570 Report on the Exhibition of Live- Stock at Derhy. 
LONGHORNS. 
Some agricultural writers hold fast the belief that Craven in 
Yorkshire is the original birthplace of the Longhorns, though it 
seems somewhat apocryphal. It is more likely that this breed 
was common to the Midland counties, or to some of them, as 
Leicestershire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, and Warwickshire, 
and that it had extended to Cumberland and Westmoreland. 
Bakewell is credited with having been the first to discover the 
virtues of this breed, and to improve it by care and judicious 
breeding. But it is well known that Sir Thomas Gresley, of 
Burton, had a Longhorn herd which he delighted to improve, 
long before Bakewell's time. And Mr. Nevill Fitt states in his 
interesting essay in this ' Journal,'* that one Webster, of Canley, 
near Coventry, sold Bakewell his first heifer, which he crossed 
with a bull from Westmoreland. In the 'Complete Grazier' 
it is recorded that in 1791 fifteen Longhorns — five bulls and ten 
cows — were sold for 2464/., or at an average of 164Z. each, a price 
which has not been exceeded for Shorthorns in their palmiest 
days, counting the relative value of money. It is certain that 
they must have had many good qualities or they would not have 
taken the fancy of the keen master of Dishley, but they seem to 
have been supplanted by the Shorthorns, as undoubtedly these 
make greater weights at earlier ages. " Sixty years ago," as a 
correspondent of the 'Field' wrote in 1877, "the Longhorn 
was the most important and fashionable breed of cattle inhabiting 
the counties of Derby and Stafford, and there still linger yet 
wondrous tales of the quantity of milk yielded by some favourite 
cow, or the more marvellous weights which the oxen and 
heifers attained when grazing in the rich alluvial pastures of the 
Trent, the Don, or the Derwent." There has been a gradual 
revival of late. Longhorns have gradually fought their way 
again into public notice, and after patient waiting have 
obtained the proud distinction of special classes. They 
steadily came to the front in the class for any breed or 
cross not qualified to compete as Shorthorns, Herefords, and 
Devons, at the Derby Show in 1843, when the first prize of 
thirty sovereigns went to " James Hextal, of Snibston, near 
Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, for his 3-years (i-months-old, 
pure Longhorned Bull, bred by Mr. Dean, of Ibstock." Mr. W. 
Daniel, of Burton-upon-Trent, received 15/. at the same Show, 
for his 3-years 5-months-old Longhorned Bull, bred by himself. 
Out of five prizes in this class at Derby in 1843, four were 
taken by Longhorns. In 1862, at Battersea, they were first 
• 'Longhorn Cattle; their History and Peculiarities.' By J. Nevill Fitt. 
Roy. Agri. Soc. Jour., vol. xii. b.s. 
