v*-
SADDLEANnSIRLOIN;
OR,
ENGLISH FARM AND SPORTING
WORTHIES.
BY
THE DRUID,
AUTHOR OF "SCOTT AND SEBRIGHT," " SILK AND SCARLET,
"POST AND PADDOCK."
WITH ENGRAVINGS ON STEEL.
NEW EDITION.
LONDON :
VINTON AND CO., LIMITED,
9, NEW BRIDGE STREET, LUDGATE CIRCUS, E.G.
iv Preface.
slight pleasure now that I can have no more " quiet
evenings," listening to and noting down their ex-
periences.
In compiling this book I have endeavoured to
relieve the general reader by throwing mere matters
of flock and herd detail into the notes. I could do
no more than touch on what appear to be leading
points in a county, and as these matters are appreci-
ated differently by different minds, I shall no doubt
be found guilty of many dreadful acts of omission.
It is, however, a comfort to think that one enthusiastic
purveyor, who painted " Saddle and Sirloin" over
his sign as soon as the title was announced, and has
amused himself ever since by listening to the com-
ments of the passers-by, is bound to stand by me
and my selection for better for worse ; and I trust
that those who have not committed themselves after
this fashion may not find much to condemn.
H. H. DIXON.
PREFACE TO NEW EDITION.
THE copyright of the " Druid Sporting
Library " having been acquired by .the present
publishers, the question of revision was duly con-
sidered. Any idea of materially interfering with
the text was abandoned, and it was determined to
introduce as few changes as possible, but to care-
fully revise the work, correcting little inaccuracies
that had escaped the notice of the author. Instead
of altering the framework of the four books consti-
tuting the library, it was decided to add a fifth to
the number, and the publishers have been fortunate
in obtaining the co-operation of the Honourable
Francis Lawley, who has carried out the congenial
task of writing the " Life and Times of ' The
Druid,' " which will now form a companion volume
to the series, adding to their completeness in a
more satisfactory manner than could have been
accomplished in any other way. The titles of the
volumes of the " Druid Sporting Library " are as
follows :
THE POST AND THE PADDOCK.
SILK AND SCARLET.
SCOTT AND SEBRIGHT.
SADDLE AND SIRLOIN.
LIFE AND TIMES OF " THE DRUID."
February, 1895.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Over the Border Professor Dick Mr. Hall Maxwell Mr. Ivie
Campbell John Benzies, the Herdsman John White, the
Gamekeeper The Master of the Teviotdale The Earl of
Glasgow I 32
CHAPTER II.
The late Sir James Graham, his farming tastes Recollections
of Carlisle Meeting the Judges Old Posting Times Loyal
Tom King Jack Ainslie and his Gretna-green tactics
3246
CHAPTER III.
The Mail and Coach Days Shap Fells Drivers, Regular and
Amateur Guards Horses Carlisle Races ; the late Mr.
Daley The Wrestling Ring Cumberland Wrestling Cham-
pions 47 78
CHAPTER IV.
Whitehall Killhow Sale of Shorthorns Scaleby Castle The
Western Plain of Cumberland Mr. Watson's and the late
Mr. Brown's Pigs Mr. Curwen's Agricultural Gathering at
the Schooze Farm Champion Bulls The late Captain
Spencer's Greyhounds 79 93
viii Contents.
CHAPTER XV.
Shropshire Sheep Lord Berwick's Herefords Sir Bellingham
Graham Coursing at Sundorne Mr. Corbet Old Bob
Luther 434 451
CHAPTER XVI.
Clayton and Shuttleworth's Works at Lincoln Lincoln Flocks
Tom Brooks and John Thompson Ayiesby Manor Tux-
ford and Sons' Works at Boston 452 471
SADDLE AND SIRLOIN;
OR,
ENGLISH COUNTRY LIFE.
CHAPTER I.
" At Doncaster, at York, and Leeds,
And merry Carlisle had he been ;
And all along the lowlands fair,
All through the bonny shire of Ayr ;
And far as Aberdeen.
" And he had seen Caernarvon's towers,
And well he knew the spire of Sarum,
And he had been where Lincoln's bell
Flings o'er the fen that ponderous knell
His far renowned alarum 1"
Wordsworth.
Over the Border Professor Dick Mr. Hall Maxwell Mr. Ivie Camp-
bell John Benzies, the Herdsman John White, the Gamekeeper
The Master of the Teviotdale The Earl of Glasgow.
TOLLMAN OF GLYNDE loved a day with his
LJ lemon-and-white beagles. If a hare beat him
at nightfall he would mark with a stick the spot
where they last spoke to her, and return there first
thing next morning. How he dealt with " the situ-
ation" in the early dews we know not. This we do
know, that when another summer found us in cannie
Cumberland, to take up our " field and fern" tale for
England, our first impulse was to cast back over the
Border.
B
2 Saddle and Sirloin.
Some good friends live only in memory. Professor
Dick, " the old white lion," as his pupils called him,
sleeps in Glasnevin cemetery. We always found him
as kind as he was quaint. Ask him what we might about
Clydesdales or anything else, and he never grudged
us oil from his cruise. Write to him, and five or six
words were our portion in reply. He liked to be paid
off in his own coin ; hence our joint correspondence
about his photograph comprised some thirteen words
on four square inches of note paper. You saw the
man best when he was trying a roarer on " Dick's
Constitution Hill," or when he admitted you by the
side-door on to the stage of his theatre, and placed
you in shadow during a lecture. He would then grasp
the thigh-bone of a horse, or whatever else he was
about to illustrate, and speak in the same tone, with-
out check or cadence for an hour. If he did pause,
it was only to rebuke with a stony British stare
some foolish " interruption and laughter." We are
told that he rather prided himself on quelling such
offenders by the una : ded power of his eye.
He was in truth, a fine, rugged, old fellow, with
"A skin of copper, -
Quite professional and proper,"
a rambling, half-corpulent figure, shaggy white
tresses, and thoughts full of marrow. He had a
large stock of spare activities, whereon to use them ;
as public matters, both political and civic, had always
a great charm for him. A more sturdy Liberal never
drew breath, and in 1852 his friends thought of
putting him up for Edinburgh. He never entered
very heartily into the idea, but it suited his humour
to put out an elaborate and searching analysis of the
great questions, which " must be considered settled,"
and those which belonged to the future. Among the
latter he gave special prominence to the Irish Church
and a Second Reform Bill. He never married, and
Mr. Hall Maxwell. 3
he left the whole of his money, subject to the life-
interest of Miss Dick, who had been to him a sister
indeed, to endow the Veterinary College, where he
had lived and laboured for two-and-forty years.
Edinburgh seems still stranger to us without Mr.
Hall Maxwell, of Dargavel, and those pleasant half-
hour chats at Albyn Place, where he was quite the
moving spirit and Secretary of the Highland
Society. His object, as he once said to us, was " to
hold Scotland in one great Society's network, and
never let a mesh be out of order." In this he was
most ably backed up by his confidential clerk, Mr.
Duncan, and they both seemed to have the power of
laying their finger in an instant on the most minute
spring of the vast system they had reared. None
were kinder and more ready to assist us on every
point within their range. No matter how intricate
the search for it might seem in prospective, Mr.
Maxwell would ring his bell : " Mr. Duncan, would
you please find me, &c. ?" and in five or six minutes
his fidus Achates would return with all the particu-
lars tabulated, as if by magic.
In 1846 Mr. Maxwell succeeded Sir Charles
Gordon, who died at his post, and he held office
until the gih of May, 1866. His first meeting was
at Inverness, in 1846; and there, nineteen years
after, he made his farewell speech. He was pressed
not to resign ; but Glasgow, where the business of
the meeting is always unusually heavy, stood next on
the list, and his heart-symptoms had long given him
no uncertain warning that he must seek rest. But
for the ill-health of his successor, Mr. Macduff (who
died without taking office), his connexion with the
Society would have ceased some months earlier. He
was bred to the law, and practised regularly, previous
to his acceptance of office; and those in the profession
who knew his powers and remembered his speaking,
more especially in a great murder-defence, believed
B 2
4 Saddle and Sirloin.
that he would have infallibly risen to be a Lord of
Session. With commanding sense and marvellous
shrewdness he combined a perfect mastery of tongue-
fence, and he was as quick as lightning in his thrust
or parry.
No one was more jealous of his own or his Society's
dignity, and his eye would flash and the colour would
mount to his cheek at a word. He delighted most in
marshalling statistics and annexing districts at his
desk, but still he was supremely happy in the show-
yard. Everything was done there with great dignity
and order, and the Scottish bench would sometimes
chaff their coadjutors from England overnight, and
tell them that Hall Maxwell never admitted a judge
into the show yard unless he presented himself in full
court-dress. On the opening morning he might be
found in the pay-box for a few minutes, helping to
gather the crowns, and exchanging a word or a nod
with each member as he came in ; but he soon retired,
and for the rest of the week the saddle was his throne.
He would be galloping here, there, and everywhere,
as field-marshal, on his bay cob, setting lords, baro-
nets, and lairds to work as " attending members" to
the different sets of judges ; and he was a plainish
speaker, sometimes, if things did not go just to his
mind.
In short, both there and at Albyn Place, he was
quite the autocrat of the Society ; but, although they
somewhat felt the bondage, they were very proud ol
him, and quite content to set off the marvels he had
wrought for them against what many thought, and
some termed "dictation." If any of the members were
unduly captious, he caught them without more ado
and made directors of them, and they soon ceased
from troubling. This mode of bland absorption was
very transparent, but was never known to fail.
Public business often took him to London, and no
one could take charge of a Parliamentary bill better.
Mr Hall Maxwell. 5
If he appeared in a Committee-room to support or
oppose on behalf of the Society, it was with such a
well-marshalled and serried mass of facts and wit-
nesses that it was always odds on him. At Battersea
and Paris he was quite in his element, looking after
Scottish interests. When in '62 he led the hundred-
and-twenty herdsmen and shepherds to Battersea-
fields, he lodged them in Edgington tents, and fur-
nished them with beds borrowed expressly from the
Tower. They had regular night-watches like soldiers ;
certain detachments of them made holiday at the
Exhibition or the Crystal Palace, and on Sunday they
were marched to Westminster Abbey. This was the
only time that we ever saw him in complete sympathy
with the stock classes. He seemed to care nothing
about the very finest show animals or their points,
and to merely regard them as necessary links in his
system. Neither Belville, nor old Charlotte, nor
Colly Hill, nor Loudon Tarn, " that very Blair Athole
among Clydesdales," had made any impression on
him. He only wished to see the classes worthily
filled ; the cracks he left to his friend, Mr. Gourlay
Steell, " to be translated."
As a private companion none could excel 1 him,
and to us his stories were all the more salient, when
they turned on his recollections of his own Society.
He loved to recount the Parisian speculations and
observations of " Boghall," who did him such yeoman
service as cattle manager on that famous international
trip ; and he unconsciously gave us a delightful speci-
men of his best official manner in his recital of
" Duncan's Arrest at Perth." It seems that the late
Duke of Athole, who was then president of the
Society, went to Mr. Duncan the night before the
show opened at Perth and demanded a stock cata-
logue. With unswerving fidelity to his chief, who had
given express orders to the contrary, Mr. Duncan re-
spectfully declined to hand over, and the Duke (whose
6 Saddle and Sirloin.
Highland blood was very easily roused) ordered him
forthwith into a cab, and taking his seat beside him,
drove straight off to Mr. Maxwell's inn. The latter
was summoned from dinner, and, on going into the
lobby, heard the indictment which the Duke delivered
with immense emphasis, holding the accused by the
collar. Then Mr. Maxwell struck in, appealing to the
Duke as one who had been in the army, and knew the
value of rigid discipline, and showing his Grace that
" my orders are only your orders even a president
cannot break his own rules ;" and so the upshot of it
was that the Duke doffed his bonnet, and made a
most gracious bow " Mr. Duncan, I humbly beg your
pardon?
Such was Hall Maxwell ; and Scotland did not let
one who had served her so well and so long retire
without a substantial reward. On January I7th, 1866,
he was presented with lOOO guineas and a handsome
service of plate, and was also requested by the direc-
tors of the Society to sit to Mr. Gourlay Steell for his
portrait. They little thought how soon that portrait
(which is hung, among the few that have attained
such honour, in their council-chamber) would be all
they could look upon. He was still in the very
prime of his mental vigour ; and, if health had been
granted to him, he might have reasonably looked for-
ward to another twenty years of usefulness in his
county. It was not to be He held up just so long
as the connexion between him and the Society was
unbroken, and then his friends saw with sorrow that
Edinburgh would soon know him no more. About
the middle of May he quitted it, in very feeble
health ; his fainting-fits became more frequent as the
summer sped on, and on August 25th he died, at his
own house, Torr Hall, Renfrewshire, in the 55th year
of his age.
A quiet evening with some really good coursers is
no light privilege, especially if the kettle is singing a
Mr. Ivie Campbell. 7
pleasant winter tune, and a greyhound that has " done
the state some service" lies stretched in dreams on the
hearth-rug. We have listened with delight as Mr.
Nightingale recounted the points of each crack course
at the meetings where he wore the scarlet ; and
though the cold February wind whistled loud and
shrill round the Ayrshire barn-tops, and away to the
moors behind, what cared we as the servant lassie
brought in tea, and fresh logs to the fire, and the late
Mr. Campbell, with Canaradzo at his feet, dwelt fondly
on the race of Scotland Yet. In his build Mr.
Campbell would remind us of the late Mr. Kirby of
York a man of burly frame, in a capacious black tail
coat from which he had rather shrunk. He was good-
tempered, but always able to hold his own, with in-
cisive Quaker-like retorts, against a host, when he was
chaffed. He sold all his greyhounds, save Coodareena,
in the spring of '65, Canaradzo for ioo/. to Mr.
Knowles, and Calabaroono for 2OO/., to the late Lord
Uffington, with a view to the Waterloo Cup, for which
he came, after the frost, far too fat to the slips. Few
men began coursing so late, and none have made such
prices ; but his dogs were always well placed, and well
trained by his son and " Jock o' Dalgig."
He was much " exercised" in the manufacture of
greyhound names, and was wont to say that it often
relieved him from severe fits of toothache. The pursuit
had its origin as follows. He had a red dog, " Crom-
well," winner of the Biggar (Open) Cup of sixty-four
dogs, in 1853 ; and shortly after another " Cromwell,"
to his intense disgust, started up in the English entries.
Then he called a brace " Scotland Yet" and " High-
land Home" after favourite Scottish songs, and when
the Ridgway Club entries came out, Mr. Sharpe had
a Scotland Yet as well. After that he would have
" no common names," and followed up a limited use
of Ossian, by making them for himself. His first-born
was " Coomerango," of which Boomerang was the key-
8 Saddle and Sirloin.
note. "Crested Lochiel" and "Cam Ye by Athol," were
the only names he would ever accept from his son.
He said that his dogs had no luck unless they were
named by himself, and as the above two died from in-
juries at a fence, he had some grounds for his prejudice.
His son really began the family coursing in 1841,
when Mr. McTurk gave him a puppy. After that
" Young Dalgig" always kept one ; but his father took
no notice whatever of the sport until 1847, when he
saw him with Kenmore, the dam of Dido, and con-
ceived a violent admiration for her. He then learnt
to love coursing at private meetings round home, and
his maiden win was a farmer's stake at Closeburn
five shillings entrance and thirty runners. Dido won,
and followed suit at Closeburn public meeting the
next year.
He first tried Canaradzo in the Dalgig meadows with
Mr. Hyslop's Forty-Six. If he was anxious for a trial
he would walk from morning till evening to have one.
On one occasion he and his son walked all Monday
and Tuesday on the hills, and did not find a hare.
On Wednesday they began again, and at two o'clock
those plucky pilgrims at last " spied her sitting." He
did not feel it a martyrdom, and no amount of wet
would make him put back. The only alloy, in his
mind, to these private trials was when "Jock" pro-
claimed the death of a doe hare. Occasionally, he
took an odd fit, and would run a dog three or four
trials in a day. Much as he loved Coodareena, he
would sometimes try the whole team with her, and he
was "as deaf as Ailsa Craig" to every expostulation
on the point. She was the stoutest hearted of all the
Scotland Yets a sort which is either very game or very
soft ; and but for these severe trials she would have
won more than she did. As it was, she was left in
among the last eight with Meg in Mr. Campbell's last
Waterloo Cup essay ; and she ran well at Kyle in
the winter, after having had three litters.
Mr. Ivie Campbell. 9
Dalgig* was not far from the springs of Nitli, and
every Edie Ochiltree and Madge Wildfire who wan-
dered among those moors was sure of a night's shelter
and plenty of porridge and milk. Mr. Campbell was
a great student of human nature, and he loved a bit of
character wherever he could find it, especially if it
indulged in unshackelled Scotch. He made a point
of asking every tramp their name, and they invariably
said " Campbell." The outlying members of the clan
seemed to increase in a most marvellous manner,
but still he was content to ask no more questions.
"Campbell" was not the only key to his heart. On
one occasion he had some words with a vagrant, and
denied him bed and board, but when the cunning
fellow told him that his name was " Bruce," everything
was forgiven and forgotten. They repaid his kindness
by very seldom stealing from him. One of the worst of
the lot was once heard to say to his child behind a
hedge " Nab what you can, laddie, btit no at Dalgig
for yer life'' His charity was once rather chilled
by learning that two married couples had enjoyed
his hospitality from Saturday till Monday, and occu
pied their barn leisure in negotiating an exchange of
wives. The arrangement was carried into effect, and
" Old Dalgig" was so scandalized when he heard of
it, that for a long time he housed no beggars but aged
ones.
He seldom changed his servants, and looked upon
the seniors as quite family standards. " Sandy Dun"
was with him and his father for fifty-seven years, and
died at eighty-four, without redeeming the matrimo-
nial promise which he made annually to his master,
under the influence of ale, at Auchinleck Lamb Fair.
Another of them, Willy Wilson, delighted to tell how
a rough drover tried to prevent him and his master
* For a visU to Dalgig see " Field and Fern" (South), pp. 249-66.
i o Saddle and Sirloin.
from passing a certain point in the fair with their
lambs, and how the latter laid the fellow prostrate in
the mud, and when he had extracted an apology,
assisted him to rise and gave him sixpence to drink
his health. If he scolded his servants or any one else
he seldom got beyond, " You Saucestcr T (a Scotch
word for a kind of pudding) ; but when his preface
was " My Good Sir" he was felt to be in earnest
indeed. Hugh Wyllie, who had been thirty-five years
about Dalgig, was often " had in" for a chat at night.
He was full of all the country news, and knew many
curious stories, two traits which exactly suited his
master. The finest scenes took place between " Old
Dalgig" and his negro Black Geordie. At one time,
Geordie was a sailor, then he cruised about the
country selling pebbles and curious stones, and when
that, game was up, he became a sort of groom to Mr.
Campbell, for five-and-twenty years. He was very
lazy, and nearly as bad tempered as old Pluto of Gibbet
Island, and scenes, rich and rare, took place between
him and his master, if the gig was not ready in time.
Geordie would think out loud upon these occasions,
and it was upon this aggravating habit that issue was
joined.
Mr. Campbell was very fond of reading, but con-
fined himself principally to religious works, and more
especially to Edward Irving's and Dr. Cumming's. He
kept several terms at Glasgow University, where he
studied Greek and Latin, and attended the Divinity
Hall with no small zest. With a view to going out to
China, he began to learn the language, but he was
prevailed upon, in consequence of his father's advanced
years, to cease from gathering " the blossom of the
flying term," and to assist him in his farm duties.*
* As a breeder of Ayrshires, horses, and sheep he had great expe-
rience ; few men were in higher request as a judge at shows in Scotland,
and, in 1864, he made his third and last journey to Ireland on the same
Mr. Ivie Campbell. 1 1
Still, amid Ayrshire cows and arable, he always
yearned after his first love his college cap and gown.
Robert Pollok, the author of " The Course of Time,"
was a fellow student in the Divinity school, and many
errand. Whatever he did, he did with all his might. For instance,
when Lord James Stewart, as principal trustee for the young Marquis of
Bute, offered four silver medals for different classes of farm stock, he
felt sure of being first for the " Dairy Stock," and anything but sure of
the " Single Ayrshire Milch Cow," the " Clydesdale Brood Mare," and
the " Two-year-old Ayrshire Quey." Defeat was not to be thought of,
and (like the late Duke of Hamilton when he determined to be foremost
among the best at Battersea) he bought one in Dumfriesshire, another in
Lanarkshire, and the third in a distant part of Ayrshire, and kept the
medals together. In 1833 he reclaimed 570 acres of waste hill land
by ploughing and liming, and then sowing it out in first-rate pasture,
and for this improvement he gained the Highland and Agricultural
Society's gold medal. Three years after that, he commenced with his
brother-in-law, Mr. Richmond (of Bridgehouse), as his mentor, breed-
ing " Superior Ayrshire Stock," and they bought between them the
celebrated "Tarn" from Mr. Allan, of Dairy. Tarn's cows and queys
carried almost everything before them from 1843 to 1854 ; and were
first on five different occasions, when the competition was open to all
Ayrshire. His next purchase, Cardigan, from Mr. Parker, gained
twenty-seven first prizes, and was never beaten while at Dalgig, and it
was for this bull that he refused ioo/. in 1856. Mr. Parker's stalls also
furnished him with Clarendon, who fined down very much after his
arrival, and was first both at Ayr and Glasgow in '60.
With all this good milk material, do what he might, he could never
get to the top of the tree in cheese-making. His dairy could win at
New and Old Cumnock, but they were never even commended in the
county competition at Kilmarnock. He spared no expense to have his
dairy-maids instructed in the Cheddar system, and both Mr. Harding
and Mr. Norton from Somersetshire set up their cheese-presses for a
time at Dalgig. Still he never succeeded in making a first-class article,
and he attributed his failure to the wet soil and the cold, damp air.
Blackfaced sheep were also his fancy, and he won prizes with them,
but never showed after Mr. Richmond's death in '44. He began his
horse-labours simultaneously with his assault on waste land, and Kleber
and Lamartine, both Lanarkshire-bred Clydesdales, were his best sires.
Still, much as he might like good draught horses, he liked good saddle
horses better, and by the purchase of Revolter (a son of Grand Turk,
"the Cumberland coacher" and Merrylegs, a trotting mare) which he
put to six or seven nearly thorough-bred mares, he achieved a great
success both for himself and those who sent mares to " the old lame
horse." For a man of his weight he was a very fearless rider, and he
never cared what sort of savage he had in a gig, as he would soon teach
it how to go.
r 2 Saddle and Sirloin.
of their Glasgow evenings were spent together. Their
friendship knew no change, and the very year that
Pollok died, he had promised to spend part of the
summer at Dalgig.
Curling and draughts were his chief amusements
until he commenced coursing, and he kept up the
former for fully forty years. He would drive seven-
teen miles to Sanquhar to play, and although he
never won the Picture, he held the New Cumnock
Challenge Medal for several seasons. As a director
of the game he was first-rate, but his temper not un-
frequently went if any of his own players were care-
less. However, the anger was soon off him, and he
always said he was sorry for " blowing them up."
Into draughts he entered with the same devotion, and
on very special occasions he and a neighbour would
be at it till three in the morning. For two or three
years he had been very poorly, and six months before
his death he was stricken with palsy. After that he
grew weaker and weaker, but he was able to ride out
in his gig until the October of '67, when a great
change for the worse took place, and a peaceful end
soon followed.
Mr. McCombie's late herdsman, John Benzies, was
another character whom we always liked to meet by
the side of his heavy blacks, either at Islington or in
the Vale of Alford. Owing to a constitutional in-
firmity in his legs, he was not always able to compass
his thousand miles each December, but in 1867, when
he came South with the Black Prince Cup ox and
swept everything he could try for, both at Birming-
ham and London, we never saw him more active.
His appearance " by special command" with his ox
before Her Majesty at the Windsor Home Farm
was a grand event, and of course he was pretty often
waylaid as he went smiling down the Islington
avenues, and was requested to stand and deliver a
Court Journal account of himself. Despite all this
John White, the Gamekeeper. 13
notice in high places, John did not lose his head, and
when a celebrated English feeder put a chaffing
question to him as to his ox's dietary, he had his
guard up in an instant, and wouldn't allow that it
ever ate anything but " Heather bloom ! heather
bloom /" He seemed very well, but when he was
met at the station on his return, he told his fellow
servant, as if with a sort of sad prescience, that he
had now won all he could win, and that he didn't
care whether he ever saw the South again. Then
came two quiet days to recruit him after his journey,
and some long, two-handed cracks with his master
about the black he had left behind him, and then to
work once more in his nice, cheerful way among the
prize beasts for '68. Still his treacherous complaint
knew of no lengthened compromise. Another short
week and his labour was done, and this true-
hearted servant was borne up the valley to his
grave.
We have also lost our honest, downright friend of
many years standing, John White, or " Hawthorne."
No more each August shall we hail his forecast of the
grouse on the Grampians, so often prefaced by the
lines which told of the muircock's crow, the eagle's
haunt in the glen, the sweet moss where the roe deer
browse, and all the other delights of his heart, and
ending up with an exhortation to his brother sports-
men to " on wi' the tartan, and off wi' me ride." He
was head-keeper to the Earl of Mansfield, in whose
service he had been for nineteen years. His com-
mand extended over the Lowland shootings round
Scone and Lynedoch one on the banks of the Tay,
and the other of the Almond. Lynedoch, which is
some six miles out of Perth, is a lovely wild spot, and
he lived in the heart of it, not much more than a
hundred yards from the now ruined cottage where
the venerable General Lynedoch, as long as his eye-
sight lasted, spent three months of his summer.
1 4 Saddle and Sirloin.
Pheasants, partridges, roe deer, " fur" in abundance,
wild ducks, and a sprinkling of capercailzie composed
John's charge. The graves of Bessie Bell and Mary
Gray are by the rocky stream of the Almond in
those grounds, and drew many picknickers with leave
and without. Sometimes these outlaws would let
themselves in by a key at the great gate under the
cliff, and we often laughed to hear the rout when
the " lion of Lynedoch" bore down upon them
with dishevelled mane, and exacted ample apologies
and submission, when they thought that all was
serene.
He learnt his game-lesson well with his father, who
was head keeper at Arniston, near Edinburgh ; and
when quite a lad, he was constantly out coursing with
Sir Walter Scott. The bard liked his enthusiasm,
and had many a chat with him as he led his dogs,
and thus indirectly fostered the taste which he always
had for a bit of verse and prose on field sports. After
this he was fifteen years at Abercairney with Mr.
James Moray and his brother, the major. The former
kept a pack of hounds in Perthshire, and John was a
keen preserver of foxes, and had lots of good mounts
for his fealty. As " Brushwood," he used to send Old
Maga many a line about them, and when they were
given up, he had plenty to tell of " Merry John "
Walker, and his great doings in Fife. He was a
much lighter weight in those days, and generally
there or thereabouts, not unfrequently on Walker's
own horses.
In later days he took to coursing, and he won, and
then divided the Cup with his Duncan Gray at the
Carse of Gowrie Meeting. He was also a great
fisher, and there was scarcely a stream or loch in
Scotland where he had not cast his fly, and to good
purpose. He landed many a noble salmon on the
banks of the Tay, and preferred it before all other
sports ; but when he told us (who had never seen him
John White, the Gamekeeper. 15
perform) of his agility, and his playing a fish for more
than an hour, we could only gaze in wonder at his
burly figure, and congratulate him upon being " got
so fit" for the Derby week with a salmon to " lead
work" all spring. He was out deer-stalking with the
Prince Consort in Glenartney Forest, when H.R.H.
first came to Scotland, and he had some capital stories
of his keeper's experiences, "owre the muir amang
the heather." The frost always found his eye true
and his hand steady for the curling stones, and he
won a prize not many winters since at that game.
He was also a capital rifle shot, and he especially
cherished a silver medal which he won in 1829 at the
Border Club, when a stripling of twenty, as " the
Ettrick Shepherd" with whom he had often lived
and fished and shot near the Braes of Yarrow hung
it round his neck in public, and made a short speech
in his honour. Few better game shots went into a
cover ; he delighted in his profession, and in such a
retired spot, among the laurels, " where once a garden
smiled, and still where many a garden flower runs
wild," he had a fine cover for his pheasants close
round his lodge, which was almost hid in jessamine
and honeysuckle. We often stayed with him there
and listened to his good stories, amplified rather at
times by the repetition of his pet phrase, "/ said to
Mr. says 7," but very amusing, and full of cha-
racter, for which he was a keen watcher.
As each Derby began to loom, he was anxious to
be up and on the Downs, but he said every year that
he should " never come again." If there was a great
pigeon handicap, he would go and load for his young
master, Lord Stormont, and the North Countrie men
always delighted to see John's honest, hearty face
among them. He had known lots of them as chil-
dren, but he had hardly a grey hair in his head. He
also knew a leading book-maker, and from him he
received tips, but to judge from the state of his book,
1 6 Saddle and Sirloin.
when he arrived in the metropolis, John was not very
constant to his Derby love during the winter. At
Perth he was a well-known character, driving through
in his trap to Scone, or in Paton the gunsmith's shop,
up to his crupper in fishing-rods and breech-loaders,
or talking to Speedie about his salmon takes. He
died after a very short illness at Scone, and he was
buried at Moneydie Church, about two miles from
Lynedoch, on the banks of a little stream which falls
into that Tay he loved so dearly, near the salmon-
breeding ponds at Stormontfield.*
Time has wrought some changes at Dr. Grant's
since we first wrote of the doings of the Master of
the Teviotdale.t First and foremost, the Doctor has
foresworn celibacy, and has found a helpmate as fond
and as beloved of the hounds as himself, and as
daring in the saddle, when she dons her blue habit on
a fox or otter-hunting morning. The Liddesdale
Hunt remembers well how five or six seasons since
she won the brush on her grey pony. In fact, the
Doctor has consistently reversed George Herbert's
saying of " a horse made, and a wife to make." The
step quite took Hawick by surprise. The Kirk
Session clerk thought it was a hoax-, when the Doctor
handed him the guinea and the proclamation for kirk
* A local paper, the Crieff Journal, has the following lines to his
memory, which shows that in his humble walk, he has left some " foot-
prints on the sands of Time," in both the places where he lived and did
his duty so well. They run as follows : " Weeping echoes in the Braes
of Lynedoch and Abercairney :"
" Alas ! he's gone. Who's gone?
Honest John White gone ;
Neither laird nor statesman he,
Nor boasting of high pedigree,
But proud of country and of home,
A leal true-hearted Scotsman, gone ;
Firm in duty, sportsman rare,
Constant friend, man everywhere."
t See ''Field and Fern" (South), pp. 171-201.
The Master of the Teviotdale. 17
next day, and he positively refused to handle the one
or believe the other till a mutual friend solemnly
vouched for it. Even when he read it out in kirk, he
was in fear and trembling, and "thought the Doctor
might be getting himself into trouble with another of
his odd tricks." The great fear among the Hawick
" lads" when the secret came out that Sunday was,
that the days of the Teviotdale pack were numbered
No such thing. The whole of the premises in Hawick
were knocked down, and new opes of a very different
stamp grew out of the same spot in their place.
Horses and dogs lived pro tern, just where they could
among the debris. The brown pony of the fair " first
whip" (Mrs. G.) was located in a little boarded corner
of the barn, with Frank, the terrier (a staunch badger
dog, but unentered at otter) in perpetual attendance.
The grey half-Arab mare, a rare goer on the road, and
a wonderfully steady one when you come to a wade
in " silver Teviot's tide," and the bay whose life was
spent between the rubbish cart and professional tours
in the gig were stabled in a house without a gable
end, where three " families" used to live. The pack
found shelter in the old hunting-break shed, and the
break was poked away behind divers roof beams and
laths. Slash, the big black Labrador of io81bs.
weight, was tied up in the back surgery with the
turtledove of apocryphal age, which has lollowed the
Doctor's fortunes from three houses in Hawick. The
black had been so accustomed to watch for poachers,
that before he fairly understood " Hints on Etiquette"
in the house, he was suspicious when he winded a
patient after dark, and on one occasion he made a
well-meant effort to eat a flesher, who had come to
have his tooth drawn.
Billy and Bobby generally lived with two cats in
the garret, and the latter, when he was in an ill-
humour, kept the tabbies in strong exercise. Billy
paid off a servant-girl, against whom he had a slight
C
1 8 Saddle and Sirloin.
grudge. He would share her bed every night ; but
once when she had to get out and go downstairs to
fetch something, he took a surly fit, and would never
let her in again at least, under the blankets and that
long-suffering woman had to sleep in her shift on the
outside. Teddy and the cat were mostly in bed-
partnership with the boy ; but Billy stuck to the
girls, and old half-blind Stormer, who fights every-
thing in kennel, roamed about at will. After trying
in vain on a pouring night for a settlement in some
parish, he discovered a happy hermitage, in this brick-
and-mortar waste, at the bottom of an old chimney,
and, having laid the coals in order, entered into re-
sidence at once. My Mary, by Shamrock, is inde-
pendent of alterations, and resides entirely in the
gigs at least, the one which has the apron on and
makes sundry sallies during the night on to the rats,
which hold holiday in the yard. On one occasion,
she was found with five, which she must have carried
up, step by step, through the wheel spokes, and then
borne, Blondin-fashion, along the side-shaft to her
lair. As the Doctor says, she " lies with them in her
arms, as if they were puppies the darling wee thing!"
She lives well among the patients in her daily
gig rides, but cream and meat don't make her idle.
Occasionally she enlivens these professional rounds
by taking the drains after a rabbit, and she has car-
ried one alive into the gig. Like her, the Doctor
does a good deal of sleeping in the gig, but to ensure
peaceful repose he must have two pair of reins, and
hold the one while his wife drives with the other.
Gouty old MalakhofFs white skin is in the best bed-
room, and you now tread over " old John Peel's" and
Fairplay's somewhere on the landing. Shamrock's is
in the big room, and gives you the notion, as you first
look and recall the little grey-and-tan warrior of
eighteen seasons, that a quarry stone has tumbled on
him, and flattened him out. His is indeed a precious
The Master of the Teviotdale. 1 9
memory with the Doctor. " When Broadwith could
find no vermin for him he killed collies on the spot
he had such destructive power he suffered very
much at last ; I tapped him twice, and took away
about 1 60 ounces of fluid in all." He left more
daughters than sons behind him ; and the former more
especially followed him in colour. Teddy, his son,
is quite as determined with otters, and by dint of
practice as artistic as himself, though he is not quite
so heavy.
The badgers needed no close borough of their own
amid all this yard confusion, as they were all poisoned
that summer on one and the self-same night. They
would catch rats like a dog, as the vermin stole to
their feeding trough in " the sweet moonshine ; " but
they killed and ate one too many. A poisoned rat
came among the rest, and all three seemed to have
partaken of him, as they were found curled up stiff
and dead in one tub. The Doctor had no idea that
poisoning was in process next door, or he would
have adopted his usual preventive of feeding up the
out-lying terriers and the badgers, so that they would
not eat their spoil. He mourned sadly over the big
badger, as nearly every terrier in the place had been
highly tried with him in his time. This badger main-
tained the very pleasantest relations with the stable-
boy and servant-girl, who cleaned him out and fed
him. Let but the Doctor appear, and he growled
fearfully, and as often as not tried to break through
his iron poker guard, and have a touch at his learned
legs. He was quite different in attitude and expres-
sion when one of the Doctor's wire-haired brigade
went in, and he would at once entrench himself in a
corner, " to receive cavalry," knowing right well what
to expect. If it was merely a stranger he scorned
such work, and went in for a merry ding-dong, which
soon settled matters. A very expensive brace were
so heavily beaten in their trial, that their disgusted
C 2
2O Saddle and Sirloin.
owner packed them off that night, and said he thought
they " would be good enough for London." Teddy
nailed him at eleven months, and got bitten through
his nose and shoulder, but he went in at him a few
days after, as resolute as ever. Badger-baiting is in
the blood, as Shammy's grandsire, " The Patriotic
Pep," killed a badger in a drain when he was quite
old and blind. This was at William Broadwith's, who
used often to turn out a badger on Longnewton
Forest with one and a half hours' law, whenever
Sir George Douglas's pack were unusually short of
otters.
The performing chestnut horse was put down early
in '67, and was generally supposed to be rising twenty-
seven years, of which he had spent eleven with the
Doctor. As a jumper, whether of stone walls, banks,
or timber, he had few to touch him, and with the
Doctor's leaping-pole on the top of it, he cared no-
thing for a wire fence. He would follow his master
over any jump, and never separate from him when he
was over, however good a head hounds might be
carrying. For some time past he had been troubled
in his wind, and was found, on a careful post mortem,
to have aneurism of the heart and malignant disease
of the liver. In fact it was about time for him to
render up his flesh to the hounds he loved so well, and
his " flag," skin, and hoofs (the latter in the shape of
polished snuff-boxes) serve as adornments to the big
room of 3Oft. by I Sift., above the stables. His carcase
was pickled for the pack and was " as good beef as
ever you saw ; but perhaps not so fat as some we've
known." They put a sack over his head, and the
poor beast began to waltz with his fore feet, as if he
was expecting to be taught his lOist performance,
when down he went with No. 5 shot through the fore-
head. The Doctor cannot bear ball in such a crisis,
as his five-barrelled revolver once failed with a Bird-
catcher mare, and he only killed her by opening a
The Master of the Teviotdale. 2 i
vein, and blowing into it, when she died with a hearty
nicker in her nostrils. The one-eyed thorough-bred
mare has been disposed of long since. Her original
price was thirty shillings, because no one could get on
her back, and the Doctor consistently reached that
proud elevation up to the day of her death by a
series of flying jumps on the blind off-side. He
has a capital harness mare, looking like a hunter,
which wont ride a yard, and never will. It once took
three and a half hours to do two miles on her, and her
rider only effected that by sitting down on her, and
working the journey tail forem6st the only way in
which she will go under a saddle, although she will
kneel, and take quite naturally to hanky-panky tricks.
The Doctor takes the precaution of having his harness
made throughout with spring hooks so that if he has
an accident he can hold the horse with the left hand,
and set it free with the right.
There are about five otter hounds, eight Dandies,
and Billy in the pack ; but there is nothing the
Doctor relies on more than Slash the Labrador, with
his jet-black coat and his fine grey muzzle. This
warrior came from Broadwith's, and hunted with the
Doctor for many a season before he was " reduced into
possession." He was helping in night-work at the
same time ; but it became at last dangerous to take
him out, as he could wind a poacher at any distance,
and his growls of linked sweetness long drawn out,
when they held him " for fear of murder," told too
much. Hence the Doctor, to his great joy, was al-
lowed to take him home, and he has become a groom
of the bedchamber. Slash believes in no dog not
excepting Ringwood unless he has felt at the spot
for himself. Hunting alone is his delight, and he is
always questing either up or down stream, yards apart
from the body of the pack. He quarters the stream
just like a setter dog after partridges sometimes with
his nose right under the water, and his head on one
22 Saddle and Sirloin.
side, as if listening, and sometimes with it flat on the
surface. When there is a worry he takes care to have
his back nip ; whereas old Stormer only tugs away
at the tail, and Ringwood is quite open to let up Billy
and the terriers at such a crisis. Slash was the only
dog which ever beat the Doctor when he wanted to
save his otter. That devoted man had the rest at bay
under an elder bush on the Ale, and the terriers would
not act on account of the heavy stream ; but Slash
would not be denied, floored him in the mud, and took
the otter from him then and there. The " auctioneer,"
which MalakhofF dreaded so much, was no use what-
ever against such a "Molyneux the Black." The
Doctor remarks " that he does not know pain. Look
at the thumps he got from that iron hook of Bill's :
his nervous system is not like other dogs he's a dog
of metallic nerves."
The long room above the stables is now (i 870) finished,
but not furnished ; a fox has been kept there since it was
a cub, and ere long the trick training will commence.
A badger again forms one of the establishment, to the
great delight of Betsy ; and a man hunted a buck
tbulmart for six weeks as a consort for the ferrets,
which had grown slack in the Doctor's eyes, and re-
quired a fresh strain of blood. It was run to ground
several times, and made such an example of its pur-
suer's fingers, that the latter was perpetually under
medical treatment till he conquered. The Doctor has
made a platform nine feet from the ground round his
yard, and stocked it with all kinds of British flowers.
This is what he understands by sitting under his own
fig-tree in years to come, and what cares he even if
the otter-bites in his hands do become " the seats of
rheumatism." Above the long room he has a shoot-
ing gallery of twenty-five yards, finishing in his extra
bedroom, which commands a view of Chapel Hill,
Borthaugh, and Gala Law covers. Through an artful
tube in the wall, he commands the illuminated face of
The Master of the Teviotdale. 23
the Town Clock as he lies in his bed, which saves all
candle reference to his watch on an otter-hunting
morning.
Some of the otter hounds have been working with
Sandy in the Carlisle pack ; but Royal, Collier, and
Ringwood are still (1870) in kennel with Teddy, Piper,
Tom, and the other terriers, who " get round the otter
like a collar of leeches." Two greyhounds (one of
them old Artful), Slash, old Major (who is almost
blind), Judge (the setter), and Stormer have tickets-
of-leave in the stable ; Billy, Bobby, and Ragman
are a trio by themselves ; and Black Jack, who
will fight any mortal thing, occupies the boot of the
break. There is also a magnificent bitch, Melody,
from Mr. Stonehewer's which has no superior in a cold
scent, and Little Pod, a puppy of The Dwarfs, is quite
a character.
The Doctor's deposition touching the attempted
capture of Billy is worth preserving : " I saw the man
at the head of Baker's Close, coquetting with Billy,
and marked him as a stranger, with an eye to the dog.
The two disappeared. I got into position at the
other end of the Close, and took him by the throat ;
he threw down the rope, and I made him pick it up
again. He tried to break my arm ; but I knew the
old dodge. He seized me by the wrist, and ran
under it. I stopped him with one on the larynx ;
he opened his mouth wider than any otter hound
he was nearly asphyxiated. It was such a nasty
trick trying to put out a gentleman's arm for claim-
ing his own dog. Billy was quite conscience-stricken
at finding himself in such low company. He knew
he had done something wrong. The man had to
stand in the yard with his back against the wall,
and hold the rope as evidence against himself, till
a Serjeant of police came. The rope was the link of
union ; it kept them all nicely connected together
The man began in a most piteous way. He told me
24 Saddle and Sirloin.
he had only just finished his t\vo years in Perth
Penitentiary for taking a mouthful of flesh out of a
policeman's leg. I had some pity on him, and I
wouldn't value Billy at io/., so he couldn't be sent
to Jedburgh. He had the full benefit of ten days.
The baillie would have given him more for Billy's
sake, if he could. As for the man, he was gratitude
to the mast-head. * /'// never steal another dog from
yon' I thought he would come and call ; but I am
glad to say he didn't. ' Pve got a good dog at Dal-
keitJi ; yon can have it if yon like. If yon ever want
one, write me' That is what he said : it showed his
heart was in the right place. It was a tremendous
undertaking stealing a public character like Billy a
dog that everybody here knows and respects a privi-
leged dog goes round the town every forenoon, and
visits on his own hook not a butcher's shop he dosen't
know, and he's very fond of confectionery too. He
may well be fat.' ;
The Doctor " took a notion" shortly after our visit,
and sallied forth with Ringwood, Royal, Collier,
Stormer, and Melody to look for an otter at Shields-
wood, where Jack Deans the keeper had several fox
litters. The otter had been a great night-traveller,
and between Ashkirk and Shieldswood loch the scent
was as hot as fire. Mrs. Grant commanded the terrier
contingent, of Teddy, Tom, Piper, Vixen, and My
Mary ; while Slash the Labrador, Billy, and the five
otter hounds were the Doctor's aides-de-camp as
usual. Jack was in a dreadful fright when the Din-
monts went to ground, lest it should be a vixen
fox, but it was the "right stuff," a regular thirty-
pounder, and out it came through the pack and into
the loch. There was plenty of music, and when it had
swum a ring it earthed again, and was drawn out by
the terriers. It was nearly off the second time, but
the Doctor dashed into the loch, seized it by the hind
legs, and fell trying to swing it up the bank. As the
The Master of the Teviotdale. 2 5
Doctor fell, some of his dogs, whose blood was regu-
larly up, caught him by the hip in the melee, and bit
hirn so severely that the leg became benumbed down
to the foot, and he could not get up again. Jack then
slipped and went down in trying to land him, and was
bitten by one of the dogs in the hand. Mrs. Grant,
as reserve corps, then flew to their aid, and the Doctor
was got out of the loch, still holding on to the hind
legs of the otter, which just prevented his coat and
vest from being pulled right over his head. There
was a most fearful battle on the bank, and but for
Slash and his tremendous " back nip," the otter might
have won the day. Poor Billy was of no use; he hung
on " like grim death/' and tried to chew, but he seemed
to do no harm. On examination it was found that he
had struck two of his long tusks through his upper-lip,
and had thus fairly muzzled himself. There never
was such a bloody death, and the terriers, to use the
Doctor's noble simile, " looked as if scarlet nightcaps
had been drawn over their heads and necks." Billy
was in high fever next day, with a head so fearfully
swollen that the Doctor thought he could not recover,
and carried him perfectly blind to the photographer,
for a parting reminiscence.
His head when submitted to the photographer was
just as broad as it was long, whereas in health the
length is about twice the width. He is now quite well
again and ripe for duty, and another photograph was
taken of him ; so that his friends at a distance might
see, with the aid of a magnifying-glass, what a tre-
mendous jobation he received during his " lock jaw."
The Doctor firmly believes that the dog owes his life
to the tender nursing and devotion of his mate, the
ex-pugilist Bobby, who took possession of him that
night, and never left him till all his face-wounds were
healed up. He lay with his patient on the kitchen
sofa, and never ceased to lick the raw spots. If Billy
went into the yard he accompanied him, and would
26 Saddle and Sirloin.
not let him out of his sight for an instant. His tongue
was in fact a perpetual poultice and antidote to inflam-
mation. The Doctor tried hard one day to get him
to dress the wounds of the Dandies, but he would not
even look at them. Some years ago he and Billy
fought till they were exhausted, and ever since they
seem to have been quite content to look upon it as a
drawn match, and never quarrel about victuals or any-
thing else.
" Well, den ! Hard Koppig Peter ben gone at last,"
said the Dutchman of New Amsterdam, as they puffed
the pensive pipe, and gazed into his grave. Now that
his beloved Newmarket will know him no more, turf-
ites have a still warmer remembrance of their " Peter
the Headstrong," or "Old Glasgow!" The Dutch
and Scottish heroes were of the same kidney. One
prorogued a meeting of the burghers sine die by kick-
ing it bodily downstairs with his silver-mounted
wooden leg ; and then posted himself in full regimen-
tals and cocked hat, with a blunderbuss at a garret
window of Government-house, rather than sign the
surrender of his town. The other looked upon the
Press much from the same point of view as Peter did
on the troublesome tribes of Preserved Fish and
Determined Cock, and did nothing on the turf like
anybody else.
He went to sea at a tender age, and he never lost
the salt flavour. To the last he was a true descendant
of the old Norsemen in his manners and in his blood.
Grafton, Rutland, Exeter, and Jersey were courtly
models to which he did not care to conform. Under
the auspices of his one-armed tutor, "Sir Wolly," who,
for lack of more worlds to conquer, on his proud St.
Leger Eve thrust his walking-stick through the pier
glasses of the Rein Deer, the young lieutenant soon
became seasoned to life ashore. They would sit at
the window of the Black Swan at York with magnums
of claret before them after midnight, and hand it out
The Earl of Glasgow. 2 7
in tumblers to the passers-by. Old racing men first
remember the pupil jumping on the table at the Star
in Stonegate, when Mr. Gully entered and offered 25
to I in hundreds against Brutandorf for the St. Leger,
and repeating the offer in thousands. Having once
begun to " plunge," he won I7,ooo/. on Jerry, and lost
27,ooo/. on Mameluke at Doncaster ; and trusting in
Bay Middleton, and Bay Middleton alone, he offered
9O,ooo/, to 3O,ooo/. against Venison for the Derby,
" each man to post the money." Of late years he had
made some big bets, and offered bigger, but be the
issue what it might, no one could tell by his features
whether he had won or lost. It was dangerous for a
trainer or jockey to advise his lordship to put ioo/.
on a horse, as he was sure to multiply the advice by
five. Very often he would take no advice, and with a
colt at least two stone better in the stable he charac-
teristically enough backed Dare Devil to win 5O,ooo/.,
and put his first jockey on him in the St. Leger.
Combined with all this off-hand daring, there was the
fine, simple faith of a Jack Tar, and the most rugged
honesty. Finesse or generalship, such as letting the
worst horse finish first in the trial when a good "taste"
had been taken a quarter of a mile from home, was a
thing he could not understand. Hence, he never
fairly mastered the fact that Actseon was much better
than Jerry ; and Purity's hollow defeat in the first two
heats out of five at Doncaster, despite Croft's assu-
rance that " the fun of the fair is only beginning, my
lord," seemed a purely Chinese puzzle to him.
As Lord Kelburne, when his racing aspirations did
not often range further south than York and Don-
caster, he lived a good deal in Scotland, at his seat of
Hawkhead, near Paisley. That daring soul, Lord
Kennedy, was then in his zenith, ready to shoot (at
grouse or pigeons), or walk, or drive, against any
mortal man, for any conceivable sum, and, as may
be i inagined, his lordship found a foeman, with a long
28 Saddle and Sirloin.
purse, ready for him at any hour of the day or night.
The later the hour, the wilder the bet ; and it is on
record that they had a driving match after midnight,
and that Lord Kelburne lost by choosing the wrong
road, and nearly plunging his team among the breakers
off Ardrossan.
In sturdy emphasis of speech, whether at Jockey
Club Cabinets, or addressing his trainer, he was the
same " Downright Shippon" to the last. For him the
Presbytery of Strathbogie had lived and laboured in
vain. To discuss a subject of turf polity with him
was about as hopeless as to ask his opinion respecting
the new veterinary discovery of a small supplementary
muscle in the eye of an ass. He once ordered a handi-
capper to put 7lbs. more on his own mare. When,
as Lord Kelburne, he hunted Ayrshire, if anything
went wrong with the sport, he immediately turned
upon the huntsman, and chased that devoted man,
thong in hand, half a league v over hedge and fallow.
Fashion and Usage could forge no fetters for him.
Hodgson in a pair of gloves,
Shades of Meynell and of Mytton 1
Vainly Venus sent her doves,
With a pair of her own knitting,
expressed a home truth about a Master of the Quorn,
which would have equally applied to the old Earl.
He never appeared in such modern knick-knacks as
knickerbockers. To the last he stood by the side of
the cords, with low shoes a world too wide, white
trousers, in which T. P. Cooke himself could have
conscientiously danced a hornpipe, and not unfre-
quently in a blue coat with gilt buttons. See him
when you might, there was the same nervous irrita-
tion, which ruined all natural rest, and made his span
of nearly seventy-seven years, eked out as it was
nightly by chloroform or laudanum, very little short
of miraculous.
He was not exactly, as Aytoun said of Lord
The Earl of Glasgow. 29
Eglinton, " one of the heroic stamp of Montrose and
Dundee," but still a grand Turf patriarch, whom no
defeat could quench. He had spent hundreds of
thousands during nearly half a century of racing life,
and yet not one of the three great events fell to his
" white body, crimson sleeves and cap," in which
Harry Edwards on Actaeon, that most ungenerous of
finishers, defeated by a head the terrific rush of Sam
Chifney on Memnon. This York Subscription Purse
was, after all, the victory of his life. " Lord Glasgow
wins," was heard at the Two Thousand finish in
General Peel's year, and no shout was taken up with
greater zest by the multitude. " Old Glasgow always
goes straight to the winning-post," and " Rogues can
take no change out of him." Like Lord Exeter, he
could furnish his " surprises," and none greater than
when Rapid Rhone defeated Lord Clifden for the
Claret Stakes. Cheered on by the warmth and high
spirits of a Jocky Club dinner, he would match any-
thing in his stable, and when he could come to New-
market no longer, he wrote and desired his trainer to
turn his attention that way, so that while absent at
Hawkhead, he might still be doing something. To
one or two of his most wary opponents he was as good
as an annuity ; but on a memorable Houghton Satur-
day he laughed them all to scorn, and won six
matches in succession. No one was so wayward and
difficult to please, or so munificent when he was
pleased. His trainers " came and went like the
simoon," till at last men of standing in the profession
would not engage themselves to him without a
guarantee for at least three years. When he had
gone the round he would come back to the old ones,
although he had vowed, by all his gods, that they had
ruined his horses. Every trainer did that. Still, his
cheque was always there to the moment, and that was
like wine and oil to the wounds he inflicted with his
tongue. As for his favourite jockey, Tom Aldcroft,
3O Saddle and Sirloin.
he had nearly as many " reconciliations" with him as
Tom Sayers had with Heenan at the Alhambra ; but
he could never quite forgive John Scott for "leaving
him alone so severely," when, in his thirst for con-
troversy about his colt General Peel, he shot quite a
sheaf of arrows at Whitewall.
Above all things he hated naming his horses, and
preferred to leave the public which never really took
any trouble in the matter, as it dare not back one out
of fifty on its merits to grope helplessly among the
Miss Whip, Physalis, or dam by Gameboy sorts, from
which sprang the noble race of Flutter and " the
tight'uns by Barbatus." It had been the self-
same story in earlier days, with Jerry, Retainer,
Albany, and Retriever. Half the evenings at the
Club, when Lord Derby led the revels, with the
Earl of Strafford, General Peel, Admiral Rous, Mr.
Greville, and Mr. Payne friends who could always
touch the right chord in that testy old Scot were
spent in trying to name his horses for him. Getting
the " royal assent" was the real difficulty, and once
"the rich relics of" what promised to be "a well-
spent hour" only resulted in the registration with
Messrs. Weatherby of "He has a name," and " Give
him a name." The Black Duck Stakes of 1000, h-ft,
jumped so much with his humour, that " The Drake,"
and " The White Duck" which had a double aspect,
bearing on the above stake and his own seafaring
trousers as well were readily adopted ; but " Light
Bob," by Voltigeur, was hardly expected of him,
except, perhaps, in the light of a cut at the rival pro-
fession. Tom Bowline, one of the few yearlings he
ever bought, came to his hand at the hammer ready
named, and there were melting moments when he
could not resist the offers of his friends to be sponsors
for his best. " Knowsley" was but due to the genial
Earl who had made many a match with him in his
day ; " Strafford" and " General Peel," might well
VNJV
The Earl of Glasgow. 3 1
have a pleasant sound ; a chestnut with such a
peculiar white mark under the knee was of course
Knight of the Garter ; and " Rapid Rhone" was a
sterling compliment, such as that roan tribe might
not know again in the course of the century. Both
Knowsley and the Drake have repaid breeders well in
different lines, and The Earl was one of the results of
that " nick" of Orlando mares with his Young Mel-
bourne, which General Peel made so fashionable.
Hence, thanks to old Clarissa, he could turn the laugh
against stud critics at last.
The more they jeered at his stud tribes, the more
he stuck by them, and the more assiduously he
matched the produce. He cared nothing what he
spent out of a reputed 6o,ooo/. a year. If a privileged
queen of the card-women hit him a little too hard with
her chaff, he would rub his neck or back, as was his
nervous way, a little more vigorously than usual, and
throw her a sovereign to get rid of her. He liked
having his racing blood to himself, and therefore
he put his sires' fees at a pretty prohibitive figure.
In fact, he would rather lend than let, and infinitely
sooner shoot than sell. He has been known to go
down to Middleham out of the season, summon four
or five resident jockeys over-night to ride a score or
more of trials for him the next morning, and finish up
by shooting half-a-dozen of the worst twos and threes,
without benefit of clergy. Stern of mood as he might
be when he was crossed, " his hand was ever open, his
heart was ever warm." It was said that he once fed
half Paisley in a time of distress, and that yet not
even a baillie dare thank him on behalf of his brother-
townsmen, for fear of being assaulted. A io/.
note or a " pony" was the very least he would pull
out of his pocket, if the hat went round, and good
cause was shown for some Turfite who had fallen
behind the world. For forty years after their con-
nexion had ceased, he would send one of his earliest
32 Saddle and Sirloin.
jockeys a 5<D/. note, if he had won a good event, simply
" for auld lang syne." With all his foibles, he was a
glorious old landmark to the Turf; and while he was
still among us, defying the roll of the ages, with his
quaint garb and blunt speech, some may perchance
have felt that his presence was a wholesome cor-
rective to the modern spirit, which has lowered " the
sport of kings" into a doubtful trade a contest for
honour into a lust for long odds,
CHAPTER II.
11 He loved the twilight that surrounds
The border land of old romance ;
Where glitter hauberk, helm, and lance,
And banner waves and trumpet sounds
And ladies ride with hawk on wrist
And mighty warriors sweep along,
Magnified by the purple mist,
The dusk of centuries and of song. "
Longfellow.
The late Sir James Graham, his farming tastes Recollections of Car-
lisle Meeting the Judges Old Posting Times Loyal Tom King
Jack Ainslie and his Gretna Green tactics.
FROM Longtown to Land's End is our allotted
journey. When our Scottish travels on the
Cheviot side of the country were ended, and we were
once more in the Border land, we tied our mare to the
church wicket at Arthuret, and sought the grave of
Sir James Graham. There he rests from his toil, be-
neath the ash and the sycamore on the north-east side
of the chancel. Nothing is placed over it save a red
sandstone flag with the inscription, " J. R. G. Graham,
Bart., born June 1st, 1792, died Oct. 2$tk, 1861." It
was his last wish that he should have this simple burial
among his tenants and neighbours.
Sir James's stay at Netherby depended very much
The late Sir James Graham. 33
upon his engagements in London, but he generally
contrived to come down for different periods twice a-
year. He would always spend the first fortnight after
his return in riding about the farms with his steward,
the late Mr. Yule, and then with Mr. Brown, seeing
and suggesting improvements, till at length the whole
estate bore unmistakable impress of his practical
knowledge and broad aims, and became quite a pro-
verb of good farming in the North. Farmers, whose
only account-books were their right and left pockets,
might well take a lesson from the Netherby tenantry.
Croft Head where he lived during some very happy
years, as Mr. Graham, after his marriage and some
additional fields, or about 1000 acres in all, made up
his home-farm ; and he also from time to time took
other farms in hand to improve. Green crop fallows
were latterly a special point with him, as a prepara-
tory measure of permanent improvement. Hence in
his leases the out-going tenant was bound not to have
more than one-fourth of his fallow-share in bare fallow.
In many districts, but more especially the low-lying
ones of the Netherby estate, he recommended the
culture of green crops and grass, as, owing to the
almost periodical rains in July, which raised the rivers
Esk and Liddle, the water was backed up through the
porous soil to the roots of the wheat, which at once
retarded its growth, and produced a rough sample.
In the valleys of these rivers there is a good alluvial
soil, a small portion is on a strong clay and well
adapted for fallow wheat, and fully a half consists of
what is called black topped land, with mostly a good
red clay subsoil, or, in some cases, a hungry white,
sandy-seamed clay, which is the worst soil on the
estate. Good farm-houses and farmsteads were his
delight. After his father's death he subdivided and
remodelled his farms, put all the buildings in order,
made good occupation roads, and commenced an ex-
tensive system of tile-draining, which is still being
D
34 Saddle and Sirloin.
carried on. He was equally given to woodcraft, and
spent a great deal of time with his foresters, advising
them as to judicious thinning. He planted 1000 acres
in addition to the 1500 he found on the estate. Larch
was his favourite as regards profit, and oak, beech, and
lime as ornamental trees.
Of Shorthorns and Galloways Sir James was an
excellent judge. He began with the former and soon
established a good herd, but experience convinced
him that they were not suitable to the soil and climate
of the bulk of his estate, and they had, therefore, to
give way to "a black dairy." He did not declare
himself in favour of any particular breed of sheep, but
he introduced sheep-farming on to his estate. It
is a noteworthy fact, that all the old Netherby leases
which were in existence when he became baronet in
1854, contained a clause prohibiting the farmers from
keeping sheep, on account of their being destructive to
the fences. Few men knew better about a horse's
points, and he liked the cross between a blood sire and
Cleveland mares, but he never made any high prices.
In 1821-25, before he entered on public life, he
hunted a good deal in Yorkshire, and generally
stayed with his old friend Mr. Starkie, near Golds-
borough. In after years he gave his mind more to
shooting ; like most tall men, he was a good, steady
shot, and during his session labours he always looked
keenly forward to the Twelfth, and the ten days
among the grouse at The Flatt in Bewcastle. It was
in defence of his rights as lord of the manor of Nichol
Forest, that he had to fight the case of Graham v.
Ewart through the Exchequer, the Exchequer Cham-
ber, and the House of Lords, before it was solemnly
decided that he was entitled to hunt, shoot, fish, and
fowl over Bailey Hope, a stinted pasture within that
manor, under the preamble of the Enclosure Act,
which reserved his right to " other rights, royalties,
liberties, and privileges in and over the same." Lord
The late Sir James Graham. 35
Stanley and Mr. Sidney Herbert both joined him at
The Flatt, and Sir Robert Peel shot his covers with
him at Netherby, where Mr. Gladstone was a frequent
summer visitor. The party roughed it considerably
at The Flatt, as the house was small, and some of
them had to adjourn to shepherds' huts. They always
shot over dogs, as driving was not then the fashion.
Occasionally Sir James would try his hand at salmon-
fishing in the Esk with old John Wilson as henchman,
but the gaff which John shouldered was not often
brought into requisition. John still " minds on" how
when Sir James had had an unlucky day, he handed
over the rod to himself. After a further trial of the
game of patience, a salmon was hooked, and Sir
James resumed the rod, and John the gaff, but " the
speckled monarch of the tide" escaped to the Solway
after some nice play, and John said, in sly allusion to
election matters, " / never seed Sir James look sae blue
afore!'
He was singularly punctual in his habits, and very
abstemious, tasting very little between a light break-
fast and a late dinner. Sir Benjamin Brodie once
said to us of him, that when he was working hardest,
he only took meat three times a week. We cannot
recall a finer election sight than when he and Mr.
Blamire were borne, side by side, through Carlisle,
one in a dark-blue and the other in a light-blue chair ;
but Sir James's height and weight made the task
rather difficult to the bearers, and they changed so
often, that in Castle-street we once thought that the
baronet would have descended more swiftly than
agreeably from his calico and laurel throne. A
handsomer couple than Lady Graham and himself
were seldom seen in a ball-room, and a few Carlisle
people still remember how every other dancing group
was suddenly broken up, and how one and all crowded
round to look, and t never forgot that rare quartet of
beauty, when the present Duchess of Somerset, Lady
D 2
3 6 Saddle and Sirloin.
Graham, Lady Vane, and Mrs. Johnson of Walton
House were partners in a quadrille with Sir James,
Sir Frederick Vane, Mr. Johnson, and Cantain
Campbell.*
As years went on, there was sterner work than this
for Sir James to do both in Downing-street and St.
Stephens, and Cumberland might well be proud of her
" Bright Sword of the Border." No country had ever
sent, not once, but twice, such a pair of home-breds as
" Sir Jamie" and " Willie Blamire" as their members.
The one had mastered the great problem of Tithe and
Enclosure, perhaps, with the exception of the Irish
Church, the most delicate and difficult that has per-
plexed the century ; and the other was for nearly
thirty years " a potent voice of Parliament," and the
friend of Sir Robert Peel. There was a long severance,
it is true, between him and his county, but " The
wanderer," to use his own words, " came home at
last." After fifteen years of political exile, he showed
himself once more at the windows of the Coffee
House, and then came that carefully-studied combina-
tion of close reasoning, playful local illustration, and
magnificent irony, which gave his speeches such a
peculiar edge, and which again bore all down before
it both on the hustings and at the poll. Every shaft
told, and it went ill with the man who tried to
parry his chaff, upon finger and toe in turnips,
or any other topic. Two points in his political
life were especially marked, to wit, his wish to play
a strong second rather than to lead, and his utter
indifference, if he believed himself to be in the right,
how much he might cut public opinion against the
grain. The one might indicate lack of nerve, but
the other proved its possession in the very highest
degree.
* Our infoimtwt. who was a looker-on, fe sure as to seven oat c
the eight
Recollections of Carlisle, 37
On the Carlisle hustings in '52 he said that he might
" now claim to close the book," but he was bound to
take his place by the Earl of Aberdeen that winter
now that Sir Robert was gone. He had begun to
fail very much after his grand climacteric in 1855, and
went down gradually until his death. Still the well-
known words, " Sir James is up" which, to the last,
never failed to empty the library and the smoking-
room, were heard in the May before his death, when
he spoke upon the question of a tack to a Bill of
Supply. We happened to be in the Speaker's Gallery,
and painfully noted the ravages which a few years had
made, since he and his colleague for Ripon, the Hon.
Edwin Lascelles, two of the handsomest men in Eng-
land, were listening to a protection debate in the
House of Lords. Earl Derby then adjusted his eye-
glass and glanced up at his old colleague, as he sat
with a look of half-indifference, half-scorn on his face,
and his finely-moulded hands folded on the top of his
stick. When he made that last great speech in the
Commons the political poet might still have written of
him,
" So cute and cunning he of fence,
We count him worth a host ;"
but he said when he rose from the last bench behind
the ministers, that his days of conflict were gone by,
and that he claimed an old man's privilege to lift the
question out of a mere party arena, and deal with it
strictly as a constitutional one. He spoke leaning on
his stick, and though his measured accents lacked the
fire of the days when he bade the House at least to
" get out of Nisi Prius" or made " he knows the
reason why" the key-note of a speech which recounted
the blessings of Free Trade, there was the same beau-
tiful precision and flow of language which so distin-
guished him in his prime. The house sat in rapt
silence so as not to lose one word, and all seemed
to feel that his voice would be heard again no
38 Saddle and Sirloin.
more. He alluded to his growing weakness, and
there was that in his manner when he met his friends
on the hustings, and on the show-field at Carlisle,
which pointed too truly to the end. The two-finger
salutation was exchanged for the hand-shake, and
those with whom he had any political difference felt
from his tones, how anxious he was that all should be
forgotten.
Jeremy Taylor's Holy Living and Dying was his
constant companion on his death-bed, and when he
knew that he was very near the entrance of the dark
valley, he calmly laid it by and conversed upon the
symptoms of death, as one by one they gathered round
him in the twilight of that October morning. Cum-
berland might well mourn for him.
" The sower stayed his hand to hear,
The honest "grey coat" sighed,
The message seemed so strange and drear,
That Friday when he died."
Not many months before, he had travelled, feeble as
he was, many a weary league, to stand by the grave of
Sidney Herbert, as he had done by Peel's and Goul-
burn's. The Secretary at War was the third of that
band of Peelites who had fallen, and there were none
of them that Sir James loved more dearly. Writing to
the Duke of Newcastle, only a week before his death,
respecting a Sidney Herbert memorial he said : " I
think a statue of him in Salisbury will be a most
suitable monument, under the shadows of the cathedral
spire, which points to that Heaven where his hopes
were centred, and where I trust he has received his
great reward." We too may trust that they are not
divided.
Old Fuller tells us that St. Alsike, whose name is
now only had in honour as a grass seed, was born in
a wood near Carlisle. He adds that pearls were
found in the Irthing, a point which " Sandy" in all his
otter hunts has never been able to verify. These notes
Recollections of Carlisle. 39
of two hundred years ago have much less interest for
us than our own recollections of Stanwix Brow, when
six mail-guards were " sounding the cheerful horn,"
and the little mail (as the girl said of the ghost) "went
by like a flash." Great were the cricket struggles in
that meadow on the right, when the 34th Regiment
played the county. Private Allen, who was supposed
to live by suction, was invariably taken out of the
Black Hole for the afternoon, and he sometimes rose
to the occasion with " 50 not out," while Lieutenant
Simpson and Corporal Moss played a good and a
much safer game. Blues and Yellows united most
harmoniously in the County Eleven Colonel Low-
ther,* with his slow round-handers, at one end, and Mr.
* Of the once familiar faces absent at the Smithfield Club Show,
none are more missed than Colonel Lowther's. His Barleythorpe ewes
and wethers could always come into a front place, either at Oakham or
Islington. It was to attend the show at the little Rutlandshire assize
town, that he left London early in the December of '66, and never re-
turned. He was born in '90, and entering the yth Hussars at 17, saw
active Peninsular service under Sir John Moore and The Duke. His
fine horsemanship, health, and heart carried him well through every
peril. During the retreat of Corunna he was exposed to sleet and snow
for nearly sixteen days, without shelter ; and on one occasion he rode,
or rather "nursed" one horse eighty miles with despatches, without
change or rest. Few men had a finer hand on a bit, and old sergeants
of the W. and C. Yeomamy Cavalry love to tell how he would ride up
to a yeoman, if his horse was too much for him, and beg to "let me
try him," and soon send him back perfectly quiet to the ranks. He
was a first flight man in the palmy days of the Quorn and the Cottes-
more, of which he was field-master, when his father, the late Earl,
became blind. Dick Christian used to speak of his ride with Sir James
Musgrave, Mr. Maxse, Mr. Gilmour, and Captain White, as "the
finest bit of jealousy I ever see from Glaston pasture to Ketton village ;
you could have covered them with a sheet." The hounds were kept in
great style at Cottesmore ; but Lambert, the huntsman, latterly became
rather slack, and they did not kill their foxes as they had once done.
Such an establishment, situated in the heart of such a country, had an
old English flavour about it which hunting-men declared to be without
rival elsewhere. "The Master of Cottesmore" seemed to hunting what
"The Master of Trinity" is to the scholar, and hence the Meltonians
for many a year have earnestly desired to see a Cottesmore Hunt once
more, with a Lowther at the head of it. Such a rare sportsman as the
Colonel never quite fell in with the modern style of hunting, as he
40 Saddle and Sirloin.
Howard, cf Greystoke, with a unique species of throw,
so to speak, at the other. For neatness all round, no
one excelled Mr. Ripon ; and his daring catch, as he
followed up his ball mid -wicket, and held it with his
right hand close to his side, when Mr. Foster had
"opened his shoulders," and returned it with com-
pound interest, made the lookers-on almost tremble.
Mr. Orridge the Governor of the gaol, and a very tall
and handsome man, with the exception of rather high
shoulders, was a most remarkable bowler. He took
his sight with the ball to his eye, at an angle of some
60, and fully six or seven yards on the right of his
wicket, and then made a very straight delivery, and
with a most remarkable wrist-screw.
The carnage horses were better in those days, and
the Corby Castle blacks, the Harker chestnuts, the
Rickerby greys, and the Warwick Hall bays, whose
loved, like Sir Charles Knightley, to see hounds puzzle it out, without
being over- ridden. Not many days before he died, the Cottesmore
brought a fox at a splitting pace from Ranksboro' over some beautiful
country, and raced into him after a quarter of an hour, on the very
door-step of Barleythorpe. This was the last sight he had of hunting.
As a J.P. he was well known by the poachers in the Lowther district,
and woe betide those "fly-by-nights" if they were caught trying their
hands on those wonderful hares the ' ' Shap Beckers, " which know Mr.
Warwick in his scarlet and old Baggott so well. When Lord Palmer-
ston died he became the Father of the House, which he entered in 1812
for Westmoreland. For 55 years he sat for that county, and yet his
speeches during the whole period would not fill two columns of an
ordinary newspaper. We believe that he never spoke in the House.
Sir James Graham, who was never at a loss for a simile, described his
politics as of the "old long-horned breed," an allusion which the Dale
tanners caught up with great gusto. His hardest Westmoreland fight
was with Harry Brougham, then in the excellency of his strength. The
Blues objected to two brothers standing for one county, and desired
"not to eradicate the old family tree," but to have "a laurel of our
own planting." The Colonel did not see it, and said that Earl Lons-
dale was nothing to him. " I have no connexion with him ; I will
stand whether he pleases or not. " And so he did, and won, after a
seven days' fight, by 1412 :o 1349. Lord Lonsdale was at the head of
the poll, and duly made his acknowledgments; but when it came to the
Colonel's turn he would say nothing but "Least said is soonest mended
I point to the poll."
Recollections of Carlisle. 4 1
regulation allowance for the four and a quarter miles
to Carlisle was five-and-twenty minutes, were dear to
" the stable mind." Three of these pairs, with leaders
to match, did good service in their owner's High
Sheriff year ; but Harker was not true on that occa-
sion to its original colour. Meeting the judges was
then a most stirring ceremony. Their lordships did
not merely descend from their first-class carriage, and
robe in the waiting-room before they opened the com-
mission, but approached from Newcastle, preceded or
followed by a cloud of barristers in chaises, and
"General" Watson on horseback. The high and
under sheriffs, cassocked chaplain, the footmen and
the postillions (the family coachman generally on
the wheeler, if his figure suited), and Mr. Rooke, of
the Cathedral choir, with his trumpet, were kept for
hours in a sort of transition state that day ; and
as for the javelin men bar the one or two who
were generally disabled by ale early on, and walked
with
"A short, uneasy motion,"
if they walked at all they never put their javelins in
rest after noon. One of the most trustworthy of their
number acted as mounted scout, and might be seen
tearing back all dust or mud on a very tired horse,
like a defeated standard-bearer from Marston Moot.
The news he brought was that my lords of assize
were rapidly approaching from the east. The Under
Sheriff in a chaise-and-pair, attended by two mounted
javelin men, set out from Carlisle early to meet them,
and took a luncheon with him. Roley Boustead was
always in attendance, mounted on his favourite cob,
and it was his task to gallop forward to the top of
Windy Law, and catch the first glance of the legal
cavalcade. When Temon Bridge, six miles beyond
Brampton, was reached, their lordships lunched and
robed at Temon House, a farm in the occupation of
42 Saddle and Sirloin.
the late Mr. Wright, a very extensive and hospitable
carrier and farmer. The High Sheriff generally met
them, in great state, at Rule Holme Bridge. Mr.
Justice Coleridge would have had no opening for his
joke in after-years, when a lot of little urchins
crowded on a dismal night round the station-door:
"Are these, Mr. High Sheriff, your posse comitatus?"
Posting was a sad mockery to the briefless ; but it
gave the Queen's Counsel importance when they
drove into a town with their own carriages, and an
Attorney or Solicitor-General coming down special
with four horses was an event indeed. Lancaster
saw a good deal of this during the eternal Tatham
Case, in which by degrees nearly every judge on the
bench was retained, till the choice of Northern Circuit
judges had to be made specially with reference to
it ; and at Carlisle you might see Cresswell's and
Alexander's carriages drawn out when the assizes
were over, and packed with law reports, &c., before
an admiring audience in front of their lodgings in
English-street. As for the former, he took matters
so easily that, even when he was leader, he never
seemed to do any work out of Court hours ; and we
used to look at him with boyish awe loitering along
Etterby Scaur, and trying to hench stones over the
Eden.
Coachmen and guards could endure much fatigue,
but the post-boys of the great north road were quite
their equals in this way. Jack Story, of the Crown at
Penrith, once rode at a pinch 108 miles twice to
Carlisle and back, and once to Keswick in a day,
when he was past seventy. It was a very " throng
time," as parliament had just risen, and tourists were
flocking to the lakes, but such a ride made no diffe-
rence to him, and he ultimately died at the age of
eighty-five. He was full of odd tales about those he
had driven, and considered that on the whole barris-
ters were more devoted to their dinners than any of
Old Posting Times* 43
them. He based this on what he saw of Sir Gregory
Lewin, Mr. Blackburn, Q.C., and one or two others,
learned in the law, who, if the assize at Carlisle ex-
tended over a Sunday, generally posted down after
their consultations to Penrith, and dined most sump-
tuously at the Crown. The story of the brace of wild
ducks lingered for many a year about the Crown bar.
To the horror of these men of eclectic appetite, they
had been stuffed by mistake with sage and onions.
Upon ascertaining this violation of all true art, the
president nearly pulled the bell down in his indigna-
tion, and ordering in a kettle of water, scooped out all
the stuffing, and carefully rinsed the birds' interiors
before they were re-consigned to the cook. The
waiter, however, bid the cook to be of good cheer, and
gave it as his opinion (without fee) that those lawyers
need not have pretended to possess such very delicate
appetites, as, when he came back with the ducks, they
had eaten all the ejected stuffing, and a small loaf of
bread along with it. Jemmy Anderson of Shap was
another great character, and quite equal to any crisis.
He was once driving a carriage from there to Penrith,
when the hirer put out his head and roared, with quite
Harry Brougham emphasis, "Postillion, I shan't give
you a farthing for your horses or yourself ; youve driven
like a snail" Jemmy pulled up immediately, and
turning half round in his saddle, faced the foe. " You
won't pay me a farthing, won't you ; then Tve come far
enough for nowt" and so saying, he descended swiftly,
and began to take out his horses. Jemmy was a man
of his word, and nothing but the offer of a handsome
compromise " money down " induced him to put
them to again.
The postboys never seemed to have a holiday, and
if they had, it would have been a source of deep dif-
ficulty to them how to spend it. One of their Southern
brethren, Tom King of the Old Crown at Amersham,
spent his in a most peculiar manner. He had the
44 Saddle and Sirloin.
honour on one occasion of driving "Farmer George,"
after hunting with the Royal staghounds, from Amer-
sham to Windsor. To the end of his life that loyal
subject would do no work on the anniversary of that
day ; and after breakfast he repaired to the same yel-
low post-chaise, and sat in it till nightfall, on the side
where his sovereign had been. He refreshed himself
liberally with pots of ale, and if he took his pipe from
his lips at intervals, it was only to replace it with a
key-bugle, and play " God save the King." His mas-
ter humoured his fancy, and visited the post-chaise
with many others during the day, to see Tom indulg-
ing in these quaint Pleasures of Memory.
The Gretna Green marriages were a fruitful
source of revenue to postboys at this period ; as
the fugitive lovers paid on a higher and higher
scale in their fervour the nearer they approached the
shrine, a sort of private clearing had to be estab-
lished, and if there was anything like a good pay-
ing " love job," the fees were passed down the road
and equalised. They were seldom better than when
the Prince of Capua espoused Miss Penelope Smith.
A parlour at the Crown was the scene of a curious
fracas. A happy pair had arrived from Lincolnshire
for Gretna, and were lunching, when the father and
the rejected lover drove up. The latter thought that
the very sight of himself would be sufficient to create
remorse, and yet took no active part for fear of
" setting " the girl ; but the father promptly essayed
a passage of arms, first with his umbrella and then
with his fists, and was finally seized by the collar,
half throttled, and forced on to the sofa. His son-
in-law elect (who was about his weight, and of a
theatrical turn of mind) then turned the key on both
of them, and got a rare start with his love, more
especially as the old gentleman would drive to Cap-
tain Hebson's to try and get a summons for as-
sault. Somehow or other they squared matters,
Jack A ins lie and his Gr etna- Green Tactics. 45
and the four came back that evening in two post-
chaises, with white favours, and dined together in
great peace.
It was said of the first Duke of Cleveland, who
loved life in a post-chaise, and his orders to the post-
boys were always, " Now, drive like the devil ! " If
he gave them the word at Catterick Bridge, Mr. Fer-
guson, the landlord, was wont to say out loud, and
with much apparent feeling, " Now, lads, you II attend
to his graces orders!' and then under his breath, to the
lads, " Don't overboil tJie eggs" It would have been
no use for Mrs. Holmes to give any such second orders,
if a runaway pair dashed up to the Bush and it hap-
pened to be Jack Ainslie's turn for " Horses on" Jack
was a sworn foe to parents and guardians at such
seasons, and believed with Mr. Toots's " Chicken,"
that, if everything else failed, doubling them up with
a dig in the waistcoat was a move in the right direc-
tion. He would have recommended precisely the
same treatment in the case of a Lord Chancellor, if
he had come,
" Racing and chasing on Cannobie lea,"
after some fair ward of his high court. Jack was per-
petually signing his name as witness to marriages,
and was in fact quite a consulting counsel to lovelorn
knights and damsels. To have him, in his yellow
cord jacket on the near wheeler, was worth as many
points to them as it was to an attorney for the plain-
tiff to retain Garrow or Follett. If he was pushed
hard, Jack knew of cunning bye lanes and woods to
hide them in, and had lines of gates across farms, and
all that sort of geography, in his eye, for an emer-
gency.
On one occasion, he quite "outdid his own out-
doings." He had driven a couple, who had forgotten
to " ask mamma," early in the day to Longtown, and
as he thought they were taking it rather easily, he
-j.6 Saddle and Sirloin.
strongly advised them to cross the Border and get
married before they dined. They were weary and
would not be advised, and he took his horses back to
Carlisle, and thought them just " poor silly things."
He had not been back long, when the mother and a
Bow-street officer dashed up to the Bush. There was
not a second to lose, so Jack jumped on a horse, with-
out asking anyone, and galloped to Longtown. He
had barely time to get the dawdlers huddled into a
post-chaise, take his seat on the box as commander-in-
chief, and clear the " lang toun," when the pursuers
loomed in sight. The pursuit was so hot that the
only way was to turn sharp down a lane, and Jack
and his party had the satisfaction of watching, through
a leafy screen, "the maternal " flypast towards Gretna,
and so on to Annan, where she came to a long and
hopeless check, and finally gave it up. When she was
got rid of Jack would stand no more nonsense, but
saw his couple married, and witnessed, before he went
back to Carlisle. The signatures of that marriage
were always looked at with a certain sad interest, as
the bridegroom was killed next year at Waterloo.
This was quite Jack's leading case, and he is still
remembered by many warm admirers of talent and
generalship in a peculiar line, as " a civil old fellow,
perhaps five feet seven if he was stretched out, and
with such nice crooked legs."
47
CHAPTER III.
" Ah ! sure it was a coat of steel
Or good tough oak he wore,
Who first unto the ticklish wheel
'Gan harness horses four ;
Nor shuddered, as he rolled along,
To tread the mazy, whirling throng
Of furious coach with sluggish dray,
Contesting every inch of way
Through Holborn and the direful strait
Of Temple Bar or Bishop Gate."
Sporting Magazine, 1832.
The Mail and Coach Days Shap Fells Drivers, Regular and Amateur
Guards Horses Carlisle Races ; the late Mr. Daley The
Wrestling Ring Cumberland Wrestling Champions.
SUCH was part of the ode, modelled after " Sic te
Diva potens Cypri," which was addressed to
the driver of The Times in 1827, when corn-chest
poets only sang of steam as " a demon foul," and
" better make a railroad to the moon " was a witty
retort, not to say quite a settler for the question, which
was stirring a few far-seeing souls. After all, the hor-
rors of Holborn or Temple Bar were far below those
of Shap and Stainmoor on a winter's night, when
coachman, guard, and passengers battled. along in the
blast, or bore a hand with the snow shovels, and then
looked out anxiously for that tavern sign of " Welcome
into Cumberland," which told of deliverance from the
wilds of Westmoreland, and that snug little Penrith
was nigh.
There were not many amateur coachmen on the
road, and the guards steadily set their faces against
the system, except in very particular instances. Any
passenger could object, and if the reins were not given
up at once to the regular coachman, the General Post-
48 Saddle and Sirloin.
Office authorities came down hot and heavy upon the
guard when they were appealed to. A traveller was
most indignant on one occasion, and actually seized
hold of the reins, because, when Mr. Teather, junior,
was driving his own horses, the guard would not inter-
fere. He achieved nothing by his letter to " the
powers that be," as there was a change of cabinet
about that time, and Mr. Teather's request to know
which Postmaster-General he was to address in his
defence, was allowed to remain unanswered. Mr.
James Parkin was one of the privileged ones, and his
favourite ground was out of Penrith to Carlisle. He
gave it up when the railways encroached and the
horses became worse, as he did not care to be " a
screw-driver." He was a very steady coachman, but
rather too slow for the mail, as he had not the energy
to slip it into them over the galloping ground, and
make up his time. In fact, the guard was perpetually
holding u D his watch, and admonishing him to send
them along. Mr. Ramsay,* of Barnton, was " good
enough, when the cattle were good," but he liked to
choose his ground. Mr. Nightingale, the great cours-
ing judge of that day, was the man to " take a coach
through the country." He took the horses as they
came, kickers or jibbers, and thanks to very fine
hands and strong nerves, he kept his time to a second.
Parson Bird was also well up to his work, and he
was such a good-hearted fellow, that when the regular
coachman from Keswick to Kendal broke his leg, he
took his place for six weeks, and collected the fees for
him. A lady gave the parson half-a-crown, and going
to a ball at Kendal that night, was introduced to her
coachman of the morning, who at once asked her to
dance. She was highly indignant ; but, on the matter
* For particulars of the late Mr. Ramsay's coaching career in con.
nexion with Captain Barclay and The Defiance, see " Field and Fern' 1
(North), pp. 195-210.
Drivers Regtdar and Amateur. 49
being explained to her, she became so gracious ovei
it, that she ultimately became Mrs. Bird.
Among the regular coachmen, John Reed took a
very high place. He was a stout and very silent
man in fact, " all for his horses." He drove the
Glasgow mail from Carlisle to Abington, never tasted
ale or wine, and never had an accident. This was the
more remarkable, as Mr. Johnstone of Hallheaths, the
owner of Charles XII., horsed one stage with nothing
but thorough-breds ; and if they did take off, even
Reed, strong-wristed as he was, could hardly hold
them. John Brydon was, in one respect, the very
reverse of John Reed, and full of jollity and good
stories on the box. The two Drydens were more
dashing in their style. One of them had the art of
teaching his horses to trot when most men would have
them on the gallop, and his brother was a wonderful
singer. Whenever the mail reached a long ascent,
and he had to slacken speed, he would beguile the
way with " She wore a Wreath of Roses," or " I know
a Flower within my Garden growing," in a rich tenor,
which would have secured him a good concert-room
engagement. Little Isaac Johnson was going for
thirty-five years, and never had an accident. He was
supreme with a kicking horse, and always took care
to make him his near-side leader. When they were
put there, he could punish them more severely, and
they were not in the way of the coach. He liked to
hit them inside the thigh, and he could fairly wale
them up if they continued to rebel. The Telfers were
good coachmen of the same school, and were well
known over Shap Fells. Jem Barnes was rather fat
and lumbersome, and lacked fire. People did say
that he had his sleeping ground as well as his gallop-
ing ground. There was, however, little chance of
sleeping one night going north over Shap. He had
not only to gallop at all the snow-drifts, but to put a
postboy and pair on in front. The pole-hook broke,
50 Saddle and Sirloin.
and the hand of Jim Byrns, the guard, was almost
frozen to the screw-wrench, when he brought out a
spare pole-hook, and fastened it on. The snow fell in
flakes large enough to blind them, and the only comic
bit was the voice of a heavy swell issuing from beneath
a perfect tortoise-shell covering of capes and furs on
the box-seat : " What are you fellozvs keeping me here
in the cold for, and warming your own hands at the
lamp ?"
George Eade was very deaf, but still he had hearing
enough left to be cognisant of a great many objurga-
tions from Mr. Richardson of the Greyhound at Shap
for taking it out of his horses. One day Mr. Richardson
came out and was peculiarly bland, but George con-
cluded that he was on the old subject, and had his
back up in an instant, " Hang you ! I'm not before my
time ; F II bet you ^L of it, look at my watch!" Jack
Pooley was a great character, and drove in earlier
days over Stainmoor. When he retired he joined the
Yeomanry Cavalry, and entered his horse for a cavalry
plate. Two of the principal conditions were that it
must never have won 50?., and, also, be half-bred.
Some objections having been raised to Jack's nomi-
nation, it became necessary to examine Jack before a
committee of the regiment. To the first question,
whether his horse had ever won 5<D/., he replied, " No,
indeed ! but he's helped to lose many a fifty he ran
three years in an opposition coach" The next question
was, "What is he by, Mr. Pooley T "By?" said Jack,
" I should say he was by a shorthorn bull, he's such a
devil of a roarer" and Jack's answers were considered
eminently satisfactory. Jack Creery was a good
coachman, and drove a pair-horse mail from Lancaster
to Kirby Stephen. He had a guard, Joe Lord, who
had been with Van Amburgh, and the pair got lost
one night between Kirby Stephen and Kirby Lons-
dale. Jack was so sleepy that he crept inside. Lord
drove for him, and being sleepy as well, turned right
Mail Guards. 5 1
off the road down a lane in the snow. Things got
from bad to worse, so Jack had to be roused, and Joe
was pushed up the side of a sign-post on Jack's
shoulders, to " try and read the address." There was
not light enough to decipher much, and when they
reached a village (according to the song which Jim
Byrns wrote to their confusion), they " knocked long
and loud at a village church-door" by mistake for a
public-house.
The coachman's fees were generally two shillings
for fifty miles, and some of them made 3OO/. a year.
It was, however, "light come, light go" with them,
as they were very fond of betting and card-playing.
One of them, who was rather a Malaprop in his
speech, accounted for losing all his winnings of one
evening, by saying that he was "positively discom-
pelled to play the last ensuing game" They were
strictly the servants of the contractors, and looked
after the passengers' luggage, whereas the guards
were the servants of Government, and in full charge
of the mail and the bags. The appointment was
obtained through members of Parliament, who made
interest in due form with the Postmaster-General of
the day. An inspector of guards travelled four days
a week on the mails, and reported weak harness and
bad horses, and other shortcomings, to Government,
and the guards, who had half-a-guinea per week,
made all their private reports through him. For a
long time safety-drags were a subject of dispute be-
tween the contractors and the Post-Office, and they
were not adopted until the former made a very
decided stand on the point. Three guards were
especially well known and esteemed for their courtesy
on the road Skaife, who was a great musician, more
especially on the bass violin ; Adam Burgess, who
died landlord of the Graham Arms, at Longtown ;
and Jim Byrns, who was for many years the station-
master at Preston. Jim's forte was verse-making
E 2
5 2 Saddle and Sirloin.
rather than music, and if any little thing happened
during the journeys that tickled his fancy, he would
drop Mr. Teather junior, not a line, but a few rhymes,
describing it. Those who were up in mail-coach
politics, used to have many a roar over the songs
which he wrote, whenever anything very good came
off; and Jack Creery and Joe Lord never heard the
last of his touching description of their sign-post and
church-door troubles. According to it, they must
have been in as strange a jumble as the Keswick man
and his sow, when they tumbled out of Brundholme
Wood down a steep bank into the Greta below. The
man was asked to describe his sensations as he fell,
but he could only say, " Varra queer. First it was
sow der me, and then I der soiv ; then soiv top dt me,
and I top dt sow rum start a thegither!'
Jim Byrns was a very handsome and well-educated
man, and no one understood his business better. For
many years he was on the Edinburgh mail from
Derby to Manchester, and afterwards from Preston to
Carlisle, over Shap Fells, the most difficult mail-road
in England. Those who slip through it now in half
an hour, snoozing on comfortable first-class cushions,
can never compass the weariness of Hucks Brow, or
guess what a guard had to endure, standing up for
miles together through those dark and dismal fogs
which infest it on a winter's night, and eternally blow-
ing his horn to prevent a collision. Sometimes snow
would bring the mail to a dead lock, and then the un-
happy guard would have to wade, or get out his saddle
and ride one of the leaders to a farm-house, and rouse
the labourers to come with their shovels. Jim was the
right man in the right place, a rare hand at the head
of a fatigue party with shovels, and a perfect master
of his carpenter's tools, in case there was a breakdown.
The heaviest night, as regards correspondence, was
when the American mail had come in. On those oc-
casions the bags have been known to weigh above
Horses. 53
1 6 cwt. They were contained in sacks seven feet long,
which were laid in three tiers across the top, so high
that no guard, unless he were a Chang in stature,
could look over them, and the waist (i.e., the seat
behind the coachman) and the hind-boot were filled
with bags as well.
The best teams went out of Carlisle, where eighty
horses were once kept for eight mails and seven
coaches. The Carlisle teams always looked well, as
the contractors principally lived there in the midst of
their own ground, and hence the coachmen tried if
possible to make up their time before they got to it.
" The little mail," as it was called, was on for a short
time. It had only two horses, and they always
seemed to be running away with their load. Its
owners professed to do the 96 miles between Carlisle
and Glasgow in 8h. 32|m., and it pretty often came
to time ; but there were so many accidents, that pas-
sengers wholly shunned it at last. It was established
to let the Glasgow people who were jealous on the
point, and thought that their London correspondence
was delayed by coming through Yorkshire have their
letters an hour or so earlier from Carlisle than by the
regular mail. The route of the London and Edin-
burgh mail was by Derby and Manchester, and it and
the old Glasgow mail so arranged their time, with a
view to the Glasgow mal-contents, as to meet in the
Crown Inn Square, at Penrith, at four o'clock in the
morning, and come on to Carlisle together. Up mails,
which left Carlisle at six in the evening, reached
London at five o'clock on the second morning. The
fare was 61. 6s. inside, and 3/. $s. out ; but fees to
coachmen and guards, with refreshment on the road,
brought it up considerably. Well may those who are
rightly informed about things as they were, not
grumble at things as they are, when instead of being
cramped and sleepless for nearly thirty-six hours, with
every hair standing up like a porcupine's quill, and
54 Saddle and Sirloin.
with rain and dew and hoar-frost as your dreary por-
tion you can leave Euston-square at a quarter to
nine, and see the summer sun " shine fair on Carlisle
wall" before six o'clock.
