HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



49 



ley Moor; Proctor, Orleton; Harris, The Marsh; 

 Wood, Buryhill; Mason, Wooferton; Hanbury, 

 Shobdon; Stevens, Brinsop; Rev. W. Bayley, 

 Womesley ({range; Bannet, Netherton; Turner, 

 Boekleton; E. Jones, King's Caple; Preece, 

 Leyeeourt; Mrs. Berrow, The Green, Dew- 

 church; Syinonds, Yatton; E. Walwyn Grave- 

 nor, The Parks; J. Purchas, Fownhope; Price, 

 Norton Grounds; T. Barnaby, Brockhampton; 

 Tomkins, Dippers Moor; Parry, Birley; Wood, 

 Burghili, etc. 



"All the gentlemen whose names have been 

 given, and many more," say McDonald and Sin- 

 clair, "were noted breeders during the first 

 twenty years of the present century. Their num- 

 ber demonstrates that the Hereford breed can 

 claim a broad and solid foundation." 



It would be manifestly impossible to give an 

 adequate notice of these many herds. It is, in- 

 deed, inadvisable to attempt to do so, as many 

 of them have not exercised a recognizable or 

 known influence on the modern character of the 

 breed. Our remarks will, therefore, be confined 

 to those old herds that may be regarded as 

 forming links with the present. As to the 

 herds of Tomkins, Galliers, Tully, Skyrme, 

 Hewer and Jeffries which are referred to in the 

 list, all the material facts in our possession have 

 already been given. It seems necessary to ex- 

 plain that the number of prizes won at the Here- 

 fordshire Show is not alone a reliable indica- 

 tion of the relative positions of the herds ex- 

 hibited, inasmuch as some of them notably 

 those of Galliers, Tully, and Skyrme were dis- 

 persed a considerable time before the meeting 





MAXIMUS (1G15) 1817, CALVED 1858, BRED BY H. R. H. 

 THE PRINCE CONSORT. 



in 1819, to which the list extends; while others 

 were represented at the shows during the whole 

 period. 



Mr. Thomas Andrew Knight of Downton 

 (If 43) was one of the most successful exhibitors 

 at the early shows of the Hereford Agricultural 

 Society. Mr. Yeld has told us of the estima- 



tion in which his herd was held by his contem- 

 poraries, and in a former chapter reference has 

 been made to the investigations carried out by 

 Mr. Knight as to the history of the breed. Born 

 at Wormesley Grange on August 12th, 1759, 

 Mr. Knight, after studying at Oxford, retired 

 to his country seat, and devoted himself to the 

 improvement of the leading industries of the 

 county. 



Prior to 1806 Mr. Knight had become well 

 known as a practical agriculturist and as an 

 improver of Hereford cattle. He was instru- 

 mental in founding the agricultural society of 

 the county, and to the end of his life he was 

 almost invariably present at its meetings. In 

 the letter written by Mr. Knight in 1836, which 

 Mr. Yeld preserved, there is an account of the 

 breeding of the bull Snowball (246) 328, other- 

 wise known as Knight's white bull. From this 

 it appears that Mr. Knight's herd was descend- 

 ed from the stocks of Mr. Skyrme, Stretton; 

 Mr. Tully, Huntington; Mr. Isaac Martin, and 

 Mr. Benjamin Tomkins. Mr. Knight evidently 

 preferred the first to all others, remarking that 

 Mr. Skyrme "at the time possessed, in his opin- 

 ion, by far the best breed of cattle in the coun- 



ty." ' 



In an article on the Ashley Moor herd of Mr. 

 Theophilus Salwey, which appeared in "Bell's 

 Weekly Messenger" in 1873, Mr. Houseman 

 remarked: "The reader, acquainted with more 

 than the merest rudiments of Hereford history, 

 need not be reminded that the animals of Mr. 

 Salwey were descended from those of Mr. T. 

 Andrew Knight. In describing the Ashley Moor 

 stock, we therefore shall have occasion to make 

 frequent allusion to the old Downton Castle 

 tribes. And here a tribute is due to the mem- 

 ory of a public benefactor, who was far in ad- 

 vance of his generation in perception of the 

 principles of animal and vegetable reproduc- 

 tion, and of hereditary recurrences, and ever 

 ready to inform and encourage the seekers of 

 knowledge. His views upon stock breeding are 

 less widely known than his contributions to 

 the stores of horticultural science; yet, upon 

 the subject of which we now treat, he could 

 speak as one who had made himself its master 

 so far as patient observation, with, long prac- 

 tical experience, could give an insight to its 

 mysteries. 



"Sometime about the commencement of the 

 latter half of the eighteenth century, Mr. Knight 

 had determined to form a herd that should be 

 well adapted to a somewhat poor and uneven 

 locality, and for that purpose he visited all the 

 best herds of the oounty, and selected from 

 them according to the best of his judgment, 



