are 
 too short, and thicken too rapidly towards the breast and 
 shoulder. It has been urged that they should be lighter, 
 thinner, and more gracefully curved, which it is said 
 would give gaiety and style to the animal ; nay, I have 
 heard an eminent shorthorn breeder assert his predilec- 
 
120 THE BOOTH HEEDS. 
 
 tion for a bull that comes out of his box like a high-met- 
 tled horse, with arching crest, dilated eye, and featly 
 prancing mien, instead of the solemn and laggard port 
 which distinguishes the solid, stolid bulls of the Warlaby 
 tribe ; — a poetical idea of the '* lord of lowing herds," 
 which would be all very well if we rode our bulls to 
 hounds, or " went in " for " glory " and " ladies' lovely 
 glance " by encountering them in the arena, but which 
 shows an inappreciation of the purposes for which the 
 bovine animal was designed. What we want in a short- 
 horn is the reverse of all this — a placidity and composure 
 of mind, a phlegmatic disposition, suggestive of fattening 
 propensity. 
 
 Without subscribing to the axiom " that Beauty never 
 deigns to dwell where Use and Aptitude are strangers,'* 
 it may be safely asserted that the proportions and 
 the disposition which best accomplish the particular 
 purpose for which an animal was designed, are the true 
 and desirable ones. Nature has given the horse a light 
 elastic neck, supported by a series of small, smooth bones, 
 springing arch-like from the shoulder, as best adapted to 
 an animal designed for active motion and obedience to 
 the rein. The neck of the ox, on the other hand, she has 
 framed, with an equally wise providence, of short heavy 
 bones, with numerous transverse processes, like -the 
 spikes of a Norwegian harrow, and, as Touatt tells us, 
 "all these widened, roughened, tuberous bones are for 
 the attachment of muscles, the accumulation of flesh," 
 not of beef for Belgravia perhaps, but of wholesome food 
 for uncritical appetites. This being so, to encourage, 
 instead of thwarting the benevolent design of Nature, and 
 
THE BOOTH HEEDS. 121 
 
 to make two pounds of flesh grow where only one grew 
 before, should be the aim of the farmer, the philanthropist, 
 and the patriot. In the attainment of this object no 
 breeder of past or present times has been so successful as 
 Mr. Booth of Warlaby. Indeed, he had many animals 
 with bosoms so massive, that, as the able writer of ' The 
 Herds of Great Britain,' has well expressed it, " they 
 looked as if they required another pair of fore-legs to sup- 
 port them." And I think it may be shown that utility 
 and beauty are not disconnected in this case ; that the 
 conformation of neck objected to in the Booth cattle not 
 only betokens superior constitution and aptitude to lay 
 on flesh on every part of the frame, but is also the most 
 symmetrical. 
 
 Experienced graziers are well aware that the light and 
 elegant neck, so muchlaudedby some, and indeed so desir- 
 able in breeds whose sole merit consists in their dairy pro- 
 perties, is usually accompanied by general lightness of 
 flesh, and, in animals in moderate condition, almost invari- 
 ably with rough shoulders, prominent in their points and 
 bare of flesh. Now it will be admitted that angular points 
 are inconsistent with the conditions of true beauty, which 
 require that the parts should melt gradually and insensi- 
 bly one into another without any projections. 
 
 These conditions a Booth animal generally fulfils. 
 The neck increases rapidly, though not abruptly in size, 
 until it melts insensibly into the shoulders and wide 
 projecting brisket, which again blend imperceptibly with 
 the crop, fore- flank, and ribs, without any depressions or 
 protuberances. When the animal walks, the elbow 
 joint is scarcely if at aU seen, and there is no hollow 
 
122 THE BOOTn HEEDS. 
 
 behind it. The motion of the shoulder blades and 
 shoulder points is imperceptible, the former being laid " 
 snugly back into the crops, the latter hidden by the full 
 neck vein, which blends, as I have said, with the muscles 
 of the shoulder, neck, and brisket, forming gently taper- 
 ing lines to the head and breast end. And, indeed, this 
 perfection of fore-quarter in the Booth cows, so far from 
 being restricted to those which are most highly fed, apper- 
 tains to every individual, and is a distinguishing charac- 
 teristic of the "Warlaby herd. 
 
 Mr. Booth attached much importance to the heads of 
 his animals. Conforming, as regards cows, to the popu- 
 lar opinion that they should be moderately small and 
 tapering, he contended that the bull should not only be 
 broad across the brows, but adorned with a "lusty horn," 
 especially stout at the base. Mr. Booth would not use a 
 bull in which these substantial evidences, as he regarded 
 them, of vigorous constitution and procreative power, 
 were wanting. And, indeed, sound physiology teaches 
 that the more or less luxuriant growth of the horn is the 
 result of constitutional operations. The marked influence 
 of ill health or castration on the growth of horn is suffi- 
 cient proof of this. That the use of sires exhibiting these 
 indications of masculine character has no influence on 
 the female progeny prejudicial to their feminine mien 
 and character, a glance at the Warlaby cows and heifers 
 will show. They are remarkable for their lady-like 
 aspect, and graceful, well-curved, waxy horns, those 
 inextinguishable tell-tales of some otherwise unsuspected 
 jump in the dark, and of the dark— inky horns and 
 dingy noses — being unknown amongst any of the lead- 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 123 
 
 ing families of Warlaby. The mild prominent eye is 
 expressive of that equable contented temperament so fa- 
 vourable to the attainment of ripe condition ; a tendency 
 further indicated by the double-chin-like appendage of 
 pendulous fat beneath the root of the tongue, which, 
 however objected to by some admirers of the more 
 horse-like conformation of head, gives, in the opinion of 
 others, an engaging piquancy of expression, and is always 
 regarded approvingly by the knowing grazier as an 
 earnest of aptitude for kindly feeding. 
 
 Having discussed the salient points of the "Warlaby 
 cattle in detail, it may be added that the tout ensemble 
 comes perhaps nearer the established standard of perfec- 
 tion than that of any other tribe of Shorthorns. 
 
 Although we do not expect a cow to be made by geo- 
 metrical proportions, yet there are undoubtedly certain 
 established formalities of structure which an experienced 
 judge of shorthorns will pronounce to be indispensable. 
 It has been laid down by a great authority north of the 
 Tweed, that the nearer a Shorthorn approaches to the 
 figure of a parallelepiped, the nearer it is to perfection. 
 Now, this is a geometric solid contained under six paral- 
 lelograms or planes, of which the opposite ones are 
 similar and parallel. Thus the level plane of the back 
 should find its counterpart in the almost equally broad 
 and level plane of the " under belly" ; the two sides should 
 be parallel, or as nearly as possible equi-distant in every 
 point, while the square presented behind by the thighs 
 and twist should match with a corresponding squareness 
 of frame in front. 
 
 In conformity with this doctrine, it is evident that the 
 
124 THE BOOTH HEEDS. 
 
 upper, middle, and lower parts of tHe shoulders, ribs, and 
 thighs should be in a line, so that if you lay a wand along 
 them it should touch in every point. Apply this test to 
 any fair specimen of a Warlaby cow, and it will be found 
 to stand the trial : even behind the elbow, or hockster 
 joint, there is no hollow space ; all is filled up with the 
 heavy flesh, which sheep-breeders call "fore flank," and 
 butchers term ** the plates." 
 
