304 
The late William Torr. 
sixteen, owing to delicacy of health. Had he been able to con-» 
tinue his studies, he would probably have taken up the law as 
the profession to which his inclination led him. On his health 
being restored, he made a series of annual travels, in company 
with his younger brother (at present M.P. for Liverpool), through 
England, Scotland, and Ireland ; Belgium, Holland, and other 
parts of the Continent. In all of these journeys he took a 
marked interest in the different systems of agriculture, and the 
various breeds of cattle and sheep ; and he no doubt then laid 
the foundation of that extensive and critical knowledge which 
through life he displayed in the different branches of stock- 
farming and general agriculture. He farmed over 2000 acres 
of good land, a large portion of which had been rented by his 
family for a century and a half ; he left a herd of 100 pure- 
bred Shorthorns, for half of which 10,000/. has been offered 
since his death ; and out of a flock of 1200 breeding-ewes, 500 
were pure Leicesters, direct descendants of Bakewell's original 
stock. On his farms, in the arrangement of the buildings, as in 
the farm-roads, the gates, and the system of drainage, the origi- 
nality of the true English farmer's mind was alike displayed.* 
Mr. Torr became a Member of the Royal Agricultural Societv 
in 1839, the year after it was founded ; but for several years pre- 
viously his face and voice were well known at the Meetings of the 
Highland Society ; and he was an authority in his district, espe- 
cially on sheep and Shorthorns, ten years before he was elected 
on the Council of the Royal Agricultural Society, viz., at the 
Annual Meeting in May, 1857. 
His influence was soon felt at the Council Meetings of the 
Society, and in less than six months he succeeded in extending 
the time-honoured rule which prohibited the exhibition at the 
Society's Meetings of bulls more than four years old. The 
result was to increase the maximum age to six years ; and it 
was not until ten years later that the restriction was abolished 
altogether. Space will not permit Mr. Torr's career on the 
Council of the Society to be closely followed ; but it may be 
observed that his efforts were generally directed to the abolition 
of restrictive enactments. Thus, in 1861, on his motion, the 
Show-yard was first opened during the Judging of the Live 
Stock — gratuitously to the Members of the Society, and by 
payment of 1/. to the public. This was his first successful en- 
deavour to promote one of his pet projects, which he termed 
" open-judging." In 1862 he attempted, though ineffectually^ 
to dispense with the preliminary veterinary examination of 
* Mr. Torr's farms were described in vol. v. pp. 415-442, of the Second Series of 
tbie Jcurnal. 