Mr. Teather was the principal mail contractor ; but
he gave up working the south side of Carlisle in 1837,
and his son (who very often tooled his own teams),
took it, as well as the Carlisle and Longtown stage.
When the rail was completed to Carlisle, the latter
entered into the northern contract with Mr. Croall,
and when the Caledonian Railway reached Beattock
Bridge, the plant was removed there, and the horses
had for a time to be stabled under canvas. Some five
years before steam became lord of all, there was a
curious dispute about the Government contract, and
Mr. Barton, who had been in partnership with Mr.
Teather, senior, claimed the ground from Hesketh to
Penrith, and sent his horses and helpers to Hesketh.
It was a regular fight between the men, day by day,
which set of horses should be put in first. Parson
Bird favoured the Bartonians, whose chief had never
really signed the Government contract, and Mr. Parkin
invariably rode down from Greenways, and sat watch-
ing the faction fight from his saddle. It went on for
several days, and then the Bartonians gave in.
The mails were chocolate-bodied, picked out with
scarlet, and wheels, perch, waist, bars, and pole all
scarlet. The harness was perfectly plain, with the
exception of the initials and coach-bars on the
blinkers. Hucks Brow was a severe pull of a mile,
and the seven miles going south from Shap to the
Brow were also all on the collar. Accidents were
wonderfully few, and the principal one befel a country
mail, whose horses shied at a water-wheel just as they
crossed Kirbythore Bridge. The drop was eight feet,
and one horse was killed ; but there the damage
ended. A stalwart Yorkshire woolstapler performed
a somersault quite equal to the Keswick sow-leader,
Horses.
55
and just as he lighted on his legs, he " caught at mid
off" a parcel, which shot with wondrous velocity out
of a woman's arms, and proved on inspection to be her
baby. He said, in his dry way, when they congratu-
lated him on his fine fielding, " that a stray baby isn't
generally a good catch for a man."
None of the contractors cared to get their teams of
a colour, as it was too expensive. A wheeler must
measure fifteen one at least ; but anything that would
keep straight, and get out of the way of the bars, was
generally thought good enough for a leader, and if it
had not what Mr. Murray calls " pretty manners,"
John Reed would undertake to turn it out " complete
in six lessons." The average price for a leader was
I//., and for a good wheeler 22/. to 25/., but never
more than 3<D/. Ireland furnished the greater portion
of them, and they were picked up at the Rosley Hill
fairs. None under five years old were ever purchased,
and the average of service in a fast mail was three
years, although there were some brilliant exceptions.
The worn-outs were sold back to farmers at 5/. or 6/ M
and mares of course commanded the best price.
Occasionally a horse was purchased with rather a
doubtful title, and to prevent his being claimed, he
was always worked in the night-mail. They got very
few beans ; but two-year-old hay and the best of
oats were made especial points of. Tapster, a dark
chestnut stallion, was the most remarkable horse on
the road. For some offence or other he was condemned
to be a near-side leader, when he was only rising
four, but he " went off like an old cow" from the start.
From Penrith to Shap was his bit of road, and he
worked for ten years. When he became slow he did
duty as a wheeler for a short time, but he was too
small for the place, and a blacksmith got him for 4/.,
and put him at the service of his country. The
Waterloo mare was of a very different disposition.
She was one of Mr. Contractor Buchanan's lot, and
56 Saddle and Sirloin.
she had stopped with every coachman in turn at the
end of two miles. At last they all wearied of her,
and the orders were, if she rebelled again, not to bring
her back alive. She accordingly left Penrith, and got
a few miles in the Glasgow mail, when, according to
her wont, she suddenly sulked, and sat down upon her
haunches like a dog, with her fore-legs straight out
before her. The coachman got down, took a rail out
of the hedge, and struck her nine times below the
knees with the flat side of it. Such energetic treat-
ment brought her to, and she and her drivers " lived
happily together ever after."
It was once a regular money contest between the
London papers which could spend most in posting so
as to beat the mail, and each other, when they re-
ported a great dinner or trial in the country. At the
coronation the Sun was printed in letters of gold ,
and when the Reform Bill of 1832 was proposed, it
had expresses to catch up the mails with a second
edition containing Lord John's speech to the latest
hour. When Sir Robert Peel spoke at Glasgow, its
outer form was printed off and taken down to Kendal,
where the reporters from Glasgow met it, with their
speech notes all ready written out. The inner form
was printed off there, and thus the people in Glasgow
read the speech printed in a London paper before, by
ordinary calculation, it had time to . reach London.
When Bolam was tried, one London reporter left
Newcastle by the mail without the verdict, while
another waited for it, and caught up the mail by hard
galloping, after bribing the postboys to hold their
tongues. The two reporters went on side by side all
the way to London, and the Times never murmured
its secret in dreams.
Our Recollections of Carlisle Swifts go back some
three-and-forty years. Springkell and Fair Helen's
day was over, and the Maxwell family had ceased to
have perpetual seisin of the massive gold cup. Mr.
Carlisle Races. 5 7
Houldsworth's green and gold jacket was occasionally
seen, and The Earl was a great hand at four mile
heats for the Queen's Plate. He liked to have his
ugly head first in heats one and two, whereas some
used to wait away entirely for the first heat, and just
save their distance. The man with his flag in the
distance chair was an absolute necessity in those heat
days, and one of the most vigorous protests we re-
member against his judgment was Jem Mason's at
Mie Kensington Hippodrome, in '39. Capital horses
rrived at Carlisle, year after year, from Middleham,
each September, many of them en route to the Cale-
donian Hunt, but up to the present date there have
been only two St. Leger winners among them. One
of them, Caller Ou, won the Guineas, but Warlock's
jockey mistook the winning-post, when he had every-
thing beat in the Cumberland Plate. We remember
seeing Theodore on " the sands" at an agricultural
show, but Gregson, " that great swell of a grey," was
there too, in his prime, and the St. Leger mouse-brown,
with the corny feet, was hardly looked at by the
judges, except for the interest which attaches to a
horse who wins such a race with ioo/. to a walking-
stick or a bottle of soda-water against him. Co-
rinthian, who ran fourth to him, was, if we remember
rightly, not sent from Barrock Lodge that day, but
Royalist came as usual from Holme House in his blue
rosettes. He was a good-looking, lightrboned horse,
with a very strong neck, and Templeman considers
him to be one of the slowest and gamest he ever
crossed. " Sim," who was always very fond of Carlisle
course, and formed one of a large Yorkshire party at
Mrs. Tweedell's in Rickergate, won twice with him for
Mr. Lambton, the first year he rode there. The pace
was so hot in one race that Royalist was beaten a
mile from home, but reached his horses inch by inch.
" Sim's" luck was not so great, when at a pinch he
had to ride Lady Moore Carew in a big exercise
58 Saddle and Sirloin.
saddle, and was beaten half a length. His feet
slipped through the stirrups, and he couldn't finish
on her.
The Swifts are full of curious Turf recollections.
The jockeys seemed much taller men then, and
"wasted" to thread-paper. As for Jem Jacques,* he
was promptly "transmuted" from a well-fed innkeeper
at Penrith into a seven-stone skeleton, when poverty
overtook him, and he rode successfully for Colonel
Cradock again. Vinegar and poached eggs were his
only support at times, and a lad who rode the rear
horse, and drove the leader in the canal-boat, The
Arrow, from Carlisle to Port Carlisle, tried the same
fare rather than lose his place for overweight, and
killed himself by it. John Cartwright was in immense
force when he came out about 1829 ; and Mr. Aglionby
engaged him three years in advance to ride a colt of
his Petterill, for a Cumberland Produce Stakes, which
he won. Juba made a memorable level-ground jump
near the last turn at exercise. It was measured to be
thirty feet ; and the lad vowed that his black would
have the Eden with a little more practice, and advised
his being turned loose in future. No two-year-old
ever excited such interest as General Chasse, when he
went to the post for the Corby Castle Stakes with his
trainer Fobert leading him, and Bob Johnson on his
back ; and he showed the field his light tail from the
start to the finish. Muley Moloch was a lion in those
days when the Raby pink and black stripes were
annually looked out for with Tommy Lye to ride,
and burly John Smith in charge. That " fine black
hunter" Inheritor, and " Lazy Lanercost," were both
winners ; and the wiry little Doctor galloped away
from his field in the Queen's Plate through water and
* This old jockey became a jobbing gardener near Doncaster, and
had a small pension from the Bentinck Club. He died in 1868 from an
over-dose of laudanum.
The late Mr. Daley. 59
mud half way up his hocks. The course had been
quite covered on the previous day, and lads were
actually sailing in washing-tubs from tent to tent. On
another occasion we are told that lanterns were tied
to the posts, and the last heats, in which Ben Smith
rode, were run off by their glimmer.
Harry Edwards, in his white kid gloves and ruffles,
was quite a lion when he came out and won upon
Naworth over the T.Y.C. This colt was a very diffi-
cult one to ride, as he had mastered his lad, jumped
a wall, and chased a mare from the High Moor at
Middleham to Dawson's stables. Hence he turned re-
bellious in public, and only finished fourth at New-
castle; but " Slashing Harry" paid him off, and steered
him with an energy and leverage of arm, such as no
other jockey, save Sam Chifney, ever seemed to us
quite to possess. If his temper had been better he
would have been a clipper. When Edwards rode him
in an exercise gallop behind Pyramid five years at Car-
lisle, the grey could not get rid of him, and the weights
were as nearly even as possible. Lord George gave
500 guineas for him, and he ran for nine seasons, and
then had a turn, by way of finish, at " The Liverpool
Grand National."
Mr. Daley, " the Incledon of the Turf," was not then
Clerk of the Course. When he became a Carlisle
notable and lived in the Corporation-road, his little
parlour was quite radiant with pictures -of our best
actors, many of them presentation copies, and among
them, duly framed, a very cordial letter from Mr.
Charles Dickens. In his own photograph, the unfail-
ing glass is in his eye, and he is supposed to be taking
stock of his great opponent as they meet in English-
street. It might have been truly said of either of them,
that
" Whene'er he walks the street, the paviours cry
' God bless you, sir,' and lay their rammers bye ; "
so here was a double advantage. It needed but one
60 Saddle and Sirloin.
more to complete the group illustrious Aaron, who
listened over his pipe for fully six weeks to discus-
sions about the " Durham Letter," and then failing to
master the matter in hand, asked a friend in confi-
dence, " Whtfs this 'ere Colonel Wiseman they've been a
talking about?" Mr. Daley would occasionally take
to the harefoot again, and bring down the house as
Dennis Bulgruddery, Dr. O'Toole, or the first grave-
digger in " Hamlet," when any good local cause re-
quired a benefit ; and his Irish songs and recitations
were often heard at the trainers' parties during race
meetings, and the Albert Club at Carlisle. He was
very fond of racing, but he never studied it vigorously,
and always shrank from putting handicaps together.
Newcastle, Chester, and Liverpool were favourite
meetings with him, and we seldom "drew" the iron
seats under the grand stand portico blank for him on a
Doncaster Tuesday.
He began life in an attorney's office, but he " did
not enjoy calf-skin," and finding himself a baritone
bird of song he wished to be a perspiring hero as well.
For many years he scarcely made 30^. a week, and
sometimes had " only my share of the candles," and
we have heard him recount how Mr. Sims Reeves was
the companion of this soldier of fortune life, with a
salary of the same dimensions and share of his poo~
lodgings. Hopeless as matters then seemed, he was
always telling his young friend that he should turn his
mind to Italy and improve his " organ" there, and
that he would certainly beat everything out. When
that dream of Italy was fulfilled, he presented the
debutant with the costume in which he first took the
town by storm, as Edgardo in " Lucia di Lammer-
moor." In his hot youth Mr. Daley had a notion that
his own forte was tragedy, and he appeared as Othello
one or twice and " got a hand" to boot. Still -the
manager didn't see it, and asked him if he couldn't be
" a Lord Mayor or something of that kind in future"
The late Mr. Daley. 6 1
"and, therefore, Mr. Chairman" (as he observed at
the Shakspeare dinner), " I have to thank Shakspeare
for making me a Lord Mayor." This pleasantry told
all the better, because the Mayor of Carlisle would
not attend that dinner, and had declared officially that
Shakspeare was no doubt a talented but an overrated
man, and might have turned his talents to better
account. Hence curiously enough the Earl and the
Mayor of Carlisle were in the front and the rear of
the movement on the Tercentenary day. The one
presided at the Stratford-on-Avon banquet, and told
with noble emphasis of that great Quadrilateral, in
which "Warwickshire Will" had entrenched himself
against the assaults of envious Time ; the other,
although stupendous efforts, both clerical and lay,
were made to convert him, hardened his heart and
spake as above.
Mr. Daley was Clerk of the Course for nearly twenty
years, and he left some QO/. to their credit in the bank
when he died. No one could look more anxious till
he was quite sure that there would be a race for " The
Queen's Guineas." He confided to us as the cause of
this passing cloud that the country people held a
belief that if that race was walked over for, it was all
his doing, and that he made much booty by such
procedure. He was popular with all classes, always
ready to help a good cause with his purse and his
acting, and never said an unkind word of. any one. A
handsome testimonial was presented to him a few
years before his death, which was very sudden at last ;
and now that he and poor John Sowerby (his C.C.
predecessor) have gone, any amateur casual who
wanders into Carlisle, and wants to hear the latest
thing out in sporting, does not know where to bend
his steps.
Both were alive in '64, and thirty-one horses had
come to the meeting, which was opened by Woodbine
running away twice round the course, with young Job
62 Saddle and Sirloin.
M arson up. Not a carriage was to be seen, whereas
" in the days of old Springkell" the course was lined
on one side with them down to the distance ; and there
were only four men on horseback, where we have seen
three hundred, some of whom would extemporize a
hurdle race to wind up the day. But Grand Stand
enclosures and railways are great levellers, and as the
new fashion brings more added money, it has its uses
after all. We have it on Judge Johnson's authority,
that more women and children attend at Carlisle than
at any meeting he knows of. The boys made a most
remarkable bit of coping to the wall just beyond the
winning-post ; and the " Mr. Gamblers" outside the
enclosure confined their operations to balls of different
colours, which performed a curious course through
pegs, and were backed most spiritedly for pennies.
A half-witted fellow, absolutely in rags, fancied he
was starter, and performed a sort of shadow-dance to
Mr. Elliot, waving back the jockeys (one of them a
little Scotchman between seventy and eighty and
scaling 6st. slbs. with his saddle) and lecturing them
on his own account. The bye-play was too good to
disturb, and Mr. Elliot just let him run on. Jem Snow-
don rode a most beautiful stern chase for the Cumber-
land Plate on Royal John, keeping his top weight at
it, and yet never oversetting him, and just "shot"
Castle Espie, who forced the pace from end to end, by
a head in the last two strides.
There was no lack of little scenes in the enclosure.
A welcher was found to have I3/. in his pocket, when
he wouldn't pay, and being a boot-closer, his boots
were playfully pulled off for a token and flung aloft,
and he had to walk over the sands minus his coat and
hat as well, with Young Carlisle in close attendance,
examining him as if he were an escaped racoon. Then
a small betting man hinted a doubt as to one horse
running on the squat e, within earshot of the owner,
who landed on his nose " with such unerring instinct"
The Wrestling Ring. 63
(as Mr. D'Israeli observes of the Commons) that
"Philip the Doubter" walked about snorting like a
walrus for the rest of the afternoon. After that there
was an elderly welcher, who had done a hardy bor-
derer out of 3/. three years before. The latter had
been on his watch tower at every subsequent meeting,
and darting down upon him at last, and scorning to
strike a man below his weight, he took out his divi-
dend in a Cumbrian fashion by giving him the but-
tock and flinging him into the air. The welcher had
tried to get in without paying and had been headed
back by John Sowerby, and how his friends closed
round him and got him out again no one knows. He
went like a shadow. The jockey arrivals and depar-
tures were rather complicated. Snowdon left for
Newmarket, and Challoner (who had ridden in the
July Stakes the day before) came North to ride
Caller Ou for " The Guineas." Mr. Daley's despon-
dency increased visibly, as The Clown and " Back
Kitchen Sarah" (Backtchi Serai) had gone home, and
Honest John's owner had no notion of giving us a
match between the double winners of the Cumberland
and Northumberland Plates. In the nick of time,
Royal John, who had a race in him already, was
ordered out at Mrs. Masterman's intercession, and the
hairy-heeled old mare was led into the enclosure to
meet him. Challoner was anxious to be at New-
market again, and he soon looked up Loates and
came into the weighing tent. " We may as well be
settling this little matter, Mr. Johnson ;" and settle
it he did, pretty quickly, as the mare never went
freer or better, with her head up in the "old, old
style."
The wrestling begins at nine o'clock with the heavy
weights, and goes on till the saddling-bell rings, and
at six o'clock it begins again with the middle weights,
to the music as before of the Brampton and Volunteer
bands. Next morning the Committee resume their
64 Saddle and Sirloin.
labours from nine to two with the light weights, and
then the most energetic of white-waistcoated func-
tionaries rests from his labours. It is no longer held
in that fine natural ring under the hill, but in a
boarded enclosure at the edge of the racecourse, and
6d. is the entry fee. When we were last there, Jem
Scott was quite the man of the hour, and the leading
jeweller's window was adorned with a silver testi-
monial to his talent from his numerous " friends and
admirers." Among the middle-weights he was still
the nonpareil, and so was " lal Tiffin" in the light
brigade. The latter was also quite the Beau Brum-
mell of the hour in his mauve suit, with white stripe
and garter.
As you enter the enclosure, there is a small space
for the Committee, who sit with silver cups in front of
them, a wheel for drawing out the couples, and two
sand-glasses. The latter were perpetually travelling
into the ring as a menace to men who would not take
hold. The three umpires have generally two couples
out at a time, and the audience sit and lie round the
ring, while the policemen keep walking about to re-
press their exuberance, and keep them in position.
C 19 was most fussy. " Sit ye doon, lad, or F II fetch
ye oot" was his style ; but the sergeant was much more
" saponaceous." With him it was, " Noo, tak* my
advice, lad, and ye 1 II see just as weel?- to a very ardent
Scottite. With the above it was, " Pll tati odds
Jameson don't get the Cup!' and of course he was ac-
commodated. " Jamesons just worried him" said
another at our side, when Dick Wright in the purple
went down before the stripes, which must have covered
a thick-set frame of fully sixteen stone. Maxwell (a
blacksmith) and Jem Scott were a long time taking
hold, as Scott was going away more than two stone,
and was bound to be very leary ; but Jem did his man
with what they called an " under-click."
A tall young fellow, as fragile as ;m osier wand, anc 1
l/.NIVERSI 1
Of
Cumberland Wrestling Chamj. '
standing at an angle of quite 120, was swiftly sent to
mother earth by Jameson, with whom Scott had no
chance at the weight, when they met for the final fall.
Once the rush to seize on the victor, and bear him off
shoulder high to some favoured tent, was quite the
fashion ; but crowds are not so demonstrative nowa-
days, and Jameson is not so very portable. There
was therefore only a little cheering, and each man
squeezed out of the narrow doorway as he could. The
toilets of Scott and Jameson were pretty well attended
by their friends and admirers, and then they walked
up to the committee-table in the most business-like
way. There was no crown of oak leaves no ode by
the Pindar of the wrestling committee. The secretary
simply shook hands with Jameson, who squeezed the
Cup with much ado into his inside-coat pocket, drew
his I5/., or whatever it might be, and returned a small
portion to the fund. The process was alike simple in
Scott's case. " There, Jemmy, that will be 61. for you."
" Thank you, gentlemen" and exit Jemmy.*
WINNERS OF THE ALL- WEIGHT WRESTLING SINCE 1830.
FIRST. SECOND.
1830 W. Robinson, Renwick G. Graham, Rigg
1831 J. Little, Sebergham I. Irving, Bolton Gate
1832 J. Mason, Blencogo F. Nichol, Bothel
1833 R. Chapman, Patterdale J. Graham, Loweswater
1834 J. Thomlinson, Embleton J. Little, Sebergham
1835 John Blair, Solport Mill J. Elliott, Cumrew
1836 Robert Gordon, Plumpton J. Nichol, Bothel
1837 Joseph Sergant, Brampton R. Gordon, Plumpton
1838 R. Chapman, Patterdale R. Pert, Torpenhow
1839 R. Chapman, Patterdale R. Gordon, Plumpton
1840 R. Chapman, Patterdale R. Gordon, Plumptcn
1841 W. Jackson, Kennyside T. Baty, Oulton
1842 W. Jackson, Kennyside H. James, Bogside
1843 W. Jackson, Kennyside R. Chapman, Patterdale
1844 W. Jackson, Kennyside T. Longmire, Troutbeck
1845 I. Taylor, Wythmoor R. Gordon, Plumpton
1846 R. Gordon, Plumpton I. Taylor, Wythmoor
1847 R. Atkinson, Sleagill J. Heslop, Paulton Mire
1848 J. Milburn, Weardale R. Gordon, Plumptoo
66 Saddle and Sirloin.
Christopher North tells of a strange puzzle into
which an old gentleman fell. A general election was
pending, and he was all for the Lowther interest. As
he journeyed through the lake country, he heard the
name of fresh candidates mentioned with much appa-
rent favour, for Westmoreland. Meeting with a friend
at the White Lion in Bowness, he told him with a
very downcast countenance, that Lord Lowther would
be ousted, and that the struggle, as far as he could
learn, would be " between Thomas Ford of Egremont,
and William Richardson of Caldbeck, men of no
landed property, and probably radicals." The con-
versations which had disquieted him, were really with
reference to a great wrestling match, which was then
causing as much doubt and searching of hearts in
Cumberland and Westmoreland as any election could
FIRST. SECOND.
1849 J. Milburn, Weardale T. Todd, Plurabland
1850 J. Moss, Templesowerby R. Irving, Church House
1851 J. Palmer, Bewcastle T. Little, Thomas Close
1852 W. Roldaw, Egremont J. Halliwell, Penrith
1853 W. Donald, Dearham A. Miller, Kirkbride
1854 T. Longmire, Troutbeck W. Dickinson, Calderbridge
1855 T. Longmire, Bowness R. Williams, Egremont
1856 K. Wright, Longtown W. Glaister, Greenah Hall
1856 T. Longmire, Bowness T. Robson, Weardale
1857 W. Hawksworth, Shap Benjamin Cooper, Carlisle
1857 J. Murgatroyd, Cockerm'th Benjamin Cooper, Carlisle
1858 Noble Ewbank, Eampton T. Davidson, Castleside
1859 J. Pattison, Weardale W. Hawkesworth, Shap
1860 W. Jameson, Penrith J. Pattinson, Weardale
1 86 1 W. Jameson, Penrith T. Kirkup, Longtown
1862 R. Wright, Longtown W. Jameson, Penrith
1863 G. Maxwell, Rockliffe J. Fisher, Appleby
1864 W. Jameson, Penrith James Scott, Carlisle
1865 W. Jameson, Penrith James Scott, Carlisle
1866 R. Wright, Longtown John Milbum, Weardale
1867 R. Wright, Longtown Matthew Lee, Lyneside
1868 W. Jameson, Penrith N. Ewbank, Bampton
I am indebted for this list and for much of the wrestling matter up to
1830, to an article in the Carlisle Journal. There were two sets of all*
weight prizes in 1856-57,
Cumberland Wrestling Champions. 67
have done. Far more money is now given in prizes ;
but somehow or other these rival counties do not take
the same pride in their champions as of yore. You
rarely hear the sport mentioned, except about Easter
or Carlisle Race time. Champions are not reveren-
tially pointed out to the rising generation at market
or on the road ; and two young fellows having a bout
on a summer evening, would seem nearly as strange a
sight, even to a resident, as if a couple of the Yeo-
manry cavalry had suddenly mounted their uniforms
and their chargers, and gone into a meadow or down
a " green lonning," to practise the sword exercise.
The first prize, a purse with " five gold guineas" in
it, was contended for at Carlisle races, in September,
1809, and was won by Tom Nicholson of Threlkeld.
" Two purses of gold" were given the next year ; and
for three years in succession Nicholson was the cham-
pion. The prize on the third occasion was twenty
guineas, and " all persons emulous of distinguishing
themselves in these athletic exercises, so much ex-
celled in by our forefathers, are desired to appear on
the ground at nine o'clock in the morning." This re-
ference to antiquity was made in 1811 ; but the most
diligent ghoul in the matter has failed to discover the
existence of any records before the era of Tom Nichol-
son. Will Richardson of Caldbeck was second to that
hero of 1810, and the science, which was gradually
developed, brought matters up to fever-heat in 1813,
when a ring, seventy yards in diameter, was enclosed
by ropes, and about fifteen thousand people, headed
by the Duke of Norfolk, the Marquis of Queensberry,
and Earl Lonsdale, stood or sat round it. " Barney"
was not much in vogue. The buttock and the cross-
buttock were the favourite chips, and " many of the
men were struck from the ground upwards of five
feet." "The Cumberland Shepherd" won the belt;
and amongst those who went to grass was George
Dennison, the bone-setter, who dislocated an oppo-
F 2
68 Saddle and Sirloin.
nent's shoulder. With a fine eye to business, he
would not have him taken to an hospital, but set the
shoulder then and there, amid loud cheers. Prize-
fighting was introduced as a wind-up the next year ;
and Tom Nicholson, and a seaman called Ridley,
alias " The Glutton," had a slogging half-hour ; but
the police interfered, and the Fist never again held a
place at those revels.
For a few years the wrestling was removed from the
old tryst under the hill, and not far from the T.Y.C.
starting post, to a circus, and became a private specu-
lation ; but on September 6th, 1821, it was restored,
thanks to the late Mr. Henry Pearson, a Carlisle
solicitor of great size, to its old haunts, and Will
Richardson added another belt to his almost countless
store. The entry was very large, and very few of the
men were under fourteen stone. Weightman of Hay-
ton, the second man, was more than a stone above
this weight, twenty-two years of age, and 6ft. 2in. in
his stockings. He was second the next year, and
came first in 1825-26. Then the knights of King
Arthur's Round Table were determined to be in the
fashion, and gave two prizes at " The Table," near
Penrith. The " Harry Brougham" of that day was a
spectator, and the knights entered so much into the
spirit of the thing, that as the term "Muscular Chris-
tian" had not then been invented, they drank the
bishop's health, as " the tallest and handsomest man
in his diocese."
From nineteen to twenty-five is the best age, and
few men are really supple after that time. A school,
near Bampton, in Westmoreland, was once the great
nursing mother of wrestlers, and chips innumerable
were put in by future " Belted Wills" upon its green ;
while the Cumbrians were especially keen of it about
Sebergham and Sowerby Row. Dearham was also a
stronghold of the sport, and Weardale has had three
capital men in the ring during the last twelve years.
Cumberland Wrestling Champions. 69
Its great advantage over the Devon and Cornish mode
is, that it is unattended with the same savage play,
and therefore does not create any ill blood. Two men
will come in a gig to Carlisle, and go into the ring ;
one will throw the other, if he chances to be drawn
against him, and they will ride back together at
night as good friends as ever. We do not read of
" the dreadful execution of the toe" in connexion
with it, and how " some of the young Cornwall men
are trying the toe, but whether they will for a long
time be able to bear the punishment, and keep their
tempers like the Devonshire men, is doubtful."
Again, the practice of the rival counties is assimilated,
and we have no involved challenges like that from
Abraham Cann,* of whom the Cornish men sang,
with more fealty than truth, that he
" was not the man
To wrestle with Polkinghorne."
Be this as it may, among the champions of the
Carlisle ring who were still wrestling, or whose memo-
ries were still green in '30, Nicholson of Threlkeld, old
Will Rutson" of Caldbeck, Will Weightman of Hay-
ton, and George Irving of Bolton Gate all of them
Cumberland men stood pre-eminent. Nicholson
wrestled principally in Carlisle and at Windeimere.
His great chip' was the click on the outside of the
heel, and he always stood well up to hi's man. His
stature was six feet, by thirteen stone : and old
" Roan," or Rowland Long of Ambleside, who weighed
fully five stone more, was like the Dixons of Gras-
mere, of " no use till him." Will Richardson, or
* Cann wrote: "Polkinghorne, I will take off my stockings and
play bare-legged with you, and you may have two of the hardest and
heaviest shoes you like that can be made of leather in the county of
Cornwall, and you shall be allowed to stuff yourself as high as the arm-
pits, to any extent, not exceeding the size of a Cornish peck of WOOT ;
and I will further engage not to kick you, if you do not kick me."
70 Saddle and Sirloin.
" Rutson," as he was called, was another old standard,
and he and Tom Nicholson, Jonathan Watson (a rare
buttocker) and " Roan" Long, were in constant requi-
sition as umpires after they left the ring. Will won
at Carlisle when he was quite a veteran of forty-six.
He had not very high science, and used generally to
hug his men down, but he could hype and strike
pretty well with the left leg. Fauld's Brow, near
Caldbeck, was his chief ring, and he won the head
prize there nine or ten times. This gathering gene-
rally took place in October, about a month after
Carlisle races whose fixture has been changed and
its belt was quite as hard to win as that on The
Swifts.
William Cass was a noted wrestler. He was a very
thick-set, burly man, 6ft. lin., and seventeen stone,
and therefore very difficult to lift, and active withal.
In his science he was not first-class, though he struck
well with the left leg. He had a match with George
Irving at the Castle Inn and won. Chapman also
met him at Carlisle, and threw him in the two
first falls out of three ; but he was then past his best.
Another noted wrestler was Thomas Richardson of
Caldbeck, commonly called " Tom Dyer." His
principal chip was the hype with either leg. Being
almost 6ft. and a thirteen-stone man, he was remark-
ably clean in his falls, and most men were afraid of
him. As the Carlisle wrestling was discontinued for
some years, the Crow Park ring at the Keswick
regatta and races became the most important in
Cumberland. The head prize, in 1819, was won by
William Wilson of Ambleside, an active wrestler of
the same build and size as Jackson of Kennyside. In
1821 the head prize was carried off by a young eleven-
stone man from Torpenhow, and in 1823 by Jonathan
Watson. The former day's wrestling gave great
impetus to the art ; it brought lighter men forward,
and revived the wrestling that year at Carlisle, where
Cumberland Wrestling Champions. 71
it has been continued ever since. Crow Park before
the time of Gray the poet was a grove of immense
oaks, and when the Greenwich Hospital Estate at
Keswick, of which it forms part, passed by purchase
to the Marshall family, the races and wrestling were
given up.
Weightman was a very tall and good-looking man,
and won his falls by great power and length of arm,
which made up for his lack of science. George Irving,
who was 5ft. ioin., and nearly fourteen stone, seemed
quite small in the arms of such a lifeguard ; but
" Geordie" was a man of dauntless pluck, and did not
care whom he met. His final fall with the gigantic
McLauchlin who was 6ft. 5 in., and above twenty
stone was always a disputed one, and furnished food
for discussion and edification in farm-kitchen ingles
for many a month. It seems that when they had " gat
hod," and were wrestling for the final fall, Irving
begged the giant " not to throw yourself on the top
of me," and McLauchlin, thinking that he was down
and the bout over, quitted his hold. Upon this Irving
nimbly lit on his legs again, and claimed the fall, and
after a great scene round the umpires the belt was
handed to him. His science was magnificent, and
he liked to have a very tight hold of his man, and
as a right-legged striker and a cross-buttocker with
the left leg he was supreme. This favourite chip of
his was as keenly watched for all round the ring as
Jemmy Little's buttock and Chapman's right leg hype.
George Irving and Robinson of Renwick (a very
cunning wrestler) were much of the same build, -and
two smarter fellows never entered the ring, but
" Geordie was still maister of him." J. Little from
Sebergham was a less and lighter man than Irving.
The latter had got rather slow and stale when they
met at Carlisle for the last fall in 1831. It was an
anxious moment for the backers of the old champion.
" Geordie " went in to do or die, and got his man up
72 Saddle and Sirloin.
in the old style amid a shout which might have been
heard at Crossfell, but just missed him when he struck
with the right leg, and Little put in his unfailing but-
tock. Mason of-Blencogo was a strong fellow, with
no great science or action, and how he disposed of
Nichol of Bothel, who was one of the best hypers
of the day puzzled not a few. No one understood
the art better than Nichol whose big, curly head
and a double-eyed squint made him "good to tell"
in a ring ; but he was generally rather big in
condition, and turned nervous when he was pushed
hard.
Richard Chapman, vvho won the belt, like Jack-
son, of Kennyside, four times at Carlisle, was only
" nineteen come Martinmas," weighed twelve stone,
and stood five-foot-ten in his stockings, when he made
his first journey, in 1833, to The ^Swifts. He had
never been there before, and he and two others drove
from Penrith in a gig, and didn't know a single soul
in the town, or where they could put up. As it hap-
pened, Chapman and one of his gig partners entered
the ring together, and just as the former and his first
opponent were taking hold, he saw his friend "flying
over a man's head'.' The omen was not a very plea-
sant one, but he set to work nothing daunted, and
disposed of Armstrong (" Little "), of Bushel Bank,
who strained his shoulder in the tussle. In the third
round he was drawn against George Irving. "Geordie"
started with his right leg and struck quick ; then he
tried the cross-buttock, but Chapman slipped by both
legs, and threw him right back out of his arms. The
old champion was above bearing any malice to " the
young lad oot of Lancashire," as he was generally
rumoured to be, although he was born and bred in
Patterdale. " Geordie " was then a publican at Bolton
Gate which never will forget him and had a tent
Cumber tund Wrestling Champions. 73
on The Swifts. Spying Chapman a few minutes
afterwards from his tent door, as the lad was putting
on his coat and waistcoat, he came up to him with a
bottle and a glass " Here, young man, thoo mun have
a glass of porter, Pll stand treat, 1 ' and so saying, he
creamed it up, and dismissed him with the cheering
prophecy, "Never a man threw me in Carlisle ring
but he won." Chapman was rather shy at first, and
he afterwards confessed that, living as he did in such
a quiet place as Patterdale, he was not sure that he
had ever seen porter before, or what its effects might
be. They seemed to be rather invigorating than other-
wise, and it was also something that the " Irving of
Cumberland " should be on his side, arid specially
looking out for him. The eighteen-stone Messenger
met him in the fifth round, but he struck him with his
left leg, and cross-buttocked him very easily. Gra-
ham, of Loweswater, was the last stander, and pursued
the same tactics as Chapman had done with the " big
un," but he was stopped, and thrown in very similar
style to Irving.
It was a very fine opening to a great career, which
produced about a hundred prizes in twelve seasons at
Carlisle, the Flan, Fauld's Brow, and all over the north.
" Chapman's chip " was hyping with the right and
striking outside with the left leg, and always at a loose
hold. He could hype with either leg, but thought it
safer to use the right, as it was easier to' keep hold.
He always told the young wrestlers, " If you hype
with the left leg, and miss, and don't throw your man,
you are liable to lose hold, and then you are at his
mercy. The left leg hype requires a very tight grip ;
and, in fact, the finest hype is with the right leg, as
the slack hold gives you such a rare swing off." Since
his retirement he has frequently acted as umpire, and
those who frequented the Bridekirk coursing meetings
will remember his directing the beaters on the 380-
acre " Tarnities," as head-gamekeeper to Major Green
74 Saddle and Sirloin.
Thompson, and always sweet on Beckford and Sun-
beam.
Thomlinson, of Embleton, and Chapman had many
a hard bout, and it was a very near thing between
them. Jonathan was a strong and a desperate fellow, a
leary man in taking hold, but a still worse one to deal
with when he had taken it. His forte was left leg
striking, and clicking inside the heel ; and he never
could tell how he was "flung like a bairn at Peerith"
by Joe Abbot. The latter was brought up a farmer ;
but had as much as would keep him, and loved wrest-
ling better than mud studies. He was very clever
when he put out his full powers ; but " he required a
little clapping on the back " when a champion was
crossing the ring to meet him. Banks Bowe was a
big one and a tough one, and John Blair, of Solport
Mill, a strong, good man. He threw in the final fall for
the belt at Carlisle a great fell-side champion, Elliott
of Cumrew, who had the credit of bringing up the
hank chip. If he put in the buttock, and was stopped,
he then tried on this hank, and, as it were, twisted his
leg round his opponent's leg, and locked it. The old
school thought it " about nowt." In fact, a man is
generally beaten when he puts it in, and when it comes
to a hug, he loses four falls out of five through it.
Few men are better remembered than Robert Gor-
don, who stood wide of his man, won twice, and was
five times second at Carlisle. He was about five feet
nine, and never more than twelve stone, and scarcely
a man in England could throw him, if they missed
him with their first chip. Those who wrestled with
him said that he was " nowt but a heap of bones" and
he held his- man so tight, that many of them lay down
to him rather than be " squeezed to bits in yon vice''
He could hold Chapman, although " Dick " threw him
twice for the belt at Carlisle, and had the best of him on
the balance of falls. " Bob," as it were, " wrought his
man down!' when the chip had missed, and pulled
Cumberland Wrestling Champions. 75
him quietly over his knee with almost a giant's thew.
One of the defeated once graphically described to us
his sensations during the period that Bob had hold of
him. " He reached his right arm over and wrought
me, and clicked me and felt me almost before I took hod"
Science was a thing he did not trouble himself much
about, but his hug was about equal in tenderness to
that of an Arctic bear. He was in the ring for at least
fourteen or fifteen years, and nearly as good as ever to
the last, and then, like poor Jackson of Kennyside, he
died of consumption. Sergeant of Brampton once
deprived him of the Carlisle belt, and, as the Cum-
brians put it, he " was owre kittle for him" Joe was
a neat twelve-stone man, and could reduce himself
sufficiently to wrestle in the eleven-stone ring. The
middle-weights didn't care to see him there, as he had
the swinging hype off to perfection.
He was not long in the ring ; but no man has left a
more enduring memory than William Jackson, of
Kennyside. He won four years 1841-1844 at Car-
lisle, and was in fact " a representative man" among
Cumberland wrestlers, as Chapman was among those
of Westmoreland. The pair met seven times, and
Jackson had just the best of it ; but Chapman belonged
to an earlier period, and was not then in his heyday.
Jackson was fully six-feet-one in his stockings, and
weighed about fourteen stone. He had grand, open
shoulders, and, in fact, he was beautifully made to the
hips, but, like Tom King, the ex-pugilist, rather small
across the loins. He was too tall to put in the
buttock, but he could hype with the right leg, and
strike as well as click inside the heel with the left, with
marvellous quickness and precision. There was no
finer and better behaved wrestler, and never was such
universal sympathy felt for a man, as when he was
matched with Atkinson and defeated. Big as he was,
he looked a mere stripling by the side of the Magog
of Sleagill, when he came out to meet him for the
76 Saddle and Sirloin.
best of five falls in that Flan ring, which has never
had so many thousands round it either before or since.
George Donaldson, " stood the giant," and counselled
him most strictly not to make play, or Jackson was
certain to have him, and his word proved true enough
in one round. After going to grass, Atkinson was
more obedient, and gave away no more chances, but
stood like a rock, and fairly crushed his man down.
The late Lord Carlisle, who was looking on, presented
Jackson with 5/., but no pulleys could bring up the
poor fellow's heart, and he was never the same man
again.
Taylor of Wythmoor, who threw " Bob" Gordon in
the final fall at Carlisle in '45, and had the tables
turned on him the next year, was a rare buttocker ;
and Thomas Longmire, a man of about Chapman's
size, was all science, and equally great in buttocking,
striking, and hyping. Todd, of Plumbland, was good
for a year or two ; and Mobs, of Temple-Sowerby,
wrestled well as a "colt," and went through his men
in great style for the Carlisle belt. Palmer of New-
castle was also a good man, and took Gordon as his
model ; and Haliwell of Penrith, an eleven-stone man,
was " full of chips." W. Donald of Dearham the
home of " lal Tiffin," the nine-and-a-half-stone hero,
who " has everything off" had a unique method of
pulling men on to his knee. Dick Wright of Long-
town, who keeps his wrestling year after year as well as
Lord Wilton does his riding to hounds, also relies
very much on a specialty. It can only be described
as a peculiar and most effective jerk off the breast,
which no one save Mossop of Egremont, ever seemed
to practice. Mossop threw Longmire twice out of
three times with it, Chapman twice, and Jackson
once ; and they all said afterwards that they didn't
know how to meet it.
W T eardale has been fertile in champions. Its Pattin-
son was an eleven-stone man, and good enough to win
Cumberland Wrestling Champions. 77
and be second at Carlisle ; and Milburn, after winning
in 1848-49, turned up second to Dick Wright in 1866.
Robson of Weardale was good ; but he was over-
matched when he met Longmire for the belt at Car-
lisle, where Ben Cooper, a man who could do any-
thing, strike with either leg or cross-buttock, was
second in successive bouts to Hawksworth of Shap
and Murgatroyd of Cockermouth. The latter began
wrestling when he was about twenty, and has gone on
for fully thirty years. Chips* were not much in his
way ; but his figure, fourteen stone, by 5 feet 7 inches,
rendered him a difficult man to throw, and he
" has settled a vast of men" at one time or another.
Noble Ewbank of Bampton was hardly so good as his
father Joseph, whose style of buttocking was almost
equal to Little's. As for George Donaldson (one of
three clever brothers) he was as cunning as he was
* A friend has kindly defined for us the principal chips :
1. HYPE. Formerly called striking inside, or getting your knee be-
tween your opponent's legs when lifting him, and striking his leg out so
as to drop him down.
2. SWINGING HYPE. The same thing, but swinging your man after
lifting him, once or twice round and striking. When the motions are
done quickly, these two are considered the crack chips of the ring, and
when well done they are decisive.
3. BUTTOCKING. Getting your buttock or haunch quickly under
your opponent's stomach as a fulcrum, and throwing him bodily over
your head or shoulder.
4. CROSS-BUTTOCKING. The same thing, only getting your man
into motion, and your buttock more under him.
5. HANK. Getting your leg twisted round your opponent's leg, so
that he cannot clear it, and by superior strength and height forcing
yourself over him, when he must fall under.
6. BACK-HEELING. Putting your heel behind your opponent's heel,
and running over him.
7. CLICK INSIDE. Clicking inside your opponent's heel, and forcing
him back.
8. OUTSIDE STROKE. Lifting your man, striking outside his knee
with yours, and dropping him down.
The two safest chips, and, generally speaking, the cleanest, are hyp-
ing or striking inside with the right leg, and striking outside with you*-
left leg : your right arm being under, gives you, with :hese motions,
great command over your man.
7 8 Saddle and Sirloin.
clever, and though only an eleven-stone man, he was
nearly a match for Jackson, and in fact threw him
once. Like Gordon, he was a " varra slippery takker
hod ;" whereas Jackson stepped up to his man, and
gave the umpires no trouble with either sand-glass or
trumpet.
It was a matter of a few ounces between Donaldson
and Whitehead ; but Jonathan won the match when
they met at Waverton. Jonathan was a great hyper
and buttocker, as well as a right-leg outside-striker,
and used the last chip with daring shrewdness, when
more cautious men would have left it alone. There
are very few good strikers with the right leg. Chap-
man and other cracks would never put it in, as, if you
miss, it is mostly fatal. There has never been a
more finished eleven-stone wrestler, both as a striker
and a buttocker, and in fact all round, than Jim Scott.
At Whitehaven he won the eleven-stone purse eight
or nine years in succession, and stood twice second to
Jameson at Carlisle. Of course, to adopt his friends'
language, it was safe to predict that the big'un would
" worry him down ;" but Jameson is wonderfully lithe
of his weight, both in pole-jumping and wrestling, and
can both hype and strike with the left whenever occa-
sion serves.
79
CHAPTER IV.
" 'Twos Strafford raised his sand-glass, and Thornton held the pen,
When to a Windsor coffee-room flocked scores of Shorthorn men.
They crowded round the table, they fairly blocked the door
He stood champagne, did Sheldon, of Geneva, Illinois.
They talked of Oxford heifers, Duchess bulls, and how the States
Had come into the market with another ' Bit of Bates. '
Their expression is so solemn, and so earnest is their tone,
That nought would seem worth living for but ' Red and White and
Roan.'
All ready for the contest, I view a dauntless three
The Mclntosh from Essex, a canny chiel is he.
There's Leneyfrom the hop-yards 'twill be strange if he knocks under,
When once the chords are wakened of that Kentish ' Son of Thunder. '
The Talleyrand of ' trainers' is their 'cute but modest foe,
Him whom the gods call ' Culshaw,' and men on earth call 'Joe.'
He loves them ' points all over,' with bright dew on the nose ;
And in his heart of hearts is writ, ' A touch of Barmpton Rose. '
And, sure, it well might puzzle ' The Gentleman in Black,'
When the three nod on ' by twenties,' to know which you should back !
And, sure, the laws of Nature must have burst each ancient bound,
When a yearling heifer fetches more than seven hundred pound !
Bulls bring their weight in bullion, and I guess we'll hear of more
Arriving from the pastures of Geneva, Illinois."
"THE GOLDEN SHORTHORNS." Punch.
Whitehall Killhow Sale of Shorthorns Scaleby Castle The Western
Plain of Cumberland Mr. Watson's and the late Mr. Brown's Pigs
Mr. Curwen's Agricultural Gathering at the Schooze Farm
Champion Bulls The late Captain Spencer's Greyhounds.
WE have approached " Merrie Carlisle" by the
North, and we must make note-book forays
from it west, south, and east ere we leave it.
Skiddaw had got her wonted rain-signal from CrifTell
that day, and we met with a curious student of
meteorology on our way to Mr. George Moore's. He
got into the train at Wigton, and desired to commu-
nicate. His language was very dark, and somewhat
on this wise : " Wind's in sou'-west ; noo, it's gatting
8o Saddle and Sirloin.
roond tit sooth ye'll see sun ; be it dusk, ye'll see stars
better ; if there's nobbut fog, it's a job." With these
observations he collapsed, and we changed trains at
Aspatria for Whitehall, once " The Fair Ladies" in
the parish of All Hallows.
There is a tradition that it was the home of the
Misses Arthuret, of whose hospitality Alan Fairford
speaks in " Redgauntlet." A skilful modern hand has
been at work since then ; but the old spirit lingers
there in all its fulness, and " Welcome the coming
speed the parting Guest" may well be carved in stone
above the door. There they come during the summer
in one continuous stream archbishops, bishops, cler-
gymen, school-inspectors, M.P.'s out of business for
the recess, recorders, authors, sculptors, artists with
the rich harvest of many a happy vale and mountain
hour in their portfolios, devotees of St. Partridge, and
brother-merchants en route from the lakes. Lord
Brougham has left traces of his stay in a complete
collection of his works, with his rugged autograph in
each. London Scripture-readers and their wives re-
cruit their strength with quiet strolls and fresh moun-
tain air ; and some bright afternoon the whole force
of the establishment is brought to bear vigorously on
tea for 1200 school children and their teachers. If we
look seawards down the Vale of Ellon, we are re-
minded how the Salmon-Fishery Commissioners, Mr.
Walpole and Mr. Frank Buckland, issued forth one
morning from those portals ; and how they waded
about all day like Newfoundlands, and conducted
diplomatic negotiations with millers under their very
water-wheels. Some of the Fantail, Musical, and
Charmer shorthorn tribes are tenants of the park, and
the venerable white horse, which Mr. George Payne
rode when he hunted the Pytchley, is still earning his
corn in the carriage.
Mr. Foster, like his neighbour and old schoolfellow,
comes back to the scenes of his boyhood in summer
< ' / >L
THE
UNIVRSIT V
or
- . -
Killhow Sale of Shorthorns. 8 1
and there for a while shakes off the moil and dust of
the great city. The bulk of his estate is at Killhow,
which is separated from Quarry Hill by the village of
Bolton Gate, whose glorious limestone spring " flows
on for ever." Hard by The Bow is that little cottage-
ruin where " Blackbird Wilson" held his village-school
seven-and-forty years ago, and employed his leisure
hours in whistling and suction, but not at the spring!
Bolton Church was " built in a night," and the ghostly
masons in their hurry put the steeple at the wrong
end. But we have to do here with the building up of
Mr. Foster's pure-bred herd, which is always kept at
Killhow, while Quarry Hill carries the feeding stock.
When he took the six hundred acres into his own
hands in '6 1, his ideas did not rise beyond Irish cattle.
Mr. Drewry, who was born near him, was the tempter,
and they went together to the Babraham second sale
in June '63, and bought Young Celia (42 guineas).
She won at Wigton and Ireby ; but did him no good.
White Lily (36 guineas) of the same tribe came with
her, and helped her to win the first victory (in a pair)
against Sir Wilfrid Lawson's, and had three heifer
calves to boot. In process of time Mr. Foster treated
himself to two Fantails at the Yardley sale, Polly
Gwynne and Duchess Gwynne, at Middle Farm, near
Brampton ; Moss Rose (230 guineas) on that memo-
rable May morning at Mr. Betts's ; and Princess 2nd
and 3rd at Mr. Macintosh's next day. Thus the " Bit
of Bates" expanded, and in little more than five years
his labours were publicly endorsed by an average of
67 /. ^s. gd. for sixty-six head.
The sale-ring had Art and Nature in aid, with the
massive white stone turrets of Killhow in the back-
ground, and Skiddaw looking down upon many a deep
valley and silent tarn in the distance. The quiet
dalesmen, who don't care much about pedigree, but
like a roan bull and a " sken at the dam as well," if
they can get one, trudged merrily to the scene of
G
82 Saddle and Sirloin.
action. After a sale luncheon, which was of a truth to
the North what Mr. Macintosh's memorable one had
been to the South, the agricultural worthies, headed
by Tom Gibbons, might be seen cosily seated round
the ring for four long hours, cheering whenever the
biddings rose to fever heat for Moss Rose and the
Princesses, and smoking their "churchwardens" in
supreme delight. Mr. D. R. Davies, Mr. Brogden
(who was then successfully wooing Wednesbury), and
Mr. Drewry mounted a low platform, with Mr. Thorn-
ton as a " Herd Book in breeches" on the box of a
drag at their elbow, and a very " hot corner" it proved,
when business fairly began.
Mr. Stafford, who, as usual, held a commission for
" the Kentish Son of Thunder," fought Mr. Davies by
ID-guinea bids from 300 (where five bidders had
dropped off) up to 400 for Moss Rose. This was her
fourth appearance in a sale-ring. First she fell as a
blooming Cobham calf for 260 guineas to Mr. Hales's
nod ; then it was " 245 guineas, Mr. Betts," " 230
guineas, Mr. Foster ;" and now 400 guineas for the
Mere Old Hall herd completed her Tale of a Time
Glass. Duchess Gwynne (180 guineas), Princess 2nd
(300 guineas), and Princess 3rd (330 guineas), were
fought out between Lord Kenlis and Mr. Brogden,
and his lordship won the rubber. Nothing daunted,
in went Mr. Brogden for Countess Gwynne (240
guineas), and got her. At this juncture, the platform
could bear such heavy volleys no longer, and collapsed
amid a roar of merriment ; and when Mr. Brogden
and Mr. Davies lighted on their legs, and presented
themselves again on a surer footing, they were greeted
with the assurance that " weight of brass brokt doon"
Sir Wilfrid Lawson was not long in making up his
mind for Royal Cambridge, a massive son of Moss
Rose, and at 240 guineas the roan was booked for
Brayton. His brother, Royal Cumberland, tempted
Mr. Fawcett at 160 guineas, and he and the wealthy
The Western Plain of Cumberland. 83
Fantail 4th, at nearly the same sum, departed for
Scaleby Castle together. And so did most of the
company, cheered by the beams of a double rainbow,
to buy the descendants of the Elvira or Princess sort
on the morrow.*
The blacksmith at the Red Dial warned us that it
was " an uneasy road," as we sought Mr. Watson's.
The mist was on the Solway, and half veiled Wedham
Flow (beloved of snipes) and those salt-marshes on
whose edge the natives set fixed engines for salmon,
and " stick it out" before the Commissioners that they
only aspire to flounders. As we climb the side of
Cattland Fell, the great north-west plain of Cumber-
land lies at our feet. " This is the old border land,
memorable alike for strife and song. The impress of
its troubled history may here and there be seen in the
massive square towers, which yet rear their time-worn
walls, telling of many a storm and siege." We feel
too on another score that we hold the keystone of a
strong position. Beyond the Solway, we see the
birthplace of Pride of Southwick in a wooded spur of
* Scaleby Castle was built about the time of Henry I., or subse-
quently by the Norman Tilliolfs, who got a large grant of the adjacent
county both as their residence, and also as a place of refuge from the
attacks of the marauding Scots of that period. When the sentinel sta-
tioned on the "Toot Hill" (now Scaleby Hall) sounded his horn, the
people with all haste collected their stock within the precincts of the
double moat, or, in case of greater emergency, within the quadrangular
courtyard of the castle. The outer moat is still in perfect preservation ;
but the inner one has for years been filled in. An old donjon keep
rises to a considerable height above the other parts of the building, and
has long been an almost inaccessible ivy-clad tower, tenanted only by
the bat or the moping owl, while the large black martins wheel in rapid
flight, and chase each other with defiant scream round the battlements.
The walnut-tree, which spread its lateral arms far and wide, and the
gigantic elms which threatened to push the old walls from their founda-
tions, have all gone ; but still many a fine gnarled oak holds the ancient
keep in countenance. Mr. Fawcett has kept shorthorns of the Princess
blood, so famed for the pail, ever since he was under Mr. Bates's roof as
a pupil. Of late years he has purchased some high-priced heavy-fleshed
cows, chiefly of Bates blood, and he gave 155 guineas for Fourteenth
Dyke of Oxford at His Grace the Duke of Devonshire's sale.
G 2
84 Saddle and Sirloin.
Criffell ; Lady Solway, that great nursing mother of
Cumberland ham, flourished at Solway House ; Maid
of the Mill, Beckford, and the Blackstock "belles"
have done their work near Allonby for Lytham and
Waterloo ; Casson's future gold medal hunter Com-
missioner hails from Burgh ; and Crafty,* " the queen
of the hackneys," is in her box at Howsenrigg, with
George Mulcaster as her proud esquire. Amid the
rich pastures and " black dairies " of the Abbey
Holme, lived " Sammy Rigg," that head-centre of
Cumberland "statesmen," as famed for his swedes
and Galloways as Mr. Rooke for his views on " Corn
and Currency." There, too, once upon a time, Pearson
of Langrigg had forty greys, all by Old Conqueror,
from mares by The Earl and Grand Turk. Brayton,
* Crafty, bred by Mr. A. Dalzell, of Stainburn Hall, Workington,
in 1858, is by The Judge, out of a mare by Nimrod (h.-b. son of Muley),
her dam a hackney mare of unknown pedigree, the property of the late
Dr. Dickinson, of Workington. The Judge, bred by Mr. A. Dalzell
in 1850, was by Galaor, out of Cerito (sister to The Currier) by The
Saddler, out of Amaryllis by Cervantes. The Judge was not much of a
racehorse, though he ran repeatedly in Mr. Dalzell's colours ; while we
hear he is the sire of very good riding stock in the Carlisle and Cumber-
land country. Crafty was purchased when a yearling at 2O/. for Mr.
H. J. Percy, of Howsenrigg, Aspatria, by his manager, the now well-
known George Mulcaster, who brought her out in the same year 1859,
when she was first shown and placed third to' two half-brothers by The
Judge, in the yearling class of hunting colts and fillies at the Cockermouth
Meeting of the Cumberland and Westmoreland Agricultural Society.
In the same year Crafty took the first prize of 2 sovs. for yearling fillies
by The Judge, and the second prize for yearling saddle or harness fillies,
at the Wigton Agricultural Society's Show, &c. Crafty is a rich
dappled brown mare, standing fifteen hands one inch and a half high,
and girthing six feet two and a half. She has a neat sensible head, with
a good eye and a nicely crested neck, running into well-raised withers.
She has a full chest, with beautifully laid shoulders, a capital barrel
and back, with good round quarters and well-developed arms and
thighs. Then her joints are excellent, her legs and feet first-rate, while
she is full of power without lumber, but with plenty of length, hardy
looks, and especially grand-taking action, &c. Farmers' Magazine.
[Since the above was written, she has won an enormous number of
prizes. She has had three colts and a filly, two of the former by Motley,
and the tatter by her own sire.]
Mr. Watsons and Mr. Browns Pigs. 85
the scene of some very dashing bids by Mr. Saunders,
when the herd was dispersed, is a little further down
the line ; and so is Blennerhasset, that Sebastopol
of the vegetarians, where the engines "Cain" and
" Abel " groan on their miry way, where a professor
is ever composing manures, and where Christmas was
kept with apples and biscuits, potatoes, and oilcake
sauce.
A Saturday Revieiver once directed our attention
to the fact that we seem to regard a country as be-
nighted, except in those spots which are hallowed by
the presence or recollection of some distinguished
thing on four feet. If this be so, very little of that
Cumberland landscape was in shadow, as we passed
through the two greyhounds in stone at Mr. Watson's
gates, and looked over it from his garden terrace.
This ex-Cumberland champion of the pig lists began
with the Lady Solway* breed, and then gave Mr.
Unthank five guineas for a little sow pig of Sober
* This foundress of the Sol way House blood was sent by Mr. George
Donald from Newtown House, near Durham, to the late Mr. Wester
Wilson, of Thistlewood. She was a combination of Mason of Chilton's
and Ferguson of Catterick's blood, and her daughter, Lady Solway,
was a prize winner at the Bristol Royal, as well as at several local
shows. Mr. Brown, of The High, had some of the sort, and they pro-
duced several fine lengthy pigs. Besides Liberator, Mr. Watson used
another of his blood, and also bought Protection (a first at Carlisle and
Whitehaven) from Mr. Unthank, for a double dip. into Thormanby.
Mr. Watson showed first at the Highland and Agricultural Society's
Perth meeting in 1850, and Carlisle, Chelmsford, and Salisbury in
1855-57 were his three most successful Royal meetings. He never
showed at the Smithfield Club ; but he won two prizes at Bingley Hall,
after he gave up The Royal. His piggery was not large, and he had at
no time more than four sows, and generally sold their produce at io/. to
I5/. off the teat. The breed had a great run while the trade lasted.
Mr. Majoribanks gave 25/. each for some sows, and Mr. Wilson (for the
Prince Consort and the Duke of Richmond), and Messrs. Crisp and
Mangles (a pupil of Mr. Watson's father) had all a taste. Mr. Brown's
showing career lasted for nearly twelve years, and the small breed paid
him best. Liberator, Lord Wenlock, Thormanby (first at the Norwich
Royal), and Wenlock (first at the Newcastle Royal) were his leading
boars ; and Liberator went from his styes at a high price to Australia.
86 Saddle and Sirloin.
Watkins's Thormanby and Wiley blood, which he
brought back from Netherscales in his dog-cart. She
was crossed in due time with Earl Ducie's Liberator,
which proved a rare " nick," both for form and hand,
and did a good turn for the small Cumberland Whites.
Mr. Watson may be said to owe his heads and hams
to Liberator, and his backs to Thormanby, and to
make assurance sure, he had double crosses of the
sort. Miss West* was quite a prima donna among
sows at the Carlisle Royal ; but Faith (by Liberator,
out of the Unthank sow) was not only bigger, but
more level, and sweeter in the head. The former was
never beaten ; and if Mr. Watson could have war-
ranted her in pig, he might once have had upwards of
40 guineas for her. Faith, Hope, and Charity were
his first prize pen of sow pigs under six months at
Carlisle, and their names created some comment.
" And pray which of these three is Charity ?" said an
old lady, after duly adjusting her spectacles, and
taking a protracted survey of the pen. " Which is
Charity, marm ?" said the attendant, " of course the
biggest on 'em is Charity." " My dears," said the old
lady, turning to her daughters, " I never saw it just
put in that practical way before." Charity was found
at the Chelmsford Royal next year with the first prize
orange card over her head, and six pigs at the teat.
She had only pigged two days before she left Cum-
berland, and some of them were sold for ten and the
rest for fifteen guineas a piece. The journey knocked
her about considerably, and she was beaten soon after
by the Duke of Northumberland's sow at Cornhill.
" We," " Shall," " Win," was another sample of Mr.
Watson's neat nomenclature, and the three made
nearly 8o/. at Salisbury two years afterwards. Mr.
Fisher amplified the idea into "Advance Quality,"
* Miss West was by Liberator, dam by Jimmy from York.
Mr. Watsons and Mr. Browns Pigs. 8 7
"Advance Symmetry," and " No Surrender!" and it
sank at last into " Aint," " We," " Stunners ?"
Mr. Watson's were generally of a less and rather
finer-boned sort than his neighbour's, Mr. Brown's, of
The High, and were kept like his, principally upon
new milk and oatmeal and barley mixed. After a
fortnight, they would be coaxed into drinking a quart
of new milk at three or four times. They would then
have a pint at each end of the day, but never more
than two quarts. No sleeping draught could be more
potent, and sleep is the chief promoter of pork. The
Highland and Agricultural Society was Mr. Brown's
favourite show sphere, and Liberator, Wenlock, and
Thormanby blood his delight. His pigs might often
be picked out by the blue spots on their quarters and
backs. It was give and take between him and Mr.
Watson when they met in the show-ring, and Faith,
Hope, and Charity had opponents worthy of them at
Carlisle. Mrs. Brown was an excellent home secre-
tary in pig matters ; but her husband never knew
when to sell. He refused good prices, and brought
back sows, tried to reduce them for a year or two, and
found them only barren fig-trees after all. Prices
went down when he and others were watching for
them to go up, and at last 4/. or 5/. could hardly be
got, where io/. or I2/. had been given without scruple
before.*
A little further West, and we reach Workington
Hall, once the Holkham or Woburn of the North. The
late Mr. John Grey had seen a great deal, and spoke
much to us of Mr. Curwen and his nephew Mr. Bla-
mire.t According to him, the future Tithe Commis-
sioner was at that time " a quiet subject, and very
much under his uncle." He attended Rosley Hill
* For a sketch of the Cumberland bacon trade, see "Field and
Fern" (South) pp. 326-332.
For whom in detail, see Dr. Lonsdale's "Cumberland Worthies."
88 Saddle and Sirloin.
and nearly all the Northern cattle and sheep fairs,
either in person or through his man Armstrong ; and
he had not unfrequently eight or ten horses for sale at
Newcastle. When he judged he was all for quality,
and the next time Mr. Grey met him, " shuffling with
his hands in his pockets down Parliament-street to the
House," he could not refrain from asking him if he
still remembered the heifers (Mr. Grey's own) to
which he gave prizes at Kelso in '31. He never
judged again, and enclosures and tithe apportionments
engrossed him, till after some twenty years of official
life he retired a broken-down man to Thackwood Nook
to die.
Mr. Grey had no great belief in Mr. Curwen, but
he thought him " very clever," and he thoroughly
enjoyed his annual autumn ride to Workington Hall,
with his brother farmers from the Tyneside. The
preparation of these modern moss-troopers for the
Workington carnival was not very extensive. They
came clad in the peaceful guise of top boots, or brown
breeches and gaiters, and merely carried their slippers,
a razor, and a couple of shirts, &c., in front of them.
Jobson, from New Town, near Chillingham, would
have a quiet day's farming on the road with his old
pupil Joseph Dixon, at Broadwath, and discuss with
him the merits of " Wetheral" and " Constitution," or
the white bull of his " sort." Early next morning the
two would set out on their ride together, and there
was a good muster of pilgrims to breakfast at Cock
Bridge. Workington Hall was reached by midday.
There they had two days' farming at The Schooze,
and dined in a large wooden booth, where Mr. Stanley,
then the great " blue parson" of the West, was the
chief speaker. Mr. Curwen was at that time member
for Cumberland, and the gathering had rather a
political tinge about it. The host was field-marshal,
and Mr. Blamire was always there to help him. Every
one rode through the fields and saw the ploughs at
Mr. Cur wen's Agricultural Gathering. 89
work, and scanned the turnip drills, and then came
back to finish the business portion of the day among
the cattle in the yards, or at the sale of Shorthorn
heifers. Mr. Curwen had also a good deal to say on
new manures and the subject of salt as an antidote to
sheep-rot. It was placed on slates all round the fields
for sheep, and the shepherd on his mule with a sack
of small blocks of it behind him was quite a feature
of the day.
Mr. Curwen conducted, A.D. 1810, some fattening
experiments, for the report of which the Board of
Agriculture awarded him a 5O/. prize. His "experi-
mental cattle" consisted of a couple of Shorthorns,
Herefords, Glamorgans, Galloways, and Longhorns,
and a solitary Sussex. The greatest profit was
8/. los. \d. on Shorthorn No. 2, which increased in
weight from QOst. to I i5st. ; and the second best was
6L i6s. 5</. on a Hereford, which began at 6ist. /Ibs.,
*txid made 28st. /Ibs. In the case of the former, the
food, in wnich 6st. 61bs. of oilcake was the only arti-
ficial stimulant, cost 7/. i?s. jd^ and in the latter
7/. 19^-. nd. ; and each of them was purchased at 43.
and sold at 6s. per stone.
A race of cattle closely akin to the " Hereford rent-
payers," but whose origin has never be^n quite un-
ravelled, flourished about this period in Cumberland,
and were familiarly known as " Lamplugh Hawkies."
In his prize essay on the Agriculture of West Cum-
berland, Mr. Dickinson thus describes their pecu-
liarities : " They were chiefly dark red or brown, and
some of them nearly black with white faces and legs,
and usually a stripe of white along the back. The
eyes were commonly margined by a narrow strip of
colour, as if bound about with coloured tape." Our
historian adds that they stood low on the leg, with
very large carcases, thick joints and hides, and
" abundance of neck leather and dewlap." As to their
horns, there is no telling what future naturalists might
9O Saddle and Sirloin.
have said from a bison or antediluvian point of view,
if Mr. Grey had not explained that the Lorton Long-
horns of that period could hardly enter a house until
they had acquired the dodge of twisting their heads
on one side, so as to arrive at the proper angle of
admission. The Longhorns cut a good figure in the
Schooze experiment, but they were not sufficiently
thrifty to hold their own against the Shorthorns and
Galloways, with which the county was gradually
overspread. The pure white Lysicks, so called from
the Hall of that name, disappeared about the same
time, and Mr. Dickinson recalls their fine spreading
horns, and that smart figure and carnage, which ren-
dered them so valuable for topping the dealer's lots.
In West Cumberland, Mr. Curwen, thanks to
General Simpson, was a Shorthorn pioneer, and the
Rev. John Benson who introduced Western Comet
and bred Prince Regent and Messrs. Barrow, Mil-
ham Hartley, and Thompson, did good service to the
cause when the Schooze herd was sold off. The
East owed not a little to the West, which sent them
" Studholme's Little Monarch," as he was fondly
termed, to spread the Regent blood, but, unlike Maxi-
mus by Magnum Bonum, he was not a show bull.
There was not such a thing as a pure Shorthorn in
the Vale of Eden when Charles Colling held his great
Ketton sale in 1810. The ardour of" Mr. Richardson
(great grandfather of the present Mr. Saunders of
Nunwick Hall) and Mr. Mat Atkinson was so in-
flamed by the news of the average, that they rode
off forthwith across Stainmoor to the new Durham
land of promise. They made no secret of their mis-
sion, and farmers flocked from all parts to see the two
white and two roan heifers, which were the upshot of
it. The pilgrims drew lots for choice, and Mr. Atkin-
son sent his pair to one of the late Earl Lonsdale's
bulls. His lordship from very early times had never
lacked a good bull at Lowther. The late Mr. Hudle-
Champion Bidls. 91
ston preserved a tradition (which he propounded at
two agricultural dinners), that the Blue Boar of
Brougham and the Yellow Boar of Lowther got loose,
and fought in a pen at Penrith, but the yellow
bulls of the East and the blue bulls of the West
preserved a far more peaceful rivalry. It was
a bad day for Cumberland breeders when the
Lowther herd was sold, and none have noted the
change so much as the jobbers and the show judges.
The former always said that they would give away
the point of his steers being at times rather thin
through the heart, if they could only have another
crop of Gainford hind-quarters. It was with this
massive red bull, who so especially distinguished him-
self as a heifer getter, and was ultimately sold back to
Mr. Crofton for 100 guineas, that the bull competition
sprung up, which once gave such zest to the country
showyards.
It virtually began with Mr. Buston, of Dolphinby,
who came to the county about 1829, and brought with
him Crofton's Cripple, and Young Rockingham. At
last a proposition was mooted and carried to have a five-
guinea sweepstakes at Penrith, and shortly before the
day it oozed out that Lord Lonsdale had bought a new
bull from Colonel Cradock, at Richmond race-time, for
100 guineas, which was to cut everything down. His
lordship had not drawn his bow at a venture ; and
when the great unknown descended from his van on
to the show ground, in the shape of a three-year-old
scion of Thorpe and old Cherry, the owners of his
opponents too truly foresaw that their chances were
quite out Mr. Buston had sent Sir William ; and
Priam and Wallace* represented the Denton and
Troutbeck herds ; but the fiat of the judges was fully
endorsed by the great majority of the spectators, and
Mr. Blamire declared in his speech that evening, that
he did not think there was a better bull than Gainford
in England. However, a different opinion obtained
92 Saddle and Sirloin.
next year, at the Carlisle show, where Priam, nothing
loth, confronted him again, and Mr. Studholme's
Maximus was declared the winner.
Mr. Sober Watkin was generally pretty handy in
the show yard, and Cumberland came boldly out, at
Mr. John Maynard of Harlsey's sale, with ninety-five
guineas for the yearling bull Chorister, by Velocipede.
This bull was let to Mr. Troutbeck, of Blencow, and
his calves as well as Wallace's heifers formed a strong
item in that gentleman's catalogue when in 1838 he
for the first time gave his conventional invitation to
his "friends and well-wishers at Blencow, at 12 o'clock,
where they may rely upon farmers' fare and a hearty
welcome." Old Dorothy Draggletail, by Marmion, was
purchased by Mr. Parkinson for 29 guineas, and re-
named Dorothy Gwynne. Mr. Curwen took Straw-
berry (19 guineas), which was descended from a cow
bought at Bishop Goodenough's sale. Thus two rare
keen judges picked out the cows which afterwards
made the herd, and founded two essentially " Cumber-
land tribes."*
We are not going to wander so far as Ravenglass
and the grave of Velocipede,t but we must not leave
the neighbourhood without a word for the late Cap-
tain Spencer, an equally good judge of a greyhound
and a Shorthorn. John Irvine, whose good-humoured
face and burly form in a green coat and a rough cap
are so familiar to every public courser, was his trainer.
When " the season," as he styled it, was over he might
be seen as busy as a bee, now with the greyhounds,
now with the silver pheasants or the fowls, now with
Leila, Lizzy, Sappho, Bloom, and the rest of the
Shorthorn herd, in fact putting a helping hand to any-
* The Blencow herd was sold off by Mr. Strafford, in 1859, at an
average of $61. I2s. 6d. for 41 head. Twenty-six Gwynnes averaged
66/. i6s. gd.
f See " Silk and Scarlet," pp. 223-26.
The late Captain Spencer s Greyhounds. 93
thing and everything, just as it came. The Captain
used to say that he never heard of him being
thoroughly out of temper, except when a brother-
trainer came to the kennel, and would insist that
Sunbeam's tail was not rightly set on. He might have
said what he liked about John himself, but the runner
up to King Lear for the Waterloo Cup was too che-
rished an object for such critiques. John despised jelly
in training, and did not care for flesh. Biscuits dipped
in beast's or sheep's head broth were his great specific,
but try as he might, he could not get up Sunbeam's
muscle for his third Waterloo Cup effort, and he sent
a highly-laconic telegram from Altcar announcing the
fact to the Captain, who was detained on a special
jury at Carlisle. Sunbeam was a delicate dog to train
and always a light feeder. He had a mild eye, and a
small and beautifully turned head, which might have
belonged to a bitch. An open country with drains
suited him, as he hated fencing, and would hardly face
a gate. His speed was good though not quite first-
class, and his work when he got in very level and beau-
tiful. John used to watch with such rapture for " the
white belly as he cam roond with his hare." The
Captain often gave an imitation of John when he ar-
rived from the Scottish National, leading Sunbeam
with one hand, and carrying the Douglas Cup wrapped
up in his handkerchief with the other. The presenta-
tion of "the mug" to him on the drive by John was
the first intimation he had of his victory. Seagull
was a totally different dog to Sunbeam, a great
rusher and very resolute, and requiring a very strong
hare to steady him down and let a judge see how good
he was. His temper was nasty to the last degree. He
wouldn't play and he wouldn't let the others play, and
he cut "the Seagull crest" all over them to that extent
that he had to be muzzled both in kenned and at ex-
ercise.
94
CHAPTER V.
" A very important toast has been placed in my hands. It is no less
a toast than the health of the Lord-Lieutenant and the Magistracy.
Well, now, the Lord- Lieutenant is a very celebrated agriculturist, and
so great is the interest he takes in agriculture, that he has carried his
agricultural improvements to the top of Shap Fells. I believe, gentle-
men, that is the ordinary speech to make about the Lord-Lieutenant on
these occasions (great laughter). As to the magistracy, ' the great un-
paid, ' they have always conducted themselves in a manner honourable,
consistent, satisfactory, and disinterested in every way, and we can have
no doubt that they will in future continue to do the same (hear hear).
That, gentlemen, is, I believe, the proper thing to say about the magis-
trates (cheers and great laughter). * * * Now as to draining and
the steam plough. There is another thing that wants draining, perhaps
more than the land. I think people's minds want draining (cheers and
laughter). Get the fences removed ; get the stones removed ; and above
all, get old prejudices removed, and steam cultivation will pay." Mr.
William Lawson, at the Penrith Farmers' Club Dinner, 1865.
Mr. Unthank Old Cherry and Captain Shaftoe Nunwick Hall
Among the Herd wicks Mr. Crozier's Hounds Wetheral Farlam
Hall and its Greyhounds The Brampton Coursing Meeting.
MR. UNTHANK is a familiar figure to the fre-
quenters of our shows, not exactly from the
white bulls of Chillingham to the pilchards of
Penzance, but at all events from the Tweed to the
Medway, and in the Isle of Man. He gave up his
Galloways about 1834 in favour of Venus, by Crof-
ton's Cripple, and old Cherry came on to the scene
at Netherscales about the beginning of 1843. She
was calved in the summer of '28 : but nature seemed
to have exhausted itself, and she was tied up to feed.
For years she had been a sort of heroine in Mr.
Unthank's mind, although he had never seen her ;
and when, by the merest chance, he heard of her
doom, he set out at once for Yorkshire, in quite a
spirit of knight-errantry, and bought her, with her
Mr. Unthank. 95
fifteen years on her head, for nearly twice as many
pounds. He had rather a weary time of it getting her
across the Westmoreland moors, and the venture did
not look very hopeful, as her first calf " Wonders"
was a very bad one. Captain Shaftoe* had arrived
at Netherscales the same year, and the cherished
object appeared at last on September 4th, 1845, in the
shape of his daughter, Queen of Trumps. The old
cow was so weak after calving, that when Mr. Unthank
left her to fetch a drink, she fell sideways on to her
calf, and nothing but the greatest care and incessant
* This bull's history was a less chequered one. Mr. Unthank had
become deeply smitten at Richmond with his short legs, rich quality,
and gay looks, when he was the first-prize yearling of the Yorkshire
Agricultural, against Belleville, Cramer, and Belted Will ; but there was
no little difficulty in persuading Mr. Lax to part with him for 200!.
The late Mr. Benn, always enthusiastic in the shorthorn cause, lent the
Lowther van, and as Mr. Unthank sold " The Captain" after a couple
of seasons for a loo/, advance to Mr. Loft, of Lincolnshire, his second
Richmond thoughts proved as good as his first. Mr. Parkinson, of
Leyfields, gave the last bid of 325 guineas for him at the Trusthorpe
sale, and won in the aged class with him at the Northampton Royal, the
same year that his half-brother, Baron Ravensworth, gained that honour
among the yearling bulls. After coming second to Mr. Bates's First
Duke of Oxford, at the Yorkshire show of that year, he changed hands
a fourth time, for 140 guineas, to Mr. Smith, of West Razen, who kept
him for five years, and then sold him to his brother, in whose hands he
died. He had a great propensity to fatten, and got his cows very good
and compact, but rather too small. Prince Imperial, a winner, and a
very neat little bull, with a good deal of his blood on both sides, was at
Netherscales on the day of our visit, fresh from beating the "swell
racing bull," Mr. Wetherell's Statesman, and a large field at Cold-
stream ; and Master Hopewell, who was quite a " silky laddie" in his
coat, and bred by Mr. Barnes, was in the stall which Booth's Benedict
and Freemason have both held in their day. Daphne Gwynne was also
there, and equal to upwards of 26 quarts a day in the height of the
grass ; but Valiant and Emily (the dam of the celebrated Emma) had
been sold to Colonel Towneley, Blue Bell to Mr. Douglas, and Em-
peror Napoleon to Sir Charles Tempest, and since then Mr. Unthank
has gone in steadily for Booth. On one occasion he all but " skinned
the lamb, " when the " Cumberland and Westmoreland" met at Appleby,
by taking nine animals, and getting eight firsts and one second ; and
the defeat of the prize heifer of this Society, and the Carlisle prize heifer
of the year as well, by Baroness Amelia, at Penrith, was his last achieve-
ment in the ring.
94
CHAPTER V.
" A very important toast has been placed in my hands. It is no less
a toast than the health of the Lord-Lieutenant and the Magistracy.
Well, now, the Lord-Lieutenant is a very celebrated agriculturist, and
so great is the interest he takes in agriculture, that he has carried his
agricultural improvements to the top of Shap Fells. I believe, gentle-
men, that is the ordinary speech to make about the Lord- Lieutenant on
these occasions (great laughter). As to the magistracy, ' the great un-
paid,' they have always conducted themselves in a manner honourable,
consistent, satisfactory, and disinterested in every way, and we can have
no doubt that they will in future continue to do the same (hear hear).
That, gentlemen, is, I believe, the proper thing to say about the magis-
trates (cheers and great laughter). * * * Now as to draining and
the steam plough. There is another thing that wants draining, perhaps
more than the land. I think people's minds want draining (cheers and
laughter). Get the fences removed ; get the stones removed ; and above
all, get old prejudices removed, and steam cultivation will pay." Mr.
William Laivson, at the Penrith Farmers' Club Dinner, 1865.
Mr. Unthank Old Cherry and Captain Shaftoe Nunwick Hall
Among the Herdwicks Mr. Crozier's Hounds Wetheral Farlam
Hall and its Greyhounds The Brampton Coursing Meeting.
MR. UNTHANK is a familiar figure to the fre-
quenters of our shows, not exactly from the
white bulls of Chillingham to the pilchards of
Penzance, but at all events from the Tweed to the
Medway, and in the Isle of Man. He gave up his
Galloways about 1834 in favour of Venus, by Crof-
ton's Cripple, and old Cherry came on to the scene
at Netherscales about the beginning of 1843. She
was calved in the summer of '28 : but nature seemed
to have exhausted itself, and she was tied up to feed.
For years she had been a sort of heroine in Mr.
Unthank's mind, although he had never seen her ;
and when, by the merest chance, he heard of her
doom, he set out at once for Yorkshire, in quite a
spirit of knight-errantry, and bought her, with her
Mr. Unthank. 95
fifteen years on her head, for nearly twice as many
pounds. He had rather a weary time of it getting her
across the Westmoreland moors, and the venture did
not look very hopeful, as her first calf " Wonders"
was a very bad one. Captain Shaftoe* had arrived
at Netherscales the same year, and the cherished
object appeared at last on September 4th, 1845, in the
shape of his daughter, Queen of Trumps. The old
cow was so weak after calving, that when Mr. Unthank
left her to fetch a drink, she fell sideways on to her
calf, and nothing but the greatest care and incessant
* This bull's history was a less chequered one. Mr. Unthank had
become deeply smitten at Richmond with his short legs, rich quality,
and gay looks, when he was the first-prize yearling of the Yorkshire
Agricultural, against Belleville, Cramer, and Belted Will ; but there was
no little difficulty in persuading Mr. Lax to part with him for 2oo/.
The late Mr. Benn, always enthusiastic in the shorthorn cause, lent the
Lowther van, and as Mr. Unthank sold " The Captain" after a couple
of seasons for a zoo/, advance to Mr. Loft, of Lincolnshire, his second
Richmond thoughts proved as good as his first. Mr. Parkinson, of
Leyfields, gave the last bid of 325 guineas for him at the Trusthorpe
sale, and won in the aged class with him at the Northampton Royal, the
same year that his half-brother, Baron Ravensworth, gained that honour
among the yearling bulls. After coming second to Mr. Bates's First
Duke of Oxford, at the Yorkshire show of that year, he changed hands
a fourth time, for 140 guineas, to Mr. Smith, of West Razen, who kept
him for five years, and then sold him to his brother, in whose hands he
died. He had a great propensity to fatten, and got his cows very good
and compact, but rather too small. Prince Imperial, a winner, and a
very neat little bull, with a good deal of his blood on both sides, was at
Netherscales on the day of our visit, fresh from beating the "swell
racing bull," Mr. WetherelPs Statesman, and a large field at Cold-
stream ; and Master Hopewell, who was quite a "silky laddie" in his
coat, and bred by Mr. Barnes, was in the stall which Booth's Benedict
and Freemason have both held in their day. Daphne Gwynne was also
there, and equal to upwards of 26 quarts a day in the height of the
grass ; but Valiant and Emily (the dam of the celebrated Emma) had
been sold to Colonel Towneley, Blue Bell to Mr. Douglas, and Em-
peror Napoleon to Sir Charles Tempest, and since then Mr. Unthank
has gone in steadily for Booth. On one occasion he all but " skinned
the lamb, " when the " Cumberland and Westmoreland" met at Appleby,
by taking nine animals, and getting eight firsts and one second ; and
the defeat of the prize heifer of this Society, and the Carlisle prize heifer
of the year as well, by Baroness Amelia, at Penrith, was his last achieve-
ment in the ring.
98 Saddle and Sirloin.
the hills was won at last, and the holly berries near
Buttermere Church (which has been built afresh, and
has been duly cut and scribbled upon by tourists)
foretold Christmas Eve. Hollies also formed quite a
dark emerald parapet to a hand-bridge, as we followed
the side of the lake. The Scotch firs were mirrored
in its waters ; and as the bitter wind went through
them, and mingled its sigh with the roar of the water-
falls, it seemed as if we had come to the shore of a
dreary, unknown sea, which breaks eternally on the
shingle, and never ebbs or flows. There was a snug
home amid trees and shrubs, with some well-to-do
wethers in its meadow, and then, again, there was
nothing but dark waters and a leaden lack-lustre sky,
while the comment of a native, " We've no corn only
a few acres for taties" made things seem drearier still.
Mr. Nelson lives at Gatesgarth, at the head of the
lake. Knights of the Garter sit with their banners
over their stalls, and this celebrated breeder of Herd-
wicks is somewhat in the Windsor-Chapel fashion.
Three beams and the cornices of his best parlour are
covered with the prize-cards and rosettes of victories,
which he has won in the show-yards during six-and-
twenty years. There are some three hundred in all
with the blue and orange cards of the Newcastle
Royal, signed by " Brandreth Gibbs" The. rest have
been won principally at Cockermouth, Keswick, and
Whitehaven, and " I have had my share," as he
modestly says, " at Fell Dales." Red rosettes pre-
dominate, mingled with magenta ; Whitehaven sports
" true blue ;" and Keswick is faithful to the tricolour.
There is such a profusion of them, that " a year or
two have got missed, and thrown into cupboards
somewhere." The head of the departed tup, Thou-
sand-a-Year, was away at the curer's, and hence there
was nothing in the shape of still life, save that of a
frosty-nosed gimmer.
Cumberland and Westmoreland, and a very small
Among the Herdwicks. 99
portion of Lancashire, may be said to monopolise the
Herdwicks ; and Eskdale, Wasdale, Buttermere,
Ennerdale, and Loweswater meet in peaceful rivalry
at the Fell Dales Association. Shap and Ulverston
knew them well.
" Secure they graze,
Around the stones of Dunmail-raise,"
where the last king of Rocky Cumberland set up his
mountain throne ; and they wander over the slopes of
Skiddaw and Saddleback, and the south-west side of
Cross Fell. The scattered and primitive "statesmen"
who hold the slopes of Helvellyn and Loughrig, or
till the small farms near Grasmere and Langdale
Pike, consider them as worthy rivals to the Lonks,
and steadily disdain a cross. Once upon a time there
was such a difference between the sheep bred "Above
and Below Derwent," that they had separate classes
on the Fell Dales day. Gradually, however, the Above
Derwent men, by taking pains and not sparing their
hay in winter, went up to their rivals' heads, and in
the county tongue they " have now got to be maister"
There are occasionally as many as forty Fell Dales
exhibitors, and some of the largest will bring a
hundred sheep with them, " of one mark or another"
and show them for prizes or sweepstakes.
Of their origin we have no very clear account, but
there is a local belief that the progenitors of the race
escaped from a Spanish ship, which was wrecked
near Morecambe Bay. At all events they picked
their country well, and have established their name
so surely from a perfectly wonderful endurance of
short commons, that some of the flocks numbered
between seven and nine hundred ewes. Blackfaces
have been tried, but the ewes more especially failed,
in consequence of the climate and the scanty nature
of the grass ; and there is the same tale to tell of
the Cheviots. In fact, it has been found impossible
to farm against the Herdwicks, which have been im-
H 2
TOO Saddle and Sirloin.
proved in some hands into " a thick, foody sheep,"
with points which a few years ago might have been
looked for in vain.
Each fell preserves the same ear-mark for genera-
tions, and the farmer takes to the flock with his farm,
and leaves it at a fresh valuation (which very much
depends upon whether he has given them hay or not)
to his successor. All the marks are registered in a
quarto Shepherds' Guide for Cumberland, Westmore-
land, and Lonsdale North, and the flockmasters meet
annually at Kirkstone Top for the exchange of the
sheep which have gone astray during the course of the
year. The star on the face or the far side, as at Coat-
how, is among its symbols ; and one which " is just a
raven clapped on near side," typifies
" Ravencrag black as the storm."
Red pops on the crown and tail head have their con-
ventional significance, and so have strokes over the
fillets ; while, except in the case of Ravencrag, the
ears are generally cut or keybitted or under-keybitted,
or cropped, till very little of the original is left. The
mark on the Gatesgarth side is both ears cropped and
a pop on the tail head. " Twinters " or shearlings
have a red pop on the head, and wethers a black pop
in all flocks. Sometimes the tails or the top of the
head are all red, or the ear will be " square forked " or
cut at three.
So marked, they wander away into " the land of
mist and snow " over the fells (where there is often
nothing but " the water deal" to show the boundaries
of the different farms), and live there half the year.*
* " The flocks are sometimes the property of the landlord. On entry
on to the farm, or on the 5th of April, "viewers" on each side, usually
neighbouring farmers well up to the work, are appointed who report on
the various numbers and classes, such as rams, ewes, wethers, and hoggs,
specifying the proportions, with the value of each per head. The tenant
gives bond for the value, and is to deliver similar numbers of like value
A mong the Herdwicks. i o i
Still they do not stray very far from their own haunts,
and by way of saving trouble and enabling the ewes
to make for the tup, he is generally ruddled. The
loss on such perilous rambles is by no means slight, |
and fifty out of six hundred ewes is not thought a
very large percentage. Some are clumsy, or venture
in a hard time too far on to the rock edge for a few
fresh " pickles," and a sudden blast clicks them off.
The farmer can watch them tumbling more than half
a mile from the top of Honister Crag, and we have
seen three ewes lying dead at its foot together. When
they survive such perils they have been known to live
to eighteen and even beyond. It is in their ability to
tide through a Siberian winter that the real "blue
blood" of the Herdwick comes out. Sometimes they
are so snowed up on the hill side that it is impossible
to get at them, and they can do little more than scratch
and condition, or make good any deficiency at the end of his tenancy.
In other cases the sheep-stock belongs to the tenant, who, nevertheless,
takes and leaves them at a valuation, as if once the ' heaf be lost it is
difficult to recover. The right of common of pasture is appurtenant to
the ancient tenement, and is described in letting a farm as unlimited.
* * * Those having most land adjoining or near the fell, and living
convenient to it, will take more than their proper share, so long as
human nature remains as it is, and always has been, while those further
off must be content with less or nothing. The keen competition amongst
the stock-owners and shepherds now and then leads to sheep-hounding,
worrying, assault and battery, and work for the lawyers. Among the
old hands, Sunday is often the favourite day for a quiet dogging of the
neighbours' sheep off the best ground. The sheep have" wit enough from
experience to move off sharply on hearing the whistle of the hostile
shepherd, without waiting for his dog. As a general rule, each flock
knows and keeps its own 'heaf,' or particular part of the common,
usually known by pretty well-defined boundaries, such as a 'skye,'
prominent rock, or a watershed, but this is a mere matter of convenience
only ; there is no exclusive privilege, the whole common is open, and
sheep can be turned on any part so long as there is no ' dogging' or
driving off others. The Herdwicks in particular possess a strong natural
instinct in keeping to the heaf where they are yeaned, and have been
known to return thereto from very long distances, crossing rivers and
other obstacles, sometimes with the lamb following." Crayston
Webster's Prize Essay on "The Farming of Westmoreland," R. A.
Society's Journal, vol. iv. pp. 13-14, second series.
IO2 Saddle and Sir loin.
for a bit of dead bracken. In a storm they are excel-
lent generals, forming themselves into solid squares on
the most exposed part of the hill until it sweeps past,
and then trying to trample down the snow by a com-
bined movement.*
If the wethers are left till they are four or five years
old with only mountain fare, they will average about
I2lbs. a quarter and the ewes from 81bs. to lolbs.
" The better end " of the former are generally sold out
at from 25 s. to 30^., whereas a few years since, I/, was
quite a " rest-and-be-thankful " price. The fleeces
have also moved with the times, and are no longer
such a curious compound of coarse grey hair and
* From the end of July till November is the most cheery time for the
flock-master. The nip of winter begins about Martinmas, and it. is
always the first, and often the middle of June, before the grass is ready.
Hence it is no wonder that Herdwick maturity is a thing of slow growth.
On the higher fells the ewes have no lambs until they are three years old,
or "showing" (to use the Fell Dales term) "more than four broad teeth."
They are generally drawn by hundreds, according to their fleece or bone,
so as to suit each tup, and are put to as late as possible, so as not to
lamb much before May-day, when they are brought off the fell and sent
back again with their lambs at the end of three weeks. Except at
lambing and tupping times, wethers and ewes range together ; and the
gimmers in the intakes are carefully "clothed up." If 560 lambs can
be got from 600 ewes it is a great matter of congratulation. The lambs
suck until October 4th, and are then taken to the lower ground, and
after receiving their " hogg" title with the butter and tar, they are sent
away to milder climates for the winter Arable farmers will take them
in at 3-r. 6d. per head up till March 25th, but as it is' such an especial point
to place them out near the sea, prices will run up to five or six shillings.
They are stationed all along the coast from St. Bees' rocks, southwards
to Ulverston, but still many flock-masters only send their "tops" and
"tails," and let the " middles" take their chance on the intakes. The
sickness from which the hoggs suffer, and for which "a change to the
salt water" seems the only cure, is like blackwater in calves, and of all
durations from half an hour to two days.
The choice of the cast ewes does not depend so much on age as on
selection and the wants of the customer, and they will vary from 2or. to
23.?., but a great many are sold for 17^. or iSs. For a picked lot of
twenty in a dear time as much as 30^. has been got. Many of them go
off into the lower enclosed commons about Lorton, Wythop, Embleton,
c., which have been well limed and drained ; and the lambs, of which
they have sometimes three crops by a Leicester, will make their i61bs.
Among the Herdwicks. 103
kemp. If there are a few grey hairs now " it sars the
buyers to talk about," which is something gained.
They vary very much, according to the severity of the
winter, from I Jibs, upwards ; and Mr. Nelson's Royal
Newcastle prize wool averaged 5 Jibs, unwashed from
five-year-old wethers. The fleece, which is coarse and
open, is divided into two or three qualities, as the
hecklings and breechings cannot be used with the rest.
Kendal, where monthly sales by auction have been
established, is the great mart for it, and i8s. gd. per
stone is thought a good price. Much of it is used
for coarse woollens and rugs, and it often returns
to its native dales in the shape of full cloth suits
or I7lbs. a quarter as well-fed shearlings. "What will they say at
Cockermouth?" is a question which has long since lost its political
meaning, but still it is never out of the dalesman's head, as that little
town is their auction mart, both for fat and store sheep, each autumn.
The face and legs of the breed are speckled, or rather grey mottled,
and become greyer and whiter with age. If the face is grey, it should
shade off to white towards the nose to suit the keen Fell Dales critic.
Tups have generally two or three curls to their horns, and the absence
of horn in a female is not a desirable sign. The horns should be white
and " slape," not too small or too close, and rising well out of the back
of the head. A light grey or ' ' hoar frost nose" betokens constitution,
and the nostrils should be wide and strong, and affixed to a long and
bold head. The ears should be white and sharp, and stand well up, as
any tendency to droop betokens a want of spirit to grapple with hill life.
