Boy al Agricultural Society : Oxford, 1839; Cambridge, 1840. 233 
visitors — namely, the Grand Meeting of the Royal Agricultural 
Society of England — a Society which promises to become the 
means of infusing into the science of agriculture a strong and 
healthy vitality, pregnant with wealth and prosperity to our 
great nation.” 
The Society itself was less florid in its description of the 
Show ; for with little regard for the efforts of the future his- 
torian, the Council contented themselves with reporting to the 
General Meeting of December 12, 1840, that “the success 
which attended the Society’s Annual Meeting at Cambridge, in 
July, is too recent to require any comment on the part of the 
Council, but they beg on this occasion to report to the General 
Meeting that at the first Council held after the Cambridge 
Meeting they had the pleasure of expressing by their unanimous 
votes the deep obligations of the Society to the Vice-Chancellor, 
the heads of the colleges, and the municipal authorities of the 
town, for their co-operation in promoting the successful issue of 
the Meeting.” 1 
There is little doubt that the Cambridge Meeting was a 
very real success, and the memories of those who attended the 
Show and still survive are full of pleasant recollections of it. Mr. 
Clare Sewell Read, amongst other contributory notes, writes : 
“ My earliest recollections of the R.A.S. are connected with the 
Cambridge Show in 1840. I was then a schoolboy, and I 
remember in my summer holidays driving my good father to 
Norwich, where he was joined by five relatives, all bound for 
the great Agricultural Show. It was before the days of our 
London railway, so they started very comfortably in a roomy 
‘ post-chay,’ with four good horses and two postboys. These 
were no more horses than were needed, for they were such a 
sample of Norfolk yeomen as you could hardly find in the 
county now — all save one standing six feet, and he made up 
for his want of stature by weighing over sixteen stone. This 
jolly party had their head-quarters at Newmarket, driving to 
Cambridge while the Show lasted. I felt very proud that 
week, being left in charge of a big farm to make the hay and 
finish off sowing the turnips for the ewes and lambs, which were 
drilled with rape-cake and malt-dust, a dressing for such turnips 
still considered by our best flockmasters preferable to any artificial 
manure.” 
By way of complement to these details of the Society’s earliest 
shows, I have compiled the following comparative statement 
showing the amount of Prize money, numbers of animals 
1 Journal, First Series, Vol. II., 1841, p. iii. 
