mplement.

In 1840 the Society was granted a charter under the title of the Royal
Agricultural Society of England, and its career since then has been
one of continued usefulness, and forms a prominent feature in the
agricultural history of the times.

In 1839[616] the first country meeting of the Society was held at
Oxford, and its 247 entries of live stock and 54 of implements were
described as constituting a show of unprecedented magnitude. According
to _Bell's Weekly Messenger_ for July 22, 1839, the show for some time
had been the all-absorbing topic of conversation not only among
agriculturists, but among the community at large, and the first day
20,000 people attended the show, many having come great distances by
road. Everybody and every exhibit had to get to Oxford by road; some
Shorthorn cattle, belonging to the famous Thomas Bates of
Kirkleavington, took nearly three weeks on the road, coming from
London to Aylesbury by canal. But such a journey was not unusual then,
for cattle were often two or three weeks on the road to great fairs,
and stood the journey best on hay; it was surprising how fresh and
sound they finished.[617] The show ground covered 7 acres, and among
the implements tested was a subsoil plough, Biddell's Scarifier, and a
drill for depositing manure after turnips. There were only six classes
for cattle--Shorthorns, Herefords, Devons, Cattle of any other breed,
Dairy Cattle, and Oxen; one class for horses, and three for
sheep--Leicesters, Southdown or other Short Wool, and Long Woolled;
with one for pigs.[618] The Shorthorns, with the exception of the
Kirkleavingtons, were bred in the neighbourhood, and many good judges
said long afterwards that a finer lot had not been seen since. The
Duchesses especially impressed all who saw them. The rest of the live
stock was in no way remarkable.

From this small beginning, then thought so much of, the show grew
fast, and the Warwick meeting[619] of 1892, after several years of
agricultural depression, illustrates the excellent work of the Society
and the enormous progress made by English agriculture. The show ground
covered 90 acres; horses were now divided into Thoroughbred Stallions,
Hunters, Coach Horses, Hackneys, Ponies, Harness Horses and Ponies,
Shires, Clydesdales, Suffolks, and Agricultural Horses. Cattle were
classified as Shorthorns, Herefords, Devons, Sussex, Longhorns
(described as few in number and of no particular quality, 'a breed
whic