A good eye, a broad forehead with a tuft on it, and a rustiness about the
poll, are all solid requirements, as well as wool up to the ears, and
good " heckling," which in some tups looks like a lion's mane. It is
also one of the flock-master's chief aims to get them aS wide as possible
between the fore-legs, and with a broad breast placed well forward, as
the forequarter is chiefly relied upon both for constitution and the scales.
The knees should also be strong, and " the bone thin to the fetlock,
and then a big white foot to follow." Despite the difficult ground
which they have to traverse, the best breeders try to get them well filled
in behind the shoulders, and round in the rib, and the less false rib they
have the greater their power of bearing hunger. There is a tribe
amongst them which has fourteen ribs, and these are preferred whenever
they can be got. They should also be straight on the hind-leg and
well muttoned down to "the camerals" or hocks, while the tail should be
thick at the root, and just long enough so as never to want cutting.
These are the show points, but the majority of flocks fall very far short
of them. Royal Agricultural Society's Prize Essay (H. H. D.). 1866.
104 Saddle and Sirloin.
for the winter. Clipping day in July is the dales-
man's only festival of the year; and the flockmasters
all make a point of coming to help each other. There
is generally a good deal of arguing as to which has
the best tup, but " it is all agreeably settled over a
glass and a pipe." They also discuss the prowess of
" the Patterdale dogs," nine couple of foxhounds and
four terriers (which Mr. Marshall sends over for a fort-
night at intervals to keep down the foxes), and they
pass the rest of the time with " cheerful bits of sangs,"
and in drinking " Confusion to the Scab " and " Pack
Sheets and Ready Money," until the barrel of nut-
brown ale is ready for turning at last.
Mr. Nelson's father was originally shepherd to Mr.
Marshall, and he and his son had a sheep farm at
Loweswater Church Stile. The son has occupied
Gatesgarth for some twenty years, and holds his fell
under Lord Leconfield and Mr. Marshall. He and
his three sons work the flock, and use dogs, mostly
black, and descended from an old bitch, which had
1 02 pups in her time. She was of " old Geordie Nel-
son's breed," and quite a public character on a Fell
Dales day. " Bright " and " Blink," her lineal descen-
dants, are in full force, now with the " Up Bank ! "
and " Down Bank ! " business, for which prizes are
given annually at Kirby Stephen. Mr. Nelson lets
about 100 tups at all prices, from 2 guineas to 5 guineas,
and the selling tariff rages as high as 12 guineas. For
very noted tups more can be got, and Thousand-a-
Year brought $o/. His g.g.g g.d. won at Ennerdale in
1845, an d his g.g.g.d. lived till she was eighteen, and
then died from an accident. This monarch of the
lakes (who got his lambs rather dark-necked) is brother
to Prince Talleyrand, and their own sister is dam of
" Joe, the Gatesgarth Champion." Joe " could always
bang the rest," save once, when he was second (a posi-
tion which his uncle, Prince Talleyrand, held five
times over to him) ; but " he was not in fettle," and
"Lai Jack? 105
could not go to the Newcastle Royal. Mr. Allan
Pearson's " Blue Joe " is by Joe, and the blood is so
diffused through the dales, that Mr. Nelson is " almost
beat to get a tup not akin to him." The Joe ewes
have been great winners in his hands, and it is upon
them rather than tups that he depends on show-days.*
Old Talleyrand, with his somewhat coarse coat, and
mane like a lion, came out of his pasture to greet us.
So did General, who had more of the Exmoor style
about him, and a very pretty lot of prize ewes.
Pure-bred shorthorns have found their way to this
quiet lake-head. Cent.-per-Cent., by Booth's Wel-
come Guest, came, as his smart name would almost
denote, from Mr. Jefferson. St. George was there
from Nunwick Hall, and the herd were " as far bred
as a deal of folks," which is true enough. They have
won at Keswick and Cockermouth, and walk the
twelve miles to victory in the good old fashion. De-
licate as they may be deemed, there were turkeys in
the farmyard, and there, too, was " Lai Jack," from
Borrowdale, one of the most affectionate of foxes.
He is generally kept on porridge to prevent any
offensive smell ; but he seemed on that day to have
had a slight dividend from the Christmas black-
pudding preliminaries. The lake foxes are a great
nuisance, and Mount Beale in Burton's Combe is per-
* Mr. Nelson showed but did not win at the Carlisle Royal, where
Mr. Robinson, of Orton, swept the board. Among the other great
breeders and showers are Mr. George Irving, of Wythop Hall (the
owner of Sportsman, of Mr. Allan Pearson of Lorton's breed) ; Mr. T.
Pearson, of Ennerdale ; Mr. George Brown, of Troutbeck, Ambleside ;
Mr. William Robson and Mr. Robert Briggs, of Wasdale Head
("master of them all once"); Mr. Allan Pearson; Mr. C. Rawson,
of Nether Wasdale ; the Ritsons of Caldbeck ; Mr. John Tyson, of
Gillerthwaite, Ennerdale ; Mr. John Tyson, of Torr House, Ennerdale ;
Mr. Joseph Roger, of Threlkeld, Eskdale ; Mr. Ralph Tyson and Mr.
John Birkett, of Seathwaite, Borrowdale ; Mr. John Clarke, of Butter-
mere ; and Mr. John Sanderson, of Thornthwaite, near Keswick, &c.
Of these, Mr. John Tyson will lamb from 800 to 900 ewes, Mr. Nelson
about 600, and the rest from 500 to 400.
1 06 Saddle and Sirloin.
fectly honeycombed with earths. Two of Mr. Nelson's
sons were off to blast a burn at Burnscarth, to try and
recover a terrier which had been lost to sight for five
days after a fox. Its two companions had gradually
backed out of the earth, and just as we were talking
of " Dandy," he limped up, a perfect skeleton, and very
sore from the in-fighting. A fell fox, which Mr.
Jackson Gilbanks describes as being " fierce as a tiger,
and long as a hay-band, and with an amiable cast of
features very like the Chancellor of the Exchequer,"
is very bad to kill " top o' t' ground," and still worse
when he gets into a burn. Not long since a single
foxhound ran one till both could hardly trot, down
to Gatesgarth, and into the lake, where, greatly to the
foxhound's relief, " Bright" gave the finishing throat-
nip.
Old John Peel was for many years the hunting hero
of Cumberland ; and Cumbrians, who never met
before, have grasped each other's hands, and joyfully
claimed county kindred in the Indian bungalow or the
log-hut of the backwoods, when one of them being
called on for a song, struck up
" D'ye ken John Peel with his coat so grey?"
He seems to have come into this world only to send
foxes out of it, and liked plenty of elbow-room for his
sport. Briton was a very favourite hound ; and when
old John died/* and his pack was broken up, young
John sent the little black-and-tan to Mr. Crozier, of
the Riddings, near Keswick. This gentleman hunted
the Blencathra pack while old John was still in the
flesh, and the hounds joined drags two or three times
on the mountains. Saddleback, which is just behind
his home, and " the dark brow of the lofty Helvellyn,"
* " D'ye ken John Peel," &c., is quite the Cumberland anthem, and
has been very admirably set to music by Mr. Metcalfe, Chiswick Street,
Carlisle,
Mr. Crazier s Hounds. 107
which fills up the distance as you look from his
snuggery window, and flanks the vale of St. John, are,
along with Skiddaw, his three great hunting grounds.
Still, he is at times all over the lake country, and goes
right away into Lancashire. A few years since, when
he had been master for more than a quarter of a
century, the Cumberland and Westmoreland men
gave him a very handsome testimonial. It was a silver
tureen, with a mounted huntsman and hounds on the
cover, and round the stem some hounds among the
fern running into a fox and a hare. The handle of
the punch-ladle for punch, not hare-soup, was its
more peculiar destiny was the brush of a Skiddaw
fox. Poor little Isaac, the huntsman, was not for-
gotten ; and he received ten guineas and a " new rig
out" of scarlet and green. Two old men, Joshua
Fearon and John Wilkinson, each aged 78, who had
been, as the Scottish shepherds phrase it, " at a deal
of banes-breaking" (i.e., breaking-up a fox) ever since
childhood, attended the presentation ; but the senior
was John Hodgson, a Nimrod of 84, from near the
" ruined towers of Threlkeld Hall," in whose parish
hounds have been now kept for more than one hundred
years consecutively.
Mr. Crozier supports the village custom well, and
has quite the goodwill of the lake district. He says
that, whether he is benighted or hungry, or feels weak
with fatigue on the mountains, he never lacks a wel-
come from farmer or cottager. The farmers' wives
and daughters " walk" the puppies, while the fathers
and brothers hunt with him ; and Wordsworth tells
of the love of the lakers for a hunt. As in Devon-
shire
" What cared they
For shepherding or tillage ?
To nobler sports did Simon rouse
The sleepers of the village."
The Blencathra pack has been in Mr. Crozier's
1 08 Saddle and Sirloin.
hands for eight-and-twenty years, and he brings up
four or five couple annually. He drafts about two
couple each season, and since the railway ran so near
him, he loses two couple on an average. Ten couple
form his regular pack. Soon after he commenced
hunting, he had a hound named Butler, which is still
spoken of as the crack of the district, for carrying a
cold scent down a road. Many of the hounds are
kept by the neighbouring farmers ; and when Mr.
Crozier went into his yard, and wound his horn for
the hunt, the unfailing Butler was the first to come
cantering up, Threlkeld way, waving his stern with
delight at the prospect of another day's fun on the fell,
dasher, Blueman, Briton, Ruffler, Tilter, and Brewer
were all good hounds : the last-named would gene-
rally lead in his day ; and white Rally, Ruby, Fairy,
Young Fairy, and Cruel supported the honour of their
sex.
The pack meet between eight and nine o'clock in
the winter ; but from February to May, which is the
regular fell season, they cast off at daylight or soon
after. Up to Christmas they hunt hares in the vales ;
but if they do strike the line of a fox, they never
refuse to give him a run for his life. Foxes are often
found on Carrock, The Dodd, Castlerigg Fell, Wallow
Crag near Derwent Lake, the Armboth Moor, and
Naddle Rocks, Barfe, as well as Braithwaite and the
Newland Fells, and in Brundholme Wood occasionally.
The best runs and the largest number of kills are
on Skiddaw. Carrock is a great hunting ground ;
but its foxes are very hard to kill, as there are so
many strong bields or rock earths. Of late years
Castlerigg and Wallow Crag have been surer finds
than of yore. The foxes are generally dug out when
it is practicable, as the farmers have been made
anxious about their lambs ; but there are many places
whence they cannot be dislodged, unless the terriers
are up before they have had time to get their wind
Mr. Crosier s /founds. 109
again. On an average, ten brace are killed in the
season. The field varies from half-a-dozen to two
score of pedestrians, according to the population of
the district. Horsemen seldom venture, as the bogs
and fells would be too much for them. Twelve years
ago these hounds ran a fox from Skiddaw, and next
morning they were discovered asleep near Coniston
Crag. He was found about two P.M., and after two
or three rings he went away by Millbeck and Apple-
thwaite, past Crosthwaite Church and Portinscale, to
Sir John Woodford's cover, from which he stole along
Catbells, through all the rocky ground in Borrowdale,
then away to Black Hill in Ulpha, where he went to
earth about midnight. Some of the shepherds in the
Vale heard the pack marking him at the earth, but
before they got there he had bolted towards Brough-
ton-in-Furness. From point to point, the run was
thirty-five miles, and it would be quite safe to add
twelve or fifteen more for the rings and the up-hill and
down-dale journeys. It was through the most rugged
part of the lake district, and no one ever knew whether
the fox, like Sir Roger de Coverley, " made a good
end of it" in the huntsman's sense of the word. Runs
of from three to four hours are not unfrequent, and as
the fox, with the open fells before him, is very loth to
leave the one on which he was bred, he runs in circles
like a hare. They are of all sorts and sizes, and nearly
all shades of colour, and in pretty settled' weather the
scent is as good, if not better, on the mountains than
anywhere else. Tongue is very desirable, and Mr.
Crozier's strain of harrier blood enables him to keep
his basses and tenors in perfection.
The Saddleback, or more properly the Blencathra
range, has no cover for a fox except the rocks, a little
ling, and a few juniper bushes among the heather.
The base of Skiddaw, including the Dodd and the
Barfe, is best covered with larch and whins. The
Castlerigg, Borrowdale, and Armboth Fells have
i to Saddle and Sirloin.
good covers of oak and hazel ;* but the fox prefers
keeping to the rocks rather than the woods, and they
generally drag up to him rather than chase him.
Calm and rather damp weather suits scent best on the
high fells, and it will often hold on the hills when it
will not do so in the valleys, and vice versa; but scent
is such a delicate and difficult problem, that many
think that it varies very much with the bodily health
of the game.
Joshua Fearon was the old huntsman, and the one
under whom Mr. Crozier graduated, and he still lives
hearty and well at eighty. He had a capital voice
and good hound language, and knew every move of
his game, from a fox to a water-rat Isaac Todhunter,
or " Lai Isaac," succeeded him, and hunted the pack
for just a quarter of a century. He had " a good
deal of Josh's science off," and was always clad in a
Lincoln green coat, scarlet waistcoat, and corduroy
breeches. The poor little fellow died after a few
days' illness of bronchitis in November, and John
Porter reigns in his stead. Besides Mr. Marshall's, the
Mell Break, the Cockermouth beagles, and the Bow-
ness, and Mr. J. Hartley of Moresby's harriers also
hunt the lake district. Trail hunts are hardly so much
practised as they were. Twenty or thirty years ago,
the prizes ranged from 5^. and a pair of couples to 5/.
The distance was from five to twelve miles, and Threl-
keld Hall Rattler and Stark's Towler, Parker's Rattler
and Wilson's Gambler (both Caldbeck dogs), Gilker-
son's of Carlisle and Roger's of Preston, were the
leading winners.
But we have dwelt, perhaps, too long on Cumber-
land and its associations, and we must pass on to
another part of the border land. The brown garron
* "As far as I am able to judge, larches and Scotch firs grow stunted
at an elevation of 1200 to 1500 feet, and hazel, dwarf oak whins, and
other native underwood at one of 1000 to 1200 feet." J. C.
Wetheral.
in
which did us such good service from The Orkneys to
Kensington, is sold, and cropping the Midland pas-
tures. There was no need for her in a land of bound-
less railways ; the pad was hung up with the macin-
tosh as a trophy to the God of Storms ; and valise in
hand we book at Wetheral for our English tour.
The Carlisle and Newcastle is a patent safety line,
more than thirty years old and equal to sixty miles in
three hours with punctuality and despatch. Express
trains it considers to be a delusion and a snare, and
every train, bar one, stops at every station. When it
was opened in state, the Mayors of Newcastle and
Carlisle returned to the Carlisle banquet in a truck,
with sword, mace, and serjeant, protected only from
the pour-down by a tarpaulin. Its up and down trains
ran for years on the reverse side to every railway in
existence. By way of compensation to the pockets of
the coachmen and guards, which it originally threw
out of work, it engaged them in the latter capacity,
and, by way of consoling them, it enacted that they
should eschew the conventional green, and stick to
white hats and scarlet coats. A neighbouring railway
elected a policeman with a wooden leg ; but our old
friend was not to be outdone, as it had, years before,
selected a man with no legs as station-master, and
when the train arrived he rode about the Blaydon
platform on a donkey collecting the tickets.
It is "the leafy month of June" and Corby's woods
look down in all their freshness on the Eden below,
and seem to fling their shadow over the church, be-
neath whose " marble hearse," which the genius of Nol-
lekens called into being, their rare old master, Henry
Howard, lies buried. Three or four " perpetual cu-
rates" have stood in that Wetheral pulpit since the
days of Mr. Stanger, that lean and learned sixth
wrangler, whom no bishop could tame. Bluff Good-
enough or courtly Percy was all one to him ; and if
the. latter asked him by circular for a return of the
1 1 2 Saddle and Sirloin.
value of his preferment, he only responded by a full
list from the Churchman! s Guide of " the sinecures
held by your lordship." Morning service and sermon
seemed with him a matter of barely an hour and ten
minutes, and an egg and a soda-powder formed his
Sabbath midday portion. His conversation was not
so homoeopathic, but the pace was the same. He
was as staunch to his principles as his church brethren,
Mr. Stanley and Mr. Ramshay, and on an election
morning the Liberals knew without canvassing that he
would arrive in his chaise at the Carlisle booth and
poll for them in the first ten minutes. John Hodgson,
the clerk, was another equally steadfast pillar of the
Church, and right proud of his office and his pitch-
pipe. His solemn shakes of the head, as he led the
responses and the choir, were most telling ; and he
took care that there should be no mistake as to his
professional status when he wrote to the railway
directors for a gate-keeper's place, and assured them
that " / and my stout sons can not only keep but carry
the gates ; yea even the gates of Gaza?
A strong taste for letter writing once cost him a
world of anxiety. He was one of the parties to a
chancery suit, and nothing would serve him, but he
must drop a line to Lord Lyndhurst who was then on
the Woolsack. No notice was taken of it, but for
weeks, one neighbour or another " learned in the law"
kept suggesting that he had been guilty of contempt
of court, a phrase of dreadful import which " hung
about me like a cold." A knot of farmers were wont
to make a point of taking counsel with him on the
subject among the tombstones before morning service,
and as they invariably summed-up with " John, your
life's forfeit" his desk-devotions for several sabbaths
were of rather a wandering class, and he hardly dared
to meet a postman on the week days. But we must
quit these parish elders.
Our first halt was at the Milton Station, and we
Far lam Church. 113
walked down the line to Kirkhouse, a great coal-mine
depot, which old George Stephenson knew well, when
he was merely an assistant engineer. He presented
the late Mr. Thompson, sen., with his first engine,
" The Rocket," and it stood there for many years,
and was then sent to the Kensington Museum.
Talkin Tarn, where Lord Wensleydale was wont to
admire the wrestling " chips" of Dick Wright, is not
half a league away, and boating men love to tell how
Bob Chambers came to its regatta as a stripling.
Alas ! a "weed" sown by wind or birds, or, as some
say, by a careless pleasure-seeker, has overgrown the
lake, and spoiled the fine reaches where the " Had-
away Bob !" was so thrilling. At all events, we may
say with Wordsworth
" The wind had better been asleep,
The bird caught in a snare."
Farlam Church had fallen since we were last there,
two dozen years ago, and a new one is built on the
knoll above the old graveyard. It was on this " fair
hill-side" that Lord Carlisle laid the first stone in one of
those summer periods of political leisure, which he spent
among his schools and with his neighbours, and ever
about his Master's business in and around his beloved
Border tower of Naworth. Now that he is gone, many
remember fondly how he alluded on that day to his
departure for the last scene of his labours in Ireland,
and how he asked them sometimes to " Follow me
in thought down that silver strip of the Solway you
may see from this hill, across the broad waters to the
shores beyond, and then remember me in the prayers
that you shall put up within the walls now to rise here,
that I as well as you may be strengthened and guided
for all the work to which our God may call us."
Behind the church is the mile gallop over which the
late Mr. G. A. Thompson's dogs used to take their
breathings. The ground has plenty of undulation in
I
H4 Saddle and Sirloin.
it, and they finished on the sheep-hills behind. On
the other side of the road, west of the church, is the
" Waterloo Ground," with abundance of ditches ; but
the trials have generally come off at Brougham. Mr.
Thompson lived about half a mile from Kirkhouse, at
Farlam Hall, whose beautiful garden, with its rich
variations of ground and flower-plots, and its brook,
where the water-cress grows, might well divide his
allegiance with the long-tails. The latter taste was
in-bred, as his father always loved a brace of grey-
hounds, and won the first Brampton Cup in 1830 with
Burke. Mr. Thompson began in 1846 with a borrowed
dog, Clarke's Tindal, at Lytham. He was immensely
fast, and on this occasion he had no less than eight
undecided courses, and ran up after all. In due time
Mr. Thompson began to fight for his own hand, and
bred a Brampton Cup winner, Titmouse, by John
James Henderson's Nutman, from Merrybird (sister
to Emigration). She was a wonderfully clever SQlb.
brindle, rather long on the leg, and like Lobelia for
lightness "no substance below, and all muscle on
the back." Plough-land was her forte, and she ran
remarkably well in Scotland, where she divided with
Jacobite.
It was the running of Mariner when a puppy at the
Caledonian meeting, when he was put out in his first
course, that decided Mr. Thompson .to send Titmouse
to him ; but all of the litter save Truth died. Truth
(481bs.) was very great over the Ashdown hills ; but
she lost her third course in the Waterloo Cup, where
the Cumberland men backed her for a hatful of
money. Poor John Gill looked the picture of misery
on the bank when the fatal flag went up. They have
always had a fancy for "Thompson's nomination,"
and their allegiance has been sorely tried, as Tempest,
the first that Mr. Thompson ever ran in the Waterloo
Cup, was fourth, Theatre Royal third, and Trovatore
fourth. Fate was certainly most coy with Farlam.
Far lam Hall and its Greyhou
Tirzah (481bs.) was the best of the second Mariner
and Titmouse litter very quick out of the slips, and
fastest of all the bitches to the hare. She led Sea
Foam to the hare when a puppy for the Waterloo
Cup, and was drawn after an undecided course, and
ran second to Ewesdale for the Bridekirk Cup. Mr.
Thompson also bred King Death during the three
seasons that he hired Annoyance. He had the choice
of two puppies from her Canaradzo litter, and took
that nice light runner Tullochgorum and Theresa (who
never ran in public), while King Death, Armstrong
Gun, and Gertrude were passed over to Dr. Richard-
son. Tullochgorum (581bs.) was a Brampton Cup
winner, and he and Ticket of-Leave (by Bridegroom,
out of Shepherdess) were in the last three for the
Altcar Stakes of 60 dog puppies, when Brundritt's
Burgomaster won. Tullochgorum was very fast and
clever not a stayer, but a rattling killer, and he gene-
rally managed it in the fifth or sixth turn before the
soft spot came out. Ticket-of-Leave (62lbs.) on the
contrary was " a regular Lanercost for staying," rather
short in the body, and so savage and determined, that
he would go on when his feet were almost cut to
pieces. He was a good Ashdown dog, and he won
two cups in Whitehaven and Galloway. Mr. Thomp-
son always considered Tullochgorum the fastest and
handsomest dog he ever had, and Tirzah his fastest
bitch, and in their trial the former had the foot of
the two.
Theatre Royal (481bs.) was the best friend to the
kennel exchequer, and always went best on plough
land. She was by Cardinal York, out of Meg-o'-the-
Mill, and of the same litter as Princess Royal, who
was given away as a puppy. Latterly, she had her
liberty, and required little training. As her trainer,
Willie Scott, said of Tullochgorum, she was "very
easy-minded." She was not long in showing herself,
seeing that as a sapling she turned up a hare single-
I 2
1 1 6 Saddle and Sirloin.
handed in great style near Kirkhouse, and she always
worked her way up through the ties, and finished
first or very nigh, though a trifle deficient in pace.
They considered her faster than Trovatore (5olbs.),
until their Waterloo trial at Brougham. Trovatore
was a very durable bitch, and quite as clever, and
decidedly better at Altcar on the grass than at South-
port on the plough. Lobelia and she were a " tight
fit ;" but, although Trovatore was great when she was
" the woman in possession," she had not quite the
pace of the Waterloo winner. Sackcloth did a good
deal in his Waterloo year, and so did Patent ; but she
worked nearly as hard as either of them, and ran well
in high company at the Altcar Club, the Waterloo,
the Southport, and the Scottish National within six
weeks. In her first season she was of no use, and,
sad to say, had puppies by a cur dog. She derived
her staying power from Ticket-of-Leave (62lbs.), and
there was no great hereditary pace on her dam Touch-
wood's side, who was a clever killer, and quite a
" plough farmer." Touchwood avenged her sister
Tirzah's defeat upon old Cheer Boys ; but she came
in season too often to train well. Tempest (6olbs.) by
Telemachus, out of Governess, was a good puppy, but
very hard to train. Sunbeam beat him in the
Waterloo Cup when he was only sixteen months old,
and he had won at Lowther before that. He was a
remarkably savage dog, and very nearly had his pound
of flesh out of the cockneys when he went to the
London Show.
Tirzah and Traviata (sister to Animus, and then
only a mere whelp), were among the four or five which
Mr. Thompson retained when he sold off his grey-
hounds at Aldridge's in the spring of '67. All
Tirzah's litters, save one, have had a brindle in them,
which shows the stain of old Titmouse. It came out
in the Terrific litter through Trustee, who was a slash-
ing runner in his puppy days, and made the highest
The Brampton Coursing Meeting. 117
price (60 guineas) at the sale. This colour-lot fell in
the Cauld Kail litter on a 29-inch dog, which was
tried to be the best of the half-dozen at Brougham,
and was no manner of use at the Altcar Club. His
own brother, Test Act, divided the Sefton Stakes with
Grey Steel at this meeting, and this was the last time
that Mr. Thompson ran a dog in public. When we
were at Farlam Hall that autumn, his Rather Im-
proved saplings from Tirzah were duly ushered in
after dinner for inspection, and they were certainly,
as he said, " true greyhounds to the eye." He left
word for his friends, as he passed through London
about Christmas time, that he would see them on his
return from Nice ; but it was ordered otherwise, and
when we entered Lynn's on the Waterloo Tuesday, we
learnt the news of his death. He lies not on " the
fair hill-s/de," but far away on the shores of the
Mediterranean, and he will always be remembered as
the kindest-hearted of men, and one of those genuine
coursers who could bear both defeat and victory.
The coursing is a very great feature of the Bramp-
ton year. It was nearly a third of a century since we
had been at it, and then it was merely an eight-dog
stake, and run off near Naworth Gate. We had good
reason to remember it, as it was the first bit of report-
ing which we had ever tried. A rough dog from
Little Corby won it, which " had trained itsel'," and
the owner, to his great amazement, got a five-pound
note for it the next week, and attributed it in a
measure to the " blazing report" in the paper. A
week before thirty shillings would have parted them.
Now the venue is shifted to Askerton, some five
miles over country on the Bewcastle side. Kingwater
is in this district, and it was at a farmhouse there
that the celebrated flyer of that name was walked.
Coursing is quite a Cumberland weakness ; but we
met a couple of farmers en route, one of whom de-
clared that he preferred the harriers, and would only
1 1 8 Saddle and Sirloin.
plead guilty to one bet, " a glass of cold ale with a
publican" on the Cup. The Tile-kiln was in view at
last, and the two bits of scarlet among the rushes
showed that business had begun, The red cloak of
Bella was also a most conspicuous object, and " only
second to the judge," as she herself observed. This
lively old lady keeps " The Travellers' Rest," some-
where near Gilsland, alias St. Ronan's Well, and she
appeared here with a basket full of spirits, and paid
ten shillings for the vivandiere privilege of following
the line of march. The Committee have been obliged
to make this rule, as they were annoyed last year
with a regular army of sutlers, " They aw ken me
weel" said Bella, and certainly Bella makes them ken
her. She does use such potent words of exhortation
to bachelors, and cracks such jokes on Benedicts, that
she may well be a popular character. Her red cloak
was quite a banner at last, and really after seeing her
ditch-jumping and general performance on all manner
of ground, we can take for granted what that vene-
rable woman says of herself, at nearly seventy, that
" Pse as clean in the shank as ever I was" She adds :
" I can loup dykes and climb a hill gey ly w eel yet Fd
run ony of the young 'uns, but I must have it doon hill"
Askerton Castle, an old Border keep, whose tenants
keep open-house during the meeting, is a leading
feature of the first day. A great many rushes had
been cut since last year, and those which were left
produced boundless runs. In fact, one philosopher
laid it at ''ten hares to half^a-yacre" in one field.
Tullochgorum, Crossfell, Titmouse, and other cracks
have all won or divided the Cup here, and Fanatic,
who ran up for the Douglas Cup, was among the
thirty-two Cup dogs that morning. Strange Idea was
a great favourite, and was drawn against Bay Middle-
ton, from the Wetheral district. Twice over they had
a " No go," and at the third time of asking, Strange
Idea didn't seem to run with any fire. The Secretary
The Brampton Coursing Meeting. 1 19
was his owner, and on the second day his farm-house
at Greenburn, where the oat-cake is supreme, followed
suit with ^.skerton Castle. Little Watercress, from
the Farlam kennel, made capital work when she beat
Earl Grey. We were amused at the demurrer which
her sub-trainer put in to the suggestion of one of the
London Press, that the hare had favoured her in the
run-up : "May be; but they 1 II still place themselves with
sic gentlemen as yon? Despite the rough and "chancy"
ground over which we coursed, the day was an
amusing one, and the enthusiasm extended into the
very bowels of the earth, as there would scarcely be a
man at Messrs. Thompson's colliery who was not in
some sweep or other on the two events, and keenly
alive to the victories of Destiny and Mabel Smith.
I2O
CHAPTER VI.
* I wandered through the lofty halls
Trod by the Percys of old fame,
And traced upon the chapel walls
Each high heroic name,
From him who once his standard set
Where now, o'er mosque and minaret,
Glitter the Sultan's crescent moons j
To him who, when a younger son,
Fought for King George at Lexington,
As major of dragoons.
* * * *
This last half stanza it has dashed
From my warm lip the sparkling cup.
The light that o'er my eyebeam flashed,
The power that bore my spirit up
Above this bank-note world, is gone ;
And Alnwick's but a market-town.
And this, alas ! its market day,
And beasts and borderers throng the way ;
Oxen and bleating lambs in lots,
Northumbrians and plaided Scots,
Men in the coal and cattle line ;
From Teviot's bard and hero land,
From Royal Berwick's beach of sand,
From Wooller, Morpeth, Hexham, and
Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Fitz Greene Halleck.
Visit to Mr. John Grey Recollections of the Booths and Mary of Bui
termere Sir John Sinclair and his Merino Wool The Turbulent
Bull Lord Althorp and his Shorthorns A Downing-street Inter-
view Newcastle Races, the Slipping Race Sir Charles Monck
Woodhorn A Felton Festival From Morpeth to Belford The
Wild Cattle of Chillingham The Border Leicesters.
WE bid good-bye to Cumberland, and look out at
parting for the towers of Naworth, and that
wooded vale of Lanercost, whose sanctuary moulders
in calm decay amid the fertility which it called into
being. There are well-known faces at the station for
The Booths and Mary of Buttermere. 1 2 1
Gilsland, and anon a walk of a couple of miles from
Haydon bridge finds us grasping the hand of John
Grey of Dilston, a very honoured name in all the
North Countrie. To sit with the fine old man was
indeed like
" Converse with old Time ;"
but we once only had that happiness, and although
we often corresponded, we never met again. It was
something even for that short space to quarry in such
a rich mine of thought and experience.
He was at Dr. Tate's of Richmond, that renowned
" grinder of gerunds," and " digger of Greek roots,"
along with the two Booths. Richard was stout then
and did not care for running, but in water he was
" good enough to drown a salmon." He would float
miles out to sea, and he would sit and tie his shoes in
some of those twelve-feet pools on the Swale. The
pair lodged in the market-place at Mis. Gelderd's,
who gave them the character of being "both quiet
boys." John was not then given to those constant
flashes of drollery, which made him the best of all
good companie at manhood. Mr. Grey was also with
the Rev. William Sewell in the Vale of Lorton, and he
entertained the most lively recollections of reading
Virgil in the yew tree, and of the steaming brown
dishes of potato pot, which every dalesman loves. It
was for the latter that the poor students from St.
Bees looked out so affectionately at noontide when
they served the churches in the lake district, in con-
sideration of a hempsack, 2os. a year, and a whittle-
gate or free dinner run. Once there came a man who
did better at the whittlegate than the service. To
explain it in his own words, " I was in such a hurry to
be at them with the homily, that I quite forgot the
litany." Mary of Buttermere had bloomed when Mr.
Grey was at Richmond, but he never failed to tell
how, when he visited Lorton and Buttermere again, he
1 2 2 Saddle and Sirloin.
danced with her at " a bidden wedding." She was a
tall, comely woman with auburn hair flowing down
her back, but " a bad partner in a dance, as I was
always losing her, when she ran to attend to customers
in the bar or look after the oatcake."
Mr. Grey was the friend of Culley on the Border,
and his Richmond school-life secured him introduc-
tions to the Collings, Charge, and Maynard. With
them he spent his holidays, and when Dr. Tate asked
him what they mostly talked about, he replied in
classic phrase, " Comet et id genus omne." Farming
was in a very rough way when he first learnt it.
" There was nothing but foldyard manure ; they
hardly knew how to sow away clover seeds. Havre,
and Havre again, give it a bit of management, and
sow it in barley or its geyly grass prood so just
let it lie to rest." Being of a literary turn Mr. Grey
was generally engaged with some agricultural report
or other, and one of his earliest labours was looking
over the proof-sheets of Sir John Sinclair's " Code of
Agriculture." He became acquainted with Mr. God-
frey Sinclair when he was a pupil with Mr. Jobson.
Sir John was great at that time upon Merino sheep,
whose price rose considerably during the Spanish war.
It chanced that the baronet was visiting at Floors
Castle, and every one made a point of handling his
coat, which was merino-woven, and of complimenting
him on its texture. Sir Harry McDougall, after
hearing a discussion upon the wool specimens,
declared that he had some as good, and produced a
sample. Sir John handled it, and declared that it
wouldn't work as there were some coarse hairs in it ;
and when Sir Harry was questioned as to what it was,
he turned the laugh by saying that he got it out of
the pocket of Sir John's own carriage as it stood in
the stable-yard. A good deal of jealousy was felt
about Sir John, and the story did not fail to circulate.
In 1833, when he was in his very prime at 47, Mr.
" Grey of Dilston" 123
Grey was made the Commissioner of the Greenwich
Hospital, and his management of the estates, in
which he was followed by his son Charles, will
always mark an era in Northumberland. No man's
mind ever ran less in ruts. " Grey of Dilston" was
henceforth a great name in Northern Agriculture,
and continued to be so to the last. He was a ripe,
good farmer, always among the first to adopt every
agricultural improvement, and a thoroughly safe one
for tenants to follow. There could not have been a
more felicitous choice on the part of the council than
when they entrusted him with " The Labouring
Classes of the Land n at the Royal Agricultural So-
ciety's dinner at Newcastle in '46. He was loudly
cheered throughout, and more especially when he
argued in favour of leases v. tenancies at will. " We
have been told," he said in conclusion, " that there
is a limit to agricultural improvement. It will not be
reached in our day. So long as we have unimproved
land and tenants at will we shall never reach it."
He began the Tweedside Society, which was ulti-
mately blended with the Border as " The Border
Union ;" and when he was in his zenith as a shorthorn
breeder, he once took the first and second prizes for
bulls, or nearly 5<D/. in one day. His herd was prin-
cipally built up from General Simpson's North Star
(full brother to Comet), and he also bred direct to the
Collings through Mr. Donkin of Sandhoe's blood.
The General journeyed from Fifeshire to Buxton
every summer, and always stopped at Millfield, by
Glendale on Tweedside, by the way ; and he died at
Ferrybridge on his return. Young Star was the best
bull he ever sent to Millfield, and Mr. Curwen and Mr.
Blamire could not resist riding over to see him. Some
of the Fifeshire farmers pleasantly assured Mr. Grey
when he bought him, "Aye ! man, what a price for
nowt ! but he's a bonny beast 'an he had been black!'
" If he had been black!' said Mr. Grey, to their speech-
1 24 Saddle and Sirloin.
less amazement, " Pd not have carried him home"
Th* General had bred from Mason as well as Col-
ling, but Mr. Grey did not care about the former, as
he thought him tricky and all for form, and that
his herd became hard in the touch and lacked con-
stitution.
At Lord Althorp's suggestion he wrote the first
county essay (on " Northumberland and its Agricul-
ture") in the Royal Agricultural Journal. Mr. Grey's
intimacy with his lordship arose out of a constant in-
terchange of Leicesters and Shorthorns. The Wiseton
sheep were small and of Buckley blood, and crossed
well with Charles Ceiling's larger sheep, which were
then fast occupying the Scottish frontier. Mr. Grey
had let the rams of the cross for many years, and the
G wethers soon had plenty of butchers on their track.
At Wiseton seventy cows and heifers would generally
come up to the sunk fence, in front of the dining-
room, and Mr. Grey did not need much rousing for
"just another look, Grey" It was his lordship's boast
that he had reformed his whole stock with Regent,
when he was condemned to the butcher as useless.
Nonpareil (370 guineas) did him no great good, and
he was " never really successful till he got the Chil-
tons." Sweet William, Orontes, Wiseton, which
figures in the picture of a " Quiet Day at Wiseton,"
and Ranunculus (the sire of Belinda) were all leading
bulls, and so was Usurer, of which Lord Ducie said
that he " could give shoulders to anything." Lord
Ducie and Sir Charles Knightley were men of like
passions, but in Plenipo's year they couldn't resist the
Doncaster Cup Day, while Lord Althorp and Mr.
Grey went off to look over Mr. Champion's herd at
Blyth. Hunting was what Mr. Grey loved best, and
he enjoyed it much in his youth with the hounds of
Mr. Bailey of Mellerstein. We remember with what
keen delight he quoted to us the remark of an old
shepherd, upon the riding of one of his grandchildren :
Lord Althorp and hi* Shorthorns. 125
" It's just yen of those Greys it's in the bluidthey
canna help it"
Lord Althorp came to Millfield to see the agricul-
ture of the Tweed, and his keen shorthorn eye never
failed to mark a Midas wherever he met one. He
hired Duke from Mr. Donkin, and also sent down one
of his huntsman's sons to learn how to farm, and turn
the penny the right way. " Coke has two or three
crack farms," he was wont to say, " where the tenant
dare not have a weed ; here there's uniformity, the
land's farmed for farming's sake." One of Mr. Grey's
stories about a bull delighted him. " Aye ! he's gone
again" said the poor man, when he led his visitor to
see his bull, and only found a mighty debris of bricks
with earth and dead gorse ; " he often breaks out here ;
he's like Samson, he carries off the door-posts and a
lump of the wall at once ; all our place is so bad, we've
not a house that will hold him ; we call him Lord
Brougham? The Chancellor of the Exchequer might
well say, " I'll tell that story to Brougham, when I
get back to London."
Lord Althorp cared nothing for politics in com-
parison with his shorthorns. The Reform banner
might
" Float over Althorp, Russell, and Grey,
And the manhood of Harry Brougham j"
but he loved rather to sit under one at an agricul-
tural meeting, which told of " Hoof and Horn" and
" Speed the Plough." When Mr. Grey called upon
him at Downing-street, and saw " George" as a pre-
liminary, the latter remembered him and gave a little
dry laugh : " You've come about cows, sir, so you'll not
have to wait long'' Sure enough his Herd Book lay
beside him on the desk when Mr. Grey was announced,
and formed the text for the next half hour. Every
Monday morning, his lordship received the most ac-
curate budget of what cows had calved during the
week, with the calf marks, and he did very little work
.
.
1 26 Saddle and Sirloin.
till it was all transcribed into his private herd book.
This morning he handed Mr. Grey a letter. " There's
a letter" he said, "from Carnegie ; he admires my
political course, and he writes from the Lothians to say
that I shall have the first refusal of his bull" Then
he so characteristically added " I've written to thank
him for his political confidence, but I've told him that
there is a flaw in his bull's pedigree; he traces him
back to Red Rose, but Red Rose never had a heifer calf"
At Smithfield or the Royal he would work a whole
day in his shirt-sleeves, and at Shrewsbury, the very
year before his death, no one bore such an active part
in putting the stock into their proper stalls. " Once
out of office" he was wont to say, " and they'll never
catch me in again" Nothing but the strongest sense
of duty bound him to the Exchequer. " I find a little
relief on a Saturday night : but on Monday morning
I just know how a man feels who'll throw himself over
London Bridge''*
* For more than forty years John Grey of Dilston was a very promi-
nent and a very honoured name in the North Country. He was born
not far from Flodden Field, and both by his farming success on the
Tweed and Tillside, as well as by his political energy on the hustings
by the side of Mr. Lambton and Lord Howick, in " times enough to
shake a man's soul " if he dared to be a Reformer, he soon took a place
in the van. He was just in the prime of life at 47, when he was made
Commissioner of the Greenwich Hospital Estates, and he built hi?
future home at Dilston, not far from the spot where the last Earl ot
Radcliffe lies buried with his head under his arm, and his heart em-
balmed at his side.
No man had enjoyed a finer training, and Earl Grey, Sir John Sin-
clair, and Clarkson were among those whom he could call friend. His
own deep and abiding sense of religion and regard for his widowed
mother moulded him early for the important part which he had to play
in life. He honoured John Culley for always asking him to rise early
from the Wooller market-table, and to be the companion of his home-
ward ride ; and his first public speech was for the Bible Society in the
church of that town. In process of time he met with Hannah Annett.
He resisted the feeling at first, till a gust of jealousy, on seeing her
helped into the saddle by a rival, impelled him in his own decisive way
to grasp her pony's bridle, and say some few words which both under-
stood. A few months later, and she was riding as his bride from
Lord A Ithorp. 1 2 7
We bid our old friend good-bye, little thinking we
should never meet again, and sped on our way to New-
castle. The Tyne was running in a muddy, turbulent
torrent beneath the Stocksfield bridge. It once over-
church in a pale-blue embroidered habit. She was worthy of the hus-
hand of her choice ; and so the years go on, till at last he learns
abruptly from the lips of his groom that she is dead ; and henceforward
the days when she was by his side, and a merry freight of children in
the carriage, during those happy woodland rides, seem to the old man
like part and parcel of a dream.
Whatever he did he did with all his might, and he invariably did it
well. No man had a finer eye to hounds, or better hands and nerve,
whether on Rose of Raby or " the flyer which stands in the stall at the
top." In the heat of his Lambton canvass he worked on all day with
two fractured ribs. Sir John Sinclair entrusted him to revise the proof-
sheets of his "Code of Agriculture;" and even in his 82nd year he
delivered a lecture of nearly two hours' length on poetry, at Haydon
Bridge. Bone manure, draining, subsoil ploughing, and the application
of animal and vegetable chemistry to agricultural objects were his theme
in days when to talk of such things was almost enough to stamp a man
as a Jacobin and a visionary. He dared to denounce the corn laws as
"the parent of scarcity, clearness, and uncertainty," when 99 people
out of 100 thought him a man of profane lips for saying so, and Bright
and Cobden were mere boys. When he was "up" for a speech, the
audience always knew that they would hear some sturdy truths ; but no
one was more uncompromising, and yet more full of tact. His oppo-
nents might dislike what he said, but they could not object to the lan-
guage in which it was clothed. Only a week before his death he
mediated in an excellent speech between landlord and tenant, when an
offensively couched resolution about game had been passed at the
Hexham Farmers' Club. "The Black Prince of the North," as he had
been called in his hot political youth, was never in better tune for
speaking than at the Newcastle Royal Dinner of '46, and an after-
dinner remark of the second Duke of Cleveland's, to the effect that
agricultural improvement had reached its utmost limit, drew from him
an indignant denial, and a stout argument on tenancies-at-will as against
leases. It was in '59 that he spoke what he called his " Peace and
Plenty" speech, in which Prince Albert delighted, and his last at a
public dinner was made at the Highland Society's meeting of 1867,
where he attended as judge.
As an agent he practised what he preached. Strong as his political
predilections were, he never interfered, directly or indirectly, with a
voter. The Greenwich estates, when they came into his hand, pro-
duced 29,ooo/. clear, and gradually rose, under the draining and other
improvements which he planned and carried out, to 4O,ooo/. With the
labourers he had peculiar sympathy, and, "let the oppressed go free
and break every yoke," was a saying that seemed ever present with him.
1 28 Saddle and Sirloin.
flowed the Bywell village to such an extent, that the
Fenwick hunters had to be stabled in " The Black
Church ; " and it not only drowned a huntsman who
He did not deem that even the poorest were "born just to be handled
by those above them like I/, notes." It was the feeling that "John
Grey is a just man" which was the secret of his power. The desire to
help every one to the utmost was another great feature in him. During
the cattle plague no magistrate was more active ; and although he was
past eighty, he would attend every sale, however small, within reach of
his home, so that he might spare the buyers the trouble of coming to
him to get the papers signed. His powers and his bodily strength
seemed unimpaired to the last, although, as he would say, his children
and grandchildren, by their affectionate thought for his comforts, whe-
her at home or when he went to spend the Christmas at Millfield,
would "try to make an old man of me." That task would have been
above their hands, with such a tough, square-jawed borderer to deal
with. The lecture on poetry the year before he died, beginning as it
did with Chaucer and the loyth Psalm, and dealing largely in Sir
Walter Scott, the poet of "Teviot's bard and hero land," near which
his lot had been cast, was given almost entirely from memory. His
bodily force had abated as little as his mental, and when his son would
insist, overnight, on sending his luggage down to the railway for him,
the sturdy octogenarian rose an hour earlier, packed his big portmanteau,
and carried it on his shoulder half a mile to the station.
In him there was hardly even that "gentle decay" which precedes
death. He had a slight ailment, and to his daughter's tender eye there
might be an unusual solemnity of manner when he read family prayers
on his last night on earth, but still nothing to cause alarm. She ex-
changed a few words with him in the morning. " My wants are few,
very few," were the last he spoke ; and when she next saw him he was
dead, seated on the stairs with "his forefinger raised, as if to enjoin
silence, or as if he heard some one calling him." And so every scene
in his life, from dawn to sunset, from sunset to the close, is touched, in
his daughter's memoir of him, with the same bold and yet tender hand.
The last of all was on that wild Saturday before his funeral, when, as in
Tennyson's "Dead Earl," "the wind was howling through turret and
tree," the very window-panes broken with a crash, the glass shivered
about the floor, and the white sheet which had been thrown over the
corpse blown rudely away. Sunday came in calm and clear, and
hardly stirred a leaf of the bright, shining evergreen with which daugh-
ters' hands then wreathed his coffin. "He looked so grand when he
was dead," with that union of tenderness and strength in the whole out-
line of his head and face which was the key to his successful manhood
and his honoured old age. He has gone to his rest, but the impress of
his practical knowledge and broad aims will be seen and remembered
for many a long year in the " Sweet Glendale" of his earlier days, and
the rich vale of the Tyne.
Mr. Atkinson, Peepy. 129
tried to cross, but it carried him (so the villagers vow),
by the force of its current, right across the German
Ocean, and cast him up, with his horn still slung over
his shoulder, on the beach at Ostend. A short cut
over the Park in which Matchem and The Duchess
took their breathings, and won upwards of twenty
thousand, both at the post and in the paddock, when
Fenwick was Lord of Bywell leads to Mr. Atkinson's
farm, more commonly known as " Peepy." It belongs
to Mr. Beaumont, the member for the southern divi-
sion of the county, who lives at Bywell Hall, and it
includes the Park in its seven hundred acres. Three-
sevenths of it are in grass, and the Park, which, judg-
ing from the limits of the old course, was hardly thirty
acres in Matchem's day, has now swelled to a hundred.
The brothers Atkinson are by no means the pio-
neers of Shorthorns in this particular spot. Styford
High and Low Woods recall to a Herd Book ear the
memory of " Jobling's old sort." A narrow strip be-
tween them shows the early haunt of Wellington (who
was let for fifteen years at ioo/. per year), and the firs
rang at times with his bellowing, much less musically
than they do now when The Tyndale are finding.
Those were days when Tithe Commutation was un-
dreamt of, and hence Wellington calves came in due
course to Mr. Johnson the clergyman of the parish,
and one found its way to Mr. Atkinsons at the old
man's sale.
Mr. Atkinson senior knew Mr. Bates, but the prophet
had no honour in his own country, and although he
went over to see him, he did not care to buy. Arch-
duke Charles was Mr. Atkinson's first bull. After
him came Sir Harry, from Mr. Thomas Jobling, who
bred direct from Mr. Colling's sort ; and then his son
Bangup, who was never in the Herd Book, and had
fall after fall of red calves. Sir Harry was duly en-
tered for the Ovingham prize of 20 guineas, which he
won, and Mr. Jobling was so jealous of his looking
K
1 30 Saddle and Sirloin.
well, that Mr. Atkinson's earliest recollection was see-
ing him come, and " off horseback and at the bull with
his scissors," to get his curly frontlet into perfect trim
for the judges/*
It is many years since we saw Newcastle races, and
our recollections are not with Underhand or Caller Ou
words hard for Northumbrian lips nor yet with
Dr. Syntax or Gallopade. They go back to an in-
termediate period, when " Slashing Harry collared
Henriade," when Beeswing beat Black Diamond, when
Harry Edwards by a mighty effort shoved "Lazy
Lanercost's" head in front of the Hydra's, and when a
Yorkshireman was so cleaned out by Naworth's defeat,
that he put up his slippers for sale in the coffee-room
at the Queen's Head that night. We remember, too,
the grief which fell like a pall on the Moor when
Lanercost, with Calypso handy, beat Beeswing on the
post through the deep ground for the Cup, and how
every tongue was loosened when she paid off him and
his corns next year in the dry. We like to recall that
time and all its actors dark-eyed " Sim " in his hey-
day ; Job Marson, a young fellow of five-and-twenty,
just earning his spurs on Charles XII. ; Mr. Ramsay
at Lanercost's head, as Noble saddled him, and listen-
ing to the pale enthusiast from the Bush Inn, Car-
lisle, who was taking up his parable ; and old Bob
Johnson, in his long black coat, drab breeches, and
gaiters among the glasses and decanters (like Baron
Nathan among the eggs at Rosherville), retreating
suddenly ere he stammered out a sentence before
the coat-tail pull of the Squire of Nunnykirk, who
* In later years the Atkinsons bred from Col. Towneley's stock.
and had several of the Beauty tribe which the Colonel got from Mr.
Bannerman, and he from Mr. John Booth. They used Abraham Parker
and " Dick" (who did a great deal for them), and when they began to
go in more for BooJh, they had Prince Patrick, a pure Booth bull, from
Mr. Grove Wood, of Ireland, and hired Manfred from Mr. Thomas
Booth,
/NiVERSiTY i
The Slipping Race. " 131
flings down his scarecrow hat, puts himself in " the
teapot attitude " on the table, and pours out his Attic
eloquence in old Beeswing's name.
It was at Newcastle that Sir Tatton Sykes (Scott)
took part in a great* sliding-match, which utterly
ruined Fancy Boy. Four started for that Northern
Derby, and the ground was so soaked with rain that
Bill Scott, after many ups and downs, was finally
left at the Newcastle turn with Little Jack Horner
(Francis) to keep him company. The memory of the
Derby which he had just lost " on the Surrey side" did
not tend to tone down Bill's ire, and never was Mother
Earth more emphatically denounced. Fancy Boy was
also on his hind-quarters at that point ; but Sim re-
covered him, and abjured Job on Dolo to " Keep wide
of me at the Coal Pit turn, for fear we slide up again''
The presentiment was too true, as when they reached
it Fancy Boy slipped, and slid some five-and-twenty
yards, Sim sticking to him with his arms round his
neck. Even in this fashion the pace was pretty good ;
but Dolo got so far ahead that he was never reached
again, and the chapter of accidents put some 600
guineas into Lord Eglinton's pocket. Two hunters
out of four came to grief in the next race ; but a nice,
drying night set things quite square for the morrow.
It was a favourite saying on Tyneside, when poor
Bob Chambers was in his rowing prime, " Bob isn't a
man he's a steam-engine ; he was ' cast' 1 at Hawks',
and 'fitted' at Stephenson's" and we think of both
man and " fitter" as we leave the coaly Tyne, and spy
on our northward way the cottage and birthplace of
George Stephenson amongst the anything but " sunny
farms of Killingworth." All the great spots of interest
at first lie to the left of the line, beginning with Cram-
lington, which sent a first-prize cow to the Newcastle
Royal, and is familiar to another generation in con-
nexion with Sir Matthew, Mr. Boag, and the hounds.
Sir Walter and Lady Trevelyan's herd, which showed
K 2
1 3 2 Saddle and Sirloin.
a good Newcastle front against " the proud invader,"
browses west beyond Belsay. Nunnykirk is " some
miles over yonder," and so is Belsay Castle, where the
hatchment is just up for " the old baronet, with blue
bandages on his fore-legs" (as a " memoir man,"
writing about him and Gamester observed), who died
when he was upwards of 88, and won his maiden St.
Leger at 80. His racing-tree had its tap-root in
Twinkle by Orville, and it bore a crop of paying fruit
in Cast Steel, Vanguard, Vindex, Gamester, Vanity,
Gadabout, Hunca Munca, Hepatica, Prelude, and
Galanthus. He was very fond of them, and very
fidgety about them, and on one occasion he took the
whim, and wrote his trainer specially, to counter-order
Vanguard for Newcastle ; but the letter miscarried,
and the horse won. Still, he would always have pre-
ferred an afternoon with The Antiquary or the Iliad
to a racing one, and he was still translating the latter
when he died.
After Morpeth, the scene shifts to the other side
of the line, and the portly form of Mr. Angus, of
Whitfield, standing in a field of fog among his Border
Leicester lambs, is to us quite a herald of the district.
Beyond the fine coursing fields of Bothal,* where Jane
Anne first won, and which the " Els" know well, is
Woodhorn, whence Mr. Jacob Wilson brought his gay,
aged bull, Duke of Tyne, by " Dick," to win the first
* The Bothal meeting is held over sixteen thousand acres of the Duke
of Portland's property, near Morpeth. A large portion is permanent
grass land in ridge and furrow. The fields are not generally above
fifteen acres ; but many hedges are being removed at the Club's ex-
pense. Hares are so plentiful that they recently ran off a 134-dog-and-
bitch puppy stakes, and a 32-dog all-aged stake in five days, and yet
only beat one-third of the ground. The present Club is a renewal of
that which flourished twenty years ago, and the second founder and
president is the Hon. Mr. Ellis, nephew to the Duke of Portland. In
addition to the Spring and Autumn (open) Meetings, there are fort-
nightly ones, which are well attended. There is no truer type of a
pleasant club to promote good sport and good feeling in a county.
Felton Agricultural Show. 133
Royal prize at Worcester. He was bred by Mr.
Spraggon, of Nafferton, on the Tyne side ; but his
new owner marked him for his own as a calf, and but
for Forth, he would have taken first Scottish honours
as well. Since his day, a pair of Fowler's ten-horse
engines have been at work, and " torn up" some four
thousand acres, and Dream of Pretence and Golden
Link and Lady York are fast laying the foundations
of a second Carrhead hard by the Eastern seaboard.
Mr. Samuel Donkin is not " bending in adoration
before the divinities of the sea-shore" to day ; but
Felton is all alive at his bidding, and as secretary of
its Agricultural Society, he " receives" both in a flower-
show marquee among the Castle Woods, and also in
the show-field. Thirteen gold cups won by Dr.
Syntax, XYZ, and Gallopade are ranged among the
flowers ; and if " Doctor" had only won the Preston
Cup at the last time of asking, four gold shoes would
have been added to that store. The sun shone bright
on a very animated show-field. Voyageur, the eternal,
was there, to the deep grief of the exhibitors of
hunters, for crab him as they may in private, judges
always had him handy at the finish. There was a fine
Colsterdale mare with first-prize ribbons on her head,
and just then all the more looked at for Lecturer's
sake. Littlecote, Gamester, and Canny Fellow foals,
and some very good ones among them, were grouped
with their dams all over the field, and there was many
a good word spoken to Gamester's memory, though
the Royal judges said that he " could neither walk nor
trot" on the day when he and Laughing Stock and
Cavendish were before them at Newcastle. Mr. Jacob
Wilson had a four-year-old grey hunter and a chestnut
" racing pony," and both won first prizes ; and (with
Golden Link and Lady York in aid) he and Mr.
Annett achieved so many honours that, after dinner
in the booth, one or the other seemed always on the
tramp to the chairman for cups or bank-notes. There
1 34 Saddle and Sirloin.
was " the marvellous exposition of the fine arts of the
dairy" in a tent, where butter temples were built to
the sylvan gods, and rare skinned eggs were arranged
in plates. Of course we drank to the fair designers of
such architecture ; and Mr. Donkin, who had recently
told us, with his wonted wealth of expression, of a
villa near Corbridge, " an embellished abode fit for
Juno and her peacocks," and "the splendour of whose
floral and arbiferous productions might tempt an
angel down," eulogised the ladies generally to their
faces as " the roses and the lilies" of the day.
There is gladness too at the board when Sir
Matthew (the chairman) tells that the Privy Council
have withdrawn their edict, and that the Irish ram
buyers will be at Kelso that year. As we travel
towards Chillingham next day, " the Barmshires"
seem to be everywhere, save in Chevington Wood,
that reclaimed fox cover, where the shaggy stots from
Falkirk are up to their knees amid the young oaks
and heather. We have them in the foreground, as we
sweep past Chrisp's, of Hawkhill, whose bulls Manfred
and Phoenix are not the least in the annals of the
" Herd Book" and the show-yard. Mr. Bosanquet, of
The Rock, has another century of rams coming for-
ward for Kelso, with rare size and skins, on those fine
undulating slopes not far from Howick Hall. The
Coquet, so renowned for its fishing songs, flows over
its rocky bed from the moors, and we connect to its
name, not with trout merely, but with many a good
coursing day, Dr. Richardson and King Death. A
peep at Falloden as our train hurries past reveals Sir
George Grey " slaking the thirst of battle" in St.
Stephens, with a quiet book on his drive ; and now we
are bowling into the little town of Belford, to whose
Old Bell, with those comfortable red curtains, Lord
Wemyss comes thrice a season for a fortnight at a
time. The way from there to Chillingham is over a
fine, wild moor, of which Will Williamson might say
The Wild Cattle of Chillingham. 135
in truth, " Well, be thanked, the fox and the hounds
have their liberty." Kyloe Crags, the Field of Flod-
den, Ford Castle, on whom old Cheviot himself looks
down, Ross Castle with its heronry, and Hepburn
Wood, dear to the woodcock, are all in that expanse
of rock and ling, while Chillingham Park rises as it
were terrace upon terrace, with the white dots not far
below the sky-line, which tell of its famous " cattle."
There
" They are grazing, their heads never raising
There are forty feeding like one,"
and we have to discard at the first glance every wild-
bull-thought for Wordsworth's milder rhymes. Our
ideas change an hour after, as on the keeper's old
horse we ride the hill, and cautiously keeping near a
strongly-fenced plantation, so as to be able to abandon
the horse on an emergency, and retreat over the rails,
we get within a hundred yards of them. We might
have got nearer ; but a herd of startled bucks trotted
past them, and as one rose they all rose, and moved
off at a foot's pace, the old bull behind, and the king
bull leading. The latter will find years tell on him
in his turn, and when he is seven or eight, two younger
ones will attack him fore and aft and he will walk
moody and downcast like that deposed monarch in
the rear. The herd is generally kept up to 1 1 bulls,
17 steers, and 32 females, or three score in all. They
are made steers of even up to four years old, and it is
found even at that stage to improve the beef. It was
the practice to do so when they were dropped ; but it
was a very dangerous one, and spoilt the bull selec-
tion as well. They are tempted into a yard with hay,
and there snared, and tied by the neck and horn
during the process, and returned next day without
any cautery. The steers always grow larger horns,
and weigh from 4Ost. to 5ost. of I4lbs. If it is fair
weather they go up the hill, and if stormy they re-
main below. They eat very much at night, and mostly
1 36 Saddle and Sirloin.
in company, and often scour a good deal in warm
weather. The bulls are of a more tawny shade than
the cows, as they fling the dirt very much over their
shoulders when they kneel to challenge. Both sexes
have black nostrils, horns tipped with black, and a
little red within the ears ; and in their general look
they partake of the Charolais and Highlander com-
bined. Their offal is rather coarse, and they have
sometimes a tendency to be high on the tail, as well
as upright on the shoulder. Like Highland herds
going along a road, they are subject to panics, and two
gallops in the course of a week one season, owing per-
haps to the rustling of deer near them, cost nearly
every cow her calf. The calves are dropped in the
fern, but they are sad little Tartars ; and if they have
been housed, it takes nearly two months to take off
the tame smell.
A steer and cow were once tamed in a fashion ;
but their principal affections centred on hay and
bean-meal, while turnips had no charm for them. In
winter they follow the hay-cart like any other cattle,
and sometimes they have been shot out of it. Their
sense of smell is exceedingly acute, and a cow has
been seen to run a man's foot like a sleuth-hound,
when he had run for his life to a tree. While Sir
Edwin Landseer was taking sketches for his cele-
brated pictures, the herd went into action, and he was
glad to fly to the forest as they passed by. A study
of a bull by Sir Edwin, along with several butterflies
and birds on a screen, are among the choicest art
treasures at the Castle, where he spends many a sum-
mer day, and so is a head of Sir Rowland Errington,
once Master of the Quorn, which is merely dashed off
on a door panel.
But we must turn from these "tameless beef"
studies to the more prosaic sheep of the district
those Barmshires or Border Leicesters, which are pecu-
liar to the Border counties of Roxburgh, Berwick
The Wild Cattle of Chillingham. 137
and Northumberland, or, as some phrase it, " the little
kingdom of Kelso and Northumberland." The Dishley
blood found its way to the Border in 1767, through
Messrs. George and Matthew Culley, one of Crookham
Eastfield, and the other of Wark, who went from the
banks of the Tees to the Tweedside. One or both of
the brothers had been pupils of Mr. Bakewell. They
were in partnership to the end of their lives, but took
up different lines George undertaking the manage-
ment of the flock, while Matthew was more devoted to
agriculture, irrigation, and essays. In process of time
Mr. Robert Thompson, who had also studied under
Mr. Bakewell, established a Dishley flock first at Lil-
burn, and then at Chillingham Barns. The late Mr.
Grey of Dilston confirms Mr. Wilson's pamphlet as to
this point, and adds that there were two distinct
Dishley families upon these Border farms. We meet
with no notice of these two tribes of " blue caps" and
"red legs" in any Bakewell records, but they have
been described to us by Mr. Grey. The blue-headed
Leicesters, which are now quite out of favour on the
Border, were generally rather tender when lambed,
and soft-woolled on the scalp, which made them very
sensitive to fly-galls. They were handsomer and of
greater length than the " red legs," very good feeders,
but rather delicate and light in their wool. Mr. Ro-
bertson of Ladykirk and Mr. Thompson of Bogend
(his tenant) bought " blue caps" from Mr. Stone, which
came, three or four in a cart, from Leicestershire, and
were met half-way. The "red legs" were nearer the
ground, very compact, with less fat and more fibre,
and were generally hardier, and had a more closely-
planted fleece.
The Culleys and Robert Thompson, and the Kelso
and Northumberland men, came to the Ladykirk
lettings, as well as McDougall's of Cessford. At
Chillingham Barns the fleeces were hung up and
ticketed for the early show, which gradually merged
1 38 Saddle and Sirloin.
into the September one. A few small men had Cots-
wolds and Lincolns ; but a great upstanding sheep
was not then the fashion on or over the Border. Mr.
Grey, who joined the ranks of the flockmasters soon
after the beginning of the century, had his " large Gs"
from Messrs. Culley and Mr. Thompson ; but he liked
the thick, short-legged Buckleys better, and stuck to the
sort for wether breeding. About 1815-20 Lord Pol-
warth's agent bought some of his " large G" gimmers,
and also went for rams to Mr. Jobson of Chillingham
New Town. Luke Scott of Easington Grange, near
Belford, was a great character in those days. He clung
to his little flock of twenty Bakewells with desperate
tenacity, even when his farm was gone, and he had to
board them out. After Mr. Robert Thompson's re-
tirement, he would use no rams but his own, and when
a very favourite ewe broke bounds and was tupped by
a " neighbour's mongrel" (as he called it), he slaugh-
tered her without mercy.
They flourish on the banks of the Beaumont-
Water, and all along the spurs of the Cheviot range,
but more especially in the warm and shcJ f cred barley
and turnip soils round Kelso and Coldstream. Un-
less a hill-farm is annexed to the arable, the whole
flock consists of Border Leicesters, and the South
Country Leicester, or "blue head," is proudly es-
chewed. The leading flocks iiave rather marked
peculiarities. Some excel both in size and fleece,
while others have lighter fleeces and smaller scrags,
but more quality and fashion. A very big head is
the characteristic of one or two flocks, and another
can generally be told by " the bridge in front of the
hock." Still, of late years, there has been so much
interchange of blood, that they are fast becoming
of one type, especially in their wool, which has
acquired much more staple and curl. The ewes,
wnich are remarkably good milkers, should lamb
about the middle of March, and when weaning time
The Border Leicester*. 139
is come, the farmer will often give you the choice
of " yow or cow " when the cheese is put upon the
table. The lambs are dipped a week after the ewes
are clipped, so as to keep the ewes clean. Wether
hoggs should be quick off the shears, and not be
kept above fourteen months, when they generally
reach from 18 to iQlbs. a quarter."* Their wool
averages from 7 to 81bs. all round, and a highly-fed
* Since the introduction of so much artificial feeding, the size has
been considerably increased, and the ewes are generally fatted off after
three crops of lambs at from 261bs. to 3olbs. a quarter. St. Ninian's,
near Wooller, is the great fair, late in September, for the cast ewes, but
some are sold at Cornhill, where they made as much as 63^. to 6os.
three autumns since. Penrith dealers have been the principal ewr
buyers at St. Ninian's for the last five-and-forty years, and take on
nearly all the lots to the York and Harewood fairs. The best ewes are
nearly always picked up by the dealers in the pastures, and the price is
governed by St. Ninian's. Mid-ewe lambs are not sold, but are gene-
rally fed off as shearlings with the wether hoggs and the shot gimmers.
Some of the best gimmers have fetched 2O/. apiece to go to Ireland.
Lord Polwarth's rams, as well as those of a few other flock-masters,
were sold by auction at home for many years. In 1846 the Kelso
public sales were established on the second Thursday in September, and
350 rams were entered, but I3/. was the highest price. Lord Polwarth's
were first brought to Kelso in 1852. In 1820 his lordship's home-
average had only been 3/. 15^. for 35 ; whereas in 1865 it was
37/. iSs. lo^d. at Kelso for the same number. His lordship's top
sheep went for 957. that year, and for io6/. in 1867. The supply of
rams has become so large, that some breeders have preferred taking
their lots into the Edinburgh sale-ring ; but even with this slight take
off, upwards of 2300 rams, the property of between fifty and sixty
breeders, are sold annually in the four rings at Kelso.' There are two
or three grades of purchasers among the Irishmen, who come over in
large numbers. Some go up to I5/., but a great many cannot be
tempted beyond 7/. The Caithness men bid with great spirit, and there
is generally a commission from North Wales, at least every other year.
Lord Penrhyn is in the habit of getting them to cross his pure Leicesters.
The cross produces a hardier sheep, with wool as fine and a little
longer in the staple. The order of sale in the four rings is decided by
lot. Lord Polwarth's always make a very high average, however low
down in the list they may be drawn ; but it militates very severely
against the great majority of the lots if they are put up after two o'clock.
Still, a lot of 85 from a noted breeder has made as much as ill. 2s. 8J.,
and 100 have also gone off pretty late in the afternoon at io/. I2s. yd.
[For description of Kelso Ram Fair, see "Field and Fern" (South),
pp. 150-56.]
1 40 Saddle and Sirloin.
tup-hogg will clip to I2lbs., according to the nature
of the soil. Clay land is favourable for wool on the
belly ; but the finer bred they are the greater the
difficulty in preventing it from peeling. The lambs
are generally born with a top-knot, but it comes off,
and if their whisker or their scrag wool is very plenti-
ful, they are pretty certain to peel below. Rams
which have this tendency are generally capital graziers,
and get better fat lambs, and are therefore in good
request for crossing. Their hocks should be rather
away from them if they are to follow Cheviot ewes on
the hill-side, and to travel on the undulating farms
from the banks of the Tweed to the Beaumont. They
should also have plenty of bone, and not be round in
the shank, and, as with the Dartmoors, a wide tail
is a great point. The heads should be long and
thin, without any tendency to a blue shade, the ears
broad and erect, the nose brown coloured or hazel,
with an open nostril and a large expressive eye. The
scrags are hard to keep up to the proper thickness,
but still the leg of mutton or the gigot is the prime
difficulty, and there is also a tendency to be too fat
on the rib.
CHAPTER VII.
" We eat prodigiously indeed, so great is our love of good cheer,
that we name our children after our favourite dishes. If a person in
good society is not called ' Sir Rosbif,' he will probably answer to the
name of 'Lord Bifstek/ in honour of the two great national dishes,
which we have spelt in that manner from time immemorial."
"FOREIGNERS' PORTRAITS." Household Words.
Bakewell's Longhorns The Holdemess and Teeswater Great Short-
horn Breeders Mr. Bates Mr. Fawcett's Recollections of him
Show of Terriers at Yarm Shoeing Contest Hound Show at
Redcar Photographing the Huntsmen The Neasham Hall Stud
Sparkler of the Hurworth Mr. Wetherell's Herds.
ODERN history has been much too sparing
in its prose pictures of pastoral life. A great
M
Bakeweirs Longhorns. 141
general or statesman has never lacked the love of a
biographer ; but the thoughts and labours of men
who lived " remote from cities," and silently built up
an improved race of sheep or cattle, whose influence
was to be felt in every market, have had no adequate
record. One slight sketch in the Gentleman 's Magazine
is nearly all that remains to us. We can go back,
through its guidance, to the days when Bakewell was
a living name, and Dishley the head-quarters to which
all the best breeders of farm stock made resort. The
scene rises up through the dim vista of more than a
hundred years. There are the willow clumps which
were cut on a seven years' rotation ; the water mea-
dows, which grew four grass crops in the season ; the
mimic Dutch canal, which supplied the sluices and
carried boats laden with produce and manure between
different parts of the farm, and on whose sluggish
stream turnips were floated down to the stock, and
washed in the course of their sail ! " Two Pounder "
is brought out by the shepherd, with all the respect
due to such a patriarch of the long-wools. Will Peet
is on parade with the black cart stallion ; and John
Breeder and Will Arnold, hazel wand in hand, have
gathered the herd into a corner of the Long Pasture,
and listen eagerly for any word that may be dropped
about their favourites. In the business room there
are not only skeletons but pickled carcases of sheep,
whose points were most after their breeder's heart ;
but he shows with no less relish some beef joints, the
relics of his " Old Comely," which died at twenty-six,
and the outside fat of a sirloin fully four inches thick.
The latter were his Longhorn trophies, and no man
could boast of a herd with deeper flesh and lighter
offal. In his eyes the breed was fated to represent
the roast beef of Old England for ever and aye ; and
the thought that the very glory of their heads would
be objected to as taking up too much room in the
strawyards, and that a race with shorter horns and
1 42 Saddle and Sirloin.
earlier maturity from " the banks of the stately Tees"
would ruthlessly push them from their place and
reduce them to a mere fraction in the Midlands, never
vexed his soul. Their hold of public favour had been
long and sure, and their greatest triumph was to
come. If " Two Pounder" had then the reputation of
earning 800 guineas in one season and serving some
picked home ewes as well, the Dishley bull, " Two
Penny," was fated to make the herd of Fowler of
Rollright, and swell its sale average to 8 1/. 14^. 3^. for
fifty-one !
Longhorns of some kind or another, and generally
with good milk marks and the faculty of fattening at
a great age, were at this period the farmers' friends.
They excited the admiration of Dr. Johnson in Derby-
shire, and led him to note that his host "whose talk is
of bullocks," sold one of them for 100 guineas ; and
as good prices were obtained for the armenta fronte
laid those blacks with white backs, which Sir A.
Ramsay took to Scotland as a cross for the Aberdeen-
shire, and whose horn practice in Garstang market
was duly felt and recorded by Pennant as he journeyed
towards the Hebrides.
The Holderness, a fine, large-framed breed, with
good backs, long quarters, remarkably clean, straight
legs, and well-developed udders, grazed in the district
north of the Humber. Many of them were white,
with blue or bay flecks ; but the largest number were
dark mouse and white, and, as was natural from their
proximity to Hull and their general appearance, they
were thought to be of Dutch origin. Milk was their
specialty, and Mr. Curwen was wont to value the dairy
produce of his twenty at 25/. a year. Under the local
name of " Teeswaters," the Shorthorns, to which the
Holderness seemed to bear most affinity in character,
had got a strong hold in Durham several years before
the close of the century ; but still it was not until
"The Durham Ox" commenced his six years of
The Teeswaters. 143
caravan life in 1801 that the doom of the Longhorns
was virtually sealed.
The Teeswaters* were cattle of great substance,
but somewhat ungainly in form, and were thought to
give less but richer milk than the Holderness. The
fragments of history on which their origin rests are
somewhat shadowy and uncertain. Some contend
therefrom that they must be of Dutch origin, and
only another version of the Holderness ; and others,
with equal zeal, that their tap-root is to be found in
the West Highlands, or that the earlier breeders
always fell back on its bulls for a cross if they thought
that their herd was losing constitution. There is
certainly some confirmation of this opinion in the
peculiarly sharp horns and ink-black noses which will
appear at intervals. The admirers of the " Princesses"
make good " the claims of long descent" as far back
as 1739, on Stephenson's farm at Ketton; and it is also
said that the ancestress of the "Duchesses" roamed
in Stanwick Park two hundred years ago, and that
none of the tribe had been out of the Northumberland
family until Charles Colling bought them. Be this
as it may, the Teeswaters' capability of development,
which the St. Quintin, the Pennyman, and the
Milbank families were among the first to recognise,
had suggested itself to many a long-headed Durham
farmer as well as the Brothers Colling ; but private
herd-books were hardly in *ogue, and the patient
pilgrimage of Coates, through sunshine and shower,
with his grey pony and saddle-bags, has not had the
* An eminent living authority thus writes us of the Teeswater breed
of sheep : "They were nearly as big as a jackass, and had nearly as
large bone. Gradually they went out of use, and there is not a sem-
blance of them left. They had raw lugs and no horns, long watery
wool, of which you could count the strings, some of which seemed six-
teen inches long. I have heard of fleeces weighing 22lbs. Some of
them killed with ordinary keep to 4Olbs. a quarter, but they were gra-
dually crossed out by Leicester rams, which lessened the size, and im-
proved the grazing qualities."
or THE
UNIVERSITY
144 Saddle and Sirloin.
effect of tracing the breed further back than four
crosses beyond " Hubback" (319), who was calved
in 1777-
If the red-and-white Studley bull (626), bred by
Sharter of Chilton, and the founder of the Gwynne or
" Princess" tribe, may claim to be the " Abraham of
shorthorns," James Brown's red bull (97) and Jolly's
bull (337) are very early names on the roll. Seventeen
or eighteen crosses separate the Duchesses from the
one, and the Maynard and Mason tribes are in direct
descent from the other. Only 7 10 bulls were registered
in the first volume of Coates' Herd-book, which was
published in 1822; but the fifteenth showed, under
Mr. Strafford's care, an accession of 1959 in two years,
and the seventeenth brought up the numbers to
Zemi (25,481).
The germ of this wonderful array must have been
considered an " improved" county breed as far back
as 1787. Hutchinson of Sockburn had then a cow
good enough to be modelled for the cathedral vane,
and had also beaten Robert Colling in a bull class.
Other Durham breeders stood proudly on their family
tribes. The " Lizzies" were with Charge of Newton,
and Rose's and Fisher's stock can be traced to Corn-
forth of Barforth. Robert Colling had set his seal to
Hill of Blackwell's herd, and nearly all the best men
were dipping into the blood of Millbank of Barning-
ham. It was from his sort that there sprang the
" old yellow cow by ' Punch,' " which was grandam
of " the white heifer that travelled," The Maynards*
* Maynard's "Favourite" tribe was very early in repute, and
Charles Colling (who had previously picked up his "Cherry" or
" Peeress" tribe in Yarm Market) never rested till he had bought the
cow and her calf, " Young Strawberry," by Charge's " Dal ton Duke "
(1 88). He then changed the cow's name to " Lady Maynard," and it
was upon her tribe that he used the Galloway or "alloy blood"
through "Grandson of Bolingbroke" (280), which made the highest
average in its hour of trial at Ketton. Her descendant* were also
Great Shorthorn Breeders. 145
were also in the front rank, and it became their sound
family custom to pitch eight bullocks and as many
heifers in Darlington market, on the first Monday of
March, as a sample of the Eryholme pastures. The
bullocks were from four to five years old, with fine,
wide horns, good bone, and very deep flesh ; and they
were keenly looked out for, year after year, on the
pavement opposite the King's Head.
The aim of the Brothers Colling was to reduce the
size and improve the general symmetry and flesh-
points of their beasts. " Beauty," sister to " Punch"
(531), had spread their fame beyond the county ; and
in 1799 "the Durham Ox," by " Favourite" (252) came
out first at Darlington with his half-sister of the
"Duchess" tribe. The latter was quite as great a
wonder in her way, and confirmed Mr. Bates's fancy
for the sort which was hereafter to be linked with his
name. The subsequent travels of the Ox brought a
large bull trade to Ketton and Barmpton. It would
have been strange if they had not, as his live weight
was 216 stones of I4lbs., and that not got by un-
wieldly bulk, but by the ripeness of all his points. He
ultimately dislocated his hip and was slaughtered,
and, curiously enough, his show career ended at
Oxford, where, nearly a third of a century later, that
of the Royal Agricultural Society began.
Even at the Ketton sale in 1810, the taste for
shorthorns was confined within a narrow compass, as
Durham, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Northumberland,
and Westmoreland were the only counties which pur-
chased. Some of the few survivors of the assembly
crossed most successfully with "Foljambe" (263), the sire of
"Phoenix," the dam of the bull "Favourite" (252), who was in his
turn the sire of the thousand-guinea "Comet" (155). " Hubback"
(319) has always been considered the great regenerator of shorthorns ;
but he did not do Charles Colling so much good as " Foljambe," who
was from a ' ' Hubback" cow, and he was parted with at the end of
two seasons.
L
146 Saddle and Sirloin.
on that day still speak of " Comet" as the most
symmetrical bull they have ever seen. He was not
very large, but with that infallible sign of constitu-
tion, a good wide scorp or frontlet, a fine placid eye,
a well-filled twist, and an undeniable back. His price
caused breeders everywhere to prick up their ears.
They had already heard of Fowler refusing 1000 guineas
for a longhorn bull and three cows, as well as for a
cow and her produce of eight seasons ; but never of
one bull achieving that sum. The spirit south of the
Humber was fairly roused at last, and when, eight
years after, the Barmpton herd came to the hammer,
the representatives of four or five more counties were
found at the ring-side. The Rev. Thomas Harrison
and Mr. Edmonds of Boughton had often talked to
Lord Althorp, Sir Charles Knightley, and Mr.
Arbuthnot, in the Pytchley Club or woodlands, of the
great day at Ketton, and his lordship sent a commis-
sion to Barmpton, when Robert Colling parted with
everything but his heifer calves, for three heifers and
a bull ; while a Nottinghamshire and a Leicestershire
man joined in the highest-priced lot, " Lancaster"
(621 guineas), which had some five crosses of
" Favourite" (252) in his veins.
For many years previous to this sale Mr. Bates had
been breeding shorthorns by the Tyne side, and
bringing his beasts, as Sir Hugh Smythson had done
before him, to periodical scale tests. Still, he does
not seem to have struck out any especial herd-line for
himself till he took up his fancy for the Duchess tribe.
Charles Colling assured him that the cow which he
bought in 1784 out of Stanwick Park was the best he
ever had or ever saw, and sold him her great-grand-
daughter " Duchess," by " Daisy Bull" (186). She was
the prelude to Mr. Bates's purchase of " Duchess 1st"
by " Comet" (155), the only " Duchess" at the Ketton
sale, and a very cheap lot at 1 86 guineas, as, inde-
pendently of her produce, her new owner left it on
Mr. Bates. 147
record that she gave I4lbs. of butter (21 ozs.to the Ib.)
per week for six weeks after calving.
" Belvedere" (1706), of the " Princess" tribe, was the
bull which Mr. Bates selected to " bring out the
Duchesses." He was small and plain, and with
rather rough shoulders, but as soft as a mole in his
touch. The Brothers Colling had a most faithful
disciple in the Kirklevington philosopher, as his cele-
brated show-bull " Duke of Northumberland" (1940)
was by " Belvedere," dam by " Belvedere ;" and was
thus bred on precisely the same principle as four of
their leading animals, "Comet" and "The Ox,"
" Punch" and " Broken Horn" rather an instructive
comment on the popular timidity which eschews
even an approach to in-breeding. Mr. Bates led the
shorthorn ranks of the Royal Agricultural Society
both at Oxford and Cambridge, and it was his lot to
breed the second one thousand guinea bull, and to
fashion the model of the moulds in which such cows
as "Second Grand Duchess," "Oxford I5th," and
" Duchess 77th," were duly cast and quickened. Still
no one contributed more towards shorthorn progress
than Mason of Chilton, who got rid of the open
shoulders and improved the fore-quarters generally.
His sale in 1829 was to breeders quite a season of re-
freshing after a long and dreary drought. Earl
Spencer took heart of grace, and bought a bull and
sixteen cows and heifers ; and Captain Barclay (who
began in 1822) laid a still more solid foundation with,
" Lot 20, ' Lady Sarah.' " Such a splendid lo| of
cows as those at Chilton were seldom seen together,
and the one from which Earl Spencer bred most was
No. 25 (36 guineas), or Wiseton's dam.
Whitaker of Burley held his first sale soon after.
He had always gone for milking tribes in his quiet
Yorkshire valley, and laid much stress upon the pur-
chase of " Magdalena," by "Comet" (155), the only
cow which was kept out of the Ketton sale catalogue.
L 2
i 48 Saddle and Sirloin.
The Americans, and more especially Colonel Powell
and the Ohio Company, had heard of her and her
32 quarts a day in their repeated visits to Burley.
They generally left Yorkshire with the belief that
" a man might ride four hacks to death in the North,
and not find twenty such cows as Mr. Whitaker's ;"
and they were among his best customers for a series
of years.
Sir Charles Knightley gradually became quite a
Whitaker to the Midlands, when he gave up hounds
about 1818, and laid himself in with the " Rosy" and
" Ruby" tribes, and his friend Arbuthnot's bulls. He
always said that it was " quite an acquired taste," but
he took to it with singular heartiness. He strove to
put shoulders on his cattle as perfect as those of his
own hunters, " Benvolio" and " Sir Marinel." Beau-
tiful fore-quarters, gay carriage, general elegance, and
a strong family likeness distinguished his tribes, and
their fine milking powers placed them (like " Cold
Cream" and " Alix," of the Royal Home Farm) at the
head of many a dairy. " A Fawsley fill-pail" soon
passed into a herd proverb ; and a dip into the blood
of the " Earl of Dublin" (10,178) and the " Friars"
White or Grey was pretty sure to make one.
The " Old Cherry," by " Pirate" (2430) tribe, which
came originally from William Colling of Stapleton,
was in high force when " Gainford steers" were told at
a glance, and valued at a good pound more, and when
Mr. Crofton had taken such rare prize heifers by him
and " The Provost" (4846) to the Highland Society
and other shows. Colonel Cradock liked the sort for
their size and milk, and they " nicked" well both wkh
the Booth and the Bates blood. Crossed with
"Grand Duke" (10,284), they founded the "Cherry
Dukes" and " Duchesses ;" and it was to "Mussulman"
(4525) that John Booth sent his celebrated " Bracelet,"
and had " Buckingham" (3239) for his reward.
The Booth family began at Studley about 1790,
The Booth Family. 149
with Teeswaters and "Twin Brother to Ben" (660) ;
and lengthening the hind-quarters, filling up the fore-
flank, and breeding with a view to that fine deep flesh
and constitution which bears any amount of forcing,
have been their especial aim. It was the late Mr.
Richard Booth's opinion that no bull had done his herd
so much good as " Albion" (14), of "the alloy blood,"
and Mr. Whitaker and Mr. Wetherell were quite with
him on the point. It may be said that shorthorns
generally have grown smaller in frame, and that there
is perhaps not that rich coat and uniformity of
character which marked some of the earlier herds ;
but still those who can make the comparison from
memory are fain to allow that, in their flesh-points
and general weights, the breed knows no decay. What
the Brothers Colling were in earlier days, the Brothers
Booth have been in later. If the elder could boast of
" Necklace" with the wondrous crops, and " Bracelet,"
in whom none could find a fault, save a trifling defi-
ciency in the fore-rib, it was left to the younger to
keep up the type with the beautiful " Charity," whose
twist and hind-legs might have been modelled from,
and to follow it up with " Plum Blossom," " Nectarine
Blossom," " Queen of the Ocean," and " Queen of the
May." Richard Booth and Crofton might be said to
have initiated the modern plan of keeping beasts far
more in the house, and preparing them specially with
a view to shows. No blood has been more widely
spread than that of " Warlaby" and " Killerby"
throughout the United Kingdom, or commanded a
finer bull-hiring trade ; and it was from " Buttercup,"
a daughter of " Barmpton Rose," and crossed with
Booth's " Jeweller" (10,354) that " Butterfly" sprang,
the chief foundress, with "Frederick," (11,489) of the
Towneley herd, whose victories in the store and fat
shows combined are wholly without parallel.
A very painful chord was struck at the Yorkshire
Agricultural Meeting of '49, when hundreds of friends
150 Saddle and Sirloin.
who expected once more to grasp him by the hand,
and to enjoy the half-sportive, half-sarcastic lecture
on each prize beast of " the old man eloquent" of
Kirklevington, learnt for the first time that Mr. Bates
had gone to his rest, and that their shorthorn festival
was on his funeral day. His heart was with horn and
hoof to the last, and there was no " cruel Phyllis" to
cross him in that love. Those who have strolled with
him in his pastures, can recall how the cows and even
the young heifers would lick his hand, and seem to
listen to every gentle word and keen comment, as if
they penetrated its import ; and even when the last
struggle was nigh, and he could wander amongst them
no more, he reclined on some straw in the cow-house,
that his eye might not lack its solace.
We had never been in the neighbourhood before a
meeting of the Cleveland Society tempted us to
Yarm, on one of whose inn signs the bull " Duke"
still flourishes. When the hound prizes were decided,
we strolled out to Kirklevington. Hard by the
churchyard is the calf-house, in which Fourth Duke of
Northumberland and the Duchesses and Oxfords were
reared, but the great philosopher* of shorthorns lay
* Mr. James Fawcett, who often stayed with him at Halton Castle,
in Northumberland, some two-and-fifty years ago, thus writes us : "I
have endeavoured to recall from the depths of memory some of the
byegone days spent with my old friend and tutor, Mr. Bates. Having
studied at the Edinburgh University, he was well up to the chemical
and scientific part of his business, and far beyond his neighbours in
that respect. The chief enjoyment, however, of his life was in his cow
pastures, which were generally visited once or twice a day, and the
history and points of each animal made known to any visitor as it came
up to have its head rubbed. On these occasions he was in the habit of
manipulating the animals all over, pressing them gently with his fingers,
thereby to detect any unevenness or want of quality in any particular
part, and guard against the patchy appearance that so many shorthorns
exhibit, being overloaded in one place and bare in another. I well re-
member the interest and pains he took to initiate me into the mysteries
of 'handling.'
'* What he termed quality, he considered the most essential point
in cattle, and under this designation he included aptitude to fatten,
Mr. Bates. 1 5 1
in the churchyard just over the wall, without a stone
to mark his resting-place.*
early maturity, symmetry, fineness of bone, and, above all, the cover-
ing of the frame evenly with flesh of a delicate fibre and well intermixed
with fat, and to his steady perseverance towards this end his breed
undoubtedly owe their fame. In those days he had very few pure
Duchesses and Kettons, but a number of beautiful cows by Ketton
and Ketton 2nd from choice Argyleshire heifers, which he had selected
with the view of rearing an original herd like Charles Ceiling's,
whose success he attributed to the judicious blending of that blood obtained
through Grandson of Bolingbroke with the best shorthorns of the day.
" From some cause or other he lost the Argyleshire tribes after leav-
ing Northumberland, and steadily cultivated the Duchesses, and one or
two other tribes, among the best of which were Red Rose and Fairy,
two splendid cows from Mr. Hustler. From the former he bred Second
Hubback by The Earl, which he considered the best bull he ever had,
and destined to become quite a regenerator of shorthorns. He was
a light red bull, with a lemon muzzle, and as perfect in his points as
could be desired, at the same time evenly and smoothly covered with
flesh of the best possible quality. Mr. Bates considered Mr. Charles
Colling to have been the most thorough judge of cattle of his day, and,
in fact, the originator of the improved shorthorn, having imbibed his
knowledge from Mr. Bakewell of Dishley, with whom he lived some
time in statu puplllari. He thought that his brother Robert's fame as
a breeder was entirely due to the superior judgment of Charles, whose
bull Favourite was the undoubted fountain-head of pedigrees and the
source of their distinction, being the sire of Comet, Ketton, &c., &c.,
as well as of the famous old cow Princess and of her daughter, the
Favourite cow, the dam of the first Duchess. Princess and her daughter
were purchased by Mr. Bates from Mr. Charles Colling, and were the
foundation of his herd.
"Mr. Bates used to describe Favourite as a very rich roan, robust,
and massive animal, with a very fine, long, and downy coat and superb
handling, but by no means so pointy a bull as his son. Comet, although
a much better sire. He thought him so much better than the other
that he did not scruple to breed in-and-in with him several times, and
with success. He was an advocate for that mode of breeding, and at
last preferred it to having recourse to impure blood, as there was appa-
rently (in that day at least) no bad result from it in his cattle, which
were distinguished by their vigour and healthy appearance. To dairy
properties, a thing too often overlooked, he paid great attention, and
very few of his cows were deficient in this respect. He was a man of
warm feelings, and either a strong friend or a bitter enemy. Though
most acute and observing, he was liable to prejudice, and a splendid
4ogmatizer, but none have left a more decided mark on our shorthorn
history. "
* Thanks to the exertions of Mr. Housman and a few other lovers of
shorthorns, a tombstone has been erected since then.
152 Saddle and Sir Coin,
Now, that perhaps less prejudiced but not more
clear-cutting brains are left to work their way up that
channel of science which he buoyed out, each year
confirms the belief that he was not so very far wrong
when, in speaking of one of his best Duchesses, he
said to Lord Althorp, " The destiny of shorthorns de-
pends on this calf this slender thread of a calf."*
In the following year Mr. Bates saw the merits of
the Princess or St. Albans tribe (which had recovered
the quality that Jupiter lost) so keenly at Mason's
sale, that he determined, if possible, to get his new
cross from it. At that time St. Albans, who went
back direct to Favourite and Hubback, missing the
dreaded Punch, was about fifteen years old, and he
had been lot for three years into Northumberland.
Mason had got him in a sly way at first for 2O/.,
through a butcher, whom he sent as his agent ; and
when Mr. Wood was at Chilton three years after, and
only caught a glimpse of his head, he exclaimed,
" Why, there's my old Prince ; he was bougJit to kill"
And sure enough it was Prince, but canonized in life
as " St. Albans !"
How to bring about his long-cherished combination
* Although he had got as far as (63), he had made but little figure
with the Duchesses, when he moved from the Tyneside to Kirkleving-
ton, whither Red Rose, who had been bought from Mr. Hustler, ac-
companied him. She was three removes from Favourite on one side
and two on the other, and from the union of her and the Earl (646)
came Second Hubback (1423). His idolatry for this bull did his herd
no small harm ; and it was only when he found that he had lost 28
calves in one year, solely through lack of constitution, that he began
to cast about, and in vain applied to Mr. Whitaker for his famous
Frederick. Perhaps on no occasion was Mr. Bates so offended with
any one as he was with poor old Coates, when, in 1828, he met him
with Mr. Whitaker and Colonel Powell, of Pennsylvania, in the yard
at Greenholme. His aim was to get him, as a great authority, to go
and lay his hand, in the presence of that pioneer of our shorthorns in
America, solemnly on the bull, and speaking from the hoary depths of
experience, to proclaim him quite equal to the First Hubback ; but the
author of the " Herd-Book was not the man to speak against his
convictions.
Mr. Bates. 153
of the Princess of Barmpton and the Duchess of Ketton
blood was now the problem which puzzled the lord of
Kirklevington, and which Belvedere so happily solved.
Oddly enough, this bull had been living only ten miles
off him, and for two long years his friend, Mr. Atkin-
son Greenwell, had urged him to go and have a look.
