Report on the Exhibition of Live-Stock at Taunton. 601 
neighbourhood of Bridgwater, did very little to redeem their 
character. They certainly had to compete against some very 
good horses adapted to farm-work : for though, as I have said, 
the entries were small, they were not in themselves below the 
average standard of excellence. Most of them were " on the bi<r 
side ;' and this in itself would have been deemed an additional 
reason for not competing by Somersetshire breeders, whose agri- 
cultural horses are too small to stand much chance with the 
larger-framed animals hailing from Yorkshire, Lancashire, and 
the Midlands. There were many such in the first two classes for 
agricultural stallions not qualified to compete as Clydesdale 
or Suffolk. The 2-year-olds were not so good as the older 
ones, of which only six entries out of the eleven were brought 
out for judgment. Lord Ellesmere's "Prince of the Isles," look- 
ing altogether out of condition, had to give way to animals in 
other respects his inferiors ; and Mr. Tanner might not have 
won the first prize with his " Samson " — not to be confused 
with another " Samson," five years his senior, which won the 
third prize for Mr. Cooke of Tiverton — if Mr. Statter's chestnut 
" Champion " had come well out of a veterinary examination. 
There were but three young Clydesdale stallions, and the Judges 
did not deem the third good enough to receive a prize ; but the 
older Clydesdales pleased them so much, that they commended 
the whole class, the six entries in which were remarkable for 
their combination of size and quality, but, above all, for their 
grand action. Why of the seven Suffolk 2-year-old stallions 
only a couple were shown I was not able to discover. The 
two animals present both belonged to Colonel Wilson, and the 
Judges were not long in awarding the red ribbon to " Prince 
Imperial," who came to Taunton fresh from his Brentwood and 
Bury St. Edmund's triumphs. He is certainly a grand speci- 
men of the Suffolk carthorse, if, indeed, " carthorse " is the right 
word to use in connection with an animal that has all the style 
and quality of the choicest thoroughbred that ever stepped into 
a ring. The older Suffolk stallions numbered but four ; and 
they were not a very taking quartett, though " Statesman " has 
plenty of bone to redeem his somewhat coarse appearance and 
defective quarters. 
With twenty entries in the class for agricultural mares, exclu- 
, sive of Clydesdales and Suffolks, it may be said that there was 
not much reason to complain ; but nearly half of them were 
shown without foals by their sides, though these are, as a matter 
of course, set down as being in foal. In the conditions relating 
to the classes for breeding animals, it is prescribed that no 
mare shall be eligible for a prize unless certified to have had a 
foal in the year of the Show ; or, in the event of a mare being 
VOL. XI,— S. S. 2 K 
