210 
ILLUSTllATIONS OF THE BREEDS OF THE 
1 am not in so good circumstances as I should otherwise have 
been. This is the source whence all my doubts take their rise. 
I hope that you will thus far continue to manifest your wonted 
kindness by answering this letter in a private note, by return of 
post, as soon as you can : by so doing, you will greatly oblige 
me. 
REVIEW. 
Illustrations of the Breeds of the Domestic Animals of 
THE British Islands. By David Low, Esq., Professor of 
Agriculture in the University of Edinburgh, &c. &c. Part I. 
Price one guinea. 
The first number of this noble work was published on the 1st of 
February. It is devoted to a collection of portraits of the best 
specimens of the various breeds of the British Domestic Animals. 
It is comparatively easy to give a verbal description of the charac¬ 
teristic points of certain breeds; but it is difficult for the scientific 
and it is impossible for the unscientific man, to collect into one view 
every peculiar distinguishing and indispensable point, and to place 
the animal, as it were, bodilv before him. He must see him as he 
is, wdth all his excellencies, and still with a few defects, ere he 
can form an accurate and useful judgment of him. Hence it is 
that.he must live among cattle who will become a judge of them; 
and, to the connoisseur, a quarter of an hour’s study of the con¬ 
formation of the animal itself will be worth a thousand verbal 
although accurate descriptions of him. 
It was a deep impression of this that prompted the wish to add 
to the noble Agricultural Museum at Edinburgh a complete col¬ 
lection of paintings, illustrative of the various races of our domestic 
animals. A grant was obtained from a public fund in Scotland for 
this purpose, and Mr. Shiels, well known for the extraordinary 
and perfect truth with which his sketches of animals were exe¬ 
cuted, was employed at the commencement of this national under¬ 
taking. The writer of this review has had many an opportunity 
of standing by the limner while he was engaged in his under¬ 
taking, and admiring the fidelity with which the general and the 
distinguishing features of each animal were seized and pourtrayed. 
This gallery is already become one of the most attractive objects 
in the University, or in the whole city, and the study of it will 
never be neglected hy those who have the opportunity of access 
to it. 
