556 A HISTORY OF SHORT-HORN CATTLE. 



Tweedside to the Forth by John Rennie oi 

 the farm of Phantassie, in the County of Had- 

 dington (East Lothian). His father, George 

 Rennie, had been one of the most active pro- 

 moters of agricultural improvement in his day; 

 having been sent when a mere lad into the 

 Tweedside country to study the farming of 

 that district, where such men as Lord Kames, 

 Renton of Lamberton, Hume of Ninewells, 

 Fordyce of Ayton, and others had begun exten- 

 sive improvements upon their estates. The 

 knowledge thus gained by observation was af- 

 terward turned to good account at Phantassie. 

 A man of fine business ability and sound judg- 

 ment, Rennie rose to great eminence as a 

 breeder and feeder of fine Short-horns in a 

 region already famous for the skill of its farm- 

 ers.* He bought from Robertson of Ladykirk, 

 with whom he was on terms of intimate friend- 

 ship, and also drew upon the herds of the first 

 English improvers of the breed. 



Rennie agreed with Robertson in reference 

 to the then newly-established Short-horn Herd 

 Book of England and also refused to record his 

 cattle in it, but the perfection to which he 

 brought his herd is attested by references made 

 to his stock by Youatt, McCombie and other au- 

 thorities. The Northern farmers who bought 



* The farming of the Lothians is to this day a source of National pride 

 in Scotland. 