 If Mr. Booth's preference, like Mr. Douglas's, was 
 for moderate-sized cows, still more decidedly did he ad- 
 vocate the use of moderate-sized bulls. A great bull was, 
 in his opinion, a great evil — not only because large 
 animals are generally wanting in that compactness and 
 symmetry of form so essential in a sire, but because the 
 size of the offspring being generally proportioned to that 
 of the male parent, one of three evils frequently results 
 • — either the foetus fails to receive adequate nourishment 
 from the dam for the support and increase of its growth 
 and strength ; or, through lack of sufficient expansive 
 power in the uterus, if not prematurely expelled, is 
 warped in its proportions ; or, from its unsuitableness in 
 size to the organs of the dam, the calving is attended 
 with difficulty and danger, and the ligaments of the 
 pelvic cavity, through which the calf must pass, are fre- 
 quently lacerated, to the permanent injury of the dam. 
 
 In an admirable article, which in January, 1863, ap- 
 peared in the Mark Lane Express, ' On the Breeding 
 of Hunters and Hacks,' occurred the following extracts 
 from * Cline on the Form of Animals,' bearing on this 
 subject : " It has generally been supposed that the breed 
 of animals is improved by the largest males. This opinion 
 
THE EOOTH HERDS. 125 
 
 has done considerable mischief, and would have done 
 more injury if it had not been counteracted by the desire 
 of selecting animals of the best form and proportions, 
 which are rarely to be met with in those of the largest 
 size. Experience has proved that crossing has only suc- 
 ceeded in an eminent degree in those instances in which 
 the females were larger in the usual proportion'of females 
 to males, and that it has generally failed when the males 
 were disproportionately large. When the male is much 
 larger than the female, the offspring is generally of an 
 imperfect form." 
 
 It has not imfrequently been alleged that the Booth 
 animals are liable to sterility. If this charge is made 
 against the breeding herd of Warlaby, it would be easy 
 to show, and, indeed, has been shown, that no cattle in 
 the kingdom are more remarkable for their early, regular, 
 and long" continued fecundity ; but if it be intended to 
 apply to animals which have attained to a precocious 
 degree of fatness before being put to the bull, or to 
 animals necessarily pampered to meet the absurd but 
 imperious exigencies of the show-field, the remark is, to 
 some extent, true, and equally true of every other herd 
 where the same causes are in operation. If we hear less 
 of the unprolificness of other herds, it is simply because 
 they are of less notoriety and less value, and the subjects 
 of it arc, in general, quietly consigned to the butcher, in- 
 stead of being allowed, as in the case of Mr. Booth's 
 cattle, to continue to live on for years, to adorn the pas- 
 tures and gratify and astonish the eye of the visitor. 
 Those who have seen amongst the breeding herd at War- 
 laby such prize animals as Charity, Queen Mab, Nectarine 
 
126 THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 Blossom, Bride Elect, Lady Grace, Queen of the Ocean, 
 Queen of the Vale, and Soldier's Bride, might not unfairly 
 argue that Mr. Booth's shorthorns must have inherited an 
 unusually healthy organization to be able to resist the 
 baneful effects of that show-yard condition, which certainly 
 impairs the fruitfulness of the majority of animals on the 
 prize-lists. There can be no question but that a redund- 
 ancy of flesh is unfavourable to fertility, and, when pre- 
 maturely or artificially acquired, frequently results in 
 barrenness or abortion ; but not more frequently in the 
 Warlaby herd than would be the case in any other in 
 which the same propensity to its rapid acquisition existed. 
 It is, however, this propensity which, if it sometimes im- 
 pairs the usefulness of the "Warlaby, as of other female 
 animals, enhances the value of the bulls, and especially 
 fits them for their destined purpose — the crossing with 
 other herds. Tor in the great majority of Shorthorn 
 herds, it may safely be averred, there is a deficiency of 
 that fattening capacity and substance which the AVarlaby 
 bulls are so well qualified to impart. There cannot be a 
 more striking illustration of the degree in which the 
 Warlaby bulls imprint on tlieir progeny their own char- 
 acter and qualities than is afforded by the bullocks which 
 are yearly bred and grazed at Warlaby for the Christmas 
 markets. These oxen (though generally the offspring, 
 by Warlaby bulls, of nurse cows selected solely for their 
 milking qualifications, without any regard to form) are 
 fine level animals of remarkable symmetry and substance, 
 and superior quality of flesh, and possess extraordinary 
 facility in acquiring it. A lot of six, calved in 1862, were 
 never under cover after the first winter. Their keep had 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 127 
 
 been straw and rough hay with turnips in winter, and 
 good pasture in summer, with a small allowance of 
 oilcake during the autumn, when the aftermath was 
 finished. They averaged, when slaughtered, upwards of 
 80 stones of 14 lbs. They were chiefly by Sir Samuel, a 
 closely in-bred bull, being by Crown Prince, and out of 
 Crown Prince's dam, and bore, in a remarkable degree, 
 the "Warlaby character — another instance of the use of a 
 bull so bred resulting in the reproduction in the ofispring • 
 of the family characteristics of the sire. 
 
 This leads me to say a few words on a subject on which 
 Mr. Booth had many prejudices to contend with. There 
 are not a few who, disregarding the evidence of facts 
 that no cattle are more robustly organized than those 
 of Warlaby, have jumped to the conclusion that they 
 must be bred from too close consanguinities. It is but 
 fair to hear what was Mr. Booth's own opinion on this 
 subject, and his reasons for it. Some time ago, accepting 
 the then prevalent notion that the "Warlaby herd would 
 derive benefit from fresh blood, I ventured to suggest to 
 Mr. Booth the expediency of adopting a cross, when I 
 was met by arguments to the following efi'ect : " Have 
 any of the evils which are usually attributed to in-and-in 
 breeding manifested themselves in my herd ? Is there 
 any degeneracy in size, substance, or vigour in the 
 animals ? any tendency to premature age ? any lack of 
 milking or thriving disposition in the cows, or of capacity 
 of frame, or hardiness of constitution ? Are the bulls 
 (with one or two exceptions, such as must occur in 
 every herd) deficient, in masculine character and efiicacy, 
 or the sires of a puny or feeble ofispring ? or do they 
 
128 
 
 THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 early become worn-oufc and unfruitful? And lastly, 
 is there any tribe of Shortborns that attains a higher 
 or even the same degree of condition on the same 
 food P" All of which questions it being impossible to 
 answer otherwise than in the negative, Mr. Booth added, 
 " Because, if not, it is clear that the only consideration 
 that would justify me in having recourse to a cross, 
 would be the discovery of a tribe which, besides possess- 
 ing in an equal degree with my own the qualities we have 
 mentioned, are superior to them in utility and symme- 
 try." " G-ranted,'' I replied. " Where is it ?" was the 
 pertinent but perplexing rejoinder. '^ The result of the 
 last three crosses upon which I ventured," continued 
 Mr. Booth — " Water King, Exquisite, and Lord Stanley 
 — has made me distrust the policy of any further step in 
 that direction ; nor have the results I have witnessed of 
 the experiments of others in crossing animals of my blood 
 with the most fashionable bulls of other strains tended in 
 any instance to remove that distrust." 
 
