88 AT THE SIGN OF THE STOCK YARD INN 



for the making of high prices. The impressiveness 

 and rare refining powers of the bulls of Kirklevington 

 breeding had not yet overcome the great vogue of 

 the BooTH-bred sires. The master had never married, 

 and had no near kin to inherit or take an interest 

 in his great legacy to posterity. A decade previously 

 he could have taken 400 each for his Oxford prize 

 females, or named his own price for "The Duke." 

 British agricultural values of all kinds were now 

 profoundly depressed. The best price made at the 

 sale was 200, paid by EARL DUCIE for the 4th 

 Duke of York, which his breeder had valued at 

 1,000. Several Americans were represented, in- 

 cluding Col. L. G. MORRIS and N. J. BECAR of New 

 York. These gentlemen took three of the Oxford 

 females; but the Duchess tribe remained intact for 

 the time being in England, fetching the poor average 

 of 116 each for the fourteen sold. LORD DUCIE 

 was the leading buyer, and with the transfer of 

 these purchases to his estate at Tortworth Court, 

 in Gloucestershire, the most dramatic story in bovine 

 records has its real beginning. 



