STTTYTON TO ABERDEEN. 165 



lug/" He cost 48 at two years and three months old, 

 and was bred by Mr. Stephen, of Conglass. His first 

 prize was won at Garioch ; 40 and a gold medal were 

 his two-year-old guerdon at Poissy ; and at Liverpool, 

 Aberdeen, and on the " grand tour," he gathered 

 130 in all. Still, what with some 2,000 miles of 

 travel on his head, and the keep of eleven dozen 

 weeks at ten shillings, there was no such great margin 

 of profit even after a 80 sale. Still he had the 

 honour in his death of being bracketed in point of 

 price, head of the Beef Tripos of the year, with Mr. 

 Heath's gold medal Hereford ox. 



Two or three work oxen were being fed off, and 

 laying it on pretty satisfactorily, seeing that flesh has 

 too often a tendency to run to tallow after these fur- 

 row gymnastics ; but no coaxing could push on the 

 bloodiest black about the place. He was such a beauty 

 that for two years Mr. M'Combie had been at him 

 every way, in and out of the house ; but his stomach 

 refused its office, and the tape only told of eight-feet- 

 five, and there he stuck month after month. He 

 would have gone to " some side show" that Christ- 

 mas, but his level, high-bred form melted his owner, 

 and he kept him on to West Highland years of dis- 

 cretion. His great beauty was his breast and neck 

 vein, but he was rather light in the twist and flank. 

 In the spring he began to take a start, and reached 

 9 ft. 3 in. ; then he went back again, and finally 

 girthed 9 ft. 1 in., and won the head prize both at 

 Birmingham and Islington. By way of set-off to the 