 Any one who considers what careful judgment and 
 patient perseverance are required to ingraft upon a herd 
 of cattle any desired modifications of form and character, 
 and who knows how difficult it is to maintain these ac- 
 quired characteristics with anything like uniformity (even 
 when breeding exclusively from animals which have 
 themselves inherited them), must see what risk there is of 
 losing them altogether by crossing with extraneous blood, 
 unless such crossing is pursued to that moderate extent 
 only, and with that consummate judgment which the 
 Booths displayed in infusing into their herds the blood of 
 Mussulman and Lord Lieutenant. But Mr. Booth was 
 
THE BOOTH HERDS. 129 
 
 of opinion that, even if this were not the case, and the 
 infusion of fresh blood were to result in increased proli- 
 ficness to his own herd, it would materially lessen the 
 value of his bulls for crossing other herds. That value 
 he held to consist in the fact that they have been bred 
 from parents with similar qualities and tendencies for 
 successive generations, and that thus their individual and 
 family characteristics have become so far intensified as 
 greatly to enhance their impressive power. The great 
 axiom of breeding, which nearly 2000 years ago was thus 
 poetically rendered — 
 
 " Fortes creantur fortibus et bonis, 
 Est in juvencis, est in equis patrum 
 Virtus " — 
 
 Or, in other words, the principle that " like begets like," 
 can only be relied upon as a governing law where the ex- 
 cellences of the sire are not accidentally but hereditarily, 
 and therefore constitutionally, his. So long as the 
 Warlaby herd retains its present high degree of perfec- 
 tion, together with its hardiness and soundness of con- 
 stitution, it is certainly desirable to be extremely cautious 
 of diminishing this hereditary transmissive influence. 
 Eew, indeed, who have experienced the value of the 
 Warlaby bulls can doubt that Mr. Booth exercised a wise 
 discretion in refusing to expose to such mischances as an 
 incongruous cross might entail the future of a herd 
 whose benefits have been recognised throughout this 
 kingdom, in her remotest colonies, and in many a foreign 
 clime. The hereditary character and virtues of the 
 "Warlaby strain are as yet unimpaired — 
 " The fortune of the family remains, 
 
 Though granclsires* grandsires the long list contains." 
 
130 THE BOOTH HEEDS. 
 
 May it long continue to flourish, lending as heretofore, its 
 symmetry and its substance to numberless herds in this 
 and in other lands ; and may future generations of the 
 Booth family emulate their sires and their grandsires in 
 the noble work in which they have excelled for three- 
 quarters of a century — the work of exercising their talent 
 and their skill for the benefit of the human race ! 
 
 In pursuing this important subject I have been called 
 upon to travel over, however briefly, the whole period of 
 Shorthorn history, from the first faint dawnings of 
 improvement down to the present time ; for during the 
 whole of this period the Killerby, Studley, and Warlaby 
 herds of Booth cattle have presented a striking mark. 
 Casual allusions have been made to the difi*erent fluctua- 
 tions in price to which, during this time, the shorthorn 
 market has been subjected ; and, perchance, a few re- 
 marks on its probable future prospects may not be out of 
 place here. 
 
 Many years since, a nobleman who was distinguished 
 as being at the same time one of the most far-seeing of 
 statesmen and one of the most eminent and scientific of 
 breeders — the late Earl Spencer — declared that shorthorn- 
 breeding was then only in its infancy, and that an enor- 
 mous field at home, in the colonies, and in the world at 
 large, would, in course of time, open to reward the 
 science and the energy of English breeders. To a con- 
 siderable extent this prediction has since been realized; 
 but there are not wanting abundant indications to show 
 that the future is pregnant with yet more abundant pro- 
 mise. The increased intercourse of nations, and the 
 desire in all lands for new and improved breeds of cattle 
 are everywhere most marked, and yet on the whole are 
 
THE BOOTH HEBDS. 131 
 
 only just commencing ; while, bo far as we can see, 
 though in certain localities other breeds may be partially 
 useful, the English Shorthorn is the only one that can 
 supply the universal want. Whole continents demand 
 them ; and though for a time wars and rumours of wars, 
 and a destructive murrain, have prevented their wishes 
 being carried out, the return of peace and disappear- 
 ance of the cattle plague can but increase the neces- 
 sities of the nations. Even at home a large and ever- 
 extending field is yet open to the shorthorn breeder. 
 These cattle are rapidly becoming the national breed of 
 Ireland ; Scotland finds it her interest to use them most 
 extensively for crossing with her native breeds ; and in 
 numerous English counties, where the mongrel and the 
 ne'er-do-weel have hitherto prevailed, the farmers are 
 beginning to understand that their unthrifty and un- 
 gainly cattle are not adapted to new systems of agricul- 
 ture and improved modes of feeding, and are opening 
 their purse-strings for the purchase of the shorthorn. 
 Nothing can prove this more clearly than the enormous 
 prices realized at recent sales of Shorthorn cattle, par- 
 ticularly Mr. Betts's and Mr. Macintosh's, and that 
 not alone by animals of one kind of blood — Colonel 
 Towneley's Eoan Duchesses, and Sir Charles Knightley's 
 Eosys almost vieing with the Grand Duchesses and the 
 Oxfords. Surely, our prospects are most encouraging, 
 and I am entitled to say to my shorthorn friends, " Go 
 on, and prosper." 
 
 In concluding these remarks upon the Booth cattle, 
 and upon the subject of breeding so inseparably con- 
 nected with them, I am fully sensible of the imperfec- 
 
 K 2 
 
132 THE BOOTH HERDS. 
 
 tions which must necessarily cleave to a work partly- 
 treating of past times, the memory of which is rapidly 
 vanishing, and partly of the present times, in which 
 rivalry, competition, and difference of opinion inevitably 
 prevail. I must rely therefore upon the indulgence of 
 the public, which is well acquainted with the dif&culties 
 of the undertaking. I • have studiously confined myself, 
 as the subject required, to the Booth cattle and their 
 descendants ; and if the herds of other breeders have not 
 been mentioned, which they could not be appropriately, 
 neither have they been depreciated. This merit at least 
 I may claim — to have extenuated nothing, nor " set down 
 aught in malice." And if I should be thought to have 
 succeeded in adding a page to shorthorn lore, to have con- 
 tributed a trifle to the encouragement of shorthorn 
 breeders, or to have in any degree directed the attention 
 of the public to a subject in which it is so deeply inter- 
 ested, I shall be abundantly rewarded. And so I com- 
 mend my labours to the indulgence of the reader. 
 
133 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 [Abridged from " Shorthorn Intelligence," in Bell's Weekly 
 Messenger of April 29, 1867.] 
 
 Nearly ten years have passed since our first visit to 
 Warlaby. That day, as all such days are to lovers 
 of shorthorns, is a day to be remembered. Notwith- 
 standing incessant and tremendous rain, so disastrous 
 generally to the bloom and good looks of cattle, the 
 shorthorns of Warlaby seemed hardly disparaged by the 
 heavy downfall. To worse shapes than theirs it would 
 have been absolutely fatal. One after another, they 
 were each seen, approached, examined — in all their pro- 
 minent characteristics, and in all their minute details. 
 Bianca was there — Bride Elect, in her prime — Eoyal 
 Bride, her daughter — Satin, old but sprightly, lengthy 
 and well-framed, her long horns fantastically wreathed 
 aloft ; her udder, beautifully shaped, and equal to the 
 demands of two calves — Sarcenet, her offspring, by 
 Crown Prince, large and grand, but somewhat loose in 
 structure — Charity, though well advanced in years, dis- 
 playing the compactness of her youth, and the fulness of 
 her youth's loveliness — Queen of the May, rather past 
 the point of perfection, but still beautiful, and still as 
 round as a cylinder, " as round as a hoop " Mr. Booth 
 used to say— Queen Mab, her career of triumph near at 
 
134 APPENDIX. 
 
 hand — Bridesmaid, with her sweet little head, her slop- 
 ing shoulders, her wonderful back, and her short legs — 
 Blithe, remarkable for arched ribs and general neatness 
 of shape — Princess Mary and Blithesome, mighty fabrics 
 of symmetry and flesh — Orange Blossom, an astonishing 
 animal for bulk and beauty — Own Sister to Windsor, a 
 great favourite of Mr. Booth's — Eed Eose, at one time 
 not less noticeable for personal charms than for fertility 
 at all times — Yivandiere, Campfollower, Lady Blithe 
 (then a calf), and Lady Grace and Queen of the Isles, 
 yearlings. How shall the various and respective 
 peculiarities of these individuals be distinguished ? 
 They were all difierent, yet all belonged to one type ; 
 and again and again, even as a man turns to passages in 
 a great writer which arrested attention on a first perusal, 
 they were turned to with renewed delight, for purposes 
 not of delight merely, but of study and instructiou. 
 "Well ; what have the ten years which came and went 
 since first we knew the herd at Warlaby accomplished ? 
 What have they done, either to improve it, or worsen it, 
 or leave it in statu quo ? A recent visit enables us, so far 
 as our own judgment is concerned, to answer the question 
 with some degree of positiveness. There are not so 
 many astonishing cows and heifers as there were then ; 
 and this, inasmuch as it may be due in no slight measure 
 to the rinderpest-interval of non-forcing, is so far an 
 advantage ; but there are cows and heifers of the former 
 stamp exactly ; and the general material of the herd we 
 have no hesitation in pronouncing as good as ever. 
 Whether the specimen-cows, as those which are compara- 
 
