DEVELOPMENT OF THE IMPROVED TYPE. 49 



land had engaged in the continental wars of 

 Europe against the first Napoleon; specie pay- 

 ments had been many years suspended by her 

 banks and at the national treasury; prices of 

 agricultural produce were highly inflated, and 

 so far as pounds, shillings and pence then rated 

 probably quite double to what they were ten 

 years afterward the sums which were bid for 

 his cattle were both unprecedented and enor- 

 mous. The sale was well advertised, and its 

 results marked an era in Short-horn history. 

 Twenty-nine cows and heifers fetched 4,066 

 13s., an average of 140 4s. 7d.; eighteen bulls 

 and bull calves brought 3,049 4s., an average 

 of 169 8s., the forty-seven head selling for 

 7,115 17s., an average of 151 8s. Three- 

 fourths of the cattle were got by the bulls 

 Favorite (252) and his son Comet (155), and the 

 remaining fourth by bulls of their get. Fur- 

 thermore, a large proportion of the cows were 

 in calf to Comet. This bull brought 1,000 

 guineas. The highest-priced female was one 

 of his daughters, the three-year-old Lily, that 

 brought 410 guineas. The "alloy" cow Count- 

 ess, "undoubtedly the finest cow in the sale/ 7 

 brought 400 guineas.* 



* We quote relative to the sale from Thornton's Circular of April, 1869, 

 as follows: 



" The sale was on a fine October day, and early in the morning people 



rode and drove to Ketton, leaving- their horses and gigs at the adjoining 



farms; all the straw-yards were full, and the throng- at the sale immense; 



everything was eaten up, so that bread had to be sent for into Darlington. 



4 



