118 CATTLE. 



These gentlemen let bulls out by the year ; the prices from 60 to 

 100 guineas; and the public are so fully convinced of their merits, 

 that these celebrated breeders cannot supply the demand from the 

 pure blood." There seems no distinction here between the two brothers, 

 and in Bailey's whole account there is no indication that either he 

 or the public thought Charles superior to Robert. 



The celebrated Thomas Bates, of Kirkleavington, was the intimate 

 friend of both the Collings ; and bought cattle of Charles, deriving 

 from him his famous Duchess tribe. No man ever had a fuller 

 knowledge of the cattle of the two brothers than he ; and he was, as 

 a judge, unsurpassed. His merits as a breeder are such that in 

 modern days no man in public estimation has excelled him. The 

 sale, in 1850, of his cattle realized higher prices than any other since 

 the days of the Collings. Mr. Bates, in a letter in the New Farmer's 

 Journal, says : " The superiority of the stock of Mr. R. Colling's 

 White Bull (151) over Favorite's stock (252) Avas evident to me in 

 1804 — and was admitted by Mr. C. Colling — and I would gladly 

 have then given 100 guineas to have had my first Duchess bulled by 

 him, but I could not obtain it on any terms, and it was twenty-seven 

 years afterwards before I obtained the, same blood in Belvedere, 

 (1706)." No one ever doubted Mr. Bates' judgment; and he never 

 had any of Robert Colling's blood, until he got it in Belvedere, Marske, 

 and Red Rose, years after this, 



Mr. John Hutchinson, the banker and breeder, in the history of 

 his own short-horns, comparing the cattle of the two Collings, and 

 particularly in quality, " and their length of mossy hair, their neat- 

 ness of shape, quick prominent eyes, and short legs," says : " Welling- 

 ton and Barmpton were surely the neatest, the softest, and the 

 shortest legged of his bulls, as was Moss Rose, of his cows, and had 

 more highland-like hair — like all their descendants — than any I have 

 seen of the Kettons (Charles Colling's)." And speaking of Robert 

 Colling's cow Nonpareil, he says, " which I have heard called the 

 finest cow (perhaps) ever seen." Mr. Hutchinson never used a bull 

 of Mr. R. Colling's i)reeding, save two, but did several of Charles's, 

 indeed as many as eight or nine, and was more interested in Charles's 

 blood than in Robert's. 



It is evident that, at least, Charles Colling was not superior tc 

 Robert, as a breeder. 



Now let us see if Charles CohiUg was superior to the breeders ol 

 1785, the period when he commenced his breeding. The character 

 of the famous bull Hubback is so well known, as the best bull the 

 ColHngs ever owned, that not a word is necessary to establish this 

 point. By common consent, every historian of short-horns re- 

 cognizes the wonderful merit of Hubback. Major Rudd, a large 

 purchaser at C. CoUing's sale, says of Hubback, that he *' was the 

 main root of the improved short-horns ;" and Mr. Hutchinson Bays, 