APPENDIX. 135 
 
 tively *' made-up " may be termed, or the unforced 
 breeding stock, are considered, we can see no indications 
 of personal degeneracy ; and the great number of calves 
 and of cows in milk would seem to aiford credible evi- 
 dence of the general fertility of the herd. The prime old 
 favourites are gone ; but their places are taken by younger 
 ones, and are filled with examples of the hereditary type; 
 examples that will be, ten years hence, what the best of 
 those we have mentioned were, ten years ago. One 
 thing struck us, and it will doubtless strike others under 
 similar circumstances. The female lines which used to be 
 regarded as the best, no longer take the lead. Instead 
 of the majority of the choicest animals being derived from 
 the Isabella, Strawberry and Halnaby, and Blossom 
 families, they are now of the Bliss or Broughton tribe, 
 and a great many very good ones descend from the 
 Christen sort. Mr. Booth attributes to the show-sys- 
 tem the decline or the loss of the once prolific kinds. 
 Unquestionably that system is responsible for much evil. 
 Captain Gunter has wisely determined to "show "no 
 more ; and we sincerely hope, in the interests of short- 
 horn breeding, that Mr. Booth may form the same reso- 
 lution. Neither of the herds, either that at Warlaby or 
 that at Wetherby, requires so great a sacrifice as con- 
 tinual " training " implies ; for the reputation of both is 
 as high as ifc can be. Southey, in one of his delightful 
 letters, says to Sir Walter Scott, ** We have both got to 
 the top of the hill, by difi'erent paths, and meet there 
 not as rivals but as friends, each rejoicing in the success 
 of the other." No one disputes their place; nor would 
 fifty more rosettes and cups, and fifty more ruined con- 
 
136 APPENDIX. 
 
 stitutions, give to their position one tittle more of glory. 
 * * * "WTg propose, contrary to our usual practice, 
 to notice some of tlie bulls before we request the reader's 
 attention to the cows. The oldest bull at "VYarlaby, 
 Lord of the Hills (18267), a son of Sir Samuel and Eed 
 Eose by Harbinger (through the sires, we may observe, 
 Mr. Booth retains the blood of his extinct female races), 
 is about the best we ever saw there ; one of the best, 
 certainly. With plenty of size (he is, in fact, rather 
 large than otherwise), he is wonderfully good in the 
 shoulders, and level along the top ; his loins being strong, 
 thick, and broad. Through the heart, behind the scapula, 
 and at the fore-flank, he has all the old Warlaby charac- 
 teristics, and the under-line is as straight as a wand. 
 His head, neck, and breast, are masculine, and shew 
 breed ; his hind -quarters neat ; hislegs straight, and widely 
 separated. In colour he is roan, of a grizzly-grey sort. 
 His son, Mountain Chief (from Soldier's Bride), a great 
 tall roomy bull of a rather deeper roan colour, cannot be 
 described as Tiandsome, nor yet as anything but a good 
 animal. He has the Booth well-rounded fore-rib, a firm 
 level back, and abundant depth of fore-quarter. Com- 
 mander-in-Chief (21451), roan, the son of Valasco and of 
 CampfoUower by Crown Prince, just now in full perfec- 
 tion of symmetry and muscular development, is a mag- 
 nificent representative of the genuine "Warlaby type of 
 shorthorn. Imposing in presence, he comes out with a 
 lordly air of dignity and self-assertion -, quiet, unpretend- 
 ing, self-sustaiued. In form, he is of the thick substantial 
 order ; and if any points demand special notice, the crops 
 do, for their wonderful width. Among other remarkable 
 
APPENDIX. 137 
 
 features of detail, the filling-up between the crops and 
 the shoulder-blades is wonderfully complete and excel- 
 lent ; his loins are of astonishing thickness and strength ; 
 the breast has immense development ; and the flank is of 
 the most extraordinary weight we ever felt. The thighs 
 are wide and heavy, connected by an ample twist ; and 
 the arms, of vast power, contrast with the fineness of the 
 bone below the knee. The bull's way of walking deserves 
 to be mentioned ; fore and hind legs are placed so 
 grandly apart, are so rightly made, and move forward in 
 such a direct line when he steps. On our observing this 
 to Mr. J3ooth, his reply was highly descriptive ; " Yes ; 
 he walks with his legs well outside him." With The 
 Sutler (23061), who served a year at Mr. Bruere's, we 
 were " agreeably disappointed," having heard him dis- 
 paraged, and in no very qualified terms. In consequence 
 of his teeth being loose and out of order, he did badly 
 for some months, but they are right now, and he is 
 rapidly growing a fine bull. The rest of the bulls are 
 chiefly calves; very good, but too young perhaps for 
 particular and discriminative delineation. Tet a few 
 months will make them worth from a hundred to two 
 hundred guineas a year, and, what is more, will find them 
 earning it. One of them, only ten months old, from Lord 
 of the Valley and Charlotte, exacts special mention and 
 special praise. As large as most yearhngs, he is very 
 handsome, a full rich roan, true in build, and stylish. 
 Grreat Hope, a red, from Hopeful, and by Commander-in- 
 Chief, is also an admirable calf, destined, we expect, to 
 redeem the promise of his lineage and present appear- 
 ance. * * * Three magnificent cows were out upon 
 
138 APPENDIX. 
 
 the long middenstead opposite the line of boxes with 
 which all visitors to "Warlaby are familiar. They were 
 Queen of the Ocean (red and white), Lady Joyful (roan), 
 and Soldier's Bride (white) ; and they presented, not 
 only an agreeable contrast in colour (one of the acknow- 
 ledged attractions of shorthorns), but also a fine study 
 as respects excellence of form exhibited under three dis- 
 tinct varieties. They represent also, three distinct female 
 lines ; that of Strawberry and Halnaby ; that of Bliss or 
 Broughton ; and that of Yivandiere or the Moss Eoses. 
 Queen of the Ocean, the !Pirst Prize cow at the Bat- 
 tersea Koyal, retains much of the loveliness of her show- 
 yard days. Lower in condition than when we saw her 
 at the North Lancashire with Pride of Southwick? 
 another Eoyal Prima Donna, she has not given way or 
 become censurable anywhere. The only difference seems 
 to be that she has rather less flesh all over j equally dis- 
 posed it is, but there is less in quantity. She shows 
 herself as well as a cow can do, and looks faultlessly 
 beautiful. Unfortunately, not breeding, nor likely to 
 breed, for we suppose it is no scandal to say so, she is 
 little more than a picture now ; but the power of her 
 blood imparted by her son. Prince of Battersea, to Bloom- 
 ing Bride, a noble heifer, may be expected to work with 
 its hereditary tendency towards the truest ideals, and 
 contribute to the reproduction of animals resembling 
 herself. Soldier's Bride, the least handsome of the 
 three, is still a noble cow ; of wonderful length but with 
 unyielding firmness of back. Her failing point is of 
 course, as those who knew her in her palmy days will 
 suspect, the droop of the hind-quarters ; and this, at her 
 