One day he did condescend to drive over, and strange
as the coincidence may seem, the moment he in his
turn merely glanced at the bull's head through a
square hole, he knew that it was the blood he was
seeking ; and he said to himself, " Thou art mine, if
money 'II buy thee" And buy him he did, then and
there, for 5o/., which he drew in notes from his pocket,
and permission to " send cows to the bull while he
lives." The man demurred when the money was paid,
and said rather sorrowfully to a friend afterwards,
" I might as well have had a hundred from Tommy
Bates he was so varra keen of him''*
* The Waterloo and Wild Eyes were fresh additions about the era of
Belvedere, from whose cross with Red Rose 9th came Cambridge Rose
ist ; and so well did it nick, that Belvedere was put on her in turn. At
the sale, however, this tribe was reduced to Cambridge Rose 5th, and
her two calves by Third Duke of York. The great triumph of Belve-
dere was still to come from another cross with his own daughter,
Duchess 34th, who beat Necklace at York. She had broken her fore-
leg, and Mr. Bates was within an ace of selling her to the Americans,
but luckily Mr. Whitaker got him off it, and she lived to produce the
Duke of Northumberland a few months after. With the exception of
this famous roan, she never bred any but red and whites, and Mr. Bates
was determined to try the effect of a third Belvedere cross with his prize
yearling at Oxford (which was own sister to the Fourth Duke of
Northumberland) if she had not been prematurely choked with a turnip.
To the eye of a well-known authority on these matters, " Duke" looked
a very delicate calf at five months ; but his owner, strong in the faith
of the double Favourite cross in Comet, which he had here striven to
emulate, drew himself proudly up, and said, " Well! sir, I have the
greatest hopes of him" After all his honours, " Duke" came to no very
glorious end, as he had been kept low for the purpose of being put on
Cleveland Lad's stock, and he died fairly maw-bound from the effects of
some mouldy hay, leaving the 2nd Duke of Oxford as the inheritor of
his honours. It was with " Duke" and the Oxford Cow, and his two
Duchess heifers, that Mr. Bates set forth and won every prize he showed
for at the first Meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society in 1839.
154 Saddle and Sirloin.
Mr. Bates had two very favourite maxims one
that he " could find forty men fit to be a Premier, for
one fit to judge shorthorns ;" and the other that there
was " no place for shorthorns, like the Valley of the
Wharfe." The late Mr. Whitaker and Mr. Fawkes of
Farnley have proved this to the full ; but it was left
They came in a steamboat to London, and walked to Oxford, and it
was said at the time that nothing but the presence of Mr. Bates, and
the soothing effect of his pat and his ''poor Duke!" prevented the bull
from slipping off the stage into the water when he turned awkward,
and declined to re-embark. With the victory of his Cambridge cow,
and eight months' bull-calf at Cambridge next year, and his bull Cleve-
land Lad at Liverpool, the Royal prize winning era of Mr. Bates
virtually ceased (in fact, he hardly ever showed again), and that of the
Booths began.
The Oxford tribe sprang from a cow by Matchem, supposed by St.
Albans, whom Mr. Bates accidentally bought after Mason's sale. He
did not admire his choice, and when she had bred a calf to Duke of
Cleveland, who ripened into the Oxford premium cow, she was packed
off to Darlington. Mr. Bates' lucky star was in the ascendant that
market-day, as no one would bid within 2/. of the 1 1/, which he had
set on her, and she afterwards calved Cleveland Lad, Cleveland 2nd
(the sire of Grand Duke), and Oxford 2nd, all to Shorttail by Belve-
dere. Her Oxford premium cow was deficient in girth and gaudy be-
hind, and in fact her owner was so ashamed of her in that point, that
when she was beaten by Bracelet at Berwick, he hung not a " calf-skin"
but a horse-rug "on those recreant limbs," and vowed he would show
her no more. Failure as she might be, there was no mistake as to the
cross between the Duke of Northumberland and her half-sister Oxford
2nd, resulting as it did in that fine bull, 2nd Duke of Oxford, who was
put on the Duchess tribe, and got five out of the eight plums on the
Kirklevington day.
At Mr. Bates's sale Lord Ducie was as undaunted as ever, and it was
nothing but being, in racing phrase, " a good beginner" which secured
him the 4th Duke of York so cheap. He had "determined to buy him,
or make him dear for some one ;" and he put him in so promptly at
200 guineas, that although one gentleman at least wished to have him
at two hundred more, a sort of stagnation supervened, amid which Mr.
Stafford's glass ran down. If the first bid had only been a hundred,
three at least would have gone on. It was this sale which first opened
that Duchess tribe to the world, which had been increasing, and then
dwindling at Kirklevington, during the forty years since " T. Bates,
Esq.," had been written opposite "38. Young Duchess, 2 years old,
by Comet, dam by Favourite, 183 guineas ;" in Mr. Kingston's catalogue
on the Ketton day. She was bulled by Comet at the time, and Mr.
Bates had never once deserted the blood except for one cross with
Stephenson's Belvedere.
r THE
VN/VERS/TY
Tortworth
to Major Gunter to found a second Kirklevington on
its banks, and to vow that eternal allegiance to the
Duchesses and the Oxfords which their great founder
had done. His Wetherby Grange estate is well
adapted for its new colony, which moved there in the
August of 1857, from Earl's Court, near Kensington.
It consists of 600 acres on both sides of the river, 400
of which are kept in grass. The house once belonged
to " Kit Wilson," the owner of Comus, and the father
of the Turf, and some of his horses were trained in the
Park.
It was at Tortworth that the Major's steward, Mr.
Knowles, confirmed the rich experience he had gained
under Mr. Thomas Mason at Broughton, and gathered
the germs of that herd which he has so ably helped to
found for his new master. Tortworth, on August 24th,
l %53> was a veritable Bunker's Hill removed. Eng-
land was pitted against America once more the
guineas of the old country against the " almighty
dollars" of the new. Messrs. Morris and Becar bid by
their agent ; but Mr. Thorne did his own business, in a
cool Quaker-like style, with which it was almost hope-
less to cope. His first English purchase for Thorn-
dale was a 14-guinea bull-calf at Captain Pelham's
sale, which he afterwards sold for upwards of 300
guineas to the West of America. It is calculated that
he laid out at least fifteen thousand in five years on
shorthorns ; and he bought up fifty-two lots when the
Morris and Becar confederacy was dissolved by the
latter's untimely death, at prices which had hitherto
only been read of by his countrymen in the English
prints. But for Major Gunter and Mr. Tanqueray,
who upset all the wise counsels which had been taken
at the Gloucester caucus over-night, the Duchess tribe
would have departed bodily across the Atlantic.*
* Previous to the Tortworth sale, Major Gunter had only a few
A-lderneys and ordinary Shorthorns, and he had not made up his mind as
156 Saddle and Sirloin.
The specialty of the Cleveland Show, when it was
held at Yarm, proved to be the fox terriers. On our
way down we tried in vain to impress upon a man,
whose Twitch and Viper and Myrtle were as fat as
guinea pigs, that the small and smooth whites were
the only orthodox sort, and that he must banish hope.
Of course he wouldn't have it. His dogs had Lamb-
ton and Fitzwilliam blood in them, and the former
" wur always hairy." That didn't convince us, so he
urged that " the Hurworth have been glad enough,
time upon times, to send for yon dog's grandfather to
get a fox out for them," and " as for his dam, she's
been painted ten times over." However, the owner of
the trio and sundry other vagrant professors of fox
drawing took nothing by their journey. One Peeping
to whether he should buy on that day ; but the bitter complaints of some
Gloucestershire farmers, who shared his waggon, as to the Americans
getting Duchess 59th fired him into action at last. He accordingly bid
200 guineas for the twentieth lot, Duchess 64th, but it was hardly
taken, and his 400 guineas was soon left in the rear by the Trans-
atlantic rivals. He did not touch the 7oo-guinea Duchess 66th, but
Duchess 67th, the fifteen-months' heifer by Usurer out of Duchess 59th
(the highest-priced female at the Kirklevington sale), fell to his nod for
350 guineas, and then Duchess 7<Dth by Duke of Glo'ster (11,382), out
of Duchess 66th, followed suit for 310 gs. She was only a trifle over
six weeks, and the Americans had no idea of leaving her ; but as one of
them said afterwards, it was " the way in which that other bidder said
* and ten guineas ' almost before my bidding was out of my mouth,
that made me falter and give in. " It was with these two and Duchess
6gth by 4th Duke of York, whom he afterwards bought privately at
nine months for 500 guineas from Mr. Tanqueray, that Major Gunter
commenced his herd. Duchess 67th was sent at a 25-guinea fee to 4th
Duke of Oxford, and Duchess 69th to Mr. Tanqueray's Duke of Cam-
bridge, who was afterwards so famed at Fawsley, and Duchess 72nd
and Archduke were the respective results. His next purchase was the
6th Duke of Oxford at Hendon, for 200 guineas, and his dam Oxford
nth for 500 guineas more, when she was just four years old. He
originally intended to have bought the Duke of Cambridge ; but Mr.
Strafford's glass ran out in favour of the Fawsley baronet, who, strange
to say, had his eye rather on the 6th Duke of Oxford. Lord Fever-
sham had shown his opinion of 5th Duke of Oxford by giving 300
guineas for him as a five months' calf at Tortworth, and he won at
Chester and Northallerton.
Show of Terriers at Yarm. 157
Tom, who had found a friendly rent in the canvas of
the terrier tent soon told a cluster of owners their fate.
"Ah! man" says he to his next friend, " that lang
chap i't trearis reet eneugh ; they're leuking at nowt but
the slape coats and the white uns" And so it was, for
Captain Williams, a true lover of the sort, for Venom
and Rage of the Rufford's sake, had selected three
out of the sixteen whites for the prizes. Ben Morgan's
fourth son, little Joe, was lying on the top platform,
caressing Nettle vigorously in honour of her being
second. She was seven years old, and had done Ben
a world of honest service both in drawing and breed-
ing. Once she was land locked in an East Riding
earth with four badgers in front of her and two behind,
and Ben said it was like discovering a subterranean
Zoological Gardens. Martin Care of the Morpeth was
first with his two-year-old, Pincher, which had only
been three times in an earth, but as foxes take to
rocks, pit drifts, sandhills, and conduits pretty freely
in that country, he was in for a very rich and varied
experience. Charles Treadwell was third, with Wasp
or Tickler, but he hung rather more to Gyp, a broad-
breasted black-and-tan whose grandfather Jack had
been with him at Quorn and Coldstream. The six-
teen in the rough interest were of all colours, blue,
white, yellow, black-and-tan, and brown-and-white.
Their owners, of course, said that they wouldn't ex-
change theirs for the winners "no, not for two of em"
and also drew much comfort from the fact that a soli-
tary white " slape coat" had a wall eye. Mr. Hill's
Bonny Bell was the " sensation" foxhound of the day,
and the greatest character among the huntsmen was
Robert Bruce of the Haydon. He was a tall, lean,
hard-bitten sort of old fellow, clad in a velvet cap and
well stained scarlet swallow tails. He brought two
couple, but they were of a coarse, queer stamp, no
doubt " beggars to gari' among their native heather
and Scotch fir plantings, and ready, in the words of
158 Saddle and Sirloin.
their guide, to " teer doon a fox lang afore these grand
bred uns they mak soe much talk of have f tin him"
After this we paid our tribute to the district's taste
for iron, and went for a little change among the com-
peting blacksmiths. Each of them had to forge a fore
and hind foot shoe out of scrap iron, to dress the fore
foot, and to fix the fore shoe only ; and a striker was
allowed in forging the shoes. A few village adherents
had got round some of the men, and gradually worked
them up into steam arm pace. One aspiring Tubal
Cain strung up his nerves to " do or die" in fifteen
minutes, and when the last nail was rivetted, he flung
himself, with grimy beads of perspiration starting from
his brow, quite melodramatically among a knot of his
supporters, with the ejaculation : " Hell be a queer y un
who licks me" We felt quite an interest in him after
such a Pogram defiance, and eventually discovered
him with the second prize ticket in his button-hole.
Still he did not conceal his chagrin that " a slow 28-
minute fellow" should have beaten him. The ruck
were much more demonstrative. One of them, who
said that he was " highly commended," shook his fist
quite savagely at his fellow, and said, " Dang ! Pll
have you for afi-pun note ony day" and desired to strip
then and there, and show his muscle gratis.
Two years glide by and we are once more passing
Yarm, its high-level bridge and its orchards, on a fine
August morning on our way to another Cleveland
Show at Redcar. Mr. Booth's Beechwood, after
winning at Grantham the day before, has been
scratched for the hunter prize and has left the train
at Northallerton, and his owner elects to stand on the
Van Galen gelding. There was no Preston Junction
hitch this year, but still sixteen miles an hour seems
our average rate of progression. On our right is the
new Stockton racecourse, commanding that " view of
the mineral hills," which the committee impressed so
much on race-horse owners in their Weatherby Book
Hound Show at Redcar. 159
Calendar description of the ground. A few worn
posters of the previous October which tell that Mr.
Gladstone is underlined for a speech at Middlesboro',
and that those desirous to hear him can do so for
" one fare, there and back," prophesy of that dreary-
looking meadow where Voltigeur, The Cure, Fan-
dango, and Lord Fauconberg were first, second, and
highly commended for the " Cleveland Hundred
Pounds." On the left is the great estuary of the Tees,
studded with beacons looking like pigeon-houses to
mark its original channel, and a few gulls and a re-
cumbent donkey ar^ the only tenants of the broad
acres of ooze. To the right is the Cleveland vale,
above the grey remains of Guisboro' Abbey ; then the
sand-hills thicken, and grow most appropriately yellow
with dog standards, and the Redcar field, gay with
tents and union-jacks, and bits of scarlet bunting, and
with its hunters through which Lord Combermere
and Sir Watkin are just taking a run all in a row ;
to say nothing of Mr. Booth's Queen of the Vale and
Lord Zetland's white bull Savile, is safely reached at
last.
Captain Percy Williams was the Cresswell of the
hound bench, and we never saw him work harder and
balance the points more carefully in the course of his
enormous judicial practice, both sitting as judge at
Nisi Prins at Brocklesby and In Banco in the West
and North Ridings. Mr. Anstruther Thomson, who,
like his man " Fred," looked from the first as if he was
mentally laying two to one on his chance, sat about
the centre of the front row, with his arm in a sling,
the result of a chop in the woodlands not with his
hounds, but an axe. There, too, were Sir David
Baird and Mr. Kinloch, with their entries from the
Lothians, the present Lord Feversham, and, though
last not least, Mr. Tom Andrews, who was all anxiety
to see " Our Old Sultan" brought out. The old dog
was rather bashful in such high company, and went to
1 60 Saddle and Sirloin.
ground under the flooring of the temporary kennel.
In vain did the whip lie on his stomach for minutes,
and practise every endearing wile : " Come Sultan !
poor auld fellow, come here man ! Poor atild dog !
there's natbody sal hot thou /" as he had finally to be
drawn for inspection like a badger.
When the Cheshire and Lord Wemyss's had come
and gone back, Turpin, who had been making himself
generally useful as first whip on the flags, opened the
Fife kennel. Out came the three couple looking all
life and freshness, as well they might, seeing that Mr.
Thomson and " Fred" had given them a long scamper
over the sand and among the breakers like a troop of
mermaids, that morning. Father Neptune owed them
a good turn, as the year before he made such a dread-
ful rough night of it on the Frith of Forth that they
could not be got across, so they were all left behind
save Syren. That beauty of Guisboro' had been
kicked and killed since then, and her daughter Sym-
pathy was one of these three couple. Dairymaid
was also put in for Rector, but though she let them
down a bit, Captain Williams declared that, save and
except the Belvoir Dryden bitches, he had never seen
finer.
The Cheshire were out again, and again Sir Watkin
was sweet on the yellow pyes ; then-the Yarborough,
and lastly Earl Wemyss's and the final discussion
began in earnest. Captain Williams whipped out his
tape-line once more ; and had a few last words with
Major Fletcher. Mr. Milbanke took one of his long
quiet surveys, pencil in hand ; and Sir Watkin drew
his hand anxiously across his face, as if he was in
judicial difficulties, as indeed they all were. The
Cheshire could not win on the strength of one couple,
and they had too much flesh ; while the Yarborough
lots were not well put together, and seemed uneven,
" when it came to a squeeze." It was clearly reduced
to a Scottish contest Fife v. Coldstream. The Bench
Photographing the Huntsmen. 161
directed Turpin " to show cause" once more. Then
there was another hitch, but the issue was narrowed
to two and a half couple, by settling that Dairymaid
should be set off against Rubicon (the very weak point
of the Coldstream lot) ; and then the Fife had it
unanimously. When the stallion hounds were brought
out, it was a grand sight to see Jack Parker, of the
Sinnington, once more in his red waistcoat, bring up
Clinker, and discuss his points with the judges in the
slender intervals he could spare from the more pleasing
discussion of that gigantic sandwich which he grasped
in his sturdy left. However, Clinker soon came to
grief like the sandwich.
Then the photographing of the huntsmen began,
and Mr. Thomson sat on the reserve benches as a
sort of committee of taste. Jack Parker had nw im-
mense difficulty as to the disposal of his hands for
posterity. He got them out of sight at last, while
Ben Morgan placed his right on his shoulder. William
Smith looked injured at the decisions, but still the
very picture of calm resignation. Turpin's air, on the
contrary, was decidedly jubilant ; he folded his arms
like a Canning, and put his right foot forward. Will
Chaning's neat lissom figure needed no pose but the
natural one. Either a busy, big man with a stick or
the photographer-in-chief objected to his holding his
hands behind his back ; but Mr. Thomson was down
upon him in an instant : " No ! no ! that's the way
he always stands. As you were, Will'' Then there
was a difficulty about Mr. Tom Parrington, but three
chairs were brought, and "Tom" was seated on one
of them next the table, which was radiant with silver
prizes, and two huntsmen were grouped on each side
of him. So far so good. The offside sitter was told
to nurse his leg, and the other to direct his gaze
more at Mr. Parrington, who held a hunting-whip.
Then the operator adjured them all to " look as pleasant
as possible" and Jack Parker (with an expression bor-
M
1 62 Saddle and Sirloin.
dering on the seraphic) straightway inquired, " A re we
to leuk right forard at that thing ? proceed /" and
the operator did proceed, and hit them off the
first time, and several visitors ordered a copy on the
spot.
Croft, at wh<*se inn Thormanby, Lord of the Isles,
Oxford, Costa, Scottish Chief, and Loiterer have all
stood under Tom Winteringham's charge, anJ in whose
paddock the weary bones of old Alice Hawthorne
are at rest, is about three miles from Neasham Hall.
We pass the well-remembered kennels of the Hur-
worth, where Will Danby held rule so long, and the
paddocks of the old mare Shot. Of late years a
totally new set of boxes have been built at Neasham
Hall. The old ones did their duty, as Kettledrum,
Dundee, Regalia, and Mincemeat were reared there,
and the new have made their mark early with For-
mosa a Two Thousand, One Thousand, Oaks, and
St. Leger winner combined as well as " the trim
Brigantine." Mr. Cookson has bred four Oaks win-
ners in sixteen years, three of them in the last four
years, the first and second for the Derby in 1861, and
the first and second for the St. Leger in 1868. Until
he purchased Sweetmeat in 1 847 for 300 guineas at
Mr. A. W. Hill's sale, he only kept two brood mares.
His first sire Sweetmeat stayed at Neasham for three
seasons, and was succeeded by Cossack, Fandango,
and Buccaneer for two seasons each, and by Caterer
and Macaroni for one each, and now Lord Lyon and
The Earl are in residence. The air is fine and bracing,
and in the far distance the sheeted strings may be
seen, through a glass, at exercise near the Richmond
"Grey Stone Inn." There is every kind of ground in
the paddocks, and it is Mr. Cookson's principle never
to let the foals and yearlings be out longer than three
hours at a time. They are then taken in for two
hours, and, weather permitting, turned out again in
the course of the afternoon, and always taken m at
The Neasham Hall Stud. 163
night. The rest at noon for two hours is particularly
advantageous, as the mares are tied up and the foals
have the chance of eating their corn and lying down
when they have done so. They are thus refreshed and
able to enjoy the afternoon's turn-out.
Mr. Cookson began with an old mare, Gadfly, by
Irish Mayfly, which once belonged to Colonel West-
enera. Then came the one-eyed Hybla by The
Provost, and the dam of Kettledrum, which was given
him by his uncle, Mr. John Cookson, as a four-year-
old. Marmalade (the dam of Dundee) was bred by
Mr. Wood of Aycliffe, and only cost 4.0!. The late John
Gill had her and trained her for two months, but could
not " report progress," and hence her price. Fan-
dango, Sweet Pea, The Gem, and Lady Macdonald
all of them by Touchstone, after whose blood Mr
Cookson has sought most eagerly were gradually
added to the Neasham store, as well as four mares at
the Sledmere .Sale, three of them by Daniel O'Rourke.
The grey Ella, came from Lord Londesborough's sale,
and Secret and Miss Julia became component parts
of the dozen, which has generally been the full strength
of the company. Miss Julia has been very unlucky,
and lost her three first foals.
The Gem only cost 120 guineas at a York auction,
and was sold by Mr. Cookson to the Austrians. After
Regalia had won the Oaks, he sold Buccaneer to them,
and got The Gem in part payment with a two-year-
old Sister to Regalia, a whole-coloured brown mare.
He had always a great fancy for Buccaneer, but the
horse did not take with the public, and it was only by
skilful management that he secured his thirty mares,
the very least that a young sire should have for a real
chance of early success. Only half the foals on an
average come to the post, and the dams of many of
those may not " nick " with the horse in blood. Some
hold that half-a-dozen of good mares are more likely
to make a horse than twenty bad ones ; but numeri-
M 2
1 64 Saddle and Sirloin.
cally a horse must be served, if he is ever to make a
name, and some of the best racers have sprung from
the most unlikely dams. His yearlings held the
yard when we were last there, and we could not help
remarking that a great many of them were like Fan
dango in their type. Boucan (own brother to Brigan-
tine) most especially, bore a strong resemblance to
that horse, and curiously enough Brigantine is in shape
precisely the sort of filly Fandango got. Formosa
was the queen of the lot that year, and Mr. Cookson
could hardly make up his mind not to train her. He
bought her in at Doncaster for 700 guineas, and slept
upon it, and next morning he sought Mr. Graham,
who had bid 690 guineas out of respect to Regalia.
That lucky gentleman was seated at breakfast, and
when he heard Mr. Cookson's mission, he signed a
cheque for 700 guineas without more ado, and then
resumed his egg. The bargain did not take up two
minutes, and the mare won him 2O,38o/. in her first
two seasons. So much for prompt decision and " fol-
lowing the blood."
The now-deserted kennels at Neasham Abbey re-
mind the hunting man of many a good day, when the
late Mr. Wilkinson had the Hurworth. His last day
in the field was on December i/th, 1861, when the
hounds met at Croft, and found a fox in Forty Acres,
which was killed at Warmire, near Halnaby, after a
clipper of \\ hours. The chestnut brood mare Shot
survived her master by five years, and then she ended
her days honourably in the copper of the Hurworth.
Will Danby is now at his old home near Askham
Bogs. The last time we saw him he was paying his
annual visit to York Races, and he and Captain Percy
Williams, whom he claims to have entered to hounds,
were talking of old days in Holderness by the side of
the cords, instead of attending to Lady Allcash and
the Members' Plate. It was there Will told us the
story of Sparkler (by Badsworth Dashwood from York
Sparkler of the Hurwor,
and Ainsty Susan), one of a litter of three couple, all at
work in their third season, and all good. This dog's at-
tachment to Mr. Tom Parrington when he hunted the
pack was marvellous ; and when he broke his arm,
and sat down on a bank by a gate-post, waiting for a
chaise to take him home, George who had got the rest
of the pack away with great difficulty, was obliged to
leave Sparkler sitting beside him, and looking up
quite sorrowfully into his huntsman's face. He fol-
lowed the chaise on the road as far as the kennels, and
when it did not turn in there, but drove right on to
Hurworth, poor Sparkler could not make it out at all.
His argument was curt enough : my huntsman always
turns in there when we come back from hunting ; he
hasn't done so ; therefore, he cannot be in that chaise
which I have been following. Hence, to the astonish-
ment of Will Danby, Sparkler felt for the line for a
few minutes in the kennel field, and then galloped
back a mile to the place of the accident once more.
George found him there that night ; and the poor dog's
joy when his huntsman spoke to him next day through
the peep-hole into the kennel, and more especially
when he was admitted to an interview in the feeding-
house, was quite overwhelming. Sparkler clave to
Mr. Parrington when he ceased to hunt the Hurworth,
and he now lies buried under the large Portugal laurel
in his garden at Normanby.
But we must hie across the country to Aldborough,
to have a word with the " Nestor of Shorthorns." It
is more than half a century since Mr. Wetherell com-
menced with shorthorns on the farm near Pierce Bridge,
where he was born. The shorthorn fame of his native
county had been about coeval with his own birth in
1792, and long before he commenced his maiden herd
at Holm House in 1816, "the haughty southrons" had
learnt to regard Durham as a very Goshen of cream
and beef, and as holding a sort of charmed existence,
under such proverbially cold and weeping skies. Those
1 66 Saddle and Sirloin.
spirited biddings which he heard as a lad beneath the
lime-trees at Ketton were not lost upon him ; and
hence, eight years afterwards, he set out on the
Barmpton day with a determination to go in merrily
on his own account. Thirty-four of the cows, and
four of the heifers under twelve months old, had been
knocked down before he caught Mr. Robinson's eye ;
and then lots 41 and 43 Lady Anne and Cleopatra,
both of them full of George and Favourite blood
became his for 100 and 133 guineas, and wended their
way to Holm House that night*
* Their luck was rather chequered, as Lady Anne died in calving
twins, and Cleopatra followed up a heifer which never bred, with the
very first-class bull Belzoni (1709) by North Star (459). As he had
hired this bull from Robert Colling, and used him for two seasons before
the sale, Mr. Wethsrell did not care to bid for him : but, although he
was eleven years old, the "by Favourite, dam by Punch" strain induced
that rare judge, Mr. Lax, to give 72 guineas for him. Time, however,
proved him to have been the real lode-star of the Holm House fortunes,
as he got not only the famous Rosanna during his stay, but two rare
bulls, Magnet (2240) and St. Leger (1414), the latter of which Mr.
Wetherell sold to Mr. John Rennie, of Haddingtonshire, for 250
guineas. Young St. Leger was also no small favourite.
In 1828 Mr. Wetherell sold off all his Shorthorns, and left Holm
House; and in 1833 we find him living "beneath the Gothic shade"
of Durham Cathedral, and commencing a new herd at Newton Hall,
some three miles distant. His spirit and fine judgment had still greater
scope in this second essay. He bred the Duke of Clarence (9040) and
King Dick (9269), and sold the latter at fourteen months old to Lord
Hill for 120 guineas. He also gave 250 guineas for the Earl of Dur-
ham (5965) to Mr. Miller, of Ballumby, Perthshire, but "The Earl"
died in less than six months, leaving only three of his get behind him,
which, by way of set-off to such ill luck, averaged 106 guineas at the
hammer, when under twelve months old. Duke of Cornwall cost him
a hundred guineas, but he used him and then let him for that sum, and
sold him for 200 guineas to Earl Ducie in 1842. The estimation in
which the herd was held speaks best through the fact that at the sale in
1*847 f ur animals realised 50x3 guineas.
It had been strengthened from time to time by very spirited pur-
chases. Emperor (1839), with his dam Blossom, and his grandam
Spring Flower, passed into it at Mr. Button's, of Gate Burton, sale for
250 guineas. 100 guineas, and 70 guineas eacTi ; and in 1846 Emperor
justified his price by upholding the honour of the district, as first prize-
man in the second class, at the Royal Show at Newcastle, against two
dozen rivals. Mr. Banks Stanhope's prize heifer also met sixteen at the
Mr. Wether ell's Herds. 167
His last or fourth herd numbered about fifty head,
fifteen of them bulls, and was located at the High
Grange, near Melsonby, where Mr. Wetherell took
quarters for them in consequence of not meeting with
a suitable farm. A drive of three miles from Aid-
borough brings you to the spot, which is nearly the
same show, and Lord Feversham's, Mr. Booth's, Mr. Trotter's, and
Mr. Wetherell's were all highly commended. Barmpton Rose was also
an illustrious unit in the Newton Hall herd ; but after Mr. Wetherell
had bred Princess Royal from her, he sold her in calf with Buttercup to
Mr. Henry Watson, of Walkeringham, at her prime cost, 53 guineas ;
and at that gentleman's sale she and her nine descendants made 1033
guineas. Mr. Wetherell had originally purchased the mare Morsel for
about the same sum, sent her to Physician, and sold her when she was
in foal of The Cure ; and so, in this instance, the embryo calf Butter-
cup became the dam of Butterfly, who, when crossed with the once-
neglected Frederick, produced not only the unbeaten, but the highest-
priced bull that the world ever saw. This is not Mr. Wetherell's only
connexion with the Towneley herd, as Mr. Eastwood purchased
Blanche 5th, by Bates's renowned Duke of Northumberland, out of
Blanche 2nd, from him, and bore off Roan Duchess, by Whittington,'
out of Red Duchess, by Cleveland Lad 2nd, as well. Red Duchess
and Blanche 5th were both bought by Mr. Wetherell from Mr. Maw,
who had in his turn bought Blanche 5th from Mr. Bates. Mr. East-
wood's pair kept each other company, not only in the journey to Lan-
cashire, but through their daughters in after years, in the yard at the
Chelmsford Royal, where, after passing into Colonel Towneley's hands,
Roan Duchess 2nd was first in the cow class, and the red-and-white
Blanche 6th next to her.
It was with Blanche 5th and Red Duchess that Mr. Wetherell com-
menced his third herd at Kirkbridge in 1848 ; and three years after
The Earl of Scarborough (by Roan Duke, a pure Bates bull) who was
bred by Mr. Maw, : and bought along with his dam at the Tetley sale,
carried off the head prize at Windsor, for the best bull in Class I.
Still, his success had many serious drawbacks, as twenty- four of his
cows died of pleuro-pneumonia, and thirty-three cast their calves ; but
the herd was gradually rising into note once more, when, in conse-
quence of circumstances well known, Mr. Wetherell gave up his Kirk-
bridge farm, where he had once hoped to end his days, and went to
reside about a mile off at Aldborough. He did not, however, relinquish
breeding entirely ; and, faithful to the blood of The Earl of Scar-
borough, he brought his daughters, Lady Scarborough and The Duchess
of Northumberland (who goes back with two crosses of Belvedere to
"Sockburn Sail," by John Coates's bull) along with him ; and these,
with M' *s Rose, Cosy, and a few others, formed the germ of the fourth
herd.
1 68 Saddle and Sirloin.
most elevated in the neighbourhood. Diddersley
Hill, with its sparse covering of whin and heather,
stands bleak and brown on the south, partially inter-
cepting the view towards Richmond, which is seven
miles away. There was once a castle on it, and as
you pass through a half-crumbling turreted archway,
you fancy that, even if it be only tenanted by the
owls and the bats, there must of a surety be one
still ; but not one stone is left upon another. You
soon find that your castle is in the air, and that you
have just passed through the mere portal to a moor.
Mr. Wetherell's holding was up two or three fields
to the left. The farm-buildings look desolate enough,
and exposed to all the fury of the west wind, but
there was a snugness and comfort in all the arrange-
ments, down to the canvas curtains and the whin
bushes on the gates, which proved, without even
seeing the result in the beautiful condition of the
cattle, that Mr. Wetherell and his trusty herdsman,
John Ward, had not battled with the elements in vain.
Lady Scarboro', an old dame of stately presence,
broad back, and prominent breast, and the roan Cosy
vere the leading dowagers of those sheds, and the
roan Moss Rose, whose public life had been one
series of brilliant seconds to Nectarine Blossom, was
grouped in a Ward bouquet with . her daughters
Ayrshire and the buxom Stanley Rose. John's lot
was cast with her in troubled times hereafter, in the
" fatal walk she took through Holyhead ;" but now
she had only to lift her gay little head, and come
marching straight towards us with that massive Bride
Elect bosom, as if the Durham County wreath were
already her own. Next came the curly, white head
of that handsome bull Statesman, with those rare
lengthy quarters, and a 26-inch measurement from
the tail to the huggins. Much as Mr. Wetherell liked
this bull, he considers that his best was one by Young
Albion, from the dam of Rosanna, for which he would
Mr. Wet her ell's Herds. 169
not have taken 500 guineas, and yet he had to shoot
him for fear of manslaughter.
The sale day was one to be much remembered,
and the Moor looked all life as the shorthorn men,
who had been entertained^ royally at the King's Head
over-night, poured into it, and found their host in his
white waistcoat on a pony, acting as field-marshal,
while the 48 lots, bar infants, were being marched
round in tribes. A blue bullock-van, with "The
Cumberland Ox" in six-inch letters on its side, did
duty as catalogue and counting-house. The Union
Jack floated above the Durham Horticultural tent,
and the voice of the revellers was pitched in its
highest key, when Mr. Wetherell said a few feeling
words to neighbours and " auld acquentance" (as
Billy Pierce always phrased it), and poor Jackson, then
just midway in his race career " at lusty one-and-
thirty," returned thanks for the Turf, coupled with
himself and Saunterer. Mr. Sam Wiley and Mr.
Charge were both there, and the latter called to mind,
as he stood bowed and feeble with years, and leaning
on the arm of a friend, how nearly nine-and-forty
years before, he had joined to buy " a leg of Comet,"
and how none of his three partners remained to tell
the tale. Mr. Jacques, a great winner and breeder
when dementi was in the land, looked on, and so did
Mr. Nesham, the owner of old Usurer, who lasted
until his fourteenth year. Mr. Richard Booth stood
by with a quiet chuckle, and Mr. John Booth was the
Branches Commissioner. Her ladyship listened
anxiously in her brougham, till the relentless "and
ten" upon " ten" stopped at " 300 for Lady Pigot"
(loud cheering), and Stanley Rose was proclaimed the
prima donna of the day. Mr. Drewry was not to be
denied for Cosy and Comfort, nor Mr. Doig for Moss
Rose and Ayrshire Rose. 73 gs. average for 48
lots was the final return from the waggon, and a roan
heifer-calf by King Arthur, from Duchess of North-
1 70 Saddle and Sirloin.
umberland, was the only memento left. After that,
Mr. Wetherell formed no more herds, and wound up
by breeding two or three thoroughbred foals from a
Flying Dutchman mare. The neighbourhood was
not drained of prize shorthorns when the forty-eight
had gone. Mr. Wood of Stanwick, a close neighbour
of Mr. Wetherell's, won the first aged prize with Lord
Adolphus, against both Lord of the Harem and Prince
Frederick at Battersea in '62. Four years after, his
beautiful cow Corinne stood first at the Plymouth
Royal and the Yorkshire, and it was from heifers of
his breeding that Mr. Mitchell of Alloa bred some
Highland Society prize winners.
" Nestor's" little home at Aldborough has many
a herd memento on its walls. There is the cow bred
by Mr. Thomas Booth, which he sold at two years
old to Mr. Carter of Theakstone, and then bought
back at beef price and put to Comus (1861). She had
three heifers, and Mr. Rennie, senior, of Phantassie,
bid him 500 guineas for them, and ended by buying
the oldest out of the pasture for 250 guineas. The
second went to Mr. Whitaker. Three roans are there
from Herring's hand, and painted in Memnon's year,
when he was a struggling coachman artist in Spring
Gardens, Doncaster. Comet (155) is said to be the
only one by Weaver in existence.* Mr. Wetherell
always thought Comet too long, but still a more
elegant bull than Duke of Northumberland, who
had also to struggle against rather upright shoulders.
Comet's kith and kin are there in St. John and Gaudy*
by Favourite, bred by Mason, who always loved good
hair. Still, perhaps one of the greatest triumphs is
the old sow of the Elemore, or rather the Bakewell
breed. She was one of a litter of eight sows and two
boars, and the former won the first prize in eight
successive years at CoKdilleras, near Richmond.
" Bid me discourse" is an invitation Mr. Wetherell
never shrank from ; and, with the Brothers Colling,
* These pictures are now in Mr. Thornton's office^ in London,
Mr. Wether ell's Herds. 171
Mr. Thomas Booth, Sir Tatton Sykes, Captain Bar-
clay, and Mr. Wiley on his walls, it would be strange
if he did not sit by the hour in his easy chair, and tell
of old times and shorthorn doings when they were all
in the flesh. At times the gig comes for the Chief
Baron to go over and spend a few days at Killerby
and Warlaby. He presides there in great state at
those " high private trials" of shorthorns under the:
trees in the home garth, and cites the Charity prece-
dents. Mr. John Outhwaite frequently assists, and
adopting a mode of practice quite unknown to the
Westminster law courts, that learned baron generally
backs his opinion from the bench for one, if not two,
new hats. On the knotty subject of the Leicester
yearling heifers, the Court, which never objects to
" liquor up" during the most weighty discussion,
divided two and two.
" Great constitution" is Mr. Wetherell's leading
tenet, but " great size" never was ; and if he does
illustrate it, he goes to Colonel Cradock, who gloried
in it, and whose " Magnum Bonum was like the Great
Eastern." He always considers that Earl Spencer
began the bull trade, and made shorthorns, so to
speak, fashionable with the landlords. It was the
thing to go to Wiseton, more especially about the St.
Leger time, and if visitors liked a cow, they bargained
to give 5<D/. for the produce. The Earl crossed in till
he sacrificed constitution they had thin fore-quarters
and no breasts ; and it was then that Mason, a very
clever first-rate judge, a hater of " fool's fat" and open
shoulders, and most decided about fore-quarters and
a good neck-vein, came to the Earl's aid. Whitaker
was a great keeper, and all for the milk-bag, and
Bates' mellow, light-fleshed sort grew less and less
robust they would get fat, but they would not swell
and thicken like the Booths, which will stand any
amount of high pressure. Such is a mere fragment
of his confession of shorthorn faith.
1 72 Saddle and Sirloin.
Prices may at times have been wild and fanciful,
and 250 guineas may seem an extravagant bull-hire,
but still buying good beasts and holding to approved
tribes, even at a large outlay, is the most profitable
policy in the long run. There is some method in the
" madness" which would give 125 guineas for " Oxford
nth" as a calf, 250 guineas for her as a three-year-
old, and 500 guineas for her as a cow, on the only three
occasions that this dam of " Fifth Duke of Oxford"-
the first prize aged bull at Chester, and a 3OOguinea
purchase at six months old was brought into the
sale-ring. When we look back to the calm foresight
of the Brothers Colling ; the courageous confidence of
Mason, the Rev. Henry Berry, and Whitaker ; " Tommy
Bates," and all his animated lectures on touch and
form in his pastures, or on the show-ground ; " A
quiet day at Wiseton ;" the dashing cow and heifer
contests between Towneley, Booth, and Douglas ; the
victories of " Duchess 77th" and " The Twins ;" the
dispersion of the late Jonas Webb's herd at the steady,
paying average of 55/. los. for 145 ; the brilliant
gathering which appraised the " Butterflies ;" the
8i8o/. at Willis's Rooms for seventeen Grand Dukes
and Duchesses ; and the two May Meetings of '67
in Kent and Essex, and then scan the result in so
many fairs and pastures, we may well feel that short-
horns have repaid all the money, thought, and labour
which have been expended upon them. Still, in one
way only can their supremacy be made permanent
by always keeping in mind the rule by which our first
breeders have been guided, that " a good beast must
be a good beast, however it has come ; but that it is to
pedigree alone that we can trust for succession."*
* A great portion of this chapter is extracted from a Prize Essay on
Shorthorns (H. H. D. ) in the Royal Agricultural Society's Journal for
1865.
CHAPTER VIII.
*' If civilized people were ever to lapse into the worship of animals,
the cow would certainly be their chief goddess. What a fountain oi
blessing is a cow ! She is the mother of beef, the source of butter,
the original cause of cheese, to say nothing of shoe-horns, hair-
combs, and upper leathers. A gentle, amiable, ever-yielding creature,
who has no joy in her family affairs which she does not share with man.
We rob her of her children, that we may rob her of her milk, and we
only care for her that the robbery may be perpetuated. "
Household Words.
Eccentric Sporting Characters Mr. Bruere's Herd His Booth Tree
John Osborne Mr. Anthony Maynard Killerby and Warlaby Re-
collections Mr. John Jackson Lord Feversham's Herd "Old
Anna" Mr. Samuel Wiley Mr. Borton's Leicesters.
YORKSHIRE is so essentially the county of
sportsmen, orthodox or eccentric, that it may
not be out of place to say a word about the latter in
every part of England before we deal with its Sykes,
its Gully, and its Tom Hodgson, &c. The records of
them are very slight, in fact often nothing more than
a mere passing mention in the Gentleman 's Magazine.
Of Miss Ann Richards of the Ashdown Club, we
have spoken.* Miss Mary Breeze of Lynn had also
good greyhounds, and took out a shooting licence,
and when she died she left special Suttee sort of
orders, that her mare and her dogs should be shot,
and all buried with her. Among eccentric-clerico
characters, we find Cotton, a clergyman of Kew,
whose snare was his dog and gun, and who had them
generally waiting for him at his vestry door as soon as
service was over. It was, we believe, said of him, that
he put on his surplice in order to get a better shot at
snipes in snow time. Robinson of Kendal had a horse,
but he never got on to it. In fact, he always led it on
* " Scott and Sebright," p. 244.
1 74 Saddle and Sirloin.
its journeys, and if any friend asked the loan of it,
there was the stereotyped excuse, " / cannot go to lead
for tkee" He invariably took out a game licence, and
kept several setters, but he never fired a gun, although
he was always going to become a British sportsman
" next season," up to his death, at 84. The nastiest
part about him was, that if he knew that a man coveted
a dog or a gun at a sale, or elsewhere, he would buy
it at any price, purely to deprive him of it.
Mr. Vernon, one of the " fathers of the turf," was
great as a wall-fruit amateur, and he astonished the
Newmarket gardeners by his new mode of forcing
peaches. " Count" O'Kelly, the owner of Eclipse,
divided his attentions between the mighty chestnut
and a parrot, for which he gave 50 guineas, besides
paying the woman's expenses with it from South-
ampton. It was a wonderful musician, and they do
say that it would go back to the erring bar if it made
a mistake in whistling a tune. The Count, however,
recited no parrot formula to his nephew about betting,
but left pretty plain instructions in his will that he
was to forfeit 5OO/. for every bet he made. When
Mr. Trinket died, it was written of him that he was a
" perfumer without Temple Bar, and well known at
Newmarket ;" and Edward Pennyman, the saddler of
Holborn, earned a posthumous chaplet, to the effect
that he " first invented the hogskin saddle, and rode a
match over the Beacon." Bartley, the boot-maker,
must have been jealous of his fame, when he rode
Pegasus in Phosphorus's year. Mark Cobden's prowess
was confined to " making the largest arm" of any man
breathing at Goodwood, as he threw a 5^-ounce
cricket-ball there 119 yards, and beat Earl Win-
chilsea by 3.
The very odd racing characters seem to have
lived chiefly in the North and Midlands. One died
net so many years since, so let him rest ; his pecu-
liarities are embalmed in the records of a great trial ;
Eccentric Sporting Characters. 175
but why not a word for Mr. Matthew Briggs, who re-
spected the turf so much that he only condescended
to wear a shirt when he went to Derby and Lichfield
races ! The life of Hurst of Rawcliffe is, we are told,
the only light reading in which the water-drinkers at
Askern Spa, near Doncaster, indulge. About 1830,
he was quite a hero in that district. A fox, a bull,
and an otter were his chosen pets, and his coffin did
chest duty. When he went out shooting he rode the
bull, and taught the pigs and the dogs to do the
quartering and retrieving. His waistcoat was com-
posed of drakes' necks, and when he drove his asses
or dogs in his own home-made carnage to the St.
Leger, he distributed notes for $\d., " payable to John
Bull on the Bank of Rawcliffe." Lumley Kettlewell
was of a far higher caste, and horses, dogs (which kept
up a roving commission among the shambles to save
their lives), a fox, a Maltese ass, ducks, and a monkey
were the solace of his existence, and resided under his
roof. He got in at his window by a ladder, and
packed himself at nights into a crate of straw for heat.
While his bank notes were lying about his drawers,
and were on one occasion devoured by rats, he was
eating cocks' heads and rabbits' feet, and any offal he
could light on. Looking up racehorse pedigrees was
his delight, and if he went to a friend's, he would seat
himself right in front of the fire, plant his elbows
between his knees, and study the Calendar in silence
from morning till night.
Fox and hare-hunting have had some very queer
votaries. An American writer remarks that we musf
be a cheerful-hearted people, as we clip our garden
hedges into fantastic shapes here an urn, and there
a crowing cock. A turnpike man beguiled his weari-
ness in somewhat the same way, but he would not
rest short of a horse and rider, and during the hunting-
season he put the man into a scarlet coat. Other
enthusiasts have been even more practical and per-
1 76 Saddle and Sirloin.
severing in their homage. Stephen Wood, who was
blind, followed the hounds at 84 without a guide.
Those who do not " dread to speak of '98" may re-
member how well the Rev. E. Stokes of Blaby rode,
and how a little bell was rung by his attendant when-
ever there was a fence. A blind officer performed
still more boldly with The Duke's, but a friend's
voice was sufficient for him. George Kirton attended
"the unkennelling of the fox" ("Sylvanus Urban" is
rather funny among terms of art) till he was turned a
hundred. Geordie Robinson's enthusiasm carried him
through many a hard day on foot with the Sherborne,
and under the belief that he was a duke, he bedecked
himself with ribbons and laurel. He was, however, as
nothing to Tom Roberts, who hunted harriers at Kir-
mond, in Lincolnshire. Calves he had none, and he
was equally ill off below the elbow. Still he had a
voice of great volume, and a little excrescence like
the joint of a thumb on one elbow, which seemed to
answer for hands, and everything else. Ned of the
West was an excellent master of harriers ; and glasses,
engraved with horses and dogs, were his household
specialty. Bridges divided his allegiance between
harriers and silk-handkerchiefs ; but there was nothing
of the man milliner about him for all that, as he once
rode down the Brighton Devil's Dyke at full gallop,
for a bet of 5OO/. Even in their last hours the peculiar
tastes of these worthies did not leave them. John
Hornby was buried in 1739, near Newmarket, wearing
his jockey cap " by express desire," and with a whip
in his hand ; and far more recently one Thomas
Phillips, a brewer, was carried to his grave by all the
huntsmen and whips of Berkshire. The passion of
his life had been to amass pads, and if any resurrec-
tionist could dig down to him at the churchyard
of Speen, near Newbury, they would find his gristly
fingers still grasping that relic of a Craven " Charley."
There is no need to speak of the scenery through
Mr. Brueres Herd. 177
which we passed on the branch line from North-
allerton to Leyburn. It was done to hand in a
Richmond paper by the Robins of the district. " You
can stand," he says, "and see almost to Sedberg
north-west, with a valley bursting forth with living
beauty and grandeur ; and the river moving in its
serpentine form, and in all its silvery brightness. You
can then turn round and you will be able to see on a
clear day eastward the Cathedral at York, and a
landscape of living beauty that becomes overwhelming
with grandeur to the intelligent admirers of greatness
and beauty. I look forward to the time when the
railway shall pass through the valley to every part of
England ; and when the princely manufacturers shall
be drawn by the beauties of the Dale, to come and
reside here, and fill the Dale with their splendid man-
sions, so that it should become like Sharon, Carmel,
or Lebanon for splendour and grandeur."
Parson's Barn is soon in sight, that once great
trysting-place of the Edie Ochiltrees of every age and
degree, and for which Yorkshiremen say that they
have heard summer appointments made by vagrants
when they have been strolling in Hyde Park. A
little to the right is Spennithorne, in whose "Throstle's
Nest" poor Job Marson, the jockey, made his last in-
vestment, not long before he was carried to its church-
yard. Middleham, with its castle on the hill, we leave
to the right, and wind round by East Witton, where
the grass is hardly grown on the grave of Tommy
Lye, through lanes, into which two carts cannot pass
without considerable generalship, up the sycamore
avenue, and so to Mr. Bruere's hermitage at Braith-
waite. It stands in the midst of a rose tree prairie,
among which white Dorkings, which proved hardier
than Spanish, lead a merry sort of life. The three
gables, which look like ivy bushes, were said to have
been built by three sisters, and they bear the date of
1672. Everything is in keeping with the wide en-
N
1 78 Saddle and Sirloin.
trance-hall and massive stairs, and the low black oak
wainscoted parlour, with no emblazonment but " the
Booth bull tree on its walls."* Modern taste has
crept in with a small dairy, in whose midst a foun-
tain, of iron and painted glass, plays for shorthorn
men. China of many patterns, with yellow, blue,
green, and claret as the ground work, is on the shelves,
and the new milk is held in dishes of iron coated with
pot.
The Coverdale valley, down which so many jocks
have "wasted" in their day, lies in front, with the
river Cover winding through its deep dingle of ash
and sycamore. In the distance is the ridge of the
Low Moor, with occasional sheeted strings of racers
glancing along its skyline, like the scenes in the magic
lantern, and stretching away to the High Moor, which
has the frowning Penhill to back it. The old church
at Coverham is hard by the Cover stream, and many
a racing celebrity lies under its shadow. There sleep
old Bob Johnson, the steersman of Beeswing and Dr.
Syntax ; Ben Smith, as green as a young turkey on
his mother earth, but a very Talleyrand in the saddle
and the winner of six St. Legers ; Harry Grimshaw,
of Gladiateur fame ; and there too, old John Osborne
now rests his dreamless head. Ashgill. in whose quiet
little parlour he used to sit like a wizard, not consult-
ing the stars or perusing the prophets, but weighing
handicaps in his good brain balance, is perched high
on the hill-side. Below is Tupgill, from which Tom-
boy and Caccia Piatti used to go forth to clear their
pipes in good air ; and beyond is Brecon Gill, which is
also associated with some of Tom Dawson's best tri-
umphs of the tartan, and the dark blue, the Johnstone
crimson, the Jardine " blue with silver braid," and the
"Jamie Meiklam" stripes.
Mr. Bruere farms about 300 acres under General
Wood, and two hundred of muirland. Of the rest,
which has been gradually enclosed from the slopes of
* This is now in the possession of Lord Polwarth at Mertoun.
Mr. Brueres Herd. 1 79
Braithwaite Fell, only 38 acres are arable, and 12 of
them turnip. The blackcocks club within three hun-
dred yards of the house, and, when the wind is in the
west, the hill sides are full of grouse, but an easterly
blast drives them further over to Dally Gill Moors or
Masham Moor Head. About 150 black-faced ewes
are kept for the heather, and crossed with a blue-
faced Leicester. The produce are sold off as lambs
and shearling wethers, the latter of them generally
weighing from 2olbs. to 22lbs. per quarter, and ave-
raging 61bs. per fleece ; while the best of the shearling
gimmers are kept to make up the ranks of a half-bred
flock to 50. The cross invariably knocks the horn
out of the gimmers ; and those of the wethers which
retain their horns are coarser, but make bigger sheep.
The white-faced Leicester has never suited the half-
bred ewes so well, and his stock never seemed to
travel so well through the ling. Mr. Bruere considers
that he owes most to a black Leicester, who gave
plenty of "japan" to the face and legs, and yet only
got four black sheep in the course of his four sea-
sons.*
* The Lincolns have been introduced on the Yorkshire Wolds, but
they did not answer, and required higher keeping. Many farmers both
in this and other counties have tried one cross of the Lincoln on their
Leicester ewes, and gained wool and size without a sacrifice of that
aptitude to feed which is the Leicester's great characteristic ; but the
second cross does not answer, as the mutton has a tendency to be coarse.
A few Lincolns are still sent annually to the Masham districts of York-
shire, which have what they call a "Mug" tup, or Leicester of their
own. He is not a relic of the Teeswater; and a "New Leicester" man
will not look at him. He stands well on his legs, and can travel through
the heather after the active speckled-faced ewes better than the short-
legged Leicester, who would " weary to nothing" in such ground. The
rams are hardy, and clip from 81bs. to lolbs. of wool, and in veiy
rare instances I2lbs. ; while the ewes average 61bs. to ylbs. of wool,
and are very prolific. The wethers will make up with good keep from
2olbs. to 24lbs. in eighteen months ; but several of them are not cut,
and dealers carry on a large trade by taking them to Scotland. Many
of the best ones find a ready sale at Masham, Kettlewell, and Skipton,
where the farmers won't look at a pure Leicester, and i$l. has been
made for a " regular topper." They seem to spring from a union of the
N 2
1 80 Saddle and Sirloin.
Mr. Bruere came to Braithwaite about nineteen
years ago, after spending fourteen years at Aggle-
thorpe in Coverdale. His Booth devotion dates back
Leicester and Teeswater, but there has been no "crossing out" for
many years. A tendency to feather down below the hocks is avoided as
much as possible in the rams, and so is too much wool on the head.
The heaviest woolled sheep are not chosen for the moor, but rather
those with a light ringlet staple.
Almost every farmer in Wensleydale who has a little lowland keeps
a few "good-breed ewes" of the sort, which they put to rams with the
biggest fleece they can find. Many of them are also bought about Ask-
rigg Midsummer Fair, but the best are kept back until later in the year.
This "Blue-cap" sort, as many term them, came into special notice
some seven-and-twenty years ago, when one of them by a pure Leicester
from a half- Leicester and Teeswater was shown at the Liverpool Meet-
ing of the Royal Agricultural Society. In shape and make he was a
pure Leicester, but he was thought rather too big.
The ewes which the " Mug Leicester" follows on the moors are prin-
cipally brought as gimmers to Askrigg Market, from Lanarkshire,
and have fetched as much as 45^. each. Such is the eagerness of the
farmers in the district, that they go the day before to meet the droves,
and buy them up before they see "the hill." The Craven fanners
have the longest purses, and hence the small dalesman have to be
content with their leavings. The "shot ewes" do not come from
Scotland until the autumn, and are bought for making fat lambs in the
lowlands.
" Masham lambs," or the half-bred produce of the "Mug Leicester"
and the Scotch ewes on the moor, are generally bought by dealers and
resold at York Market for Derbyshire and the Midland Counties, as
well as for many districts of the East and West Ridings. They are
first put on the stubbles after harvest, and these, if late, always affect
their price, which has ranged from iBs. to 35 s. for the best. The Moor
ewes generally run there for four or five years, and if a ram suits them,
no money will tempt his owner, and he is kept till he is almost a
skeleton. Sometimes these half-bred or "mule " gimmers are crossed
again with the " Mug Leicester" for fat lambs or stores, and in weight
of wool and carcase they run the Leicester hard if well done to through-
out. The half-bred ewe generally breeds and nurses well, but she is
seldom kept more than two years on the moor ; and after one crop of
lambs on the lowlands she goes off fat to the butcher. "The Swale-
dale lambs" are another and a very hardy sort, between the " Mug
Leicester" and the native horned sheep, which abound in Swaledale,
Colsterdale, Dallowgill, and Akengarth, &c. , and have close short coats
and a hard touch. They go to the wildest parts of Derbyshire at very
much lower prices than the lambs from the Scotch ewes, and are not
nearly such good feeders as shearlings. Prize Essay (H. H. D.), Royal
Agricultural Journal, 1868.
Mr. Bruere s Herd. 1 8 1
to 1824, when he was a school-lad at Ripon. Mr.
Richard Booth used to invite him and his two brothers
over to Studley, where those buxom matrons, the red
Anna and roan Isabella, stole his youthful heart. A
fine white bull, Young Albion (15), also held him in a
spell, and so completely deadened an early longing for
Australia, that he settled quietly down to farming at
Agglethorpe. He began a herd with Lily and Damsel,
half-sisters by Cleveland (3404), and Lily's dam and
Leaf, both by Burton 1(3250) a son of Comet (155), and
bred by Mr. Wyville,' of Burton Hall. He has gra-
dually formed six tribes from Kate, Damsel, Leaf,
Lily, Vesper, and Garnet, and distinguishes them re-
spectively in his nomenclature as " Sweets," " Roses,"
" Leafs," " Flowers," " Stars," and " Precious Stones."
Chance, the first bull who came to Agglethorpe,
was succeeded by Shipton, from Mr. Edwards . of
Market Weighton. Shipton only got one heifer
(Strawberry) that has left any descendants in the
female line, and he went back to Lady Sarah, own
sister to Isabella by Pilot. He had also pretty nearly
made an end of Mr. Bruere, as he flung him on to
some lime-heaps in a lane ; and if his cloak had not
become unclasped and wound itself round his horns
for a few seconds, his victim could not have crept
through the hedge. This was our Braithwaite friend's
first and " positively last appearance" in the Spanish
matador line of business.*
* After Rouge, Silky Laddie (which claimed descent from Mr. John
Ceiling's Rachel, eighteen of which averaged g2l. 6s. at his sale in '39),
and Sylvan King (half-brother to Silky Laddie), the pure Booth period
set in with King Arthur, half-brother to Venus de Medicis, who was
hired from the late Mr. John Booth for 100 guineas a year. Thirty-two
.calves, a moiety of them heifers, were the produce of the visit ; and, as
"he had gone home three months before his time, Prince George arrived
to finish out the two years, and never left Braithwaite except for the
block. Windsor was also kindly lent to Mr. Bruere by Mr. Richard
Booth, from May, '60, to February, '61, on his return from Mr. Carr's.
Thirteen cows and heifers held to this Royal white, who looked the
1 82 Saddle and Sirloin.
Our evening was chiefly spent over the Booth Chart
1790, or " Warlaby, Killerby, and Studley Bradshaw."
We had all the more pleasure in helping to prop it on
the table, and exciting Mr. Bruere into a lecture
thereon, as, according to him, we had the honour of
being its sponsor. During a visit to Braithwaite in the
Christmas of 'Sixty, we found Mr. Bruere armed with
numberless rolls of pedigree papers, which he unfolded
upon us to a sea-serpent length. The prospect was
appalling, and our spirits sank when we heard that
Bates and the Duchesses, on the same principle, would
be the programme of the following evening. " Why
not pull yourself together," we said, " and combine all
this into one chart, on the fashion of the Temperance
Allegory, or the Morrison's Pills tree ?" So he set to
work that very winter. Here was " the self-support-
ing herd," drawn out, after many a weary night's
labour, with pencil and brush, into one vast sheet,
bristling with names and dates, and resplendent with
the banners of its ten great tribes. The ten flags were
each painted into their place, and also grouped at the
top, five and five, with the Booth crest three boars'
heads, and three drops of blood on them. Under the
dedication is the record of the Anna tribe, going back
through eight generations. Mr. Richard Booth always
loved to tell how Anna walked to a Manchester show,
and bore a calf afterwards, and how she was such a
high grazier, that he had nicked fat with his penknife
out of lumps on her side, and preserved it as a curio-
sity. As between her and Isabella, he always said,
mere outline of his once great self; and two of the thirteen cast twins ;
but three bulls and seven heifers were the produce of the rest. Prince
George was rather yellow-red in his colour, and infused a good deal
of red with white legs into the stock, as well as his round Booth rib
and soft, well-covered huggins. Baron Booth, from Vesper, was his
son, and was used for a time, before his sale for 200 guineas, to Mr.
Barclay, and "won a silver mug, between hours," at Bedale, as the
best beast in the yard. His calves were first and second at the High-
land Society's Show in 1869.
John Osborne. 183
" Let both divide the crown." If you praised the one,
he turned on to you with the other.
The top is quite a pedigreed Bashan bulls bred
by Booth to the right, and bulls introduced into the
herd to the left. Easby of the Blossom, and Aga-
memnon of the Anna tribes with Isaac, Julius Caesar,
Red Rover, and Young Alexander are among the
''' Ayes to the right," as they say in the House of
Commons. So is Raspberry, the first Warlaby bull,
and perhaps the biggest that ever stood in its stalls,
where he unhappily got hung. On the left, there
are mighty heroes in Albion, a purchase at Charles
Colling's sale in 1810 ; Pilot, a rather small bull, from
Robert Colling's sale in 1818, who was once let and
recovered again ; and Mason's Matchem who did so
much for Killerby. Mr. Booth sent Young Carnation
to him, and having thus put the blood through his
own filter, he used Young Matchem to the Broughton
family with remarkable effect. There too are Raine's
Lord Lieutenant, " a short-legged, thick and lusty dog,
but rather lacking in hair," the sire of Leonard, whose
daughters, Bliss and Bianca to wit, ran more to milk,
as Buckingham's did to beef; Mussulman, of Cra-
dock's Cherry blood, who got Buckingham ; and Lord
Stanley, who brought back the family blood from
Castle Howard, and was the sire of Birthday.
John Osborne seemed quite an Old Parr in onr
minds, and yet he had hardly been known on the turf
much before Charles the Twelfth's year. He was at
one time head lad under Skaife, when the Duke of
Leeds kept race-horses at Hornby Castle, with " Sim"
Templeman as his jockey. " Chocolate and black
cap" were the Leeds colours, and he adopted them
when His Grace died. Our first remembrance of him
on the turf is in connexion with Mr. Loy's Ararat, one
of the colts which, in conjunction with The Commo-
dore, Malvolio, and Lanercost, made Mr. Ramshay's
Liverpool so popular. The bay was a pretty good
1 84 Saddle and Sirloin.
one in his time ; and once he went so far as to get
Beeswing's head for the Stockton Cup, and it was all
Cartwright could do to prevent him from getting
" bang up." Old Bob Johnson was never so astonished
in his life ; and, " in course," he had some reason
for them at Tupgill when they at last ventured to
mention it.
John Osborne was known in connexion with many
other horses besides Ararat, but they were generally
rank bad ones. In later years he was quite as great a
pillar to the northern racing as " B. Green" had been
in his time ; and labourers in the fields used to say,
"Likely enough, some of Jolm Osborne s" if they saw
a long string journeying towards a northern town the
day before the races. About 1840-41, the same ex-
pression was used in a different sense ; and if a horse
was beat off below the distance, the betting-men had
that phrase almost stereotyped for reply, when any
Grand Stand neighbours asked them whose was the
unfortunate.
With 1842 came a new order of things, and John
had the Marquis of Westminster's string Sleight-of-
Hand, Maria Day, Auckland, and a lot of others in
his keeping. Auckland by Touchstone was a colt
upon which the late Marquis was wondrously sweet,
and, from his foalhood, he set a monstrous figure on
him. He was reared at the Moor Park paddocks, and
was coming north in the early days of the London and
North-Western with a black filly, when an engine
burst, and nearly boiled the filly, and took some skin
off the colt. They were taken to the Eagle Inn at
Rugby, where the filly soon died, and the Marquis
went in for something like 3OOO/. compensation for the
two, and we believe he got it. Auckland was very
little the worse, and, as it proved, " The London and
North-Western Boiling Stakes" were the best he ever
won. The millionaire Marquis fondly hoped on for
the Derby ; but, although the illustrious patient did
John Osborne. 185
not win that race, in the process of years it fell with
Caractacus to the young Rugby V.S. (Mr. Snewing),
who attended him.
Such was poor John's Eaton episode with the
Derby, and he did not care for another season as
guardian of the yellow jacket, which was enough to
give him the jaundice. Maria Day, a very sweet
little animal, and Job Marson very nearly put things
right at Doncaster ; but " The Yeoman" was in the
way, and John was not sorry to have his crust of
bread and liberty, and begin at the bottom ring of the
ladder of fame once more. The Heir by Inheritor
was one of his horses, but it was a sad weary time,
although with George Abdale, his future son-in-law,
to ride, he did a little for his employers, and on his
own account, till his son and heir, the redoubtable
" Johnny" appeared in the saddle. We remember the
old man quite opening out (for him) in the train one
day about his lad, and his delight that Sir Joseph had
engaged him to ride at 5st. 61bs. on Van Diemen in
the Goodwood Stakes. The next year (1850) brought
the great turn in his family fortunes with Black
Doctor. The little horse ran four times, and did
nothing, then he began to "come," and lost his
maidenhood in that grand Eglinton Stakes finish,
which he won by a neck from Beehunter and Nancy,
and had Neasham, Payment, Pitsford, and Mildew
behind him as well. The black went in the course of
the week to Mr. Saxon for 800 guineas, and henceforth
the star of Osborne and Ashgill steadily rose. John
was marked dangerous for his two-year-olds, and his
great axiom of " if they are to be sweated, let them
sweat" (not on Middleham Moor* for love, but all
over England) " for the brass," stood him in fine stead.
As an early tryer and bringer out of ripe two-year-
1 For a description of Middleham Moor, see "Silk and Scarlet,"
[36.
1 86 Saddle and Sirloin.
olds, and as an artist for keeping them on their legs
when they were brought out, he had no superior.
During the '52 season, Exact and Lambton were like
the man and woman in the clock when one wasn't
out, the other was. Exact ran sixteen times, and
won nine ; and Lambton was out once less, and won
once more. Very often they were in the same stake,
and John had some little difficulty in deciding which was
to go. At the York August of that year, his London
commissioner backed the wrong one for a race, and
John had to follow the "wires," and change his tactics
forthwith. They drew about iooo/. between them in
stakes that meeting, which John thought a great thing,
as he had not then dealt in Little Stag, or Prince
Arthur, King Arthur, Wild Agnes, and the rest of
that lucky Agnes family, of which he sold two,
" Little" and " Miss," to the present Sir Tatton Sykes.
It might be the bargain was better, and therefore he
liked to send his best mares en masse to a horse if the
blood suited, and Birdcatcher, Weatherbit, and The
Cure were all his particulars. For Colsterdale, which
he purchased for 3OO/. at the Sledmere sale, he had
some fancy, and his brood mares had gradually
increased and multiplied till there were forty of them.
No one did more with The Cures, and he had a strong
attachment to Wild Dayrell, though he did not use
him in the same wholesale way. He also left a good
word behind him for Piccador.
Brown Brandy and Cherry Brandy and Lord
Alfred were ready to appear at the footlights, when
Exact and Lambton (for no one knew the exact
moment to sell better) had departed south. The
grey was a son of Chanticleer and Agnes, and for
soundness a wonder. He began on March 29th, and
had run 24 races, and won 9 of them on Oct. 28th,
the day after his companion Lady Tatton had won
the Nursery Stakes. Next year, Manganese, giving
2st. 4lbs. to Shelah, was second for the Nursery
John Osborne. 187
Stakes, and the year after that old John nailed one of
the classes again with Mongrel, under no very flatter-
ing weight, so that the Newmarket Houghton Friday
had nothing but good omens for him. Great weight-
for-age races were not his forte, although he did
drop on to Blair Athol at York with The Miner.
Lady Tatton was third for him in the St. Leger, but
he never got so near for a Derby or Oaks. Honey-
wood's friends made a braying of trumpets about the
black, which not a little disturbed the repose of the
backers of "The West," but John was wrong that
time. He looked very downcast, following Saunterer
in the paddock on the Derby day, and threw up his
hands and told his friends he " knew nothing about
him ;" but the public watched the money, and knew as
much as he could tell them as to the " pencil fever,"
which was slowly consuming the colt in the interior.
In his day he trained for a number of good men
Lord Zetland, Lord Londesborough, Sir Charles
Monck, and others ; but he was very independent,
and he had every right to be so. What was better
still, prosperity never puffed him up. He was really
and truly " Plain John" to the last " Little fish" in
the way of stakes and little meetings were what he
loved. Handicap studies were \usfarte; and go past
who might, he hardly looked up from the desk at the
office-window, which looked into the yard at Ashgill.
The calculations he had in his head about 'forms were
as clear and well arranged as a senior wrangler's
differentials and integrals, and we never heard of but
one man who could thoroughly tackle him over
weights, and make him ring hurriedly for his slippers
at the inn, and say, " I think P II be off to bed'.'
The last time we saw him was at the Doncaster
meeting. He came in that long trainers' train, in
which Blair Athol's box was placed before General
Peel's, and so many accepted the omen. There was
the crush hat and the salmon-coloured handkerchief
1 88 Saddle and Sirloin.
looking out of the train, and then old John descended
and walked up the line, but took no part, as Johnny
" unshipped" The Miner. There seemed a worm at
the root then, and we felt sure he would never see
another St. Leger. He came to the town once more for
the spring meeting, whose first Hopeful stakes he had
won with Saunterer ; but he was hardly seen out
again, and he was on his deathbed ere Stockbridge
came round, and henceforth all the entries were made
in John Osborne junior's name. That confirmed in
words what the racing world had long known too well
by report, that the old man's days were numbered.
His was a homely style, and a homely school, but it
was a most efficient one, and few, if any, can boast of
having reared up such jockeys as John Osborne,
Challoner, and Harry Grimshaw, who all begun their
saddle-life in his colours.
If there is ever a gallery devoted to the heroes of
" field and fold," the late Mr. Anthony Maynard will
infallibly have a place. He came from quite a short-
horn and horse-loving family. " Maynard's bull " is
a name of note in the "Herd-book," and "t'auld yellow
cow," to which he so often reverted, made her peculiar
mark. Crusade (7898), by Cotherstone, by Bates's
Cleveland Lad, from a granddaughter of John Col-
ling's celebrated cow Rachel, was his most famous
show beast ; but he had done nothing in that way for
some time past. He leant decidedly to the Bates'
blood, but bullocks were his secret pride. He de-
lighted to recount what toppers (the best of which was
nearly lost in the snow) he and his father before him
had pitched at Yarm ; and how both of them would
take " to boot and horse, lad," and ride thirty miles
across country by daylight to be at market betimes.
He was always a very active man, a keen sportsman,
and rode well to hounds ; and it was, we believe, a
hard-riding accident which caused that peculiar crick
about one shoulder which, with his keen, intelligent
Mr. Anthony Maynard. 189
face, made him " so good to know." For twenty years
he kept the Boro' Bridge harriers, and showed excel-
lent sport. The Raby country then extended as far
as Boro' Bridge, and the Duke always charged him,
" If you find an outlying fox do your best to handle him
before he reaches a cover" He hunted both with the
Bedale and the Raby, and when either of the masters
appealed to him at a check : " Which way, Anthony ?"
the general reply was, " Overridden by those young
officers cast behind them" On hunting days he was
up at five, and rode over his six hundred acres before
breakfast, and then fifteen or sixteen miles to cover ;
and no man told better Yorkshire hunting tales over
a bottle of '20 port. He was one of the oldest short-
horn breeders in the kingdom, and we heard that his
herd numbered about 120 head at his death. To the
" Herd-book " he had been a contributor since its
commencement, and his numerous entries traced to
good and ancient families.
Marton-le-Moor, a few miles from Ripon, was his
pleasant, old bachelor home. The handsome Crusade,
with a portrait of his owner and his herdsman, formed
a leading feature of the snuggery, and a large paint-
ing of " the best side of Comet " (as he did not fail to
tell you), held the place of honour in the dining-room.
A Yorkshire show-ring hardly looked itself without
" old Anthony " or Crofton inside it, and he was quite
regarded as a " chief justice " in shorthorn matters. A
more upright judge did not exist, but he had very
strong dislikes and " crotchets," and did not scruple
to express them when he was not on the bench. To
the Butterfly tribe he was never reconciled. The
Royal had his services as judge at Chester, in 1858,
and again at Leeds, in 1861 ; and he liked the busi-
ness so much, that, when he was verging on seventy,
he crossed the Channel to officiate at the Dublin
Spring, and proved himself in the possession of won-
derful " sea legs." In judging he generally gave more
i go Saddle and Sirloin.
points for mellow handling than for gaiety of form.
He went not so much for size as for neatness and
quality, and at Dublin he was in the minority when
Rosette was drawn against Sweetheart for the first
cow prize, and he took good care to let his opinions
be known. He couldn't see it at all, and led many a
breeder up to the pair in the course of the day, and
with that odd jerk of his stick, proceeded to argue
out the point on which " Mr. Stratton had been so
stiff." Very few, if any, had finer taste, but he was
not free from that peculiar cynicism in describing a
beast which is the vice of so many good judges. Part
is spoken of as though it were the whole, and there is
no balance of points. Thus, if he spoke of Belleville,
he would say, " If you backed his hind-quarters into
a hedge he was good enough," and left it ; and unless
you pressed him hard you heard nothing of his beau-
tiful head and forequarters, and " soft, molelike skin."
We believe that he had been at very few shows since
the Leeds Royal, and that for many months back he
had been in a very failing state so much so, that it
was hardly thought that he would see the New Year
in. He was one of the last of those "grave and
potent seniors " whose fine experience we can so ill
afford to lose.
His brother, Mr. J. C. Maynard, was known as the
owner of the bull Match'em and the cow Portia, but
his fame principally rested on his horses. Mr. Dyson
called him " the Yorkshire judge," and he had gene-
rally ten to twenty carriage horses for the London
dealers at Northallerton Candlemas Fair. His son
Anthony of Skinningrove inherits his tastes, and
frequently judges in the Northern rings. For five-
and-twenty years, while Mr. Maynard lived at his
Harlsey estate, he kept harriers in the Northallerton
country. He dearly loved Old President and Sir
Harry Dinsdale horses. It was on Example by the
former, when he was riding i6st, that he had the best
i/t'llVE'RSITY
Cattenck Races.
of it in a great 4O-minutes' run, with a brush at the
end of it, from Streatham Whin to Harlsey ; and
it was in something nearly as good, with the Hur-
worth from Dinsdale to Windlestone, that he jumped
the Skerne near Aycliffe on Miss Marske by Sir
Harry, and sold her soon after for 200 guineas. Cock
Robin and The Peacock were his best Woldsman
horses.
We have always had a peculiar feeling for Catterick
Bridge and its race-course, from their association with
the old coaching and posting days. The Stand is
" quite a primitive little shop," with cottages under it
opening out into the road. The big meadow, which
is entered through those iron gates in front of the
Bridge Inn, is generally mown for hay, and some years
since the T.Y.C. course was extended, and now runs
at the edge of an arable farm. The course is I mile
246 yards round, and is the scene of the post colloquy*
between the gentleman-rider and the starter, which
the pencil of a lady in the neighbourhood duly im-
mortalized in Punch. The snow never lies as it does
on the Richmond hills, and often in stress of weather
the strings are sent over from there to gallop each
morning. Lord Zetland's horses have been mostly
tried in Catterick, and it is still more memorable for
the " sensation gallops " of Plaudit, when he went
puffing along, led by Strathconan and Lozenge, and
yet found some to believe in him and ' his Two
Thousand fortunes to the last. Touts generally come
on these occasions, and hang about the Bridge all day
till they "get tight," and are well up to correspondence
pitch. Inheritress hated the course, but was quite
devoted to the ups and downs of Richmond. Never
was mare more sensitive ; and if the course or the day
* He was asked by the starter why he didn't go, and replied that as
he had orders to make a waiting race of it, he might as well wait there
as anywhere else.
192 Saddle and Sirloin.
didn't just please her, her head and tail were never at
rest. Old Jacky Ferguson haunted the spot for many
a long day, or loitered down towards Bainesse and
Killerby to have a turn with the partridge-shooters or
a cast with his fly. This lean old man was an odd
link with a byegone day, when his brother's
" Big coach-horse, Antonio,
Went rumbling to the fore"
in the St. Leger ; but the sixth Duke of Leeds and
Skaife and Sim Templeman have played a far more
important part in the history of this little race-course.
Hornby Castle seldom failed to win the Cup, and on one
occasion His Grace was first and second with Zohrab
and Longinus. " Sim"* always fancied the former
most of the two, and elected to ride him ; but he felt
more proud of his victory on Lot against old Bob
Johnson on Tomboy. In these latter days a cloud of
two-year-olds go to the post, and writers rejoice in
"the tulip garden" of jackets. Give us old times
the pink and black stripes of old Raby, the geranium
* Templeman's first mount was for Doctor Bell, of Pocklington, in
1818, on Unity, at Mai ton, and his last was on Eller for the Oaks in
'59. He " walked" for Lord Zetland's Derby colt Lanchester the next
year ; but his foot gave way on the well-known stretch between Leather-
head and Box Hill, where he and Bill Scott had toiled along so often
for Whitewall. He could then have scaled 8st. ulb., but 8st. 7lb. was
the weight in those days. The first race he ever won was at Northaller-
ton. Up to that point he had ridden two dozen times ; but when the
ice was once broken, he began and won right away, principally for old
Tommy Sykes's stable. In one of his early races he had three heats in
one day, and a fourth on the next, and he pulled it off. He was on
Octavius, and in the third heat John Jackson, "a dark-looking little
fellow," crossed him, and "Sim" immediately collared and shook "the
old 'un," youngster as he was, and on his complaining to the stewards,
Jackson was distanced, and hardly ever rode again. Ben Smith was a
great man in those days, but too quiet and gentle a spirit to try on
a cross or jostle. Ben never failed to give good advice in his waste
walks, and "always tak care and be a good boy, and -walk regular, and
you're sure to get on" was his mild form of adjuration to any youthful
hero in a strong perspiration at his side.
Killerby and Warlaby Recollections. 193
red of Bell, the black and white stripes of Sir James
Boswell, the crimson and white of Lord Glasgow, the
green and yellow of Ramsay, the blue and white
stripes of Meiklam, with men to wear them, and we
have starters enow.
The late Mr. John Booth ran a few horses at Cat-
terick, and Sir Tatton came specially to don his ' pink
body, black sleeves and cap" on Honesty. This horse
was one of Octavian's get during his sojourn at Oran,
and could compass four miles well. Sir Tatton always
" liked to have those four white legs under me," and
he also rode Joker for Mr. Booth at Northallerton.
He pulled up after winning as he thought, when there
was really another round to go. It was the year of
his marriage, and her ladyship was in the stand as a
bride. " fm very sorry, sir, but you must blame Lady
Sykes, not me, for the mistake" he said, when he met
Mr. Booth after the race, "/ was thinking more of her
than my work.''
Mr. Booth was a very fine-looking man, upwards of
six feet and fifteen stone, and with rare hands and a
fine eye to hounds. This was the sport he loved best,
and when he was on Jack o' Lantern or Rob Roy few
men could cross the Bedale country with him. The
former was purchased from " Chief" Plews a paro-
chial constable and farmer, and the sponsor of " Plews's
Garden, or Fleetham Whin," in a rather peculiar
fashion. Mr. Booth went to see the horse late at
night, and his owner, not content with showing him,
added in a confidential way : " You hang about a bit,
nobbut let my old woman and her clatter get to bed, and
I'll let you see him loup? Accordingly he employed
the midnight hour in getting a couple of lanterns, and
tying them to the gate-posts, and put the horse twice
or thrice over the gate, cleverly. It was his delight to
teach them those tricks, and Mr. Booth was so pleased
that he gave 2OoL for the horse, and named him then
and there. Rob Roy was an entire horse, and as well
O
194 Saddle and Sirloin.
known as Jack o' Lantern with Lord Darlington's
hounds, when the Duke's country extended from
Borough Bridge to Sunderland Bridge, and took in
the Badsworth as well. Mr. Booth was never more
in his element than at the Catterick horse show, which
was held on the town green each October, until an
unhappy lawsuit divided the committee. There were
about 30 classes and sometimes 300 entries from foals
upwards. Ratan, The Cure, Bay President, and Young
Priam were generally well represented, and four three-
year-olds by the last-named horse once fetched 2oo/.
apiece shortly after the show. The Killerby-bred
one went South and made 5OO/. the next year. This
colt's own brother, Saltfish, a favourite mount of Mr.
Cradock's for eight seasons, won twice on the town
green.
By land Mr. Booth had quite the best of his brother
Richard, who was never given to active pursuits, and
was only a quiet gig man from very early days. It
was very different in water, where Richard was a
wonder. In fact, from the time he was a round, rosy
boy at Tate's there was no sinking him ; he could
swim over the low deeps at Richmond with a lad on
his back ; at Redcar he once floated two miles out to
sea, and a boat was sent after him by the lookers on ;
and he could sit and wash his feet in twelve feet of
water and support himself by a slight rocking motion.
Mr. Booth was no singer, but full of joviality and good
stories as well as the neatest practical jokes. Among
his best stories was " Forbidding the Banns," which
he told of a woman with an impediment in her speech,
who always said " Gin-a-giri' by way of preliminary,
and not only forbid the wrong banns, but stuttered
out before all the congregation that she did it on the
authority of " Squire Booth of Killerby." His friend
Wetherell generally had his guard up, but when he
received a letter, apparently from Earl Tankerville,
saying that he was to lot and sell the wild cattle of
Killer by and War lady Recollections. 195
Chillingham, he puzzled for minutes as to how on earth
his lordship ever intended him to catch them and
bring them into ring, before he guessed the joke and
its author. These two, with Torr, Philip Skipworth,
and Hugh Watson judged a great deal in Ireland to-
gether, and had a very memorable trip to Athlone.
At every town they came to, Mr. Booth put it about,
and the post-boys aided him, that Mr, Wetherell, who
occupied the box-seat in portly state, was O'Connell.
Thousands of the Irish had never looked on the great
agitator's face and quite believed it ; and then in his
turn Mr. Booth found that he was believed to be Tom
Steel. As for poor old Philip, they primed a gipsy
woman and set her on him, and she told his fortune and
many little Aylesby matters with such marvellous
accuracy, that he was very glad to give her half-a-
crown to get rid of her. Mr. Booth judged a great deal
in England, and never went for great size either in a bull
or a cow. As a man of fine, steady judgment in a cattle
ring, he has perhaps never had an equal. Gem, which
died calving as a two-year-old heifer, was his model
for compactness, beautiful hair, and fine, even quality
of flesh ; Hope was his type of a thick loin and heavy
flesh ; and he thought Hamlet the best bull he ever
bred. He died in 1857, after a weary twelvemonths'
illness, in his seventieth year, at Killerby, and a me-
morial window at Catterick, where he rests, was put
up by his friends and neighbours and the -Shorthorn
world as well.'*
Bainesse, one of the grandest farms in the North
Riding, lies between that little town and Killerby, and
on the left is that loi-acre field, out of which, when it
was all in swedes, the late Duke of Leeds, a friend,
* At his sale (Sept. 21, 1852), the 44 lots averaged 4.8/. I2s. Sd.
Bloom (no guineas, Mr. Ambler), Birthright (105 guineas, Mr.
Douglas), Pearly (105 guineas, Mr. Eastwood), and Hamlet (66
guineas, Mr. E. Bate), were amongst them. Wide Awake and Fare-
well (Mr. Emmerson) averaged 154 guineas.
O 2
196 Saddle and Sirloin.
and his grace's head -keeper, killed 126 brace of par-
tridges in two days. The Hornby coursing meeting
generally began hard by Killerby park gate, and Lar-
riston won his first course for the Cup in the 33-acre
" Jack Close." Mr. Booth was very fond of the sport,
and had a capital dog " Nips," which v/on the Wens-
leydale Cup at Leyburn.
There are two roads across the park, in which
thorns and wild cherry trees dear to starlings and
thrushes as well as cherry brandy lovers abound ;
and walnut trees and pink chestnuts from Holderness
flank the road on the Catterick side. One of the
thorns recalls the fate of Bracelet, whose thigh was
broken by a cow jumping on her as she sheltered
beneath it. She bred again, but became so hopelessly
lame that she was slaughtered. Necklace was made
up and won the gold medal at Smithfield. She had
only one heifer, Jewel, the dam of the famous Jeweller,
who, crossed with the Barmpton Rose tribe, built up
the Towneley herd. The present Mr. John Booth's
tastes take the same double-barrelled range as his
father; and Jeweller, Beechwood, Vaulter, Ballet
Girl, Brigadier, Brian Borue, Bannagah, Bird of Pas-
sage, and British Queen all attest his showyard
prowess, with more than threescore of first hunter
prizes alone. The raw material, Sister to Bird of
Passage, own sister to British Queen, a Cavendish two-
year-old, and a Young Dutchman foal were all in the
Park, and there too was Becky Sharpe in foal to
The Drake again. In the stable were Beacon, the
grey which has carried his present owner for ten
seasons, and only once come to grief, Brilliant, and
four other useful adjutants of the Bedale Hunt, of
which Mr. Booth has been for three seasons master.*
* Foxes became so scarce in the best part of the Bedale country that
it was some time before a successor could be found to the present Earl
of Feversham, when his lordship ceased to be master in 1867. It was not
The Brothers Colling. 197
Necklace, Bracelet, Birthday, Pearl, Gem, Manta-
lina, Venus. Victrix, and Soldier's Nurse were once
calves in the lambing paddock, and Dickey Leyfield
presided over their fortunes. Hecuba was the matron
of the herd at the time of our visit, and Forest Queen
and four more daughters roamed the Park with her,
while Brigade Major, by Valasco from Soldier's
Nurse ; Knight Errant, by Sir Samuel from Vivan-
diere ; Lord Albert, by Lord of the Valley from
Dora, by Windsor ; and Merry Monarch, by Lord of
the Valley, from Lady Mirth, made up the bulls at
hire.
When the Brothers Colling retired from Shorthorn
life, the Booth family gradually filled their place.
Charles Colling lived quietly at Croft after his sale,
but he was a slovenly farmer by all accounts. He was
wont to think rather mournfully of his old triumphs
and to say, " If I had only my eyesight perfect and the
use of my fingers, I should not despair of a new herd?
until every effort had been made in vain to get a master that Mr. J. B.
Booth consented to undertake that office, with Mr. H. F. C. Vyner,
Mr. J. Hutton, Col. Straubenzee, and Mr. Bruere as his co-guarantors.
Mr. Booth thereupon bought 33 couple of the old pack for the country,
and sufficient funds were raised, in reply to a circular announcing that
fact, to pay for the hounds and some drafts from other kennels, as well
as to lay down some new gorses. Foxes have of late years been short,
more especially in the Hutton Moor and Hornby Castle covers ; but the
Master and his huntsman Carr have shown a great deal of good sport
under circumstances of considerable difficulty. There is no finer scent-
ing ground in England than that part of the Bedale North of the Swale,
from Catterick Bridge to Morton Bridge, with Uckerby, Pepper Hall,
Kiplin, and Cowton Whin as its favourite covers, and although some
people complain of its being "all plough," still those who rode from
Kiplin to Middleton Tyas Quarries on Jan. 2Oth, 1868, thought that
" the Bedale ladies" were quite fast enough for any country. The south
or Ripon side of the country is more open and easier to ride ove% but
does not hold so good a scent as a rule ; whilst the west side, Hipswell,
Hauxwell, Leyburn, &c., has more grass and frequently affords some
good runs, though the country is very rough and hilly. The runs of
Nov. 6th, 1867, from Hunton Moor (Thornhill's Whin) to Bolton Hall
and back to Leyburn (where they killed) ; and of April 1 8th, 1868,
from Scorton with a kill at the Richmond Paper Mills both of them
over 2$ hours will long be memorable ones.
198 Saddle and Sirloin.
His brother Robert, who went more into Leicesters,
often said that there was nothing much better than
another in Charles's herd unless it might be the
Phoenix tribe. Mr. Thomas Booth, whose Shorthorn
career dates from his residence at Studley, A.D. 1790,
hired Ben and Twin Brother to Ben, and he bought
Albion at Charles Ceiling's sale, and Pilot at Robert's.
Pilot was rather small, and old breeders tell us that
the sight ot the Young Albion cows at Studley in Mr.
Richard Booth's day is one of which they have never
seen the equal.*
Warlaby does not rank very high in the British
census, and a few cottages, which hardly rise into the
dignity of a street, and three farm houses besides Mr.
Booth's, compose " the tottle" of a village the sound of
whose name has passed into every beef and mutton
land, with Babraham and Holmpierrepont. Mr.
Booth's farm flanks the road to Borough-bridge on
each side, arable on the right, and nurse cows and
bullocks, some of them with two or three Warlaby
crosses, on the left, and extends for nearly a mile up
the grass vale of the Wiske. On a clear day you can
see the " Minster ;" but so they say in almost every
part of Yorkshire we have been in yet. Still there is
no doubt, when you are in the High Field, that you
can command the whole range of the Hambleton Hills,
so* suggestive of Mameluke, Kingston and Velocipede ;
of the distant range of Cleveland ; of the White Mare
of Whissencliffe ; and of Roseberry Topping, which is
* Leonard was a nice little bull with great loins and well-sprung
ribs, but rather strong in the horn. Buckingham was a fair-sized bull,
a little forward in the shoulders, and with a great inclination to lay
on flesh. In shape Baron Warlaby excelled him, but he was rather
too long, and Mr. Wetherell was wont to say that he should like to put
him into a lemon-squeezer and reduce him a size. Vanguard was a
bull of great size with a rare loin and back ; Hopewell with his curly
scorp was not so good-looking ; and Harbinger was a short-legged,
thrifty fellow, with an almost unrivalled power of getting his stock all
alike.
Killer by and War lady Recollections. 199
as proud a beacon to the Yorkshireman as " Belvoir's
wooded height is to the Leicestershire Nimrod, or the
^Eginetan Oros to the Grecian manner."
"October $ist, Richard Booth, of War laby, aged
76." Such was the trite and fitting line in which the
Times announced (A.D 1864) the death of this premier
of shorthorn breeders. It was grand in its simplicity,
as it so exactly typified the conscious power and
sturdy self-reliance of the man whose name embodies
a family career, with its tap-root in the days when
Comet's great grandam was still a calf, and when Sam
Wiley had not abandoned his marbles and his satchel.
Richard Booth was in truth a very Pope among breeders,
and dispensed his thirty bulls with a high and lordly
hand. Still there was the great fact which none could
gainsay, that go where they might they left a good and
lasting impress on a herd and an average, and that
they had wrought a peaceful revolution in Ireland.
Hence all Shorthorn breeders found it politic to stand
well with the master of Warlaby ; and even then the
difficulty of getting a bull was somewhat analogous at
times to election at The Athenaeum. The demand
was invariably in excess of the supply, and therefore
prices might well keep up, and 300 guineas (as in'Crown
Prince's case) be once more bid in vain for one year's
hire, when Prince of Battersea from Queen of the
Ocean was destined to be " in residence." Few men
had the courage to talk to him in praise of any other
sort. He stood on the deep flesh, the compact frame,
the rare foreflank, the unmistakeable family likeness,
&c. ; and when he made a suspected cynic point him
out one or two of the most robust of the lot, he would
tell him that Lady Grace, for instance, was about the
closest bred, and leave him to think out for himself
the marvellous constitution of a herd which could
stand hard forcing and in-breeding so well. He began
at Studley when he was twenty-nine, and when he
sold off in 1834, many of the lots were, as an eye-
2OO Saddle and Sirloin.
witness expressed it, " fine strapping lasses of the
Anna tribe," in direct descent from Twin Brother to
Ben. The only one he retained was " a large patchy
cow," Isabella, whose first calf after she came to War-
laby was a roan bull by Young Matchem. She then
produced one of his great Royal and Yorkshire win-
ners, Isabella Buckingham.
He was " a king out of business" for a year, which he
might well describe as the weariest he ever spent ; but
he had not long to wait for his sceptre, and in the
prime of his life he sat down under his roof tree at
Warlaby and began to build up another and a more
enduring herd. Nine years more, and the era oi
Royal Shows had fairly set in. In 1844 he broke
ground with Bud, as second yearling heifer to his
brother's Modish at Richmond ; and gathering strength
as he went on, he made his first great stand at the
Northampton Royal, and swept the first cow, two-year-
old, and yearling heifer prizes with Cherry Blossom,
Isabella Buckingham, and Charity, own sisters to
Baron Warlaby, Vanguard, and Hopewell respectively.
The new century had dawned on the Brothers Colling
a? the champion breeders of the Durhams, and when
it reached its meridian it found the Brothers Booth
with nineteen Royal, thirty Yorkshire, and three High-
land Society firsts, besides divers seconds (to their
own beasts), the rich harvest of a dozen summers.
Many of his friends pressed him to retire from the
show-yards in the flush of his Chester victories with
Nectarine Blossom and Queen of the Isles, but he
would not hear of it. His line of Queens was not half
exhausted with Queen of the Vale as a calf in his
stalls, and Queen of the Ocean in perspective ; and
why was the old general to sound a retreat ? With
his Nectarine Blossom and his Queen Mab he charged
that very summer right into the Royal North Lan-
cashire district to confront the Towneley cows, and
the pair were first and second in the cow class. He
Killer by and Warlaby Recollections. 20 1
always placed his candidates well ; and in due season
he cried quits with Duchesses 7/th and 78th when he
met them at the Durham County. His Queen of the
Ocean, as the Buttersea judges said, was " all that a
cow should be," and earned that very rare privilege,
and generally accorded to none but dead statesmen, a
note of admiration from Lord Palmerston and Mr.
Disraeli who both had their hands on her on one
and the selfsame day. He very seldom showed bulls,
and Hopewell, Windsor, Bullion, Prince Alfred, Sir
James, Lord of the Valley (who was kept latterly to
cross the whites, and brought him a fine fall of heifer
calves), and British Crown were the only others that
ever won anything for him ; and three of them only
one prize apiece. His show luck burnt brightly to
the close, and in his very last Yorkshire, the young
ones not only went well to the front ; but old Prince
Alfred, after making a perfect Ulysses of himself in
the home farms of princes, emperors, and baronets,
came out and was first in the bull class in the eleventh
year of his age.
