14 
Sir Nigel Kingscote. 
at the complimentary dinner given, under his chairmanship, 
to Mr. Thornton on June 27, 1905, this bull “turned out very 
well ” ; in other words, he became such a noted sire that his 
purchase was an excellent investment. At the Dunmore sale 
on August 25, 1875, “Duke of Connaught,” a son of “Duke 
of Hillhurst,” was sold to Lord Fitzhardinge for 4,500 guineas 
for the Berkeley herd, and a grand-daughter of “ Duke of 
Hillhurst ” realised 1,100 guineas at Sir Nigel’s own sale in 
1870, also going to Berkeley Castle. At this Kingscote 
sale in 1879 forty-eight animals were sold at an average of 
997. 5s. 6d. This had been exceeded at a previous sale in 
1875 (at the time of what may be called the Shorthorn 
mania), when forty Kingscote animals realised an average of 
179 1. 4s. 8(7., and a Wild Eyes heifer had been sold to Mr. W. 
Angerstein for 700 guineas. There were subsequent sales at 
Kingscote in 1882 and 1889, the whole herd being dispersed 
on the latter occasion with the exception of the heifer calves, 
which became the nucleus of the existing herd. Since 1889 
the Kingscote animals have been disposed of at joint sales with 
neighbouring breeders, and it was at the last of these, held on 
September 11, 1908, that Sir Nigel caught the chill which was 
the beginning of his fatal illness. 
Of all the animals bred at Kingscote Sir Nigel was probably 
fondest of, and took most interest in, his Shorthorns. He 
personally kept a register of all the births, sales, &c., that took 
place in the herd. He started with Bates bred cattle, and 
never lost his love for this line of breeding. When it became 
necessary to introduce fresh blood, owing to the lack of stamina 
developed in the Bates cattle through in-breeding, he did so 
very warily, and objected to introduce a violent outcross. 
Instead, he selected a sire bred from a Bates cow and got by 
a bull of some other good line of breeding. He thus kept 
intact the Bates style and character, which he loved so much. 
His ideal was to breed cows that pay their way at the pail and 
feed quickly for the butcher : in fact the combination milk 
and beef animal. As to management, he liked the herd to 
be dealt with naturally. The heifers lay out the whole year 
round after they had passed the yearling stage. Even the 
milking cows lay out night and day in the winter when 
weather would permit, and this on a Cotswold Hill farm, 750 
to 800 feet above sea level. 
The Southdown flock of sheep at Kingscote dates back to 
1842, when seventy ewes were obtained for Mr. Thomas 
Kingscote from thb Duke of Richmond’s flock at Goodwood ; 
and nothing but pure Southdown blood has been imported 
since. In one season in the fifties, Mr. Kingscote hired a ram 
of the late Mr. Jonas Webb for 90 guineas. Since 1842 ewes 
