Genre:

Drollery, Letter, Poetry

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Animal Husbandry, Breeding, Animal Development, Exhibitions, Nutrition

    Written from the perspective of a rustic who describes his visit to the annual Smithfield Club Cattle Show. He notes that he and his 'guvnor' 'tested of the beasts with knowing pinches, pokes, and nudges', draws attention to the obesity of the pigs and sheep on display, and sympathises with the animals for being out of breath. Proceeds to describe the mammoth-sized 'Prize Oxes', animals with 'Hend moddles all for simmetry and eligance of Ed', and the cows, 'their coat without a seam'. The illustration (on 237) shows three large pigs in a sty, one of which is reading a work by William Banting, the writer on corpulence.