36 
The Value of Pedigree. 
Lot 
Description 
I Purchasers and residence 
Sold for 
SHEEP STOCK 
£ 
s. 
d. 
54 
Ram No. 1 
Mr. William Smith, Nor- 
) 
44 
0 
ton, Gloucestershire 
J 
55 
Ditto No. 2 
Mr. Kimmer, North 
Cerney, Gloucestershire 
J 
)■ 
45 
3 
0 
56 
Ditto No. .3 
Mr. John Davis, Roll- 
right, Oxon 
1 
31 
10 
0 
57 
Ditto No. 4 
Mr. Smith, Ford, Glou- 
) 
35 
14 
0 
cestershire 
) 
69 
Six Ewes, .spot on the head 
Mr. Samuel Huckfield, 
) 
Choice Hill, Gloucester- 
shire 
[ 
55 
10 
0 
71 
Ditto ditto on near 
Mr. Smith Ford, Hitcott, 
) 
60 
0 
0 
side 
Gloucestershire 
1 
74 
Ditto ditto on 
further 
Mr. Gill, Cleve Peppard, 
) 
63 
A 
0 
hip 
Wiltshire 
r 
96 
Six theaves, spot 
on the 
Mr. Robinson, Welling- 
1 
head 
borough, Northampton- 
shire 
) 
56 
14 
0 
151 
Six ewe tegs, spot 
on the 
Messrs. King and Creek, 
1 
36 
0 
0 
head 
Blenheim Park, Oxon 
f 
158 
A Ramhog, No. 71 
Messrs. King and Creek, 
1 
53 
11 
A 
Blenheim Park, Oxon 
r 
168 
Ditto No. 81 
G. Berrott, esq. Fladbur}-, 
) 
36 
15 
0 
Worcestershire 
J 
The foregoing details serve to show not only the high prices, 
and the arrangement of the catalogue, in those old days, but they 
are of interest as indicating the cumbrous methods whereby 
lineage or pedigree was expressed. Before leaving this relic 
of the past, I may observe that the purchasers came, even at 
that period of slow travelling, from as many as ten counties, 
viz., Gloucestershire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northampton- 
shire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Sbropshu'e, Warwickshire, 
Wiltshire, and Yorkshire. 
Returning to the subject of pedigree cattle, the question 
may pertinently be asked, “ What is a thoroughbred or pure- 
blooded Shorthorn ? ” The simplest and most obvious answer 
is that it is an animal which traces its descent through a line of 
ancestors on both sides of its parentage, back to the earliest 
ages in Shorthorn history, or to the fountain head of its race. 
Shorthorns had been more or less cultivated, and no doubt 
greatly improved, through several centuries previous to the year j 
1730, in the counties comprising the ancient Northumbria, and I 
we have some few records of animals by name from 1730 down 
to the year 1780. Then it was that, through the inteUigenoe I 
and enterprise of some of the younger breeders, Shorthorns 
l^egan m considerable numbers to take position by partial 
