46 A HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



eighteenth century the red or brown cattle with the 

 white markings of this district had evidently at- 

 tained a high degree of excellence. Writing in 1788, 

 William Marshall, a Yorkshireman who would not 

 be apt to prove a prejudiced witness, said: "The 

 Herefordshire breed of cattle, taking it all in all, 

 may without risque, I believe, be deemed the first 

 breed of cattle in this island." He spoke of their 

 frame as being "altogether athletic," of their supe- 

 riority as "beasts of draught," of the females "fat- 

 ting kindly at an early age," and of the fact that at 

 the Hereford fair of Oct. 20, 1788, he "saw about 

 1,000 head of cattle, chiefly of the Herefordshire 

 breed," that were "out of Smithfield by much the 

 finest show I have anywhere seen." When it is re- 

 membered that this was contemporaneous with the 

 formative" period of the Shorthorn it helps to estab- 

 lish the fact that the progenitors of the modern 

 Hereford were at least the equals of the foundation 

 stock of their famous rivals of the north. 



