The Leighton Hall Herd. 433 



and known no other love than the Hereford and the 

 Shrop. The herd, which is to Herefords what the 

 Sittyton is to shorthorns, numbers about 320 ; and 

 about 1 200 Shrops are annually brought to the clip- 

 ping stools. They have averaged about 5 Jibs., and 

 have thriven well on the high ground. As for the 

 cart-horses, which were principally of Royal Oak and 

 Brown Stout blood, we have seen very few to equal 

 them in England or Scotland. The Hereford blood 

 is a combination of Jeffreys or whiteface with Yeld or 

 Tomkins, which is founded upon the Tully Grey. In 

 Mr. Yeld's hands it became a complete union of light 

 and dark grey with mottle face, while the use of The 

 Knight (185), Sir David (349), Big Ben (248), &c., in- 

 troduced the whiteface element in its highest strength. 

 The Knight and the Big Ben cows (which might be 

 known by their curly coats and dark muzzles) hit best 

 to Silvester (797), who had a double dash of Silver 

 (540) in his pedigree.* As to the hardihood of the 

 Hereford, Mr. Naylor has had the most convincing 

 proof, as he purchased a score of Galloway heifers to 

 cross with them, and found that their produce, which 

 were blacks with white faces, thrive still better than 

 their dams through a Long Mountain winter. 



No nurses are kept, and the period of nursing, even 

 with the Royal in view, seldom extends beyond four 

 months. Mr. Naylor has taken two firsts, &c., at the 

 Royal with Laura and Adjutant (1480), and eight 

 firsts and seconds, as well as a gold medal at Birming- 

 ham and the Smithfield Club. With the exception of 

 Shrewsbury, the herd does not visit provincial shows, 

 but a Napoleon medal in the hall shows that its repre- 

 sentatives did not cross the Channel in vain. A 

 Silvester cow was in training for the next Christmas, 

 and the stages of her girth were duly chalked above 



* Since then Salisbury (2204), Tom King (2830), Patron (2669), 

 Victor (2857), and Prince Arthur (3344) have been used. 



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