140 THE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



last rendered it necessary that they should be drafted from the 

 team, the farmers of the western part of the county would pay 

 a visit to their brothers in the east ; attend the fairs held at 

 Battle, Lewes, or on the borders of Kent, in order to buy up 

 the aged oxen; and, after grazing them a year, supply the 

 markets with animals weighing from one hundred and eighty to 

 two hundred stone. 



Times have very much altered, and the Sussex beasts are no 

 longer what they were, neither are they reared to the same 

 extent, or for the same purpose. They have given place to horse 

 and steam power, and take up their position as one of the 

 useful and established breeds of the kingdom to meet the 

 pressing and increasing demand for beef. Their colour was 

 formerly both light and dark red — in some instances so dark 

 that it almost amounted to black ; but the intermediate or 

 cherry colour is now the favourite, denoting good flesh and 

 better quality for fattening. In attempting to trace the progress 

 of improvement from the long-legged, strong-boned, coarse, but 

 useful beast of burden which prevailed when the century was 

 young, nay, even before it had dawned, the work of Mr. John 

 Ellman, of Glynde, must not be passed over. It is matter of 

 history that so far back as 1797 this spirited agriculturist sent 

 a pair of his best oxen to Woburn Abbey, and in the previous 

 year he, in concert with Lord Egremont, called a meeting at 

 Lewes, to collect money for prizes to successful breeders. This 

 action led to the formation of the Sussex Agricultural Society, 

 and two years later we find Mr. Ellman's name associated with 

 those of the Duke of Bedford and Mr. Astley as the founders of the 

 Smithfield Club. For many years Mr. Ellman was the leading 

 spirit of the county society, and his cattle were so successful that 

 after a time he ceased to exhibit, so that others might be in the 

 running. Sussex breeders are much indebted to Mr. Ellman for 

 the good work he did. Another most successful breeder was a 

 Mr. Selmes, of Knell Farm, Bickley, who, it is said, once 

 challenged Lord Althorpe to show a certain number of Short- 

 horns against his Sussex cattle. 



The breed has been too well appreciated by the tenant farmer 

 to be allowed to die out, and great pains and attention have been 

 taken latterly in endeavouring to alter the style and type by 



