76 SHORTHORN HERDS OF ENGLAND. 



Comely, a daughter of Noble Cressicla, is a lengthy fine heifer, and 

 in company with her, is a roan of one of Mr. Jefferson's old tribes ; 

 another roan out of Nora, has a beautiful mossy coat, but it is hardly 

 fair to compare the majority of the young heifers with two that are 

 seen, which have been under cover all summer. In an old stable we 

 have quite a " find," as in addition to the younger Village Hose, is 

 an Aylesby Flower, bought at Edgehill. 



From Mr. Fox's we advance nearer to St. Bees Head, where 

 within a few hundred yards of it is Preston Hows, a farm that has 

 been in the occupation of Mr. Robert Jefferson for 42 years, a name 

 well known in Cumberland, as a breeder of both shorthorn cattle 

 and Leicester sheep ; naturally from the exposed situation of the land 

 good constitutions have always been essential both in herd and flock, 

 and when the former were seen by us, in February, only three months 

 before the contemplated sale, Mr. Jefferson having determined to 

 give up the farm, they were in nice breeding condition, in which it 

 was intended to offer them in May, if all breaders would only do the 

 sama, how much less would b3 the cost of a sale, and ho\v much more 

 beneficial to the purchaser's pockets afterwards, as without doubt, it 

 must be vastly injurious to the constitution of any animal to be for 

 a time highly forced, and then so suddenly let down in condition, 

 when transferred to a new owner. The herd has been in existence 

 nearly forty years, Mr. Jefferson having commenced shorthorn 

 breeding in 1847, but the first female, Sweet Lips, was actually 

 bought in 1844, at Lord Lonsdale's sale, and a bull, named Troutbeck, 

 from Blencow, in the same year. It may be added Mr. Jefferson is also 

 one of the few breeders now living, who was a purchaser at the great 

 Kirklevington sale in 1850, Wild Eyes 7th having then fallen to his 

 lot, and he describes her " as the best Wild Eyes cow he had ever 

 seen," and further " the only lean cow " he has ever seen win a prize, 

 she being placed before Mr. Featherstonhaugh's Red Duchess, at the 

 County Show at Cockermouth. 



As early as the autumn of 1858, Mr. Jefferson paid his first 

 visit to Warlaby, and hired Sir Colin 16953, who proving unfruitful, 

 was exchanged for Welcome Guest, the most successful sire ever used 



