184 CATTLE AND DAIRY FARMING. 



when I propounded the dictum (which, by the bye, was not new), that 

 the male exercised the external characteristics, and the internal organ- 

 ization followed the female," in nearly every class of animal. Long be- 

 fore the commencement of the herd-book the Herefords had made a 

 reputation and a name," by being continually successful at the Smith- 

 field Club annual fat cattle show, from its establishment, in 1799, by 

 Mr. Westcar, of Creslow, near Aylesbury, Bucks, and who, for twenty 

 years in succession, won the premium prize with a Hereford ox, against 

 all kinds of cattle. I had not an opportunity of knowing Mr. Westcar, 

 as he died before my day, but I had been for many years on intimate terms 

 with his relative and "successor, Mr. II. .Rowland, who gave me many 

 interesting stories of Mr. Westcar, and who was, undoubtedly, the first 

 man to -bring the Herefords to the front, against all the world. I re- 

 member Mr. Rowland telling me, whilst standing in the midst of the 

 far-famed Creslow Great Ground, and on the spot, marked by a clump 

 of trees, where Mr. Westcar's lifeless body was found, he having fallen 

 dead from his horse, how the Duke of Bedford, in the latter part of the 

 last century, went down with Mr. Westcar to Hereford in his carriage 

 and four post-horses, taking two days for the journey, and stopping one 

 night on the road at the well-known country inn, the Staple Hall, at 

 Wituey, and accompanied by Lord Burners, in another carriage and 

 four, with some ladies and other members of their families, to attend 

 the great lair at Hereford, and where the duke desired Mr. Westcar 

 to order dinner for n hundred persons at the principal hotel, and to in- 

 vite all the more celebrated breeders and dealers to meet him. He de- 

 scribed the annoyance of some of the dealers at the noblemen being 

 brought down to see these grand bullocks, which they had only seen in 

 the Creslow pastures, as it bad had the effect of raising the price of the 

 cattle in the fair at least 1 per head. After dinner his grace and 

 Lord Berners announced their desire to have from ten to twenty of the 

 best cows that could bo found and two bulls, to bring into Bedford- 

 shire, there to establish a herd on their estates. Lord Berners, who 

 was a breeder of Longhorns, gave up the breed and took to Here- 

 fords. This visit of the Duke of Bedford, with the continued success 

 of the breed in the show yard, at Sinithfleld, by Mr. Westcar, brought 

 them prominently into notice, and firmly established their merits. Sir 

 Brandreth Gibbs,the honorary secretary of the Smithfield Club, in his 

 history of the club, states that at their first show Mr. Westcar's prize 

 ox measured 8 feet 11 inches long, 6 feet 7 inches high, 10 feet 4 inches 

 girth, and that he was sold for 100 guineas. This animal was bred by 

 Mr. Tully, of Huntington, and weighed 247 stone, dead weight, 8 

 pounds to the stone. Enormous as the dimensions of this ox were, they 

 were far exceeded by another Hereford, fed by Mr. Grace, of Putlowes, 

 near Aylesbury, which was 7 feet high, 12 feet 4 inches girth, and 

 weighed 2CO stones, of 8 pounds, dead weight. Mr. Duckham mentions 

 that about the years 1812 or 1813 Mr. Potter sold for Mr. Westcar at the 

 Metropolitan Christmas market fifty Hereford oxen that averaged 50 

 guineas each, making 2,500 guineas ; and he mentions that Mr. Smythies, 

 of Marlow, Salop, obtained the following extract from Mr. Westcar's 

 book for the sale of twenty Hereford oxen at different periods from 

 1799 to 1811, and which I can corroborate, as the same was shown me 

 by Mr. Rowland, when visiting him at Creslow. The list was confined 

 to those which sold for 100 and upwards : 



