Royal Agricultural Society : Oxford, 1839; Cambridge, 1840. 219 
Gentleman's Magazine. The Society’s Journal, in its somewhat 
vague and sketchy account of the Meeting, states that “ the 
show of live-stock was numerous, and in most of the classes 
there were as many superior animals as have often been ex- 
hibited together before.” But it adds, with commendable 
candour, that there “ were several of a very inferior descrip- 
tion.” We are further told by the Journal that “ it must be 
admitted that, if a foreigner had come to Oxford, expecting to see 
the best show of breeding stock which England could produce, 
he would have been led to form a very inadequate idea of the 
merits of the different sorts of live-stock bred in this country.” 
Nevertheless, “ the number of excellent animals shown, and the 
admirable arrangements for showing them which had been made 
by the Stewards, rendered the exhibition a most interesting and 
attractive one to the thousands who came (some from great dis- 
tances) to view it.” 1 
A more independent authority, the Quarterly Journal of 
Agriculture , says that “ upon the whole the Show was not so 
great, nor the stock so generally good, as might have been ex- 
pected,” and that, “ with the exception of a few animals in each 
kind of stock, the quality was in no way remarkable.” After 
noticing Mr. Bates’s animals as “ the only Shorthorns worth 
looking at,” and referring in commendatory terms to Mr. 
Hortin’s Longhorned bull, Mr. Pauli’s Devon “ queys ” and bull- 
calf, Mr. Jeffries’ Hereford bull, and Mr. Druce’s fat ox, the 
writer proceeds to state that the sheep “ were in general good, 
and proved a pretty extensive show,” but the pigs were “ neither 
numerous nor good.” 
It is pretty obvious, however, that the Show itself was 
regarded as of subsidiary importance to the great gathering of 
agriculturists at the annual dinner of the Society. For this 
dinner immense preparations had been made. The quadrangle 
of Queen’s College had been roofed in and adapted for the 
purpose at a cost of over 800Z., and accommodation had 
been provided for 2,450 guests — a goodly company indeed, 
considering that the price of the tickets was 10s., and that 
not more than fifty were distributed gratis amongst the re- 
presentatives of the press, &c. Every window of the surround- 
ing buildings was filled with ladies, who were thus enabled 
to lend the charm of their presence to the proceedings in the 
banqueting-hall, a representation of which appeared in various 
forms, and was also published in the Oxford Herald a week later. 
Journal, Vol. I., 1810, pp. lviii-lis. 
