86 FIELD AND FERN. 



The first sliow was held at Queensberry Barracks 

 in. 1822, the verj^ year that England began her 

 Shorthorn Herd-Book. Fifty-nine oxen and eight 

 sheep were entered, and it was expressly stipulated 

 that the oxen were not to be fed on '^oilcake or dis- 

 tillery wash and grains,^' and that particulars as to 

 the distance they had travelled and the time they 

 had been put up to fatten should be specified in the 

 certificate. The '^ Teeswaters or Shorthorns were the 

 favourites with the Border agents/'' says a local 

 chronicler, who adds that " Baillie Gordon, his Ma- 

 jesty ^s carpenter, put up the sheds /^ The show was 

 kept open for 2h days, and sixty-five new members 

 were added to the Society. Rennie, the younger, 

 showed twenty-two shorthorns, and v^'as first of all 

 with one, which was sold for 60 guineas. This 

 success routed up the champions of the national 

 breeds. T'he Dumfries Courier as the time again drew 

 near, exhorted the Galloway men to send ^*^your hairy 

 representatives to the great annual congress of 

 beeves/^ but Rennie was first again, and again when the 

 show-yard had been, removed next year to the Portable 

 Gas premises at Tanfield, and " 9s. and iOs. per stone 

 was the ordinary rate of agreement for cattle.^' One 

 of them, '' Fat Charlie,^^ bred at Monreith, fetched 

 the highest of the twain ; and it is recorded that 

 " more would have been got, if the show-man who 

 exhibited him had not wanted to sell the caravan as 

 well.^^ All the oxen were shown in pairs, and Short- 

 horn, Fife, and then Aberdeen was the order, when 