A more remarkable contrast than these two cele-
brated brothers, both in form and temperament, is
seldom met with in practice. John, the elder, was,
like Robert Colling, perhaps the more original thinker
of the two, but not the same steady worker. He was
more the man of the world, fond of a gallop with the
Bedale, and always ripe and ready for a little fun ;
while Richard was much more of the dignified recluse,
and thought " no place like home." John delighted
to go off on judging expeditions ; while Richard never
donned the ermine, and only cared for a good lodging
or his " ease at mine inn" during a great show, that he
might see a few select standard-bearers, who would
share his winning pleasure, or sympathize with him if
he was beaten, John was an apt and ready speaker,
and never sat down without some quaint racy senti-
ment, which set the table in a roar ; Richard merely
202 Saddle and Sirloin.
rose, and bowed to the chairman and vice in turn, and
let himself down again, with a simple word of thanks
to the company. One was more off-handed, and
hardly valued his herd enough ; the other was the
man of business, who appraised it to a nicety. The
one was more catholic in his cattle tastes, and had
boldly sought and found, with infinite judgment,
among the pastures round Richmond, a fresh cross
for Bliss in Lord Lieutenant, and for Bracelet in
Mussulman ; while the other, though no one knew
better the worth of Leonard and Buckingham, de-
termined, after Exquisite's warning, to leave well
alone, and solved the fearfully difficult problem of
crossing his closely-related families with all that tact
which Jonas Webb displayed in another department
of stock science. The public did not know what was
doing at Babraham, but still they felt sure it would
succeed. They knew the bulls of the season at
Warlaby, and predicted that the herd must go down
for lack of a cross. The old sage only smiled at their
fears ; and left Commander-in-Chief and Lady Fra-
grant behind him to confound the prophets.
He attended the Cobham and the Aldborough
sales in 1859, an d after the summer of that year, the
Royal and the Yorkshire knew .him no more.
Absence did not weaken his ancient love, and when he
was confined to his bed or chair, he watched as keenly
as ever for " a wire" from his nephews on the afternoon
of a great show. He broke down with rheumatic
gout on his return from the Warwick Royal, and for
the last two years of his life he was almost bedridden.
The " quiet days at Warlaby," when he would walk or
go round the stock in his gig, were over at least in his
generation, but still old friends would come as usual,
and tell him how everything was looking, and go
through all the heifer chronicle of herds in general,
and those in particular which had (or were thought
to have) " a flyer" or two for the Royal. There was
Killer by and Warlaby Recollections. 203
quite a Warlaby gathering on the occasion of a
neighbouring sale ; all the medals and prize cups were
set out in array, and not a few shorthorn men were
admitted for a hand shake to his inner room. Still
no hope was ever held out of his recovery ; and when,
two or three weeks before his death, he was obliged to
deny himself to all but his immediate relatives, the
word went through Yorkshire that that great change
was near for which his whole life had been one long
and earnest preparation.
He was buried at Ainderby, within a short distance
of his home ; and was followed to his grave by up-
wards of four hundred gentlemen, and farmers, and
others who had known him in life. Owing to so few
at a distance being aware of his death, the attendance
of shorthorn breeders was almost entirely confined to
those of Yorkshire and Durham. Like the late Lord
Delamere and Turner the artist (whom he somewhat
resembled in figure), he had an especial dislike to
being painted, and how and when the little litho-
graphed sketch was taken, which some friends used to
show you by stealth, in his lifetime, we could never
exactly learn. His herd was left to his nephews and
nieces, and Mr. Thomas Booth took it at a valuation.
Our remembrance of Warlaby and Killerby are
only of eleven years date. The two places are about
seven miles apart, and the route lies through Ainder-
by, where Velocipede adjourned from Whitewall and
" commanded" the country for some seasons. The
late Sir Maxwell Wallace had a word with our com-
panion as we passed his garden hedge, and, of course,
they got on to Bedale Hunt matters. A gamer man
than the old baronet never put on scarlet for the battle
or the bullfinch, and he was " blazing away" till he
had turned eighty and got a severe fall. Still even to
the last, he did not take to an old man's hack, but
steered .Rathconan, which had won the Howden
Steeplechase the year before.
2O4 Saddle and Sirloin.
Warlaby, which is on a stronger soil than Killerby,
lies somewhat in a hollow beneath Ainderby steeple,
and consists of 310 acres, over which Sir Samuel, in
his anti-gate-opening head gear, then seemed to act as
advanced guard. The late Mr. Booth did not care for
pictures of his winners. There was the big bull Navi-
gator in oil colours, but the rest were merely little en-
gravings on stone, such as might have been cut out of
the " Herd Book," and framed, and they were hardly
in harmony with the massive challenge cup on the side-
board. Cuddy in his brown jerkin and a checked
handkerchief, twisted like a hay-wisp round his neck,
and an aged hunting-whip in his hand, was on Ban-
niston Hill, where old Satin, Vivandiere, and Princess
Elizabeth and Red Rose were grazing. Satin, the
dam of General Havelock, was a white with a roan
neck, and rather upright horns. She milked well
enough to keep a show calf, and help the dairy as well,
and Mr. Booth had been in vain solicited to show her
in the milch-cow class. Vivandiere had a much
pleasanter head and horn ; Princess Elizabeth, dam of
Queen of the Isles, was a little on leg ; and the neat-
breasted but somewhat ragged-hipped Red Rose by
Harbinger, had only the year before added Queen of
the Ocean, to Queen of the May, Queen Mab, and
Queen of the Vale. The future gold medallist and
Soldier's Nurse were calves together. Crown Prince
stood by the gate leading into the straw-yard, and old
Hopewell, then sadly crippled, behind him. " The
Prince" was not a prize bull, but what was better, the
sire of prize winners, and at one time, the late Mr.
Booth had sixteen bulls out on hire by him. He had
capital fore-quarters, and was rather of a fawn roan,
and his horns were slightly curved, owing to the con-
stant use of the board which he carried for safety.
Then we passed on to that glorious group of Bride
Elect, with a bosom which seemed to require a second
pair of forelegs to support it ; " the Greek beauty"
Mr. John Jackson. 205
Queen Mab, and that slashing and rather masculine-
headed cow Nectarine Blossom, which had bloomed
five months before at Chester and Northallerton. She
was the biggest cow that ever left Warlaby for the
show-yard ; rather more square in her make than
Plum Blossom, and with a capital udder. After the
sight of such a trio, Queen of the Vale, good as she
was, had hardly class enough. Poor Queen of the
May had been brought on to her knees with training
and railway trucks, and had eaten quite a bare space
round her as she knelt to graze. In the house she
" favoured" herself the same way, so that you could
hardly judge of those magnificent shoulders. Queen
of the Isles was a marvel for wealth, but her calf bed
was imperfect, and she went to the butcher.
Eight years later and hardly one of them, save
Queen of the Ocean and Soldier's Bride and Lord of
the Valley were left, but the young Commander-in-
Chief and Lady Fragrant were in their glory, and
there too in her blooming heiferdom was the beautiful
looo-guinea Bride of the Vale, which was sold with
Merry Peal (500 guineas) and Royal Briton (500
guineas) to go to Canada. Sir James was going out
again on hire in the thirteenth year of his age.*
Yorkshire has had two John Jacksons of no small
turf renown. One rode seven St. Leger winners, and
counted Beningbrough and Altisidora among them ;
and the other, who was only a lad of eleven when the
old jockey died nearly blind, at Northallerton, became
* The Warlaby herd was in great peril during the cattle-plague,
which raged for six months within i^ miles of the homestead, and
nearly 300 beasts went down by disease or poleaxe. The final out-
break was not more than a quarter of a mile off, and the fate of this
great herd seemed to tremble in the balance. Vaccination and
M'Dougall's disinfectant were freely used, but Mr. Booth's main re-
liance was on burning tar in braziers at several points of the farmyard.
, The fires were carefully looked to first thing in the morning and last at
night, and might be smelt down wind for a couple of miles. No case of
any kind occurred.
206 Saddle and Sirloin.
the noted " Jock o' Fairfield," breeder and owner of
racehorses, a leviathan bettor at " the Corner," on a
carriage top, or in " any place set apart for that pur-
pose," a mighty Nimrod with the Bedale and Sir
Charles's, and an " all-round" man as far as any sport
was concerned. It was by the side of the Catterick
cords that Jackson, who then " whistled at the plough,"
first learnt to love races, and to risk half-crowns on his
fancy. That life, with all its curious and often mis-
directed activities, was closed early. Nature had given
him a fine farmer's-lad constitution to begin with ;
but he had been too prodigal of it, and she had her
revenge at last, when he was only forty-one. Well
might he say (when he knew his doom) that he had
seen more life in his time than most men of eighty.
His temperament was, in fact, far too excitable for the
stirring scenes in which his lot had been cast for nearly
twenty years.
His connexion with the Turf dates from The Flying
Dutchman's year, and it was with the money he then
won upon the tartan that he gradually became a
leading member and a very Stentor of the Ring. He
did not, like a living hero of Earl Winchilsea's lyre,
simply take his stand at Newmarket,
" Supreme upon the pump,
Clear his fine voice, and give a warning thump ;"
but he was ever on the move, a very locomotive Turf
exchange. Davis was restless in his day ; but as
regards powers of speech, he was a " dumb man of
Manchester" in comparison. Be the din ever so loud,
Jackson's voice was heard above it, booming forth in
quarter-minute guns, shotted to the muzzle with the
unshackled Doric of the North Riding, his offers to
lay or take. There he strode about, with his betting-
book in one hand, and his favourite short stick in the
other, and if there was a row or a scrimmage of any
kind, he was sure to project himself violently into the
Mr. John Jackson. 207
midst of it as bottle-holder or commentator. He
always displayed great partiality for Lord Glasgow's
horses, and would field strongly when anything of the
old Earl's was running at Newmarket or elsewhere ;
and his jubilant shout, "Lord Glasger wins T will be
remembered by all racegoers at that time. Fortune
was generally on his side. He was said to have won
nearly 4O,ooo/. on Ellington, and those who saw him
after Blair Athol's Derby needed no telling that he
could have been happy with either the chestnut or the
Glasgow bay as the winner. In his way he was a
Ring institution, and was as much behind the scenes
in the North as " Lord Frederick" in the South.
He was emphatically a man of action everywhere.
The pounding-match, for a thousand a side, from
Crick, with Sir Frederick Johnstone, would have
been quite in his way ; but there was a desperate
hardihood about the affair which made Mr. Payne,
the umpire, and the friends of both parties, feel not
a little relieved when it fell through, as they were
sure that one of such a never-say-die pair would have
been carried off the ground on a stretcher. Sir
Frederick had recently jurnped a mill dam in the
Burton country on a bay horse with a white stripe
down his face, which was afterwards in Mr. Clowes's
stable at Quorn, and his other deeds of daring were
legion. Mr. Jackson had six hunters up at the time
Tippler and Highwayman, which he bought at
Mr. Hall's sale ; Barney, by Barnton, the horse on
which he jumped a flight of double posts and rails
(16 feet, measured inside) with the Bedale ; Ross
(by Hospodar), Redcar, and Duke. Highwayman
won a four-year-old prize at the Yorkshire Show,
and Tippler the Cup at Driffield in '64. He would
have ridden the latter at 14 stone if the match had
come off, and given more than two stone away. Grey-
hounds were not much in his line ; but if he was at
/Utcar, he went striding over the ditches, betting-
208 Saddle and Sirloin.
book in hand, and shouting, " Live hare F " Well
done, black !" &c., during the courses, with a. glee that
was quite infectious and irrepressible ; and he was
certain to be never far off if there was " a cheerful
fight" on the field. Again, when his constant friend
to the last, Mr. Tom Parrington, became secretary to
the Yorkshire Agricultural Society in '65, he deter-
mined to give him a good " cheer from the shore"
at Doncaster, and sent Blair Athol as a special
entry, who was located in a stall-box lined with
green and yellow calico, and attracted not a few
visitors. Cricket had no faster friend. The " three
Cambridge men" were constantly his guests during
the winter at Oran, and Newmarket was witness to
the quaint single-wicket match (" Bat v. Broomstick")
between him and Diver. It was played on the Bury
side of the town, and the Heath was the scene of his
catch-weight match on Neptunus against Fordham on
Levity, when he gave away some five stone, and got
beaten by twenty lengths.
Racing was, after all, his sport of sports, as was
certain to be the case ^vith a man born at Catterick,
where his brother still farms the paternal acres, and
the " blue, white sleeves, red cap," often caught the
judge's eye. Saunterer and Tim . WhifHer are the
horses by which he will be best remembered, and the
Chester Cup with the latter, and the Great Metro-
politan with Haddington, were his most important
handicap victories. " Tim," as he strode along shaking
one ear, was a wonder, and the style in which, after
his sale to the late Duke of Cleveland, he fairly broke
the heart of Asteroid (when he forced the pace from the
Rifle Butts in Lord Derby's Plate at Doncaster) and
won both Goodwood and Doncaster Cups, left no
doubt upon that head. Two such horses as " Tim"
and " Mat's black" rarely fell to the share of one man.
Another "honest nigger," Haddington, who eventually
went to China, was a good second for the Chester
Mr. John Jackson. 209
Cup in '63, and ranked high in the second class both
as a racer and a stayer of the great Blacklock line.
When Mr. Jackson last visited the Root stud, he took
an immense fancy to Buttercup, then a two-year-old,
and offered Mr. Eastwood in vain every racehorse he
had in exchange for her.
No one grudged less a good price for a yearling,
and the moment he was seen with that jaunty step
and open-mouthed laugh at the side of the ring,
bidders had to waken up to some purpose, as they
knew he would " follow the blood" if it had given him
a good turn before. He gave some high yearling
prices in his time to wit, Elland, 300 guineas ;
Precious Stone 500 guineas ; Jupiter, 620 guineas ;
Repulse, 750 guineas; and so on; and when he
removed from Oran to Fairfield, and began as a
regular breeder of blood-stock in that model stud-
farm, 700 guineas for Woodbine and 75OO/. for Blair
Athol did not stand in his way for an instant. Was
"Jock o' Fairfield" to bow his head to "old New-
minster and the Rawcliffe shop?" a likely thing,
indeed !
There were few horses he delighted in more than
the handsome little Neptunus, who was fourth for the
Derby, and, although he and Jupiter disappointed
him, he never seemed to falter in his fancy for the
Weatherbit blood. He also hired Carnival for three
seasons, but unfortunately paid forfeit to be off his
bargain after the first one.
Cost what it might, like the late Mr. Theobald, he
would have the best of everything, and play the
Napoleon, if possible, in whatever he undertook. He
would have a stud of first-class brood-mares, and a
stud-farm inferior in its arrangements to none in the
kingdom, and Palmitine, Flower Girl, The Swift, and
Witchcraft were amongst the winners he bred and
sold. In 1868, two dozen yearlings were sold at his
sale on the Tuesday before York Meeting, and they
P
2 io Saddle and Sirloin.
averaged 215 guineas. A Knowsley- Violet colt (870
guineas) and a St. Albans-Hecate colt (700 guineas)
were the best prices. Although he only weighed six
stone, and his countenance was almost that of a corpse,
he was out in his Bath chair throughout that August
afternoon. As he sat there, in his pith hat and his
drab great coat which might have folded twice round
him there was a painful fixedness in his eye which
told too truly -that all hope was gone. Still he was
very cheerful, and had a smile and a shake of the
hand for every friend, and occasionally joined in as
" the loving cup" went round. He also sent up a
catalogue correction to Mr. Tattersall, and even
mounted for a few minutes, when the Knowsley colt
was selling, into a barouche, along with Mr. Morris
and Mr. Hodgman. It was strange to see one who
was so soon to pass away standing like a pale spectre
amongst his fellow men, and quietly gazing for the
last time at a scene, the marrow of those in which he
had so often pushed his way to the front at Doncaster
and Eltham in the days of his lusty manhood. No
one ever expected to see him again, and it was an-
nounced that he had determined to sell everything in
a month. During the York week he made a great
point of old friends riding up to see him that he might
say " good-bye." On the sale-night he was so worn
out that his attendants thought he was dying as they
bore him upstairs, but once there, and after he had
taken some grouse and port wine, his indomitable
spirit revived. Throughout the whole of the next
month, the little excitement of speculating in his own
mind on what his blood-stock would fetch, seemed to
do him good, and when the ring was once more formed
in his yard on the Saturday after Doncaster races, he
seemed much better and quite gay among his friends
in a barouche.
It was a remarkable sale. Efifie made 1 100 guineas
and Tunstall Maid 1000 guineas, and these two, with
Mr. John Jackson. 2 i I
Terrific, Lady Louisa, Nutbush, Hecate, Woodbine,
and Violet, averaged 696 guineas. After a good con-
test between Mr. Blenkiron and Count Renard, Blair
Athol, of whom we believe that Mr. I'Anson had still
a leg, went to Eltham at 5000 guineas ; and six of his
foals, many of them quite little gems, averaged 246
guineas. The highest price was 310 guineas for a filly
from Effie, and the same was made for a Thormanby
filly from Woodbine. It is rather remarkable that
while the foals were making these prices, the three
two-year-olds by Blair Athol only averaged 237
guineas. The sum-total of the 119 lots at the two
sales was about 28,5<DO/. It was, we believe, some
5ooo/. more than Mr. Jackson had laid them at,
and his mind seemed much easier when they were
gone. The bodily improvement was, however, quite
fallacious, and he began to droop again, and finally
passed away within a few days of his forty-first
birthday. With all his curious ways, we could ill
spare him, and through many a rolling year " poor
Jock of Fairfield" will be remembered at Yorkshire
firesides for his daring pluck and open-handed kind-
ness.
From the pleasant parts about Northallerton, we
make our way into the East Riding by the line from
Thirsk to Malton. Mr. Samuel Wiley,* who has sur-
* Mr. Samuel Wiley, who was born on January 2oth, 1777, came to
Brandsby as a boy of ten, and in 1803 he was a tup-letter. He might
be said to have begun on his own account by giving Mr. Mason of
Chilton 50 guineas for the use of Butter Lump for the season, and then
for fourteen years in succession he hired tups from Robert Colling.
Shoulders, Carcase, Brother to Carcase, Ditto, a son of Symmetry, and
Blossom (sire of the ram Ajax, for whom Sir Tatton bid up to
156 guineas, against Mr. George Baker of Elemore) were the upshot of
his hiring journeys ; but Mr. Wiley valued none of them more than a
6o-guinea two-shear, for which he drew cuts with Major Rudd. When
the Barmpton flock was dispersed, he used his own tups for three or
four seasons. He was then faithful for twenty or more to the Burgess
blood at Cotgrave Place and Holmpierrepont. Then a three-shear,
which he bought at Mr. John Stone's sale, did him immense good for
P 2
212 Saddle and Sirloin.
passed by two years the days of Sir Tatton, and is
as brisk as ever at a Leicester, pig, or shorthorn
bargain, lives at Brandsby about five miles to the
right ; and a ride of a few miles farther brings us to
Helmsley Station. The scenery of the country is a
striking combination of wildness and fertility. Few
foxes would care to be at home in Grange Whin or
Waterloo Plantation or among the laurels of the Ter-
five seasons in succession. He was the top price, and Mr. Stone always
said that he should not have left Quorndon if he could have gone on
with his flock. Since then Mr. Wiley has relied on his own flock for
tups, with occasional dips by sale or hire into the Burgess and the
Buckley blood from head-quarters, as long as the Cotgrave Place and
Normanton flocks were kept up. With such antecedents, he may well
pride himself on a flock of really " Pure Bakewells." He lets on an
average about sixty tups a year by private bargain, and he has always
shown sheep with great success at the Highland and Agricultural
Society and the Yorkshire Society, and taken prizes, more especially
with his gimmers, which also won him a second at the Royal Agricul-
tural Society at Chester. He was first with them at the Newcastle
Royal in 1864, and beat Colonel Inge, after a sharp contest, with quite
a model pen. At the Manchester Royal in 1869 he was second to Mr.
Borton.
His long, low-pitched house, with the dark green Cotoniastus creep-
ing over it, and peeping with its red flowerets in at every lattice, is quite
the realization of a snug Yorkshire home. Young Painter (a son of the
sheep in Mr. Wiley's picture), Young Fajback, Landseer, and others,
were nibbling close up to the garden wicket ; and. one of Chester Sym-
metry's daughters was roving along the hedge-side, and seasoning her
bacon by anticipation with a dainty meal beneath the "cock-pits,"
which have been specially chosen from among apple trees, on account
of their peculiarly thin and open wood, to engraft upon crab-stocks in
the neat hedge-rows of the farm.
Mr. Wiley's holding consists of 500 acres, and seems to take in three
sides of a square. The ewes are kept principally on seeds, at his
Warren House Farm, which is higher and lighter land, near the Wigan-
thorpe moors, while the tups are brought down during the summer to
the Brandsby pastures. Sixty acres of the latter is glebe, and the re-
mainder, a great portion of which is park, belongs to the Cholmeley
family at the Hall.
Long and steady success as a breeder of Shorthorns, Leicesters, and
pigs has not one whit weakened the belief in Mr. Wiley's mind that the
plough is the first great creditor of a nation, and he has followed rigidly in
the track of his father, who began with thorns and stones upon the
Mosswood Farm in Craike parish, in 1763 (twenty- four years prior to
his taking the Brandsby farms in addition), and then became one of the
Or
Fever sham's Herd. 213
race walk, if they could know when Jack Parker and
the Sinnington intend to call ; and although the
hounds are merely collected the night before, and drop
off one by one after hunting to their farm settlements,
till Jack is a mounted general without an army, they
can account for twenty brace a season.
The Trafalgar Column, which the first lord reared
to the hero of immortal memory, towers above the
pioneers of hollow draining in Yorkshire. On his father's death in
1805, Moss wood was handed over to a half-brother, and Mr. Wiley
entered on Brandsby. With his shorthorns, which number about forty
head, he has adopted the safe old rule of never refusing a likely offer
when he can get it ; and hence, except when he had something very
much out of the common, he has never held for the mere chances of the
show-yard.
The blood of Comet was at fever-heat in the market when he hired
his first bull in 1814, and Mr. Wright of Cleasby (one of the joint pur-
chasers of the thousand-guinea wonder) found a youthful Lubin (388)
exactly to suit him. Adonis, another son of Comet, from Beauty, and
bred by Charles Colling, did him such good service the two next seasons,
that he followed him up with his own brother, Jupiter (343), and the
succession was kept alive by North Star (459) and Harold (291), which
were sent home when Robert had his sale in 1818. Two years before
that, Mr. Wiley had bought Mida from the Rev. Thomas Vaughan, of
Houghton, near Darlington, and the strain pleased him so much that
he bore off her sire Midas (435) in his tenth year hi the Barmpton ring,
after a tough rally with Sir William Cooke, for 270 guineas, and a
yearling heifer from Trinket as well. The money which was laid out
on this tribe has never been a source of regret, as Grazier (1085), by
Midas, more than brought it back. Old Anna's, of Helmsley, is not
the only tongue which has waxed eloquent in the ancient red's behalf.
Sir John Johnstone, of Hackness, used him for three seasons, and when
Lord Feversham, Mr. Smith of West Razen, Mr. Slater of North
Carlton, and Mr. Wiley himself had all dipped pretty deeply into him,
he ended his days at fourteen at Byram Hall. Ganthorpe (2049), of the
Castle Howard herd, in which he was used, was one of his principal
sons, and he was in his turn the sire of Malibran, for whom her breeder,
Mr. Henry Edwards, got 300 guineas. Mr. Whitaker of Greenholme's
blood was also introduced at Brandsby, both through His Highness
(2125), own brother to the 2io-guinea Highflyer at. the Chilton sale, and
Abernethy (1602). Sultan (1485), for whose ancestress, Mary, General
Simpson gave 300 guineas to Charles Colling, was purchased from Mr.
William Johnson, after he had been extensively engaged in Northum-
berland in circulating what the borderers still fondly style "the good
old Jobson sort." The principal result of the one year's service which
be had out of him was Sultana ; and from her union with Belshazzar
214 Saddle and Sirloin.
park, which extends along a richly-wooded plateau ;
while at your feet there seems to be a vast plain in
every stage of the four-crop rotation for miles, and
then fading away in the far distance into some
heather forelands, which almost shut out the view of
the German Ocean. This Kirby Moor was at once
the hunting ground and the death scene of the
Duke of Buckingham, in days when the rafters of
Helmsley Castle rang again with his revels, after he
(1704), whom he hired from Castle Howard, there came a bull-calf,
which had good looks enough to be honoured at once with Mr. Wiley's
favourite cognomen of Carcase, and was sold as a yearling for 200 guineas.
Belshazzar, who got his stock very large and good-looking, was the
sire of Victoria, which was sold from the Brandsby herd for 160 guineas ;
but Carcase (3285) was the greatest hit. The latter won the yearling
bull prize in 1838 both at Thirsk and at York, where he divided the
winner Hecatomb and the great two-year-old Duke of Northumberland
in the classes for all ages ; but still Mr. Bates was enabled to say that
his crack was never beaten by a bull of his own age. His Van Dunck
(10,992) was a second Carcase in the show-yard. He not only took the
first 25/. prize at the Yorkshire Society's Meeting at Thirsk as the best
bull of any age, but carried off the prize for the best two-year-old bull
at the Highland Society, and after being placed second to Mr. Anthony
Maynard's Crusade in the Sweepstakes, passed for 125 guineas into the
hands of Mr. Whitehead of Little Methlie, near Aberdeen. Since then
Mr. Wiley has not cared much to show store stock ; but he has not un-
frequently had a prize bullock at the York fat show. Still, the leading
honour of the show-year was in store for him, and in 1869 he took the
first prize (4O/.) for the best aged bull at the Manchester Royal with
Earl of Derby against 23 bulls, and was second at the Yorkshire to Mr.
Booth's Commander- in- Chief, the first-prize Royal winner at Leicester.
Till within the last few years he showed small white pigs with good
success at the Birmingham fat show, and also at the Royal Agricultural
and Yorkshire, at whose Chester and Northallerton shows in 1858 a
pen of young sows by Useful from Symmetry took first prizes. One of
the Chester trio was sold to Sir Edward Kerrison, Bart., M.P., but
there was another quite as good at home to complete the county prize-
lot, which fetched 12 guineas apiece, thus making up 50 guineas for the
four. The breed is the small Yorkshire white. This rare line of winners
owes its origin to Mr. Colling ; but it has been carefully crossed with
boars from Castle Howard, Mr. Hall's of Kiveton, and Mr. Cook's of
Owston. There are now few leading pig breeders who have not set
themselves up with a " Wiley" at some period of their existence ; and
Carcase, Young Carcase, Optimus, Dumfries, Dreadnought, Priam, and
Stanley (Young and Old) have all upheld the Brandsby bacon dynasty,
which has gone on at the rate of about half a dozen litters a year,
"Old Anna? 215
had retired from the court and cabinet of Charles
the Second. The old castle lies just within the Dun-
combe Park gates, in the midst of the little primitive
market town of Helmsley ; but the wild music of the
cannon which was once levelled against it for six
weeks by the Ironsides under Fairfax, is exchanged
in these happier times for the caw of the rooks,
which sail solemnly in circles round its ramparts.
The only room left in it is used on rent days, and
few farmers on all that vast property, which stretches
away fifteen miles to Cleveland bank, and seventeen
to the East Moors, once passed through the lodge at
those levees, whether they loved shorthorns or whether
they did not, without exchanging a word with " Old
Anna."
It is many years since she resigned office as head
cow- woman, and her Herd Book memory seemed to
have stopped short at that point. She had caught
no reflected glory from the Fifth Duke of Oxford
and Symphony, and professed, we grieve to say, quite
a fashionable unconsciousness of their very existence.
Her love was irretrievably lost some thirty years before
to a " Young Grazier," and her love had known no
change. As for Bates and Booth, she " might have
heard their names ;" but Mr. Colling and Mr. Wiley,
they were the men for her. Grazier would be by one
of Mr. Wiley's bulls, and he was always buying from
Mr. Colling. No wonder there was such a sympathetic
chord ! W 7 hat were modern breeders, and their Bates
grandeur, and Booth substance, and Fawsley neatness
to her ? Give her the cows of her buxom womanhood
" big roomy yansT Then, warming with her subject,
after this general sentiment, she ticked her ancient
favourites off on her fingers. " There would be Em-
peror" she said, " and Baron, and Baroness, all oot of
one coo Wildair ; THEM WERE just the shorthorns !
I could tell my lord, when the gentlemen came, every
one of their yages for fifteen years back, and all aboot
2 1 6 Saddle and Sirloin.
them" When we saw that fond and yet triumphant
leer, we did not wonder (though in stature she was
not the woman to wrestle with a bull) at the recital of
that mysterious fascination on which she next dwelt,
when the mention of Young Graziertouched another and
a still tenderer key. Away she went at score, leaving
our pencil and note-book staggering hopelessly behind.
" Aye ! Young Grazier you've got that right enough ;
he was a savage one, but I could just handle him
as I liked. None could lead him out to please my
lord, like old Anna'' Waxing bolder, we then cross-
examined her as to their parting scene. " Took him
away when he was sold? Now who's been telling you
that ? Of course I did. No one else dar come nigh
him. I walked seven miles on end with him, that I
did. I had clogs on in those ^valks, and I could use
'em quick too'' To a last inquiry as to whether she
had not extended her walks in another direction, and
driven True Blue's dam to the butcher at Stillington,
she gave us to understand that she had a slight weak-
ness for that " coo " as well, and was determined to
" see the far end of her'.' And on we strolled from this
old marvel to see the modern herd. We had received
a parting assurance that " they can give a good pedigree
of me at the farm up yonder a five-and-forty year
yan," which would place the commencement of her
premiership back to about 1818. Before that date,
the first Lord Feversham, then Mr. Charles Duncombe,
had nothing but Devons, and found them too delicate
for the climate, and the Barmpton sale was the begin-
ning of his shorthorn herd.
Duncombe Park is bounded on the west by the
valley of the Rye. The broken ground across the
river, which terminates in one point in the dark green
of the Waterloo plantation, which was planted as a
wood of victory by the late lord 's father, is singularly
rugged and beautiful ; and a distant peep of the hills
of Hambleton may atone, to " a stable mind/' for
Fifth Duke of Oxford. 217
getting none of the ruins of Rivaulx Abbey, a little
further down the valley. The Griff Farm, the scene
of Old Anna's glories, to which we were bound, lies
about a quarter of a mile from the park, along a field
route, lined at intervals with those dark green holly
trees peculiar to this Riding, and which catch a
stranger's eye at once from their enormous size. Ear
however, came into play before eye, when we at last
neared the box of the Fifth Duke of Oxford, and
were saluted with a roar quite worthy, in its depth and
tone, of a Libyan King of Beasts. He looked the
character to the life, with that shaggy lion-like old
head and mane, as he was at last led forth, snorting,
in blinkers. The fine length, beautiful touch, and rare
union of hip, loin, and rump take the eye as much as
ever ; but although he had been reduced some twenty
stone since he wore the Chester and Northallerton
prize ribbons, his day of usefulness, like his temper,
was gone. Feeding for show had done its fatal work.
The 5/. prize at the Cleveland Show was his maiden
one at two years old. In 1856 he took the bronze
medal, -.which is equivalent to an H. C. at Paris ; and
at Rotherham that year he only bowed to Grand
Turk. His son Skyrocket, from Swift, who faced
Prince Imperial in the next place, did not serve till he
was banished for penance to some poor land at
Cockayne, adjoining the moors ; and it was his fate to
stand at the head of that splendid class of old bulls,
at the Leeds Royal, with Royal Turk as his second.
In the winter of that year he was presented to the
poor of that town, and finished his career in the soup
caldron.
Lord Feversham was not exactly a sportsman,
although he lent a solid support to the Bedale and
Sinnington packs. We never remember meeting his
lordship on any race-course but Doncaster, and then
he would generally see the St. Leger from about the
centre of the " Badsworth Gallery." He was not
2 1 8 Saddle and Sirloin.
demonstrative on such occasions, but no one seemed
to take more interest in Johnny Osborne's and Lord
Clifden's memorable " game of patience." Still, after
all, " shorthorn racing" suited him best, and it was at
Doncaster, two years later, that he won the head
prize in the milch cow class with Pride of Southwicke,
which never looked more blooming. His lordship
gave 100 guineas for her at Lady Pigot's sale, where
he arrived after the good old fashion from New-
market in a chaise-and-four a sight which created
quite a healthy stir. When he came back to Dun-
combe Park after the session he would as often as not
step off to the stedding to see the new calf arrivals
before he entered the house. A good hack was also
one of his fancies, and he generally ran his eye over
Mr. Milward's lot and sometimes made a purchase.
Be it where it might, he always liked to bid for him-
self. In his manner his lordship was reserved, but
always courteous and chatty upon shorthorns, espe-
cially when he was in his favourite bidding spot, a
little behind Mr. Strafford's waggon with his umbrella
under his arm. On the Willis's Rooms day he took
the chair at the sale luncheon and declared his Kirk-
levington faith in such an unwavering fashion, that
the Booth men said with justice that he rather ignored
Bridecake's share in the Grand Duchesses. Whether
in Hanover-square or at the Smithfield Club (where
he was second with a good heifer the year before his
death) he was alike zealous and pleasant to work with,
and he was sorely missed from his accustomed spot on
those May mornings in '67, when Kent and Essex
raised the standard of Bates.*
* After his lordship's death in 1867, a draft sale of shorthorns took
place, and an average of 33/. 19*. 2d. was made for 38. Two of the
females of each tribe were retained by the present Earl, and Orestes
(22,443) of the Knightley blood was used. At the Milcote sale in
1869, Hospitality, who combines Princess and Bates blood with that of
the old Fawsley Cyrilla or Cold Cream, was bought for 50 guineas.
Mr. Bortoris Leicester*. 2 1 9
A ride of twelve miles further up the fertile Vale of
Rydal lands us at the station for Barton-le-Street, the
home of the Yorkshire champion of the Leicesters,
Mr. John Borton. He learnt his lesson as flockmaster
in a good school under his grandfather, Mr. William
Key, at Northolme and Musley Bank near Malton.
The old gentlemen, who died in 1832, and whose
portrait is preserved to us on the canvas of Jackson,
with his hand on the head of one of his greyhounds,
was along with Mr. Marshall of East Newton, Mr.
Dowker of Salton, Mr. Kendall of Ness, and Mr.
Richardson of Lund Cote, a leading Leicester breeder
in the Malton district. On his grandfather's death,
Mr. Borton's uncle, who succeeded to the property, pre-
sented him with ten ewes out of the hundred which
composed the ram breeding portion of the flock.
These he took to Habton, where he commenced in
1833 to " paddle his own canoe," and eventually settled
at Barton-le-Street, five miles from Malton.*
* In 1834 Mr. Borton bought a score of ewes at Mr. Dowker*s sale,
and began as a ram-breeder at once, while his father pursued the same
business at Kirby Misperton. His fourth year of farm life found our
young flockmaster in the show-field ; and the two firsts and a second for
shearling rams at Hackness and Thirsk were the best proof that he had
not reckoned prematurely on his strength. When the Yorkshire Agri-
cultural Show met at York in 1839, the hero of these two firsts was beaten
by a sheep which Mr. Wetherell bought at Mr. Edwards' sale; but the
much-coveted head prize for shearlings was won at Leeds the following
year. In 1842-46 he showed very little, but brought up his reserves in
full strength when the Royal came to York, and he had 75/. of cash to
receive from the secretary, as first with the shearlings and aged sheep,
and first for the local prize. Since then his entries have seldom been
lacking at the Royal or the Yorkshire ; and with Sanday, Creswell,
Inge, Wiley, Jordan, Turner, Pawlett (whose Chester ram he bought),
and "all the swells" in the field, he has never shrunk from battle, and
has seen the winning rosettes over his pen nearly two hundred times.
At Doncaster, in 1865, he had two firsts and two seconds for rams, and
a first for gimmers, and his winnings in one year reached lyo/.
As time went on he kept reinforcing his ewe flock from Mr. Allen's
of Malton, and bought a score of gimmers from Sir Tatton and Mr.
Sanday. For five seasons old Sledmere was his mainstay, and before
he purchased him (for 25 guineas) he had sent ewes to him. The
blood was partly his own, as he gave 28 guineas for his grandsire, then
22O Saddle and Sirloin.
The present farm, which belongs to Mr. Meynell
Ingram, consists of 460 acres of limestone rock. It is
mostly arable, and there is very little old grass. It
suits swedes, greystone, and whitestone turnips very
a shearling, at the sale of Mr. Owston's of Thorpe Bassett, who not vm-
frequently accompanied Sir Tatton on his rides to Leicestershire. The
old baronet attended the sale of his dead friend, and liked this shearling
so much that he sent ten ewes to him. There were only two tup lambs
among the produce, and Sir Tatton never parted with one, which was
the sire of Sleclmere. Mr. Borton bid 60 guineas for it when the Sled-
mere flock was sold, but Mr. Hall, who has (as might have been
expected of so keen a judge) been very often after the same numbers,
got him for half a guinea more. Hence, Mr. Borton had to be content
with the son, instead of the sire, and "by Sledmere" is in the pedigree
of Blair Athol, Sir Tatton Sykes, and in fact, most of his best prize
sheep for four or five years back. The old ram only died this year,
and was honourably buried in his skin. His son Sir Tatton Sykes, from
an Eddlethorpe ewe, won at Worcester Royal in '63, and upwards of
thirty times as well. He formed part of a trio which won Lord Londes-
borough's Cup, at Market Weighton, which Mr. Borton has carried off
twice ; in fact, on the only occasions that he tried for it. Mr. Jordan
took this ram twice at 30 guineas and 40 guineas, then he stayed two
seasons in Cornwall with Mr. Tremayne, at 4O/., and Mr. Hendy at
35 guineas, and has been used at home for two seasons. His own bro-
ther, Blair Athol, began well by beating forty-two shearlings at Ply-
mouth Royal, and since then he has been principally let, and won his
prizes in Mr. Hutchinson of Catterick's hands. Mr. Borton may well
say, that the fusion of Sledmere and Owston blood on Dowker, has
been his mainstay. His Sir Tatton by Sledmere, from Eddlethorpe
ewe, and bred by the late Sir Tatton Sykes, was also a good sheep, and
won at the Yorkshire Show at York in '66 ; and Black Eye by Ebor
(another York winner), from a Sanday ewe was his champion at the
Newcastle Royal. So far Mr. Borton has sold and let rams as high as
40 guineas, and given Mr. Sanday 60 guineas for a hire. The ewe
flock generally ranges from 150 to 170 in number, and upwards of 50
rams are let annually, at an average of 12 to 15 guineas. In some years
it has been as high as i6/. Customers come principally from Yorkshire,
Notts, Devonshire, and Ireland. Mr. Foljambe hired rams from him
in 1866-67, an d the first Yorkshire shearling was to have gone to Osber-
ton in 1868, but he unfortunately died when he was being prepared for
the Scarborough Show, and Mr. Borton stood first and second in the
class without him. His death was quite unaccountable, except it was
from high feeding, as he was found to weigh 42lbs. per quarter. Mr.
Borton has also a good selling trade, and sent four rams in 1868 to
Prussia. At the Manchester Royal meeting in 1869, he won a first,
second and third for rams, and a third for gimmers ; and at the York-
shire (Beverley) two firsts, two seconds, and a third for rams, and a first
for gimmers.
Sir Tatton Sykes. $21
well, but no mangel is grown, as Mr. Borton does not
admire it for sheep food. The little show meadow is
just behind the house, but it looked dreary to what it
did when we visited it the year before and found the
hirers round the pens, the union jack flying on the
refreshment-booth, and Mr. I'Anson in his green and
yellow cravat, and with " a correct card" of the sheep
to be let in his hand, gravely examining Blair Athol.
The old ram, however, was here again by the side of
Sir Tatton Sykes, and so were the Royal and the
Yorkshire sheep, with the twins Blue Cap and Blue
Face, the first and second at Scarboro', while Brid-
lington was on the broken-down list. The fifteen-
year-old ewe, which we had seen such a perfect
skeleton, and taking her grass on her knees, had
joined old Sledmere in the Happy Pastures, and the
capital second pen of Royal gimmers will be lucky if
they can earn such a character as this " Belgravian
mother of the flock."
CHAPTER IX.
"I would only advise you, Mr. Spectator," applying himself to me,
"to take care how you meddle with country Squires. They are the
ornaments of the English nation, men of good heads and sound bodies,
and, let me tell you, some of them take it ill of you that you mention
foxhunters with so little respect." Spectator.
The late Sir Tatton Sykes Life at Sledmere Old Bob Ramsden
Market Weighton Trotters A visit to Givendale The late Mr.
Etty, R.A. A Morning on Langton Wold Blair Athol.
hands across the breast, and labour is done,"
was a thought which Yorkshire seemed to put
far from it in connexion with Sir Tatton. " Grand-
father Whitehead" vowed that his heart was as young
and his step as firm as when he was twenty-five ; and
when a third generation beheld his vigorous old age,
222 Saddle and Sirloin.
they were half tempted to believe'that his rapier had
done good service for the cavaliers at Marston Moor,
and that the oak tree for his coffin was a sapling yet.
The reverence felt for him in Yorkshire was akin to
idolatry. To see him riding out of the Eddlethorpe
paddock after a September ram-letting on his Colwick
black, which then numbered with its rider 108 years,
accompanied by the clergyman of Sledmere, and re-
turning the greetings of friends and tenants, and to
hear the half-whispered ' God bless him ! how hearty
he is he'll put in for a hundred" read to us like a
chapter out of the Spectator.
" How's Sir Tatton looking ?" was one of the first
questions asked as each York and Doncaster meeting
came round. Strangers might well descend from the
Grand Stand as soon as he had been pointed out to
them at his wonted place by the rails, and make a
series of mysterious gyrations round him, in order to
do full justice to the assurance, " You II never see such
a man again? Then they would hear the regular
string of anecdotes which have long been told of him
by the woldsmen's firesides how he had seen every
St. Leger but Charles XII.'s since he was fourteen
how he nearly missed Blacklock's by riding 720 miles
to " cannie Aberdeen" for a mount on Kutusoff, with
only a clean shirt and a razor for his baggage how
he rose with the lark and slashed his own hedges, and
how bluff Jack Shirley, the huntsman, complimented
him upon the excellence of his work, near the Eddle-
thorpe kennels, before he guessed who " my old gentle-
man" was how he helped to dig the big pond in his
park how deftly he could rebuke forwardness in the
field or on the carpet, or give the retort courteous to
a bizarre politician how he often walked by the side
of his young horses to and from the Marshes, and drove
his first lot of Leicester ewes a three days' journey
from Lincoln to Barton Ferry how " Gentleman
Jackson" and Jem Belcher had taught him their best
Sir Tatton Sykes. 22$
hits, and to " clear a lane of such men" as once chose
to measure the gentleness of his fist by his voice, and
insult him at a wayside inn and how he had consis-
tently nurtured himself on these deeds of daring on
ale and apple-pie.
Time had taken off nearly all his old acquaintances,
except Mr. Bethell of Rise, who was three months
older ; but it never made him faithless to the old garb
of Yorkshire the long straight-cut black coat, the
ample frill, the beaver gloves, the expansive umbrella,
the drab breeches, and the mahogany tops, which
were quite as much part and parcel of the constitution
as " Old Glory's." Both in dress and manner he was
one of those few men, who, like Charles Davis and
Tom Sebright, had such a stamped individuality
that you feel that the mould must have been broken.
He had been fashioned in stirring times, and there
was not the faintest analogy to him in life or book.
He could almost recollect the Declaration of Indepen-
dence, and he had got one glimpse of Doctor Johnson,
after much judicious perseverance, with his brothers
Mark and Christopher, the latter of whom bred Fleur
de Lis.
He first longed to " take silk" himself after watch-
ing the Kavesmire running from a stile with his
brothers, when they were all three under a tutor at
Bishopthorpe. When he had risen to the dignity of
an " Old Westminster," he spent some terms at Braze-
nose, and then, during a short clerkship with Messrs.
Atkinson and Farrer, he listened to the awful accents
of Lord Thurlow in the Chancery Courts, or haunted
Westminster Hall when Erskine was in his zenith,
and the four judges who were destined for "the golden
time" of the King's Bench were still at the outer bar.
These days must have been very happy ones, varied
as they were by a couple of Derbies (a race which he
never saw after '92), and visits to Ranelagh and the
Five Courts. His recollections of them lent a strong
224 Saddle and Sirloin.
tincture to his conversation with those who cared more
for the ermined Daniels of the past than the dark
chestnut ones of the present, and invariably led on
over a bottle of claret to the " Chameleon coach," the
" Delpini colt," of the Grand Jury, and his other assize
tales of York.*
His banking probation at Hull dwelt less by him,
except in connexion with his first essays at sheep-
breeding, but a tradition still lingers there as to how
he astonished his townsmen by leaving his lodgings in
Dagger-lane on a Saturday afternoon, walking the
thirty-two miles to Sledmere to spend the Sunday,
and appearing by the same conveyance all fresh for
the bank business on Monday morning. He was well
built for the task, as five feet eleven by eleven stone
five " would about fetch him." His forty seasons as
master of foxhounds began some years before he suc-
ceeded to the baronetcy, and from 1823, the year
after his marriage, his Sledmere life had flowed on in
one almost unvaried round. " Statesmen might howl,
and patriots bray," but he did not care to be one of
" the faithful Commons" for the privilege of hearing
them. His friend, Sir George, could tell him all about
them when he came down in August ; and, as for
eloquence, his quotation from Mr. Jofrocks of " Muck's
your man!' could bring down far heartier cheers at a
Malton or Driffield agricultural dinner than any which
were echoed back from the panels of St. Stephen's.
His honest old Church and King creed found its best
public vent in building and endowing schools and
churches. Peel, Derby, and Palmerston might go out,
but Snarry's Cabinet, with the tally-board of the
yearling marks for its portfolio, and Cragg's Flat as
its Downing-street, was perfectly immortal. Besides
occasional fairs and horse-shows, there was the annual
See "Scott and Sebright," pp. 9-14 and 131-143.
Sir Tatlon Sykes. 225
ride with Tom Carter his huntsman ;* the Leicester-
shire ram-lettings ; the three visits to York and Don-
caster races ; and then, at the fall of the leaf, his
friends in Holderness knew that he would be there to
an hour to sell his bullocks, and marshal his young
horses on the marshes, and meet the old party once
more. Her ladyship might go to London for the
season, but he was not to be tempted away from
Sledmere when the spring grass was bringing out " the
Buckley legs of mutton" in the lambs, and the year-
lings were fast coming to hand for York.
There was no spot more fitted by nature for this
pleasant pastoral of the Wolds. The inscription on
the pillared fountain by the road-side bore testimony
to what his father Sir Christopher had done in re-
claiming those primitive hunting-grounds of Squire
Draper of Beswick and his daughter Di ; and for forty
years Sir Tatton had followed steadily in his track,
with his hedges, farm-buildings, ponds, and planting.
Now, not one stone is left upon another of Falconer's
Hall, and if Sans Quartier that Nana Sahib of fal-
cons could be unhooded among the partridges, he
would not know his old haunts again, and career over
the enclosures far away from his lure. You wend your
four miles from Fimber station to Sledmere, past rich
wheat or turnip crops, or down an ever-winding ashen
glade. The gallop at Marramat, over which " the
long, thin, and lazy lad" from Newmarket alias the
redoubtable Sam Chifney used to give Sir Mark's
horses their breathers in Searle's day, is quite hid ;
and it takes all Snarry's eloquence to convince you, as
you look from the Castle Field, that Tibthorpe Farm
was once only a breezy wold, and " a good bit of
Boddle a rabbit-warren." Sledmere lies deeply em-
bosomed in woods, with its church scarcely a bow-
See " Scott and Sebright," p. 325=
Q
226 Saddle and Sirtoin.
shot from the house. No frowning fence severs the
living from the dead :
" Where holy ground begins, unhallowed ends,
Is marked by no distinguishable line,"
and the lawn seems gradually to ripple off into grassy
hillocks, 'neath the yew and the silver fir. Many a
stone can tell of family-servants grown hoary, and
gone to their rest. A simple cross is there, not to
mark a sleeper, but " to preserve in his native village"
the memory of a Sledmere soldier-lad who fell in the
Crimea ; and among them, on the north side of the
chancel shared with one whiD spent nearly forty
years in works of good at his side is the grave of Sir
Tatton.
The park vista, from the front door away to the
Castle Field woods, presented an ever varying group
of mares and foals ; but among them, day after day,
as two o'clock draws near, there is no longer the well-
known figure on the black, and latterly the dark
chestnut, and Snarry, in his snow-white jacket, as in-
terpreter to a small troop of friends on foot or horse-
back, who have " come to look round." Now they
would be scanning a short-legged chestnut Hampton,
or a bigger white-legged one by Pyrrhus, such as only
the King of Italy could tempt from those pastures ;
then a brown, thick-set Caster; a smart chestnut,
whose dark mahogany hue and tail-crest " testify of
Daniel ;" and bays and browns by Sleight-of-Hand,
of which Snarry observes, in an almost defiant tone,
" We can challenge any stud in England with our
Sleight-of-Hand mares. Bring what they like, we'll
meet them /" There, too, " giving colour" to the land-
scape, are a few White Stumps mares, the last of their
clan, and emblems of a time when Delpini and Sir
Mark's Camillus made the Yorkshire greys such effec-
tive place-getters. Still, of all his greys, Sfr Tatton
liked a Smolensko mare best the Stumps necks did
Sir Tatton Sykes. 227
not quite please him, as " they are like the old horse's,
a trifle the wrong way up."
Nearly every great sire of England has left some
mark by proxy at Sledmere, on a Comus or Camillus
foundation. Whalebone made his with Stumps, the
first that Sir Tatton ever bought, Sultan with Hamp-
ton, Pantaloon with Sleight-of-Hand and The Libel,
Defence with Pyrrhus, Touchstone with Rifleman, Bay
Middleton with Andover, Venison with Fernhill, Emi-
lius with Mathematician, Birdcatcher with Daniel and
Womersley, Lanercost with Colsterdale, and Black-
lock, whose sire Whitelock was owned by Sir Mark,
with his great-grandson Fandango. Sir Tatton sold
a few draught mares, with Wicket among them, to the
Rawcliffe stud, when it began operations, and it was
well for it that he did not like Newminster's slow
paces, and declined him ; though he did homage to
his after-prowess by going out of his course to buy
one of his fillies. There were, we believe, about 120
brood mares, but several were not put to, and what
with other casualties, about 66 foals was the largest
return to Weatherby. How Snarry knew them all so
accurately, and talked like a book of their breed (and
always in italics when they were of " the Darling or
Daniel sort"), puzzled wiser heads than ours: Amati's
dam was the queen in point of success, cross her as
you might, as Gorsehill and Elcho followed " the
fiddle-maker; and she had a chesnut, Marquis of
Bowmont by " Daniel," almost as elegant a little
fellow as Elcho, whose skeleton has been preserved as
a model by the Royal Veterinary College. In fact,
we scarcely remember an.pdd-looking horse at Sled-
mere, except one of the 170 Daniels, and he seemed
to have strained back to a Flemish stock. It was a
puzzle why The Libel (the maternal grandsire of St.
Albans) should ever have been there, as he was so far
above the fifteen-two standard, but he was bought
without being seen, and then scarcely used. Mathe-
Q 2
228 Saddle and Sirloin.
matician was not long in residence, and then only be-
cause Mr. Drinkald, a great customer for yearlings, to
the extent of five or six at a time, begged so hard.
He had only two or three mares, but he begot the
dam of Lecturer. Cervantes always got a good word,
as it was from a mare by him that the brothers Grey
Momus and Grey Milton, the 5<DO-guinea yearling and
foal, sprang ; and it was his great-grandson which
called forth Sir Tatton's reply to congratulations after
his win at Doncaster, " Well, sir, it is worth one's while
to breed an honest Lawyer" Old Comus filled the
paddocks with white-legged chestnuts, which the cross
with Camillus changed to grey ; and, like Hampton
and Womersley, his blood nicked right well with
Sleight-of-Hand. Daniel suited the Hampton mares,
but a " Sleight" cross put more substance on his foals.
It was something for one man to have bred Grey
Momus, The Lawyer, St. Giles, Gaspard, Elcho,
Dalby, and Lecturer, to say nothing of several smaller
winners ; and he used to observe that if he could
never breed a St. Leger winner, he got nearer the
Derby each time, with Grey Momus and Black
Tommy. His best sale was in 1861, when Brother to
Gaspard headed the poll at 500 guineas, and five by
Rifleman and Daniel averaged 386 guineas. Some of
his sires he thought beyond their market-price, but he
invariably sold them and all his horse-flesh remark-
ably well. He would only part with the " thin end of
the yearling fillies," and thus the sires had little more
than half a chance. We often thought, as we looked
at those mares, which had never heard the roar of the
Stand, or done a day's work in their lives, that per-
chance a Queen of Trumps or an Ellerdale might be
blushing unseen, and wasting her sweetness in merely
throwing fillies to wander on seeds, till they were at
matron's estate in their turn. Ellerdale was a mare to
whom Sir Tatton always hung, as she seldom failed
to run well over York and Doncaster, and hence he
Sir Tatton Sykes. 229
did not grudge thirteen hundred for her own brother,
Colsterdale. His original intention was to buy her
half-brother, Loup-Garou, and he went to Cawston
paddocks to look at him, but thought him too light
below the knee. In his judgment of horses Sir Tatton
was very much what Jem Hills was in hounds he did
not want them large and showy, but they must be
thoroughly active and workmanlike. He was asked
to form one of the bench at Middlesboro', but he de-
clined on account of his failing sight, and speaking
from what he remembered of the horses from time to
time, we gleaned that Saunterer, although rather light-
boned, was more after his own heart than any of the
cracks in that ring. For Kingston he had a great
fancy, and if Mr. Blenkiron had not got the first refu-
sal, he would have given 3OOO/. for him.
His opinions were invariably given in the most
gentle way, and prefaced with " / may be wrong, sir''
Unlike Mr. Bates, he was a listener rather than an
expounder in his pastures. He loved to get the best
judges in Yorkshire and the racing world there, and to
hear their judgments (which he never forgot) on the
yearlings, as they were brought out one by one, and
perhaps called for again, and compared in couples,
Snarry always .putting in a good word for a Daniel,
more especially when Fandango began to " starve"
him. Sometimes Sir Tatton would move an adjourn-
ment of " the taste committee" to the road, and the
wayfarer, who had doubtless just passed some four-
year-olds in the breaking bits, under Grayson's charge,
would suddenly find himself pulling up close to a
laurel hedge, to let a couple of young rivals, Rifleman
and Daniel, swing past him at full trot. Perhaps Ben
Morgan (a great favourite with the baronet) and the
hounds would call at this juncture, and hound shows
would be talked over while the ale was sent for to the
court-yard, and Ben would call up Warrener and his
lovely Languish to give an account of themselves, and
230 Saddle and Sirloin,
the way they had dropped on to Tom Sebright at The
Cleveland Hound Show.
Then, if the party were so inclined, the grand circuit
of the mares began Diall's Field, Swale's Wold,
Cottage Pasture, Cherry Wood End, Cragg's Flat,
Castle Field, King's Field, and so home by the Park,
to Daniel's Paddock. One canter round it, with his
flag flying, just to show his muscle, was a ceremony
the chestnut never omitted ; and after that he stood
nibbling at his old master's stick, or letting him pass
his hand admiringly down his back, which was " cloven
like a ram's." Rifleman omitted the gallop, and was
quiet as a sheep throughout, but Snarry had some
sharp admonitions for Colsterdale (who was always
tearing at his irritable silky skin), when his half-
playful, half-mischievous " dot and go one" began, and
there was never any love lost between them from the
first. Fandango we never saw in a paddock ; but we
remember well Dick Stockdale's beaming face, when
he begged Sir Tatton to send him to Drirfield Show,
and how with that point of the right forefinger, which
he often adopted when he was making a jocular hjt,
while his face mantled with a hearty but noiseless
laugh, the baronet slyly intimated that he dare not
meet Maroon. Then Dick, who hadn't cared much
for shows since his horse was " put "aside" at Lincoln,
said that he wouldn't send Maroon, and offered to lead
Fandango with his own fair hands into the ring, and
Sir Tatton rejoined that it " certainly was a tempta-
tion," and so they had their laugh out.* Mr. Blenk-
* Dick Stockdale met with his death by a fall from his pony (which
brought on apoplexy), within 100 yards of his own stable at Skerne.
He was, in fact, just concluding his last round of the season with Walk-
ington. His stallion and colt lore was immense, beginning generally
with Tramp, and so through Brutandorf, Melbourne, St. Bennett, and
Robinson, down to Maroon. He began life with Mr. Whiting of Leven,
near Beverley, who had the first two horses, and he once acted as his
foreman on the farm as well. As a stacker and thatcher he could give
Sir Tatton Sykes. 231
iron intended at one time to bid for Fandango, but he
saw that Sir Tatton was set upon the bay, and he did
not open his mouth. Such was the old baronet's
desire to have him, that he bid 3100, and forgot, till
Mr. Richard Tattersall reminded him, that he had
made the last bid as well, at 3000. On receiving this
hint, he merely pulled out his watch : " Well, sir, it's
nearly time for the first race, you'd better knock him
down ;" and a very dear bargain he proved.
He was perhaps never in higher spirits than when
he had " Mr. William" from Woodyeates as the com-
panion of his paddock strolls, as that " young man
weight to most of them. Brutandorf filled the country with hunters,
many of which were esteemed quite Gaylads if they had been trained ;
but still he was not the horse of Dick's heart. Dick's stories had in-
variably a Maroon moral, and were full of deep warning about men who
had spoken lightly of him or his stock, and endured unspeakable anguish
and loss of fortune in consequence. When the praises of some of
Maroon's rivals were often slyly uttered in his guardian's presence say,
on the Driffield platform, to which his portly frame was quite an appen-
dage, he never would stand it, and his standing retort was, that " They
had brok two men, and made another hang hisself" He was in a strange
state of delight when Mr. Philipps gave him the horse, and he gave
himself seisin with a most affectionate dig in the crimson bay's ribs and
a second corn supper. In that moment of triumph he quite forgot all
the bitter associations of the Lincoln Royal, when he was tempted across
the Humber to be told that he might go back to his shed, and retired
not with "a conquering hero step," but in a walking swoon, only to see
the card of victory over " that thing Loutherbourg. " He seemed to be
ever on the move after a foal or a trotting horse, or doing something in
obedience to " a letter from the Captain," and we liked well to see him
come bustling down Beverley to keep an early appointment at the Rose
and Crown, looking like a jolly Triton just emerged from Spurn Head.
An "At Home" with Dick at Skerne was also a marvellous sight out-
of-doors when he had Maroon up for a lecture on the knoll ; inside
when he was helping with the frying-pan, and beaming over our recital
of Sir Tatton's prophecy, "Afr. Stockdale will give you some excellent
ham for breakfast to-morrow"
When the news did come that some of the Maroon colts had been
sold into the Royal stables, one might have supposed that he expected
a summons to court, and a knighthood when he got there. August and
September were very happy months to him among the horse and foal
shows ; but he was not thought a particularly good judge of horses.
Foals were more his forte, and he read their horoscopes well. The
232 Saddle and Sirloin.
from the country" always meant business, and gene-
rally arrived on the quiet after a good trial to look for
some more of the sort. It was he who made the great
hit for Womersley, when in 1855, the first year that
Sir Tatton sold his yearlings at York, four, with St.
Giles among them, returned without a bid, and he
took them at sixty all round. He then tried some
Womersley fillies ; but they did no good, and were
sent back to Sledmere.
Lord George Bentinck was once at Sledmere, but
his lordship did nothing particular but pursue his pet
system of rattling his hat to make the yearlings gallop
judges often went to have a little chaff with him, and ask him what the
people were saying, and of course Dick laid bare his own feelings in the
matter, and fathered them most liberally on to "They say." At
Northallerton, where he led General Williams into the ring, "by
special request, " he informed them that he ' ' he heard a man say, and a
varra good judge too, that you ought all to be hung " Latterly, he was
more of a spectator, except at foal shows. He got stout, and he
couldn't run much, and he didn't care to strip off his coat and go at it
like " Franky" (though he was quite open to a running match with him)
for the special amusement of the outsiders. He loitered about generally
at one corner of the ring, putting his lip down (which he always did, like
Tom Sebright, when he was going to have a sly dig), wagging his head
slightly, and giving his friends such a grip of the hand when he met
them. When he was chaffed about his picture in " Silk and Scarlet,"
he always said that Mr. and Mrs. Scott had got him in at Whitewall
specially to compare its lineaments with the original, and that "they
didrit think it half handsome enough"
A day at Sir Tatton's once a year, if he could manage it, was a great
point with him. Dick at lunch with Sir Tatton in the dining-room at
Sledmere, with one glass of ale in him, was a sight for men and gods,
as his host kept poking him up about Maroon and divers incidents in
his travels. Every little shot told, as Sir Tatton knew everything
going ; but Dick only replied, with a most jolly continuous grin, and
went on to glass No. 2, to show Sir Tatton that he did not acquiesce in
his remark, " You live so -well at Driffield you all get the gout." The
bye-play between them was quite a bit of rich genuine Yorkshire
comedy. Dick's retort that Maroon had only one fault, being "a
little over-big for Sir Tat fan Sykes" delighted the old baronet amazingly
by its felicity and neatness ; but, generally, it was more the way he said
things than the things he said which distinguished him as a character,
nothing but the East Riding country could have produced two men so
different, and yet so united in their horse-love.
Sir Tatton Sykes. 233
in the paddocks, so as to find out whether they were
roarers. " Send me all the Grey Momus family, Sir
Tatton" were his words when the grey turned out so
well, but he tired of them when Grey Milton disap-
pointed him so sorely. While the grey was in his
zenith his lordship extended his love to everything of
Comus blood, and gave Sir Tatton 750 guineas for
three young hunters unbroken. Of Grey Momus he
was wont to say that " nothing put him amiss ; he was
equally fit for a harness horse, hunter, or racer his
only fault was not winning the Derby." The Sledmere
mares did not average above fifteen-one-and-a-half,
and many of them looked mere ponies in the stable.
They had been so little handled that they were very
nervous about having their heads touched, and several,
we are told, died from their own violence in the stable,
when they left Sledmere. They were in fact pure
children of the prairie.
There were too many of them, and hence no stud
lived so hard out of doors. When grass was very
scarce they had hay, varied at times by oats and
chopped straw. Only two sets of twins were reared,
and yet the Sir Hercules mare, which suckled her own,
was not allowed any corn, and was put in Mr. Hill's
field that they might not favour her. Instead of re-
ducing, Sir Tatton kept increasing his stock of brood
mares ; and unaccountable as it might seem, while he
had some 320 head of horse stock, including hacks,
in his stables and his paddocks, he would never Iceep
a pair of carriage horses, but hired post-horses from
Malton, and latterly the Sledmere Inn. At first he
did not give a long price for his stallions, and Hamp-
ton and Sleight-of-Hand only cost him about 3OO/.
each. Hampton, after whom the Home Paddock
was called " Hampton Court," left something
more than his name on the shed. He was
rather undersized, but he got his stock full of
quality. The paddock, into which you might see
234 Saddle and Sirloin.
Snarry and his assistants drive a herd of twenty or
thirty mares to be tried on a spring morning, by
Colsterdale or Fandango, might well bear his name
as " he was the first one to call our own," as Snarry
has it. Stumps was also one of its tenants, and so
were Spotted Boy, Comus ("a great horse with us
once on a time "), Spencer, own-brother to Green
Mantle, Rifleman, and lastly Colsterdale. Sir Tatton
delighted in Andover, whose walk and trot were as
taking as his gallop, but he never " let down " or
furnished, and he was also a little too near of kin to
the Hampton mares. He was bought for 14507.
and sold for 2OOO/., while Rifleman came at the
latter sum and departed, after two years of good
service, at a 5<DO/. advance. " A good joke was
Daniel what a flying leap he took in Hampton
Paddock " is a great saying of Snarry's, who never
had so much sympathy with, or talked so confiden-
tially to any one of the sires as he did to him. His
price was 8oo/. and he made it over again at the end
of seven seasons. Sir Tatton's last yearling average
was 131 guineas for thirteen, none of which fetched
more than 350 guineas, and the 310 lots at the sale
made (58 foals inclusive) 24,571 guineas.* Among
the latter was Lecturer at the foot of Algebra, and the
pair fell to the Hon. C. W. Fitzwilliam for 70 guineas.
A Fandango yearling from Monge's dam developed
most remarkable trotting power one morning in the
paddocks when he got separated from his mate. The
late Mr. Crisp must have got the office from some one,
as he bought him for 140 guineas, and he beat the
Norfolk trotters at the County Show of '68. Cousin
Bet with her Blair Athol colt, Glenalmond, at her foot
made 1000 guineas at York, and the colt as a year-
* The highest priced brood mare (Sister to The Lawyer), yearling,
two-year-old, three-year-old, and four-year-old made 260 guineas,
165 guineas, 135 guineas, 135 guineas, and 150 guineas respectively.
Sir Tatton Sykes. 235
ling cleared the purchase money at Doncaster, and
Mr. Blenkiron averaged in 1866-67, exactly 1312^
guineas for yearlings from Gaspard's and Elcho's
dams. People said that the old blood would come
out, and Lord Berners and Mr. Borton have won with
a strong stain of it at the Royal, the Yorkshire, and
the Smithfield Club.
In his dining room, his own presentation picture by
Sir Francis Grant had the post of honour; and it
often elicited the story of how he rode the little chest-
nut to London, and how Sir Francis shared a bottle
of pale ale with him by way of " improving my com-
plexion " for the picture. Mr. Morrell rested on the
floor below, with Mr. R. Duckfield Astley and his
harriers. King Cob the greyhound, Grey Momus,
Bay Middleton, and Pyrrhus the First formed the rest
of this curious collection, along with a hunting print,
in which old Will Carter, who never would wear a hat
or carry a horn, is getting away from cover on the
blood chestnut Anna Maria. Yorkshiremen some-
times wondered that Lottery had not found admission,
but Sir Tatton gave a very good reason for it, that
he had sent eleven mares to him one season and only
had one foal.
The picture of the two Sir Tatton Sykes's, horse
and man, which hung on the staircase gallery, would
lead on to the tale of his visit to Mr. Herring, and his
grotesque reception. The servant-girl could not speak
when she opened the door, but shrieked with laughter
for a minute or two, and then ran to her master's
studio. There she did no better, and could only sit in
a chair and gasp out, " The old gentleman with the
stick" and then " off again " like a woman bewitched,
till Mr. Herring, rinding that she would not "rise to
explain," went to the door himself. The girl had
evidently paused amid her sweeping labours, and
conned over the likeness of " the old gentleman " at
the head of the horse Sir Tatton Sykes, and the see-
236 Saddle and Sirloin.
ing it suddenly embodied in flesh and blood had quite
overcome her. Sir Tatton was peculiarly tenacious
of old friendships, and kept them in constant repair,
and he would just as soon have thought of omitting
this Camberwell visit to the great " Master of the
Horse," or his Christmas present of game to Sam
Day and other old racing friends, as he would have
left York races without calling on Mr. Kirby, when he
saw him under the portico of the Stand no more. He
often reminded Mr. Gully that they were born on the
same day, " but eleven years apart, Sir Tatton," as
" King John " used to reply ; and as for Mr. Joe
Whittaker's buff-waistcoat, he thought that he had
known it at Doncaster as long as the Stand itself.
Since his eyesight became worse, he did not photo-
graph so well, and his face seemed to fall away.
The last he sat, or rather stood for, was that small
group of himself, Sir George Cholmley, and Snarry
looking at Fandango, in " Scott and Sebright." The
sight of one eye was quite gone for some years before
his death ; but impaired as the other was, it grew no
worse. Mr. Phillips thought it too acute on that me-
morable day of '62, when he arrived with Prince Cari-
gnan and Count Cigala (who bore the King of Italy's
likeness as a present from His Majesty), and found
himself dropped upon in the treasonable act of slip-
ping a little water into the ale, in which the health of
the King's second batch of purchases was to be
drunk. The King got six Pyrrhus mares among his
eight, and a hamper of that Sledmere ale, whose
potency his London commissioner had so much
dreaded, accompanied the second lot.
It was Sir Tatton's habit to get up at half-past
five in the winter, shave himself in cold water, and
wash his head. He would then go into the library,
on the side of the house looking out into the park,
and walk in his dressing-gown, slippers, and breeches.
The library is ninety feet in length, and he used to
Sir Tatton Sykes. 237
calculate how many miles he walked by filling his
pocket with silver, and depositing a piece of it on a
table at one end every time he had finished the
return journey. Sometimes the ultimate array of
monitors would speak to a strong four-mile exercise
before breakfast. For three years previous to his
death he was seldom up before six, and latterly seven
o'clock, and ere he was eighty he gave up his early
rides to Garton, Kirby, and Wetwang. When he
took them he was always back to an eight o'clock
breakfast, and a basin of milk with apple or goose-
berry tart was his delight. Bread he rarely touched,
and he took tea occasionally, but the only meat he
really cared for was a very fat shoulder of mutton.
He always ate a great deal of fat, but he and it did
not " assimilate," as Liebig could have wished, and he
never grew fat, and at no time of his life could he do
more than just turn the beam at I2st. Vegetables he
cared very little for, and eggs and puddings were
equally in the cold shade with him. For many years
he only ate breakfast and dinner, and although he had
friends almost every day to luncheon, he seldom took
anything up to his six o'clock dinner except a glass of
wine. The greater part of his days were spent with
Snarry in the paddock or with his shepherd. He sat
reading in his private room, which had 'pictures of
almost every Yorkshire and world-wide sporting cele-
brity on its walls, while three photographs of Tom
Sayers in fighting costume hung in his dressing-room.
He had been introduced to Tom and shaken hands
with him most cordially at Doncaster. Nat Langham
saw the ring which the spectators formed, and subse-
quently seeking out Sir Tatton at his wonted place
near the judge's chair, he informed him that he was
the only man that ever beat Tom. " Well then, sir,"
said Sir Tatton, putting out his hand instantly, "/ shall
have the honour of shaking hands with two brave
men" It was quite a point with him to see the
238 Saddle and Sirloin.
champion of the year, and Jem Mace came in for a
congratulation, but he only looked at " The Staley-
bridge Infant." We, however, never remember him
asking us so earnestly to try and point any one out to
him as Sir Joseph Hawley, whom he looked upon as
quite the Turf hero of the day.
He prided himself not a little on his field ponds, at
which he often laboured hard with his coat off. Their
formation was on this wise. A thin half-inch layer
of lime was laid down to prevent the worm from
getting through, and upon this was put a four-inch
layer of clay puddled to the consistency of paste. This
was limed again and the whole formed a surface as
impervious as pot. A thin covering of straw was then
put to prevent the stones, which he would often break
himself, from perforating the clay, and upon that a
layer of three-inch stones to prevent the beasts from
slipping when they came to the water. When there
was no vein of clay on the farm, supplies had to be
sought from some of those dun and drab egg-shaped
pockets of Kimmeridge, which crop out among the
chalk strata. Sir Tatton was also fond of road-mak-
ing, and he would take a turn with the turnip hoers if
there was nothing special going on at the paddocks
that morning.
Of the weight of a beast he was an excellent judge,
but, unlike the present baronet, he took no interest in
pedigreed stock. It was his invariable custom to
attend Malton Michaelmas Fair and buy twenty or
thirty West Highland stirks for the park, where they
ran their first winter and were finished off in the
smaller pastures. Agricultural shows were not much
in his way, but he never missed going to see the
hunter show at Drifiield, where he stood, in the centre
of the ring with the judges. The Yorkshire Show
very seldom tempted him out for the day, but he could
not resist a visit to the York Royal, and dined and
spoke at the banquet.
Sir Tatton Sykes. 239
Leicester sheep were his delight, and he would keep
at least twenty score of ewes. He let from 100 to
no rams annually to ram breeders and tenants, and
liked a small, compact sheep as the most thrifty for
Wold purposes. Mr. Hall of Scorbro' generally gave
the highest price (which never exceeded 3O/.) for a
ram at his letting, and took from one to three every
year. Fat lambs Sir Tatton never would sell, and
latterly he only gave his wethers one winter on tur-
nips. Buckley, Burgess, and Stone had laid the
corner-stone of his flock, but for nearly twenty years he
had used no rams save his own. His sheep had grass,
turnips, and hay, but they were as ignorant of cake
and peas as the " Welshmen" on Snowdon. For early
sheep-feeding, he more especially preferred White
Stone Globe, and he finished up with Swedes. It was
his rule never to sow mangolds and turnips before the
first of June, as he did not consider that the land had
absorbed sufficient heat, Cabbage he tried once, but
gave it up ; he only grew potatoes for home consump-
tion, and oats while he had hunters and hounds to eat
it. Bones were a great point with him ; he first intro-
duced them at Pockthorpe, and broke them up to
half-an-inch with hammers.
The Wolds are essentially a sheep district, and
horse-breeding has not been found to answer so well
as in Holderness. Hence, Sir Tatton always held
thirty-five acres of marsh land at his Ryehill estate,
and made a practice of going down there once a year
with his three and four-year-old hunter colts. The
yearling and two-year-old colts he put out "on seeds
along with the fillies which joined the stud at four
years old. The tenth of May was " Marsh Morning,"
and soon after four o'clock Sir Tatton on his hack
would head the cavalcade. He had generally three
or four men with him to drive and help at the bye-
lanes and corners. When he kept hounds, his hunters
had three and a half months of this Marsh life, and
240 Saddle and Sirloin.
came back early in September, as soon as the ram-
letting was over. Tom Carter looked to them, but
the younger ones were brought back into residence at
Sledmere by Sir Tatton himself, when he paid his
second visit to Holderness in October, and stayed two
or three days with his tenant Mr. Dickenson, of Hum-
bleton Hall.
There were no degrees in his courtesy ; and it is
rarely that such guileless simplicity of heart is united
to such a keen intuitive perception of men, and a
power of taking their measure. There was always
the right word for them in the right place, to check or
encourage ; he was quite as patient a listener as he
was a race-rider, and liked to answer questions ; and
if they left him without twenty curious scraps of
knowledge, quite unconnected with Kutusoff, " Split
Post Douglas," or the Beverley Club, they had only
themselves to blame. " Mr. Argus," as he always
termed him, when they met, was his great racing
writer, and he loved dearly to have his feuilletons read
to him, and to see him at Sledmere in person on his
last grand field-day there with John Scott. Cows he
did not care about, but sheep would soon bring out
the story of Ajax, and the day when he would not let
Mr. Sanday's father pick his first lot of ewes, and then
found his mistake in going for all the most transparent
ears. He preferred sheep of a smaller size than the
Wold farmers liked, and his belief that they were more
thrifty was so rooted, that he would not alter the style,
and declared that he could build one of the modern
Leicestejs out of a fleece and a rail.
Then he would turn to hounds and those " Sykes
Goneaway" days, when he hunted all the York
country from Spurn Point to Coxwold, and when the
York Wednesday generally found them leaving off
about forty miles from home. As the years of Sir
Tatton and Tom lengthened, their hunting days grew
shorter, and there was often time left for a little hedge-
Sir Tatton Sykes. 241
slashing in the afternoon. Sir Tatton was always a
quiet rider, as some men count riding, and if he liked
to see Bill Scott on Ainderby and the rest go along,
he never cared more than once to try and follow
" that terrible man, Mr. Ridsdale." A few years
before his death he appeared at the cover side in a
new scarlet coat, and when he was warmly congratu-
lated on the omen, he replied that he was wearing it
strictly under protest from her ladyship, who thought
him too old to kill foxes.
For hunting he never really cared, and although very
cool and a capital judge of pace, he rode too long to
finish well on the flat The " orange body and purple
satin sleeves and cap" have been in abeyance since he
wore them at Beverley. He liked best schooling a young
horse, and never was man more patient and gentle with
them. His best young one was generally chosen for
the Leicestershire ram journeys, and then most of his
day's ride was done, when other people were in their
beds. He never failed to get off and lead in his horse
for the last mile. A great hunting maxim of his was
" Give your servants good horses, and they wont abuse
them." Eight or nine years before his death he gave
up going to Leicestershire, and in fact he did not care
for the journey after his old huntsman Tom Carter
died. He really received his own death-stroke two
years before his death. The road between Sledmere
and Fimber was being lowered, and he had worked
very hard in his shirt sleeves at breaking stones.
" Richard" took him his ale and sandwich for lun-
cheon, and he went out of the sun, and sat down on a
tree root in the plantation to eat it, and there fell fast
asleep : and the draught brought on a chill which he
never got over.
When Tom died, his master was no longer seen
coming, all dusty, down Hall Gate on the Doncaster
Monday, from a twelve hours' ride by Booth Ferry,
but he quietly adopted the rail. In fact, he had no
R
242 Saddle and Sirloin.
querulous sighings after old times, and was content
to enjoy the good of the present without comparing
it with the past. At the death of the cowkeeper,
where he put up for forty years, he moved to Bennit-
thorpe, and lodged during the meeting with Sir
George Cholmley* and his son. About half-past ten
the three would be seen coming over the Hall Cross
hill to the sale-rings ; and there Sir Tatton stood on
Mr. Tattersall's left, with his faithful " Richard" at
hand to note the prices for him. The crack men
would always have a word and a joke with him : he
said that Captain White's cheery laugh did him as
much good as anything in the whole year ; and Mr.
Greville and all of them drew up, when it oozed out
* Sir George Cholmley divides his " Cholmley chestnuts" between
Boynton, Howsham, and Newton. Hubert's paddocks are at the first-
named place, and Angelus is the guardian angel of the last. For many
years Sir George did not keep a sire, but used Sir Tatton's. When
they were at Doncaster together one year, Sir George recommended
Womersley to his old friend, and hence that Irish Birdcatcher chestnut
went to Sledmere for a season. Codrington (who got his stock with
rare shoulders and pretty little heads) was by him, and was one of those
which William Day passed over, when he had his choice of "all the
sort." Sir George declared that he had passed the best, and offered
40 guineas to have his pick of the draft. Codrington lamed himself off
a mare, and was ultimately sold to Vienna. Record by Emilius was
another purchase ; and Orpheus, who is still on the Wolds at Kilham,
cost 40 guineas at Tattersall's. Angelus was by him from Nutmeg, a
Nassau Stakes winner of Lord Exeter's, which was purchased at Don-
caster. He ran five times as a two-year-old, and was second to Little
Stag at Beverley. At one time he was rather talked of for the St.
Leger ; but he was a large, fat colt, and therefore excessively difficult
to prepare. Sir George has about twenty thorough-bred and ten half-
bred mares ; and winners of the Great National Steeplechase and
Hunters Stakes are his specialty. The park seems full of matrons with
chestnut Angelus and brown Hubert foals. Among the mares we note
Barnacles, the dam of Highflyer the steeple-chaser ; Whitefeet of the
Hexgrave family ; Miss Taylor by Orpheus, the dam of Belinda ; and
Hexgrave's dam, a Sleight-of-Hand mare, with white spots round the
eyes. There are three cups at Newton, won respectively by Adonis,
The Don, and Peep o' Day Boy j and Mr. Thompson, Mr. Boynton,
end Mr. Spence have been in the " bbvcfe-yellow sleeves and black
P-"
Angelus has vron three Yorkshire prizes in succession, and during
\ w -
OF THE
UNIVERSITY
or
/
43
that he might, perhaps, go to the three thousand
reserve for Fandango. With an endurance abso-
lutely miraculous for a man of his years, he used to
stand each day at the sales and races for nearly
seven hours on a stretch, and shook hands with scores
of people who claimed acquaintance, and whom, he
said, he had never seen to his knowledge. However,
he had a good-humoured word for each ; and no
one was more ready. The card and list women
always lay in wait for him ; and the colloquies
between them, all claiming a vested interest in his
custom, and appealing to him if it wasn't so, must
have cost him many an extra shilling to settle
amicably when "you ladies are so very quarrelsome /"
1868 with the Royal in aid, he made 140 guineas in the show-yards.
Bob Brignall was in 'great force as he opened door after door, and told
his chestnuts' story. There stood the five-year- old Julius, who never
ran, but won in shows ; and Belinda, a small Orpheus hack, which has
won as a lady's horse both at Wetherby and Scarborough and London ;
but Don John was the crack of the stable. His head is a little plain,
but his quarters are beautiful, and taking him throughout, we have seen
few three-year-old hunters like him. As a four-year-old, he beat the
almost invincible Topstall and all the hunters in the yard for the Royal
Gold Medal at Manchester. He is by A*gelus, from Whitefeet by
Codrington. Emperor's dam was purchased from Mr. Anne without a
pedigree. Emperor IV. by Angelus, now a four-year-old, is at How-
sham, and is a chestnut, like nearly all his kinsfolk, and full sixteen
hands high. Emperor I. was a bay, and was sold to Mr. Little Gilmour
for three hundred guineas. He was hunted at Melton for eight seasons,
and was shot last spring. He was by Record, the sire of many good
hunters, and Sir George's eldest son rode him for some time, before he
(Mr. Gilmour) had him. Emperor II. was a bay by Orpheus ; Mr.
James Hall bought him from Sir George for 300 guineas, and he was
put up for sale at York, and Mr. Chaplin gave 400 guineas for him.
He won his first race for the "all rose," to wit, the National Steeple-
chase at Wetherby, whose fine scope of course and large fences suited
him to a nicety. Emperor III. was by Cock Robin, a horse of Mr.
George Payne's, by Chanticleer dam by Charles XII. Mr. Chaplin
gave 400 guineas for him, and he won the same race at Bedford. Sir
George also bred Rosamond, the ten-year-old mare which was sold at
the late Sir Charles Slingsby's sale for 430 guineas. Caradon I. by
Orpheus is a crack hunter of Mr. Hall's, and the hero of a very great
day ; and Caradon II. is full of promise, and has taken a head prize a.t
the Yorkshire Show.
R 2
244 Saddle and Sirloin.
Still he seemed a most willing annual victim, and
" parted" so well, that, if he got value received, he
must have consumed nearly a ream of return-lists.
He first became such an especial character at Don-
caster when he led back his namesake to scale. He
was only seventy-four then ; but, ever after that, the
St. Leger jockeys looked for his hand-shake as the
seal of victory when they passed through the little
white gate of Fame. After Bill Scott died, he seemed
to have a great partiality for Nat. The last winning
horse he ever went to meet was The Lawyer, but he
did not lead him in. The trainers of the cracks
generally made a point of sending him word when
they would strip their horses for him to look
over, and he made a special point of visiting Old
Calabar.
He was very fond of a morning at Whitewall, and
till within a fortnight of his death, he often said, " I
shall be able to go and see Mr. Scott again," and, in
fact, he quite built on that visit, which was never to
be. There was a languor and general failing about
him at Doncaster in " The Marquis's" year, and when
his friends noted that he gladly sat down between
the races, and came to the course in a carriage on the
Friday, they might well feel a foreboding that he had
paid his last visit to the " Moor." The real truth was
that he had rather martyred himself with a new pair
of top-boots (which he always had made at Don-
caster), and would not send home for a pair of easy
ones ; but still the decline had begun.
A little quiet after Doncaster revived him, and he
was once more away by the early train to Holderness.
The late Mr. Leonard, of Hull, to whom he had sold
his beasts for many years, was too ill to meet him, as
of yore, and he did business with his son, and calcu-
lated the weight and value as closely as ever. He
talked with apparent zest of old friends and times in
Hull, but there were not lacking symptoms that his
Sir Tatton Sykes. 245
hour v/as nigh. An attack of bronchitis in November
shook him still more, and it was aggravated by his
dislike to doctoring, and his forgetfulness of age
During the winter, he liked to sit by the fire and be
read to, and scarcely cared to go near his mares
and foals, which those about him felt to be the
strongest involuntary confession of growing weakness,
more especially in a man, who was always thought to
have a strong secret wish of living to be a hundred.
Early in March he had an attack of gout, which
rather amused him than otherwise, seeing that his
family had been subject to it, and here he was the
premier sportsman of England, in immediate succes-
sion to " Old Kit Wilson," only caught by it at ninety-
and-a-half. When it quitted him eight days before
his death, dropsy rapidly set in, and the sad whisper,
scarcely believed at first, went over Yorkshire, that
" Sir Tatton is dying." Some hoped he might rally
as he had done before, but the once iron frame had
found its conqueror. He lay almost insensible, but
breathing very heavily, from Tuesday to Saturday,
and then his brave old heart went out with the
dawn.*
The chestnut Wensleydale is the only one of the
old blood that the present baronet retains, and he
chose her out of a lot of eighteen three-year-old
fillies. She is by Colsterdale and strains back to the
* The funeral took place on Friday, 27th March, 1863, and was
attended by nearly three thousand of all classes from the East and North
Ridings. At half-past twelve the coffin was placed on a rest at the west
front of the house, before which the tenantry were arranged in pairs,
and the procession was then formed to the church. Lord Hotham,
Lord Middleton, Sir F. Legard, Admiral Buncombe, Mr. L. Thomp-
son, Mr. R. Bower, Mr. James Hall, and Mr. Hill were the pall
bearers. The day was clear but cold, and Sledmere, with the troops of
deer moving in the distance, and the brood mares and foals throwing up
their heads and trotting round the park, and then stopping to gaze at
the multitude which had invaded their solitudes, never looked more
beautiful.
246 Saddle and Sirloin.
dam of Grey Momus, that fountain head of Sled-
mere stud honour. Miss Agnes by Birdcatcher and
her daughter Little Agnes by The Cure were then
purchased from the late John Osborne, who would not
part with Agnes by Clarion, the foundress of the
tribe. Bernice by Stockwell had a short sojourn of a
year, and left Sophie by Lord Clifden behind her, and
the speedy lop-eared Marigold by Teddington is one
of the four perpetually in residence. It is a strange
contrast to old times, when three or four stacks with
eight or nine foals haltered to each, so that they might
learn to lead, were the object of a morning's walk.
The new order of things, limited as it is, has so far
borne better fruits than the old. The Agneses
arrived in foal with Bismark (500 guineas) and Tib-
thorpe, both of them winners, and the latter a cracker
if his pipes had been as good as his pace. A Little
Agnes filly has also won in a small way, and so has
Amendment, the daughter of Wensleydale, and when
we were in " Hampton Court" paddock one Sep-
tember we found Snarry lunging Frivolity, a pretty
chestnut daughter of Macaroni and Miss Agnes and
expressing pretty confident hopes that " my beauty"
would let him read something to her advantage ere
long in his Manchester paper. She. did not belie his
hopes with 500 guineas at the hammer, and she won
the Althorp Stakes by a neck, with six or seven future
winners behind her, the very first time she was stripped.
Her dam had no foal at her foot in the paddocks,
where three chestnuts, two Stockwells, and a Thor-
manby, which averaged 400 guineas at Doncaster,
' Were glad, nosing the mother's udder,"
and playing havoc with the countless mushrooms in
their gambols. Morphia, her half brother from Wens-
leydale, came in for a smaller share of Snarry's heart,
but leggy and unlikely to " come to hand early" as he
Sir Tat ton's Monument. 247
then seemed, he won the Goodwood Nursery on a
Friday, and on the Monday he was giving a stone
and finishing level with Catalonia for the Nursery at
Ripon. Six winners out of four mares in three
seasons is no small allowance.
Pedigreed shorthorn cows with rich-haired Duke of
Towneley calves are also to be found in the spots
once specially dedicated to blood stock, and two
drape cows were laying on Christmas beef in the well
walled acres of " Daniel's own." Coates's Herd Book
is at last having its claim allowed by the side of
Wetherby's Calendar^ and the red Duke of Towneley,
with a man on each side of that handsome but
treacherous fore-hand, is ushered into the yard, and
walks snorting down the high road.
The mares are always taken up when the hounds
come. In old Sir Tatton's time Lord Middleton
never drew the Sledmere covers (which are full of
foxes, and require an enormous amount of routing),
but whipped off, as the troops of mares would have
taken to galloping half the day, and have probably
cast their foals. The litters were, of course, carefully
looked after, and carried off to another part of the
country. However, when the railroad was made, the
whips could very seldom stop them, and they ran to
Sledmere oftener during the first three years after the
line was opened than they had done in the previous
twr nty. Pry Whin is a beautiful cover for cubs, with
that grand pear-shaped bit of whin, gorse and briars
in its centre, from which we have seen a brace of old
foxes leisurely cross the riding on a summer afternoon.
Beyond it, at the end of this line of woodland, is the
Gothic tower, which has been erected to Sir Tatton's
memory on Garton Hill. A laboured inscription
would have only mocked a memory so rich in grand
simplicity. Few words were needed, and none are
there save " The memory of the just is blessed." A
hot haze denied us a distant view as we scaled the
248 Saddle and Sirloin.
winding stair, and stood at last in the little guest-
chamber near the top. On one side were the deep
green woods of Sledmere ; to the seaward the
4< waves of wheat which ripple round the lonely
Grange" (where Mr. Major had just shown us the
paces of his first prize hackney mare Polly) and down
the Crussdale Valley. Driffield church stood out in
the distance among those vast ash-tree hedge-rows
which have been recently thinned out with Dutch
regularity to one in fifteen yards, and the sky-line
on the south stretches over many a rich arable farm,
to the country of Philip Ramsden, once the patron
saint of roadsters " by Huggate and Pocklington
way."
Old Bob Ramsden of Market Weighton had Pre-
tender and Reformer (both trotting sires) from Norfolk.
At eighty he dressed the character to the life, in white
stockings and shoes, long black coat, low broad hat,
and kerseymere breeches. Even at that age he could
show a trotter's paces with any man at Market
Weighton each market Wednesday in May. He was
never in a hurry about it, but sat in his chimney
corner, and let the others trot on till his pipe was
finished. Then he 'would reach down his spurs, buckle
them on to his shoes, and mount his galloway to show
off his stallion. Performer was his delight ; he would
gallop his galloway by his side on the turnpike, and
then shift the saddle on to the horse, and, as he was
wont to say, " Trot over their backs" No horse could
trot with Performer, and he trotted faster than he
could gallop. Old Bob was six feet high when in his
prime, and game to the backbone. He was consi-
derably above seventy when he fetched the cap and
jacket of other days out of a drawer, and it was all
his friends could do to prevent him coming up to
London then and there to ride a friend's horse for a
ten miles' trotting match. His son Philip, who died
a few years since, did a great deal towards improving
Yorkshire Trotting Conversation. 249
the size of Yorkshire roadsters, by introducing Roan
Phenomenon.*
We are now in the great Vale of York, to which
Mr. Bancroft could find no parallel save the plain of
Lornbardy. It comprises every kind of soil, from stiff
* The following is a specimen of a Yorkshire trotting conversation
which we had with a noted Market Weighton character: "Ourauld
black horse was first horse we had our auld bay mare was dam of her
as bred Merrylegs, and all of them good 'uns. That first chestnut horse
we selt him to Catlin. That Howden Show week he trotted two miles
in 5 min. 20 sec. on York and Hull Road. That was bay boss as Duke
of Gordon got, as had the match he trots his first eight miles in
33 minutes. They said, ' he'll loss the match.' I says, ' he weant
touch him over shoolder, Bill.' Little Bill, they called him, rode black
mare the hundred miles in lih. 48 min. She had I3h. 15 min. to do
it in. She was only three that spring if we had only roped her in that
hundred miles we'd have brokken all Weighton. The bay horse I sold
to the Duke of Gordon was the worst horse to get up a hill he didn't
pull, he met the hill. I never tell noe man in England yet what the
Duke of Gordon gave me, and I never will. Creeper was mighty fast,
but an uneven tempered horse, nae style aboot him : T'auld mare was
tremendous fast ; some days beat owt in the world some days we
could mak' nowt of her. When she was 22 years old, she carried little
Bill 2 miles 200 yards in 5 min. 16 sees., with a flying start. I knew
when I went into the stable i't morning whether she meant trotting or
not. If she was in one of her tantrums she would rear up, and squat
on the ground. She had a way of whisking her tail round if she didn't
want to act.
" I once ploughed a yacre of ground with her, and then trotted
1 6 miles to Beverley races and back. T'auld bay meer come of a black
meer by Harrison's Sportsman, gitten with syke a horse as come of
Jerry Boughton little bit of fash down the legs, but go for yae summer
day after another. They lived like racehorses there never were noe mair
syke. We had Merrylegs, and good job if we'd never had him. We
selt him for 6307. to Squire Dennison. Black Fireaway he was half-
bredblack and blood. Old Pretender, a black, he was very bloodlike
I doubt if there was a better fine legs and short fetlocks. He got
Performer, a dark brown ; and Merrylegs, a dark chestnut, was gitten
with Performer. He had a queer white mark on foot that all the Per-
formers had. It was white round the coronet, and down the front of
the hoof. Merrylegs was about the last, and got bad ones. They tried
to cross the blood, and stronger animals didn't do.
"The Norfolk Phenomenon did no great good. Philip Ramsden
and Kirby bought them. There was a Fireaway and a Shales. The
Prickwillows were rum'uns to trot. I've seen such goes from Hull to
Hayton. The fellows used to pull up, ' , /'// have nee mair of you
you tome from Market Weighton.''
250 Saddle and Sirloin.
clay to sand, and has grown all produce, from white
wheat to chicory. The pleasant little town of Pock-
lington had just been making merry with a flower-
show, and a banner flapped lazily in its honour from
the old church tower. We paused at Teresa Cottage,
where Neville the racehorse was foaled, and Dalton
the greyhound was buried, and then set our face
steadily towards Givendale, on the Wolds. It lies
about four miles away, on the high road to Malton.
