2OO Saddle and Sirloin. 



witness expressed it, " fine strapping lasses of the 

 Anna tribe," in direct descent from Twin Brother to 

 Ben. The only one he retained was " a large patchy 

 cow," Isabella, whose first calf after she came to War- 

 laby was a roan bull by Young Matchem. She then 

 produced one of his great Royal and Yorkshire win- 

 ners, Isabella Buckingham. 



He was " a king out of business" for a year, which he 

 might well describe as the weariest he ever spent ; but 

 he had not long to wait for his sceptre, and in the 

 prime of his life he sat down under his roof tree at 

 Warlaby and began to build up another and a more 

 enduring herd. Nine years more, and the era oi 

 Royal Shows had fairly set in. In 1844 he broke 

 ground with Bud, as second yearling heifer to his 

 brother's Modish at Richmond ; and gathering strength 

 as he went on, he made his first great stand at the 

 Northampton Royal, and swept the first cow, two-year- 

 old, and yearling heifer prizes with Cherry Blossom, 

 Isabella Buckingham, and Charity, own sisters to 

 Baron Warlaby, Vanguard, and Hopewell respectively. 

 The new century had dawned on the Brothers Colling 

 a? the champion breeders of the Durhams, and when 

 it reached its meridian it found the Brothers Booth 

 with nineteen Royal, thirty Yorkshire, and three High- 

 land Society firsts, besides divers seconds (to their 

 own beasts), the rich harvest of a dozen summers. 

 Many of his friends pressed him to retire from the 

 show-yards in the flush of his Chester victories with 

 Nectarine Blossom and Queen of the Isles, but he 

 would not hear of it. His line of Queens was not half 

 exhausted with Queen of the Vale as a calf in his 

 stalls, and Queen of the Ocean in perspective ; and 

 why was the old general to sound a retreat ? With 

 his Nectarine Blossom and his Queen Mab he charged 

 that very summer right into the Royal North Lan- 

 cashire district to confront the Towneley cows, and 

 the pair were first and second in the cow class. He 



