THE ARDOVIE AND AEDESTIE HERDS. 113 



ever, been sufficiently well established that the Keillor 

 doddies, the dispersion of which occurred under these 

 adverse circumstances, exerted a most powerful influence 

 on the improvement of other herds ; and happily there is 

 no likelihood of those interested in polled cattle overlook- 

 ing or underestimating the services of Mr Watson, con- 

 tinued without intermission for more than half a century, 

 in developing the merits and spreading the reputation of 

 the breed. 



Ardovie and Ardestie. 



Mr William Fullerton, who farmed at Ardovie, and 

 latterly at Ardestie, commenced to breed polled cattle in 

 1833, his first important purchase being the cow Black 

 Meg 766. The famous bull Panmure 51 was added to the 

 herd in 1841. For particulars respecting the breeding 

 and appearance of Black Meg 766 and Panmure 51, whose 

 descendants are now held in high favour, we would refer 

 our readers to the exhaustive statements respecting them 

 contained in the preceding chapter. In a letter written 

 in 1876 to Mr Bowie, Mains of Kelly, with a perusal of 

 which that gentleman has favoured us, Mr Fullerton 

 remarks : "When I purchased the bull Panmure 51, late 

 in September or early in October 1841, he was a year and 

 six months old, so he was three years old off in 1843 when 

 he gained the first prize in the class of aged bulls at the 

 Highland Society's show at Dundee. He cost me 17, 17s., 

 a price which a calf would not likely have brought." Pan- 

 mure became one of the most impressive bulls in the his- 

 tory of the breed. In vol. i. of the ' Herd Book ' there 

 are eleven of his calves registered, but that is only a small 

 number of his produce. The calves got by Panmure, whose 

 pedigrees are printed in vol. i., are : bulls Eichmond 6, 

 calved in 1844, and who passed into the possession of 

 Mr Euxton, Farnell ; Earl Spencer 24, calved in 1844, and 

 well known in connection with the Mains of Kelly herd ; 



H 