APPENDIX. 189 
 
 age, is not likely to improve. She is very heavily 
 fleshed. The last of the triad, Lady Joyful, is a truly 
 splendid cow, uniting enormous weight with elegance 
 of shape. Wide and deep, displaying the best Booth 
 points throughout, she has a style about her which 
 even sooner than her structural merit commands ad- 
 miration. This style is explained upon a piecemeal 
 examination. Her head is beautiful, and the shape 
 and setting-on of her neck, and the moulding of her 
 bosom, neck-vein, shoulders, and chine, are simply 
 examples of perfection. Her dam. Lady Blithe, has bred 
 perhaps more really first-rate shorthorns than any other 
 cow in existence. She has replenished the Warlaby herd, 
 and maintained its superiority by supplying some of the 
 best females the herd now contains. To Lord of the 
 Valley she has bred eight calves, and to Sir Samuel she 
 bred once ; nine calves, and her tenth year will not be 
 completed till July. The alliance of Lord of the Valley 
 with Vi^indsor's stock appears to have answered admira- 
 bly in every instance. In the produce of Lady Blithe 
 this is very noticeable, and also in Bride of the Vale, the 
 daughter of Soldier's Bride. Lady Blithe is a thorough 
 high-bred dairy cow ; happily (for the fact exempts her 
 from many risks) she has no showyard pretensions what- 
 ever ; but a well-knit frame, and a look of pure and ancient 
 blood about the head and horns, and a neck of peculiarly 
 graceful and feminine outline (a point of great impor- 
 tance), distinguish her at once as a shorthorn of note. 
 Her daughter. Lady Mirth by Sir Samuel, a roan seven- 
 year-old, has the tidy cow-like character of her grandam 
 Blithe by Hopewell, and is the mother of several mem- 
 
140 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 bers of the herd, one of which, a very gay-looking red 
 heifer, Lady Jane by Lord of the Valley, specially won 
 our regard. Merry Peal, Lady Jane's own sister, and 
 Merry Monarch (22349), are among the offspring of 
 Lady Mirth. Lady Jane (short, we think, of two years 
 old) reminded us forcibly of Mr. Carr's Lady of the 
 Valley when a yearling, closely resembling her about the 
 head and fore-quarters ; but Lady of the Valley, we 
 think, was a better heifer than her half sister, though an 
 uncommonly good one, is at present. Three more of the 
 valuable Blithe family (and contracting space forbids the 
 mention of more than three) must be particularized ; 
 Lady Fragrant (the Eoyal prize-taker), and the twins 
 Lady Grrateful and Lady Grratitude, own sisters to Lady 
 Fragrant and Lady Joyful. The first of these three, and 
 the greatest both in fame and personal loveliness, has 
 changed but little since her triumphant appearance at 
 Plymouth. Though not large, she is exquisitely beau- 
 tiful ; finely rounded along the saddle to the shoulders, 
 with a bright countenance and a sweetly formed neck. 
 It would be difficult to imagine symmetry more perfect. 
 She has bred a lovely red heifer calf, Lady Perfume, to 
 Commander-in-Chief. Lady Gratitude, now in calf to 
 Mountain Chief, has the red roan colour so common in 
 the Blithe family ; capital flesh, good hair, and widely 
 sprung ribs. Lady Grateful is a still better heifer ; all 
 covered with rich roan ; has loins of extraordinary ex- 
 cellence ; a back admirable throughout ; flank, fore-flank, 
 and all the under-line, beautiful. She gave birth a few 
 weeks ago to a wonderfully fine roan bull calf, which, if 
 luck attend him, will by and by stand foremost in the 
 
APPENDIX. 141 
 
 first class of "Warlaby sires. Of the Christen family, 
 Alfreda by Prince Alfred, a good cow of the deeply 
 fleshed old Booth sort, and the dam of Prince Christian 
 (22581), now ''out" at Mr. Aylmer's— Mabel, a hand- 
 some roan yearling by General Hopewell ; and Melissa, 
 a white three-year-old by the same bull — are our 
 favourites ; and, in sub-selecting, Mabel would be chosen. 
 She is neat, compact, and cow-like. The once famous 
 Halnaby tribe is represented by Modesty 2nd, a smart, 
 stylish, light-boned cow of 1863, by Lord of the Valley 
 and from old Modesty — and by Prudence, a splendid 
 white yearling heifer from her by General Hopewell ; and 
 the prestige of the Bianca branch of the family depends 
 upon two fine animals, Eoyal Bridesmaid by Prince 
 Alfred, and Blooming Bride, before alluded to, a hand- 
 somely formed and thorough Warlaby heifer by Queen 
 of the Ocean's short-lived son, himself a winner, Prince 
 of Battersea. If the Yivandiere or Moss Eose tribe, to 
 which we now turn, had only Bride of the Vale (the 
 daughter of Soldier's Bride) to represent it, the acknow- 
 ledged value of the family would be amply asserted. 
 Bride of the Vale, a rich roan, by Lord of the Valley, and 
 of great size, is one of the best heifers at Warlaby ; and 
 though only two years and three months old, bred a calf 
 about the middle of March. She has, proportioned to 
 the difference in age, the length of her dam, and all her 
 dam's grand properties, with greater evenness; and 
 whether regarded as fitted to be a show animal with the 
 highest expectations, or considered with reference to the 
 more profitable object of multiplying her kind, she is 
 indeed a superb heifer. With very little forcing she 
 
142 APPENDIX. 
 
 would prove equal to nearly any of the winners that 
 Warlaby has sent out. She has both style and excellence 
 of detail. It is worthy of note, that about Lord of the 
 Valley's stock there is a brightness of aspect and a lofti- 
 ness of carriage which infallibly add to the attractiveness 
 of the massive and substantial "Warlaby cows. In 
 Soldier's Daughter, the offspring of him and Camp- 
 follower, these characteristics are strikingly apparent; 
 but we mention her, not so much on account of her merit, 
 which is however of a distinguished order, as because it 
 gives us an opportunity of stating, in reply to reiterated 
 assertions to the contrary, that not only is the tribe to 
 which she belongs, but that all the tribes composing the 
 "Warlaby herd, are famous for possessing more than ordi- 
 nary milking powers. CampfoUower was an extreme 
 milker, and, indeed, died of milk fever after giving birth 
 to Soldier's Daughter. * * * One other family, con- 
 sisting of only three members, deserves especial mention, 
 for its history is interesting. "We allude to the cows 
 British Eose by Prince Greorge; her daughter. Wild 
 Eose by Lord of the Valley ; and a calf, Christmas Eose, 
 "Wild Eose's sister. These animals are derived, the 
 former through four, the second and third through five 
 crosses, from a red polled G-alloway Scot ; and the ex- 
 periment, issuing as it does in pure shorthorn charac- 
 teristics, is entirely successful. * * * Such, in con- 
 clusion, are our thoughts upon the herd at "Warlaby. It 
 is a magnificent herd ; a herd containing animals of the 
 most exalted merit, and representing family alliances and 
 combinations of blood, long and watchfully proved, which 
 guarantee, under circumstances of ordinary fortune, a 
 
APPENDIX. 143 
 
 continuance of animals of the same stamp. It is the 
 result, not of capricious and versatile tastes, but of defi- 
 nite principles thoroughly examined and deliberately 
 adopted ; and it has the general uniformity which pro- 
 ceeds from such causes. But general uniformity is con- 
 sistent with gradations of excellence, and it is so at 
 Warlaby. The term " good," like the term " bad," has 
 , a worst and a best. A friend of ours — not now a short- 
 horn breeder — with no class-prejudices, with no class- 
 partialities, but a lover of fine shorthorns whatever dis- 
 tinctive name they bear, intimately acquainted with the 
 leading herds of the day, and competent to form a sound 
 judgment respecting the characteristic merits of the 
 species and the particular merits of individuals, strongly 
 contends that he could select from "Warlaby at least half 
 a dozen females, not only better than any other single 
 herd could supply, but better than could be selected from 
 all the herds of Great Britain and Ireland in the 
 aggregate. We give this emphatic opinion without 
 comment. 
 
