222 
The First Two Country Meetings of the 
and deserved influence, is elaborately described in Mr. Greville’s 
famous Memoirs ; ” but his Lordship’s utterances, as well as 
those of the Duke of Richmond — an illustrious soldier who had 
fought through the Peninsular War and at Waterloo — secured for 
these most earnest friends of the Society the warmest reception. 
The late Mr. J. Chalmers Morton, who was present on the 
occasion, thus incidentally describes the scene in the Journal for 
1885 1 : — 
I remember the faces and the voices of many of our great leaders pre- 
sent at the Oxford Show — the homely, kindly presence of the late Earl 
Spencer, our first President ; the sonorous voice of the late Duke of Rich- 
mond, who succeeded him ; Mr. Pusey’s pale and anxious, somewhat 
absent-looking face; Mr. Handley’s hearty jollity ; Baron Bunsen’s staid 
and placid countenance ; the voice, good nature, and the humour of the 
Rev. Dr. Buckland — a distinguished row, seated as they were with others 
at the dais; Daniel Webster, also evidently a great power both bodily and 
intellectually ; Sir Thomas Acland, bright-eyed, eager-looking ; and Sir 
James Graham — all of them speakers at the banquet. These were men and 
faces likely to impress themselves on the memory ; and perhaps it is not 
surprising that, in comparison with them, I do not remember tbe young 
man [Mr. Brandreth Gibbs] then already busily engaged in the Show-yard 
in assisting his elder brother, Mr. Humphrey Gibbs, to whom the Steward- 
ship of the Yard had been committed. 
The remnants of the dinner — about 2,000 lb. of meat — were 
distributed to 700 poor families recommended by the parochial 
clergy, and on the following day (Thursday) the Meeting was 
brought to a conclusion by a sale of stock from the Show-ground, 
at which the following prices were obtained for some of the prize 
animals ; — Mr. Pauli’s Devon bull, 3 years 2 months, 94/. ; Mr. 
Hortin’s Longhorned bull, 4 years 4 months, 43 guineas ; Mr. 
Peter’s Devon cow, 9 years 3 months, 35 guineas ; Mr. Pauli’s 
Devon heifer, 2 years 3 months, 140/. ; Mr. Thomas Stephen’s 
yearling heifer, Hereford and Devon, 37/. ; Mr. Pauli’s Devon bull 
calf, 23 weeks, 43/. ; Mr. Archer’s 5 Leicester ewes (with their 
lambs), 91. 10s. each; and Mr. Thomas Crisp’s Southdown 
ram, 30/. 
Remarking generally on the results of this Oxford Meeting 
the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture says: — 
As a first effort, the getting up of the Meeting was highly creditable to 
the English Agricultural Society, and it fully indicated that, if they are 
capable of such exercise in infancy, what will they not be able to accomplish 
in maturer years P Indeed, we conceive that the impulse which the Society 
is likely to give to agricultural improvement in England will draw so many 
of the agriculturists of that wealthy and powerful nation around their 
banners, that they will soon become a larger body than it will be possible 
for one board of managers to wield their movements. 
' Journal, Second Series, Yol. XXI., p. 612. 
