2 NOTES ON FASHION. 



The answer to this would in most cases appear to be 

 that the females, from which such families derive their 

 names, were meritorious in themselves and were bred or 

 acquired by leading breeders in early days and, as the result 

 of judicious mating, produced meritorious offspring, often 

 successful in the Show Ring, which were either retained 

 for breeding in such leading herds or passed into other 

 carefully managed herds. 



It is easy to understand that their descendants, thus 

 bred, would be sought after and purchased at high prices, 

 and that the families to which they belonged would come 

 to be enrolled amongst the leading or fashionable families. 



In Macdonald and Sinclair's " History of Polled 

 Aberdeen or Angus Cattle " which carries such history to 

 the end of the year 1881, the " leading families," as existing 

 at that time, are mentioned in the Index. 



There can be no doubt from a perusal of the volumes 

 of the Herd Books, issued about the time when the work 

 referred to was published, that animals of a greater variety 

 of families were to be found in the leading herds and that 

 the numbers of the members of the leading families were 

 more on an equality than at the present time, possibly to 

 the advantage of the breed. 



Taking the position of the breed at the date referred 

 to as a basis, some causes may be suggested which have 

 helped to contribute to its position now. 



At the time in question the " Pride of Aberdeen," the 

 most celebrated of the families produced at Tillyfour, had 

 acquired a fame which it has since maintained ; members 

 of this family had during the existence of that famous herd 

 been freely drafted into other herds and by the dispersion of 

 the herd in 1880 the family may be said to have been placed 

 in the hands of other breeders by whom its reputation and 



