3 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



to have been of comparatively recent origin, suggest that his whole statement 

 should be subjected to examination. 



Two of the rival theories have a strong resemblance to Low's, in so far 

 as they attribute the origin of tlie breed to other men called Dexter : one 

 of tliem a steward (o the Kniglit of Kerry on Yalencia Island, the other a 

 coastguard officer resident in Kerry. The former of these theories may be 

 dismissed at once, as the existence of Dexter the steward on Valencia would 

 be very difficult to prove. As will be seeu later, this theory arose because 

 there was need for something more likely than the coastguard theory, which 

 itself had arisen because it seemed more reasonable tliau the one recorded 

 by Low. 



There is this mucli in the second theory that the individual concerned 

 was not a myth. He was a retired naval officer who came to Kerry about 

 1832, and died tliere about 1858. But, according to his daugliter, a lady 

 now residing in Dublin, he never had anything to do with cattle. He used 

 to tell, however, that it was his grandfather who brought tlie Dexter cattle 

 into existence; and he iiad the idea that they were brought over from 

 England. 



The coastguard officer's grandfather, the original Mr. Dexter, was an 

 Englisliman wlio came over from Gloucester or Somerset about the middle of 

 the eighteenth century to be agent on a nobleman's estate in Tipperary. 

 He had a sou who became a lawyer in Tipperary; and one of this lawyer's 

 sons entered the navy, from which he retired about 1832, and entered the 

 coastguard service, as stated above. 



Low identifies the nobleman with whom Dexter took service as Lord 

 Hawarden, afterwards Lord de Montalt, whose property lay just north of 

 Tipperary town ; and in his Tour in Ireland, published in 1780, Arthur 

 Young gives us two glimpses of Dexter himself : — 



" Mr. Dexter of Gullen liad a ram .... and great number of ewes 

 sent to him, the breed much improving " ;' and " There have been many 

 English bulls introduced for improving the cattle of the country at a 

 considerable expence, and great exertions in the breed of sheep ; some 

 persons, Mr. Dexter chiefly, have brought English rams, which they let out 

 at seventeen guineas a season, and also at lO.s. 6rf. a ewe, which indicates a 

 spirited attention."^ 



Unfortunately these glimpses leave us in doubt about Dexter's position 

 as a breeder of cattle; but had he been noted as such, and especially as a 

 breeder of animals so remarkable as the Dexter, it would hardly have 

 escaped the notice of an observer and inquirer like ArtJuir Young. 



1 Volume ii., page 15S. 2 Ibid., ii., page 261. 



