Presentation of Public Testimonial. 
11 
Chairman rose to propose the toast of the evening, and was 
commencing his speech when the electric light in the hall 
went out, to the great amusement of those present. After a 
short time, however, it repented of its behaviour, and again 
burned with brilliancy, and the Duke proceeded to make 
the presentation in most felicitous terms. He alluded to 
Mr. Wilson’s eminent services to agriculture in general, and 
to the Royal Agricultural Society in particular ; and went on 
to say that he could never forget the great assistance which, 
whilst Lord President of the Council, he received from 
Mr. Wilson at the time of the last outbreak of cattle plague 
in this country; and he expressed his belief that the evidence 
which Mr. Wilson gave before the Parliamentary Committee, 
and that which he collected from others, was the occasion of 
making the country alive to the fact that its agriculturists 
suffered most severely by the introduction of foreign diseases. 
He also paid a tribute to the great assistance he had received 
from Mr. Wilson in connection with the Royal Commission 
on Agricultural Depression, of which he was President, and 
of which Mr. Wilson was a member. 
At the conclusion of his eloquent speech the Duke 
presented the testimonial, which Mr. Jacob Wilson 
acknowledged in a suitable and feeling manner, in the 
course of his remarks touching with a masterly hand upon 
the principal agricultural topics of the day. 
The full fruition of Mr. Jacob Wilson’s labours in the 
direction of freeing British live stock from imported contagious 
diseases was realised in 1896, when the Diseases of Animals 
Act of that year provided that all foreign animals must be 
slaughtered at the port of debarkation. Sir Jacob’s official 
position at the Board of Agriculture at this time prevented 
him from joining in the agitation which immediately preceded 
this important reform. 1 
It is a marvel how, in addition to all this public work, Mr. 
Wilson was able to carry on his extensive private business : 
the fact that he found time to conduct his agencies, look 
after his farm, and instruct his pupils, speaks volumes for his 
boundless energy and capacity for work. 
In 1881 he removed from Woodhorn Manor and entered 
upon the farm of Chillingham Barns, on Lord Tankerville’s 
estate, and remained in the occupation thereof until his death. 
Mr. Wilson’s early love for Shorthorns — a taste which he had 
inherited from his father — remained with him throughout his 
life, and as might have been expected from his long friendship 
1 Other references to the part taken by Mr. Jacob Wilson, with the sixth 
Duke of Richmond and Gordon, in the suppression of Cattle Diseases will be 
found in the Memoir of the Duke, Journal R.A.S.E., Yol. 64, 1903, pp. 6-8. 
