Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

THE LEICESTER LONG-HORNS. 87
" His head, chap and neck remarkably fine and clean ; his chest
extraordinarily deep—his brisket down to his knees. His chine thin,
and rising above 1
the shoulder-blades, leaving a hollow on each side
behind them. His loin, of course, narrow at the chine ; but remarkably
wide at the hips, which protuberate in a singular manner. His
quarters long in reality, but-in appearance short, occasioned by a
singular formation of the rump. At first sight it appears as if the
tail, which stands forward, had been severed, one of the vertebrae
extracted, and the tail forced up to make good the joint ; an appearance,
which, on examining, is occasioned by some remarkable
wreaths of fat formed round the setting on of the tail ; a circumstance
which in a picture would be a deformity, but as a point is
in the highest estimation. The round bones snug, but the thighs
rather full and remarbably let down. The legs short and their
bone fine. The carcass, throughout, (the chine excepted)
x
large,
roomy, deep, and well spread.
" His horns apart, he had every point of a Holderness or a Teeswater
bull. Could his horns- have been changed, he would 'have
passed in Yorkshire as an ordinary bull of either of those breeds.
His two ends would have been thought tolerably good, but his
middle very deficient ; but being put to cows deficient where he
was full, (the lower part of the thigh excepted,) and full where he
was deficient, he has raised the long-horned breed to a degree of
perfection which, without so extraordinary a prodigy, they never
might have reached."
No wonder that a form so uncommon should strike the improvers
of this breed of stock, or that points they had been so long
striving in vain to produce should be fated at a high price. His
Owner was the first to estimate his worth, and could never be induced
to part with him except to Mr. Princep, who hired him for
two seasons, at the then unusual price of eighty guineas a season.
He covered until he was ten years old, but then became paralytic
and useless.
At a public sale of Mr. Fowler's cattle, 1791, the following prices
were given for some of the favorite beasts—a sufficient proof of
the estimation in which the improved Leicesters were then held :
Bulls.—Garrick, five years old, £250 ; Sultan, two years old, £230 ;
Washington, two years old, £215 ; A, by Garrick, one year old,
£157; Young Sultan, one year old, .£210; E. by Garrick, one
year old, £152.
Cows.—Brindled Beauty, by Shakspeare, £273 ;
Sister to.Garrick,
£1 20 ; Nell, by Garrick, £136 ; Young Nell, by brother of Garrick,
£126; Black Heifer, £141 ; Dam of Washington, £194. Fifty breed
of cattle produced £4,289 4*. 6d.
Another improver of the long-horns was Mr. Princep of Croxall, in
Derbyshire. He was supposed at that time to have the best dairy