Draught Horses-Young Robin and Earl of G…

Rare, c.19th hand coloured engraving of a pair of Clydsdales, Young Robin and Earl of Glasgow, exhibited at the 1877 National Agricultural Society Show, Melbourne.

In 1877, the Clydesdale Horse Society of Scotland was formed.

Contemporary description:
THE NATIONAL HORSE SHOW.
Our engraving gives portraits of two representative animals, selected from the magnificent array of draught stallions which were exhibited under the auspices of the National Agricultural Society, Melbourne. This annual exhibition, which is modelled after the example of the Glasgow Horse Parade, where premiums are offered for, and judges appointed to select stud animals for the up country districts, was a grand success. The exhibition was the fifth of those held in Melbourne, and the day being beautifully fine a very large attendance of visitors thronged the yards. His Excellency the Governor, Sir George Bowen, was present, and inspected the various animals with much interest as they paraded round the show ring.

The two horses of our illustration, Young Robin and Earl of Glasgow, owned by Messrs. Lennox and Watson, represent severally the imported and the colonial bred sections of the recent Show of the National Agricultural Society, and were admired as being two of the finest animals on the ground. Young Robin was bred by Mr. James Brownlie, Alderson, Linlithgowshire, and was imported by Mr. Lennox. Young Robin gained first prize at Kilmore in 1875. He also won the first prize given by the society at the Heidelberg Show in 1876; also on the same day he won the silver cup, value £10, given for the champion animal in the yard. Young Robin’s stock have already distinguished themselves in Victorian show yards.

The Earl of Glasgow, who occupies the foreground in the engraving, is colonial bred, and is the property of Mr. Anthony Watson, of Kyneton. He is also a bay, rising five years old, and marked with white, much like Robin. Mr. Watson is famed as a breeder of first class Clydesdale stock, and possesses other grand stallions besides the subject of our illustration. Earl of Glasgow is by the celebrated Champion of Scotland (imported), dam, Princess Maud VI.