With the help of a government grant from Earl Spencer, Low set up the agricultural museum in Edinburgh and commissioned William Shiels of the Royal Scottish Academy to produce these beautiful paintings of all the significant breeds of economic significance in Great Britain at that time.
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The Ryeland is featured in David Low's book The Breeds of the Domestic Animals of the British Islands, published 1841 and a famous pioneering work illustrating the forerunners of all of the days' most important breeds of horses, cows, sheep and pigs.