234 ECHOES OF OLD COUNTY LIFE. 



buyer of the bull at 4,500 guineas. Such was the sum 

 actually realized for Duke of Connaught, at Lord 

 Dunmore's sale in 1875, the largest sum ever reached 

 in England at a public sale of shorthorns. There were, 

 indeed, plucky breeders then. I had the pleasure of 

 paying a visit to Underley to see the sixth Duchess of 

 Oneida, a cow for which Lord Bective had given 3,500 

 guineas in America, and her splendid deep-red bull calf, 

 Duke of Underley. No breeder of my day, unless it 

 be the Earl of Dun more, has ever shown the spirit of 

 enterprise more than the Earl of Bective. 



My Knightley blood always stood me in good stead, 

 and so long as I could make from 150 to 200 guineas 

 each for yearling heifers, I had no cause to grumble. 

 I think the best and most useful purchase I ever 

 made was by my giving 50 guineas for a three weeks 

 old white bull calf, King Charming, one of the Bates 

 and Charmer tribe. I used him for three years with 

 success, and then sold him to an eminent dairy 

 farmer near Aylesbury for 120 guineas. Nothing can 

 be more disheartening to breeders than the wretched 

 prices which shorthorns have lately made at sales ; the 

 thousands have dropped to hundreds, and the hundreds 

 to twenties, and it is now a rarity to find a sale at 

 which the average is more than forty guineas, whereas 

 mine, which had no pretensions to rank with many 

 others, ran to an average of ^104 each, and Lord 

 Dunmore's realized over 540 guineas each. 



The ingenuity with which Hodge and his confreres 

 managed to twist the names of my cattle used to amuse 

 me. I had a cow called Alberta, but my man per- 



