128 CATTLE DEVONS 



according to his own statement, when " the principal North 

 Devon yeomen were all breeders, and every week you might 

 see in the Molton markets animals that would now be 

 called choice." Before 1831, when cattle-shows began at 

 Exeter, there were no shows to test the relative merits of 

 animals, and " the war-prices tempted many farmers to sell 

 their best bulls and cows out of the district." Quartly saw 

 that the breed was degenerating, and he " determined to buy 

 quietly all the good stock " he could get. He continued thus 

 for years (1793 to 1823) to " improve his stock till he brought 

 it to perfection." The Champson herd thus became the 

 fountain-head of the breed. Quartly practised the system of 

 in-and-in breeding, using home-bred bulls, and purchasing 

 females to improve his foundation stock. He retired in 1836, 

 after forty-three years of activity as a breeder, in favour of 

 his nephew, John Quartly, and died in 1856 at the age of ninety- 

 two. The influence on the breed of the Quartly family may be 

 gathered from the following quotation from Sinclair : 



" Henry Quartly was the breeder of the celebrated bull 

 ' Forester ' (46), and of the cow Lily/ or * Lilly,' the direct 

 ancestress of James Davy's ' Temptress ' (1672), the famous 

 winner of the gold medal of the Battersea International 

 Show ; and of his not less excellent cow ( Actress.' . . . 

 There are recorded in Davy's Devon Herd Book more animals 

 tracing descent on the dam's side from Francis Quartly's 

 long-horned ' Curly ' and Henry Quartly's * Lilly ' than from 

 any other two cows of the Devon breed." 



William Davy, at Flitton, and Merson, at Brinsworthy, in 

 whose families herds of Devon cattle had been maintained 

 for more than a century, were intimately associated with the 

 evolution of the breed. There were many breeders whose 

 names were not recorded, as well as others whose names 

 are known, who ought to share the credit of its maintenance 

 and restoration. 



One of the most famous of the early herds outside the 

 county of Devon was that of Holkham, in Norfolk, founded 

 in 1791 by Coke, created Earl of Leicester in 1837. From 

 Holkham, Devons were first exported to the United States. 



Breeders of other famous old herds who deserve mention 

 were George Turner of Barton, who gained numerous medals 

 and prizes (on two occasions at Paris) ; two generations of 



