HIGH PRICES 235 



held at a most propitious time, for the Durham Ox had adver- 

 tised the name of Colling far and wide, and owing to the war 

 prices were very high. Comet fetched 1,000 guineas, and the 

 other forty-seven lots averaged 151 8j. 5</., an unheard-of 

 sale, yet all the auctioneer got was 5 guineas, much of the 

 work of the sale falling on the owner, and the former sold 

 the stock with a sand-glass. 



After the sale at Ketton, Brampton, the farm of Charles's 

 brother Robert, became the centre of interest to the Shorthorn 

 world. Robert obtained excellent prices for his stock, five 

 daughters of his famous bull George fetching 200 guineas 

 each. Probably he, like his brother, pursued in-and-in breed- 

 ing too far, and in 1818 there was another great sale ; but war- 

 prices had gone and agriculture was depressed, so that the 

 cattle fetched less than at Ketton, but still averaged 

 .128 i^s. yd. for 61 lots, and 22 rams averaged 39 6s. 4^. 

 Robert died in 1820, his brother in 1836. 



It cannot be said that the Ceilings were the founders of, 

 a new breed of cattle ; they were the collectors and preservers 

 of an ancient breed that might otherwise have disappeared. 1 

 The object of good breeders was now to get their cattle fat at 

 an early age, and they so far succeeded as to sell three-year- 

 old steers for 20 apiece, generally fed thus : in the first winter, 

 hay and turnips; the following summer, coarse pasture; the 

 second winter, straw in the foldyard and a few turnips ; next 

 summer, tolerable good pasture ; and the third winter, as many 

 turnips as they could eat. 2 



Cattle at this time were classified thus : Shorthorns, Devons, 

 Sussex, Herefords (the two latter said by Culley to be varieties 

 of the Devon), Longhorned, Galloway or Polled, Suffolk Duns, 

 Kyloes, and Alderneys. 



Sheep thus : the Dishley Breed (New Leicesters), Lincolns, 

 Teeswaters, Devonshire Notts, Exmoor, Dorsetshire, Here- 



1 R. A. S. E. Journal, 1899, p. 28. 



2 Culley on Live Stock (1807), pp. 46-7. 



