2/6 The Poets Beasts. 



Nor would any one be surprised at such a conjecture, for 

 whether we look at the solemn crowds that gravely survey 

 the devoted animals and then go away complacent as if a 

 religious duty had been paid, or watch the experts reve- 

 rently punching a bullock's ribs or handling a fat sheep, it is 

 very difficult not to imagine that one is assisting at a pious 

 rite. Gazing at these prodigies of beef and mutton, women 

 are serious and men stern. There is less cheerfulness than, 

 for instance, at any Oriental shrine, where pilgrims from 

 the country meet to offer their dues and chatter, and there is 

 all the difference between the crowd inside and outside, as if 

 the Agricultural Hall were some kind of sacred edifice. As 

 a matter of fact, indeed, there is something solemn about 

 the uniform nobility of size, something that represses mirth 

 in the monotonous flatness of these prize animals' backs. 

 You could lay out tea upon the back of that Hereford 

 there, or play a game of cards upon that Southdown. It 

 looks as if a roller had been passed over them all. On the 

 other hand, there is a tendency to lofty exultation, chastened 

 yet inspiriting, in the contemplation of all this meat to so 

 little bone. It mollifies the spectator ; when he thinks of 

 so much tenderness he melts unconsciously himself. He 

 would not, if he could help it, harm even the most trifling 

 butcher. But it does not conduce to much hilarity. A 

 baron of prize beef is not a thing to jest about. So the 

 visitors are mostly of a solemn kind. 



If the oxen that once, in pre-historic times, wandered about 

 the Thames valley where Islington now stands, could return 

 to the scenes of their lives, and see the Agricultural Hall, 

 with its contents, they would probably l)e astonished. It 

 is permissible, at least, to su])pose they would be. 



For, though the Pleistocene cattle may naturally have 

 been of a kind that required much astonishing, seeing that 

 tliey were familiar with the mammoth and the woolly 

 rhinoceros and other marvels of Nature, it is still within the 



