14 DECEMBER 1872, Page 3

The Smithfield Club Cattle Show was opened on Tuesday, and

there was the usual array of splendid animals, described by the reporters in terms of loving enthusiasm. These gentlemen speak of animals with "lovely eyes," and " grand heads," and " splendid bosoms," and " bright coats," only "a little too gaudy," and " mag- nificent flanks," and " flesh laid on so evenly that she is ripe without the least tendency to patchiness," till the non-bucolic mind is lost in admiration, and fully prepared to accept the dictum of a dis- tinguished breeder as to the price of meat :—" If, Sir," said he, in answer to a remark on the cost of butcher's meat, "Englishmen will eat up works of high art, Englishmen must just pay their value."