364 
Polled Aberdeen and Angus Cattle. 
account of the judgment and skilful management of those that 
first brought them into public notice. Among the more notable 
of those extinct herds, those at Westertown, Mulben, Castle 
Fraser, Ardgye and Brucklay deserve special mention. 
Probably few single individuals have ever done so much to 
improve and popularise any breed of live-stock as the late Mr. 
William McCombie, of Tillyfour, did to improve and popularise 
his favourite race of polled cattle. Taking up the good work 
so systematically commenced by Hugh Watson, William 
McCombie carried it on with a skill and success that have few 
equals, and that will hand down his name to posterity as the 
chief improver of the Polled breed. It has been said that what 
the Collings did for Shorthorns, Hugh Watson did for the Polled 
breed. It might be said with equal truth that what the Booths 
have been to the " red, white, and roan," William McCombie 
was to the "glossy blacks." Than that, higher credit could be 
paid to no breeder of live-stock ; and every one who has any 
acquaintance with the subject will admit that it is due to the 
memory of the late Laird of Tillyfour. 
In this paper anything like a detailed account of Mr. 
McCombie's work as a breeder of polled cattle cannot be 
attempted. Seeing, however, that for many years Tillyfour was 
regarded as the head-quarters of improved black polled cattle, 
and that Mr. McCombie did more than any other breeder to 
gain for the breed the world-wide reputation it now enjoys, a 
few of the leading features in the history of his herd must be 
presented. Born in 1805, Mr. McCombie died in the spring 
of 1880. He dated the foundation of his polled herd, which 
was dispersed in August 1880, from 1832, the first year in 
which he gained a first prize for a polled animal. His father, 
who owned the small estate of Tillyfour for many years, carried 
on an extensive trade in cattle between the north and south ; 
and young Mr. McCombie, before he had completed his " teens," 
had also engaged to a considerable extent in cattle-dealing on 
his own behalf. He became tenant of Tillyfour about 1829, 
and soon after betook himself to the formation of a herd of the 
native polled cattle. He tells us that he was led by his 
father (who of course had had good opportunities of knowing 
the value of the breed as compared with others) to believe that 
" our polled cattle were peculiarly suited to our soil and climate, 
and that if their properties were rightly brought out, they 
would equal, if not surpass, any other breed as to weight, 
symmetry, and quality of flesh. I resolved that I would 
endeavour to improve our native breed." When he became 
tenant of Tillyfour he found on it a valuable stock of polled 
cattle, most of whose " dams and ancestors his father had 
