DURHAM DIVINITIES 57 



bull Comet. This induced me to think there was a 

 value unknown to us in these cattle, and as I then 

 had the control of means I determined to procure 

 some of this breed. For some years previous I was 

 in regular receipt of English publications on agri- 

 cultural improvement and improvements in the 

 various descriptions of stock. From the reported 

 surveys of counties I was pretty well posted as 

 to the localities of the most esteemed breeds of 

 cattle. My mind was made up, fixing on the Short- 

 horns as the most suitable for us. I had frequent 

 conversations with my friend and neighbor, Gapt. 

 WILLIAM SMITH, then an eminent breeder of cattle. 

 He was thoroughly impressed in favor of the Long- 

 horn breed. To gratify him, and to please some 

 old South Branch feeders, I ordered a pair of 

 Longhorns; and was more willing to do so from the 

 fact that this was the breed selected by the dis- 

 tinguished Mr. BAKEWELL for his experimental yet 

 most successful improvements/' 



CHARLES COLLING closed his career as an im- 

 prover of cattle in 1810, at which time three-fourths 

 of the herd were by the inbred Favorite and his 

 son Comet, and the remainder by sons of those two 

 celebrated bulls. A great company gathered beneath 

 the limes that fine October day of more than a 

 century ago to do honor to one of the pillars of 

 British agriculture of that notable era. From both 

 sides the river and from great distances landlords 



