THE STUDLEY HERD. IO/ 



is said, all the character of the pure-bred Short-horn. It may be 

 worth while to inquire how far the remarkable property which distin- 

 guished this bull may be traced to the preponderating influence of 

 any particular progenitor or progenitors in his pedigrees, an investi- 

 gation of which, it may be here sufficient to say, will show him to be 

 descended half a dozen times, and some of them very nearly, from 

 Twin Brother to Ben. 



" This circumstance lends weight to the opinion of many experi- 

 enced breeders, that, in general, the capability of a bull to transmit 

 to his offspring his own peculiar mould and properties depends upon 

 his having inherited them from a succession of ancestors endowed 

 with similar characteristics. It is doubtless to the concentration of 

 hereditary force thus derived that the extraordinary transmissive 

 power of such bulls as Comet, Favorite and Julius Caesar, is to be 

 attributed. At the same time it is a curious circumstance, and one 

 that should not be forgotten as often modifying to some extent the 

 principle above enunciated that amongst animals similarly bred there 

 are some bulls, and some cows too, that possess an immeasurably greater 

 transmissive influence than pertains to others. 



" Pilot (496), another of the bulls of this period, was bred by Mr. 

 R. Colling, and purchased by Mr. T. Booth at the Barmpton sale in 

 1818, for 270 guineas. He was used in all the three herds, and there 

 was no bull to which they were more largely indebted. The close 

 in-and-in breeding of this animal has already been shown. He was 

 let to Mr. Rennie for a short time ; but his stock at home proved so 

 good, that he was recalled at the expiration of his first season. Pilot 

 was a small, compact bull, somewhat undersized, but possessed of 

 great thriving propensity. He was a capital sire, and may be appro- 

 priately cited as a striking example of the preceding remarks. I am 

 indebted for this account of Pilot to one who remembers him well 

 that old friend of the Booths, the much respected Nestor of the Short- 

 horns, Mr. Wetherell, who, like his friend Mr. Wiley, of Brandsby, is 

 still hale and strong, a living record of early Short-horn times, from 

 whom younger men learn the lessons of the past.* Isaac, another 

 bull of note, bred by Mr. Richard Booth, has already been referred 

 to. Burley (1766) and Ambo (1636), both containing a large amount 

 of the Favorite blood, were partially used in the herd during the last 

 three years before the sale. 



" In the year 1834 Mr. Richard Booth, finding that some of his best 

 pastures were required by their owner for other purposes, gave up the 



* Mr. Wetherell died in February, 1871. L. F. A. 



