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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



£67 at Mr. Bates's ; £151 at Lord Ducie's ; £78 

 at Mr. Tanqueray's ; £80 at .Sir Charles Knight- 

 ley's ; £73 at Mr. Grenfell's ; £65 at Mr. Bolden's; 

 and £90 at Mr. M^ijoribanks's. And so the Short- 

 horn tide has ebbed and flowed for nearly eighty 

 years. From 1780 to 1818 it rose steadily. Then 

 came the depression consequent upon the Currency 

 measures; inattention to breeding succeeded, and at 

 Irast a better feeling set in witli Mr. Richard Booth's 

 sile in 1831. The demand was up and down till the 

 Wiseton sale of 1843. At the Kirklevington sale it was 

 about the same, and then America (who had always been 

 great Bates men) and Australia began to show them- 

 selves in earnest by their purchases at Tortworth, Faws- 

 Icy, Hendon, and Bushey, and their private thousand- 

 guinea bar;,'ains for the two Grand Dukes, and reached 

 their culminating point in 1,200 gs. for Master Butterfly. 



Amid this tangled history, the Booth herd has always 

 played its part, long before it came out at the Liverpool 

 Royal with its Bracelet and Mantalini. Mr. Thomas 

 Booth laid the foundation of the Killerby and Warlaby 

 herds in about 1 790. George Coates had not yet arisen to 

 prosecute his peaceful masonic pilgrimage from farm to 

 farm, with his notes and his saddle-bags, on his old 

 white pony ; and hence, though the cows from which 

 Mr. Booth bred were of the best class, they had at first 

 no pedigrees. He then selected the best of Robert Col- 

 lings's bulls, and hired Twin-brother to Ben (660) by 

 Punch, d. by Foljambe, g. d. by Hubback, all of the 

 Barmpton breed. After these came Son of Twin-brother 

 to Ben (whom he bred himself), Suwarrow, Easby, The 

 Lame Bull, and Albion (11) by Comet out of Beauty, 

 whom he purchased for 60 gs. at the Ketton sale. At 

 the Barmpton sale he gave 270 gs. for Pilot (496), of 

 the Wellington tribe, who proved the best bull he ever 

 had. Henceforward he only bred those bulls in the herd ; 

 and his sons, with the exception of a sparing use of 

 Lord Stanley, Exquisite, Lord Zetland's Lord Lieu- 

 tenant (sire of Leonard), Water King, and JIussulman 

 have pursued the same plan. Hamlet, out of Bracelet, 

 was also one of the best his son John ever had ; and one 

 season at Killerby he served ten cows at 20 gs. each ; 

 but, like Lord-Lieutenant, he was a little coarse in the 

 horn, as many Leonards were. 



In 1834, Mr. Richard Booth sold the herd he had 

 gradually got together, since 1817, at Studley, which 

 contained many of the Anna and Young Anna tribe, 

 who were in direct descent from Twin-brother to Ben, 

 and retained only his cow Isabella, whose first calf after 

 coming to Warlaby w.ib a roan bull by Young Matchem 

 (4422). While he was at Studley, Mr. Booth, senior, 

 lived at Warlaby, and had in a great measure a 

 joint herd with his son John, at Killerby. Richard's 

 year out of his business was, as he still terms it, "the 

 longest I ever spent in my life;" and when his father 

 died, shortly after the expiration of it, he removed to 

 Warlaby, and took to his father's herd. The grass at 

 Warlaby is better than that at Killerby, as it is on a 

 stronger soil, while the latter is more adapted for sheep ; 

 but the herds, from the perpetual interchange of bulls 

 such as Leonard, Buckingham, Hopewell, Vanguard, 



and Crown Prince, have long been virtually one. The 

 brothers cared not so much for that elegance which 

 Bates adored, but went more for that compactness of 

 frame and depth of flesli, which, along with a wonder- 

 ful fore-flank, is still the great Booth blood charac- 

 teristic. 



After using Leonard, who transmitted his rare 

 substance and constitution to Hope, Gem, and 

 Hawthorn Blossom (who has brought more gold 

 than any other to Warlaby), IMr. Richard 

 Booth bought Buckingham from Killerby, and from 

 him and Isabella came Isabella Buckingham and Van- 

 guard. Buckingham was by Colonel Cradock's Mussul- 

 man out of Bracelet, and strained back to Sir Charles 

 out of Toy by Argus. From a cross between him and 

 Blossom III., came Baron Warlaby and Cherry Blos- 

 som, and that wiih her daughter Hawthorn Blossom re- 

 sulted in Plum Blossom (the dam of Windsor), Bloom, 

 and Benedict. Crown Prince, a son of Fitzleonard and 

 Charity, was put iu his turn to Hawthorn Blossom, and 

 from their union came Nectarine Blossom, who knew no 

 victrix last year at Chester, Northallerton, or Sunder- 

 land. 



The Royal and Yorkshire prize list of the Killerby 

 and Warlaby herds is a bede-roll unparalleled for 

 brilliancy. Taking the Royal alone, it shows 2% first 

 premiums to their credit in its 20 years, while the 

 seconds and H. C.'s are legion. The illustrious twins 

 Bracelet and Necklace those female Castor and Pollux of 

 Show Yards, with Mantalini and Birthday, carried all 

 before them, in 1841-44 ; but thelatter's daughter Gem, 

 whom Lord Spencer considered to be the best that 

 Killerby ever turned out, died very early. In 1844, 

 Mr. Richard Booth won his first prize with his yearling 

 heifer Bud, and gathering strength as he went on, swept 

 the three first prizes for cows, two-year-old and one- 

 year-old heifers at Northampton. After this year Mr. 

 J. Booth almost ceased to show, though he won the 

 head two-year-old bull prize with Red Knight at Lewes, 

 and then began a long unbroken series of triumphs for 

 Warlaby, descending through Plum Blossom, M'indsor, 

 Bridesmaid, and Queen of the May, to Nectarine Blos- 

 som and Queen of the Isles, 



Venus Victrix, the second cow at Lincoln, is the last 

 to which the late Mr. J. Booth's name is affixed as a 

 Royal winner; and after 1857, the frequenters of the 

 English and Irish shows, where he had been judge so 

 long, recognised his manly figure and hearty Northern 

 manner no more. The blood from which she sprang left 

 Killerby in Buckingham, and canie back in Bloom, 

 whom Mr. Richard Booth presented to his brother. 

 Venus Victrix was bought in at the sale in 1853, by 

 Mr. Richard Booth, and seems likely to fulfil the wishes 

 of the donor in founding another Killerby herd in his 

 nephews' hands. Unlike Altisidora of Bishop Burton 

 stud fame, she did not die in her ditch, but her hip is 

 sadly down from the fall. However, despite her mis- 

 fortune, she is doing good service to her youn^' masters ; 

 King Arthur and King Alfred, both out of her, are let 

 for 400 guineas; her heifer Venus dc Medicis, by Van- 

 guard, who was sold to Mr. Douglas for 300 gs. as a 



