Sussex Cattle. 
117 
from 40Z. to 50Z. per head at Sinithfield and elsewhere. Though 
he kept no pedigrees of his cattle, we know that the influence 
of his blood was great, for we have sufficient evidence to prove 
that many breeders had recourse to his herd for bulls ; this 
blood descending to some of our best present day stock. By 
reference to the catalogue of his sale it can be seen that many 
animals went into East Kent where hitherto Sussex cattle had 
been but sparsely bred. 
It is on record that he tried the Devon cross, but so un- 
successful was it, that he not only discontinued it, but found 
it necessary to eliminate any animals so bred from his herd. 
This experience confirmed Youatt’s opinion that the cross was 
not a useful one, and had always been a failure when tried, or 
at least resulted in no advantage to Sussex stock. 
Mr. Willsher’s herd which, we are told, consisted of excellent 
cattle of the best type, was also dispersed in 1880. We must 
not omit, when speaking of breeders in Sussex, to mention 
Messrs. Braby, father and son, Messrs. Stanford, great exhibi- 
tors in the early seventies, Mr. A. Heasman, editor of the first 
Sussex Herd Book, Mr. Alfred Agate, a great enthusiast, while 
others are reluctantly left unnamed. 
In Kent the name of Mr. Philip Prebble will always be 
remembered as long as Sussex cattle are bred. Though 
previous to 1882 there were few recorded herds in this county, 
we find that in 1840 he had a herd at Horton Park, near 
Hythe, from which some of our most valuable animals of the 
present day are descended. Among these the “ Prebble ” tribe 
still brings his name prominently before lovers of the breed. 
Mr. John Kirkpatrick, the owner of the property, and 
himself a breeder since 1859, took over Mr. Prebble’s farm 
and bought some of his females in 1868, and so continued the 
strain, establishing at Horton Park the largest and most 
successful herd that Kent had known up to his day. 
The late Mr. Frederick Warde did much for the breed, 
as was shown by the many winners he sent out from Aldon 
and by the record prices obtained in 1899 at the sale of his 
herd, rich in Prebble blood. 
In finishing this notice of past breeders the serious loss 
sustained by the Sussex breed by the deaths of two of its 
staunch supporters, the Earl of Winterton and the Earl of 
Derby, must be sorrowfully alluded to. 
The most noticeable improvement that has been effected in 
these cattle during the last century, has been in the reduction 
of size, length of leg, and more particularly in the coarseness 
of the shoulder, in which last respect perhaps further 
improvement might be effected. Youatt and other early 
writers pointed this out as the greatest defect in a beef-making 
