558 A HISTORY OF SHORT-HORN CATTLE. 



Barclay of Ury.~ The father of Short-horn 

 breeding in the North was one of the best- 

 known characters of his day and generation 

 Capt. Barclay of Ury. Descended from an old 

 Kincardineshire family, distinguished for great 

 physical strength, a soldier by profession and a 

 sportsman by instinct, he developed a fondness 

 for farming, which resulted in his founding 

 a herd of Short-horns about the date of Ma- 

 son's sale, from which those who afterwards 

 engaged in the trade drew many of their most 

 valuable foundation animals. Notwithstand- 

 ing his success and reputation as the introdu- 

 cer of the Short-horn in North Scotland it is an 

 open question as to whether or not his fame in 

 other directions was not even greater than his 

 celebrity as a cattle-breeder. An athlete him- 

 self Barclay was passionately fond of all forms 

 of out-of-door sport. It is said that he once 

 walked 1,000 miles in 1,000 hours on a wager. 

 He was financially interested in the operation 



principally from the stock of the late Mr. Robertson of Ladykirk and 

 which were descended in a direct line from those of Messrs. Colling: of 

 Darlington. Others were likewise brought from some of the most cele- 

 brated stocks in the North of England. For this he says the county was 

 indebted to Mr. John Bennie, son of Mr. George Bennie. The produce of 

 his stock is now spread over the county, and as a proof of its merits a bul- 

 lock bred by Mr. Bennie and fed by Mr. Boyne of Woodhall received the 

 second prize at the Smithfield Cattle Show in 1831. 



"Mr. Bennie obtained many prizes from the Highland and his own dis- 

 trict society. He has had many beasts that weighed from eighty to one 

 hundred stone (imperial weight) when at two and a half or three years old; 

 and he once sold eighteen steers at two and a half years old which weighed 

 from eighty-five to one hundred stone and for which he received 33 per 

 head." Youatt on CaWe, page 148. 



