tlie Devon Breed of Cattle. 
121 
Mr. Eond, rioar Taunton, enabling the Sonnersetsliirc breeders 
to continue that improvement in the quality and symmetry of 
their herds, \vhic:h Hundred Guinea (50) had recently introduced ; 
he was afterwards sold to Mr. Umbers. Mr. James Merson, 
since the death of his brother in 18.")5, has fully sustained the 
character of this herd, as the successes of his Prince of Wales 
(499), winner of the first prize at the Batlr and West of l^ngland 
Show at Cardiff and a cup at Newport, Dairymaid (1200), 
Lovely (1401), Stately (1050), as well as his numerous prizes 
gained at the Royal Shows at Newcastle, Battersea, and Plymouth 
fully prove. 
The late Mr. Hole, of Knowle, near Dunster, bred Champion 
(17), a son of Hundred Guinea (50), who, alter winning first 
prizes at Dunster, Taunton, and at the Royal Show at York, 
was sold to Lord Portman. His son, the present Mr. Hole, 
restricts himself almost entirely to Quartly blood. His Queen 
of the West (•>94) gained the first prize as a yearling at the 
Northampton Royal Show, and a cup at Taunton ; Miss York 
(oOO), by Champion (17), gained him a first at the Royal Show 
at York ; whilst Belle of the West (529) brought home a cup 
from Taunton in 1852 ; Rosetta (102()) and Fair Maid of 
Somerset (095) gained the first prize for a pair of heifers at 
Plymouth, and Favourite (718) brought him a prize from the 
Gloucester Royal ; all claiming Forester descent. 
Mr. W. M. Gibbs, near Taunton, gained the first prize at the 
Royal Shows at Norwich for his yearling bull, and a prize at 
Exeter for his heifer. He, with Messrs. Fouracre and Bond, for 
some years successfully exhibited the progenv of those two sym- 
metrical North Devon bulls Hundred Guinea (56) and North- 
ampton (86), mingled with their large-framed cows, 
Mr. Walter Farthing, of Stowey Court, Bridgewaler, says, 
" I can trace my herd of Devons back to my great-great-grand- 
father, a Mr. John Farthing, who lived at Y arford, in Kingston, 
near Taunton. Wonder was the first Royal winner my pre- 
decessor, the late Mr. Samuel Farthing, ever bred, and the first 
he ever exhibited of his own breeding at the Royal Agricultural 
Show, which animal laid the foundation of my best families as 
prize winners," Wonder (345) was the sire of many prize-takers 
at the Royal, Bath and West of England, and other Agricul- 
tural Societies' Shows, and in Paris ; viz., Lewes (226) gained 
prizes at Taunton and Bath in 1850; at the Royal Show, at 
Taunton, Bath, and Bridgewater, in 1851 ; at the Lewes Royal 
Show in 1852, and prizes at Warwick after he was sold to 
Mr. Umbers; Bessie (534), the first-prize cow at the following 
Shows : — the Lewes Royal, the Bath and West of England, at the 
Taunton and Bridgewater Shows, — was by Wonder, with a mixture 
