THE NATIONAL SOCIETY 



organizations can ever have surpassed it in 

 rapidity of growth and development. A great 

 feature in its early years was the annual dinner, 

 long since discontinued. As no existing building 

 in the city was large enough to accommodate all 

 those desiring to be present, it took place in 1839 

 in the Quadrangle of Queen's College, which was 

 roofed in for the purpose. About 2500 persons 

 sat down, for whose benefit 3874 Ibs. of meat 

 were cooked. 



I saw a good deal of the 1870 exhibition, as 

 at the request of the then secretary, Henry 

 Michael Jenkins whose brilliant and versatile 

 career was, owing to the inroads of illness, all 

 too brief I undertook the supervision of the 

 issue of the show catalogue. This necessitated 

 my being at the show from start to finish, but 

 I was glad to accept the commission, as it gave 

 me an opportunity of seeing something of the 

 inner working of a great show at a time when 

 I was endeavouring to learn all I could of such 

 matters. The 1870 meeting was notable for one 

 or two things, foremost among them being the 

 establishment of that most useful form of com- 

 petition represented by the offering of a premium 

 for the best-managed farm. The originator of 

 this was the late Mr. James Mason of Eynsham 

 Hall, Oxon., a country gentleman and a vice- 

 president of the Oxfordshire Agricultural Society, 

 who gave a piece of plate of the value of one 

 hundred guineas for the best-managed farm 

 within a defined radius, the Society supplementing 

 it by a second prize. There were twenty-one 

 competitors, and no little sensation was caused 



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