Everingham Park, where Tom Hodgson's old black
horse of Holderness and Quorn fame lies buried, was
deep in woods on our right. The country was once
all open from Warter Wood to Mount Farrow, and
for sixteen or seventeen miles there was no shelter for
a travelling fox. Everything is changed now, and old
Singleton, the celebrated jockey and grandsire of the
brothers John and James, would look in vain for the
springy turf, along which he could canter his horses
gently for miles up the valley, before they put on the
sweaters at Thixendale.
'* The sylvan slopes with corn-clad fields
Are hung, as if with golden shields,
Bright trophies of the sun ;"
and both plains and wolds seemed white unto the
harvest. A band of women on Grimthorpe were
picking a crop of teasels, which are sown after bare
fallow or green crop, and require at least two years
to come to perfection, for the Leeds cloth-makers.
Owsethorpe is the last farm on the road before we
leave the level and climb the wolds ; and our com-
panions did not fail to tell us how a Lincolnshire man
had moralized over Cousin Bet and her foal, which
were " gnawing the pasture," and advised bullocks in
their stead, and how the laugh was against him after
Doncaster.
But the eyebrow of the hill is reached at last, and
we find ourselves on a sort of table-land, with a lake,
Visit to Givendate. 251
on which a widowed swan is sailing, in the glen below,
hard by a little church. A turn to the left brings us
to the hamlet of Givendale, which lies among snug
gardens and garths, on a great natural platform over-
looking the Vale of York and its distant Minster
towers. Mr. Singleton's holding comprises 640 acres,
all on the wold, and belonging to his mother and
himself. It lies from 500 to 800 feet above the sea
level, and on the range of the chalk hills, which extend
to Langton Wold, and straight across the East Riding
to Filey. Oats, barley, and turnips all flourish well,
but mangolds are rarely tried. The Lincolns do nicely
enough in Holderness, but they fail on the chalk of
the wolds, which is not strong enough feeding for
them. There is no mistaking Mr. Singleton's home-
stead. To the left is the letting yard, where Mr.
Boulton's voice is heard in the land as each first Wed-
nesday after the 2Oth of August comes round, and the
Leicester rams, and red and red-flecked shorthorns,
headed by old Graceful, in the home garth make
assurance doubly sure. We thought of poor John
Thompson of Anlaby, and his remark on his last visit,
" That's the right sort of flesh," as that wealthy troop
of Lady Waterloos, Miss Waterloos, Ruths, and
Floras, with their wondrous family likeness and
"warm Christmas colours," grazed right up to the
garden rails. Thousands have been thrown away on
scores of pedigreed herds, and no such really solid
and useful result has been attained.*
* Their owner was entered to Shorthorns, like many other good men,
at the Kirklevington sale in '50, where he bought Waterloo 4th by
Cleveland Lad (3407), in calf to Third Duke of Oxford. The produce
was Lady Waterloo, which she supplemented with Miss Waterloo by
Surplice (10,901). Lady Waterloo bred in her turn Lady Waterloo
2nd, which broke its neck as a calf, and Lady Waterloo 3rd, both of
them by Mr. Wiley's George (12,941). Lady Waterloo 4th and Count
Waterloo were her calves by Mr. Sanday's Ferdinand (12,871) a Royal
H. C. at Lincoln, and a loo-guinea purchase by auction but her finest
calf, both in point of substance, size, and hair, was Lady Waterloo 6th,
252 Saddle and Sirloin.
After these home studies, we had quite an excur-
sion among the ewes a wide, short-legged lot, full of
Buckley and Sir Tatton's blood and the drinking-
ponds, which are made much after the Sledmere
fashion. There were some Masham sheep lacking
the horns, seventeen Galloway heifers with Bride-
groom (23,453) as their esquire, and a very neat filly
foal by The Cure from a Cawston mare, and one of
the last he ever got. With these " musings by the
way," we reached the far gallop in the plantations. It
has been a time-honoured axiom that for every ten
acres of wold one should be planted for shelter. The
belief has obtained to the full at Givendale, where the
by her own son Count Waterloo another fact for those who wont hear
of in-and-in breeding. The latter unfortunately bred nothing but bulls.
v esta's dam was bought about this time, in calf of Bullion (15,706),
who nicked well with Lady Waterloo 3rd in Lord of Waterloo, whose
hocks went from long confinement during a snowstorm, when there was
some idea of "going on with him" for shows. Bullion had two crosses
of Booth blood in him, and Patriot from Jacinthe by Leonidas (10,414) (a
purchase as a cow at the Panton sale) two or three more crosses. From
the very first, Mr. Singleton joined in with neither of the "great Herd-
Book factions." He once stood upon four tribes the Waterloos ; the
Floras, from Watson of Wauldby's ; the Ruths, from Emmerson's of
Eryholme ; and the Medoras, which go back, through the Rev. Thos.
Gator's Hecuba and Mr. Fawkes's Fair Maid of Athens, to Booth's
Medora. He rears his bull-calves for sale, and shows very little, and
has, in fact, only come out five times at the Yorkshire, but always been
placed or thereabouts Alice was highly commended in the calf class,
which Booth's Queen of the Isles headed at York in '57, and was sold
after winning at Driffield to Mr. Emmerson for 70 guineas. Prince Tom
of the Flora tribe earned the same honour that day behind Lord of the
Valley and Great Mogul. Miss Waterloo 4th separated Second Queen
of May and Rosedale, and took the second prize ; Mirth was second to
a cow of Mr. Radcliffe's of Brandsby when Pride of Southwicke was dis-
qualified ; and Fourth Squire of Waterloo was third yearling at Be-
verley. Mirth was by Ferdinand, dam by Surplice, grandam Doris by
Belshazzar (1703). She "died well" at Liverpool in '64, after winning
the io/. prize in her class, and the special cup as the best beast in the
fat yard. The whole of the Waterloo females have since been sold at a
high price to Mr. Cheney, and replaced by cows from Mr. Angus 01
Broomley.
Mr. Singleton began with Leicesters in 1844, by hiring a ram from
Sir Tatton, and was pretty constant in his visits to the old baronet at
Sir Tatton Sykes. 253
firs have been planted with no sparing hand, and a
training gallop of nearly two miles cut through them.
It was used for some years after the old man's death
by the present Mr. John Singleton and his father ;
but the ruts have become deep, and no work is done,
and " no questions asked" there now. From thence
the transition was easy to Etty's favourite walk twice
a day by the church. For many years this great
Yorkshire painter spent much of his summer here,
under the roof of Mr. Singleton's father. No spot
pleased him so well, when he could escape from his
easel and the olive-tinted haze of London. " I often
in fancy," he wrote, " fly away to Givendale, as the
the Eddlethorpe lettings, where he once gave 6o| guineas, after a sharp
contest with Mr. John Simpson. In 1845 he went to Mr. Wiley for
the first time, and for fourteen years never missed drawing on his
beloved "union of Buckley and Burgess, with a dash of Stone." He
has also visited the last-named breeder at Barrow on his own account.
His first Sanday essay was in 1854, with a two-shear, which took a first
prize in Mr. Sanday's hands at the Royal Carlisle Show, and in one of
his many hirings from Holmpierrepont, he took the shearling which Mr.
Cresswell bought at the sale. Mr. Edwards, of Market Weighton's
draft ewes of Sledmere-Burgess blood, started him in 1840, and he con-
tinued to get a few each year through a friend. In 1854 he bought ten
ewe and a ram from Mr. Buckley, and as many more at Mr. Hewitt's
second sale, in the same year, and half a dozen at Mr. Sanday's first sale
in 1860. He generally lambs about 180, and lets from 50 to 60 tups.
This year and last they averaged about io/., but none of them have
quite touched the Sanday and Wiley Tibthorpe, who was let to Mr.
Stavely of Tibthorpe for 37/. los. as a two-shear, and for 3o/. lew. the
next year. Firm mutton, thick wool, and purity of blood have been all
Mr. Singleton's aim, and, unlike many flock-masters on the Wolds, he
never would have a dash of Lincoln. His first public auction was in
1855, and his customers are almost entirely Yorkshire men, and include
six or seven ram-breeders. " Sim" Templeman is a regular customer
and he is pretty generally brought in for a speech when " The Turf" is
drunk with all the honours, as is only fitting in a Yorkshire congress.
In 1867, Commander-in- Chief, so called after the celebrated Warlaby
bull, stood at the head of the list, and there was no mistaking, when
you glanced at his fleece, "the reason why" Mr. George Lane Fox's
agent had given 28/. 5^. for him. Young Commander- in- Chief was
hired by Sir Tatton Sykes in 1869 for 4i/. The best shearling at
that letting made 35/. IOT., and the best two-shear 37/. IQJ., for
Ireland.
254 Saddle and Sirloin.
most rural and quietest country retreat I know, like
the bird that flees to the hill to be at rest." He
would saunter for hours down that glen to his wonted
bench beneath the elm near the cottages. There he
would sit and sketch, as his fancy took him, the elm,
ash, larch, beech, willow, elderberry, or Lombardy
poplar in Pit's planting, or Beck's, just across the
little brook. His walk seldom extended beyond a
mile, to the common below Riding's Plantation, which
Lord Middleton's know so well. He mourned over
the pulling down of the old church a very favourite
subject, as he did whenever any ancient houses were
cleared away in York, and he lost another bit of
colour in the tiles. Sometimes he would gather
flowers to copy indoors after tea, which, with all the
eccentricity of genius, he would insist upon making
for himself, putting cold water in to preserve the
aroma. There are many proud family relics of the
past in that parlour the silver cup with " Success to
Fox-hunting" on it, the goldsmith's racing cups in
their quaint leather cases, and the goblet with horses'
heads for handles which the Marquis of Rockingham
gave his jockey Singleton for his riding of Bay Malton
and among them, Etty's painting of a pheasant, and
some equally vigorous heads, will always be ranked as
a memento of a very happy friendship, which only
ended with his life.
A cry went forth some years since, that Langton
Wold was doomed, and that Whitewall and the other
training stables would shortly be desolate. Old
Maltonians might well say that the site of their
pleasant little town might be ploughed over and sown
with salt, if their four trainers were to be thus driven
into exile. Things at one time seemed gloomy
enough ; but happily a compromise was effected.
The racecourse, over which the Brothers Scott tried
many a winner, is now in turnips or white crops ; the
little stand is transmuted into a farm building, and
Mr. Bowes and his Trainer. 255
420 acres have been taken at one slice out of the Wold.
Still there is a large portion left, a sort of mixture ol
hill and valley, with abundance of thorn trees and
Leicester sheep. The tan gallop is laid out in the
most intricate fashion, along the bottom of the valley,
in order to eke out distance ; but when some critical
curves have been slipped round, there is a long strid-
ing reach up-hill of fully a mile. The fanning man,
who harrows over the tan every morning, had just
unyoked his horses when we arrived, and the White-
wall lot were to be seen quietly walking over the brow
of the hill, with Jem Perren on his bay pony in
attendance. Mr. Scott soon arrived in his fly, which
the old grey, that Doncaster knows well, draws no
longer.
Not long before this Mr. Bowes was by his trainer's
side on two successive mornings, and the veteran may
well be proud, in these petty days of chop and change,
to think that he has now trained for that " approved
good master" for nearly forty seasons, and that they
have never had the shadow of a misunderstanding.
Four Derbies, a couple of Two Thousands, and one
St. Leger, with Mundig, Meteor, Cotherstone, Daniel
O'Rourke, and West Australian, have formed but a
small portion of their spoils, and yet Isaac Walker,
the Streatlam Castle stud-groom, has seldom arrived
each September with more than four yearlings " for
school." Mr. Bowes very rarely goes to a race, and
we believe that Fordham, who has so often worn his
black and gold of late years, does not even know him
by sight.
Before work begins another fly drives up, and a
well-favoured " special commissioner," in a grey coat
and crush hat, steps forth on to the sward, and goes
to pay his respects to Mr. Scott. He is here en route
from Middleham, where Pretender has had his best
attention, and he brings a glowing account of the
chances of "Johnny" and the blue and silver braid.
256 Saddle and Sirloin.
There is but doubtful news of Martyrdom, and Pero
Gomez is mentioned with as much respect as if he
were Mr. Peabody himself. The other spectators are
few. The three " Jacks," Robson, Holmes, Charlton,
whom we have seen on this spot so often, are all in
their graves, and now that he has no Blair Athol in
hand, Mr. I'Anson does not even spare an hour from
his farming. It hardly seems like the Saturday before
the St. Leger. Yorkshire is busy among her partridges
and her sheaves, and cannot compass the idea that
even John Scott, great as his triumphs have been, can
descend on the cracks, and wrest his seventeenth St.
Leger from them with a dark and an untried horse.
As a general thing, they have more belief round
Malton in George Osbaldeston, but still there are
plenty to shake their heads, and ask if the Belshazzar
and Barbatus blood is the thing to bring a horse home
in a St. Leger.
" George " has a small party of his own to look on,
and three " literary touts," two of them regularly
attached to the London sporting papers, note him
and the rest of the lots as they do their work. Re-
ports from training quarters have now become a sort
of necessity, and as long as these writers keep their
distance, and do not tamper with the boys, trainers
and owners do not resent their presence. In fact,
many of them rather like the reports, as they can
hear what horses are doing elsewhere, and thus know
better what they are likely to meet. There was a
time, " long, long ago," when there were only two
touts at Newmarket the portly York, who could
pull down eighteen stone on the scales, and a little
ex-jockey called Garratt. The latter wore a smock
when he was professionally engaged that is to say,
when he " roamed through the dew ;" and when Lord
Foley once dropped across him before a trial, lying
as snug as a hare behind a roller on the Heath,
and asked him who he was, he promptly replied, that
Schooling on the Tan. 257
he was "a shepherd." "Are you, indeed ?" rejoined his
lordship ; " I don't think you look after your flock much."
But a truce to these Scottiana. As ten o'clock
approaches the schooling on the tan begins in earnest.
Shepherd's, Peck's, and a couple of FAnson's come
striding along by twos and threes, and then Perren
takes the Whitewall lot into the bottom. The Spy,
with his plainish head and long legs, is not out, and
Viscount is also taking it easy at home. Goldsboro'
is reported coughing ; and Westwick, that good-look-
ing half-brother to West Australian, has never run
since the Alexandra Plate of last year. Nobleman
goes merrily through his work, and Toison d'Or toils
away with a fair chance of Park Hill honours before
her eyes. Old War, the King of the Slows, seems
very much fined down, and in great heart, as if he
knew that the wet which he loves so well has de-
scended on the three Ridings in earnest at last. Five or
six more, Silver Band, Tarna, Viscountess, &c. flash past
in succession, and Mr. Scott calls out of his brougham
to a lad to " keep your hands down." Then the
straight-backed Taraban is seen creeping up the hill
with his head well down, and H. Robertson in the
saddle. The pretty little Royal Oak, a lighter chest-
nut with a white face and white on the off fore foot,
comes " fighting," hard held by Grimshaw, and look-
ing as if he were ready at any moment to 'go up and
settle him. There was a time when Taraban was
obliged to " liquor up " before every great race.
Whisky did not stay long with him, and he infinitely
preferred old port of a good vintage, but he is said
now to be quite a reformed character, and no horse
can play the schoolmaster more patiently. The funny
man of the piece is a Malton publican on a roan racing
pony. She has been winning at Margate in the early
part of the week, but she is back again at her old
quarters, looking as hard as nails. Still her owner is
anxious to put on a little more "polish," and he rattles
S
258 Saddle and Sirloin.
up the tan twice or thrice in the course of the morn-
ing, going like great guns, with his coat tails flying in
the breeze. After their first gallop the Whitewall
team walked across the top of the Wold, and when
Mr. Scott has followed and had them on parade for
some twenty minutes, they are sent up the gallop
again. Taraban takes his pupil three times up it, and
then the morning's work is ended. All looked serene,
and in our mind's-eye we saw the chestnut running
home fourth or fifth ; but the morning brought bron-
chitis, and his leg began to fill, and the Johnsonian
pen went through his name.
Blair Athol, the last St. Leger winner that was
prepared on the Wold, was " a perfect glutton," and
Mr. I'Anson says of him, that he did more work in
the three weeks between York and Doncaster, and
ate more corn than Lanercost, Vestment, or Inheritor,
who once seemed almost invincible in this respect.
His first Malton trial was at even weights with Borea-
lis, after she had run in the Cambridgeshire Stakes,
and he beat her by two lengths. Mr. I'Anson then
asked him to give her /Ibs., but he rather ran out at
the turn, and Challoner on the mare beat him by a
head. Ten weeks before the Derby he was found to
be very much injured in the muscles of the thigh, and
his boy was discharged, and it was fully five weeks ere
he was allowed to go out of a walk. At Paris he ran
big, as it was impossible to gallop him, and yet, then
sore as he was with the hard ground, he came back
across the Channel to Ascot, and cut down Ely on
the Friday over the New Mile. He was not intended
for York, as, in consequence of his shoe coming off
half as he walked and half in the Rubbing House, he
had missed a sweat. Borealis and Caller Ou gene-
rally led him in his work, and a hard time they had
of it. Mr. I'Anson never knew how good he was,
and thinks that he never had a horse with such true
action, as even in distress he never rolled or rocked.
259
CHAPTER X.
A trainer on a lonely hill
Will do a deed of mystery,
And 'scribes' will several columns fill,
With that trial and all its history.
The trainer will be all surprise
At the facts they have collected,
And the owner when they meet his eyes
Will be equally affected."
Sporting Life.
word on Knavesmire Sir William Milner The Hunting Tragedy
on the Ure Drax Abbey Warping Harrogate Yorkshire Stock
and Hound Show at Wetherby Captain Gunter's Herd Farnley
AMID the whirl and rattle of the present turf times,
when the secrets of a man's stable are pro-
claimed on the house-top almost before he knows them
himself, and touts send off telegrams far and wide the
instant a trial is won, it is a treat to hear a Yorkshire
elder have his say. Once set him going, with the full
consciousness that he has a sympathetic listener, and
he soon pierces into the bowels of the past, and re-
counts each loved recollection of " the horse and his
rider." He will tell you how a great jockey " got
into money," and rather let the cat out of the bag by
offering a rooo/. note instead of a ioo/. one in change
to the horse's owner on settling day ; how Bob Rids-
dale, who began as body footman to Lady Lambton,
made 3O,ooo/. only to lose every halfpenny of it again
in the ring ; of Colonel Cradock saying to Sam Chif-
ney in amazement as they gazed on the saddle con-
tortions of little Johnny Gray at a finish, " Is he
pricking, Sam, or is he pulling?" of a noble duke only
giving his jockey " a pony," when he had won the
S 2
260 Saddle and Sirloin.
Oaks, and thinking he had done the correct thing ; ol
Old Forth having his weighing beam in two rooms, so
that his jockeys might not see what weight they
carried in a trial ; of Lord Suffield and his confede-
rate taking their Bamboo revenge with Newlight to
the tune of I2,ooo/. on Lord George Bentinck, when
his lordship managed the green and gold interest
for Mr. Houldsworth, and had such a fancy for
Destiny ; and of Bill Scott making the judge and
jury laugh when he was a witness about the " three
clean, Bank of England notes, clean notes for IOOO/.
each, my lord," which he got for his horse Sir Tatton
Sykes.
We have always had a great fondness for Orton's
Turf Annals of York and Doncaster. We remember
the poor fellow before he fell, no one exactly knew
why, under the ban of Lord George who always left
his mark on a man as keeper of the match-box, and
clerk of the course at York, as well as judge there, and
at Preston Guild, and several other northern meetings.
He was also, the " Alfred Highflyer" of the Sporting
Magazine, a third of a century ago, and his descrip-
tions of York and Catterick Bridge Meetings had a
freshness and an interest, we shall never know again.
In his introduction to his work he does not fail to do
justice to the horse-loving tendencies of each county
family. As the Dutchmen of Communipaw, men
fabled to have sprung from oysters, and each clad in
ten pair of linsey wolsey breeches, marched to a blood-
less battle under the banner of an oyster recumbent
upon a sea green field, so, according to our historian,
the Darleys of Aldby should have a Childers, and the
Huttons of Marske an Eclipse on their family quar-
terings, as having imported the Arab, or reared the
sire to which the renowned bay and chestnut owe their
descent.
One of the very finest races ever run at York was
that Subscription Purse in which Actseon, with Harry
A Word on Knavesmire. 261
Edwards up, defeated Memnon and Sam Chifney at
York, and a painting of the finish, by Herring, hung in
the dining-room at Hawkhead. We have looked over
many hundreds of Mr. Herring's portfolio horse
sketches, and we still think Actaeon the most beauti-
ful. The chestnut's great peculiarity was that he
would never leave his horses. He once had a race
with Florismart, at York, when the latter broke down
at the Bishopthorpe turn. Clift scrambled along as
he could to the finish, and Actseon stuck resolutely to
him in a slow trot, and it was all his jockey could do
by clapping and encouraging him to get him to win
by a neck. In the great race for the Purse, Harry
Edwards made his effort, about a hundred yards
from home, and got a neck in front, but the chestnut
put his toes into the ground and " retracted" so ter-
ribly in the last three strides, that when Sam Chifney
" collected" Memnon and came with one of his rushes,
victory was only cut out of the chestnut by a head.
Edwards struck him three times, and, as they say,
" with a will."
The race in which Newminster was defeated by
Calculator, was the most sensational we ever witnessed
at York,* but we have heard that it was nothing to
the scene when The Miner seemed suddenly to start
* Weights, which began at a thumping twelve stone early in the
eighteenth century at York, gradually slid down to Qst. in 1751. By
1756 the 8st. 7lbs., which held its own for a century, had appeared at
Doncaster ; and in 1 760 the York Subscription Purses were at 8st. 3lbs.
Six years later, matches at four miles were made at 7st. ; and, in 1786,
three-year-olds were carrying 5st. 7lbs. and a feather. Of course, in
Give and Take Plates the weights had been very low for many years
before that, and were even calculated by ounces. They had been given
up and quite forgotten until some clerk of the course or other, in 1839,
introduced one into Scotland, without having duly mastered the proper
distance between the fore and hind feet when the horse is measured.
Accordingly, the old stone was disinterred from one of the York rub-
bing houses ; and it was ascertained that 5ft. was the distance, and that
2ft. was allowed between each of the hind as well as the fore feet.
Under the system, horses of thirteen hands carried 7st., and 1402. were
262 Saddle and Sirloin.
up at Blair Athol's side, and beat him. It was on
Knavesmire also that we remember poor Bill Scott
having his last mount, a second on Snowball to Alfred
Day on Tuscan. It is only twenty-two years ago,
and yet seven out of the nine jockeys who rode in
that race are dead.
In his way there were few more genuine Yorkshire
lovers of racing than the late Sir William Milner. We
seem to see him still, with his tall, light figure, his
aquiline nose, his rather lank, black hair, and his glass
in his eye, following a winner out of the York enclo-
sure to have another peep at him before he was
sheeted up, or on the pavement (or rather the horse-
block) at the Salutation, getting a good " oversight"
of a yearling, which old Mr. Tattersall or his son were
knocking down. Lord Strathmore was just coming
into notice then, and a good-looking young fellow
he was, with that curious way of toeing the ground
in his walk, and that off-hand devil-me-care toss of the
head, as he seized the passing hour, and little thought
that Sweetmeat would beget Saccharometer to his
sorrow.
Racing was in the Milner family, as turf chronicles
knew well, and gradually came out in the Oxonian.
" Mr. Milner" was christened after him. He had a few
race-horses in his time, along with the Aske string, of
which Grapeshot was much the best though he re-
put on for every eighth of an inch ; so that horses of fourteen hands
carried 9st., and of fifteen hands, list.
Two-year-old racing had its origin in a match between Mr. Hutchin-
son the genius of Langton Wold in his day, as well as the breeder of
Hambletonian and trainer of Beningborough and a Rev. Mr. Good-
ricke. In 1799 the first race of the kind was run at York, and won by
Mr. Robinson's Belle Fillie, the first favourite, Allspice, running last ;
and in the following year Lord Darlington won the maiden race of the
kind at Doncaster with the first of his two Muley Molochs. It was not
until eleven years later that Oiseau, by running away, at weights for
age over a mile and a half at Doncaster, from a four-year-old and a five-
year-old St. Leger winner, proved what good two-year-olds really can
do in the autumn.
Hunting Casiialties. 26
quired a fortune in whalebone. Sir William followed
the Voltigeur fortunes like a man, and then, without
telling the stable, laid heavily against Lightfoot (whom
Bobby Hill believed to be a clinker) for the next
year's Derby. Most probably Voltigeur was quite out
of form, or else Lightfoot would never have won the
trial as he did.* However, it seemed high enough to
put Sir William in a sad pucker how to shape his
course and get out ; but Chester showed the horse
eventually in his real colours. As a politician, Sir
William promised well, and took a good part in the
conferences of the Orange party, to whom an Upper
Room at Normanton was gen erally the Woburn Abbey.
York had in him a painstaking member, and he quite
astonished Mr. Leeman by the verve with which he
spoke on one occasion ; but his health began gra-
dually to fail from that point.
It has been well said that
" The image of a man who died
In his heyday of renown,
Has a fearful power, unto which the pride
Of fiery life bows down."
England has had many such lessons. London re-
members yet the painful thrill when Lord Cantelupe
lay dead in the very height of the season. Lord
George Bentinck was found in his father's flood
meadow, with the hoar-frost of an autumn morning
on that finely-cut face, which had been so often
turned defiantly on his foes in the House. The
Duke of Dorset, one of the best sportsmen of his day,
died jumping a small fence with his harriers ; and the
Marquis of Waterford, who had come off scatheless
among the " oxers" of Northamptonshire and the
doubles of the Vale, met his doom at a little stone
wall into a road. Death is more fearful when it is
11 Scott and Sebright," pp. 206-209
264 Saddle and Sirloin.
in direct contrast with pleasure, and the little ferry
on the Ure will be remembered, so long as that river
rolls its dark waters from the moors to the Ouse, as
the scene of the most fearful tragedy in hunting
history.
Yorkshire could hardly believe the sad tidings.
The cathedral city was in the very height of her
hunting term. There were visitors in plenty, and the
Club was full of the doings of Sir Charles on Saltfish
or Rosamond, and of news of good sport with Mr.
Hall and the Holderness. Four familiar faces were
suddenly lacking, and three of them were the very
life-blood of the hunt master, crack rider, and first
whip. The meet on that fatal day (February 4th)
was Stainley, upwards of twenty miles from York,
but accessible by rail, and a special train was run on
the occasion. Sir Charles soon found a fox, which
took them straight for Newby Park, where it crossed
the river. He had found, as he thought, the same fox
twice before that season, and it had baffled him by
the same trick. It was no doubt this double beating
which made him rather more keen and less sensible
of his danger than usual, for both he and Mr. Lloyd
and Mr. Robinson were generally timid and careful
in a boat, though hard, and fearless riders as could be
across country.* " Bill" or rather -Powter, the first
* The boat was managed by a cog-wheel, which takes hold of a chain
stretched across the river, and it is worked over by hand. This chain,
which is of some weight, lies in ordinary times on the bottom of the
river, and is picked up by the boat as it goes along ; but when the river
is full of water the weight of the chain is off the ground and upon the
boat. It is usual in a fresh (i.e. when the water is very high, but
within its bounds) to cast the chain adrift, and ferry the boat over in the
usual manner, but n this occasion the plan was not resorted to. The
chain is on the down-stream side, and the weight of it naturally keeps
that side of the boat a little down in the water, and therefore when any
extra weight, like a horse, is added on that side, the up-stream side of
the boat rises, and the stream rushing down underneath it, sends it right
over on the chain side. So it happened on this sad day.
There was a scrimmage and an " exchange" or two among the horses,
The Hunting Tragedy on the Ure. 265
whip, (for whom an equally sad fate was in store),
went round by Borough Bridge and stopped the
hounds, which lost their fox in the Newby covers,
and he had the sad mission of taking home the news
to Mrs. Orveys.
Sir Charles, Mr. Lloyd, and Mr. Robinson were
and Sir Charles's " Saltfish," an old and a very good one, jumped out,
and getting entangled fast in the chain, added to the weight on that side
of the boat, and upset it. Sir Charles had, we believe, his reins twisted
round his wrist. At first he struck out for the boat, and when he saw
it go over, he swam away and was within a stroke or two of the oppo-
site shore, where there was no one to fling him the end of a hunting-
whip, when he threw up his arms and went down. It is thought that
he took the cramp, as his legs were very much drawn up. This is not
improbable, as he was somewhat heated with a fast run. Mr. Lloyd
must at first have been under the boat with the rest of the men and
horses. He was the champion swimmer of his day at Eton, and he
struck out manfully for the nearest shore, but the weight of his boots
and hunting clothes in the rapid stream was too much for him. Captain
Robert Vyner and Mr. William Ingleby jumped in and got hold of him,
and for some time sustained him, but he was a very heavy man, and
soon overpowered them. In his last extremity he never lost his pre-
sence of mind. There was a total abnegation of self ; he did as they
directed him, putting his hands on their shoulders, and when he found
they were exhausted, he calmly removed them, like th noble fellow
that he was, rather than imperil their lives as well as his own. No
three men could have behaved more gallantly.
Of Mr. Robinson no one seems to know anything for certain, as he
disappeared almost immediately. His usual custom was never to get off
his horse in a boat, but whether he was off or on that morning no one
seems to remember. Some say he was, some say he was not. One
man states that he saw him rise in the water on his horse ; but this
looks like a mistake, for if he had been mounted in the boat, he and his
horse must have parted company when the boat upset sideways.
Orveys, the huntsman, can never have made an effort to swim, as he
was found next day with his hunting-whip still tightly clutched in his
hand. Thus he died as he lived, true to his duty. The poor ferrymen,
two good and valued servants, were no doubt struck by the horses, ren-
dered insensible, and sank at once. Of the others in the boat, Mr.
Clare Vyner was the first to come up, and scramble on to the boat,
which was then bottom upwards, and he assisted first Mr. White, then
Sir G. Wombwell, then Captain Molyneux and Major Mussinden on to
the same place. Captain Molyneux, R.N., was a good swimmer, and
reached the shore, as did Captain Key, who, seeing the water coming
into the boat, jumped out at once before she went over, and went back
along the chain.
266 Saddle and Sirloin.
the very cream of the hunt, and it is a remarkable
thing that they were the only three regular atten-
dants of it who habitually wore caps. Orveys of course
wore one. Sir Charles had shown rare sport when
all the packs round, with the exception of the Hol-
derness, had been doing very little. He was only
forty-five that year of fruition as it is called, when
the harvest of a man's experience is gathered in and
ever since '38 he had been at the head of either
harriers or foxhounds. His lady pack, among which
were prize ones of the Nelson and Comedy litter, was
about perfection at all points, cover drawing, nose,
and speed. For talent, and certainly for perseverance
no gentleman huntsman, and probably no professional
huntsman could have beaten him. Perhaps he was a
little too silent in cover and chopped foxes occasion-
ally that way. He did so on his very last morning,
but the fox was so fast asleep, that, to use his own
words, " I had to crack my whip twice over htm to
wake him." His casts were most extraordinary ;
when his hounds threw up, he never dwelt very long
on the spot, but would lay hold of them and cast half
a mile forward or back with almost invariable success.
The number of foxes (50 brace) accounted for in little
over four months, in a country which does not do
much cub-hunting, fully attest his prowess. He was
the nicest fellow in the field, never by any chance
losing his temper or saying a nasty word to any one.
The consequence was, that his field, though com-
prising an immense number of hard-riding men, was
perhaps the best behaved in England, and so many
strangers have allowed. If men got into a wrong
place (and no one saw it quicker than he did) he
would never say anything, but they were wont to say
in all verity, that they felt more rebuked by his quiet
look and his silence than if a master had been swearing
at them all day. In fact, no one more truly united
the charming companion and finished sportsman, and
The Hunting Tragedy on the Ure. 267
he also rode some fine winning finishes on Eggsauce,
&c., over York and Thirsk. One of his ancestors
was drowned in the Nidd, and another forfeited his
head in the Royalist cause. He disliked politics
(although he did not care to be on the losing side in
Knaresborough) ; but during the Epsom and Ascot
weeks, when he had his very brief season in London,
the Carlton Club was his great resort. Still he did
not care much for London, and his great enjoyment
lay in natural history and general country pursuits.
Mr. Lloyd was also as genial a man as ever lived,
but he had the misfortune to be deaf. This made it
rather difficult to talk with him, but he was full of
fun, and never out of humour. He was a very fine
rider for a heavy man, and a most enthusiastic fox-
hunter, never missing a day by any chance except
for shooting. All through his last winter, although
he lived four miles away, he was in York for the
seven o'clock train on a Thursday, when the hounds
(and nearly always the lady pack) met on the side of
the country where the accident took place.
Mr. Robinson was quite a character. It is a big
word to say, but many thought him the finest rider
to hounds in England. The Rev. John Bovver, who
had perhaps not a peer in his day (Earl Jersey's was
over) except it might be Lord Clanricarde, was the
man from whom, he was proud to say, he learnt all he
knew in the saddle, and, like that great Holderness
hero, on all kinds of horses. He took them as they
came, and he was one of the cleverest judges of them
in Yorkshire. He seemed to know every horse in it,
its powers and its failings. No one ever saw him in
difficulties, but always the first man in a run ; no
matter what cut-me-down stranger (of which the York
and Ainsty sees a great many during the season)
might arrive, they never got any change out of him.
Unlike most fine riders, he had not a particle of
jealousy, but if he thought that he knew the way
268 Saddle and Sirloin.
through a cover better, or had any advantage, he
would look round for a pal to give him the office and
share it. Not a few profited by his kindness in this
way. He was the most good natured fellow in the
world, the first to assist any one in difficulties, and he
would get off his horse and wade through dirt to put
a curb-chain right, or adjust any tackle that was out
of place. Nay more, he had always a second horse
out, and if a friend's nag was dead beat and his own
was still fresh, he was quite ready to lend. The hunt
might well be proud of their crack rider. Many will
sadly remember how, when a few seasons since, he
was borne away from the field with a broken leg on a
hurdle, he raised himself on his elbow and cheered the
pack as they crossed the road in full cry before him.
Three such men could hardly be found in a hunt, and
yet they are all taken at one stroke. It may be said,
as a testimony to the sterling worth of those who
are gone, that in a country where a good deal of that
sort of thing prevails, they never belonged to any of
the cliques ; they were free and independent members
of the hunt ; their example prevented the field from
being cut up into factions, and made a day with the
York and Ainsty one of cheery, social enjoyment.
Mr. Robinson's Brunow, which ra.n in the French
Derby, was a very remarkable one ; and he went so
lame, off and on, that he was given to a farmer friend
near York, who put him in the harrows. Here he
kicked so violently and injured himself so much, that
if the stable had not been nearer than the kennels, he
would have been led off to the latter. He was sent
back, and became so sound that Mr. Robinson rode
him all his last season, and he fetched 280 guineas at
the sale. Mr. Robinson had nine hunters up latterly,
and among them The Arrow and Traveller, a vicious
horse in the stable.
Orveys was a ripe, good servant, and quite a right
arm to his master, as first whip and kennel huntsman.
Drax Abbey. 269
He once suffered a good deal with rheumatism in
" the round bone," but he had latterly hit on a won-
derful cure for it, and no man was more thankful for
the hint. His hounds which went to Scriven Park
in the summer were always brought out in prime
condition. The way he would get them out of cover
to Sir Charles was perfectly marvellous. He was a
bold rider, and as hard as pinwire, and had excellent
nerves for a man of his age, nearly sixty. Added to
this, he had a deal of quiet fun, which was heightened
by a squeaky voice, and a most pleasant twinkle of
the eye. He married the house-maid at Scriven Park
for his second wife about five years before his death,
and Sir Charles's way of repeating the annual report
made to him from the kennels, of u another whip, Sir
Charles, last night," was very droll. Like Mr. Robin-
son and Mr. Lloyd, he seems to have died quite easily,
as his features were calm and unchanged. When his
body was taken out of the river, the searchers leant
it against the trunk of a tree in order to let the water
flow away. As this fine old servant stood there a
few minutes, with his hunting-whip still in his hand,
those who saw him said they could hardly persuade
themselves that he was not still alive.
Drax Abbey was granted by Henry VIII. to the
Constables of Everingham for their valour at Flodden
Field, and Lord Herries sold it in 1849 to Colonel or
" Hamlet" Thompson. The Abbey is gone, but the
old sites still live in name. A chestnut pony and a
few shorthorn calves were ruminating on the herbage
of Ave Maria Lane, and wandering at intervals down
Paternoster Row. The Abbey Oak, out of which
many an old fox has been flogged, when the Bramham
Moor or the Badsworth drew the neutral cover of Bar-
low Hag, had still some sap in its branches, and a
coffin lid, a bracket, or a boss-stone half hid among
lobelias and fuchsias in season are now the sole anti-
quities.
2 70 Saddle and Sirloin.
A view from the Abbey garth that morning was
full of seafaring and country life. The ashes were
just beginning to change in Barlow Hag, which made
up a dark green-and-yellow background for the Daisies
and the red Captain Shaftoes. Across the embank-
ment of the sluggish Ouse, where the eel-catchers are
ever bobbing, the tall spire of Hemingbrough stands
out against the sky, and we note the progress of a
barge, as it runs slowly up with the tide towards
Selby. A billy- boy, which turns out on further in-
spection to be the " Elizabeth and Anne," is busy, not
bringing gravel from Spurn Point this tide, but de-
livering its tons of linseed-cake from Hull, while
carts keep steadily arriving with their loads at the
potato " pies," which are being gradually built up on
the river side, ready for shipment to London. Two
troops of English and Irish females in every guise,
from sun hats to guano-bag skirts, take their allotted
furrows (which have been turned-up by a plough
without the coulter), working so jealousy against each
other, and so ready to raise the Sassenach and the
" St. George to the rescue" war cries, on the smallest
provocation, that we secretly admire the bailiff for
keeping resolutely, pitchfork in hand, between them.
A reedy swamp, half under water, with snipes
skimming about it, showed the raw material from
which that preserve of Flukes and Princes had been
formed. It is only at the changes of the moon
that the sluice watcher can report that the fertilizing
muddy swell, full of clay, sand, and vegetable matter,
has come at last, and, with a ripple sometimes nearly
four feet high, has
" like an eagre rode
In triumph o'er the tide."
In rivers like the Thames, the Severn, and the Mersey,
the force of the stream prevents the tide from rolling
the warp back. The sluggishness of its current, and
Warping. 271
the width of its estuary, make the Humber the only
warping river in England, and thus the deposit which
the Trent and the Ouse leave at its mouth are not
carried out to sea, but can warp the lands for sixty
miles along its banks. It has been stated, but of
course, equally stoutly disputed, that the fertilizing
sediment is composed of the concussion of the fresh
water with the salt water animalcules, and that death
thus contributes that life to plants on which insects in
their turn take such a terrible revenge. It requires a
very strong current to keep up a proper specie; of
alligation between the sand and clay ; and the con-
stant alteration of sluices and inlets, in order to make
the warping level, quite rises into the dignity of a
science, and is as difficult a problem as can be set in
hydrostatics. Certain places can with prosperous tides
acquire four or five feet of warp in three years, and
years after, when the ground is examined, each tide is
found to have left the record of its presence in a layer
of about the thickness of a sixpence. A block of
such formation is a veritable " black-letter volume,"
of which every leaf betokens a day or night of silent
and solitary toil. Coltsfoot, willow weed, and docks
infest the warp the first year, and the feathered and
the Whittlesea Mere weed have gradually given place
to " the American," whose roots can strike five yards
deep. Four feet under-draining at 10 yards apart,
with if -inch pipes joined with anti-sand collars, was
Mr. Henry Smith's next process, and the plough was
taken over it as soon as it could bear horses, and
then it was sown with oats and red clover. The latter
was mown for fodder, and the newly-warped land has
been known to require the scythe three times in a
season.*
* The Drax Abbey herd began with Daisy, a cow by Northumber-
land (466), dam by son of Twin Brother to Ben, and Mr. Smith always
hired bulls from Warlaby. From Daisy there came in succession Daisy
272 Saddle and Sirloin.
It is quite a " popular error," that a Yorkshireman
cares about no live stock save horses. " Give her the
glory of going on, and still to be," from Tennyson's
" Wages," would certainly suggest to him an epitaph
for a mare that could stay a distance, and his only
doubt would be about adding " there or thereabouts"
to his author, but still sheep, pigs, and shorthorns
have a strong grip of his affections. The agricultural
year always seems to lack one of its pleasantest
elements if we have missed the Yorkshire meeting.
Some linger in the county six weeks from its date,
and what with Doncaster, York, and Ripon races,
visits to herds, racing-stables, studs, agricultural shows,
foal shows, and ram lettings, a gentle St. Leger ex-
citement, more especially if John Scott has a favourite,
as in "the brave days of old," with a dash of H ar-
rogate and Scarborough thrown in for flavour, those
pilgrims may well call their sojourn the very " sweet
o' the year."
Leeds looked more dreary than ever, as we passed
7th, the "best cow or heifer" in the yard at Birmingham in 1858.
Five years after Mr. Smith took the gold medal at Smithfield, but with
a cow bred by his brother Mr. William Smith, of West Razen. The
purchase of Captain Shaftoe (6833) at one of his brother's sales for
40 guineas was a great hit, and the sole drawback about him was his
aversion not to a red but to a black coat, a whim which nearly proved
fatal to Mr. Parkinson at the Leyfields sale. " The Captain" had then
seen twelve summers and he left seventeen heifer calves behind him.
One of their daughters, Helen from Annie, was sold to Mr. Majori-
banks at ten months for 80 guineas, and proved the sire of Harkaway,
the first Royal prize bull-calf at Canterbury. The meadows were full
of reds, or rich red roans, whose compact frames, level tops, and good
deep middles, told of the gay little Captain's handiwork, which Booth's
Bridesman (12,493), War Eagle, The Monk, and Prince of Warlaby
followed up.
The name and pedigree of each shorthorn was hung above it in the
byre, a process the necessity of which was enforced on Mr. Smith by
finding that an Irish herdsman in his absence had become puzzled, and
had not only given a wrong and a most tremendously high pedigree to
an intending purchaser, but maintained that "Sure, sir, and I was
right to put in the best word I could for the puir beast,"
ft arrogate. 273
ft on our way to Wetherby, and we esteemed the
vicar happy who had just escaped from it, mitre in
hand, to the green orchard alleys of Herefordshire.
On we go, past the meadow where the Royal en-
camped in '6 1. It was there that the Wetherby
Duchesses, with Duchess 77th at their head, won a
treble victory and retired on their laurels, that young
Nutbourne vanquished old Sir John Barleycorn, as
teetotallers never did, that Adam Bede and Overplus
were dons in the hunter classes, and that Wainman's
Silverhair was such a dainty queen among sows.
We hardly know Harrogate again, and try in vain
to recognise the traces of what it was, when we first
saw it in '34, or Touchstone's year. " Old Johnny's
Well," or the strong chalybeate, has received the
cupola from the Old Sulphur Well ; the Tewit, or
Iron-water Well, is roofed in at last ; the Tewit, or
Iron-water Well on the Moor, seems unchanged ; and
the cupola of the Old Sulphur Well, whose waters
savour of the scourings of a gun-barrel, has been re-
placed by one thrice as large. It was the practice in
those days of expensive travelling to meet the fashions
half-way, and therefore the moment the London
season closed the Bond-street dealers detached a fore-
man, with a large amount of unsold goods in a van, to
spread his nets in High Harrogate, before the
" mothers and daughters" of the North. To some
extent they do so still, but the things do not find such
favour, now that the metropolis can be reached by
rail. The Dragon, the Granby, and the Crown were,
at the time we are noting, the only great hotels, and
the peerage, the " M.P.'s," and the Lancashire visitors,
were supposed to be their patrons respectively. Ad-
mission to the Dragon's balls was the object of count-
less hopes and fears. It seemed to be for the summer
months a very Almacks of Yorkshire. We have heard
a Crown president speaking as mysteriously of his
diplomacy in a ball-room " difficulty" between the
T
2 74 Saddle and Sirloin.
inns, as if he had been negotiating a triple alliance.
Being president was esteemed such an honour that, as
it went by seniority, one eccentric man was said
to arrive in March, and possess his soul in patience
and the solitude of the big room for months, in order
that he might be in office all the season round.
Bachelors gathered round him in plenty, quite
" ready to take their stand
Upon a widow's jointure land,"
if a likely chance turned up.
The Queen's holds the lead now, and in the warm
twilight the company linger on the garden terrace, and
peer through the panes at the dancers within ; and
give little biographies of each of them. By day it is
the old story, Knaresborough Dripping Well, Foun-
tains Abbey, Plumpton, Hackfall, &c., and Brimham
Rocks, where Bill Scott, the winner of four Derbies,
three Oaks, and nine St. Legers, once rode in a donkey
carriage in state, with two donkey boys as outriders.
It needs some excitement to keep the casual visitor
in spirits on a dull summer's evening, and we sought
for it in vain before the sun went down. There was
not a soul in the room at the old Sulphur Spa. Those
who were not at dinner had gone to hear the band
play at a shilling a head to non-subscribers, in Mont-
pelier Gardens, or to attend the readings of Mr.
Bellew. Punch and Judy occupied the green in front
of the White Hart, and had many gray-haired sages
in their audience ; and if you did gaze carefully into
the windows of the front shops, you only withdrew
perplexed as to which was really " the last photo ever
taken" of a local physician recently deceased, and
which he had most honoured with his approbation.
Early next morning there was quite an agricultural
gathering on the railway platform for Wetherby. It
is a very small place, but its National Steeple-chase
ground, which Jacob Faithful, Israelite, and Em-
peror II., knew well, is, according to many, " the best
The Yorkshire Show. 275
in Britain, bar none." The town bade its visitors
welcome with a few flags and a flower arch, but every-
thing seemed very quiet, and the fear of sunstrokes
kept some thousands away. Half-a-hundred goats of
many colours formed an army of occupation at the
bridge end. One word was enough to set off the
loquacious Irishman who led them, and he soon priced
us a kid at seven-and-sixpence, and a nanny, equal to
a fabulous number of quarts per day, " Cheap, yer
honner, at twenty-five." There was not the wonted
waterfall to drown his chaffer, as the Wharfe had col-
lapsed into a bed of shingle, and the whole stream
might have gone through an eight-inch pipe. Two
men and a woman, the usual company, were singing
the song of " The Greet Agricultural Show" as we
crossed the bridge, and rousing the local spirit by
stating that its author is " a young ^z^-chanic in
Wetherby." It was really an old halfpenny friend,
and not with a new face either, but simply the well-
known blanks, to be filled up by fact or fancy.
Micklethwaite is the township over the bridge. It has
evidently no church, as the overseer's list of men
claiming to vote is hung at an inn door. There are
only three claimants, and it is signed, " W. Burley y
Overseer" Some one, with a sad lack of reverence,
has drawn a fancy portrait of " ye overseer"- close by
his signature, in a Spanish hat and beard, and put
" W. B." beneath it, so that all men may know.
Captain Gunter's farm is on the opposite side of the
road to this work of art, and his herdsman, Taylor,
looks over the wall with rather a sorrowful face. He
remembers the days when he took Mr. Eastwood's
white bull, Hero, to the Worcester Royal, and brought
home the first prize ribbons. Hence he is pugnacious
in the highest sense of the word, but the Captain has
retired from the show lists. Taylor's regrets are not
lessened as the day proceeds. Two of the judges visit
his " American heifer," and tell him that the
T2 x<\B*ARy-^
or TH'
UNIVERSITY
or
2 76 Saddle and Sirloin.
Wharfedale Rose, which has been sold at loo/., to go
along with her, would have won to a certainty if she
had been entered. The pangs which he suffers in
consequence must be untold. Mr. Cochrane's pair
have a levee in their barn all day, and devotees go
wandering off through the hot haze into the park to
gaze on Duchess 86th, 8/th, 88th, and Qist, as well as
Mild Eyes and her daughter Bright Eyes, and a very
fine Waterloo heifer.*
* When we first saw the herd in '59, not long after its removal from
Earl's Court, we began with the earliest purchase Duchess 67th, and
her daughter 72nd, the first calf that Captain Gunter ever bred. Her
next daughter the white 75th was third in the array, and the handsomest
of the three, and then came "the twins" 78th and 79th which ran
such a splendid career in the show yard. We see the little roan and
white through the mist of years once more struggling with the herd
boys, and thought the roan rather nicer in her coat, but the white
neater, and in after years the bench hardly knew which to take. Having
thus exhausted the fruits of the first Tortworth bid, Duchess 7<Dth bore
her witness to the second with her calves 73rd and 77th, and we look
back to our comment that "the former had more substance and the
latter more elegance of the twain," and that she was the best, but no
one dare predict such a future for her. She rose the Royal ranks step
by step, third as a yearling at Warwick, second at Canterbury, and
first at Leeds. Duchess 6gth had only calved that morning, and though
we could not rouse her after the labours of the day, we could judge of
her fine scale and enjoy the gentle grandeur of the head, which had
been specially modelled for Mr. Brandreth Gibbs's testimonial. Sixth
Duke of Oxford was waiting outside to receive us ; he was a perfect
Esau at his birth, and there could be no doubt whence his stock derived
their rich hair.
["A period of nine years must be supposed to elapse," as the play-
bills have it.]
The old cows were in the bottom of the park, and took a good deal
of finding in the heat. There was the roan Duchess 86th, with the old-
fashioned wide-spreading horn ; the 87th, of a lighter roan and with a
rare loin ; the white 88th, which had been amiss ; and gist, one of the
same colour and rare substance. The twins and the 77th had died or
been slaughtered, and 96th and 94th were in the home field, and Taylor
tells us how once they thought 94th the best, and that the former is the
>nly Duchess which lacks the Usurer cross. The numbers looth, 99th,
98th, and 97th once roamed together in the home pasture unbroken,
but Mr. Cochrane had taken his choice and borne off the last to
Canada at 1,000 guineas. She is from 92nd, a daughter of 84th, "which
broke down on us as a calf for Leeds." Her once constant companion
Captain Gunter's Herd. 277
The Grange Park was placed by Captain Gunter
entirely at the disposal of the Yorkshire Society. It
was once the property of " Kit Wilson," the Father of
the Turf, who owned Comus, the blind chestnut, which
did such good to Sledmere in the days of the first Sir
Tatton. The whole of the arrangements, thanks to
Mr. Parringtori, to whom the general improvement as
regards the accommodation of horses in the show-
yards of England may primarily be said to be due,
98th from 88th was a white with roan ears, and Taylor again calls
to mind how she was "once held like a kitten to the teat." Writers
who have to encounter there night-mare numbers may well be among
those
" Who dread to speak of '98,
Who tremble at the name."
The wished-for looth was reached at last in the shape of a red roan,
but a two-days-old roan, half-sister to " the American lady, " was the
latest arrival, and Duchess iO3rd had been the Captain's private herd
book entry. Fourth Duke of Thorndale was the monarch of the yard,
and Grand Duchess 8th, from Penrhyn Castle was there to share his
smiles. Mild Eyes 3rd (by 4th Duke of Thorndale from Mild Eyes)
and a heifer by 5th Duke of Wharfedale from " the Waterloo heifer,"
have since then arrived ; and Duchess 84th has lost the red Duchess
iO4th. It was jumping about its box when two months old, and burst
a blood-vessel in the heart. Duchess 94th has had twins a bull and
a red heifer, the latter taking rank as Duchess io5th. Third Duke of
Wharfedale (sire of Mr. Cochrane's heifer) from Duchess 86th now
reigns at Wetherby (after two seasons at Penrhyn), vice Fourth Duke
of Thorndale, who was found dead in his box last spring ; and 2nd
Duke of Wetherby from Duchess 77th, and 2nd Duke of Claro from
Duchess 79th are both let. The 3rd Duke of Wetherby by 4th Duke of
Thorndale from Duchess 82nd is coming on for home use. The 2nd
Duke of Collingham, Duke of Tregunter (a name taken from an old
family estate in Wales), 3rd Duke of Claro, 5th Duke of Wharfedale,
and 2nd Duke of Tregunter, have all been sold to English purchasers
for 500 guineas each.
During the cattle plague Captain Gunter's farm was in a deeply in-
fected parish, and cattle were dying or being slaughtered almost daily,
close up to the park gates, for months. Chloride of lime was used
liberally, but the Captain's main reliance was on the .very strictest
observance of the isolation principle. The Duchesses and the rest of
the cattle were divided into several lots of two each, and placed in
small sheds all over the six hundred acre occupation ; the yards attached
to these sheds were netted round the bottom, so as to keep out dogs,
278 Saddle and Sirloin.
were admirable, down to the cloak-room, with cloak-
pegs innumerable, and " the jewel-room," where a
silversmith sets his wares in array, and fits up winners
with cups. The police bivouack thirty strong, in the
same " Wood Street." They have plenty of night
work, as the men; more especially the grooms, get
very drunk, and make night hideous with their hulla-
baloo. They cannot sleep for the heat, and therefore
they will, to use their own phrase, " still be lapping,"
which means that they are always at the canteen for
soda-water, or something a little stronger. Under its
influence they run foot races with nothing on but their
shirts, and it is daylight before those gentlemen in
white finish their revels and return to their straw
wisps. There are some quaint characters among the
grooms. One of them was attacked last year by five
men in a garden at Scarborough. " If it had been
nobbut one or two, I could have warmed him," was
his version of the combat, " but five's owre mony ; so
I just put my hand in my pocket, and kep shifting
till somebody came. I let 'em just batter away at my
head ; I can stan' a deal of rough wark that way, if I
nobbut hod to the brass."
But we have to deal with day, and not with night
scenes ; and we first make our way, in obedience to
old instincts, to the shorthorn ring. Three good
judges are inside it Jamie Douglas, who once could
beat on " the grand tour" the heifers of the three
kingdoms with his Rose of Summer and his Second
Queen of Trumps ; Charles Howard, of Oxford Down
hares, rabbits, and other "travellers." The herdsman and his assis-
tants never went near any other cattle or person engaged about cattle on
any pretence whatever ; and if the Captain had been out hunting, or
anywhere else in the country, he never entered the sheds until he had
changed his clothes. Second Duke of Wharfedale was slaughtered
after a slight accident, rather than run the risk of bringing a veterinary
surgeon to attend upon him ; and when the butcher came for fat sheep
they were driven out of the field for him while he waited with his dog
on the roa4,
The Yorkshire Show. 279
fame, who won his first Royal prize at Leeds with
one of twin bulls ; and Stephenson, of Fourstones, a
" well kent" man on the border. There is quite an
excited buzz of conversation, as Booth's roan bull,
Commander-in-Chief, has just been led out of the
ring with only the second prize ribbons, while Knight
of Knowlrnere, who was second to him at Leicester,
takes the first. The decision falls upon the shorthorn
men like a rocket upon the Life Guards of King
Theodore, and they know not what to make of it. It
goes round that Jamie " shot him down" the moment
the roan entered the ring, and went stoutly for the
white. You hear the decision hotly discussed, not
only at the ring side, but by lovers of shorthorns of
both sexes, who sit hard by on inverted pails and
bundles o f hay.
If Mr. Booth loses with Commander-in-Chief, there
is balm in Gilead with Lady Fragrant, a sweet cow
with a " picture head," as they phrase it, and his two
heifers, Lady Gaiety and Patricia, head the yearling
class. Neither of the pair had a chance with Lady
Fragrant for the Female Winner's Cup, and one walk
round the ring decides that Mr. Foljambe's bull-calf,
Knight of the Crescent, beats Knight of Knowlmere
and all his seniors when the males are on their trial.
The proud little red is hardJy in the ring an instant, and
Veni, vidi y vici is the word to-day. The last decision
is in the Extra Stock Classes, where a three-year-old
shorthorn ox has nothing to meet but Zelica, a little
half Brahmin cow. The first ribbons are handed to
the leader of the latter by mistake, but Mr. Charles
Howard dashes forward, with quite a melodramatic
start, and rescues them from such profanation.
Mr. Borton has it all his own way in Leicesters. For
more than twenty years he has held his place as the
Yorkshire champion, and true to the county nomen
clature, Blair Athol is his great ram. Southdowns
do not take in Yorkshire, and as there was no entry,
2 : o Saddle and Sir lain.
the Society saved their 55/. Lincolns and Cot?wo!ds
came, and among the latter " Mr. Tombs's big sheep,"
but the Ridings have no solid resting-place for the
sole of their feet. They have used the former on the
Wolds, but they did not thrive, and one Leicester
patriarch had a flying sarcasm at their expense, that
if three came in a cart, and all stood with their heads
on one side, they would infallibly upset it. The sheep
rival to the half Brahmin was one from the coasts of
Galilee, with a tail of I2lbs. weight, and described on
its card as " a combination of fat and marrow.
Duckering, Sagar, Dyson, Eden, and all the fami-
liar names are to be found among the pig-winners,
but the judges complain of a lack of hair. It is
a more popular part of the show than the sheep,
but still it is at the horse-ring that the most earnest
gazers are found. Mr. Burbidge, " Jack Skip-
worth," and Mr. Garfit from Cheshire, make up the
bench. The blood sires come in first, and for the
third year in succession the big-boned Angelus takes
the first rosette. He is the property of Sir George
Cholmley, the oldest horse breeder in Yorkshire, and
from a Nutwith dam of Lord Exeter's, which was pur-
chased as a draft-mare at Doncaster. King Brian is
second, and the neat, compact Wyndham, from Raw-
cliffe paddocks, to whom not a few, who remember
how he " came to the rescue " in his racing days, hold
most tenaciously, gets no mention among the ten.
Among the coachers we look in vain for the old Cleve-
land bays, such as Howdenshire loved, and w r hich once
drew the heavy family chariot at six miles an hour.
They have been gradually crossed up with blood sires,
so that if any foal from a Cleveland mare falls smarter
than usual, the breeder can cut its tail, and call it a
hunter. In fact, a horse which a few years since was
almost the champion of the hunting classes all over
England, began his show life in a class for young coach
horses. The winner on this day looked as if he had
The Yorkshire Shaw. 281
an extra cross of blood in him, and won easily enough.
Two blacks, sire and son, the latter rejoicing in the
name of Sir Edwin Landseer, headed the roadster
class. There was only three years between them, and
the sire had lost an eye, but still the six-year-old was
fairly beaten. Trotting sires' conductors are generally
" a set of wild Indiains,"* and show their horses" paces
with remarkably jealous zest. They trot them with a
long rein, and use words in an almost unknown tongue,
and they will watch half a market-day for a rival,
whose owner has been ** bouncing ** in his advertise-
ment, so as to lay their horse alongside of his pet,
when he is giving him a sly trot, and thus make him
eat or prove his words. Each medal recording a fresh
victory is attached to a conquerors neck collar, and
one horse which came to Wetherby, and " took no-
thing by his motion,"" wore a breeching of medals as
well, and looked more like a charger of the middle
ages than a trotter of the nineteenth century.
The young hunters had not many among them
which would ** pass the college." One class was so
afflicted with curbs and bog spavins, that when at
last three were left in, it was proposed to set them
aside, and go on with the next class, while Professor
Spooner decided which was least unsound. One of
the judges said, with quite an injured air, "I like one
of the five we've put aside best, but then his bog
spavins aren't of a size." Sir George Cholmley and
his chestnuts have a rare time of it, and Bob Brignall,
the "first cross-country jock" to the stable, shows
them capitally in " black waistcoats and pants." Many
look at the grand chestnut three-year-old Don Juan,
and talk of cups in store. The riders are a study of
themselves. One of them wears a black and yellow
jockey cap, and is saluted with, "Near, Fordham*
wakeherup!* as he tears round on his pony. An-
other in a grey cap looks so stolid over it, and sits so
artistically (in his own eyes), that the judges cannot
282 Saddle and Sirloin.
resist sending him a strong gallop three times round
for the pure enjoyment of the thing. He is so dread-
fully in earnest during the performance, that he does
not see them laughing, and his look of disgust when
he is put among the knock-outs at its conclusion, is
like the mien of the warror in the song, at once " stern
and high." Bob Mulcaster is a great artiste both with
the leading rein and in the saddle, and there is quite a
buzz of delight when he leads out old Crafty, " the
heroine of a hundred fights," as the local papers
delight to call her, and sends her along with her thin
tail extended, like the old beauty that she is. We
have seen fat men of eighteen stone strip to their work
in obedience to the call all round the ring : " Now,
Franky, man, it's thy turn. Thodse a bit too fat for't
job. Now, mettle up ! " And away went Franky, top
heavy, and " bad on thy pins" only to receive the
consolation " thoo maks a varra poor tew of it" There
was a man of Mr. George Holmes's who had the knee
in curb-chain action to such perfection, that he could
teach his master's horses to be steppers. He did it in
the ring with a face as calm as if he were carved from
stone, while the laughter rung as it did in the Adelphi
when Wright's voice was heard at the right or left
wing. The boys made quite a Sir Roger de Coverley
gallop of it on their ponies, before their ponies were
settled ; and a grey trotted in such style, that a hunt-
ing baronet declared that at last he had found the
cover hack he had been seeking all his life.
The hunters from three year old and upwards
are, after all, the cream of the thing. Lady Derwent,
the queen of the season, had a long contest with Bor-
derer and another, and once more the white rosette
was pinned on to her bridle. She is a beautiful mare
with a dish head, which she owes to her sire Codring-
ton, a son of Womersley, whom Sir Tatton Skyes had
for a season. He had given her so much quality that
scarcely any one suspected that she had only one cross
The Yorkshire Hound Show. 283
of blood in her. Sprig of Shillelah, Iris, Mountain Dew,
and Cavendish, two bays, and two dark browns are in
the ring nearly three-quarters of an hour before the
judges can make up their minds. At last the battle
waxed hot between Mountain Dew and Iris, and the
saddles were ordered off. Then they were re-saddled,
and the judges mounted them for some scenes in the
circus, and iris, a horse of tremendous power, and the
one upon which Mr. Thomson is painted by Sir
Francis Grant, gained the day. The hunter first prize
winners are put together for the cup, and Lady Der-
went has no chance with Iris, who seems to gallop
everything down, and is ridden specially by the head
groom, John Pye, who " sends him out " to perfection.
Mr. Thomson looks on at the side of the rails, and
adjourns in due time to the Jewel House, to take his
choice of* a cup.
The hound show was held in a .quiet spot in the
park, just under the chain of woodlands which flank
the grange. " The Bramham Moor and two-and-
twenty couple " is the hunting toast in these parts,
and their name is one of the thirteen above the
hound cages. Sixteen or seventeen huntsmen and
whips from England and Scotland are there in scarlet,
awaiting their turn to bring their lots on to the flags.
Only one wears a cap, and hats and "pudding basons"
are all the go. There was an old Yorkshire huntsman,
Will Carter, who never could be pursuaded into any-
thing but a felt wideawake even in the field, and
placed a horn under the same ban. " Hard-riding
Ben " from Lord Middleton's is there, but we miss old
Tom Sebright, who fought many a good round with
him at Redcar, Yarm, and Guisborough, in those plea-
sant summer days when the Cleveland Society held
the lead, and gave such an impetus to agricultural
meetings. John Walker, Harry Ayris, Charles Payne,
Jack Goddard, Jack Morgan, and other celebrities do
not show ; but Peter Collisson, a worthy successor to
284 Saddle and Sirloin.
Joe Maiden over Cheshire, looks on from the stand
benches. Old Will Danby is the patriarch of the day,
and wears his 75 summers as lightly as a flower.
Will was at hunting for just fifty seasons, and then,
in his expressive words, " he lapped it up." He is
great in dates, and if you ask him the cause of his
vigorous old age, you hear that he has tasted nothing
stronger than raspberry vinegar for seven-and-forty
years. He " goes into less room" than he did, and in
his neat black coat and waistcoat, white cravat, and
drab breeches and gaiters, he looks his profession to
the life. " I can sleep like a man, and eat any mortal
thing," and " I never wore trousers in my life, and I
never will," is his general sketch of himself. In this
respect he differs from his successor in the York and
Ainsty, who comes to the fete in grey trousers, and
gets well joked about them, as he thrice walks up for
a prize.
Thirteen kennels contend, but the prizes fall to
the lot of four, and every county save Yorkshire and
Linconshire is out of it. Lord Kesteven may well
be in a high flow of spirits, and people may well
wonder how he has achieved in six seasons what
others cannot in a lifetime. There, too, on the front
bench sit a bevy of fox-hunting peers Hawke,
Macclesfield, Middleton, and Wenlock. Sir Charles
Slingsby watches the brilliant fortunes -of the Nelson
and Comedy litter, and Mr. Thomson of " the
Pitchley," as Mr. Bright once called it in the House,
to the inextinguishable merriment of the landed
interest, vibrates between the front benches and the
horse ring. Mr. Hall of the Holderness rides up with
a geranium in his button-hole, and " looking as hard
as stub nails," on Captain Gunter's grey Crimean
Arab, takes his part in the fun. The hunting-field
has no gamer or more battered hero, but he jests at
his scars ; and if his horse does roll over him and
squeeze the breath out, his first impulse, when the
yNI
The Yorkshire Hound Show
lungs fill, is to ask to be helped on again. " John o'
the Bedale," and nearly every other Yorkshire master,
are on the back benches ; but we miss the form of Mr.
Foljambe, in his green coat, leaning on Mr. Parry of
the Puckeridge, and of Captain Percy Williams. Jack
Parker of the Sinnington, the very Zekiel Homespun
of huntsmen, is not there to tell of the feats of his
trencher-fed dogs ; and that Tommiad of fox-hunting
centaurs, Tom Smith, Tom Hodgson with his big
white hat and bigger white cravat and Tom Sebright,
are all in their graves. There are twenty-six couple
in the entered hound classes, and Lord Kesteven wins
them both. His lordship's have quality for ever ;
but they are too full of flesh. Still, with Foreman
and Primate to help in one class, and Artful, Rally,
and Stately in the other, they have it una voce.
Four of Stately's stock come with her, and one of
them, Seaman, who won at Thirsk the year before, is
among the winning lot. Yarborough Nelson a use-
ful, bony dog, but rather lacking fashion in his neck
and colour, and still holding the line as well as ever in
his ninth season wins the Stallion Hound Prize.
The rain, which has prophesied of itself through
divers thunderpeals, comes at last, rolling up the
valley of the Wharfe before we are half done ; and
the huntsmen cage themselves up with their hounds
till this happy harbinger of cub-hunting and drought-
deliverance passes briskly by. There is a tent spread
with dinner for the huntsmen when all is over, but
nothing can tempt old Will Danby under canvas ;
either he thinks that he will be required to make an
oration or to drink something, so he stoutly refuses to
enter, and marches about in front of the cages, with a
first- whip's wife, keeping the hounds in order. They
are quiet enough till the Tallyhos begin in the tent
after Mr. Fox's speech, and then they send up an
answering cheer. Some simple-minded visitors don't
understand these sounds. At York, we met two
286 Saddle and Sirloin.
women running violently towards the spot from
whence they proceeded " Dearie me ! Mary Ann,
let's gan and see. Somebody's murdering somebody.
Come along, lass !" Jack Backhouse's speech has
accompaniments which may well make the fox cubs
tremble in their pads. The toast was the " Unsuc-
cessful Candidates," and Jack announces himself as
" Yorkshire Jack." First he tells how, when he and
his friend Ben Morgan are " ligging a long way fra
yam," they don't " lap it up," but they draw for a
second fox. Leaving the past, he dashes boldly into
the future ; and referring to the contests of the day,
he says, " I'll get a prize ye now I've been what they
call ' recommended.' "* It was a great speech. Mr.
Hall can hardly believe in such eloquence on the part
of Jack, when it reaches his ears later in the day, but
he asks a huntsman or two, and they are unanimous
in their testimony. The scarlets linger near the
hunters for the rest of the afternoon, but by the
morrow's morn they are far away. On Friday, the
sixpenny crowd are in at one o'clock, and by four,
man and beast are on the move homeward. Some
* No one knows that Jack was " recommended," as he states ; but
at Eeverley, in 1869. he fulfilled his prophecy, and took a 5/. prize and
a 2/. gratuity for being second in the dog puppy class with Leader.
The Bishop of Oxford, who was staying with Mr. Sykes, M.P., and
took his seat with his peers on the M. F. H. bench, could not resist the
beaming looks of his brother Yorkshiremen ; and the oration which
Jack delivered in honour of Leader, first holding him by the head and
then by the stern, when the dog tried to cut it, was one which the
eloquent prelate will not forget. Soon after this Jack was so struck
with the tie of one of his brother huntsmen, that he insisted that it
was starched and ironed on him, and wouldn't believe in "one effort"
" Nowt of the sort." Old Will Danby came over once more to the
county where he and Mr. Tom Hodgson performed such prodigies
among the foxes ; and when a photographer placed the huntsmen and
judges in a group, Mr. Tom Parrington took the modest old fellow by
the collar, and compelled him by "gentle violence" to come on to the
flags. Mr. Hall was reminding him of the Lammas Stream business
when Will got over on a I5/. grey, and he himself got "stabled between
banks" on a 4oo-guinea brown.
Farnley Hall. 287
lead the foal and dam, or ride the stallions, with the
carpet-bag and sheets folded up in front of them.
The owner of Lady Derwent is of this mind. The
mare is in a white hood and sheet, and wears a collar
studded with pieces of round pasteboard on her neck,
each containing the printed record of a victory. He
rides her through Wetherby in state, and we leave
her standing in her groom's hands waiting to be
trucked, with a bunch of white ribbons flying from
her head, big enough for an army of brides.
" The Vale of the Wharfe is adorned with elegant
mansions, and the views obtained from neighbouring
elevations are at once noble and commanding." So
says a Yorkshire Directory, and so old Coates must
have thought from his heart, as laden with weighty
calf-records, and still weightier bull data, beginning
from Abelard, that descendant of " Booth's lame"
and " Booth's old white" bulls, he gained the top of
the wooden ridge of Sheven. Then patting his white
mare's neck, he descended on his winding road to the
homestead at Greenholme, which lay stretched, west-
ward of the litle market town of Otley, like a land of
shorthorn promise beneath. It was here that " The
Improved Durham Breed" found a home in those
dreary hopeless times which followed upon the Comet
mania and the war, when 30 guineas a season was a
great bull hire, and 80 guineas a marvellous purchase.
Mr. Whitaker never bated one jot of heart or hope,
and "the quiet afternoons at Greenholme" have
borne their rich fruit for shorthorn breeders at last.
Without his earnest aid, Coates would never have
ventured to bring out the first volume of the Herd-
Book in 1822, when nothing but " Corn and
Currency " was on every English tongue, and
agrarian outrage and hunger were raging across the
channel. It was "printed by W. Walker, at the
Wharf edale Stanhope Press, top of the market-place,
Otley ;" and a manuscript copy of it is still preserved,
288 Saddle and Sirloin.
written out in Mr. Whitaker's own neat hand, and
with his red ink annotations, which now almost
need a microscope to decipher. It would seem as if
he had walked about for years with the images of
every great cow or bull firmly fixed in his retina.
Of Duchess First he merely says " fair ;" of Duchess
Second "droops;" while Hubback comes in among
other criticisms for "flank and twist wonderful,
shoulders rather upright' 1 Three-fourths of the
original list of subscribers have gone to their rest ;
and so too, within the last twelve years has the
patriarchal James Ward, R.A., who condescended to
draw Maria and Miranda on stone for the work, and
speculated on the coming fortunes of a certain young
self-taught mail-driver, Herring of Doncaster, who had
also borne a hand and sketched the heifer "Daffodil in
two positions." A few years later, Mr. Strafford, after-
wards editor of the Herd Book, then a mere lad of 15,
fresh from his school studies of the Durham Ox and
Coates's Driffield Cow, was sent over to paint Charles
(878) for the second volume, and like Culshaw, whose
boyish embassy to the same spot has still to be told, he
dates his chief Shorthorn impressions from that weary
journey, two-thirds on foot, and a third in the carrier's
cart. In 1844, after the death of Coates junior, he
took up the Herd Book with Volume 6th, and has
now brought it up to the i8th, besides revising and
reprinting the first five volumes of the series. No man
ever threw more energy into a great task, or made
such a succession of brilliant sale averages as he has
done for twenty years past. Tim Metcalfe, the herds-
man, was also a remarkable character in the Green-
holme drama. He " knew 'em when he saw 'em' as well
as any man, but as he never knew his alphabet, he
invariably clenched the matter with, " Give me t' pedi-
gree, and Fit tak it home t'it maister'' No wonder
then that the taste for Shorthorns should have
gradually spread along the Wharfe, and not only
Farnley Hall. 289
brought new tenants to browse in the pastures of Farn-
ley, Broughton, and Denton Park, but tempted the
Duchess tribe to renew their strength in later years
near Wetherby.*'
Farnley Hall, which was originally built in the time
* Mr. Fawkes's career as a breeder of shorthorns may be said to
have begun in earnest with Mr. Whitaker's stock. His first purchase
was Norfolk (2377), a grand roan bull by Second Hubback, and then
such a favourite of Mr. Bates's, that he sent six heifers from Kirk-
levington expressly to be served by him. One of them was " my best
Duchess" 33rd, the great grandam of Grand Duke ; another, Blanche
by Belvedere, from whom Roan Duchess 2nd is in direct descent ; and
a third founded the Waterloos of Aylesby and Springfield fame.
Norfolk himself was from Nonpareil by Magnet, rather a gaudy cow,
from Mr. Barker of East Layton's sale, where Sir Charles Knightley
purchased Rosy and Primrose, which, along with Rufus and Little John
of Mr. Arbuthnot's breeding, virtually founded the Fawsley herd. In
1834, Mr. Whitaker bought Verbena (45 guineas) and the grand
Medora (40 guineas), both as heifer calves, at Mr. Richard Booth's
Studley sale, and bred nine calves from the latter. In the previous
year Mr. Whitaker sold off his herd, and again bought about three
dozen well bred cows, for the use of his work people at the Burley
mills. Mr. Fawkes was so much struck with the looks of some of
them, that he arranged with his neighbour to allow him to select
twenty for service principally by Norfolk. The compact was to be in
force for three years, and 10 guineas was to be paid for each of them,
doublets or not, at the expiration of a week, provided it was not a
black-nose, and had no symptoms of unsoundness. Hence, sixty were
transferred during that period from Greenholme to Farnley, and the
first ten bull-calves by Norfolk averaged 100 guineas each. The very
first bull-calf that was dropped received the title of Sir Thomas Fairfax,
(who won at the Bristol Royal, and twice at the Yorkshire Society) ;
and the Ohio Company offered 400 guineas for Norfolk in vain on that
trip, when, but for Mr. Whitaker's faint praise, they would have
carried off Duchess 34th in calf with the Duke of Northumberland.
However, they took away the Duke of York (1941) for 150 guineas,
who had been sold as a calf for 14 guineas at Mr. Whitaker's sale the
year before, and bought some lots at the Studley sale as well. When
he was rising four, 250 guineas was accepted for Sir Thomas Fairfax,
and he departed to Brawith, leaving eight-and-twenty " Fair"-named
calves behind. Old Fairy Tale long remained to testify to this beauti-
ful favourite, and she bravely supported his line with fourteen calves
since 1842. Medora had been helping meanwhile to carry on the
Norfolks, thrice from the old bull direct, and thrice from Sir Thomas
Fairfax, and when the three years' lease of Mr. Whitaker's cows had
expired, the Farnley herd mainly consisted of some thirty two-year-ol4
heifers.
U
290 Saddle and Sirloin.
of Elizabeth, was added on to about a hundred years
ago, and stands on a rising ground, a mile and a half
to the north-east of Otley. The road winds up through
the well-wooded park, of a hundred and forty acres,
and so along an avenue thickly lined with laurels,
among which " the merry brown hares come leaping,"
and the pheasants feed in troops, as if the crack of a
Manton was a sound unknown in Wharfedale. A road
to the right, just before we reach the quaint old iron
gates, leads across a bridge, and past the aviary to the
farmyard buildings, part of which once composed the
ancient kennels, from which Mr. Fawkes in his
younger days was wont to ride forth at the head of
his harriers. All the cattle stand on wood spars in
old-fashioned comfortable boxes. Robinson Crusoe,
a bull on the shortest leg, and with the deepest bosom
we ever saw, was then the principal tenant of the
bull paddock, but we heard of Milton and his sire
Rockingham, who owned no master but a certain dog
after his ring had been torn out of his nose. Laudable
was a good bull, and Bridegroom's three sons,
Sir Edmund Lyons, John O'Groat, and General
Bosquet were all Royal winners like himself. " The
General" was not so neat, but more massive and
mossy-haired than Sir Edmund Lyons, and his son
Bon Gargon also kept up the Farnley charter, and
beat Royal Butterfly as a calf at Chester. Mr. Fawkes
was very lucky with three, but sold the fourth, John
O'Groat for a good sum. Bull-breeding has always
been his forte, and since those days he has won first
prizes with Friar Tuck and his own brother Friar
Bacon at Plymouth Royal in '65. At Newcastle
Royal he took a first with Marquis, and at Manchester
Royal the same honours with Lord Isabeau. It is
his rule only to show young bulls. He has always
tried for roans, and it is his experience that white
upon red is more likely to produce them than red
upon white.
The Pig Show at Keighley. 291
It was not, after all, an unnatural transition from
calves with the martial and political names without,
to the suits of ancient armour and the old rallying
room of the great Yorkshire Orange party. Sir
Thomas Fairfax, too, was reflected through his sword
and- his candlesticks, which hung, with Oliver Crom-
well's hat, in the rich oak-panelled entrance. There,
however, the chain of connexion with the herd ceased.
Not one bull stirred up the remembrance of its Royal
triumphs on canvas ; and we felt as one green silk
curtain after another was drawn aside by the hand of
our host, that there must be a deep truth in the words
of the author of Hora Subseciva when he spoke of the
six great sights of his life, and classed the Pyrenees,
the Venus of Melos, Titian's Entombment, and Paul
Veronese's Cain with his wife and child, and The
Rhine under a Midnight Thunderstorm at Coblentz,
with the wondrous Turners at Farnley Hall.
CHAPTER XI.
" Mrs. Marcet admired his hams. ' Oh !' said he, ' our hams are the
only true hams ; yours are only Shems or Japhets.' "
Sydney Smith's Life.
The Pig Show at Keighley Celebrating a Victory Mr. Wainman's
Pigs Pig Scenes Abroad Mr. Waterton at Home Mr. Gully,
"The Squire," and Mr. Tom Hodgson Doncaster Moor Purity's
Five Heats "Martingale."
ABIT of good Pig- Racing," said a country philo-
sopher to us, " is worth all your horse-running
business. It's twice the fun sure-ly, and nobbut one
hundredth part of the expense. It taks up a yale
afternoon, and t'Leger don't tak four minnits." It
would have been hopeless to meet such an argument,
especially when propounded by a brawny mason in
U 2
292 Saddle and Sirloin.
his Sunday best, with unkempt hair, and collars up to
his cheek-bones, and a visage absolutely beaming with
the proud recollection of how " old sow wan." The
turfite, who feebly suggested that he didn't see the
great difference, as an owner could now eat his horse
if he didn't run well, was at once suspected of " chaff-
ing" (which countrymen hate of all things), and re-
ceived a broadside in unshackled Doric, such as our
" steel pen" whatever Colonel Penn's might do
would despair of reproducing. The fact is, that pig
racing, alias pig showing, is a very solemn British in-
stitution. Go into a local agricultural show in Lan-
cashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire, and the
vast majority of the rustics never get beyond the pigs,
the poultry, and the washing machines. Booth and
Bates cows are wholly lost on them, and the hunters
are a drug in their eyes, except when they are " asked
a question" over the hurdles.
No town in those vast hives of industry is more de-
voted to its agricultural show thac Keighley. It is the
high festival of the year, and on one occasion every
window was illuminated. Choice quintets from the
Branches, Towneley, and Warlaby herds have met for
the cup in its ring. Sheep-dogs and rabbits are not
kept back from honour, and the owner of the donkey
in the best condition is rewarded with a sovereign.
The " neddies" step out very differently since this
stimulus was applied, when they
" Gang for the coals i' the morning,"
and " prods" will soon be a thing of the past. Still,
Keighley reserves its highest sympathies for the pig,
and 3<D/. is given in " labouring men's classes" alone.
For this, forty to fifty pigs of about 3OO/. value, and
nearly all of the middle breed, compete. The pig is
the very Apis of the locality. At dinner-time the
men devote half-an-hour rigidly to the stye. They
sit and scratch their grunting idols if it is wet ; they
The Pig Show at Keighley. 293
walk them out if it is fine ; and they seldom throw
away the soap-suds on Saturday night till they have
been put to do double duty. The Society keeps a
special van, which it lets out at a shilling a ride for
conveyance to and from the show-ground, &c., and
the best rug or blanket in the house is freely given up
for the candidate pig, if the day happens to be cold.
A Court of Error, quite as learned as the bench in
swine points, watch all round the ring ; and it is a
fearful moment when the cup entries have been called
out, and all save two or three " toppers" are put
back. The white, blue, pink, or green (for " extra")
rosettes are placed that night with as much pride over
the mantelpiece, as a Knight of the Garter's banner
above his Windsor stall.
" Drunken Barnaby," in his Northern Tour, spoke
of the inhabitants of Keighley as
" Jovial, jocund, jolly bowlers,
As if they were the world's controllers ;"
and they certainly keep up the character right
royally on their August show-day. There are two
grand stands, and three thousand people in them, or
looking on below, when the pigs come out for the
Challenge Cup, and 5OO/. has been taken at the gates.
Carriage loads of visitors are driven off to lunch in
the town, like tallies of voters going up to poll.
There is venison from Bolton Park, ling-fed Lonk
nearly equal to it in shade and flavour, and grouse
from every moor in the West Riding. Regalias serve
as toothpicks, and Roederer and Clicquot don't spoil
in ice. The volunteer tent was used on one occasion
for a bazaar, and, as a wind-up, pug-dogs and " chintz-
cats" were raffled for. Among the most curious com-
ponents of that throng are the " Cowan Headers,"
who for many years bore the name of " the moon-
rakers," owing to a rooted belief that one of them
mistook the moon's reflection for a cheese, and tried
294 Saddle and Sirloin.
to rake it out of a mill-dam. They are rather shy ;
and at their feasts lads dance with lads, and lasses
with lasses during the early part of the evening.
Later on, however, Mr. Spurgeon, who so much
approves of the other arrangement, would decline to
be M.C. The Haworth and Wath Valley one-tram
line puzzled them sorely. At last one of their phi-
losophers gave the company his mind pretty sharply
upon the point : " Did they think he was syke a fule
as pay to gan and hev to walk back you've nobbut
line one way."
Mr. Tuley, a Keighley weaver, first inoculated the
locality with high art pig-feeding. He showed at
The Royal, and called his cottage " Matchless House,"
after his pet prize sow of the large breed. No small
portion of the eighteen shillings a week, which he and
his wife earned at the loom, were spent in oatmeal
for his pigs ; and Mrs. Tuley once " shaved a pig for
our maister," when the judges preferred them without
hair. He was a great man for pig pedigrees, and
he could generally get 5/. for the large sort at two
months.
The enthusiasm for pig-showing also rages at
Leeds, but does not take quite such a legitimate
form. The Leeds system is in fact rather pig-buying
than pig-breeding. Some of the owners keep public-
houses, where people meet, not to troll (as we have
known rustics to do for nearly an hour over their ale)
that dreary Wiltshire ditty :
" Heigho ! my dinner, oh !
Bacon and potatoes, oh !"
but to hear at the bar the result of the summer " pig
races" by telegram, and to make sows and boars the
theme of their discourse. Professor Simonds and his
tooth-screw are names of dread, and when friends do
begin to let out confidentially over the ale, there are
some very awkward stories of pigs borrowed and rules
Celebrating a Pig Victory. 295
defied. One of their great legitimate victories was
when they " walked into Wainman" and Carhead
Duchess, with Lady Havelock at Chester. The news
was telegraphed to Leeds, and the whole of the
owner's family circle arrived on the Roodee next day.
The gude wife was especially communicative, and
said that there was " some sense in those judges," and
that " Tom would niver have sent her but for me."
They must have pretty well spent the io/. prize over
the trip, and at night we met them in an inn drinking
ginger-beer and giving away oranges in the gladness
of their hearts. "The missus" had a large basket of
them on her knee, and pressed them after her hearty
Yorkshire way on everyone, in honour of the event.
" There, maister, you're welcome if you'il ha' yen
old sow's wan." The pair were pretty equal, but
Mr. Fisher had four more shyes at her, and won the
odd trick.
The conductress of Lady Kate was quite as en-
thusiastic as the Leeds dame. She rode up and down
the country in the railway truck with " the lady" and
her litter (exciting thereby the deepest devotion on
the part of the porters), and sold her infant charges at
5/. apiece. That summer she and Lady Kate gathered
many a rosette in Yorkshire and Lancashire ; and
she delighted to sit by her sow, and to reckon up on
her fingers its thirteen crosses from the Chineze.
This was the poor girl's only summer in the show-
yards. The trip had been undertaken to divert her
mind from her fate, as she died soon after from cancer
of the breast.
Some of the rich Manchester men are also rather
fond of the sport, and do not scruple to play off prac-
tical jokes on each other. One of them, who was not
very sure that his pigs would win, overtook his friend's
lot on the road. " You may turn back," he said to the
swineherd ; " your master's dead." He had there-
fore the show pretty well to himself. His friend did
296 Saddle and Sirloin.
not upbraid him when they met on 'Change, but he
bided his time. As Mr. Disraeli observes, " the
opportunity came at last, as everything does in this
world, if men are firm and calm." Finding his friend's
pigs in their crates at a station, bound to a local
show, and no one with them, the " dead" man changed
the directions and despatched them to York ; and
the owner soon guessed the reason of their non-
appearance.
Mr. Wainman of Carhead, in the Keighley district,
had the most remarkable career as a breeder and
shower of pigs during the twelve years he was at it.
He took very little interest in the pursuit himself;
and the whole management devolved on his steward,
Mr. John Fisher, as great a genius among pigs as Mr.
Culshaw, the Towneley " Talleyrand of trainers" is
among Shorthorns, or the late George Newton, of Mr.
Sanday's showing-days, amongst Leicesters. No pigs
to speak of were kept at Carhead until 1853, when
Mr. Fisher bought some of the Tuley sort, and crossed
them with another purchase, Mr. Swan's Midas. It
is not, however, our intention to go into particulars of
crosses, or to tell how Miss Emily, the first high pur-
chase, was the principal mould in which the middle
breed were cast and quickened. The composition
succeeded best by the union of a large sow and a
small boar ; and the Carhead average has generally
been about 34 stone of I4lbs. at twelve months for the
large breed, 30 stone for the middle, and 25 stone for
the small. Midas was more adapted for store pur-
poses than the show-yard. Still, at Ripon, Mr. " Val
Barford" fought hard to place him first, and kept on
saying to his brother judges, " Look at his gammons,
gentlemen !" However, if they did look, they " didn't
see it," and he got the blue instead of the white
rosette. A cottier bought him at last, and sold one
of his flitches to a Bradford provision merchant. Part
of it found its way to the kitchen of a municipal dig-
Mr. Wainmans Pigs. 297
nitary ; but the fumes were all over the house when
the cook tried to toast a rasher for the parlour. The
dealer being sarcastically apprised of its strength
under fire, gave away the rest of the flitch to the
children on " Collop Monday ;" and thus freed him-
self for life from all " Pray ye a collop" levies, as even
those strong-stomached innocents would " have no
more of that old horse." The cottier kept very dark
as to what he did with the other flitch and the hams.
All he would say was, that he " had fettled somebody
with them," and that he " had made mony a waur
bargain than that." In truth, an aged boar should be
buried with all the honours, and turn, like " Imperial
Caesar," to clay, and not to bacon.
The first large-breed sow at Carhead was bought by
mere chance in Lancashire. A working-man turned
her out of a stye for a mid-day run into a croft near
Colne, and Mr. Fisher (who won the Beverley Cup on
Falcon as a boy, and was second horseman for ten
seasons to Mr. Hall of the Holderness) chancing to
ride past, was so delighted with her symmetry and
action, that he drew rein, and bought her for 8/. 2s. 6d.
The "uncontrollable impulse" was a correct one,
as she became the dam of Chelmsford Duchess, the
first Carhead winner at the Royal, as well as the Salis-
bury Boar and Carhead Duchess. Chelmsford
Duchess was sold for 4O/. to the French Government,
and Yorkshire Prioress went to Salisbury the next
July. She turned newt. 2qrs. 2/lbs. at Kildwick
station, when she was put on the rail in Yorkshire.
During the journey water was thrown upon her, and
she would stand up and drink, whereas Lady Airedale
never drank on her travels in the hottest weather, and
seemed to sulk at the sight of water, although she
would eat for ever. The Salisbury clock struck ten
when the London cattle special cleared the great
chalk cutting, and arrived at the station, where a
goodly multitude awaited it. "Dick" and "Kit,"
298 Saddle and Sirloin.
who were then Mr. Fisher's gentlemen-at-arms, drew
the crate, with Yorkshire Prioress in it, off the truck,
and distinctly remembered hearing the sow rise on to
her feet. She was only left for eight or ten minutes
while the other pigs and the luggage were looked up,
but she was never seen alive again. One theory was
that she had been suffocated by the crowd, but Mr.
Fisher considered that it had been done purposely
with a little chloroform, which w r ould tell almost in-
stantaneously on so fat a subject. Almost before he
could believe she was dead, a lot of rough fellows
showed an immense anxiety to purchase the carcase.
Her throat was cut, and after a good deal of chaffer-
ing, a bargain was struck at ?/. In the course of the
week he espied some of the most talkative vendees
presiding over a bread and fat bacon counter in a tent,
and felt more sure than ever that he had a key to the
sow's mysterious fate. " Dick" was inconsolable, and
wished to return at once to his native vale, but the
sale of the Carhead Duchess litter insensibly revived
him, and enabled him to bear up under the dispensa-
tion. And well it might, as they were going off by
10 guineas and 12 guineas apiece. One noble lord
stood cheapening a pair, while the agent of another
kept stirring the pets of his fancy on to their legs.
They were pigged on April I2th, and the eleven which
went to Salisbury cleared n6/. los.
The best of them, Sir Roger de Coverley, to whom
the Carhead large breed owed so much, both for good
and very large litters, was kept at home, and after
winning sixteen prizes, was sold to the Russian
Government at three years old for 2O/ M and got suffo-
cated on the road. The Golden Dream strain was not
so big as the Chelmsford Duchess one, but the old
sow was a wonder of fertility, and had 153 pigs at
thirteen litters ; while her daughter, Golden Days, had
three litters of eleven each, and won nine prizes before
she touched twenty-two months. Lord of the Was-
Mr. Wainmans Pigs. 299
sail, the first middle breed boar that ever took a Royal
prize, had a coat of hair eight and a half inches long,
and Mr. Wainman, who is a very keen fisher both on
the Wharfe and the Spey, was wont to dress his flies
with it. He was so proud of it, that he kept a per-
petual sample of this porcine Esau in his pocket-book.
If " Wassail's" hair was the best, Fresh Hope beat
everything for bulk ; as when she was sold for 20
guineas and yielded up her hams to the slaughter, they
weighed 94lbs. each. Those who descended to view
these salted remains in the cellar, declared that but
for their being " nearly all real sandwich meat," they
might have pertained to a hippopotamus. For thick-
ness of hide, no pig came up to Carhead Duke. It
was found that it would only do for blacksmiths'
aprons ; but as it would not make three, and only cut
up to waste for two, it was converted into a partition
wall for a tap-room at Keighley. In that position it
is made the text of much sound pig doctrine, and is
always alluded to with the deepest respect.
Arch Trespasser was only beaten once, and ap-
peared at the Royal in three different characters. At
one year he was the small breed ; at two years old,
the middle, and at three years old, the large : and no
general or special demurrer was lodged. He died at
last of tumour in the chest, and was buried six feet
deep in the Carhead stack garth, with a silver " perfect
cure" ring in his nose. It has no legitimate hall mark,
seeing that Mr. Fisher invented it, and it will give the
Yorkshire archaeologists some trouble as to its date
and use, if a century hence they hold a picnic in Aire-
dale with their pickaxes, and invade this good boar's
barrow. One of his journeys was to. the Royal Irish
show at Clonmel, where he took the gold medal as
the best boar in all the classes. The Earl of Kim-
berley, the then Lord-Lieutenant, was looking at him
with his suite, when an outraged Paddy planted him-
self at his lordship's elbow, and said, " An ' sure if I
300 Saddle and Sirloin.
had been a judge, I'd not have given that pig a prize
at all, at all." " Don't bother yourself," retorted Mr.
Fisher, " you never will be a judge at all, at all ;" and
the critic retired without having the best of it. Irish
pig-leaders are most unremitting in their blundering
efforts to square the judges. " Give us a prize !" said
one, nudging a friend of ours as he entered the yard ;
" by my sowle, you'll know the pig again, anyhow ;
he's got a big scratch with a nail on his back."