 Eemaeks on the Breeding op Payoueite, Comet, and 
 THE EAELiEE BooTH BuLLS. By the Ecv. J. Stoeee. 
 
 Few people have any idea of the amazing extent to 
 which in-and-in-breeding was carried on by the Brothers 
 Colling ; and so great was the complication it involved, 
 that few of those who know the outline of the circum- 
 stances, can adequately realize all their intricacies. It 
 is almost impossible to describe even proximately in some 
 of its stronger features the system they pursued. But 
 
144 APPENDIX. 
 
 the attempt ought to made; for the Messrs. CoUing's 
 system of in-and-in-breeding, is not only one of the most 
 remarkable and authentic eases in the history of the 
 reproduction of animals with which we are acquainted, 
 but the earlier Booth Bulls were amongst those most 
 strongly subjected to its influence. 
 
 Mr. C. Ceiling's bull Bolingbroke, and his cow Phoenix, 
 were brother and sister on the sire's side, and nearly so 
 on the dam's. They were of the same family ; and the 
 only difference in descent was, that Bolingbroke was a 
 grandson of Dalton Duke, while Phoenix was not. But 
 this apparent difference, slight as it is, was not all real ; 
 for Dalton Duke also contained some portion of their 
 common blood. Arithmetically stated, the blood of the 
 two being taken and divided into thirti/-tivo iparts, twenty- 
 nine of those parts were of blood common to both, rather 
 differently proportioned between them. Phoenix had 
 sixteen of those parts, Boliugbroke thirteen ; the latter 
 having also three fresh parts derived from Dalton Duke, 
 which made up the thirty-two. 
 
 Being thus very nearly own brother and sister, they 
 were the joint parents of the bull Pavourite. That 
 bull was next put to his own mother Phoenix, so nearly 
 related to him on his sire's side also ; and the produce 
 was Young Phoenix. To this heifer Pavourite was once 
 more put, she being at once his daughter and more 
 than own sister too. Por their two sires, Boliugbroke 
 and Pavourite, were not only as nearly as possible 
 consanguineous with each other, but also with the cow 
 Phoenix, to which they were both put. The result was 
 — Comet. 
 
APPEISDIX. 145 
 
 Nor was this all. The system was carried much fur- 
 ther. The celebrated Booth Bull Albion was not only a 
 son of the in-and-in Tavourite-bred Comet, but his dam 
 was a grandaughter of Favourite on both sides, and de- 
 scended besides from both the sire and the dam of 
 Favourite. 
 
 It is not so possible to make an exact statement with 
 regard to Pilot, for it is not known whether he was by 
 Major (398)r or Wellington (680). Nor does it much 
 matter ; for five-eighths of Major's and three-quarters of 
 "Wellington's blood were derived from Favourite, by 
 repeated inter-crossings ; and Pilot's dam was not only 
 by Favourite but she was also the grandaughter of Fol- 
 jambe, the sire of both the parents of Favourite. 
 
 Marshal Beresford was, like Albion, a son of Comet ; 
 and his dam was by a grandson of Favourite out of a 
 daughter of Favourite. 
 
 Suworrow was by a son of Favourite ; and his dam was 
 a daughter of Favourite ; and Twin Brother of Ben was 
 from a cow by Foljambe, the double grandsire of Fa- 
 vourite. 
 
 Even this does not exhaust the subject. Many of the 
 above-mentioned animals were otherwise related to each 
 other by a common descent from Hubback, and from 
 other progenitors. 
 
 Albion has been called " The Alloy Bull." I think 
 with very little -reason. When it is remembered that he 
 is the seventh in descent from that blood, and that there- 
 fore only one part of his blood came from " The Alloy," 
 against one hundred and twenty-seven parts which were 
 not derived from it, the chances against either good or 
 
146 APPENDIX. 
 
 evil resulting therefrom were infinitesimally small ; and 
 so no doubt such an acute observer as Mr. Booth well 
 knew. 
 
 The following is an imperfect List of the Prizes won 
 by the Warlaby and Killerby Shorthorns, no 
 record having been kept of the earlier Prizes, nor 
 until very recently of those taken at the minor 
 Shows. 
 
 1840. ToEKSHiRE Show, at Northallerton. 
 
 Second prize bull calf, Leonard. 
 
 Pirst prize three-year-old cow, Bracelet. 
 
 Second prize one-year-old heifer, Mantalini. 
 
 1841. E. A. S. at Liteepool. 
 Pirst prize cow. Bracelet. 
 
 Pirst prize two-year-old, Mantalini. 
 
 Yoekshiee, Hull. 
 Pirst prize cow, Bracelet. 
 Second prize two-year-old heifer, Mantalini. 
 
 Highland Society, Berwick-on-Tweed. 
 Pirst prize cow, Bracelet, 
 rirst prize two-year-old heifer, Mantalini. 
 
 1842. E. A. S. Bristol. 
 Pirst prize cow, Necklace. 
 
 Yorkshire, York. 
 
 Second prize cow. Necklace. 
 First prize three-year-old, Mantalinic 
 Extra prize, Bracelet. 
 Sweepstakes, best cow, Necklace. 
 
APPENDIX. 147 
 
 Sweepstakes, best lot of four animals : — 
 
 Bracelet, Necklace, Mantalini and Ladythorn. 
 
 184J3. TOEKSHIEE, DONCASTEE. 
 
 Pirst prize cow, Necklace. 
 
 Second prize three- year-old cow, Taitli. 
 
 Pirst prize two-year-old, Ladytliom. 
 
 Second prize two-year- old. Birthday. 
 
 Second prize yearling, Modish. 
 
 Extra stock second prize. White Strawberry. 
 
 1844. E. A. S. Southampton". 
 First prize cow, Birthday. 
 
 First prize yearling. Bud. 
 
 Yorkshire, Eichmond. 
 Second prize cow. Faith. 
 First prize three-year-old cow. Birthday. 
 First prize two-year-old. Modish. 
 Second prize yearling. Bud. 
 First prize heifer, Pearl. 
 First and second extra prize. Bracelet and Necklace. 
 
 1845. E. A. S. Shrewsbury. 
 
 First prize, Ladythorn (sold to and shown by Mr. 
 Banks Stanhope). 
 
 Yorkshire, Beverley. 
 
 Second prize aged bull, Fitz-Leonard. 
 First prize cow, Birthday. 
 First prize two-year-old heifer, Hope. 
 Second prize yearling. Gem. 
 
 1846. E. A. S. Newcastle. 
 First prize cow, Hope. 
 
 First prize two-year- old, Grem. 
 Extra prize, first. Necklace. 
 Extra prize, second, Birthday. 
 
 L 2 
 
148 APPENDIX. 
 
 ToEKSHiEE. Wakefield. 
 First prize yearling bull, Hamlet. 
 First prize cow, Mantalini. 
 Second prize cow. Alba. 
 First prize three-year-old cow, Hope. 
 First prize two-year-old. Gem. 
 First prize calf. Bloom. 
 First prize extra. Birthday. 
 
 Smithpield Club. 
 First prize cow, Gold Medal for best female in 
 yard. Silver Medal to breeder, Necklace. 
 
 1847. B. A. S. NOETHAMPTON. 
 
 First prize cow. Cherry Blossom. 
 
 First prize two-year-old heifer, Isabella Buckingham. 
 
 First prize yearling heifer. Charity. 
 
 Second prize bull, calved previous to 1845, Hamlet. 
 
