62 THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



total premiums therein being $56. The show continued 

 two days, October 14 and 15, the ploughing match taking 

 place on the second day. 



An assemblage of more than 4000 persons was attracted 

 to Brighton on the first day to behold these promised won- 

 ders ; for they were such, then. Many came from New 

 Hampshire ; and other places, less distant, had representa- 

 tives and observers on the ground, all of whom on return- 

 ing home had something to say of a eulogistic character, 

 which was helpful to the society in the direction of " pro- 

 moting agriculture.' 7 Any number of agricultural tracts 

 distributed over the same area would doubtless have done 

 far less ; not but that such tracts were useful, but the multi- 

 tude of that period would not ponder and read them. On 

 the first day more than 600 carriages were standing about 

 the streets of Brighton village. Hucksters' booths and 

 tents, which had sprung up like Jonah's gourd, occupied 

 the various points of vantage, and all things took on a holi- 

 day aspect. The animals exhibited occupied sixty pens, 

 which were stretched along the present Washington street, 

 within the Winship pasture, from the present Chestnut Hill 

 avenue nearly to Foster street. The Town Hall, which then 

 stood on the south side of Washington street, 350 feet east 

 of Chestnut Hill avenue, was used to exhibit manufactures, 

 agricultural machines and tools, and vegetables. The pub- 

 lic exercises took place in the meeting house and the other 

 proceedings were similar to those of the preceding year. 

 A Boston newspaper editor of the period pronounced the 

 exhibition to have been " splendid and gratifying." 



This display of animals, which, by the official and other 

 reports, was of great merit, was notable in two particulars, 

 especially, the pair of mammoth fat oxen from Springfield, 

 and the Westbrook heifer. They took the highest pre- 

 miums, and, by vote of the trustees, paintings of the three 

 animals were procured for the society. Measurements of 

 the oxen were taken for comparison with those of the most 

 celebrated English ox of that day, known as the Durham 