The large breed of boars are very difficult to make
up for show. Smaller ones sleep more, but their big
brothers should live in solitude, as they hear and smell
each other, and are always on their legs champing.
Silverhair, from Mr. Unthank's (of Cumberland) sort,
crossed with King of the West, a Watson boar, began
the Carhead small breed, and Silverwing, their beau-
tiful daughter, showed the light offal and short head
of that " silver" strain to perfection. She won nearly
thirty prizes " off malt-dust and turnips ;" but she
went at last both in the loins and the muscles of her
hams, and became lumpy, as pigs will do when they
are brought out over and over again. King Cube, her
" constant pardner," as Mrs. Gamp observes, was also
by King of the West, and Mr. Wainman smoked many
a cigar over this beautiful pair, when he did not care
to look at anything else. Missing Link, Happy Link,
and the rest of the " Links," were of the middle breed,
and combined the size of the large breed with the
thriftiness and quality of the small, but there was no
keeping some of them within growth bounds. At
Lincoln, Mr. Torr would not allow that Missing Link
was of the small breed, and he placed her second. She
was afterwards the best middle-bred sow at Battersea,
and finally took the cup at Keighley, when she
weighed nearly forty stone.
Mr. Wainman's greatest victory was at the Wor-
cester Royal, where he won eight firsts and a second.
In this year (1863), the Carhead pigs attended 33
Mr. Wainmaris Pigs. 301
shows, and won 121 first prizes and 50 secords (many
of them "to their own stable"), making 464 1. los. be-
sides one silver cup, six silver medals, and one bronze.
Fresh Hope led the way with nineteen firsts and a
second, and King Cube backed her up wHi fifteen
and three. The last victory was at Birmingham in
1866, with a pen of five got by Fresh Fire, rxnd then
the whole were sold, Mr. Jacob Wilson going in for
Dream of Pretence and Golden Link.
Their show-season generally opened, at Acrrington,
in April, and lasted to the Leeds Fat Show. Big
Kit whose biceps muscle was a marvel to behold
and Little Kit were found everywhere from Edinburgh
to Exeter with the precious crates. Their heaviest
reverse was at Newport, on which they descended in
charge of four clippers, and had to strike their flag
without a prize or a mention, before "those Irish-
looking blacks and whites." Sometimes the army of
Wainman Whites would be off in two divisions com-
manded by " the Kits," and then Mr. Fisher would
meet them with the main body from Carhead, and
they would close their ranks for a grand descent on
the Yorkshire or the Highland Show. They very
seldom went to the Smithfield Club, but at Birming-
ham, in the halcyon days of pig prices, when a fox-
hunter boasted that he got three days a-week hunt-
ing out of two sows, Mr. Wainman has made I5/.
each for pigs out of a prize pen, under six months
old. The late Lord Berwick was the first to pay it,
and ten guineas to 12 guineas was by no means un-
usual. French buyers always fought out the point of
"No glnney ! No ginney ! Von pound /" and when the
bargain was struck, Mr. Fisher was generally seen
sketching in chalks the imperial fleur-de-lis of La Belle
France on his late charge's hams.
Nineteen young pigs, chaperoned by Silver Wing,
Silver Beard, Duke of York, Rival Duchess, and
Middle Link, went to the Hamburgh show in 1864.
302 Saddle and Sirloin.
The seniors, as a fitting reward for their excellent sea
legs, got pretty nearly all they could from a committee,
which attached more importance to gilt cards and
waterfalls than prizes ; but very few of the nineteen
recrossed the German Ocean. At Hamburgh, a crate
end came out with one of Mr. Bowly's Berkshires in it,
just as it was being hoisted over the side, and the sow
sank with a deep, sullen splash into the Elbe. For
nearly a quarter of an hour the German sailors stood
craning over the side of the vessel in mute expecta-
tion that the fresh pork would reappear, but poor
Fritz saw nothing but a few bubbles for his pains.
Yorkshire and Suffolk worked very amicably together,
and especially in one instance. A foreigner came up
to Mr. Fisher to buy the last of the Carhead lot.
" Ah ! I see de beautiful gentleman ; vot de prize
(price)?" "Fifteen guineas!" " Fifteen ginneys.
Ah ! dat ginnsy again. Yah ! Fifteen pound !" The
bargain had reached this stage, when the mistake as
to sex was explained. " Ah ! de beautiful lady ; if I
could buy de beautiful gentleman for de beautiful
lady, I would buy de beautiful lady." So Mr. Fisher
took him round to Mr. Crisp, and for 3<D/. he got " de
beautiful" pair. The price was paid in thalers of three
shillings each, and the two Kits carried them in a
basket slung upon a pole. There was no telling where
to keep them all day, so a hole was- dug in the pen,
and they were buried with a crate above them till the
Kits could resume their burden, and convert them into
a banker's draft. *
" Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage ;
Minds innocent and quiet take that for a hermitage. "
So sang the poet of the Royalists ; and Charles
Waterton by that mysterious and solitary worship of
* Yorkshire and Lancashire breeders generally run on the middle or
large breed, and fanciers on the small. Scotland and Ireland are all
for the large, and so are Australia, America, Prussia, Holland, Spain,
Mr. Waterton at Home. 303
animated nature, to which he had dedicated himself
from childhood to old age, proved the couplet true.
His lot brought with it no obligation to work for his
bread, and he became a mighty hunter with the Bads-
worth, when " Darlington's peer" was in his prime.
Sudden remorse seized him one day just before the
hunting season began. He felt that scampering after
foxes was " not life in earnest," and he longed to ex-
change the Tally-ho / and the Ware wheat ! for the
golden flash of the humming bird, the scream of the
parrot, and the deep toll of the campanero in the
forests of Brazils. A scarlet tempter in the person
of the Earl himself, met him a few miles from
London, and, jumping out of his chaise-and-four,
earnestly begged him to change his mind. Still, he
was not to be headed back, although, as he used to
and Germany ; and the Emperor of the French purchased large and
middle for three successive years. At one time Mr. Wainman bred
about 220 pigs a year, and sold about iooo/. worth. Until the cattle
plague came, there was a brisk trade ; but the regulations interfered
and closed the English and Irish markets. In England the pigs were
perpetually stopped at stations, owing to some informality, real or sup-
posed, and, to save further expense, the butchers got them. Between
Carhead and Forfar five passes were required ; and, after such a severe
check, high prices became a dream of the past.
Mr. Wiley's small breed are remarkable for neatness and quality, and
he has always got very high prices for them. The old gentleman has
not been a very extensive shower ; but he very seldom missed Birming-
ham, and won constantly till there were more "black judges" on the
bench. Lord Wenlock's pigs are always very fat, and' his lordship has
never shown finer pens of the small breed than those at Battersea and
Leeds, when the young sows were declared by the judges to be " mag-
nificent," as in truth they were. Before Mr. Wainman came out, Mr.
Harrison, of Stockport, beat everyone with small, middle, and big.
Carhead caught him up at Canterbury and Leeds, and Mr. Wainman
bought his Worcester Duke at Battersea for 23/., and won thirteen
firsts and four seconds with him. Victor, one of Mr. Harrison's boars,
did Mr. Duckering a good deal of good, and corrected the coarseness
of the Lincolnshire sort. Mr. Duckering has sows chiefly for the
middle breed, but he has shown all three for some years, and beat Mr.
Wainman, at Plymouth, with his Dexter Chief, who was beautifully
got up. His two sons assist him, and they keep a coal staith at
Kirton Lindsey. Mr. Hickman, of Hull, was once an extensive
304 Saddle and Sirloin.
say as he stood before the Darlington H nnt picture
in his hall " those dark eyes fairly looked through you'.'
The spirit must have been still strong upon him, as,
when no convoy could be got for six weeks, he " stole
back" once more, and then, true to time, forsook
Womersley and Hemsworth Lane Ends, and dropped
down the Channel at last. His life from that point
is told in his Wanderings. As Sydney Smith wrote
of him, " the sun exhausted him by day, and the mos-
quitoes bit him by night ; but on went Mr. Charles
Waterton. * * He rejoices that he is the only man
there ; that he has left his species far away, and is at
last in the midst of his blessed baboons."
It seemed passing strange when, after a walk of
three or four miles from Wakefield, with railways to
right of you, railways to left of you, the park gate
shower ; and for two or three years he was very successful. Among
the Leeds pig fanciers, Mr. Gavin held a high place ; but Mr. Dyson
is quite the emperor of them now, and buys and shows a good one of
the large breed whenever he can. Mr. Sagar, of Sa.ltaire, is a great
local shower, and once took a second at the Royal, with a sow of Mr.
Wainman's breed, beating Golden Link. This sow won the Keighley
Challenge Cup, which is decided, not by marching out all the winners,
but by special entry before the classes are judged, so that the cup pig
is got out of the way, and not allowed to compete in its class. Mr.
Mangles is the largest Yorkshire pig breeder. He was a pupil of the
late Mr. Watson, of Bolton Park, Cumberland, and got a rare boar,
Bendigo, from him, of the small white breed. -Latterly he has stood
more on the middle breed and always prefers the small boar in the
cross. He has won two Royal prizes, but Birmingham has been his
field of the cloth of gold. He "composed" a nice flecked pig by
crossing blacks and whites ; but sometimes it only comes out with a
little blue on the quarters. Black-eyed Susan was a very nice sow ;
and she and the celebrated Brutus were both of The Squire, and full of
Thormanby blood. Mr. Mangles maintains that bacon should be fed
for less than 6d. per lb., and that pigs should pay for all they consume
without taxing the manure. New milk, to encourage sleepiness,
warmth, cleanliness, and regularity, keeping the styes rather dark, and
laying down ashes for the pigs to root over when they are not in the
field, are very salient points of the system. Mr. Peter Eden has been
very successful lately at the Royal meeting with the blood of King
Lear ; and he and Mr. Duckering seem to be the great winners of the
day. Each took four first prizes at the Manchester Royal.
Mr. Waterton at Home. 305
opened and shut you within leafy solitudes which were
surrounded by a nine-foot wall. He had accurately
gauged the jumping power of a fox, and we think it
was his boast that one, and only one had ever got its
pads on the coping, and that it made no second
effort. Walton Hall seemed quite a city of refuge,
where a man might lay by all care and sorrow for a
season ; but still, no one without the high spirits of a
schoolboy or the heart of a naturalist could enjoy it
to the full. The birds were to him a living poem all
the year round. " The change of seasons was his
calendar." Rooks cawed gratefully as they dug up
the wire-worm at eve in the old grass, and " the
royal birds" built their clumsy nests, and did their
fishing in peace. Not a gun or a trap was known
about the domain. We ventured to suggest that the
water rats must increase terribly under the golden
age ; and he replied quite angrily : " Kill the water-
rats ! they're my greatest comfort they're the English
beaver !" Still a stewed carp from the lake carried
you back to the " good old times," and furnished a
dish not soon to be forgotten.
The house was girdled by a moat, and the cross
rising above the ivy stood near the drawbridge en-
trance, as the earnest and symbol of his faith. Every
tree had its story, or was peopled with some myste-
rious feathered tenant in fee. There was the owl's
hole in the oak beyond the bridge; a tower was pierced
with " chambers" for the jackdaws' parliament which
never " rose for the holidays ;" the American haw
was there in plenty, for the missle-thrush or storm-
cock ; and there too was the shattered elm, from whose
shade, as he so often recounted, under a prescience of
ill which made him hurry home from the confessional,
he warned off two visitors, just before it was struck by
lightning.
He delighted to point out the window from which
when a child the good Abbe rescued him as he
X
306 Saddle and Sirloin.
climbed along the sill to get at a nest in the eaves ;
but on the point as to whether he had really tied up
his arm in a sling and tried to hatch an egg in his
armpit, and was within four days of being a mother
when a schoolfellow pushed him and broke it, we did
not find him decisive. He seemed content to let the
story rest in the shape which it then bore. We
loved best to see him in his most inspired attitude,
watching in the October evenings whether the rooks
would take their regular departure for the season
after their evening meal for Nostell Wood, or linger
one or more days " over the ninth." He would
almost drag you out, and stand bare-headed on the
lawn long after nightfall, listening to the quack of the
mallard, and telling each fresh water-fowl by its note, as
it settled on the lake, with all the quickness of Fine Ear.
The late Archbishop of Canterbury, who not un-
frequently paid him a visit from Bishopthorpe or the
Palace at Ripon, must have smiled, as did many others,
when he scaled that wonderful staircase with its pic-
tured walls, and found on the two landings, among
cases of humming birds, toucans, and the other results
of his Wanderings, the " English Reformation zoologi-
cally illustrated." If there was an uglier monkey
than usual in the menagerie-offerings which were made
to him, he stuffed it to represent O'd Nick, or labelled
it "John Knox." Titus Gates, Cranmer, and Bishop
Burnet each found their equivalent very low down in
the scale of reptiles ; " Mother Law, Church, and her
Dissenting Fry," looked like a group of toad dancers ;
and as for " Queen Bess at Lunch," it was a perfectly
appalling combination of lizards and newts, and other
unhallowed things. Beetles and flies, as beingta special
emblem of Satan, also bore their part in this strange
medley of polemics ; but still there was no lack of
high-bred courtesy on his part to those of another
creed. You thought only of his deep devotion when
you saw him bend his shrunken form before the Eu
Mr. Water ton at Home. 307
charist, and heard him bear his part at vespers in the
hymn of St. Bernard :
" My comfort in the wilderness ;
But oh ! when face to face !"
He slept on the ground, with his head on a hollowed
out beech block, in a little room next to the chapel,
or in his Brazilian hammock, and always awoke him-
self at three by Sir Walter Raleigh's clock, which had
been removed from the Knight's house at Chelsea, and
stood near the staircase entry of his bed-room. The
first hour so snatched from sleep he " gave to the
health and preservation of the soul." Hermit as he
seemed in his habits and guise, he entered keenly into
everything in the outer world, and loved dearly to
find that he was not forgotten among naturalists.
" Well, Mr. Waterton ! The Times has got hold of
you to-day" we said to him, when the papers came
in, and we had to read twice over to him (and a very
pleasant task it was) a column letter signed "An Ape"
which treated of Professor Huxley and his hippo-
campus theory, and alluded most affectionately to
" My dear friend, Charles Waterton" If he was in
London, he never omitted to visit the Zoological
Gardens, and he went there we believe for the last
time to examine the retractile claws of the cheetah.
The people stared famously when they saw him enter
the cage with the keeper, holding his right hand at a
certain conventional distance from the ground. One
woman said, " Law ! I'll be bound that's the Doctor"
" No, madam" he replied, never taking his eye off the
beast as it crouched in the corner, "you're mistaken, it's
only the Apothecary ; " an answer which gave him great
delight, and puzzled the old lady still more. He left
home very little, but every Christmas he repaired to
his old college at Stonyhurst, for a week, to meet his
friends and see the boys act Shakspeare.
As a modern medicine man, he believed thoroughly
X 2
308 Saddle and Sirloin.
in " the late Dr. Marshall's excellent purgative pills,"
and many friends have a box of his presenting by them
to this day. It was regarded by him as a special mark
of consideration when he took out his cherished
wourali poison, and told how the Nottingham Cor-
poration had asked him to come and exercise his art
on a policeman, who died, unluckily for the test, a
few hours before the North Mail was due. The cock-
ade, " with which I carried Lord Cochrane's despatches
in 1808," was another treasure ; and so were the fatal
blow-pipe of the Indians, and the hammock which he
used when he was a wanderer in the forests from which
he drew those inexhaustible chronicles. Still the stuf-
fing of birds was his great forte, and he spoke with
too well-merited contempt of many modern professors
of the art. " Every feather is poisoned," was his in-
variable mode of introducing his handiwork. The
large picture on the staircase pourtrayed him a hale
young fellow of thirty, bestriding the cayman, while
all the forest birds of his acquaintance looked on ap-
provingly from the boughs. Opposite was the cayman
himself, which has been the very idol of three genera-
tions of boys, stretched out in all its scaly length,
and furnishing a vivid key to the picture. He
scarcely ever quoted any other naturalist, but of
Mr. Frank Buckland he expressed a very high
opinion. As might have been expected, he was very
stiff in his own theories, and did not seem to allow
that the world had grown older, and other men as
well as himself grey and white with thought. He
would lay down the law most positively about stags
and foxes, which he had not hunted for fully fifty
years, and the opinion of men like Charles Davis
and Harry Ayris on the point did not weigh one
ounce with him. Still it was this peculiar tenacity
of opinion which gave his character that unique charm
when once you got accustomed to him.
While you were looking through the big telescope,
Mr. Waterton at Home. 309
at the herons by the lake side in all their fishing atti-
tudes, he would be donning his tattered sailor's jacket
and his large leather gloves, and then invite you to
stroll round his park. Every incident of that walk
lingers with us still. First there was a long disserta-
tion on the rumpless fowl, which seemed to take bed
and board with the jackdaws. Then we paused to
hear the history of the half-paralyzed vine near the
stables, and to handle " the paragon bull," of whose
august presence he had forewarned us, and of whose
qualities, when sorely pressed, we hardly spoke so
reverentially as he wished. We wound our way on-
ward to the grove facing the rock, in one of whose
recesses he sat like a prophet of the cave, the live-long
summer day, " musing upon many things" in his green
chair, and listening to the birds. It was with them
far more than insects that he loved to hold communion.
A hen-pheasant flew across the drive, and as we heard
her mate crow to her in the wood, he recounted to us
how that bird is the direct antithesis of the cock, and
crows before it claps its wings. " Hark ! there's a jay!'
he would suddenly observe, grasping our arm ;
"Listen! there s a jenny wren; did you ever hear
her singf Had he spoken of Kettledrum and
Duchess /^th we might have said something, but this
was a poser only to be made a note of. Then a
magpie struck in, and he was quite eloquent again.
But there our colloquy was interrupted for a time. He
suddenly discovered that some rude visitor on the
open days had cut his initials on the bark of a tree,
near the swings. Hence we had to seek out the car-
penter together, and get a neat little piece of wood ;
and ere long he had written, in his fine Roman hand,
and nailed up against that tree, his love, in most
pungent terms, for all such stupid clowns.
Once more we were on our way, past the spot where
the watercress grew, perhaps looking at his peculiar
wickets, and hearing of his charm for cattle. Not a
3 1 o Saddle and Sirloin.
hedge was cut within the park, which seemed fully
two miles round, or else " there would be no berries
for the blackbird or the poor man." Then he paused
over the thorn which " bloomed in the winter of its
days," like its sister of Glastonbury, and was rich
with white honours on Christmas morning. We saw
tlie keepers' huts, and then turned, near the spot he
had chosen for his burial over the little bridge by the
cranberry tree, and away to the heron nests. On our
left were twelve large willows, one of which had been
broken during a thunderstorm, and had been spliced
up again with iron. " There" said he, "are the Twelve
Apostles ; the broken one is Judas Iscariot ; I hear it
groaning like a troubled spirit, when the wind is high"
And so we left; him in his lodge in the wilderness, and
we saw him again no more.
Like Lord Brougham, his death was forestalled,
and he had the rare pleasure of reading during his
lifetime a singularly graceful tribute to his memory
in the Daily Telegraph. It showed him that a host
of younger men might rise, but that there was still
a grateful thought of one who had been foremost
among the best in his day. We look with sadness
at the last letter (Jan. 22nd, 1865) we ever had
from him, written in a firm hand, which told little
of eighty-three, and especially at the characteristic
postscript, which contained the gist of the whole :
"Walton Hall is twelve miles south of Leeds, and
the nightingale breeds here and sings here charm-
ingly. C. W." The Telegraph article was written
in the winter of the previous year, and he saw the
seasons round once more, and then sank from the
effects of a slight accident, a fall from the rustic bridge
near his future grave, when the insect world had burst
into life, and all nature was carolling round hii?% in
his favourite month of May. The sympathies o his
earliest years were true to him in death. He directed
by his will that he should be rowed to his tomb,
Mr. Gully. 3 1 1
which had long been erected near the top of the
lake under the shade of two venerable oak trees.
There he is buried, in a silence broken only by the
cry of the heron and the waterfowl, a solitude almost
as deep as that in which he had lived so long in the
swamps of the Oronoco and the forests of the
Amazon. He had written, in Latin, the epitaph
meet for a wanderer : " Pray for the soul of Charles
Waterton, whose wearied bones rest here!'
We pass on to a neighbour of very different mould.
It is seldom, indeed, in a lifetime that you meet
with one whose self-respect and manly bearing entitle
him to your prompt fealty as a very " king among
men," and yet scarcely a man who knew him if only
by sight, would deny that title to John Gully. That
calm courage and inflexible decision were written on
every feature, which stood him in such stead in those
slashing Gregsonian contests, which made even Lord
George's Doncaster Rooms irony return unto him
void. It was, we believe, a remark like the "Napoleon,
of the Turf's," which first fired Mr. Gully, on the
spur of the moment, to beard the Mexborough influ-
ence in person at Pontefract ; and he had not mis-
calculated the previous influence of his character,
even on that mysterious, voter-bottling borough. He
did not care for the honour, except so far as asserting
a principle and giving pleasure to his townfolk ; and
he retired, to their deep regret, when the first purpose
was served, from what would have been infallibly a
seat for life.
It was a glory to belong to the ring, and to ascend
the stage at the Fives' Court, in the days when
he stripped to the buff, and he had no mawkish
scruples about referring to it. No one saluted Tom
Sayers more heartily with his " / wonder, Tom, how
ever you did it ;" when the champion met him on the
Heath during the Wizard's Two Thousand day ;
and he only smiled at Doncaster, as Alfred Day
312 Saddle and Sirloin.
cantered Andover down to the starting post for the
Eglinton Stakes ; and Mr. Padwick prophesied that
" The Chicken beat you once, Gull}', and he'll beat
you again!' As a betting man he formed one of the
more scientific and daring school, which arose at
the Corner, when Gentleman Ogden and his fol-
lowers dropped off. Jem Bland, Jerry Cloves, his
nephews Peter and Davis, Tommy Swan, Highton,
Holliday, Crockford, Briscoe, Ridsdale, Bob Steward,
" Goose" Davis and Tanfield, Justice and Gully
were its great metallic heroes, and Gully outlived
them all.
What had once been more of a pastime had now
become hard-headed, cautious point dealing, and
people learnt to speak of twenty to ten thousand
books on the Derby, without any amazement.
With the Yorkshiremen, John Gully was always an
especial lion, and the young tykes gazed with
reverence at the athletic form in the blue tie, and
black frock coat, which had stood nearly five-and-
forty years before, in swallow-tails, kerseymere
breeches and top boots, on a St. Leger eve, in front
of the Salutation, and pencil in hand, led many a
dashing assault on those Middleham and Malton
favourites, for whom their sires and their grand-
sires fought and bled. The literary partnership of
Beaumont and Fletcher did not cause one whit more
speculation among the men of the day, than the
joint-book of Mr. Gully and Will Ridsdale, and
it was said that they got 5O,ooo/. out of St. Giles
for the Derby, and stood to win 8o,ooo/. on little Red
Rover, if the dark green of Sam Day, on Priam, had
not brought them to grief.
With the 4OOO-guinea Mameluke, over whom
he stood with a cart whip at the Leger post, he
became a man of mark, and desperately jealous
" George Guelph," and of course Jack Ratford, were
of him, and his white-faced five-year-old, when they
Mr. Gully. 313
seemed likely to beat the Colonel for the Ascot Cup.
In fact, the royal vexation at some strictures which
he made about the Ascot arrangements to Lord
Maryborough gave birth to an exclusive aristocratic
clause in the Cup conditions, which prevented Priam
among other cracks from having a shy for it. The
coffin-headed Margrave won him his only St. Leger,
and Robinson remembers to this day his stentorian
roar of " I've won," almost before Jim felt sure on
the point himself, as he stood on the rails near the
Red House ; while Mendicant, after a kick, which
might have been heard to Leatherhead, and made
Sam Day think that all was over, managed to win the
Oaks, fetch 4000 guineas, and breed a winner of
the Derby. It was with Virago's sire that he led the
forlorn hope for Danebury in '46 ; and with his Bay
Middleton colts, Andover and Hermit, that he regu-
larly circumvented King Tom, after winning a Two
Thousand, on which he hardly felt sure he was right
to risk even an extra fifty to make stakes. Such
double luck at 71 was not to be improved ; and after
that he became a mere fancy bettor. He was
especially proud of alone holding the triple honours
in his hand ; but his dream of supremacy was dis-
pelled, when on passing through Doncaster in his
invalid days, the news reached him that Caller Ou
had at last brought I'Anson level with him.
In his conversation, " every word weighed a pound,"
and we never remember getting so much solid
guidance from any one about old times, as we did in
a short chat with him when a Heath afternoon was
over. No one could sketch old chums more deftly.
One audience which he gave at his Newmarket
lodgings was of a less satisfactory character to the
person concerned. A most audacious young tout was
standing near him as he sat on horseback, cigar in
mouth, and book and card in hand at the cords, and
hearing him offer odds against a horse, shouted to
314 Saddle and Sirloin.
him "/'// take you'' He, of course, took no notice of
the impertinence, and booked the bet with some
one else, and lost it. To his surprise the tout came
up, and claimed the money, and not satisfied with the
curt disclaimer, kept dunning " Old England," at
intervals, during the meeting. At last, Mr. Gully told
him to come to his rooms after the races, and he
would settle with him ; and taking him by the collar
when he arrived, he used his dog-whip with such
stinging effect on his shoulders that he howled out
promises of the most hearty repentance, and went to
another bet-market in future. However, the story got
wind, and the tout finding that he was universally
called " Young Gully," put a good face on his chasten-
ing, and ever after reverentially alluded to the great
book-maker as " my father? Once, in the May of '50
he wandered down to Danebury, where there was a
solemn Derby council of war, to tout the horses at
exercise ; and poor Walter Day remembered how he
roared to him, " Go and tell my father there, that he
needn't keep looking at Pits ford with Mr. Hill ;
Voltigeur will be first, and the chestnut will beat the
rest"
Hunting always had a charm for him, and during
" The Squire's" mastership he spent a great deal of time
with him at Quorn. His observation of everything,
Furrier and Vanquisher included, in. the field or on
the flags, was so keen, that if he had been obliged to
take the horn for a season, he would have given a
very good account of his foxes. He was only four or
five years older, but a great Mentor to " the Squire"
on the subject of condition, and he was so vexed at
seeing " The Little Wonder" insist upon riding back
into the town after his Newmarket match against
time, that he told him he deserved a whip across his
back, for trifling with his constitution in that way.
" That 'ere friendly expression," as a jack-tar would
have termed it, provec. their intimacy ; but a St. Leger
Mr. Osbaldeston. 315
shadow came the very next year between this Robin
Hood and Little John, of the Charnwood Forest. At
no time of his life was he a hard rider, and he had
once a narrow escape from being drowned when with
the Badsworth, from his horse falling on to him in a
deep pond, in a farm-yard, whose surface was covered
with chaff. Some years before he had very severe
jaundice ; but it was only within the last two of his
life that he failed so decidedly, and latterly his surgeon
had to be in attendance on him three times a day.
The strong man was bowed at last ; his strength at
fourscore years had indeed become labour and sorrow,
and he might well long to be at rest near his old
Ackworth home. Jealousy he had long lived down,
and in the years to come he will continue to point a
moral in Englishmen's hearts, as the especial type
of one
" Who through the moil and dust of life
Went forward undenled."
When shall we again see such a man as Mr. Osbal-
deston, on such a horse as Assheton, with three such
hounds as Tarquin, Furrier, and Vaulter at his side,
and two such whips as Tom Sebright and Dick
Burton ? It was a rare combination of human and
brute talent. The ambition of "The Squire" from
his earliest to his latest day was to be talked about
Modern men have the same aspiration, but the means
are very easy and Sybaritic in comparison. They
don't care what prices they give for a hunter, a race-
horse, a hack, or a yacht, provided it is duly chronicled.
" The Squire," on the contrary, trusted not to pocket,
but to hand and eye for his fame. He never rested
till he was at the head of the hunting, the pigeon-
shooting, the steeple-chasing, the cricket, and the
billiard world. Now it is enough for a man to be
prominent in one branch of sporting science, but Mr.
Osbaldeston aspired to nearly all, and not a soul
breathing could touch him all round. Cue, bridle,
3 1 6 Saddle and Sirloin.
trigger, bat, oar, and boxing-gloves came alike easy to
him. When the poets had called him " the very
worst huntsman that ever was born," they had said
their worst, and perhaps they were not very far wrong.
Among gentlemen he was never popular. The Mel-
tonians could not outride him, and they crabbed him
to make up for it. For society he cared little, and
the saddle was the easy-chair he loved. When he
got home after a short day he was quite ready to
have a second pack out if the humour suited him, and
when he got home after a long one, he liked his chop
and a pint of port, a chat with his friend Gully, and
so to bed. Sport was, in fact, his business, and
when he was fifty-four, and generally content to ride
lost. Qlbs., he wasted to ride his King Charles at
8st. 7lbs. in the Two Thousand. A keen limner
describes him even at that age, as " short and awkward,
shrivelled and shrunk, with round shoulders and a
limping walk, ill-clothed in a brown frock coat with
velvet collar, loose grey trousers, and cloth boots."
Throughout his life he was singularly light of tongue,
and the last time we ever saw him, when he was
drawn about in a Bath chair, on the beach at
Brighton, the unruly member was going with its
pristine vigour.
Unlike
" The shy- fed soda- watering youths,
Who now o'er a country sail,"
and will not be troubled with kennel cares, Mr. Tom
Hodgson succeeded to the Badsworth at twenty-four,
when Sir Bellingham Graham resigned, and found, as
he expressed it, " twelve couple of hounds, and three
hacks, as a nest egg," Three seasons there, sixteen
in Holderness, two with the Quorn, and about one
and a half in part of Mr. Foljambe's country, gave
him plenty to do till he was about fifty, when the cry
of " Foljambe and Fox-hunting" and his own worth,
placed him at the head of the poll by 32 for the
Mr. Tom Hodgson. ^7
West Riding Regfstrarship of Deeds, after a tre-
mendous contest (in which 3393 polled) with one of
the Lascelles family.
It was a lucky day for him when Jack Richards of
the Badsworth bethought him of Will Danby as his
first lieutenant in Holderness, and Will left his harriers
and walked forty-four miles through the night in his
top-boots to strike the bargain at a guinea a week.
No Crusoe could have had a Man Friday more to his
mind. For two seasons there was barely 8oo/. for four
days a week, and once only two horses between them.
Still with thirty-six couple they killed their thirty-
seven brace, and their spirits never flagged. Between
them they claimed the honour of having entered Mr.
Percy Williams, and it was Mr. Hodgson's boast that
he had built six kennels and sold twenty couple of
bitches for a thousand guineas. The Meltonians made
merry with his plain attire, and his gaunt lath-like
figure in the brown coat, leggings, and knee-caps ; as
well as his gloveless hands. Still they had no small
respect for him as a thorough sportsman rather out
of his element on Comical in such a flying country,
but possessed of a lady pack whose Billesdon Coplow
of Jan. 20, 1840, and Thorp Trussel's run in the
same December, were enough to set the seal on any
season.
The West Riding appointment gave him that com-
petence which he so well deserved. He married and
settled down after his toils at Snydale Hall, and to
the last he might be seen occasionally at the cover side
on his pony or in a four-wheel. He did not forget the
scarlet interest, and many a huntsman's son served a
clerkship in the Registrar's office. His friends might
well joke him and ask him whether he merely looked
to their back ribs and good legs and feet. Woe be to
them if they had presented themselves for his inspec-
tion with a beard or moustache ! There was much to
see at Snydale, both inside and outside of the house.
3 1 8 Saddle and Sirloin.
The old grey mare Twilight wandered near the old
hovel on the left of the drive, where the thousand
guinea pack were housed a whole season, and where
Eclogue foaled her Prologue, Catalogue, and Virgilius.
He maintained that " hunting is the sport for young
men and racing for old," and this mare and her foals
were a great delight to him. Will Danby's portrait
from the Sporting Magazine was installed above the
chimney-piece of his little sanctum, which he seldom
allowed you to leave without bringing down the mys-
terious case, which was forwarded to him anony-
mously, with a hunting whip, in his bachelor days,
and giving you a hint as to his after discoveries on the
point.
It was delightful to see him after dinner while the
fire lighted up Comical, Ned Oxtoby and other
hunting comrades on the oak panels settle himself
into his great easy chair, dive into his capacious side
pockets, and produce a large packet of hunting letters.
In this respect he was quite a Registrar of Deeds, as
several masters, Lord Middleton among them, made
a point of writing to him when they had a great thing.
We were in for the record of the Christmas Eve when
his lordship's had run over nineteen parishes, and
swum three rivers, and our host's recital and com-
ments, given in his dry solemn way, were as long and
thrice as amusing as an inaugural address. He some-
times went to the hound shows, and his sinewy six-
foot-two form, in black, with a white hat, worn rather
on the back of his head, and a light linen cravat, was
always to be seen on the Doncaster balcony, or on
some hunting friend's drag opposite the stand at York.
Virgilius was his delight, and he made very sure of the
Flying Dutchman Handicap in '62, but he did not
care much to back his opinion, and defeat never de-
pressed him. We never thought him looking better
than he did at Doncaster in The Marquis's year. We
had a word with him on the grand stand stairs, and he
Doncaster Moor.
told us of the death of Eclogue, and added, " Its an
omen for me" The foreboding was too true, as his
hour had come before the next May morning, and
three veterans in Yorkshire history, Sir Tatton, John
Gully, and Tom Hodgson ninety, eighty, and
seventy lay dead, in the same county, almost within
a month of each other. *
Each man sees and puts things from his own point
of view. The Learned Blacksmith merely esteemed
Melton Mowbray as a veritable Goshen of pork-pies.
The Scotch Minister wrote of his spouse that " she
was taken by a bilious attack from my bosom to
Abraham's ;" and Drunken Barnaby " saw nothing on
the banks of the Don save a lively Levite," and sang
not of racers and horse-copers, but -
" As all things come by natur,
Concerning looms from Doncastur,
And weaving done by w<?yter."
It is difficult for any enthusiast to get away from his
Doncaster theme. The Moor with its long line of
stands, its historical Red House, and " the hill" which
breaks the flat so beautifully looks more the real
racing thing than any other course in the kingdom.
The hill especially is big with the memory of Bill
Scott. Here, in '37, his horse Epirus (belonging to
" the remarkable young "un," as he always termed Mr.
Bowes) rolled into the ditch, and threw him into the
course right on the track of Harry Edwards on Prime
Warden. His collar-bone united quick enough, but
when, next year, he was on Don John, the first St.
Leger winner ever trained at Pigburn, and reached the
spot once more, he sent out his horse as if with a
savage determination to be by himself this time in
front, and Lanercost and every horse in the race felt
it " like an electric shock." The brothers Scott have
always been specially connected with Doncaster, and
* See " Scott and Sebright," pp. 327-334.
320 Saddle and Sirloin.
it is no wonder that there is a regular rush from all
parts of the Moor at the Tuesday morning exercise,
when the Whitewall fly, with the white horse in, is
seen coming across it to its well-known post, two dis-
tances from home.
There could have been no finer treat than seeing
Blacklock go the first two miles in 3.37 min. of that
four-mile race over this course, in which he fairly
galloped the St. Leger winner Duchess to death. Old
Yorkshiremen may well hate to hear him and his
blood abused. They tell how he went four miles at
the same pace without a falter, reaching further and
further, as it seemed to their enraptured vision, at
every stride. His queer forelegs and short tail, and
" half-moon head," did not improve him, but his stride
was what they loved. Mr. Kirby used to tell us about
him, as he did of his dealings with the house of
Romanoff, and the great Scotch trotting match with
Lord Eglinton's father in it ; and once when we
sought for a little more information about General
Chasse, the old man rose from his chair, at eighty-five,
collared us, and made us support him across the room,
while he followed, lifting up his legs, to show how the
chestnut stepped on shipboard, when they had blind-
folded him, and he had become nervous by hitting the
doorstep of the stable. " Chasse" was a savage, but
there were many nearly as bad, and Major Yar-
borough wouldn't have Dumpling back to Heslington
when, after rearing, he knelt down and bit the ground
at York till he was absolutely beaten from the start-
ing-post with a rail. We do not remember to have
ever seen any demur as to starting, at Doncaster, or
to have heard of more than one of those extraordinary
waiting races, which sometimes occupy more than
twenty minutes, because no jockey will make play.*
* The present Duke of Buccleuch was quite puzzled when he once
started the horses at Dumfries, and each jockey had orders to wait on
Doncaster Moor. 321
Many old customs have departed from Doncaster,*
and among others, the late Earl of Scarborough's, viz.,
sending a subscription of 4/. every year to the race
fund. Those were the days of race-balls and carriages-
and-four with outriders, from the great county seats,
all freighted with visitors to the stand. The cup was
as we
were
the other. " Go, go!" said his Grace; but a walk was the only
response. " Go along!" " I beg your pardon, your Grace," said
"Sim," touching his cap, "when you've said 'go' we can do " " r ~
like." "Oh, that's it," was the rejoinder; "I thought you
obliged to begin and gallop directly ; so good afternoon. "
* A few words will not be out of place anent the sporting antecedents
of the owners of the " Corporation Harriers," of which we read such
a curious historical notice in the Doncaster Gazette. That distinguished
body have always been true to the spirit of the couplet,
" God bless you, jolly gentlemen,
May nothing you dismay,"
and put this resolution on their archives :
"27th of April, 1762, That the Corporation do allow twenty pounds
a year and a frock of blue shag, faced with red, for a salary for a per-
son that will undertake to hunt the Corporation hounds ; and that the
Mayor for the time being and six senior members of the Corporation be
a committee, to continue for one calendar month, to have the manage-
ment of the hunt and the procuring of the hounds ; and at the expira-
tion of that calendar month, the next six senior members, with the
Mayor for the time being, to have the management thereof, and so on
from month to month, to be continued annually from the first day of
May next ; and if none of the committee be out a hunting on a field-
day, the majority of the Corporation members present to have the ma-
nagement that day."
" Bill Stag," the huntsman, was equal to the crisis, even with alder-
men, on the subject of halloos, and very fond of training his hounds to
run a red-herring trial in the four-and-a-half acres of " Tryers' Flatt."
The Cookes, of Wheatley, do not seem to have been very genial in the
matter with Bill and his thistle-whippers ; as one of their keepers
was repeatedly asked, and not without reason, "Who shot the dog?"
When another velveteen laid impious hands on the worshipful Mr.
Solomon Holmes, and took a gun out of his municipal grasp, the Cor-
poration were fired with indignation, r.nd took counsel's opinion, and
wrote letters, and we know not what beside. Have their harriers they
would.
They turned a barn in East Laith Gate into a kennel, and built a
house for Bill hard by his charges. Such was the spirit with which
these merry souls went about the business, that in February, 1770, they
Y
322 Saddle and Sirloin.
once simply a flagon of honour, which the stewards
were supposed to present to the races, and it was
handed round full of mulled wine at the race ball.
It was then washed out, and the clerk of the course
went the circuit of the ball-room with it, and it was
had a gala day of rejoicing when the first kennel stone was laid, and
"took wine" (a delicate expression for sitting the clock round) when
they signed the bills for payment. In fact, their hearts were so uplifted
with their currant-jelly prospects, that very shortly after the next season
began they scorned to see their Bill on foot, and met and passed another
resolution. It ran thus : " Ordered that Mr. Merry weather, of Ros-
sington, be employed to buy a good strong horse for the huntsman not
exceeding fifteen guineas in price ; that the huntsman shall not use the
horse from the ending to the beginning of the hunting season, and the
Corporation shall provide an agist for the horse for the summer season. "
This purchase did not turn out well ; but they voted their agent half-a-
guinea for all that, and trusted to other eyes. They seem to have been
very frugal in these matters, and in 1781 the hounds themselves did not
cost more than I4/. 4^. 3^. ; but, as they enjoyed a regular 5/. field-day
among the sheep the year before, the Corporate purse-strings may have
been seasonably tightened. These sheep-killers, by the bye, were
beagles, which came into favour in the I2th year (with a view to con-
ciliate the running and short-winded burgesses) ; and such was the
force of example, that, besides Sir Rowland Winn's and the Barmboro'
Grange dogs, which were prior to them in time, five other packs of
harriers soon hunted in the district. All was done well, and it was a
question whether the body looked more venerable and respectable,
starting with all their calvacade from East Laith Gate to quest among
the gorse bushes on the Moor, or marching to Church the mayor sup-
ported by eight ex-mayors and. three or four mayors expectant on the
race Sunday, behind the pindar and the mace bearer. All the burgesses
liked the hunt, and the tradesmen who kept trie hounds had many a
good hare in their pot. Poor " Bill Stag" began after a few years to
go down-hill. Like a degraded knight of old, his horse was taken
from him and his spurs choj psd off; but he followed the hounds and
Tom Bell on foot as long as his wilful brandy- and- water legs did not
refuse their office, and then he was found dead in his bed. After last-
ing just twenty years, the hounds were given up, and Mr. Wrightson,
who turned up his nose at them when he had the offer, established
what has proved the germ of the Badsworth Hunt, of whose first
huntsman, Frobisher, nothing is known, except that he "married
Widow Halliwell, the heaviest woman in Yorkshire," The hunt
was then opened with a concert of bugles in front of Cusworth
Hall, and as the sounds stole down the Don to St. Sepulchre's,
many an inhabitant thought with a pang of the departed glories of
their own Stag and Bell, or flung dull care and business to the winds
that day.
Doncaster Moor. 323
not unfrequently filled to the brim with fivers, one-
pound-notes, and sovereigns.
Mercutio and Lottery were among the old cup stars,
and ran one of the most distressing four-mile cup
races ever seen at Doncaster. The start was at the
Red House, and some of the jockeys by mistake
raced in when they had gone the present cup distance,
and began to pull up. The people shouted at them
to go on, and George Gates forced Lottery once more
along at such a pace, that at the distance Mercutio
was fairly pumped out, and Lottery began to " crack"
as well. George, who was no great rider, took to
kicking, and Mercutio's jockey to nursing, which just
enabled him to get up on the post and win. Mercutio
was so exhausted that they had to support him into
the rubbing house ; but he came out next day and
beat Sandbeck. This was perhaps the most cruel tax
that was ever made on a horse's powers. Croft, the
trainer, had taken a bet of 500 to TOO about the
horse in the cup. He left no stock, and, in fact, died
not very long after of inflammation on the lungs.
Lottery was pulled out to defeat Barefoot, the St.
Leger winner of the previous year, only an hour or so
before he ran with Mercutio, and never was horse more
knocked about by his eccentric owner. Laurel was a
good Blacklock, and his Doncaster Cup week saw
three St. Leger winners, a Derby winner,. Velocipede,
and Bessy Bedlam on " The Moor."
One of the gamest but the slowest of the four-milers
was Lord Kelburne's Purity by Octavian, and she
finished up another remarkable Doncaster Meeting,
in which Humphrey Clinker (the sire of Melbourne),
Emma (the dam of Cotherstone and Mundig), Fleur-
de-Lis, Actaeon, Belzoni (the sire of so many fine,
brown, and forge hammer-headed hunters), and Mem-
non, all won, while Mulatto ran second for St. Leger
and Cup. It was the last race of the last day, and
run in five two-mile heats. Bill Scott won the first
Y 2
324 Saddle and Sirloin.
heat on Brownlock, George Edwards running him
home on Crow-Catcher so called from his having
decapitated a crow, which alighted near him in social
confidence when he was in his paddock as a two-year-
old. In the second heat Scott led away, and Harry
Edwards on Purity, not fearing anything else, "flapped
his wings a bit," as he expressed it, as if setting to, and
ran in third. Thales won that heat, and Lord Kel-
burne began to be very anxious, and couldn't under-
stand it at all. He came down from the grand stand
for an explanation, and Croft took snuff in his quiet
way, when he was asked what he was going to do,
and replied, " 1 am going to saddle the mare, my lord:
theftm of the fair's only just beginning'' It was time
to begin with the third heat, in which Purity beat
Brownlock by a head, after a slashing finish. Still
the mare had not worn him down to her slow per-
petual motion level, and hence it was necessary to get
something to make a pace. Accordingly, as the chance
of Thales was clearly nil, his owner accepted 2$l. to
force the running. Tommy Lye worked away, and
as Purity's jockey kept tickling him up with his whip,
when he could reach him, Tommy's horse kept giving
a series of marvellous shoots, which were somewhat
puzzling at first to the little man. Scott tried to get
up between them, but failed ; and when he did come
in earnest, he made a dead heat with Purity. Half
the people had gone home, and Lord Kelburne, who
had backed his mare to win him 5OO/., said that
" there will be no dinner to-day" Officials were not so
particular then; but still it is remarkable that Bill
Scott did not remember that the fact of two horses,
which had each won a heat, running a dead heat, dis-
qualified even Thales, though he had won a heat, from
starting again. This oversight decided the fortune
of the day. Away went Tommy, and the tickling,
and the " shooting" began again; and although Purity
finished quite black in the flanks with sweat, and
Purity's Five Heats. 325
could hardly be kept out of the judge's box, she got
home first and landed the Plate for "the crimson
body, white sleeves and cap," of Hawkhead.
We first looked on Doncaster in the mist and wet
of a Sunday morning, when the races began on a
Monday. It was then a long coach ride from Swinton
Station. Herring's picture of Attila was part of our
burden, and the Colonel's valet, who was in charge of
it, was telling good anecdotes of his master's mode of
shooting. That year some three St. Leger winners
were walking together in one field at the Turf Tavern
to wit, Blue Bonnet, Charles XII., and Satirist ; and
there were also two Derby winners in the town
Little Wonder and Attila; and all, save Satirist,
started. Crucifix and Bay Middleton were also at
the Turf paddocks. The sight of the trio was almost
as memorable as Blair Athol's and Gladiateur's mock
tournay when they marched about in a paddock, and
Knowsley neighed his deft over the wall. The Cure's
bolt in the St. Leger, two years after, was the only
thing of the kind in the St. Leger annals. It began
about sixty yards from home, and he seemed to come
right across the course, as if he was going to bury his
defeated head in the judge's box Mail Train's, in the
Cesarewitch, was a trifle to it. The Eglinton pro-
cession of Van Tromp led by Eryx, as they came out
with their jockeys up through the Carr House Gate,
with Black Jemmy as beadle, and addressing the
crowd, was a picture of itself ; and we never met with
such a model of a cup horse as " Van" was that after-
noon, or many neater little beauties than Eryx his
equerry. Templeman soon knew that it was not Cos-
sack's day. The stable had pressed him hard to ride
Foreclosure, but he had refused to do so, as he felt
sure that the bay was not within 2 libs, of the chest-
nut, and the race proved it ; though Cossack was very
short of preparation.
It was also a very " pleasant bit" when Tom Jen-
326 Saddle and Sirloin.
nings took Gladiateur out of his van, behind the Don-
caster Arms, but fewer saw that So were Beeswing
hugging the rails as she went round the top turn in
the Cup as jealous as a surveyor, lest she should lose
an inch of ground ; Teddington answering to Job's
searching rowels, as stride by stride he caught Nat on
Kingston; Kettledrum flying over the hill in the Cup,
and twice the horse he was in the St. Leger ; Tim
Whiffler cutting down Asteroid at the Butts ; Jim
Robinson coming up, wide on the outside, and getting
level with Voltigeur ; " The West" and St. Albans
fairly romping home for the St. Leger ; the Marquis
just getting his head in front in answer to Challoner's
last stroke of the whalebone ; Lord Clifden lying
away, and then reaching his horses inch by inch, at
the Red House ; the thick fog and rain which fell like
a pall on the Moor, during Blair Athol's race, and
made men look at their fellows and wonder if it really
was the end of all things, and their hour was come ;
Lord Lyon, with a jaded, listless air, coming out once
more to met Savernake, whose middle showed that he
was at least two weeks short of work ; Hermit and
Thormanby refusing to face their canters, as if they
knew that defeat was before them ; and Formosa going
to the post with a skin like burnished copper, to show
the Yorkshiremen what an " Oaks, One Thousand,
and ' Guineas'" mare can do.
None loved the Town Moor "better than poor
James White, or "Martingale." Thirty years ago he
was in his zenith, with his book on " Country Scenes,"
and as a contributor to Bentley ; and his powers knew
no decay. He was quite the Prose Poet of Nature,
and no man that we ever met with, was so keenly alive
to her beauties, and could word-paint them so well.
Edlington Wood, which seldom fails to produce a fox,
when the Fitzwilliam call, was one of his especial
haunts, when he was well and vigorous. He seemed
to know the haunt of every badger, the name and the
* ' Martingale. " 327
note of every bird, and the genus of every wild flower
that grew on its banks and glades. He liked to wander
away from Doncaster " when the mavis and the merle
were singing," and regardless of the prosaic days in
which his lot was cast, take his dinner with him and
" have a word with the woods." Weaving an old legend
into shape pleased him best. The deserted hut, where
a poacher had lived and died, a very lord of the soil
to the last, seemed to conjure up in his mind a net-
work of dark romance ; and Sherwood Forest, and
Merrie Barnsdale were themes which never palled.
His racing writings were very numerous ; but as
he rarely left Doncaster, he was too often compelled
to take his descriptions second-hand. In dealing
with current racing topics he was far too discursive,
and pitched his key note so high, that matter of
fact readers grumbled, that after wandering through
such a labyrinth of fine words, they could hardly
find one grain of fact. His strength as a turf writer
lay in his " Turf Characters," and his recollections
of the Doncaster past. If he was not in the Gazette
office, hard at work at his beautifully small manu-
script, with his voluminous velvet cap on his head,
or in a chancel seat in the old church, or in Edling-
ton or Wheatley, or Sprotborough Woods, Doncas-
ter Moor was a sure find for him, and he was pretty
certain to be talking to himself. Seeing those races,
and the gallops as well, was his delight, and he gene-
rally stationed himself, from old usage, on the St. Leger
day somewhere between the Red House and the Hill,
to catch the first symptoms of the " pace complaint."
St. Leger after St. Leger was to him a scene he cduld
unfold with a master's hand. Every little incident from
the Duke of Hamilton's day had been treasured and
invested with significance ; and as John Jackson, the
celebrated jockey, lodged with him for a series of years,
he had an opportunity of " posting himself up" during
the week, which he took care to use to the full,
3*8
CHAPTER XII.
s * Right sacred is our Ox's rump,
And history will evince,
If Fame deceive not with her trump,
'Twas deified long since ;
To Mithra's Bull great Persia bowed,
To Apis Egypt preached ;
To Baal's calf whole countries vowed,
And Greece her Bous beseeched.
* Like Britain's Island lies our Steak,
A sea of gravy bounds it ;
Shalots conms'dly scattered, make
The rockwork which surrounds it ;
Your Isle's best emblem there behold,
Remember ancient story ;
Be like your grandsires, just and bold,
And live and die with glory."
Captain Morris.
The Towneley Herd The Sale Great Sales of the Century Old
Favourites Mr. Eastwood's Herd Mr. Peel's Herd The Lonks.
THE Towneley domains, which have a private
station of their own, extended right down to
Burnley, and share with it in the discomforts oi
one of the wettest and rawest climates in the whole
of Great Britain. Pendle Hill, whose fame has
long been preserved in the not very smooth-running
couplet
Pendle Hill, Pennykant, and Little Ingleborough,
Are the largest of the hills, if you search England thorough,"
rises guardian-like over the town ; and a long avenue
from the front-door of the hall points right away, past
the gamekeeper's cottage, to a range of grouse-
hills on the north. The Colonel's home-farm consists
of five hundred acres, chiefly grass. It is about one of
the last " bowers" in which a veritable butterfly would
The Towneley Herd. 329
think of being born. The land is on a cold blue clay
subsoil, and the Government draining has done but
little for it. Harvests do not " laugh and sing" there,
as corn cannot be got to ripen on it one year in six ;
mangold wurzels will have nothing to do with it ; and
hence nearly all the roots and straw have to be pur-
chased from the Ormskirk neighbourhood. The herd
has had a fearful battle to fight, in order to compete
with the rich grazing counties, and but for the
undaunted energy and science of the farm bailiff,
Mr. Culshaw, backed up by the most liberal and
spirited of masters, it could never have stood its
ground, and brought so many great rivals low in their
turn.
Mr. Culshaw was bred and born at Broughtoh,
and used to run about and help his stepfather, who
was herdsman at Mr., after Sir Charles, Tempest's,
before he could even milk or fasten up a cow. His
peeps at the different herds on the banks of the
Wharfe had gradually inoculated him with a burning
taste for the thing. He was never weary of telling
Bob Gill, the farmer, that they ought to have some-
thing beyond mere dairy cows at Broughton Hall ;
and when Sir Charles bought Verbena and her
daughter Vestris, and he was sent with the latter
to the best bull Mr. Whitaker had at Greenholme,
his future destiny was clear. No ambassador to a
European Congress had a higher sense of his responsi-
bility than " Little Joe " that day. The cow lay
clown about twenty times in the last three miles,
but those toils and woes were forgotten when Mr.
Whitaker, admiring the lad's enthusiasm, showed him
all over his herd. He returned home repeating
" April Daisy? " Whiteface? " Pretty/ace," " Non-
pareil" and so on to himself, to beguile the road,
and at last ventured to speak up to Sir Charles,
who promised that he would go over and see them,
and take him again. The visit never came off; and
33 Saddle and Sirloin.
the appointed day dawned bitterly on the lad, when
after lying awake all night, he received a message to
the effect that Sir Charles and his party had changed
their minds. However, Bell by Bertram was pur-
chased on the Broughton account, at Mr. Whitaker's
sale ; and it was under Mr. Thomas Mason, who
soon afterwards came as agent, that the future
" Talleyrand of trainers " gleaned his chief experi-
ence. Twenty-four-years of his life were thus spent ;
then followed a year and a half with Mr. Ambler ;
and in 1849 ne came to Towneley, and, working
on the good material Mr. Eastwood and Mr. Straf-
ford had previously collected for him, he soon
found himself at the head of a herd which was des-
tined to play no second part in the annals of Short-
horns.*
It was in the Spring of 1859 when we first saw
Towneley ; and Vestris III., who won the first prize
in the cow class at the Paris Universal Show, when
she was only 2^ years old, was our first introduction.
She stood with Pride at the lodge byre, and a drive
of a mile up the avenue brought us to some farm
* Culshaw took the command of the Towneley herd on the 1st of
Jan. '49. While with Mr. Ambler he took Senator to the York Royal
Show, and beat Mr. Bates's Second and Third Dukes of Oxford. Mr.
Bates stood looking at the pair with his hat over his brow, and could
scarcely believe it. Mr. Eastwood had just sold his herd to Colonel
Towneley, and they were all at the low barn. The lot consisted of
Parkinson's Cressida, Madeline, Mantle, Gipsy (a famous breeder and
milker), her daughter Gem, the dam of Ruby by Lax's Duke, a very
thick fleshed one, and the dam of Richard Cceur de Lion, familiarly
called "Dick," and the yearling heifers Alice from Madeline, and
Beauty from Mantle. Buttercup was also there, in calf with Butterfly,
and quite feeble from foot and mouth, Bessy, six weeks off calving
Frederick, Parkinson's Lavinia the dam of Garrick, Lallah Rookh
and Duke of Lancaster. Jeweller was another, and so was the
yearling Horatio by Hamlet, from Buttercup, one of the first that
Colonel Towneley sold. Lord George by Leonard, from Birthday,
came soon after that, and got second Duke of Athol from Duchess 54th,
which was sold to Mr. Thorne, with Duchess of Athol, at 500 guineas
the pair.
The Towneley Herd. 331
buildings on the left, which were termed "Jacob's
Barn," after a farmer who rented them. Old Butter-
fly, the first female, bar a free martin, that Colonel
Towneley ever bred, was there, but the days of her
glory were o'er, and she lay with her head low and
her quarters high on a frame. She was so treated
nearly all the time that she carried her last calf,
Royal Butterfly. Among her thirty prizes, she won
all the female ones at the Royal, and Culshaw
considers that she " should have a book to herself."
Precious Stone, a heifer calf and a great beauty, was
one of " Jacob's lot," and so was Butterfly's Nephew,
another white and with, perhaps, the broadest back
and breast we ever met with in a bull. He was from
Beauty 3rd, a half-sister to Beauty's Butterfly, and
was sold for 300 guineas to Australia. Royal Butter-
fly held his court at the central barn, and marched
out like a soldier at Culshaw's call. He was bigger
than his brother, but not less cylindrical in shape,
rather thicker in his flesh and richer in his roan,* and
* We should liked to have brought back Master Butterfly to the barn
from which he issued in successive years to Lincoln, Carlisle, and
Chelmsford, to vanquish Fifth Duke of Oxford, John o'Groat, and
Grand Turk ; but the wish was vain, and we could only dwell in
memory on that symmetrical form, which knew little or no change,
when it was shipped at the East India Docks, from what it was, as a
winning calf at Lincoln.
He knew no check to his victories either in England, Ireland, or
Paris ; and such was his luck, that when disease came among the cattle
in the French show-yard he missed it entirely. Mr. Strafford nego-
tiated his purchase for I2OO/. with Mr. Bostock, after he had beaten
Grand Turk for the first prize in the Chelmsford Royal Show-yard, and
he was taken off to the shippers at once. He went to Mr. Ware, of
Geelong, in Australia, and was exhibited soon after his arrival at half-a-
crown ahead for the benefit of its Agricultural Society. Nothing could
be more docile during his long voyage out, and while the passengers
fed him with biscuits, it was quite a diversion among the sailors to see
him answer to his name like a dog, and take so very kindly to
chewing tobacco. Unhappily, the man who went out in charge of
him died, and he showed some temper afterwards. The papers very
early made him play in the farce of "Twice Killed," and when he
332 Saddle and Sirloin.
" perhaps more noble in his look." His thighs were
always wonderful ; and even in his thirteenth summer
when he entered the ring, " a mere shadow of a King
bull/' at the Manchester Royal, but with two cows
in calf to him in the yard, they had not greatly
wasted.
Box after box was then opened in the higher
yard out marched the grand prize cow Roan
Duchess II., who gave sixteen quarts a day after
her first calving ; Rose of Towneley, a future Smith-
field first, and Beauty's Butterfly going on steadily
for the next gold medal. Then we had the Chester
ten in pairs, Frederica's Rosa and Venilia's Butter-
fly, or " Master Butterfly's last ;" Alice Butterfly by
Master Butterfly, and Young Barmpton Rose by
" Dick," as. also were Emma and Pearl ; then came
Evadne from Emily and Violante from Roan Duchess
2nd ; and lastly Diadem and Fidelity, both of them
by Frederick. That strawberry roan bull, then ten
years old, was only a ruin, and we never saw his head
again till it hung behind Colonel Towneley's seat
along with Butterfly's at the sale lunch, looking down
with glassy eyes on the scene they had called into
being. Mr. Carr once claimed from the auctioneer's
rostrum, the premiership of winner getting for
Booth's Crown Prince, but in an instant " Joe" was
at his elbow, and asking him in the" most suggestive
tones if he " ever heard of a bull they called Frederick"
" Fred" was never shown, but the tenants used him
for three years, and soon found that they were getting
something better than their neighbours. The calves
rancorously persisted in living, they plunged him into " a very delicate
state of health," which was also a mere play of fancy. Eighty
cows calved to him his second season in Australia, and then he died
of a sunstroke by the roadside, after a long walk, with a stallion, to a
Cattle Show at Melbourne ; so he never became beef after all. He must
have had a rare constitution, as he was turned out among an almost in-
definite number of cows in a large run to fight his way for eighteen months.
The Sale. 333
generally fell about equal in sex, and nearly all
the heifers possessed that milking specialty for which
his dam Bessy was so remarkable. Such were our
memories of '59.
Strangers and natives concur in describing Burnley
and the parts adjacent as a veritable "vale of tears,"
all the year round. Mr. Jorrocks would have observed
that he was " saliwated by the wet ;" and profiting by
our previous experience, we dare not have obeyed
Mr. Straffbrd's " call of the house" without an un-
deniable dreadnought in reserve. "The Drum" has
been certamly a symbol of fair and not of foul
weather at To\vneley ; but be that as it may, Culshaw,
amid his other avocations, had made quite an Admiral
Fitzroy of himself for some time previous to the sale,
and derived much solid comfort from the deluge on
Sunday and Monday. There was quite a house
levee in the course of Tuesday afternoon, when the
cow-boxes and bull-houses were thrown open to
Lady Pigot, Captain Gunter, Mr. Torr, Mr. C. P.
Cell, and the other visitors. The entertainment was
more quaint than usual, and her ladyship "dallied
with her golden chain, and smiling put the question
by," as Culshaw suddenly thirsted for information,
not to say " paused for a reply," while Roan Knight's
Butterfly and Royal Butterfly's Duchess were under
review, as to why two Hanover Square cheques
should have been recently sent to Colonel Towneley
with certain names erased.
Wednesday's atmosphere was clear and keen, and
the sun went down for the last time on the first
Towneley herd with calm promise for the morrow.
Knuckles were busy on the weather glasses, from an
early hour on Thursday, and the advance of six
degrees to the good during the night in the one
we noted, had its setoff in a slight fall of snow
during breakfast ; but twelve o'clock came and de-
parted without any more bad symptoms, and an
334 Saddle and Sirloin.
afternoon loomed at last well befitting The Butterfly's
Ball.
It is calculated that nearly 3000 people were
present. Messrs. Atkinson, Woodward, and Barber
showed up, as stanch supporters of the Towneley
blood ; Sir Charles Tempest and the Hon. George
Lascelles came, but they were not to be tempted ;
the two friends from Norfolk also steeled their hearts ;
Mr. Noakes allowed Mr. Freeman to have all the
"Kentish fire" to himself; and Mr. J. G. Wood, of
Clarionet fame, was the silent " member for all
Ireland." Mr. Dodds only looked on, and thought of
the firsts he would have scored with Grand Turk and
Prince Talleyrand if the " Brothers Butterfly" had not
stopped the way ; Mr. Knowles, of course, held " a
watching brief" for the Duke of Wharfedale, and
Mr. Thomas Booth for the Jeweller blood ; while Mr.
Fisher, as spruce as a bridegroom, had deserted his
Silver Beards and Golden Dreams for a season, and
received some very legitimate chaff on his taste for
,' The Happy Link" There, too, was Simmy Temple-
man, scanning Rose of Lancashire as respectfully
as if she had been a first favourite for the Oaks ;
while the great Ex-Chief Justice of the leash was
surveying Royal Butterfly's Pageant, and wonder-
ing as to whether his favourite Indian corn had
a share in those plump proportions. There was
also a strong sprinkling of the small dairy farmers
from the hills, with their unmistakeable hats, and
of course one hand in their pockets, for the fame
of Barmpton Rose had spread far beyond Skipton
and Settle, even to Langdale Pike and Hel-
vellyn.
The beautiful condition of the cattle was on every
tongue ; and even those outsiders who, with very
good reason, distrust the " racing shorthorns" and
their breeding powers, were fain, after a turn "through
the nurseries," to believe the testimony of their own
Mr. Eastwood's Herd. 335
eyes, that thick flesh and fertility can exist together,
and especially in the Butterfly tribe.*
Mr. Eastwood's career as a shorthorn breeder dates
* The heavy artillery, with the exception of that from Penrhyn,
seemed to be planted on Mr. Strafford's side of the ring, and we do not
exactly remember where the Whitworth gun was laid, when its victo-
rious boom was heard for Tenth Royal Butterfly. Mr. Freeman (foi
Mr. Betts), whose practice was very fine, took up his position on the
right of Mr. Strafford, and Mr. Wetherell looked on as the "Nestor"
of the assembly at his side. He could have told how the dam of
Second Roan Duchess was sold for 30 guineas at his Kirkbridge sale,
how his Barmpton Rose was sold to Mr. H. Watson and calved Butter-
cup (the dam of Butterfly) three weeks after she arrived at Walkering-
ham, and how he too had bred Bessy (the dam of Frederick) from her,
and sold her to Mr. Downs, from whose hands she passed over to Mr
Eastwood. Royal Butterfly's Pageant proved the champion price lot of
the day. She was put in at 200 guineas, and in an instant Mr. East-
wood covered Mr. Freeman, and had the 350, 400, and the 500. Then
came such a rattling cheer all round the ring, and Joe dodged about near
his red and white darling, and rubbed his hands, with a noiseless
chuckle. Then their firing grew slower ; Mr. Eastwood's measured
" and ten" fairly wore his opponent out. "Will you have anymore,
Mr. Freeman? Did you speak?" "No!" "And the glass runs,
and your last chance with it," at 590. And so three Royal Butterflies
from Young Barmpton Rose, Alice Butterfly, and Pageant, were bound
for Thorn eyholme, at an average of 413 guineas. " She handles like a
lady's muff," said Culshaw, drawing his hand daintily over the little
5^-months white. Captain Oliver needed no telling on that point,
and was not shaken off before 160 : but Mr. Freeman would not sepa-
rate mother and daughter, and went in boldly up to the finish, which
was 170.
Culshaw himself took hold of the halter of Duchess of Towneley.
Then came a very grand sleight-of-hand scene, as he played with her,
and deftly coaxed her to stand up at the mature age of a month and
four days, as proudly as if she was in the Royal ring for the ribbons on
her own account. It was an immense treat, and certainly we have
seen nothing like it, save Rarey at the Round House, or Jem Mason
handing one of Elmore's over a fence. Then "Joe" changed his tune,
and resigning the rope, he placed his hand on the loins of Duchess of
Lancaster, as if he was an anatomical professor, lecturing for the*benefit
of science in general and Towneley in particular, to rather an extensive
class. Phcebe Butterfly, a red, with a spot of white on the quarter,
was in consideration of its 1 7 days allowed to run loose, and with it
the female lots were ended, and in an instant Mr. Thornton handed
round the average of I23/. igs. 4^. for the 46.
All Mr. Strafford's assurances that Mr. Booth was getting a 200
guineas hire for bulls not one whit better bred, while here was the fee
simple of Baron Hoprwell, couH vot coax Mr. Mitchell, fresh as the
336
Saddle and Sirloin.
back to 1843, two or three years after his father died.
His first essay was hardly to his mind, and he got rid
of everything, and started afresh from Mr. Henry
Watson's sale. " Which do you come for f" said the
late Earl Ducie, when they encountered each other
going the rounds on the Walkeringham sale morning.
bull was, quite up to half that sum, and Mr. Waldo stalled him off.
Then Royal Butterfly marched into the ring, with the white rosette on
his head, preceded by the bandmaster and two musicians of the Fifth
Royal Lancashire Militia, who had volunteered their services for the
day. With all due respect to that gallant corps, we do not think that
melody is its forte, and the duet they performed on cornets in honour of
that bull made our very blood run cold. He has known many proud
days in a ring, where, "after the first five minutes, he made every-
thing, save Dickinson's Prince of Prussia, and the mighty Soubadar
shrink into nothing by his side;" but it was "the proudest of them a',''
when five of his stock averaged 449/. 8j. The world may wax old,
and no man ever be able to say what Colonel Towneley can, that at
one and the self same time he had a Royal Butterfly with all his four-
year-old bloom in the paddock, and a Kettledrum at the post.
The real "champion of England" stood a few minutes while Mr.
Strafford declared that a five-guinea bid over 1200 guineas would be
taken ; but although many a man thought that he ought to fill a
five-and-twenty or thirty guinea subscription list, after such calves as
they had seen that day, there was only a respectful silence. " That's a
choker ; take him away !" The musicians assailed him in his retreat
with " The girl I left behind me " and after that stroke of genius they
collapsed.
Royal Butterfly's Duchess had mellowed into a cow of remarkably
grand girth. When a calf she struck us as the living fac simile of her
father, on a scale for inches ; and her huggins and loins are so beauti-
fully covered that Mr. Strafford might well say" She'll be one of the
pictures in my book." " Ninety," said Captain Oliver, but he stopped
at 1 80 ; and as Mr. Betts's and Colonel Pennant's agents fought it out
by tens and twenties to 500, the face of Culshaw, which had worn a
most blighted expression up to this point despite Mr. Strafford's
assurance that " the young uns will set you all going" quite lighted up
at last. Nothing walked more proudly round the ring than Frederick's
Farewell, with her grand depth of rib and well-filled fore-quarter, of
which she gave such promise, as, at loh. 17 min. p.m., on that Octo-
ber night when Culshaw "lent his soft, obstetric hand," and "The
Druid," watch in hand, at last saw this rich roan heroine of nine firsts
' blowing her nose in the straw." There was a bottle of wine uncorked
forthwith in her honour, even without the aid of the "judicious bottle-
holder."
Every ring motion of Culshaw's was very keenly scanned, and he
Mr. Eastwood's Herd. 337
" Well, my lord, that's hardly a fair question" was the
rejoinder ; " but if you like, as I'm pretty certain we're
both after the same two cows, we'll each write their
names on a slip of paper'' And write them they did,
and both wrote "Buttercup" and " Princess Royal" and
it was settled that his lordship would not oppose
was much more demonstrative than when we found him some years
after in front of the eland's cage at Smithfield, and deciding, after a
S-otracted survey, that such beef regenerators are "not for Joseph."
n this occasion he was very calm until Barmpton's Butterfly came
out, and when he advanced and patted her head all knew that a rally
was nigh. Flesh, hair, and fore- quarters were "all there," and so
was Mr. Eastwood when he came up under the sale waggon to give
battle for this fine combination of Royal Butterfly and " Dick." The
fight was short and sharp. " tfs against you at 300, Mr. Eastwood,"
"and ten," "against you again," "and fifty," and Thorneyholme
was her destiny. Mr. Young, who was on the look out for Forth's
successor at Keir, took Royal Butterfly nth at 400 guineas, and at
Newcastle that very summer he avenged himself on The Hero for his
Worcester defeat.
The results of a day which will be a red letter one as long as
Englishmen love shorthorns, may be summed up in 71897. 7.$-., or a
total average of I28/. Is. >]\d. for 56. On reference back, we find
that Robert Colling has an average of I28/. 14^. \Q\d. for 61 ; while
Charles Colling, thanks to Comet, has 15 1/. $s. 5^d. for 47. It
nust also be remembered that eighteen of the Towneley lots were
onder a year, and seven born within the year. The Willis's Room
Sale, when 17 averaged 4817. 3.?., hardly comes into the sale category,
except merely by way of comparison with the average made by Sfee
Duchess blood on the two previous occasions of its being put up, viz.,
Ii6/. 5.?. for 14, at Kirklevington, and 4427. is. for 10, at TJortworth.
Taking the greater sales in order since Lord Ducie's, they stand thus :
Lots.
Average.
? <*
Mr. Betts's
63 ...
180 19 o
Lord Ducie's
62
150 19 II
Colonel Towneley's ...
56 ...
128 7 7
Mr. Macintosh's
57
116 12 6
Mr. Marjoribanks's (1857)
59
90 2 4
Mr. Ambler's ..
50
83 4 o
Mr. H. Combe's
63 ...
80 12 8
Sir Charles Knightley's
77
80 i o
Mr. Tanqueray's
Mr. Marjoribanks's (1862)
101
80
77 13 5
74 3 4
The average of the three leading bulls at Towneley
was thirteen Royal
Z
338 Saddle and Sirloin.
Mr. Eastwood for the former, which he bought for
130 guineas. His lordship was equally pleased with
his own purchase. Looking round the herd at Tort-
worth, some years after, with Mr. Eastwood and Mr.
Knowles, he stopped at each of them, and said,
" There s that dreadful tribe again /' but when his corn-
Butterflies at 2527., the same number of Dukes of Wharfedale, of all
ages, from July I2th, 1863, to Feb. 29th, 1864, at 697. 4^., and seven
Baron Hopewells at H5/. u. The six tribes averaged as follows :
s.
i Mantalini 105 o
8 Pearly ... 106 I
5 Vestris 3rd 103 19
9 Second Roan Duchess ... 179 II
28 Barmpton Rose 121 16
5 Alice 2nd 138 12
Having settled this little matter, we must run over, chiefly in the
words of one who knew them well, a few of the Towneley cracks.
We'll miss Royal Butterfly and Master Butterfly, and get to Royal
Butterfly loth ; he was from Parade by Duke of Glo'ster ; his head
was not first-rate ; he was a great fine bull with such a back, and such
dash about him ; he should have been a rich roan. Richard Cceur de
Lion, or "Dick" as they called him, had as good a head as was ever
stuck on a pair of shoulders. At the Dublin Show Mr. Baxter handled
" Dick," and Culshaw led Master Butterfly he never would walk, but
seemed to go on springs, as if Irish soil wasn't good enough for him.
Mr. Douglas's Captain Balco, a splendid bull, was second that day, and
" Dick" third. At Chelmsford, one of the judges said " he walks like
a gentleman, " and Culshaw nodded to Dodds at those words, and said,
" I've just done you." Grand Turk had not the" same beautiful blood-
like offal as Master Butterfly. "The Royal" was better let down in
the thigh, and was a little bit better in the back than Master Butterfly,
and his bosom was rather wider. His- breast wasn't so deep, and his
head was a little better and not quite so long. Dick was thick fleshed,
and hadn't a vulgar hair about him, and thighed down to the hock.
He gave Towneley stamp, thick flesh, true form, and mellow hides.
He got Young Barmpton Rose and Emma she was lovely and
Butterfly's Nephew with that wonderful back and substance. Then
there was Master Butterfly 4th, by him from Beauty 3rd, by Frederick
he was poor and delicate as a calf he went to the Emperor of the
French, and he had no luck. When Frederick was a calf, he did so
badly that they had very nearly exchanged him for a female with Mr.
Manning, of Rothersthorpe, but he was given to the tenants, and
Messrs. Willis had him for a time. From him their Lord Frederick
was descended, and the 1869 Birmingham medallist cow in a slight
Mr. Eastwood's Herd. 339
panion brought him up with, " Well, my lord, how
much for the whole of them f" he only laughed, and said,
"/ knew what y oud be at in a minute or two : you'll
not have them" Mr. Eastwood had been to Killerby
from the very first, and his next step on getting But-
tercup home was to hire its red Jeweller, a son of
degree. He was the first bull bred at Towneley, and Butterfly the
first female, with the exception of Frederick's sister, the freemartin.
Frederick by Lax's Duke, and Butterfly by Booth's Jeweller, were out
of Bessy and Buttercup, both daughters of Barmpton Rose. Frederick
came home a perfect ruin at three years old. He had been on the
Bowland Moors. Mr. Eastwood saw his rare roan heifers at rent day,
and asked his price. The farmer said 8/. ios., the same price as Hub-
back, and Mr. Eastwood gave him a ten pound note. He was calved
on the 5th of February, 1849, and Master Butterfly was one of the first
calves he got when he came to Towneley in '52. He was rather high-
mettled and treacherous at times. He once regularly setatCulshaw,who
made a masterly retreat over the side of the box.
Barmpton Rose was beautifully filled up behind the elbow, and Cul-
shaw, who was then a lad, was quite "lifted up" when Tom Mason
first brought her home to Sir Charles Tempest's from the Walkeringham
sale. Her first calf was a white bull ; then she had a red heifer calf to
Mehemet Ali : she was a smart one, but she died at six weeks. Barmp-
ton Rose had head to spare to look at anything, deep and with fine
arched ribs, back if anything a little up, and a great milker she was a
good strawberry roan, not much bigger than Buttercup. Bessy was
smaller, and on a short leg, and much below the average for height.
She had such ribs and such a bag and head ! Princess Royal was more
of the style of her dam, and very gay. Buttercup was a sort of yellow
red, and like Hubback in her flecks. Briseis was another daughter of
Barmpton Rose. The late William Smith had her, and Christmas
Rose and Rosa sprang from her.
Norwich, in 1849, was the first Royal Show we visited. We took
Beauty and Surmise there ; one was the second yearling heifer, and
Surmise highly commended. Beauty was second again at the York-
shire, when the Duke of Lancaster was the first bull calf, and Ruby the
first heifer. Beauty the dam of Beauty's Butterfly, was a thick, heavy
fleshed one, with a splendid head and bosom and shoulders ; she held
her head well up and had thighs like The Royal ; she hadn't the thickest
of loins, and her offal might have been finer. She was the heaviest
and biggest framed cow we had, but she had not Butterfly's length.
Alice had a pleasant head, and " cheerful 'ticing looks" enough to fill
any one with admiration at once. She wanted perhaps a little width of
breast ; her hips were beautifully covered, and her underline so perfect.
She was a light roan, with a little on the neck and ears, of more than
the average size, but half a size less than Butterfly a great lady with
Z 2
340 Saddle and Sirloin.
Necklace. He was rather a short bull with a bad
head and a light neck, but with capital sides and
quality. His hirer was confidently assured in the
North Riding, that it would be "destruction to your
herd to use such a brute ;" but he wisely chose to rely
on his own judgment in the matter. Harlsonio, of
nice offal, and it would be well if we could breed a dozen more like her.
Her neck certainly did not let in nicely from the top of the shoulder,
but necks are only stews after all.
Ruby was a daughter of Dick and Gem, and she had a good deal of
Emma's style. She beat Butterfly as a yearling, but she had not her
style, and like Alice her neck dipped a little coming out of her shoulders!
The others were no use with them that year. Butterfly's breast was not
so deep as some, but her touch and hair was such that if a man was half
dead, he must revive if he could only get his hand on her. She beat
them all when she was four years old ; they couldn't keep their eyes off
her, and she knew it such grand mellow loins, and so good through
the breast ! Then she got a bit loose behind and looked a little lighter
than she was. She was a killer ; one of those ladies who sail into a
ball-room and seem to say by their looks, " Stand by I'm here you're
not in the same day with me !" She was so active too. She had to go up
forty steps one side of which was open to the sea at Liverpool when
she came from Ireland. Poor Edward led Jasper, and Culshaw Butter-
fly. She gave Jasper a good start and caught him up. She lay all the
way from Liverpool to Towneley, and then she knew the place and got
up and stared about her. She always lay down at once in the railway
box. Alice and Ruby found out the comfort of it, and there were
plaited straw mats in the boxes for them. Butterfly had six living
calves, and was very unfortunate with her heifers. She had a roan one
eight weeks before its time, by Frederick, and it only lived a week, and
her heifer, Butterfly 2nd, died in calf from lung' disease. Edward put
her by mistake to Gavazzi, and she had Butterfly 3rd, which broke her
stifle joint. Then she had a heifer by Master Butterfly 4th, one of the
very best we ever had, but it took fits. She finished up with Royal
Butterfly.
Master Butterfly went as a calf to the Lincoln Royal on July I4th,
1854. He was just a year old, as old as he could be for the Royal, and
therefore he was obliged to give several months away for the Yorkshire.
There was nothing but what was winning about him. At Carlisle he
beat John o'Groat ; he was not so heavy fleshed as The Royal, but he
used his legs more like a thorough-bred horse. He was first put to
Vestris, and she cast her calf early on. From a yearling to a two-year-
old he made a great stride. He left England before he was three years
old. In '56 he went to Paris, and was a month away ; we had four
there and got four gold medals the foot-and-mouth broke out, and
Voltigeur died. Two took it, and Master Butterfly escaped ; he was a
Mr. EastwoocFs Herd. 341
Lax blood, had died just before of cancer in the nose,
and therefore Jeweller had no rival for the love of
Buttercup, and Butterfly was the issue. Bessy, half-
sister to Buttercup, calved Frederick by Lax's Duke,
and thus these two crosses produced the pair from
which Master Butterfly and Royal Butterfly sprang.
straightforward chap all was fish that came to his net. In colour he
was rather richer than Royal Butterfly. Culshaw saw him into his
horse-box at Chelmsford, and he went to Grays, and from there to the
docks. Red Butterfly was about the last of his get in England. Vestris
3rd was out of Venilia, and Rosemary out of Rosa. The former made
up best as a heifer from two to three, but she turned patchy after that.
Roan Duchess 2nd by Frederick, g. g. d. old Blanche 5th, was a gay
lady, with such a back as we seldom see ; she died worn out, and the
last calf came wrong way first. Some said that Blanche 6th by Frederick
was better ; they were nearly own sisters. Roan Duchess 2nd won
everything she could at the Royal and the Yorkshire, and she beat
Booth's Bridesmaid at Ripon.
In 1850 Butterfly and Venilia 2nd were shown at Glasgow, and were
beaten by a pair, one of which looked nearly pure Ayrshire. The
judges said that the roan wasn't good enough for the pair. At Alnwick
the roan was put first, but at Thirsk it was Butterfly first and Venilia
2nd nowhere. All three shows were within ten days. Hudibras, own
brother to Alice, came out about this time. He was a great leathering
fine bull, the same colour as his sister, but queer behind the shoulders ;
rather a long loose bull. In 1851, at Windsor, we had Garrick by
Gaylad, from Lavinia, a fine strong-backed bull, red and white. Butter-
fly 2nd was by him. In the two-year-old class that year, Butterfly,
Ruby, and Venilia 2nd were first, second, and fourth. Frederica, the
first yearling heifer at Lewes Royal, was sold as an in-calf heifer, with
Lallah Rookh, for 700 guineas, to America, and shipwrecked. Their
boxes were blown down on deck, but still Frederica produced a living
calf, and did well for Mr. Thome. The best prices besides these were
500 guineas from Mr. Douglas for Ringlet, the dam of his 5oo-guinea
Queen of Athelstane, as well as Maid of Athelstane ; iooo/. for three
heifer calves to go to America ; and the I2oo/. for Master Butterfly.
Alice, Butterfly, Frederica, and Vestris were all firsts at Lewes Royal, or
the Yorkshire at Sheffield in 1852. This would be the lot that took
Mr. Jacob Bright's timepiece at Sheffield the same year. Vestris was a
grand cow, but she had only one calf. She took a surfeit one frosty
night and it killed her. Ruby (dam of Jenny Lind) was the first cow
at Birmingham, where she took the female gold medal. She was also
first in her class at Smithfield, but a Hereford beat her for the gold
medal. In 1853 there was a great meeting at York, and Towneley took
six firsts and two seconds. Voltigeur was the first bull, and Roan
Duchess 2nd the first heifer calf, but Booth's Bridesmaid beat both
342 Saddle and Sirloin.
Neither Frederick nor Butterfly were born when, in
1848, Mr. Eastwood sold his herd of twenty to Colonel
Towneley, and when Frederick did come, it was in
twinship with Dot. For many years Mr. Eastwood
contented himself with watching the progress of the
Towneley herd under Culshaw ; but, like an old
Alice and Frederica. They didn't send anything to Glo'ster, but they
met Lord Berners' old bull Pat (who had won there) with jasper by
Jeweller, and beat him at Killarney. Jasper was a fine level bull, and
a twin like Dick and Frederick before him. In 1854 Master Butterfly
came out as a calf at Lincoln, where the herd took three firsts and two
seconds. Then the Yorkites got a dresser at Ripon. The Squire had
a first he was a thick, heavy-fleshed dog, still not so thick on his back
or very nice in his huggins. Hogarth by Booth's Harbinger (who got
many of his bulls rather big in their hips) was first in the younger bull
class. He was a deep roan and red on the neck. Colonel Towneley
only tried in seven classes and took six firsts and a second. Butterfly,
Columbus, Roan Duchess 2nd, and Ringlet (a calf then) were the other
firsts. Ringlet was by Frederick, out of Pearly. Ringlet's chief fault
was that her head was down a bit. Butterfly won the Purcell Challenge
Cup three times, and got it into possession that year at Armagh. Dub-
lin Show brought four firsts in 1855 ; and at the Yorkshire, Blanche
6th paid back Booth's Bride Elect in the two-year-old class for beating
her at the Carlisle Royal. At Paris, in 1856, Master Butterfly was
the first bull, and Pro Bono Publico the second ; Vestris 3rd was the
first cow and got the gold medal. She was only two and a half years
old then, and her first calf was six months old. Gold medals were
given for extra merit, and Colonel Towneley had four animals in three
classes (Rosemary and Voltigeur were the others) and took three firsts
and four gold medals. Victoria came out and won as a two-year-old
heifer at Chelmsford that year, and she and Blanche 6th, Roan Duchess
2nd, and Rose of Towneley made a great sweep at Rotherham. She
was a beautiful cow, and won her honours at Birmingham and Smith-
field, in calf with Gold Medal, which was sold for 400 guineas to the
Atkinsons.
There was little done in 1857, but at Chester the next year the ten
yearling heifers came out and were beaten by Booth's Queen of the
Isles. Frederick's Diadem was second, but Culshaw always thought
Emma the best of his lot. All of them had calves, and some of them
were in calf then. Royal Butterfly went and was highly commended in
the bull calf class, where Mr. Fawkes's Bon Gar$on won. It was the
first time that Culshaw ever took a nurse, but he made an exception for
this pet calf, as he always drank too greedily from the pail. He was
seized with purging, and had to retire from the yard under Professor
Simonds's care, but it did not interfere with his winning trip to Northal-
lerton a fortnight after. Queen of the Isles was beaten easily by
Mr. Eastwood's Herd. 343
coachman, he still liked to hear the crack of his own
whip, and a small, but terribly select herd, of about
fifteen, with Rosette as its lady-patroness, has gra-
dually sprung up at the Hodder side.
Except where Mr. Peel joins in on the Sladeburn
side, the whole of the valley of the Hodder and the
Fidelity and Pearl, at Warwick, the next year ; and the former, after
producing one calf, ended her days as first prize fat cow at Liverpool.
Baron Hopewell's blood brought out a first and second in the bull-calf
class at Hull that year, where Emma, Royal Butterfly, Beauty's Butter-
fly, and Frederick's Diadem were all winners, and the Warwick heifers
replaced in the same order. Col. Towneley and Mr. Richard Booth
pitted the best lot of beasts against each other at Blackburn for the Cup,
and the former won. At Durham County, Nectarine Blossom beat
" The Royal" for the best beast in the yard. Save here and at Chester
and Manchester he never suffered defeat. They once thought Beauty's
Butterfly was in calf when the Duke of Athol ran with her, and in fact
she had every symptom of it. She was a month away with Rose of
Towneley on their Fat Tour in '59, and they took fourteen cups or first
prizes at Birmingham, London, and York. She was best in the yard at
all three places. She was kept more than twelve months after her
Smithfield Club medal, and won at Rugby the next year, without any
extra keep, at 3 years 9 months. Perhaps she might have been a trifle
heavier in the thigh, and the "dimple" at her tail-head, of which
Ptmch talked, might have been dispensed with. She was never weighed
alive, but her girth at her best was 9ft. lin. At last she was killed by
a butcher near Huddersfield, and her womb was found to be quite con-
tracted. Neither she nor any of the rest ever had a gill of porter (as
some people reported) but only natural food.
After this year, the showing strength of Towneley began to slacken,
and Romulus Butterfly was only second at Canterbury, and Royal
Butterfly loth second at Battersea. Frederick's back gave way early in
'6 1, when he was about twelve years old, and his last calf, Frederick's
Farewell, from Vestris 3rd, arrived in the September of that year. The
Towneley fortunes revived considerably at Worcester, where this heifer
won as a yearling, and Double Butterfly and Perfume as a pair. Roan
Knight's Butterfly and Royal Butterfly's Duchess also took first and
second honours in the in-calf heifer class, when Second Queen of May
and Rosedale proved barren. Culshaw's greatest disappointment was not
winning there with Royal Butterfly's Pageant in the calf class. She was
sold at the sale for 590 guineas, and died after calving. Ten firsts and
one second was the wind up at the North Lancashire, and the herd left
off in full show swing with Royal Butterfly in his seventh year, and as
brisk as ever. The Royal was a wonderful traveller, and Culshaw
always fought him with great pluck. He beat Prince of Prussia at Can-
terbury after Mr. Douglas had gone for the latter in Lancashire the year
344 Saddle and Sirloin.
adjacent hills belong to Colonel Towneley ; and Mr.
Eastwood has about 1000 acres in the lowland, and
4000 on the fell in his hands. His flock consists of
upwards of 2300, and of these the lonks and cross-breds
stick to the fell, and the Shropshires and Southdowns
to the grass-lands and turnips of the valley. " The
before ; and when he had no more " Royal" worlds left to conquer, he
went to York to meet Van Tromp and Skyrocket, who beat Royal
Turk and such a large field of bulls at Leeds Royal the year before. In
his last circuit (1863) he couldn't go to Ulverston, as he went home with
his hind foot cut, so Master Frederick went and won there. Two days
after that he was at Lancaster, with his foot tied up, and then off by
night to Skipton, and the next night to Halifax. He then rested at
home for two or three days, and off to Keighley to appear in a winning
family party. On he went all night to Wigton for Mr. Clark Irving's
Cup, and beat Mr. Wilson's Duke of Tyne, who had won at Worcester
that year, and off all night again to Clitheroe. Thus he finished his
show course in the railway truck at night, and in the show field by
day and without a blemish. Clitheroe witnessed the close of the
showing, and the five that went there had each a first. At Wigton,
Mr. George H. Head, the Cumberland banker, offered 250 guineas for
Royal Butterfly nth, and Culshaw would have taken 300 guineas.
There were not many in calf to ' ' The Royal" at the sale, as the blood
suited second Duke of Wharfedale, but all the dairy cows held to him.
After the sale the four shorthorns which were repurchased held, and the
dairy cows missed.
The first herd won in fourteen years upwards of 2OOO/. in money
prizes, besides 22 cups, which included the Farmers' Gazette Challenge
Cup, which was won by Colonel Towneley the first three years it was
offered, and the Purcell Challenge Cup at the Royal Irish Agricultural
Improvement Society, which had been offered for several years and
had never been won thrice in succession by one breeder before. There
were also 26 gold medals, and more than a hundred silver and bronze
medals and other trophies. The situation of Towneley has always been
bad, both on account of " the blacks" from the chimneys, the countless
dogs which accompany the pedestrians along the open footpaths, and
the butchers and others who will handle the cows as they pass along,
forgetful that they may have been near diseased beasts. Belching
chimneys are coming nearer and nearer, to within 100 yards of the farm-
yard, and one where several tons of salt are burnt to glaze tiles, spreads
smoke like a thick white fog, and taints the air with sulphuric acid.
Several of the oak trees have died from its effects, and the herbage
suffers as well.
" The Royal" was born on August I2th, 1857, and he never showed
any symptoms of failing until 1867, when he had a sort of climacteric,
and it was thought that he must be killed. However, he got over it,
Mr. Eastwood's Herd. 345
Shrops" are a new introduction, and at first only mus-
tered ten gimmers and a tup of Horton and Crane blood,
from the flock of Mr. Charles Holland, of Northwich.
Robert Parker, the ancient shepherd, who has been in
the Eastwood family since he was ten, has taken his
spud and spectacles, and sallied forth to make his
and although his thighs had wasted a little, there was still the grand
framework, as we visited him at Towneley on his eleventh birthday.
He drew himself up as proudly as of old when Culshaw put his arm
round him and bestowed some of his wonted endearments upon his
cheek and forehead. His daughter Alice Wharfedale's Butterfly, a
light roan, was at his side, and so were his Royal Butterfly 2 1st from
Duchess of Lancaster 2nd, Young Butterfly 2nd from his own Young
Butterfly in short, quite a birthday party round him, with Culshaw as
M. C. He looked likely to live to the age of Usurer and Rockingham,
and Will Edmondson watches him with the most tender anxiety ; "just
one more calf from Alice Wharfedale, and then, poor old follow, he'll have
done his duty." When that comes, Will yearns for "just another," and
so it goes on. Alice Wharfedale was repurchased at Mr. Carr's Rugby
sale in calf of Alice Wharfedale 2nd. Frederick's box was not deserted,
and there sat Culshaw on the manger, with the last of the sort, Royal
Butterfly 22nd, performing a sort of figure-dance head and tail and legs
before him. His only judicial comment was on this wise, "it's just
their way the Butterflies were always dancing," and he seemed to live
the proud old days over again, and to long to be "up and at them"
once more on a Royal Monday. Especially stylish heads told of Baron
Oxford, and there he was on the old parade ground, a very handsome
bull to meet, with Baron Oxford's Beauty arid Baron Hubback, to mark
his first Towneley season.
The Towneley herd is fast assuming its original dimensions, and
numbers between thirty and forty. The first purchase after the sale was
British Beauty, at Mr. Robinson's, of Clifton Pastures. . She is the dam
of Baron Oxford's Beauty by Baron Oxford, which took a first prize as
a yearling heifer in 1869 at the Manchester Royal and the Royal North
Lancashire shows, the only occasions on which she was exhibited.
Young Butterfly was bought back at an advance from the late Mr.
Crisp without her Baron Hopewell bull calf. Alice Wharfedale was
bought at Mr. Carr's Rugby sale, Royal Butterfly's Duchess at Mr.
Betts's, then three Duchesses of Lancaster at Mr. Bowstead's, Contord
at Mr. Adkins's, Baron Oxford with two Oxford heifers (from the
Windsor sale), and Wharfedale Butterfly and her calf Towneley Birter-
fly followed. The two last were bought at the late Mr. Packe's salt, the
cow at 1 10 guineas, or a 30 guineas advance on her Towneley sale
price, and the calf (bred by Mr. Packe) at 130 guineas. Alice Wb\rfe-
dale had four heifers and one bull, all singles, before she was six year* *ld.