 TORKSHIEE, SCAEBOEOUGH. 
 
 First prize cow, Hope. 
 
 First prize three-year-old cow, Cherry Blossom. 
 
 First prize two-year-old heifer, Isabella Buckingham. 
 
 First prize yearling. Charity. 
 
 Second prize extra stock. Bagatelle. 
 
 1848. E. A. S. ToEK, and the Local in the all 
 
 England Class. 
 Second prize cow, Isabella Buckingham. 
 First prize two-year-old heifer. Charity. 
 First prize cow (Local prize), Hope. 
 First prize pair of heifers, Charity and British 
 Queen. 
 
 1849. R. A. S. NoEWicH. 
 First prize cow. Charity. 
 
 Second prize Isabella Buckingham. 
 
APPENDIX. 149 
 
 YoEKSHiEE, Leeds. 
 
 Pirst prize yearling bull, Hopewell. 
 Second prize bull calf, Bullion. 
 Pirst prize cow, Isabella Buckingham. 
 Second prize cow, Bagatelle. 
 First prize tbree-year-old. Charity. 
 First prize extra stock, Cherry Blossom. 
 
 Highland Society, Glasgow. 
 First prize. Charity. 
 Second prize, Isabella Buckingham. 
 
 1850. E. A. S. Exeter. 
 First prize yearling bull, Harbinger. 
 First prize cow, Isabella Buckingham. 
 Second prize cow. Bagatelle. 
 
 Yorkshire, Thiesk. 
 First prize cow, Charity. 
 Second prize heifer calf, Bride. 
 Second prize extra stock, Isabella Buckingham. 
 
 1851. E. A. S. "Windsor. 
 First prize cow, Plum Blossom. 
 
 Yorkshire, Burlington. 
 Second prize bull calf, British Boy. 
 First prize cow. Cherry Blossom. 
 Second prize cow. Plum Blossom. 
 
 1852. E. A. S. Lewes. 
 
 First prize two-year-old bull, Eed Knight. 
 First prize two-year-old heifer, Eose Blossom. 
 Second prize yearling. Bridesmaid. 
 
 Yorkshire, Sheffield. 
 First prize bull calf, Windsor. 
 Second prize cow, Eose Blossom, 
 
150 APPENDIX. 
 
 First prize two-year-old, Venus Victrix. 
 Second prize two-year-old, Bride. 
 Second prize one-year-old, Bridesmaid. 
 
 1853. E. A. S. Gloucester. 
 Pirst prize yearling bull, "Windsor. 
 Second prize cow, Eose Blossom. 
 First prize two-year-old, Bridesmaid. 
 Second prize two-year-old, Peacli Blossom. 
 
 YOEKSHIRB, TOEK. 
 
 First prize yearling bull, Windsor. 
 Second prize cow, Eose Blossom. 
 First prize tbree-year-old cow, Venus Victrix. 
 First prize two-year-old. Bridesmaid. 
 
 North LA^ircASHiRE, Blackburn. 
 First prize yearling bull, "Windsor — Silver Medal 
 
 as best male animal, and Silver Cup offered by 
 
 Col. Towneley. 
 Second prize cow, Eose Blossom. 
 First prize two-year-old heifer. Bridesmaid, and 
 
 Silver Medal as best female animal, and Silver 
 
 Cup offered by Col. Towneley. 
 
 1854. E. A. S. Lincoln. 
 Second prize bull, "Windsor. 
 Second prize cow, Venus Victrix. 
 
 Did not show at the Yorkshire at Eipon. 
 EoYAL Irish, Armagh. 
 
 First prize aged bull, and Grold Medal for best bull 
 
 and Silver Medal to breeder, Windsor. 
 First prize cow. Bridesmaid. 
 
 Highland, Berwick-on- Tweed. 
 First prize aged bull, Windsor. 
 First prize bull calf, Prince Alfred. 
 
APPENDIX. 151 
 
 Eirst prize cow, Bridesmaid. 
 
 Eirst prize yearling heifer, Bride Elect. 
 
 [N'OETHUMBEELAND CoTJNTT, MOEPETH. 
 
 First prize cow, Yenus Victrix. 
 
 1855. E. A. S. Caelisle. 
 First prize bull, Windsor. 
 
 First prize cow, Bridesmaid. 
 
 Second prize two-year-old heifer, Bride Elect. 
 
 TOEKSHIEE, MaLTON. 
 
 First prize aged bull, Windsor. 
 First prize cow. Bridesmaid. 
 Second prize cow, Venus Yictrix. 
 Second prize two-year-old. Bride Elect. 
 Second prize heifer calf, Queen of the May. 
 
 1856. E. A. S. Chelmsfoed. 
 
 First prize yearKng heifer. Queen of the May. 
 
 YOEKSHIEE, EOTHEEHAM. 
 
 Second prize cow, Yenus Yictrix. 
 Second prize three-year-old cow, Bride Elect. 
 First prize heifer, Queen of the May. 
 First prize fat heifer. Water Nymph. 
 First prize extra stock. Bridesmaid. 
 
 1857. E.A. S. Salisbuey. 
 Second prize bull calf. Lord of the Yalley. 
 Second prize two-year-old heifer, Queen of the May. 
 Second prize yearling, Queen Mab. 
 
 YOEKSHIEE, YOEK. 
 
 First prize bull calf, Lord of the Yalley. 
 
 First prize three-year-old cow, Nectarine Blossom. 
 
 First prize two-year-old, Queen of the May. 
 
152 APPENDIX. 
 
 Second prize yearling, Queen Mab. 
 Pirst prize heifer calf, Queen of the Isles. 
 
 DrEHAM COTJNTT, StOCKTO]S--ON-TeES. 
 
 Second prize cow, Bride Elect. 
 
 Eirst prize two-year-old, Queen of the May, and 
 
 100-guinea Challenge Cup for best animal. 
 Eirst prize yearling, Queen Mab. 
 Eirst prize calf. Queen of the Isles. 
 
 NORTHIJMBEELAND, COENHILL. 
 
 Second prize yearling, Yenus de Medici. 
 
 1858. E. A. S. Chestee. 
 
 Eirst prize cow, Nectarine Blossom. 
 Eirst prize yearling heifer. Queen of the Isles. 
 
 ToEKSHIEE, IS'OETHALLEETOTT. 
 
 Eirst prize cow, Nectarine Blossom. 
 Second prize two-year-old heifer. Queen Mab. 
 Eirst prize yearling, Queen of the Isles. 
 Second prize heifer calf, Queen of the Yale. 
 Eirst prize extra stock, Bride Elect. 
 Special prize, 20-guinea Cup, for best animal in yard. 
 Queen of the Isles. 
 
 DlIEHAM, SlJNDEELAN^D. 
 
 Eirst prize cow, Nectarine Blossom, and 100 gs. Cup, 
 
 for best animal in the yard. 
 Eirst prize two-year-old heifer. Queen Mab. 
 Eirst prize yearling heifer, Queen of the Isles. 
 Second prize heifer calf. Queen of the Yale. 
 Eirst prize bull calf, Sir James. 
 
 1859. 
 
 EOTAL NOETH LaIs^CASHIEE, BLACKBrEK. 
 
 Eirst prize cow. Nectarine Blossom. 
 Second prize cow. Queen Mab. 
 
APPENDIX. 153 
 
 YoEKSHiRE, Hull. 
 First prize three-year-old cow, Queen Mab. 
 
 Durham, West Hartlepool. 
 
 First prize cow, Queen Mab, and 100 gs. Cup, for 
 best animal in yard, — thus winning it three 
 years in succession. 
 
 Extra stock, Nectarine Blossom. 
 
 1860. E. A. S. Cat^terbury. 
 
 Second prize cow. Queen Mab. 
 
