) While the cheese itself weighed a mite under 150, His Royal
Highness, ruff, belly, knee breeches, doffed high hat and all, was a
hundred-weight heavier, and thus almost dwarfed it.
It was almost a century later that the second record-breaking Chester
weighed in, at only 200 pounds. Yet it won a Gold Medal and a
Challenge Cup and was presented to the King, who graciously accepted
it. This was more than Queen Victoria had done with a bridal gift
cheese that tipped the scales at 1,100 pounds. It took a whole day's
yield from 780 contented cows, and stood a foot and eight inches high,
measuring nine feet, four inches around the middle. The assembled
donors of the cheese were so proud of it that they asked royal
permission to exhibit it on a round of country fairs. The Queen
assented to this ambitious request, perhaps prompted by the
exhibition-minded Albert. The publicity-seeking cheesemongers assured
Her Majesty that the gift would be returned to her just as soon as it
had been exhibited.
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