HER MAJESTY AND HER BOVINE VISITOR.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 12, Issue 938, 28 April 1868, Page 3

HER MAJESTY AND HER BOVINE VISITOR.

(From the "News of tho World.")

The Queen telegraphed fron^ Windsor to have the ox bred and exhibited at . Birmingham and the Smithfield club, by Mr. M'Combie, of Tillyfour, and which took the leading prizes at both exhibitions, sent down to Windsor for her inspection. This circumstance ha 3 created some interest amongst cattle breeders about this animal, and we have been allowed to publish the following extract from Mr. M'Combie's letter to his brother, thehon. Thomas M'Combie, of Melbourne, on the subject : — " The-^Queen telegraphed for my prize ox to go'lio- Windsor for her inspection, and old John Benzies (whom the Times describes as my chief trainer) took him there, and he was duly inspected by the Queen and royal family. I offered her Majesty a present of him, which she declined so far, only she accepted the baron. She behaved well ; no person indeed could have behaved better than she did. This ox, bred by myself, has had nearly as great a run of luck as the one that took the French prize of honor, and the Prince Albert gold cup against Europe, when you were at home ; he did indeed as that ox did, he cleared the yard of the prizes at Birmingham and Smithfield, the only difference being that there is not now an international show to send him to, else he would assuredly beat all Europe, as he has within the last few days beaten Scotland, England, and Ireland. The following are the prizes he has taken at the present Christmas shows. At Birmingham he took everything there, viz., £15, society's prize, and the silver medal to breeder ; the President's silver cup of 25 guineas, for the best ox of any breed or age, bred and fed by an exhibitor; Radcliff's prize of ten guineas for the best Scotch ox ; the innkeeper's cup of 30 guineas (which is a better cup than when you were in Birmingham with me, when I took it last), given for the best animal in all the cattle classes ; the extra prize of £25 for the best Scot ; the gold medal of £20, for the best ox or steer of any breed or age, from all the, classes, beating all England, Scotland, and Ireland ; Beach's cup, as being fed on his food. At the Smithfield Club Show he also took all he could take, viz., the cup as the best beast of any breed in the yard ; the gold medal and the silver medal, as the breeder and feeder; the £30. prize, as the best ox in his class; and Beach's again, as fed on his food. Then at Smithfield again, beating all England, Scotland, and Ireland. I need not add that he took the challenge cup at the Royal Northern Society's Show. The same day, at Leeds, I gained the mayor's cup of 20 guineas and the first prize of £20 ; and, what is most extraordinary, I took a first prize for sheep at Smithfield, and you know that is a kind of stock I profess to know nothing about, having only taken to grazing a few of them since the rinderpest broke out, just about the time you left. This is the first prize of the first class for sheep that has come to Scotland."

Most of the London journals have leading articles about the M'Combie ox, which has been the hero of the hour. In a leading article, of 10th December, the Daily Telegraph thus descants about him :

— " Even the sternest critic from the counties softens into rapture over that colossal first prize Scotch bullock, by Black Prince. "Everybody' will go to see this monstrous black mountain of sirloin and brisket — this ponderous triumph of oilcake and mangold, which stands like an elephant rather than an ox, on fine, clean legs, that quake under his weight. His back would make a table for a Christmas dinner ; his girth is as of tho biggest oak-tree ; his chest and heavy dewlap have been rightly compared to the stem and bow of a hundred ton coal barge."

The same journal, in the description of the show, says, same date : — " Against all precedent, we named yesterday, and safely named, the winners of the principal honors of the show. Many readers of the prediction in yesterday's Daily Telegraph, that the gold medal awaited Mr. M'Combie's black polled Scot, must have thought that language so decided was more than a little hazardous. We are not, however, disposed cither to admit the imputation or boldness or to claim the honor of prophecy. To a late hour on Saturday evening there was no beast in the hall that could stand comparison with the sable son of Black Prince ; and, unless at the very last moment a ' dark ox 1 of transcendant qualities had been carted into the showyard, tho triumph of the Aberdeen wonder was fully assured. Mr. William M'Combie, of Tillyfour, Aberdeen" shire, is a proud man, a man to be envied by the least envious of his fellow men, the agricultural class. He has come fresh from his victory at Birmingham to be again victorious, and on a greater field ; and there are circumstances attending his triumph which invest it with an unusual lustre. Tho fame of his magnificent ox, had reached the ear of Her Majesty, and he was commanded to show so fine an example of Scotch cattle-breeding to the Queen at Windsor. We now learn that Mr. M'Combio has craved the honor of permission to present the first prize of the Smithfield Club Show to Her Majesty, who had bespoken half the carcase for the Christmas baron at tho castle."

The other British papers re-echo these praises, and never has any pi-ize animal had such an ovation.