 Yorkshire, Ponteeeact. 
 First prize cow. Queen Mab. 
 
 Second prize two-year-old heifer. Queen of the Yale. 
 Second prize yearling, Soldier's Bride. 
 Special prize and Silver Cup, for best shorthorn 
 cow. Queen Mab. 
 
 Northern Counties, Darlington. 
 
 First prize under three years old, Soldier's Bride, 
 
 and 100 gs. Grold Cup for best animal in yard. 
 Second prize under four years old, Queen of the 
 
 Isles. 
 
 Yorkshire Fat Stock Show, York. 
 First prize, under three years old. Soldier's Bride, 
 and Silver Cup for best animal in yard. 
 
 Durham, Bishop Auckland. 
 First prize one-year-old heifer. Soldier's Bride. 
 
 Cleveland Society, Middlesborough. 
 First prize cow, Queen Mab. 
 First prize two-year-old. Queen of the Yale. 
 First prize yearling, Soldier's Bride. 
 
154 APPENDIX. 
 
 1861. E. A. S. AND YOEKSHIEE COMBINED, LeEDS. 
 
 Second prize, Queen Mab. 
 
 Second prize two-year-old, Soldier's Bride. 
 
 Dtjeham County, Darlington. 
 First prize two-year-old, and 100-guinea Cup, for 
 best animal in yard, Soldier's Bride. 
 
 Highland Society, Perth. 
 First prize, Queen of tbe Yale. "*• 
 
 Second prize, Queen Mab. 
 First prize two year old. Soldier's Bride. 
 
 Cleveland, Yarm. 
 First prize cow, Lady Grace. 
 Second prize, Queen of the Yale. 
 First prize two-year-old. Soldier's Bride. 
 
 Northumberland, Newcastle-on-Tyne. 
 First prize cow, Queen Mab. 
 Second prize. Queen of the Yale. 
 First prize two-year-old, Soldier's Bride. 
 
 1862. E. A. S. Battersea. 
 First prize cow. Queen of the Ocean. 
 
 First prize yearling beifer. Queen of the May 2nd. 
 Grold Medal, for best female in the yard, Queen of 
 the Ocean. 
 
 Yorkshire Society, York. 
 First prize. Queen of the Yale. 
 First prize three-year-old. Queen of the Ocean. 
 First prize yearling, Queen of the May 2nd. 
 
 Durham, Sedgefield. 
 First prize and 100-guinea Cup, for best animal in 
 
 yard, Queen of the Ocean. 
 Second prize cow. Queen of the Yale. 
 Second prize one-year-old. Queen of the May 2nd. 
 
APPENDIX. 155 
 
 YOEKSHIEE, GUISBOEOFGH. 
 
 Pirst prize cow, Queen of the Ocean. 
 
 Second prize, Sincerity. 
 
 First prize yearling, Queen of the May 2nd. 
 LAjyrcASHiEE, Peeston. 
 
 Second prize one-year-old. Queen of the May 2nd. 
 Ceaten, Skipton. 
 
 First prize. Soldier's Bride. 
 
 Second prize. Queen of the Ocean. 
 
 First prize two-year-old, Graceful. 
 
 Second prize one-year-old, Queen of the May 2nd. 
 
 Silver Cup for the best six animals : — 
 
 Queen of the Yale, Sincerity, Soldier's Bride, 
 Queen of the Ocean, Queen of the May 2nd, 
 and Graceful. 
 
 1863. E. A. S. WOECESTEE. 
 
 Second prize two-year-old heifer. Queen of the 
 
 May 2nd. 
 Prize for best pair of cows : — 
 
 Queen of the Ocean and Soldier's Bride. 
 Prize for best pair of heifers : — 
 
 Lady Graceful and Lady Joyful. 
 
 ToEKSHiEE, Stockton. 
 
 First prize bull calf, Prince of Battersea. 
 
 First prize cow, Queen of the Ocean. 
 
 Second prize. Soldier's Bride. 
 
 Second prize two-year-old heifer. Queen of the 
 
 May 2nd. 
 First extra prize. Queen of the Yale. 
 
 DuEHAM, Gateshead. 
 
 First prize bull calf, Prince of Battersea. 
 First prize cow, Soldier's Bride. 
 
156 APPENDIX. 
 
 Second prize two-year-old lieifer, Queen of the 
 May 2nd. 
 
 NOETHUMBEELAND, HeXHAM. 
 
 Pirst prize bull calf, Prince of Battersea. 
 Pirst prize cow, Queen of the Ocean. 
 Second prize. Soldier's Bride. 
 First prize two-year-old, Queen of the May 2nd. 
 
 Cletelaitd, Eedcae. 
 
 First prize cow, Queen of the Vale. 
 
 First prize two-year-old heifer, Lady Joyful. 
 
 NOETH LaNCASHIEE, LaN'CABTEE. 
 
 First prize bull calf, Prince of Battersea. 
 
 First prize cow. Queen of the Ocean. 
 
 Second prize two-year-old, Queen of the May 2nd. 
 
 Ceaven, Skipton. 
 First prize bull calf. Prince of Battersea. 
 First prize cow, Queen of the Ocean. 
 Second prize two-year-old, Queen of the May 2nd. 
 
 Halifax. 
 
 First prize bull calf, Prince of Battersea. 
 
 First prize cow. Queen of the Ocean. 
 
 Second prize two-year-old. Queen of the May 2nd. 
 
 Keighlet. 
 
 First prize bull calf. Prince of Battersea. 
 
 First prize cow, Queen of the Ocean. 
 
 Second prize two-year-old, Queen of the May 2nd. 
 
 1864. R. A. S. Newcastle. 
 
 Third prize yearling, Prince of Battersea. 
 Second prize bull calf, British Crown. 
 
APPENDIX. -^*^' 
 
 YOEKSHIEE, HOWDEN. 
 
 First prize aged bull, Prince Alfred. 
 Second prize, Kniglit of Windsor. 
 Eirst prize bull calf, British Crown. 
 First prize yearling beifer, Lady Fragrant. 
 
 ElPON, 
 
 Second prize bull, Prince Alfred. 
 
 First prize yearling bull calf, Prince of Battersea. 
 
 Cleveland, Eedcae. 
 First prize bull. Prince Alfred. 
 First prize yearling heifer, Lady Fragrant. 
 
 SCAEBOEOUGH. 
 
 First prize bull. Prince Alfred. 
 
 First prize bull calf, British Crown. 
 
 First prize one-year-old heifer. Lady Fragrant. 
 
 1865. ^- ^- ^- Bltmouth. 
 
 Second prize yearling bull, Commander-in-Chief. 
 First prize two-year-old. Lady Fragrant. 
 
 YOEKSHIEE, DoifCASTEE. 
 
 Third prize bull calf, Master Hopewell. 
 
 First prize Champion Silver Cup, for best annual 
 
 in yard, Lady Fragrant, two-year-old heifer. 
 First prize extra stock, Prince Alfred. 
 DuEHAM County, Dueham. 
 
 First prize buU, Prince Alfred. 
 First prize yearling, Commander-in-Chief. 
 First prize bull calf. Prince Christian^ 
 First prize two-year-old heifer, Lady Fragrant, and 
 100-guinea Cup, for best animal m yard. 
 
158 APPENDIX. 
 
 NoETHFMBEELAND CoUNTT, MORPETH. 
 
 Pirst prize bull calf, Prince Christian. 
 
 rirst prize two-year-old heifer, Lady Fragrant. 
 
 Cleveland, Guisboeotjgh. 
 
 Eirst prize bull. Prince Alfred. 
 
 First prize cow. Queen of the May 2nd. 
 
 NOETHAMPTONSHIEE, PeTEEBOEOTJGH. 
 
 First prize two-year-old heifer, Lady Fragrant. 
 
 THE END.