Report on the Exhibition of Live-Stock at Shrewsbury, 1884. 669 
The first Class, that of Two-shear Rams, contained 34 entries, 
or, discounting absentees, 30 sheep in the pens. Descriptions 
of the winners will be found in the annexed Report of the 
Judges. Capt. Townshend, the breeder of the first-prize ram, 
was also the exhibitor of a highly commended ram, his " Lord 
Coventry," bred at Caldicote Hall, excellent in form and 
quality, with the fine wool-growth spreading so much over the 
face as only to leave spaces enough to show the black ground- 
colour and let the eyes look through. Many of the unnoticed 
sheep would have been good enough to Avin if the best had 
been away, and unsuccessful exhibitors (including some of the 
leading breeders) must have felt that defeat in such a class was 
very far from disgrace. 
But the great Class of Single Rams was that of Shearlings, 
not only for the extraordinary number of 101 entries, of which 
eight were absent and two disqualified by the Inspectors of 
Shearing, leaving 93 sheep in the pens and 91 in competition, 
but also for the surpassing merit of a large proportion of the 
class. If great credit was due, as it certainly was, to the 
breeders who sent up such a display, great credit was also due 
to the Judges, who most ably discharged the enormously heavy 
duties of their task. By competent men, whose partialities, if 
anything excepting their judgment influenced them, might be 
supposed to incline towards other than the winning sheep, the 
awards were emphatically approved. 
The near approach to ideal perfection (which is — no points 
at all — or, each point in such true proportion to each other 
point as not to be appreciably better than any other) increases 
the difficulty of description. There is nothing to catch hold of 
in these models, so if we want subjects for telling description 
we must go to the worse end of the class. If the Judges felt 
this as keenly as the official reporter, they got out of the scrape 
very cleverly — vide their report on Class 126. Lord Chesham's 
four, three by " Dudmaston," and one by one of his sons, two 
out of "Comus" ewes, one from a dam by "Prince Imperial," 
and one from a " Royal Aston " ewe, were equally beyond praise 
and description, excepting such praise as nauseates and such 
description as fails for want of faults to bring out the merits into 
relief. It is a " Dudmaston-Comus " ram that had the first 
prize of 67Z. 10s. ; and another, bred from the same sire and 
dam's sire, took the fifth prize, the third and fourth Latimer 
entries being both highly commended. Mr. Joseph Beach, of 
The Hattons, was the exhibitor of the second winner, Mr. T. J. 
Mansell (Dudmaston) having the third - prize sheep, and 
Mr. R. M. Knowles the fourth-prize sheejj. Capt. Townshend's 
flock again came into notice in the representative form of 
