232 ECHOES OF OLD COUNTY LIFE. 



at the Albion, in Aldersgate Street. I have by me a 

 list of those who sat down to enjoy the hospitahty of 

 Lord Skelmersdale, now Earl of Lathom, on May ist, 

 1872, at the Clarendon Hotel ; and they represent 

 perhaps some of the most noted breeders of shorthorns, 

 when shorthorn breeding was in its palmiest days. I 

 find there were present Lord Skelmersdale (in the 

 chair), and the Earl of Dunmore (the vice-chairman), 

 the Duke of Devonshire, Mr. Sartoris, Lord Braybrooke, 

 Mr. Cheney of Gaddesby, Mr. Tredcroft, the Earl of 

 Feversham, Mr. Larking, Mr. Foster of Kilhow, Mr. T. 

 Brassey, M.P., Mr. Beauford, Colonel Kingscote, M.P., 

 Lord Penrhyn, Mr. E. Bowley, Captain Oliver, Mr. A. 

 Robartes, Mr. Mackinstosh, Mr. Angerstein, M.P., ]\Ir. 

 Sheldon of Brailes, the Earl of Bective, Mr. Samuda, 

 M.P., and myself 



The value of shorthorns has become much reduced 

 since then ; animals which then made thousands of 

 pounds would now scarcely realize as many hundreds. 



No sketch of the state of agriculture would be 

 complete without some allusion to the extraordinary 

 mania, as it may fairly be called, which existed about 

 this period of 1870 for shorthorn cattle breeding, and 

 the incredible prices obtained by some of the 

 ashionably-bred tribes, especially of the Bates and 

 Knightley lines. In my account of the Vienna ex- 

 hibition I have mentioned my bull. Royal Geneva, and 

 the price it fetched. At my sale in 1874, a young 

 cow, Princely, made 125 guineas ; Spicey Light- 

 burne 120 guineas; Knightley V. 115 guineas; 

 my heifer calf, Kentish Nonsuch, sixteen months old. 



