50 



HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



without much regard to size, but keeping in 

 view symmetry and good quality. He soon dis- 

 covered that some very noble cattle of the 

 larger sorts were not suited to his purpose on 

 account of their inability to stand and walk 

 as he knew that animals should stand and 

 walk. The setting of the legs, their shape and 

 the way of using them were great points with 

 him, and often did he repeat to eager listeners, 

 who availed themselves of his counsel, the 

 avowal of his strong aversion to 'lamb's knees 

 and sickle hocks,' which he said were 'quite un- 

 fit to move upon Bringewood Chase' (near 

 Downton Castle), where his Herefords were 

 kept. The result of his antipathy necessarily 

 was that animals characterized by the unpar- 

 donable similitudes were mercilessly weeded 

 out, and after various sifting processes, the final 

 selection fell upon a few animals from the 

 herds of Mr. Tully of Huntington, near Here- 

 ford; Mr. Geo. Tomkins and Mr. Skyrme the 

 grey element of the stock (afterwards celebrated 

 as 'the Knight's Greys') deriving their blood 

 solely from the Tully strain, the dark red from 

 the Tomkins, and the pale red from the Skyrme 

 tribes. 



"Xone of these varieties contributed remark- 

 ably large animals, but the Herefords thus re- 

 tained were invariably very thick, and stood 

 particularly well on their legs, so that they 

 could easily move up and down the steep pas- 

 tures they occasionally had to live upon. So 

 fastidious was Mr. Knight upon this point that 

 he would not choose a bull calf to rear for use 

 as a sire until he had not only made him walk, 

 but even trot a practice which drew down 

 upon him sometimes from his old neighboring 

 farmers remarks of contemptuous merriment, 

 which Mr. Knight most completely disregarded. 

 The issue turned the laugh upon his side as 

 the progeny of his 'trotting bulls' proved 

 clever and free in their action to the very last 

 stage of fattening." 



"I well remember/' says a correspondent who 

 in early life knew that original thinker and suc- 

 cessful breeder, "most of the leading points 

 which Mr. Knight endeavored to obtain were 

 the following: Broad nostrils, small from the 

 nostrils to the eyes, and fine large eyes, broad 

 bash (scope of forehead down to the line of the 

 eyes); open and well developed horns, a little 

 dipping in the first instance and then 

 gradually rising; large measurements of 

 girth was always a sine qua non, and 

 likewise that the shoulder should not be 

 an upright one, but well lying back from 

 the neck, the blade being very oblique but 

 lying open toward the chine. He would have 



his animals thick through the heart, with the 

 forelegs going down straight like two pegs (the 

 opposite of 'lamb's knees'), ribs broad and well 

 arched, especially the last ribs at the adjoining 

 of the quarters; the table-bones of the sirloin 

 long, flat, and well developed, particularly the 

 one adjoining the ribs, thus making a strong, 

 well-formed back, and joining the quarters. 

 Hips were always considered to be secondary in 

 importance, though he never wished to see 

 them prominent, but so formed and placed as 

 to stand tolerably even with the sirloin and ribs. 

 The catch (pen-ends, pin-ends, or fool's point) 

 he wished to see well developed, with not the 

 slightest prominence of frame between the 

 catch and the hips (i. e., the packing of hind 

 quarters) nor anything in that region which 

 might come under the denomination of gaudy. 

 "Indeed," says the writer, "Mr. Knight's am- 

 bition was to see an animal as true in its forma- 

 tion and level as possible from the catch, all 



CHARACTERISTIC HEREFORDSHIRE FARMYARD. 



the way over the back, loin, chine, shoulders, 

 and as far up the neck as possible ; thighs true, 

 deep and thick ; purse full and very well spread 

 over the abdominal *region, with indeed a dis- 

 position to fatten all the way up to the brisket 

 (lengthwise under the .body); thick, mellow 

 skin and long, soft hair." 



Mr. Welles has placed it on record that the 

 variety called grey or roan would obviously arise 

 from an intermixture of the red with those 

 possessing a large proportion of white. They 

 obtained their greatest celebrity from their be- 

 ing favorites with Mr. Andrew Knight, much 

 of whose stock were of that color; one of the 

 earliest being a white cow, from which he bred 

 one or two celebrated bulls. "That he pursued 

 his object with judgment as well as ardor/' says 

 Mr. Welles, "has been evinced by prizes having 

 been awarded of late years to many descendants 



