638 Rejiort on tJte Exhibition of Live-Stock at Shrewshury, 1884. 
the best bull per se, but to the best sire — i.e. to the sire of the 
best stock. This assumption is not quite correct. The prize is 
to the bull and his offspring ; to the bull, for his personal merit, 
as much as to his offspring, for their personal merit. If this 
were not so, the bull need not appear. The Judges were not 
bound to take into account — rather, indeed, like juries in assize 
courts, they were bound not to take into account — anything 
besides the evidence presented to them in the course of trial ; 
and that evidence was the personal merit of the particular 
animals of each competing group. Upon that understanding 
their duties were very faithfully and very ably discharged. 
The prizes were awarded to the groups in the order of merit as 
the animals appeared in the ring, and if any exhibitor could 
have made up a better group than he did make up, and failed 
to win as much as was within his reach, he has only himself, 
not the Judges, nor the terms of competition, to blame. As a 
matter of fact, the first prize went to a group headed by a very 
excellent sire, Mr. Thompson's " Beau Benedict," of whom it 
might be truly said that if any other bull had good offspring else- 
where than in the class, so had he. This well-known bull, a son 
of Mr. J. B. Booth's " Paul Potter," was bred by Mr. W. Linton, 
and now, in his sixth year, looks more fresh and active than ever. 
His accompanying offspring were the three beautiful heifers, 
" Inglewood Belle," " Inglewood Pride," and "Lady Millicent," 
and the roan two-year-old bull " Royal Baron," who bears 
a strong resemblance to " Beau Benedict." The beauty of 
Mr. Ackers's two older heifers, " Western Georgie " and " Lady 
Carew 13th," a pair of roans, must have gone far to place his 
group next on the list. Their sire, " Royal Gloucester," with 
forequarters deep as a bison's (no further or uncomplimentary 
comparison with that animal intended), was in plain condition, not 
handsome, but really good in the more important points of struc- 
ture. In Mr. Wakefild's group, " Baron Barrington 4th," past his 
eleventh year, a fine type of stock bull in lean condition, and his 
son " Baron Sedgwick," a noted winner in previous years, were the 
specially remarkable animals ; and Mr. Pugh's group contained 
another good lean bull, of quite a different sort, not showing 
that distinctness of type which characterised Mr. Wakefield's 
really grand old " Barrington " bull, but in the unobjectionable 
structure of his frame, and in the various evidences to the hand 
and to the eye, that he can thrive rapidly, commending himself 
to the man of a practical turn of mind. The Judges' emphatic 
commendation of this as a most satisfactory class, and their 
suggestion that its continuance is very desirable, represents, 
notwithstanding all the objections that have been put forward, 
a very strong and general feeling. 
