CHAI-. i. SHORTHORN CATTLE. 19 



their origin from a cross with some large bulls that were imported by 

 Sir William St. Quentin, from Holland into Yorkshire, in the East 

 and North Ridings of which county the two latter breeds have been long 

 established and deservedl}' esteemed. It has, however, been doubted 

 whether any benefit was derived from this intermixture ; for the 

 advantage thus obtained in size was thought to have been counter- 

 balanced by a more than proportionate increase of offal. But, 

 fortunately, the error was not universal ; for some intelligent breeders, 

 aware, even at that day, of the superiority of symmetry to bulk, 

 preserved the breed, of which they were already in possession, in its 

 native purity ; and it is from some of that stock, so maintained, that 

 the present improved Shorthorn cattle, still in other countries known 

 also as the Durham breed, are supposed by some to be descended. 



Considerable doubt has, however, been thrown on this description 

 of the origin of the Shorthorn, from the circumstance that importation 

 of cattle from the Continent was most stringently prohibited during 

 the whole of the eighteenth century. It is useless to speculate upon 

 the subject, for speculation is vain, no authentic records being now 

 available to enable us to describe what is, after all, no very important 

 matter ; enough for us to know, that the improved Shorthorn, now the 

 chief breed of Great Britain, owes much to the skill of Mr. Charles 

 Colling, of Ketton, in the county of Durham, and to that of his 

 brother Robert. It is to Charles Colling that the main credit (see 

 page 27) of introducing an improved breed is due, though he received 

 his Shorthorns from other breeders, and notably from Mr. Maynard. 

 Of this breed Charles Colling sold a bull in 1810 by public auction, for 

 the at that time unrivalled sum of 1,000 guineas : Messrs. Wetherell, 

 Trotter, Wright, and Change being the purchasers. This large sum 

 has, however, been exceeded in a more recent time, by the sale of 

 Colonel Townley's famous bull " Master Butterfly," to an Australian 

 gentleman, for 1,260 guineas. Mr. Bolden sold, in 1856, to Mr. Thorne 

 of New York, " Grand Duke," and " 2nd Grand Duke," for 1,000 

 guineas each. Again, at the sale of the Earl of Ducie's Shorthorn 

 herd at Tortworth, in 1852, " nine animals," the " Agricultural 

 Gazette " informs us, " descended from Charles Ceiling's Young 

 Duchess (three of them being calves), fetched the enormous sum of 

 4,160 guineas, averaging 462 guineas a-piece." 



In Professor Sheldon's " Dairy Farming," page 13, we read : 

 " In September, 1873, the bucolic world was startled by the results 

 of a sale of Mr. Campbell's Shorthorns, at New York Mills, near 



had got a strong hold in Durham several j'ears before the close of last century ; but still it 

 was not until "the Durham Ox " commenced his six years of caravan life in 1801 that the 

 doom of the Longhorns was virtually sealed. 



The Teeswaters were cattle of great substance, but somewhat ungainly in form, and were 

 thought to give less but richer milk than the Holderness. The fragments of history on 

 which their origin rests are somewhat shadowy and uncertain. Some contend therefrom 

 that they must be of Dutch origin, and only another version of the Holderness ; and others, 

 with equal zeal, that their tap-root is to be found in the West Highlands, or that the earlier 

 breeders always fell back on its bulls for a cross if they thought their herd was losing 

 constitution. There is certainly some confirmation of this opinion in the peculiarly sharp 

 horns and ink-black noses which will appear at intervals. " Saddle and Sirloin." 



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