248 
Report upon the Spring Show of 
from the time sucli events were instituted, was by reason of his 
office jDlaced at the head of such a Commission, and with his 
Grace the Duke of Portland were associated the Earl of Coventry, 
as Master of the Buckhounds, Lord Ribblesdale, who had drawn 
attention to the matter in the House of Lords, the Rt. Hon. 
Henry Chaplin, M.P,, Major-General F. G. Ravenhill, Mr. 
Jacob Wilson, representing the Royal Agi'icultural Society of 
England, Mr. John Gilmour, representing the Highland Agri- 
cultural Society of Scotland, and Mr. J. Bowen- Jones, repre- 
senting the Central Chamber of Agriculture. 
The Royal Commission, after several sittings, published on 
December 22, 1887, its first report, in which it was recommended 
that the 3,000^. diverted with Her Majesty's sanction from the 
Queen's Plates, with the 2,000Z. added by the Lords of the 
Treasury, should be expended in awarding premiums of 2001. 
each to twenty-two thoroughbred stallions, to be distributed over 
six-sevenths of England and Wales and four districts in Scot- 
land : the remaining one-seventh of England having been pro- 
vided for by the Royal Agricultural Society at its then projected 
spring show at Nottingham. It was decided also to hold the 
show of the Royal Commission in conjunction with the Royal 
Agricultural show, and the conditions of the newly instituted 
premiums were nearly the same as those decided upon by the 
Royal Agricultural Society — namely, to be for three-year-olds 
and upwards, the winner of each premium to serve not less 
than fifty half-bred mares, if required, during the season of 
1888, and to stand or travel (at the owner's option) in the dis- 
trict for which he was exhibited, at a fee not exceeding 40s. each 
mare, and 2s. 6d. the groom. Powers were reserved to the 
Commission of providing stallions other than those competing, if, 
in the absence of sufficient merit, such a course was considered 
necessary ; and this, as it proved, was a very wise provision. 
The Royal Agricultural Society had by this time issued its 
prize schedule offering five premiums of 2001. each and a special 
gold medal for thoroughbred stallions, subject to the condition 
and restriction that each stallion winning a premium should 
serve not less than fifty half-bred mares, if required, during 
the season of 1888, and should stand or travel in such parts 
of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, 
Nottinghamshire, and Rutlandshire, as should be subsequently 
specified, at a fee not exceeding 40.s., except for mares belong- 
ing to members of the society, to whom the fee was to be 30s. 
In the case of the Society's premiums, the location of the 
stallions was to be decided by ballot, at which the local com- 
mittees formed for each county would be represented. The 
ballot-box was not brouglit into requisition for the classes iu 