Duchess of Lancaster 6th was the first great disappointment \lat
346 Saddle and Sirloin.
observations on "these new-comers." He speaks
most cautiously, though, we may say, patronizingly of
them, but still he hardly sees why they should be
crossed, even for an experiment, with those cherished
lonks, the delight of his boyhood and the solace of
his old age, whose tap-root he considers as fixed in
the very dust of time.
The change of scene has wrought wonders with
Frederick's Diadem and other breeding recusants,
and "The Royal" has also renewed his strength by
the side of the salmon-haunted Hodder. The beau-
tiful Emma, who completed in Ireland what Rosette
began, and brought home the Purcell Challenge Cup,*
has gone and left nothing behind her, save Duke of
Bowland, who was sold to the Duke of Buccleuch.
The day of the massive, staring-coloured Esther, whose
cushion would have served for a cushion-dance, is
ended. The Hero, a fine framed white bull, with hair
a trifle sharp, brought back first prize Royal honours
from Worcester, and the ever bonny and buxom
Rosette, whose life has been a chequered one between
fat and store shows, and whose loves with Royal But-
terfly have been unthrift ones, was still there in August
(1868) with two daughters and a grand -daughter at
her side. There too, in the Thorneyholme meadow,
Colonel Towneley experienced in his new herd, as she flatly refused to
breed, and she was only 2 months 20 days above the age of the heifer
class at Smithfield. She was three weeks and four days on her Bir-
mingham, London, and Liverpool travels, and took the extra stock
prize for females at every place, and she was then sold by auction for
49/. TS. in Burnley. She went on to the weigh-bridge directly she was
jold, and had only lost i61bs., or just a pound per day since she
weighed out (2O23lbs.) at Islington, with Mr. Charles Howard and Mr.
Duckham as joint clerks of the scales. Culshaw might well quote this,
as showing the constitution of the Butterflies, and dwell with rapture on
"above a pack weight of good loose fat inside her," the fine blending
of fat and lean, and the weight of beef which was carried on that delicate
bone.
* Col. Towneley gave another with the same title, which Mr. East-
wood won.
Mr. Eastwood's Herd. 347
were those relics of a great Towneley day, Double
Butterfly, Barmpton Butterfly, and Phoebe Butterfly
and Double Butterfly 2nd, which are never apart.
William Ward indulged in all the joys of anticipation
over a red heifer calf from Phoebe Butterfly, and when
that was over he led out the Witch of Endor to drink
at the fountain and show her Christmas beef. Then
came the delightful stroll over the drawbridge and
away to the stables. Heseltine was off to York with
fifteen yearlings, each led by one of the " Whitewell
Rangers," as he calls that fine clan of young fellows
who live in the valley, among blood stock, game, or
agriculture, and bear a hand when August arrives
with its pleasant York meeting holiday. Gutter
Sands, hard by the great salmon hole, in which the
Colonel delights on fishing days, was once the training
ground, b#t there was no hill in it, and how Heseltine
could ever prepare Doefoot and Rejoinder and win with
them as he did, was a miracle. Buttercup hit her leg
before the York meeting, when The Sawyer's running
with the Spy at Stockton told them that some
good things were in store, and she never could do
strong work again. Her dam Butterfly was barren in
her third year, and then she died producing her third
foal, quite a chestnut monstrosity by Kettledrum.
Water on the brain had swelled its head into the size
of a young West Highland bullock, and it took
eighteen " Rangers" at the ropes to bring it away.
The grave of Butterfly is in the hot corner of Lea
Wood plantation, near the gateway where Miss Grim-
shaw stood and brought down her twelve brace of
pheasants on a memorable day, and farther on we
reach the boxes which hold " The Kettle" and " The
King." The old horse's back is beginning to give a
little more from age, but one-and-twenty summers
have not been hard on him, and when he does go
there will not be a Velocipede sire left in the land.
Middleham still remembers how he used to go up the
348 Saddle and Sirloin.
gallop, "cracking his nose," and how carefully his
tender heels were washed out with milk each morning.
The elegantly turned Breadalbane was full of spirits
and quality, and his attempts to dance a solo before
the Bishop of Nottingham were of the most graceful
kind. Kettledrum's white reach head has hardly a
peer, but with his stallion top upon him he looks a
trifle light in the arm.
From here as an interlude between hippothine and
beef, we strolled along the Hodder side to the farm,
and saw the twenty-three West Highland bullocks,
over whom Ellison presides, and which had a first
prize winner amongst them for the next Smithfield
Club Show. An active bay Clydesdale mare, which
had just won in a pair at Burnley, shows us her paces,
and then we visit the upper box yard. The mares
and foals to which it is devoted are bedded on the
proceeds of the fern harvest, which, as the valley is
guiltless of white crops, is the great substitute. Some-
times they and the foals both eat a little for a relish,
and thus rob the potatoes, as fern litter manure is re-
markably well adapted for " that esculent." The
mares were all stabled in boxes, with sliding doors,
which no chill winds can penetrate, and out of the
twenty-three a score had foals at their foot, and
seventeen of them by Kettledrum. Two of the " half-
bred" mares, Passion Flower and Hesperithusa, which
first brought out the " white with black sleeves," had
pledges of Cape Flyaway, and Honeydew had the
only black foal of the lot, which were exactly equal in
sex. Evadne, the dam of Evelina, had been found
dead in the field, and Corrivall, the dam of The
Sawyer, was barren. Mr. Eastwood had a very
tender spot for this colt from the time he first looked
at him as a foal, and though the chestnut was not
always i' the vein, he was sold for five hundred
guineas. There was a good omen the week we were
there, as one day Lord Hawthorne and Evelina both
Mr. Peel's Herd. 349
won at Stockton, and The Sawyer was only beaten
a short head by The Spy, so that the stud won as
nearly as possible three races off the reel. The Moet
corks were drawn vigorously at Thorneyholme, when
the tidings arrived. It is generally brought by
pigeons, which are taken in by the carts to Clitheroe
in the morning, and there handed to a saddler, who
ties the telegram under their wings, and starts them
back. They make very short work of the twelve
miles, and come sailing up the valley, poised mid-air,
with many an anxious eye watching their flight. If
they don't go into their house, the saddle-room, that
great Tattersall's of the place, is in a feverish state, as
men and lads are burning to hear the home favourite's
fate. Oddly enough, on this especial day, the lad
was so busy with the York yearlings that he forgot
the pigeons, and Heseltine heard the news on his
march to York.
Knowlmere Manor is barely two miles from Thor-
neyholme. Nature and civilization in the shape of
fell and meadow have long waged a fierce strife for
the sovereignty of the spot, but twenty years ago
Mr. Peel threw a handsome Tudor house into the
scale of the latter, and forced Nature to fall back
upon her foxes, her grouse, and, we may almost add,
her Lonks. The valley of the Hodder is one of the
last places in which we should have expected to find
such a substantial tabernacle, and we could almost
fancy that some wandering band of Freemasons had
reared it in the days when Tudor or Plantagenet were
living names, carved their quaint symbol as a me-
morial on the stone, and departed as silently as they
came. To a lover of wild scenery, however, the
choice is fully justified. Knowl Hill is on the right,
with its cap of fir-trees, and in the distance the dark
Staple Oak ridge crosses the valley of the Hodder, so
dear to the Northern tourist, and looks down on the
Root Stud Farm. About 125 acres on millstone grit
350 Saddle and Sirloin.
and heather make up Mr. Peel's sheep walk, and of
the remaining 355 acres at the Home Farm, Harrow-
field and Gibbs, about 50 acres are arable. The
estate lies on the western edge of the Great Craven
Fault, and the union of this limestone formation with
the millstone grit on the hill-side caused endless cal-
culations and searchings of heart both to Mr. Peel
and his stalwart bailiff, Henry Clapham, who ori-
ginally acted as foreman of the drainers.
Only one thing was certain that the grit would be
always above the limestone, and not directly in it ;
but there was no great comfort in that. A.D. 1844
saw the commencement of these fierce labours of
spade and pickaxe, and although the higher land
does not aspire to the glories of the Hodder side
meadows, which have been known to let as high as
seven guineas an acre, and feed off two sets of beasts
and sheep in summer, it has already brought back its
increase with compound interest, in the shape of
swedes, orange ovals, cabbages, and kohl-rabi.
Salmon, as well as horses and calves, have also had
their turn in the park, and a stream as pure as crystal,
from between the limestone and the grit, was trickling
down the now deserted beds, in which the ova boxes
were deposited for hatching. The stream ran over
the young fry for twenty-one days, at the end of
which they were removed to the first pond ; the
second became their local habitation when they were
yearlings, and they then took their start for life as
two-year-olds in the river. It was here that Mr.
Ramsbottom, who has been to salmon what Nesfield
is to landscape gardening, acquired much of the ex-
perience which he has brought to bear in Ireland,
Scotland, and Hungary, and solved the much-vexed
question to his entire satisfaction, as to whether
" smolt" are the salmon fry of the year before, or the
year before that. Of the merits of the controversy
we know nothing ; but those who feel dull when they
The Lonks. 351
are waiting for the train at Clitheroe, and yearn to
know what a young " cock salmon" looks like when
it emerges from the egg, and is magnified 64 dia-
meters, had better stroll up street and look into
his shop window for some minutes as zealously as
we did.
We were first at Knowlmere in the days of
" Mountain King," who was then in his heyday, and
had just won his thirteenth out of some forty first
prizes. He made quite a picture as he stood, held by
a rod through holes drilled in his horns, and with a
fleece of i61bs. on his back, of which fully lolbs. had
been made since the 6th of May. Through the heart
and in the breast he was all that could be wished, and
the family failing of the Lonks over the loin was very
small indeed. This was in '60, and he died on
November I2th, 1864.
The " black mutton," as the Robin Hoods of the
district delicately termed it, has quite disappeared
from the Forest of Bowland since the fiat of dispark-
ing went forth. Those who just remember the
killing of the last buck have long since grown into
greybeards, and when antlers were extinct, the
curved horn of the Lonk King reigned paramount on
the fells. His prescriptive title among sheep may
be traced back for more than a century all round
the Keighley Moors, Pendle Hill, and along the
Forest of Bowland to Lancaster. Near Rochdale
the farmers are wont to cross with the Saddleworths
for the sake of greater size, and the blackfaced and
sometimes a Leicester cross comes in on the lower
lands near Lancaster ; but the Lonk never nicks well
with a Cheviot mate. Fastidious breeders consider
that there is a separate breed of Lonks on every
sheep-walk, and discern the difference not in the shape,
but in the lighter or darker mottle on the face and
legs. Quality of wool is a great Lonk attribute, and
hence Mr. Peel has never crossed his flock with the
352 Saddle and Sirloin.
Saddleworths, in spite of the temptation of the extra
size both in fleece and mutton. Width of loin is their
failing point, and by way of mending it, and getting
quality of flesh as well, Mr. Peel resorted to the
Shropshire Down. The experiment was, however, not
wholly satisfactory, and Mr. Peel returned with all
speed to the " pure unmitigated Lonk." The Knowl-
mere flock consists of about 220 ewes, of which about
seventy or eighty are drafted every year, and brought
down from the fell to the valley, where they are put
to a Leicester tup. The effect of this better fare is to
bring many more doublets, and except the foot-rot
(for which the fell is an invaluable specific) attacks
them very badly, they are never moved back again.
Their lambs are sold fat in the summer, and the draft
ewes are passed on in November to the Lancashire
butchers, and average from I7lbs. to iglbs. a quarter.
Such is their peculiarly tameless nature, acquired from
four roving years, that they will not bear being taken
up to feed.*
* The hill ranges of Yorkshire and Lancashire are believed to be the
earliest home of the Lonks. We find them extending north from
Clitheroe over the Forest of Bowland towards Lancaster, east by Colne
and Skipton as far as Keighley and Ben Rhydding, and south along
" the backbone of England, by Pendle Hill, Burnley, Todmorden, and
Bacup, almost to Blackstone Edge. The Penistone breed, a shorter
and thicker description of Lonk, then hold the hills, and Saddleworth
has also a large and plain sheep of its own, with a white face and legs
and coarse bone. The Saddleworth is a slower feeder than the common
Lonk, with which it is often crossed for the sake of size, and its wool,
which is worth as much, is a little closer and shorter in the staple.
Derbyshire has also Lonks on most of its hills and peaks, and its flock-
masters often go over to "report progress" at the Craven Show.
Where there is a mere copyhold fell-right attached to a Lonk farm,
the wether lambs are nearly always sold, but never where a flock-master
has a great fell range, as, for instance, on the hills behind Bacup. A
right of common is attached to many farms, and the flocks go mixed,
with nothing but the " Lonk Book of Marks" as a guide to the owners.
The old system of the flock going with the farm has been worked out
except in one instance. It very much tended to support purity of breed,
as now, if there is a flock of pure Lonks on a farm, the incoming tenant
will not give the price for them, and commences forthwith to cross. On
The Lonks. 353
Mr. Peel's first herd was swept off at the end of five
years by murrain, in 1856. The disease raged without
intermission from the October of that year up to the
April of the next, and the Knowlmere homesteads
became one great lazar-house. A common cow, which
was bought in for milk, was supposed to have spread
the fells from beyond Bowland Forest to Lancaster there are Blackface
flocks, but some of the owners have lost on the wool, and have accord-
ingly fallen back on the old sort. The Falkirk Blackface ewe drafts
still come over Foulscales and Browsholme on their way from the
trysts, and sometimes wait at Birket Moor to gather a little bloom
before they proceed to Clitheroe Fair. Lonks in their turn have gone
as far as Sutherlandshire, and the Grampian ranges between Perthshire
and Argyllshire, and in some instances to Northumberland as a wool
cross. The cast ewes are generally sold at Moiser Fair near Keighley,
and four to five thousand of them are dispersed round the neighbour-
hood among the small farmers, who take one crop of lambs from them
by a Leicester tup. This cross knocks out the horn in the gimmers,
and makes capital hoggs, which feed to i61bs. a quarter at twenty
months on good lowland pasture, without any artificial food. Cots-
wolds and Southdowns have also "hit" pretty well with them, but they
have been but seldom tried.
Some maintain that the pure Lonk should be copper-coloured on the
nose, and have the face and legs of the same hue ; but fashion differs
from them on this point. A white face is generally eschewed as soft,
and any approach to a brindle shade as indicative of cross-breeding.
The blending of pure black and white is now generally endorsed in the
show-ring, more especially if the poll is white, and the white streaks
fall over each cheek. Lightness in the fore-quarter is a characteristic of
the Lonk, and, as in the Ayrshire cow, betokens good milking. Their
scrags are rather light, and their legs long, and the loin too often lacks
strength. The lambs shoot their horns with the new year, and the
wethers never go beyond one curl. Breeders make much of the horn,
and consider its strength a great proof of constitution. It ought to be
self-coloured and finer than that of the blackface ; but it should come
out low from the head, and with the same fine, gentle curl.
For cunning the Lonks are unrivalled. They are, in fact, always
working for themselves, with a zeal and sagacity which makes them
very bad neighbours. Small farmers buy the wethers from the Moor
by twenty or thirty at a time, and if there be one better acre than
another in a parish, be it garden or churchyard, the strangers very soon
make themselves tenants at will. Hence it is often necessary to
"hopple" them in spring time. On the hills they run up walls like a
cat, when they cannot take them "off and on ;" but a wire fence five
feet high is too much for their philosophy. A curious anecdote is told
about one which wanted to get back from the Ings to the hill. A canal
A A
354 Saddle and Sirloin.
the taint, and in less than a month it had gone through
nearly the whole herd. In the height of its violence
it seemed to obey some subtle law, as while it swept
all the east side of one house, two Alderneys on the
west side never suffered at all. Even when it attacked
the first in a row, it did not go on by rotation, but
was in the way, and the bridge gate was strongly barricaded ; but the
Lonk bided his time till a canal-boat sailed past, and then jumping on
to its deck, cleared the canal at twice. The story is true enough, and,
as our informant naively added, " What possible inducement could a man
have to lie about a Lonk ?"
Both ewes and lambs are very hardy, and a little cow near Skipton
might once be seen suckling four cades, and as proud of them as
if they were calves. Except on the fell tops, the lambing begins about
March 2Oth. Most of the ewes lamb on the enclosed ground below the
hill, and stay there three weeks. They are not especially hardy, and
require to be wintered pretty well with hay, if it is a snowy season.
Fell life for a certain portion of the year is essential to the Lonks, as
the heather gives them bone, and acts as an antidote to foot-root. The
hoggs are generally kept down in the lowlands from September to
April, and those which are meant for store or Christmas shows are
" fed from the post," and scarcely ever see the hill. For lean wethers
the quotations range according to quality from I/, to I/. ior., and for
fat from 2l. los. to 3/. Mr. Jonathan Peel has often proved at the
Smithfield Club what sheep fed below the hill could do, as his pen of
three prize shearling wethers once averaged 2i5lbs. each, when they
were weighed on October 25th, and their clip on April 4th had averaged
i libs. The celebrated show-sheep "Mountain King," which was bred
at Hould Top, and made the Knowlmere flock, was the grandsire of
this trio on both sides, and when he was in his heyday, his own fleece
weighed iSlbs.
A breeder of many years' standing once wrote to us : "I never saw
my mountain flock so full of wool. The average will be about 5lbs.,
but it is generally 441bs. Those kept on the low lands will of course
clip more about 6 or ylbs., and some as high as 81bs." These calcu-
lations will, however, only apply to a flock which is well looked after
on a good fell range. The wool is long in the staple, but rough about
the breeching a point on which the Leicester cross improves it, and it
goes principally into the hands of the manufacturers of Rochdale for
blankets and the finest cloths. During 1857-65, prices varied from
iSs. gd. to 32^. the stone of i61bs. Three-year-old wethers from the
fell, when grazed out on good grass land, kill to about iSlbs. per quarter
of fine-grained well-mixed mutton, which a Lonk breeder would con-
sider it flat heresy in an epicure to rank after Southdown or Welsh.
With fairly good feeding and a fillip from turnips, 5lbs. to 7lbs. a
quarter more can be reached j but the sort cannot be ranked among
very fast feeders.
Mr. Peel's Herd. 355
generally singled out the heaviest milkers for its
earliest victims. Crumbling of the lungs, which ren-
dered it impossible to chew the cud, was its most pro-
minent symptom ; and, although the lives of a few
were prolonged by the adoption of Horsfall's plan of
gruel and cod liver oil three times a day, only two or
three fought through, and were kept up in apparently
the last stage of exhaustion by iron and other tonics.
Old Pearl by Tom Steele (8715) withstood all in-
fection.
A whole host of Booth bulls The Monk, Valasco,
Elfin King, Sir Samuel, Fitzclarence, Sir James
have been in that hovel on the hill ; and, while Sir
Lawrence Peel and the venerable Mr. Armstrong,
Q.C. (who was spending part of his last summer with
his old Northern Circuit friend), prolong their drive a
little, we sit with Mr. Peel under that warm summer
sun, and watch the present herd, as one by one they
go down to the stream which joins the Hodder, hard
by the fishing-stone. Bashful is up to her knees, and
" a right-down, good, old, honest cow she is." There,
too, is Boundless of the same tribe, Basilisk (another
good one), and the big, massive Pride of the Isles by
Sir James from Bride. Bloom is there to tell of
Blush, which died at 21 score gibs, per quarter, and
Marion traces back to old Water Witch, through
Mistress Mary. The roan Banter and the white
Banana seldom leave each other, and old Balmful
keeps the top ground. Bride of the Mere by Horsa
has to keep the house, and oilcake is her portion for
Christmas.* We have seen odd markings a large
* At Mr. Peel's draft sale in July, 1861, Lalage by Prince Imperial
(15,095) from Lally, a pure Bates cow, brought 235 guineas (Captain
Oliver), and Duke of Knowlmere, then a little over three months old,
115 guineas, the general average being over 56/. los. The Knowlmere
herd has never contended for Smithfield honours. Three animals only
have ever been in preparation for it, and their appearance at the Great Fat
Show has, in each case, been prevented by circumstances so adverse as
to have given rise to almost a superstition on the subject.
A A 2
356 Saddle and Sirloin.
belt of white, for instance, looking like a tape-line,
from the crops round the fore-flank ; but " The Bride"
looks as if one side of her face had been covered with
a white cloth. The bull-carriage is in the yard, but
Knight of Knowlmere is not in his box he is waiting
quietly at Clitheroe for a couple more shows, and if
there is a chance, to play out the rubber with Com-
mander-in-Chief before he rides back in state over the
hills. Malachite took the first yearling prize at the
Canterbury Royal, and he was eventually sold to Sir
John Sinclair of Barrock, Caithness, to cross with polls
and cows of the country, and many a good yearling
by him has gone to Georgemas Fair.
CHAPTER XIII.
" When North of Tweed and South of Tweed
Join hands at Waterloo."
Sporting Gazette.
Manchester Racecourses Heaton Park Thomas Godwin Mr.
Atherton's Farm Mr. Dickinson's Farm Great Coursing Grounds
A Visit to Chloe The late Mr. Nightingale The Duke of Devon-
shire's Herd Mr. Bolden's The Duchesses and Grand Duchesses
Sketches of Great Greyhounds A Waterloo Cup Day.
WE strolled out from Manchester to have a look
at the old Kersall Moor racecourse. The de-
serted Newmarket and Chesterford railway is nothing
in comparison. Part of the ballast is left, although it
is grass grown ; but there is nothing from which we
might guess the antecedents of Kersall. A church is
built on the top turn ; the run-in is quite effaced, and
no one could suppose that the trying down hill finish
which shook every joint in Galaor's body could have
existed in that troubled surface of potato enclosures
and rubble heaps, which now cumber the ground.
The Grand Stand, once so vocal with Tom Bland and
Manchester Race Courses. 357
Crutch Robinson, has wholly vanished, and there is
nothing save green sward within some thorn hedges.
We never saw it but once in its * glory, and
that was " in Satirist's year." Sim Templeman
was saddling Wee Willie, the first of the Liver-
pools ; and Bob Heseltine was looking after the
grey Bolus, one of the first of the Physicians ;
Jack Holmes was wasted to a thread paper for a
/st. I2lb. mount upon Kingston Robin ; Cartwright,
then quite a Nat of the North, twice donned the
Vansittart orange to win upon Galaor and had the
broadest of Yorkshire congratulations from John Gill ;
and the rough and ready M. Jones scored a race for
Lord Stanley on the chestnut Cornuto. Still these
horses were mere pigmies in point of fame to others
which trod " Karsy Moor." The beautiful Magistrate
with Bill Scott in the green and gold, and Mytton's
Anti-Radical and Barefoot were all winners. It was
here that Signorina slipped Memnon round the turns ;
that Longwaist, with " Uncle Sam " up, defeated Fleur
de Lis ; that Templeman got that marvellous head
on the post out of little fifteen-hand Catherina, which
" made history ;" and that Miss Bowe ran away in
a three-mile Queen's Plate from General Chasse,
who had to come down hill at the finish, instead of
having his favourite Liverpool Cup rise (on which
so many cracks had come back to him), when Jack
Holmes slipped in the whalebone and the Ripon
rowels.
The Committee had very hard work to secure their
late course at Castle Irwell. When Kersall Moor
was taken from them, some people said that Radcliffe
Bridge race ground would do. Horwich was also
anxious that the meeting should come to its Moor ;
Newton was ready to make its fixture for Whitsun
week, and it was only at last when White Moss had
been rejected, that Castle Irwell was fixed upon.
The meeting on the Irwell meadows began on May
3 5 8 Saddle and Sirloin.
25th, 1847, with a dead heat between Louisa Newell
and Meaux f George Simpson on Sheraton got the
whip for winning the principal cup, and Tommy Lye,
who died at last with as many pence as he had once
had pounds, wrote regretting that a fall at Catterick
had prevented him from contending for it in the town
of his nativity. Peep o'Day Boy was bowled out
the next year by Swiss Boy for the Cup, and for some
time the Chesterfield and B. Green colours had quite
a cup patent. Legerdemain, Frantic, Black Doctor,
Longbow, King of Trumps, Rataplan (Qst. 3lbs.),
Typee, Underhand, Ivanhoff, and Ellermire have all
been winners over these meadows. The prophets saw
nothing in the future winning "pony," Saucebox, when
he was a Trades Cup winner, and Nat was never
more astonished than when he took his celebrated
leap over the rails on the perverse Iron Duke. On
September 2ist, 1867, Mr. Eastwood wound up mat-
ters with Rejoiner, who ran away from Merry Harp
and old Queen of Trumps.* His horses played a
prominent part when the new course was opened at
Old Trafford, as Lord Hastings came under the charge
of Arthur Briggs, and Buttercup of Watson, and each
had full liberty to do his best to win the silver cup
which the committee gave to the trainer of the first
Trades Cup over the new ground. They compared
notes the night before, and each was equally con-
fident ; but Butterfly's daughter made short work
of the "Lord."
* This hard-working old "charwoman" ran 164 times in her six
seasons, and won 42 times, or about every fourth time, which is any-
thing but " monkey's allowance" in these days of severe " competitive
examination" for the turf as well as the civil service. She first
appeared as a bad fifth in the Doncaster Trial Stakes of 1862. Oddly
enough, her stable mate, Moulsey, who ran his last race at Warwick
Autumn, came out at Doncaster Spring in '63 as a bad fourth for the
Betting Room Stakes ; and he retired about the same time, after having
run 113 times, and won 34 times.
Heat on Park. 359
R. W. Procter, a Manchester poet, has told us of
" A party who went, on pleasure bent,
On a journey to Heaton park ;"
but the spring-carts which carried the " Rough Robins"
and their ladye loves on Sept. 25th, 1827, when the
park was opened for races, harmonized very ill with
the Duke of Beaufort's four-in-hand, or with the team
of six piebalds driven by Mr. Knowles, the coach pro-
prietor. There was such a crush, that at three o'clock
the gates were closed, and the scrambling through the
hedges did such damage, that in future no one was
admitted without a ticket, and then only on horseback
or in a carriage. Then the great question arose, " Is
a truck a carriage ? " and it was argued for the ap-
pellant, that anything that could carry was a carriage,
provided it were drawn by a horse, ox, goat or dog.
The best illustration as to how a " carriage " should
be drawn was, when " The Squire " brought Tom
Thumb there in his match cart, and gave him some
rare " steps out " round the course. He rode Catherina
against Chancellor (Earl Wilton) in one of the finest
finishes ever seen in the park, but " my lord " had the
best of it on the post. " The Squire's " greatest vic-
tory was on Rush ; and coloured engravings of it may
be seen to this day. For two years running, Captain
White, who was then in his Melton heyday, won the
Matilda Gold Cup ; and Becher, " the -captain with
the whiskers," after professionals had been admitted
in 1835, screwed in Jagger first to John Scott's amaze-
ment, despite his vile temper and a broken stirrup
leather. Earl Wilton had the cream of the Whitewall
riding, and Whitewall then meant the Westminster
and Chesterfield lots. His lordship walked over twice
on Touchstone, and won upon Hornsea and Scroggins ;
and he was also on Prizeflower, the great bashaw of
" cocktails," when Harkaway and Cruiskeen, the Irish
chestnuts, fell. Don John came on from Doncaster
360 Saddle and Sirloin.
with John and Bill Scott, and Nat in his train ; Slash-
ing Harry and Miss Bowe ran the most slashing of
dead heats ; the beautiful Vanish was great in Gold
Cups, and the dam of Orlando did one of those " short,
sharp, and decisive " things, at which for half a mile
she has perhaps never had a rival.
About thirty years ago Lancashire had better racing
on the whole than Yorkshire. People can hardly
realize now what an event the Liverpool Tradesmen's
Cup was when General Chasse, Inheritor, and Charles
XII. were winning it, or when Harkaway first made
his appearance in England, and was beaten by Tommy
Lye on St. Bennett. Very few turfites went to bed on
those nights, watching for the mail guards to bring
the news. " The days of its glory were o'er" with
the Cup dead heat between John Day on Vulcan, and
Chappie on Rodanthe. Lord George infused such
energy into the Goodwood management, and Mr. Etty
was such a quiet-going person, that owners gradually
began to reserve their horses for the south, and with
The Baron and Van Tromp, its famous St. Leger
ceased to throw any shadows before. The late Lord
Derby's racing heart was not in his country. It might
be in the days of Verbena, for whose sake he always
fancied the Velocipede blood, but when John Scott be-
gan to train for him, Doncaster and the great Southern
meetings pleased him better. He cared for few things
more than going by the night train to see a trial run
at Doncaster at dawn, and we remember well, how
he seemed to enjoy walking right round the course
with his lot, at their morning exercise in Knight of St.
George's year.
During our stroll to Heaton Park, we called upon
Thomas Godwin (late head groom to the Earl of
Wilton), that fine old man, of whom Dick Christian
affirmed in his weird-like accents " Pleasant fellow
as need to be, and the best groom rider as ever come to
Melton'' He was born near Elton New Closes,
Thomas Godwin. 361
sacred to the shade of Tom Sebright, in 1786, and
owed his education to the village school. Out of
doors he became a capital swimmer and skater ; and
his diving abilities were of such a high order, that
the " diving dog of Moscow " might have been jealous
of him. As it was, a Newfoundland entertained
some such feeling, and, seizing him as he rose to the
surface at about the 999th essay of throwing himself
into the water with the smallest possible impression,
very nearly shook the life out of him. When very
young, he entered the service of Earl Carysfort as
second postillion, and had such a nice seat and hand
that he was soon made second horseman, and dis-
tinguished himself early by leading throughout a run,
on Taffy, from Elton New Closes to Yaxley. His
lordship went as straight as a bird, but suffered heavily
from asthma ; and at times he would almost be hang-
ing on, gasping, by the bridle, till Godwin could dis-
mount and adminster the soothing dose which he
always carried with him.
One of Godwin's first pieces of sleight-of-hand, and
one that he always loved to recount, was drilling a
horse, which would never approach the steps of the
front door to be mounted ; and he seldom failed to
cap it with how he swam his own and his lordship's
horse across some flooded meadows, while my lord
took to the foot-bridge. The late Earl Fitzwilliam more
than once asked him to take a whip's place, but he
liked his present berth better. He gradually rose to
be head groom at Lord Carysfort's, and made his
first acquaintance with Lancashire by his trips across
the Channel to his lordship's Irish estates. The sight
of the Mersey never failed to elicit a word to the
memory of Vandyke, one of his master's stud, which
jumped overboard about a mile from Liverpool. The
vessel's pace was not great at the time, and the horse
swam in its furrow like " the bold shark," and was only
beaten a few lengths to the pier-head. He was none
362 Saddle and Sirloin.
the worse for his bath ; and Godwin, on the pretext
of getting him measured for a new saddle at Stamford,
soon after attended the great Cribb and Molyneux
meet at Thistleton Gap.
On leaving his lordship's service, he went back to
Elton, where he broke young horses, and there carried
out a notion which had long haunted him, of going
abroad with Lord Strathaven, afterwards Marquis of
Huntley, and Mr. Harvey Aston. His dancing abili-
ties had great scope while travelling through Spain
and Portugal ; and, in spite of his memories of Van-
dyke and Taffy, he took quite kindly to the muleteer
business, and enjoyed his new life all the more from
one or two rencontres with banditti. However, the
yellow jack cut his roaming short, and the doctors
ordered him home, Mr. Aston giving him a very plea-
sant berth at Aston Hall, in whose stalls he found
Minister and some other capital hunters standing ab-
solutely idle. He kept them in leaping-pole exercise
in summer, and sent them along very merrily for some
seasons while Will Head hunted the Cheshire ; and
taught his son to imitate him on a pony, which he had
got pretty sound by keeping him perpetually in bran-
mash boots. Mr. Aston's next visit to England was
not of long duration ; and when he left, he placed a
mysterious letter in Godwin's hands, with injunctions
that he was not to read it unless he heard of his death.
After a long absence, his master returned, without
notice, in the dead of night, knocked up Godwin, and
burnt the letter ; and then told him that the horses,
some of which proved worth 300 to 400 guineas each,
were to be sold.
For the next nine years Godwin stayed in the
county as the landlord of the " Ring of Bells," a great
house for funerals and weddings at Daresbury, where
he broke ladies' horses so artistically that their fair
owners would have it that he was one of the " Whis-
perer" family, of whose Irish prowess so much had
Thomas Godwin. 363
been written. He didn't care what he rode ; and on
one occasion, when the doctor was making a call, and
the lad was holding his horse, the sight of Will Head
and the Cheshire excited Tom so much that he
jumped up and went well on " the unknown," in a nice
4O-minute thing. The doctor took it in very good
part when the horse arrived back with " an honourable
hunting diploma, such as I could never have conferred
on him." Mr. Hopwood's beagles occasionally came
into the neighbourhood, and were hunted by a pole-
bearing enthusiast ; and even Godwin was found aiding
and abetting them in treason against " Sir Harry, Will
Head, and the hounds," when a fox jumped up in their
faces, near an old pond.
Having his eyes pretty well about him, he pur-
chased an Irish horse for 2O/. out of a drove going to
Chester fair, with fuil warning that he was a hopeless
savage. Fighting and coaxing did its work ; and he
exchanged him with one of Sir Harry Mainwaring's,
which had defied Will Head, Tom Ranee, and all the
rest of the kennel division. With a good ash plant
and spurs newly rowelled, he commenced his task ;
and as sliding up to trees and houses, and planting
its forelegs against them, constituted a great part of
the performance, the pair had a lively time, to the
great edification of the village. The end of it was
that he could ride him hunting in a halter, and sold
him back to Sir Harry for ioo/., after a hard run, and
felt sure from his after performances that he was given
away. His little grey pony, the " three-legged horse,"
and his terrier bitch, which, weeks after the night of
the robbery, marked the man who did it, by springing
at him as he called for some ale at the bar, were all
landmarks in his Cheshire stay, and through Sir
Richard Bulkeley's influence he was engaged to the
Earl of Wilton as stud-groom. Jenny Sutton and
Arachne (dam of Industry) were among his first
charges ; and it was when he stopped at Melton en
.364 Saddle and Sirloin.
route to Newmarket with Chancellor and Bras de Fer,
that he had his first Leicestershire mount from his
lordship. This taste of old times made him rather
dislike the monotony of a life in the paddocks, and
from being stud-groom he soon succeeded Allen at the
head of his lordship's hunting stud. As a lady's pilot
across country he was first-rate, and he used to reflect
proudly on the brilliant riding of the Earl's family.
He always persisted that he knew many ladies whose
judgment was quite equal to gentlemen's with hounds,
and that they " mauled their horses about far less."
All his actions were quick, and his punctuality a
proverb. Sixty miles on his hack and a hundred by
rail, when he was looking after a horse for the Earl,
were nothing to him ; and if he stopped at an inn,
and went into the bar for a little warm beer, he would
drink it and fall asleep, leaving word that he was to
be awoke " in seven minutes." Training a horse for
his lordship at Heaton Park, and beating one with the
Whitewall polish on it, was a great joy to him ; and
he did not fail to have his joke with Mr. Scott about
home training, when he was performing his annual
task of driving him and his brother Bill in the Irish
car, to meet the coach. At these races he generally
acted both as starter and course clearer, and he had
very little sleep during that week. " Hard necks"
and " sensible heads," " great hind-quarters," and
" short legs" he regarded as the constituent elements
of a "regular napper," among which his lordship's
Brilliant, Cannon Ball, Roland the Brave, The Rose,
Pigeon, the Piebald mare, Spectre, and the grey pony
ranked very high with him. There was also the hack
Telegraph, which was sold and bought back some
time after ; and if Godwin had loved him in life,
his admiration of him rose to blood heat at last,
as he broke away from the grave-side and had a
gallop about the pleasure-grounds just before he was
shot.
Thomas Godwin.
This story he generally coupled with one of Jebb,
the groom, who was commissioned to bring a donkey
from Heaton Park to Melton. At Chesterfield the
donkey died, and either for an excuse or under a
solemn belief that he was doing his duty, Jebb came
on the forty miles simply to announce the lamented
decease. In his heart he did not blame the lad for
seeing that journey through, which he himself enjoyed
so much each autumn and spring. His good nature
and jocularity made him quite a popular character in
the towns and village on his route. A more business-
like man never kept a stable key. He gave his horses
a good deal of work before his lordship rode them,
and after a very hard day a few drachms of aloes, but
always on their return from hunting as much warm
water as they would drink. Oatmeal he detested,
owing to the trouble he once had with a pony from
using it too freely ; and he seldom physicked a horse
without flinging him a batten of straw for him to pick
over and keep himself in action with. He rode long
in the stirrup, and always holding his snaffle rein
shorter than his curb, and with the heel of his hunting
boots not deep, but remarkably extensive ; and his
mode of getting on horseback was exactly the reverse
of Rarey's. When his day was over, his noble master
pensioned him handsomely, and he lived in Heaton
Park, in a little house near the old course.. When we
saw him he was seventy-two, and he seemed to be fail-
ing fast. He did not live much more than two years,
and died at Melton during one of his annual visits to
the old spot, whose cemetery holds the remains of this
right good and faithful servant.
Chapel House lies five miles from Liverpool, on the
Aigburth and Garston road, about a quarter of a
mile from the banks of the Mersey, which bounds it
on one side. The Welsh hills tower above the woods
of Hooton and Eastham, which run down nearly to
the opposite shore ; steamboats go churning on their
366 Saddle and Sirloin.
way, and sloops with " their top-gallants set, and their
streamers unfurled," come dropping down with their
heavy cargoes of coal and rock-salt from the gloomy
treasure-houses of Runcorn and Warrington. The
farm is almost on a dead level, and laid out in seven
fields of nearly thirty acres each. It was originally a
rabbit warren, and was eventually purchased by Mr.
Richard Watt, the owner of Blacklock and Altisidora.
"Time works wonders," and in 1857 three societies
awarded Mr. Atherton a prize for the best cultivated
farm. His great shorthorn sale was in the July of
1862. Three Grand Dukes made 75O/. 15^., the 7th,
by the 3rd from Grand Duchess 4th, going at 320
guineas to Captain Oliver, and the 3rd at 195 guineas
to his neighbour Mr. Robarts. Six Cherry Duchesses
made 696^ 3^., and of these Cherry Duchess 7th (205
guineas) went to Lord Penrhyn.*
Mr. Atherton's farm was tenanted for twenty years
by his father (who is now at Mount Pleasant, a larger
farm close by), and comprises about two hundred
acres. Potatoes, wheat, and barley form the crop
rotation, and the facilities for getting manure afford
every inducement to farm high. There is a great
market for hay and straw, and it is Mr. Atherton's
general practice to sell the first crop of hay, and use
the second for his stock. Speke farming has always
* Mr. Atherton has both bred largely and had several shorthorns of
much value through his hands. The brothers Robert and Thomas
Bell, who had left Kirklevington after the great sale, came to reside in
his neighbourhood, and gave him the first start with pure blood. A lot
of heifers, with Marquis of Speke (13,307), and then Cherry Duke 2nd
(which he got from Mr. Bolden) to serve them, brought the herd to 50
strong, and these were sold in March '58 for nearly 337. a piece.
Cherry Duke 2nd headed the bulls, and was bought by Mr. George
Shepherd's son, a mere boy, for 205 guineas ; he did good service at
Shethin, and went thence to Rossie Priory, Inchture. Mr. Atherton's
second start was with Gwynnes from Mr. Caddy, and Wild Eyes from
Messrs. Barthropp and Crisp ; these were augmented by the Springfield
Duchess, Cherry, and Finella purchases. Czarovitz (17,654) was
bought from Knowlmere Manor. Moss Rose (which he successfully
Mr. At her tori s Farm. 367
had a great character, and in the Report of the Man-
chester and Liverpool Society for 1853 (the year after
Mr. Atherton succeeded his father at Chapel House),
his neighbour, Mr. John Cartwright, appears as the
prize-taker for the best cultivated farm of not less than
150 acres, and Mr. William Ashton for that between
60 and 100 ; while Mr. James Langshaw has a prize
for laying down land to grass, and Mr. Atherton for
mangold wurzel, swedes, and yellow globes. Plenty
of medals and money were brought home by them and
Mrs. Edwards in the intervening nine years ; but '61
found both Mr. Atherton and Mr. Cartwright with
prizes for laying down land to grass, and the former
with a sub-soiling prize as well.
A sight of the capital midden with its 600 to 700
tons of " ripe, rotten dung," speaks both to eye and
nose of mangolds, with nearly 44 tons to the acre, and
turnips with 42^. Kooria Mooria guano is also called
in aid, and applied very freely by hand to the turnips
after the potatoes are taken away. Mr. Atherton has
been rather fond of the latter combination of green
crops. The potatoes are planted in March in drills,
and then ridged up ; in May or June a ridge of turnips
is sown at the side of the drill ; and in the latter end
of June the early potatoes are taken out and sold, and
the turnips remain. It was for a crop grown on this
exhibited) and another heifer or two came from Wetherby, and with
them the Duke of Wetherby (17,753), the first-born of Duchess 77th,
on hire. After a short season with him a second sale took place in '62,
the 51 averaging 6jL $s. &/. Since then Mr. Atherton has never
lacked a good animal. In '64 he bought Mr. Mark Stewart's two
heifers of the Cherry tribe, and one of them, Southwick Cherry Flower,
illustrates the i8th vol. of the Herd Book. He also bought some of
the Kirklevingtons, which he has recently sold at a large profit to Mr.
Pavin Davies. The American bull Lord Oxford 2nd (20,215) was pur-
chased by him soon after landing in '62 ; after nearly four years use he
was exchanged for Imperial Oxford (18,084), who died in a short time,
and was replaced by Thirteenth Duke of Oxford (21,604) (bred at
Holker), from Killow. The latter has lately been sold with some
heifers to Mr. Edgar Musgrove.
368 Saddle and Sirloin.
principle that Mr. Atherton won a turnip prize* for
two years in succession.
A ride of twenty miles, with a couple of changes,
amid a network of railways which it is hopeless to
unravel on paper, found us at the Pimbo-lane station,
about a quarter of a mile from Mr. Dickinson's Bal-
cony Farm. It lies at Upholland, about four miles
west of Wigan, and it is now the property of the Mar-
quis de Rothwell, of Sharpies Hall, near Bolton.
The stone-mullion windows and the comfortable
entrance-hall, all mark the old manor house ; and the
Derby crest of the eagle and child is still decipherable
on the front. In extent the farm is a mere garden of
112 acres, and in such a cold and rainy spot, that
when Mr. Dickinson took to it in 1838, it had been
untenanted for a whole year. There was not a road
on it ; it was all undrained, and with hardly a service-
able fence, and very little wood except a few " hedge-
hog trees" upon wide caps with a crooked ditch, and
divers rows of stumps which required clearing. The
prospect was not enlivening, and the croakers were in
great force when they caught the new tenant at the
market ordinary. The most sanguine of them kindly
gave him a year, and the majority of them six months.
Most men would have thrown up the cards in despair
(and no blame to them either), but Mr. Dickinson
would not flinch. Fifteen years of steady, unresting
diligence brought its reward, and in 1853 he was
enabled to claim, at the first time of asking, the Man-
chester and Liverpool Agricultural Society's prize for
"the best cultivated farm between zooand 150 acres;"
and again in 1861, the earliest season for making a
reclaim. In the interval between the two awards, he
* Several other prizes, including the Centenary one given by the
Manchester and Liverpool Society, with a challenge cup of 20 guineas,
for the best cultivated farm in 1867, against eleven competitors, have
fallen to Mr. Atherton's lot.
Mr. Dickinsons fiarm. 369
had drained no less than 2600 rods with two and two
and a half-inch pipe tiles from three to five feet deep,
besides carting the tiles seven miles ; and when we
add, that he had stubbed up 720 yards of old fences,
and drained the ditches with four-inch pipes, and
planted 1030 yards of new fences, and the whole at his
own expense, with the exception of the quicks and
planting, we have a pretty good proof of what Saxon
perseverance can do.*
* It was eight or nine years before he thought of shorthorns, and
when he did speculate in a bull-calf it could get no stock. The second
did not fare much better, as, after keeping it six months, it died off at a
day's notice. So far, so bad ; but nothing daunted, he went again to
the same herd (Mr. Birchall's, of Ribbleton Hall), and returned on
that occasion with Louisa and two bull calves. Louisa gained an H. C.
at the Liverpool and Manchester Show, but she would not breed to
Statesman, and then Mr. Birchall presented him, to make up for his
previous ill-luck, with Tipton (12,228) by Brewster (7847), as a mate
for her. From this lucky cross (which was the turning point of the Up-
holland herd) came Tipton Slasher (13,888), Amelia (the dam of Prince
of Prussia, and Duke of Holland), and the Duchess of Lancaster ; and
then Louisa considered her mission accomplished.
Lancashire had hitherto bounded Mr. Dickinson's journeys, but he
could not resist a peep at the Fawsley sale, and returned with the ten
months' Pope's Eye (15,071), by Duke of Cambridge (12,742), from
Smockfrock, by Earl of Dublin (10,178). Never were 45 guineas better
laid out ; and Prince of Prussia, in 1857, and Duke of Holland, in 1858,
were the results of the cross with Amelia, but, as if to square matters,
their own brother died in 1860, when he was four days old, and she
cast an own sister to them in the following year.
Mr. Dickinson began as an exhibitor at the little Upholland gather-
ing ; but he got well beaten at first, and could do nothing until he sent
Louisa into the ring. His first Liverpool and Manchester prize was at
Warrington in 1853, when " Tipton" beat a large field for the yearling
bull prize. Amelia was also a great winner both, at this Society and
others in the district ; and among her fifteen prizes she could count
one as " best cow or heifer in the yard," at Southport ; and that for the
11 best tenant farmers' cow or heifer" twice over at the North Lancashire.
So far Mr. Dickinson has nearly 5oo/. to his credit side in prizes, and of
these 7o/. (and five silver medals) were contributed by Prince of
Prussia. This bull was never shown till he was a yearling, and, except
when he thrice met Royal Butterfly, and one of Mr. Ambler's (once),
he never missed a first prize. It was rather hard lines to have Towneley
in such especial force at the time, but still a second to such a bull at the
Royal, with the first animal he ever showed there, and a third in the
B B
3 70 Saddle and Sirloin.
But we have had enough beef for the present, and
as Lytham is so near we must be off after the grey-
hounds. The year of memory with modern coursers
goes back principally to Mr. Nightingale's rise and
steady reign at the head of coursing judges. In Craven
the young fellows take to the sport by nature. Mr.
Greenwood of Bank Newton, near Gargrave, was Mr.
Nightingale's chief instructor, and the pupil could
soon stand without holding, and judged his maiden
public course, in 1831, at Mr. Legh of Lyme's. In due
time his scarlet was seen at the Waterloo, and he
judged there eighteen times in twenty-one years. In
one of the other three, he was elected, but declined
to give up the Roman Camp. During that period
Speculation was a cup winner under Mr. McGeorge,
and Cerito under Mr. Watson and Mr. Bennett. Mr.
Nightingale's jurisdiction began with Fly, and ended
with that " merry dog" King Lear. This was his last
public course, and as Sunbeam ran up, he had the
consolation of feeling when illness began at last to lay
its iron grip on his sturdy frame, that he had " left off
with two good ones." King Lear was the freshest,
and led to his hare, wrenched, and turned her. Sun-
beam then got in, wrenched, and killed so soon, that
nothing under two more good points could have
changed the shout from "Fawn!" to " Red /"
There used to be sad dodging with stewards on
some coursing fields, and a judge could only sit on his
saddle and bear it. Stewards would wilfully shift the
beating on to plough when a " dangerous stranger"
had to be knocked out of time. Partisans would
" steady" the hare by getting, at such a crisis, between
her and a plantation or sough, so as to make the
same class the next year, behind two like Skyrocket and Royal Turk, is
(as the disappointed candidate always observes on the hustings) " even
more than a victory." Prince of Prussia was sold after the Canterbury
Royal for 200 guineas to go to Australia.
Great Coursing Grounds. 371
course as long as possible. Ground, where it was
almost impossible to kill a hare, has been selected for
a bye ; and once, to the judge's bitter indignation, the
beaters were actually ordered back a mile, that " a
very dangerous stranger" might run among flints. The
admirers of the " steadying" principle did once suc-
ceed, as they thought, in gruelling a crack, but he
warmed up wonderfully next day, and although the
hare ran away from both in the decider, he got farthest
up the hill at the finish and won.
The Ridgway Club holds four meetings in the year
one at Ridgway ; two (open) at Lytham, where the
Clifton Arms is their head quarters ; and one (open)
at Southport, where they hail from the Bold Arms.
Lytham is seven miles from Ridgway, and separated
from it by the Ribble. When the 168 Dog Stake was
run for at Southport, and Rocket ran up for it as well
as for the Waterloo Cup, there was no coursing at
Lytham ; and Crosstown meadows, two miles south
of Southport, where the stake finished, afforded some
rare trials. The great, soft, grey hare, which is bred
on the black earth near Marton Mere, lower down, is
not so good ; but the Churchtown meadows have the
advantage of the brown sea-side hares, which are
driven from a strip of meadow and plough, on sandy
soil, by the side of the road. Mr. Knowles lives at
Lytham, and lends much life to the sport ; and so
does Mr. Hardman, the owner of the manor of Gis-
borne. The latter has been for thirteen years chair-
man of the Ridgway Club, and is as felicitous a
speaker as he is a good fisherman, shot, and courser.
The stubbles are very deep, both at Lytham and
Southport ; and the Lytham pastures have the advan-
tage of some rare moss hares, among which "John o'
Podd's," who lives at the bottom of the moss, had a
mighty renown. The Ridgway Club judging is always
done from a ladder eight feet high, as the ground is
too soft to ride. Mr. Nightingale never could bear
B B 2
372 Saddle and Sirloin.
the ladder, and would maintain that he was " not a
lamplighter." Jim Maple carried it after him till well
into the afternoon, and finding it a case of " Love's
Labour Lost," he flung it away into a ditch. Mr.
Bake had it fished out and varnished, and Mr. War-
wick and the present bench all go aloft. The ground,
both at Lytham and Southport, is nearly all plough
arid stubble, and with open dykes, like Altcar ; but it
is heavier work for the dogs. A few small whin covers,
and some whins by the side of the dykes, form the
only cover.
There are an immense number of hares, and many
of the old ones are levelled off during the summer, as
they are so hard upon the crops. No less than 205
were killed at one open meeting at Lytham. This
was one which Mr. Nightingale has never forgotten.
He had judged at Baldock, and he had to get from
there to Wolverton to meet the mail train. He was
at Lytham by a quarter before nine got a cup of
tea, and began and decided eighty-four courses the
first day. They left off five miles from Lytham, and
even Mr. Blake had quitted the field. However, Mr.
Nightingale walked home, and danced " into the small
hours" at the Clifton Arms. Will V/arner slipped at
that meeting, and Lyddesdale won. Will has grown
fat and pursy now, and Tom Raper is still the star,
while Metcalfe and Wilkinson have a good practice ;
but Mr. Nightingale maintained that " Will was the
first slipper who put the dogs in a straight line on
their game." The practice is now abandoned, but
Mr. Nightingale would always keep the slipper in
hand and give the distance ; and on one occasion,
when his " Go" was not waited for, he turned his back
on the dogs, and gave it a " No go." A Waterloo slip
will be from 100 to 120 yards.
Raper still runs well, and delivers his dogs very
smoothly and straight on the hare, and will stay any
distance. His predecessor, Dick Nobblet, was a
Great Coursing Grounds. 373
short, thick-set little fellow ; but still he ran fast, and
in rough ground no one could lay his dogs on more
scientifically.
" It is a common saying," observed Mr. Nightingale,
" that hares run so much better after frost, but it is
not that the hares run so well after the frost, but that
the greyhound generally runs worse at that time.
Hares cannot bear starving in wet, and get their
backs up ; and dry, windy weather suits them best.
A good hare, under such circumstances, will wrench
herself to hold her ground ; and a wrench does not
count unless a dog is pressing her and forces her out
of her track. Hares are very curious, and go by hear-
ing far more than sight. I have seen a brace of grey-
hounds running actually strike them out of their form,
and yet they would sit down again. Shap or Knipe
Scar is celebrated for its wonderful hares, and the
' Shapbeckers/ as they are called, have worn out
many a good brace of dogs in a one and a-half mile
race to the plantations at the top. When a ' Shap-
becker' gets on a hare track, with her head for home,
perhaps nothing in the world travels faster. The
Shap fields are all grass, of 300 or 400 acres each,
and are well fenced. There are some scars and
bits of boulders, and clumps of trees and smeuses in
plenty."
Mr. Benn, late steward to the Earl of Lowther, was
a very good courser in his day, and the owner of
Eden, who ran the international match with Dusty
Miller, During his great career as a judge, from
which (in consequence of a spinal complaint) he re-
tired with a handsome testimonial, Mr. Nightingale
never had harder work than when he drove in his gig
70 miles in 7^ hours, with four changes of horses, from
Harewood to Kendal after judging ; and he was in his
saddle at 9 A.M. next morning, all ready for the Shap-
beckers. A judge now-a-days has mail trains to
help him, and Mr. Warwick finished, about 5 P.M.,
3 74 Saddle and Sirloin.
in Worcestershire last season, drove fourteen miles to
the train, reached Stafford, changed trains, and on
through the night to Carlisle, down the Newcastle
railway, and then by " The Dandy," alias the horse-
tram carriage to Brampton, and on the field some six
miles away by ten o'clock. Six different conveyances,
and sleep as you can ! Such are the labours of popular
officials. 1 *
There was once some beautiful running at
Broughton, which has no plough, and fine undulating
grass fields, of from 50 to 100 acres. The Ox
Pasture, which is bounded on one side by the river
Air, was the queen of them ; and Selby, Clive, Hughie
Graham, and Dalton ran there. At one meeting they
had twenty-one courses out of it, but that was done
by drilling the beaters like soldiers. There are a few
hedges, but the majority of the fences are walls. Sir
Charles Tempest took great interest in the sport at
one time, but an attack which was made upon his
keepers by a Lancaster band of poachers disgusted
him, and he ordered all the hares to be shot down. It
was a very great grief to the Skipton people, but since
Sir Charles died the meeting has been renewed.
Harewood is bad, enclosed ground ; and Baldock,
which is all grass, is something like Wiltshire, with
plough farms, very few fences, and thin barley land.
Cardington Great Field is shaped like a water-dish,
and very little intersected with hedges. The hares
are in the low parts, and the skirts always take the
hill, and like the Dirleton hares, find them where you
may, they are evenly good.
" As a rule," according to Mr. Nightingale, " hares
are more equal on corn than grass-land. They differ
very much. At Eaglesham the red-legged hares were
* At Ashdown there were formerly two tryers, one at the top and
the other at the bottom of the hill.
For Ashdown Coursinp- see " Sqott and Sebrieht." pp. 244-248.
Great Coursing Grounds. 375
very large, and miracles of stoutness, and near the
Three Mile House at Bendrigg, in Westmoreland,
there used to be a dusky-coloured breed which
screamed ten yards before the dogs a pretty strong
indication of rottenness."
Market Weighton has fine large enclosures, and
small hedges, but flints are sadly in the way. The
meadow ground at Barton-on-Humber is very good,
and not unlike the Churchtown and Altcar meadows ;
and the " Leger-field," as they call it, is a very grand
one for racing stretches. It was here that War Eagle
and Wicked Eye won the two stakes as puppies.
At the Border Union they always commence the
first day's coursing at Gretna Station on the Guards
Farm, and almost within view of Gretna Green. It is
a most central place, as three railways meet there.
The beaters then go on to the Rosetrees Farm (Mrs.
Gibbons'), and after that finish the day on The Bush,
which is tenanted by Mr. Tom Gibbons, of Burnfoot.
The second day's coursing was held last year over
English Town and Cubby Hill farms, about four miles
from Longtown. All the coursing about twenty years
ago used to be over that ground. The old Hannah,
or " the real Hannah," (as Jock Saunders once called
her when she was winning at Morpeth), The Young
Hannah, Tramp, and Bendigo all won or ran forward
there. On the third day the meet is at Longtown
Station, and they course over Sandbed, Oakbank
(Mr. Tinning, the Secretary's farm), and Smalmstown,
and finish up on the old Longtown racecourse or
adjoining fields, all tenanted by Mr. Tom Gibbons.
They never slip on the plough, but drive all the hares
off it. It is one of the most economically managed
clubs in the kingdom, and beats nearly all the crack
clubs hollow in the small percentage for expenses.
The list is filled very soon after it is published, and
Mr. Tinning's balance-sheet might inflame with envy
the hearts of Quilter and Ball. The draw dinner at
3 76 Saddle and Sirloin.
Longtown is also a great affair with Mr. Tom Gibbons
as perpetual president Mr. Wightman, the senior
field steward, is a notable character on his half-Arab
mare, " Fanny," and the way in which he drives a
hare up a long fallow field, nearly half-a-mile in
length, sometimes right in the face of a crowd, is a
treat to see. Although he has been born and bred a
foxhunter, being brother-in-law to Willy Routledge of
The Crook (who has owned a small pack of fox-
hounds for half a century), and does not care much
for coursing, still he lends all the help he can, and
is most capitally seconded by Mr. James Little of
Guards.
Mr. Nightingale considered the Altcar ground to
be in most respects superior to all other ground,
barring the best parts of Amesbury and Ashdown.
The only drawbacks are the smeuzes for hares to run
into and the open ditch system. Nothing spoils a
dog so much as to lose sight of his game just as he
is going to strike it. The ditches have changed the
fortune of many a course ; but they are wanted to
take off the waters from the levels into the larger
cuts, and from thence to the engine-house, where it
is pumped into the river at a higher level. The
great main cut to the engine-house has never been
jumped by pedestrians without a leaping-pole ; but
Mr. Nightingale once threw his whip Over and did it
in his riding-dress, with a pair of light buckskins and
long knee-boots, without a nail in the sole. After a
heavy fall of rain, such is the variable nature of the
Altcar ground, that some parts are very spongy, and
others firm and hard. Still, all styles of greyhounds
can run over it, if they only understand how to fly a
drain, from Judge at 6/lbs. to Lobelia at 43lbs. Be-
sides the Waterloo Meeting, the Altcar Club generally
meets there twice in the course of the season ; and
Lord Sefton is as true a patron of the leash in the
North, as Lord Craven and Sir Edmund Antrobus in
Great Coursing Grounds. 377
the South. The best coursing at Altcar is in two or
three of the meadows or marshes, commencing at Will
Warner's house. The fallows, from which the hares
are driven on to grass, were so full of " fur " this year,
that when we were all ranged by the side of the engine
meadows on the first day, more than a score cantered
down almost abreast, and there were more coming.
A leisure hour in the neighbourhood of Skipton
found us at Chloe's home, which is about a nile from
Bolton Bridge, that inn dear to tourists and newly-
wedded pairs. The weather had broken the day
before, and we met two of the former toiling along into
Skipton under their knapsacks, grinning a most ghastly
smile, and trying to look as if they enjoyed the rain.
Next day the sun shone out, and the grass, as our
driver observed, was " pricking up famish" everywhere
in Craven from pastures which had been as brown as
a coffee-berry. A field of corn in those parts is a
rarity, and the one which was cut would not in ordi-
nary seasons have whitened for harvest so soon by six
or eight weeks. The Wharf e, which had been reduced
at Wetherby pretty nearly to a mass of dry shingle,
was rolling along once more past Bolton Abbey, which
is about a mile or so from Chloe's home. Our driver
was again most communicative : " My word, but they
are rarely bucked up for the occasion" was his obser-
vation on some of the lady visitors, who were prepar-
ing for that walk up the woods to the Strid. On
the architectural remains he was less diffuse. He
certainly did notice the east window, and remarked
that " Yon would take a rood of glass one time or
another to kep it going " but he dwelt most upon
the two greyhounds, which flank it, in memory of the
young De Clifford, who perished many years since in
the Strid. " They're greyhounds" he said, " but stone-^
mason's made them a vast sight more like pointers"
As for their story, he referred me to the " History of
Craven," which records how the poor lad tried to jump
3 78 Saddle and Sirloin.
the river with a brace of them in the couples, and how
one held back at the critical moment and dragged him
into the torrent. He only made one addition to the
text in reply to my query, whether the greyhounds
were drowned. " Drowned ? he was tied to stick to
them it looks like it"
From the greyhounds in stone we adjourned to
Chloe, and found the old lady a little greyer in the
face, but still " beautiful for ever," without Madame
Rachel's aid. She had then had four litters by Ca-
naradzo, King Death, Reveller 2nd, Racing Hopfactor
(out of whose dozen only a couple lived). Old Cheer-
boys, that hero of Ashdown, a rough-looking never-
say-die gentleman, was still in good force ; and there
was a black puppy (Captain) by him, as well as an
infant brace from Royal Seal, which were consorting
with two lusty, smooth, liver-coloured pointer pups,
with spotted heads and paws, and skulls and ears such
as one rarely sees nowadays. Charming May is nearly
as pretty as her dam, and there is the same curious
dip behind the chine. Cock Robin was a handsome,
muscular dog, but a little heavy-shouldered, and his
running has not been so uniformly brilliant as it once
promised to be. Chioe's running-weight was 561bs. ;
and when she was once reduced to 54lbs., she wouldn't
struggle at all. Boynton always considers that her
best course was with Sapphire, at Ashdown, when she
was beaten " under disadvantages" in the run up for
the Oaks. She goes out occasionally on to the grouse
hills behind the house, to show the young ones the
way over the old Waterloo gallop. It is two miles
from the Harrogate Road to Popplewell House, near
Beamley Beacon, up-hill, and over all kinds of ground,
with a brook and plenty of stone walls in it. The
puppies learn it by a field at a time, and are tied to a
gate and unloosed with a hundred yards' start of each
other. They run in faith or by memory, following
each other for the first mile, and after that they can
Mr. Nightingale. 379
hear Boynton calling to them. Sometimes he has a
live rabbit to turn down for them when they reach
him ; so that they soon learn the line, and keep it. It
is half over grass, half over heather, and the two miks
are generally covered in about five minutes.
The kennels were not more than four miles from
Skibeden, and there was nothing Mr. Nightingale
loved more dearly than to look out of his window and
see Boynton coming across the field with his " Ash-
down Volunteers." Of Chloe he always said that she
was perfection, if her forelegs had not been a trifle too
long. Charming May was his delight, and he he j her
up to his bedside shortly before the Waterloo Cup of
last year to pat her, and "give her some good advice."
Illness was irksome to a man of his eminently active
habits ; but we never heard him murmur. In his
prime he was possessed of great muscular power, able
to hold any mail-team, and even master of Chapman,
when they once met at the Greyhound Inn, Shep, and
had a bout at throwing half-a-hundredweight under
and above arm. He used to tell how a stalwart bully
once put his head into a coffee-room in the South
where he was sitting, and insinuated something about
his judgment of a course. " It was well," he added,
" that he ran down the passage, and locked himself
up in a parlour, and apologized through the keyhole,
or I know I should have killed him." Skibeden was
three miles from Skipton, and the hospitable welcome
within made up for the cold look of the house. A
neater farmer was not to be found in Yorkshire, or a
better judge of bullocks. Everything was in the most
rigid order" not a straw dared to be out of place."
When his coursing days were ended, he still took the
judge's chair at the Caledonian Hunt Meetings, and
on one occasion (so we have heard) decided " by a
nose." On his way back he would generally stop at
Mr. Sharpe's, of Hoddom, and talk over Hughie Gra-
ham and " the family fawn " with " The Laird " and
380 Saddle and Sirloin.
poor Will Carfrae. He also enjoyed an outing at the
Waterloo and Lytham Meetings ; but his affection of
the spine and rheumatism stealthily increased uponhim,
and for two or three years before his death he could
not get further than to his sister's house at Skipton in
his gig. He died on September 2nd, 1869, in his
seventieth year, and was buried at Gisbourn, and in
obedience to one of his last wishes, his coffin-lid bore
the likeness of a greyhound.
As a coursing judge he has never been surpassed,
and the beautiful silver testimonial which was pre-
sented to him on his retirement by a subscription
amongst the very first coursers in England and Scot-
land told that his fame was unsullied to the close. A
more righteous judge never got into the saddle, but
his judgments were not always appreciated. His
knowledge of the science was so deep that he was apt,
at times, to reckon up a dog's work very differently to
mere ordinary observers, who are generally the most
captious critics. The really good judges of a course
knew and made allowance for his one fault viz., that
if he once saw a greyhound shirk its work in any way,
he never forgave it, and the transgression was apt to
be remembered the next time the offender was in the
slips. This was a weakness to which he was quite
alive, but which he could never quite shake off; and
there is no doubt that it sometimes led him into de-
cisions that were perhaps hardly warranted. Still,
this was a mere speck on a very brilliant career, and
as a public official we see few like him in any branch
of sporting. He never seemed to forget any incident
of a course, and it was his delight to sit and talk them
over, as if they had been run only yesterday. He
always inclined to Bennett's Rocket as the fastest dog
he ever judged, and he thought that Gregson's Neville
ranked next in pace, with just a shade the best of
Judge.
He loved to tell of the King Cob stock, which
Morecambe Bay. 381
always " ran so stout, and kept their backs up and
their heads so well down." Sunbeam's head was his
idea of perfection, and he delighted in Sam and his
" beautiful style of running so true that you might
ride for miles after him, and never see his nob."
Waterloo was his wrencher and great " dog on
plough," Barrator his " acrobat," and in fact he never
went to Lytham without going to see the spot where
the black " pressed his hare to a gate, and went round
as if on a pivot, turned her back, and killed her in his
second jump." As a killer, he considered nothing
superior to Cerito " for safety and science ;" and
Ladylike's and British Lion's knack of stopping on
the side of a hill, along with Mocking Bird's power of
throwing herself at the hare further off than any grey-
hound he ever saw, never lacked a mention. He loved
the sport for its own sake, and understood field
management and beating to a nicety ; and he always
said that, however long the day, he never lacked Mr.
A. Graham as his companion when they left off*
From Skibeden we skirted the many " windings of
the silver coast," on the branch line towards Ulver-
stone. The sea breaks under the very wall of the
railway, and winds in and out among innumerable
creeks, clothed with dark-coloured plantations, which
slope down to the water's edge. In fact, the marine
and rural scenery are so strangely blended, that at
one moment there was nothing to be seen but a few
seagulls out for a wade, or a stately heron standing on
one leg and a green weed reef, ready to strike a fish,
and at the next there would be a troop of plump
pheasants feeding on a knoll. The inland side pre-
sents a range of rocky fir-clad terraces, with primroses
still lingering at their base ; just the spot in which a
professor of geology might choose to " spend a wedded
* For his portrait and analysis of Scottish crack greyhounds and
coursing fields, see "Field and Fern," vol. " South."
382 Saddle and Sirloin.
eternity with a greywacke woman," while occasionally
up some gorge we could catch a glimpse of a distant
church, or what seemed like a beacon tower. Guides
and beacons have for centuries been often useless
across these treacherous sands ; and " one little man,
round-faced, drowned 1577," "a poor apprentice, and
officer for salt," "a native of Geneva (Domenico
Curatto)," and " nine in one cart," are but a tithe of
those which have gone down.
A walk to the top of Bigland Scaur, which looks
right down upon Holker Park, gave us the most com-
prehensive bird's-eye view of the pastures. The rocky
platform on which we stood seemed like a sort of
Arthur's Seat, amid a profusion of oaks and ashes.
To our right lay Ellerside Breast, pointing over some
thousand acres of peat towards the lake country,
where the snow was just seen to linger upon Coniston
Old Man. More in front of us was the hill of Hoad,
rising above the woods of Low Frith, from whence the
seaboard stretched boldly away past Ulverstone and
Conishead Priory, to the headland at Peel. Ulver-
stone was a fitting feature in a shorthorn landscape.
Its Young Ben had a few days before defeated all
comers in the aged bull class at Dublin ; and we had
but to carry our mind back to an August show, to see
its brace of Barons, Messrs. Torr and Sanday, adjudg-
ing the ten silver challenge cups, and Mr. Unthank
beckoned over the rails into the ring, to decide the
moot point between Duchess 77th, her companion
Moss Rose, and Mr. Eastwood's Rosette.
Just beneath us, to the right of Holker Park, lay
fully 130 acres of reclaimed land. The salt marsh
was nearly all drained by the Duke of Devonshire to
the depth of four feet, with two-inch pipes, covered
with peat moss or soil, to act as a filter and keep the
sand out of the drains. It has been cropped with oats,
green crops, wheat, and clover in succession, and the
latter yielded two heavy crops last year. A Fowler's
The D^^,ke of 'Devonshire 's Herd. 383
plough was at work with four b' easts on, and taking
a half-mile field at twice ; but <Jie marsh is all grass
now, as it was almost impossible to keep it dry enough
for ploughing.
Nine years before, Cozy and Statesman's Daughter
were in the land, and old Sarah Gwynne, with her
head down and her back up, was making, according
to the weigh-bridge, 84lbs. per month. The Cozies
and the Nonsuches are given up, and The Grand
Duchess (i), Oxford (8), Wild Eyes (7), Blanche (8),
Barrington (2), Gwynne (i), Oxford Rose (3), Cleo-
patra (2), and Waterloo (i), are all represented. We
had only to seek the herd last summer in the field
behind Mr. Drewry's. Eighteenth Duke of Oxford
was the last hope of the calf-house, and Lady Oxford
5th (the 6oo-guinea Royal Worcester calf) was on the
eve of calving her Fourth Baron Oxford to that grand
old Duchess bull, Seventh Duke of York.
Two of her calves were sold for 500 guineas each at
Mr. Mclntosh's sale, and the other for 250 guineas to
Lord Kenlis at Killhow. Countess of Barrington 4th
somewhat reminds us of Duchess 77th, and has a son
by Tenth Grand Duke at her side. The light roan is
Blanche 3rd, grand-daughter of old Sylph ; and a
broken horn marks Seventh Grand Duchess of Oxford,
who also rejoices in a beautiful-haired daughter, the
1 2th of that line. Lady Oxford 5th is the queen of
the field, fit to found a world of shorthorns for sub-
stance and true character. Oxford Rose 2nd by Grand
Duke 4th from Rose of Raby makes a nice pair with
Oxford Rose by Baron Oxford. Old white Dustie
has no heifer to perpetuate her line, and Morning Star
is the last dying bequest of Lord Oxford. Fifth
Grand Duchess of Oxford is a wonderful milk and
butter cow. From her we pass through the park to
the home of Tenth Grand Duke, who is mourning the
loss of Mr. Davies's Moss Rose (who bore him Royal
Chester), and we bid him be of good cheer, as he puts
384 Saddle and Sirloin.
forth his beautiful head to greet us, and walks most
vigorously the whole length of his paddock into his
shed for further recognition at Mr. Drewry's hands.
Third Grand Duchess of Oxford was up feeding, and
Mr. Fawcett's Eliza loth and Lady Butterfly's Duchess
were in quarantine in a paddock. The crosses be-
tween Fifteenth Duke of Oxford and Galloway heifers
were in " the marsh meadows" some forty strong, and
they prove to be grey, or jet-black, or blood-red, or
bronze, or rich roans, and nearly all without horns,
when five lads drive them up.
Grand Duke 3rd by Second Duke of Bolton (by
Grand Duke from Florence, a daughter of Mr. Richard
Booth's Fame) was in residence at Springfield Hall,
near Lancaster, when we first went there in '59, and
so was Prince Imperial, that son of Second Grand
Duke and Bridecake a daughter of Bridget, to whom
the Grand Duchesess also owe their Booth cross. He
was thick through the breast, and with well-laid
shoulders, and though not with quite the grandeur of
some of our best bulls, a touch must be dead or saucy
that did not own him mellow. We found the footsteps
of Fame in the Fenella family which sprung from her
daughter Fay crossed with Grand Duke. Mr. Bolden's
brother purchased Mussulman, a son of Old Cherry,
to take to Australia, for 150 guineas. Mr. Bolden
liked the sort, and had Cherry Duchess by Grand
Duke from a Cherry cow which he purchased at Mr.
Lax's sale. Her son Second Cherry Duke was sold
to Mr. Shepherd of Shethin. Mr. Bolden also had the
Waterloo tribe, on which Mr. Bates set very great
store. The latter bought a heifer by Waterloo (2816),
dam by Waterloo, from a small farmer who had
used the bull. She was so good that she was sent
with five of the best cows from Kirklevington to Mr.
Whitaker's Norfolk, and had a rare calf, Waterloo 3rd,
by him.
Mr. Bolden inherited his taste for shorthorns from
Mr. B oldens Herd. 385
his father, who, like Mr. John Colling of Whitehouse,
and Mr. Lax of Ravensworth, caught his inspiration
from the Brothers Colling. He died in 1855, at Hyn-
ing, near Lancaster. No man was fuller of shorthorn
lore, intermixed with the quaint sayings and the doings
of the old Durham and Yorkshire worthies. He kept
a herd for many years, always sticking to the old-
fashioned, roomy, heavy-fleshed cows ; and hired Leo-
nidas, Leander, and Royal Buck, and other bulls, from
the Booths, in days when a man who gave only sixty
guineas for a season was considered quite an intrepid
character, and when Warlaby females could be had
for money.
Four of these then " Veiled Prophetesses," Fame,
Rachel, Bridget, and Vivacity, were purchased by
Mr. Bolden soon after he commenced breeding, in
1849 J an d along with cows of the Duchess, Cambridge
Rose, and Waterloo tribes, from Kirklevington ; the
Cherry tribe from Colonel Cradock, and the descen-
dants of No. 25 at the Chilton sale, 1829, gradually
formed the herd.*
* The late Mr. Bates, when he published the portrait of the Duke of
Northumberland in 1839, did not fail to improve the opportunity by
giving an abstract of the title-deeds of the Duchess tribe. Through
that document he traced them back to 1784, when Charles Colling
purchased from the agent of the Duke of Northumberland the original
cow, whose ancestors had for two centuries peacefully cropped the
Stan wick herbage, or been driven off by the mailed mosstrooper in
many a border foray. Hence it was that he rechristened the cow
Duchess "after that family, because they are justly entitled to be held
in commemoration for having possessed a tribe of cattle, which Mr.
Charles Colling assured me -was the best he ever had or ever saw, and
that he was never able to improve upon her, although put to his best
bulls." There is quite a Hebrew grandeur in the pastoral simplicity of
the old Kirklevington enthusiast, as he spurns the nine hundred armorial
ensigns of the blood royal of England and the chivalry of France,
commingled in the Percy banner ; and calmly paints in the old red and
white cow grazing.
Still, write as he might about their glories, his deep partiality for
them had nearly been their ruin, and although they had been in his
hands for five-and-forty years, they were reduced to a very low ebb
C C
386 Saddle and Sirloin.
Thirty-four years have raised the Waterloo Cup
from a stake of 2 sovs. each for eight dogs, to one of
25 sovs. each for sixty-four, and " Dog Derby" books
are rife in the land. The three kingdoms had stuck
to Blue Gown for the previous Derby, with a loyalty
which no Rosicrucian declarations could quench, and
now Lord Lurgan's crack became their greyhound
idol, and to see him win at Altcar a second year was
their leading dream of the future. There were no
when he died. Duchess 64th, the dam of Second Grand Duke, he did
not live to see, and she was the youngest of the eight which stood up
before Mr. Strafford. Her dam, Duchess 55th, has been a very
Barbelle in the herd world, as three of her produce were sold for
2300 guineas, and she was both the dam and the grandam of a thou-
sand-guinea bull. Mr. Bolden bought the first of the Kirklevington
eight, to wit Duchess 5 1st, dam of the Fourth Duke of York, for whom
Lord Ducie gave 200 guineas at the same sale, and sold after three
years' use to the Americans for 500 guineas. The salt water was fatal
to him, as he broke his neck in a storm ; but the change from the banks
of the stately Tees to "the gently curving lines of creamy spray,"
that wash the Red Bank Farm, redeemed his dam from the curse
of barrenness, which had sunk her to 60 guineas.
She bred three heifer-calves, the first of which, by Leonidas, died in
the birth, and the others were ushered into the yard at Springfield for us,
in the shape of two roan cows, Grand Duchess and Grand Duchess 2nd,
by Grand Duke. A noble pair they were. The eldest was a beautiful
specimen of a "toucher," silky hair on a nice elastic hide, with that
peculiarly dainty cellular tissue between the hide and flesh. The head
too had all the most favourite characteristics of the tribe, slightly dished
in the forehead, with a prominent nostril, and a -great general sweetness
of expression. They were also well down in the twist, and great
milkers, combined with heavy flesh. Grand Duchess 2nd bore a strong
family likeness to her sister, but she had more substance and gaiety of
carriage ; and she held up her head, as if right conscious of her
lineage.
Three of the heifers were red with a few patches of white, and it was
curious to notice in their marks the exact resemblance to that original
Duchess, from whom thrice 183 guineas would hardly have separated
Mr. Bates at the Ketton sale. Coates's Herd Book has preserved to us
her picture, as she feeds on the Tyneside, with Halton Castle in the
distance. The white patch on the flanks and crop, the star on the
forehead, and the gay little beauty-spot just above the muzzle, are all
there ; and with the exception of Duchess 3rd, who is enrolled in the
Sibylline leaves of Shorthorn fate as "a light grey," there was no break
" " th was crossed with
A Waterloo Cup Day. 387
symptoms of frost to disturb their serenity : and a
fervid Liverpool Fenian must have thought that " the
hour and the man" had come at last, when the Irish
packet-boats disgorged hundreds of mysterious and
bearded men at the landing-stage, who told each other
without disguise that they would " tak siven or six
anyhow" (evidently meaning Saxon lives), and used
two passwords of dire import, " Woman in Black" and
" Master M'Grath." These conspirators might be
Belvedere of the "White Bull," or the Princess family, and two roan
heifers were the produce. A double cross of Belvedere brought the
colour to white for the first time in Duchess 5oth from Duchess 38th, by
the Duke of Northumberland, from the first roan, Duchess 33rd.
Cambridge Rose 5th, by Second Cleveland Lad, was five years old
at the Kirklevington sale, when Mr. Bolden, senior, bought her, and
with the exception of Cambridge Rose 6th, who was kept as a memento
at Cobham, and Cambridge Rose 7th, which was purchased* by Mr.
Downes (and died in '67), and from him by Mr. Bolden for 70 guineas,
the next autumn, there were then no more descendants in the land of
the celebrated Hustler's Red Rose. Cobham proved the value of this
blood by the biddings for the gay old cow, and her Marmaduke calf,
Moss Rose. The First and Second Duke of Cambridge alone repre-
sent Cambridge Rose 7th, and as she persisted in breeding nothing but
bulls, the tribe was lost to Springfield at her death.
When Mr. Bolden had got home old Duchess 5 1st, and compared
her with some other very good Shorthorns on his farm, he became so
convinced of the goodness of the Bates blood, that he determined
to make his stand on it. His first move was to purchase Grand Duke
(10,284), by Second Cleveland Lad from Duchess 55th, for 205 guineas,
the same price that Mr. Hay of Shethin, Aberdeenshire, gave for him
at Kirklevington. At the time he bought him, he and 'his father had
several cows almost useless, after having been served repeatedly by idle
bulls ; but with him and successive Duchess bulls, the fertility (which
Mr. Bates attributed, in the case of the Duchesses, to the cross with
Belvedere) gradually returned. The same was observable in other
herds where Duchess bulls were introduced, and Earl Ducie did not
conceal his opinion that his was saved by the use of them. Grand Duke
was four years old when he came, and he departed for America two
years after at one thousand gs. ; and whether in addition to the
Dukes of Cambridge we look at May Duke and Grand Turk, from
Booth cows ; and two Cherry Dukes from the Cherry tribe, all of which
have been sold and resold at high figures, Mr. Bolden stands as a bull-
breeder second to none.
Grand Duke 2nd, by Fourth Duke of York, from Duchess 64th, who
was calved at Mr. Bolden's, had rather more white on him than Grand
C C 2
388 Saddle and Sirloin .
found at Lynn's, as the hour for dinner and the draw
was at hand on Tuesday. Most of the old faces from
Caithness to Compton Bottom were also in the throng.
Mr. Bake moves about as brisk as a bee ; and a little
dark man, with a tall Scottish " shepherd king" at his
side, might have a printed bulletin on his breast, as
everybody asks him after " Bab." " The Emperor of
Coursers" tells us how he has just proposed the Home
Secretary for Renfrewshire, and then dashes off to the
favourites of his early days, Oscar and the rough-
coated Gilbertfield ; the tall and handsome owner
Duke, and was only two years old when he followed him, in November
i855,toU.S.A.,foriooogs. He had not quite the bold look of Grand
Duke, and although it would seem to be the perfection of a Shorthorn
to read good nature in his face, the Americans always thought that he
looked too placid. Unlike the gentleman who described himself as
having been absolutely unable to close his eyes from emotion, the live-
long night after his unexpected " Vision of Fair Women," in the shape
of Queen Mab, Nectarine Blossom, and Queen of the May, a recent
visitor to Thorndale does not seem to have been the least stirred up by
treading such classic soil, or much struck with anything beyond Grand
Turk weighing 28oolbs. He tells us, however, how he found him in
company with Second Grand Duke and Neptune of the Booth blood;
and how he calculates that Duchess 64th and 66th, Oxford 5th, 6th,
and I3th, and Bloom, Frederica, Lalla Rookh, Buttercup 2nd, Miss
Butterfly, and Pearlette would be alongside them. Such an American
Congress would be worth all the sea-sickness and all the expense to
see. Duchess 64th (600 guineas), which was generally considered the
best of the eight Duchesses that were sold at Tortworth, died after
some years in America, along with Duchess 59th (350 guineas) ; and
Duchess 66th (700 guineas), that "brand plucked from the fire" (as
Earl Ducie termed her, when the news was carried to his dressing-room
one morning that a calf had at last been found in Duchess 55th) was
among the fifty head which Mr. Thome purchased after poor Mr. Becar's
death, for yooo/.
In 1854 Mr. Bold en sold seven bulls at an average of 59/. &s., one of
them Second Duke of Cambridge, for 100 guineas. When Mr. Bolden,
sen., died in 1855, his herd, with some of his son's bulls, were sold at
Hyning, and the 28 head (including 1 1 bulls) realized an average of
6 1/. i6s. yd. Mr. Torr bought Gertrude (100 guineas), and Lady
Hopetoun (220 guineas), both of them Booth cows. In 1857 Mr.
Bolden sold 14, at an average of 65/. 3^. 4^., at Mr. Stafford's farm at
Dudding Hill. This was followed in 1860 by a sale at Springfield,
where 29 head averaged 87/. 17^. 6d. Of these a score were Waterloos,
The Duchesses and Grand Duchesse*. 389
of Riot is quite a consulting counsel on leash law ;
and Lord Lurgan, a fresh-looking, hearty patrician of
fifteen seasons' coursing experience, passes a word of
good cheer to the Irish Brigade about the black dog's
health, and then adjourns upstairs to head the coursing
parliament. Cerito, that triple Waterloo Cup win-
ner, looks down from the walls on the sixteen Club
delegates, and so do the pictures of the late Earl of
Derby and his father, and other Lancashire worthies.
Then the venerable Skipaway case is discussed once
more, and the plaintiffs and the defendant contradict
and they averaged 92/. 13^. ^d. Sir Curtis Lampson gave 165 guineas
for Waterloo 2Oth, and Mr. E. Bowly 130 guineas for the Waterloo
bull Charger. In 1862 the herd was sold to Mr. Atherton, who soon
after parted with the Grand Duchesses (nine cows and four bulls), to
Mr. Hegan, of Dawpool, by private contract, and sold off the Cherries,
the Fenellas (from Booth's Fame) and the Grand Duke bulls. Mr.
Hegan paid 5ooo/. for his lot, and three cows were barren. He died in
1865, and his herd was brought to the hammer at Willis's Rooms, where
Mr. Strafford gave a splendid lunch to his friends and supporters. The
12 females were in four lots, and were all purchased by Mr. Betts,
whose herd was sold off in 1867.
GRAND DUCHESSES.
PRICES IN 186"?. HERD-BOOK NUMBERS. PRICES IN 1867.
Gs. Gs.
. ( tth , ... Duke of Devonshire 200
i 9 oo Prmce i f mP 7th Killed
Booth cross j th Lord Penrhyn 550
I oth F. Leney 210
1300 Si 6 " 7 Duke \ I3th Killed
Cherry cross j ^ R K Oliver 710
. * 1 loth Died
1800 Pnnce Impenal <TCth .. T. Miller 80
Booth cross J
1200
Duke
Cherry cross
nth
1 2th
J.
R.
E. Oliver 850
Earl Spencer 4
Died
Died
BRED AT PRESTON HALL.
Cherry cross (yearling) (i 9 th ......... C. H Dawson 700
Booth cross (calf) 2Oth ......... %*?%?"? f
Do (calf) (2ith ......... D. Mclntosh 33
390 Saddle and Sirloin.
each other most lustily. The latter uses legal terms
"like a very learned clerk," and eventually gets a
majority of more than two to one to dismiss the
case.
Fifteen years before, we had left Liverpool for the
ground on Bob Castle's coach, behind four spanking
greys, with Mr. Nightingale on the box seat, and
several Scotland Yet enthusiasts as our freight. In
'64, Tithebarn-street station was the trysting place.
A man on the very outskirts of the crowd seemed
green and indifferent, and his mate was exhorting
him : " Theese com this far doanl go back, lad, its
sic fun they nobbut louse two dogs at yence there's
hot pot and dyke-jumping, and a' manner of thing**.*
" Owdham chaps" and " Boulton fellies" were there
by the dozen. They are a rough lot, and on big ex-
cursion days there is sometimes a regular swearing
match between them and those " Peter the Wild Boy"
sort of officials which abound in Lancashire. To do
the latter justice, they have no respect of persons.
Once upon a time, the late Secretary of the North-
Western was travelling along a loop Wigan and
Kenyon junction line, when the station-master put his
head into a first-class carriage and said . "Now then
yd chaps for Chow Bent, Checquer Bent, and Bank
Lane, get out wid ye /" The secretary objected to such
official language, and said quite indignantly, " Don't
you know who I am ?" " YSes," said the man ; " Huish
secretairy two thoosand a year" and passed on to
the next carriage, "Now then yd chaps, &c" There
seemed from the heavy train to be few Liverpool
laggards by the stuff this day. Away they leapt over
the platform rails at Hightown, and the ticket-collector
had to " fall back on his supports" in the station, and
give collecting up as a bad job. " The Rifles Inn,"
which looks like a superior Irish cabin, had no charms
for them so early, and bending to the left by the stone
cross, they went crashing and stumbling over hedge
A Waterloo Cup Day. 391
and fallow. In vain did a yokel rush from his har-
rows, and with outstretched hands and wild dances
endeavour to harry them back from the arable, as if
they had been sheep. The Lancashire lads laughed
the " Johnny Cake" to scorn, and formed, after one or
two light skirmishes with another protectionist, intc
a marching column of nearly a quarter of a mile along
the road. They enter into coursing as they do into
Bolton creels, or pigs, or flowers, or bell-ringing, or
glee-singing with a will. " Live Hare T is a great
shout of theirs when a favourite dog is beginning to
work off the points against him. They have bets on
from a pot of ale upwards, but we heard one of them
refuse to do anything on King Death's courses, " be-
cause Pse of ear' d Pd dee if I backed him? Sometimes
if a favourite kennel is to be sold off, they will follow
it from a sort of chivalrous feeling up to Aldridge's.
When they do get there, if they can find a carriage in
the sale-shed, they as often as not get in and sleep
through half the sale. Two were once reposing most
peacefully in a phaeton when a stentorian offer of 70
guineas for Mr. Borron's Bright Steel fairly roused
them up "Seventy guineas" said one to his fellow
sleeper, " why, you and I, lad, wouldn't fetch that the-
gither /" We once heard a still more emphatic senti-
ment as a pair of them walked over the Liverpool
steeple-chase ground to take up a position. A number
of grooms and helpers were standing near a brook
jump, and one of the pair caught a few words of their
conversation. He stopped, with quite a beaming
countenance, " Eh ! Jack, lad / Pll gan noe father
they say there's beenfowre lives lossen here dal, it's the
best jump of the lot well stop where we are? On the
coursing field itself there was an old fellow with a
pole collecting sixpences to jump over the great cut
and uniformly landing up to his waist in the middle.
He was not so drunk as he pretended to be, and he
made a nice amount by becoming " a water-baby,"
392 Saddle and Sirloin.
While the ring were settling on one course there were
rumours of a fight. Books were shut up instantly
and away they rushed. The gallant owner of Tim
Whiffler made a Jack Macdonald of himself in an in-
stant, and brought his man up to the scratch without
ever taking his cigar out of his mouth. As he after-
wards observed, " it was a most cheerful fight." And
indeed it was a big man and a little man a pair of
spectacles permanently disabled a pair of arms in a
white paletot and going like a windmill a white hat
rolling on the sod. So it was in old days, but we have
to tell of '69.
The morning finds us at Lynn's once more, and the
cards of the day show that Master M'Grath has been
drawn with Borealis. The latter has been winning a
good stake at Lytham, but " the talent" have taken
her measure well, as 25 to one can be "got about her
for the Cup, and it is only 6 to I against the black."
All is life and activity among the coursers. They are
buttoning on leggings, and lighting pipes, and driving
bargains with Hansoms and coaches, into which they
mount, looking like very jolly Cromwellian pike-men,
with their long mahogany-coloured leaping poles.
The route lies principally by the dock side, and its
dusky forest of masts, till we strike rather more in-
land at Formby, where the greyhound trainers keep
their charges. Seven or eight miles- bring us within
sight of the Altcar plains at last. On the left are in-
terminable sand banks, tenanted by coneys and vitriol
works ; while ditches of all degrees, high mounds, and
engine houses help to break the dreary Altcar dead
level of grass and fallows, which look as if they had
merely been pared. Be that as it may, they are full
of " fur," and during one portion of the meeting, Hard
Lines got among a wandering troop of nearly a hun-
dred hares, and didn't know what it meant. There
are a few trees, and there is a conventicle-looking
church in the distance, but even when the sun is out,
A Waterloo Clip Day. 393
it looks quite a joyless land, inhabited by the de-*
scendants of Mat o' the Marsh.
There is life enough at the North End Farm, where
the carriages make their halt, and the official card-
seller sets up his basket under the lee of a barn. He
is wise in his generation, as if he once faced the open
there would be a rush at him, and, like good card-
sellers before him, he might be pressed into the ditch.
The trainers are here in great force, each with his
champion in hand, or snugly ensconced in a dog-van.
Speculation (late Red Robin) occupies the front seat
of a cab, and a large wisp of straw is spread artisti-
cally over the front window, for fear any minute
draught may visit his honoured head too roughly.
Alas ! it is of no avail, as India Rubber challenges
him to the slips ere two hours more are over, and
" wins a good trial cleverly" at his expense. Some of
the dog carriages are drawn in great state by three
donkeys, but many trainers discard them altogether.
Light Cavalry is at the ditch side straining for the
fray, and we also mark the dingy face of Bethell (by
Boanerges from Mischief), own brother to Bab at the
Bowster, and the grey features of Ewesdale, not a re-
markable dog in his day, but now of good repute
among greyhounds at the stud. The trainers are a
motley lot as regards dress; but the real Altcar
thing is supposed to be a sort of seal-skin cap, with
lappets for the ears, and a green coat, with mother-
of-pearl buttons about half the circumference of a
cheese-plate. What Lancashire Witch can stand
against that ?
It is barely five minutes past ten, and up comes
Mr. Warwick, the judge, in his scarlet coat and blue
bird's-eye, to judge for the ninth year in succession.
Another bit of scarlet shows that Tom Raper, the
slipper, has also stripped to his work. He looks very
worn in the face with so hard a life, but the heart is as
good and the legs are almost as nimble as ever. We
394 Saddle and Sirloin.
look in vain for old Will Warner, but we are told that
he has " turned it up." The crowd thickens fast, and
as far as the eye can reach towards Formby, they
come steadily tramping on. The vehicles alone seem
to stretch for more than half a mile in the line of
march, and half of them are in the commissariat
service, and laden with pies, and cheese, and liquors.
Many visitors carry their own little polished drink
barrel slung across their shoulders, and those who
have the office look out, when luncheon time is nigh,
for the hospitable red flag with the white star in the
centre, which flies as a token at the top of a private
omnibus from Lytham. Half the point of the meet
at Northend was lost this year by the absence of the
house party from Croxteth, and we might well long
to see the four dark chestnuts dash up in the green
drag as of yore, with the Earl on the box. It seems
but the other day that his father was riding off
across country to Croxtfcth, to tell of his Sackcloth's
victory.
The march of the cracks round and round the farm
paddock is one of the most beautiful sights. We
have noted there before the first couple were called,
and the hare-boys (looking like tortoises erect) started
on their march the shining brindle of Streamer, the
dark black of the great bitch corps Spider, old Belle
of the Village, Rebe, and Reliance ; the blue of
Coodareena ; the fawn of Sea Rock ; the red of
Monarch and Sea Girl ; while the brindle on the tail
deftly told the difference between the flying whites
of Liverpool, Mr. Spinks's Sea Pink and Sea Foam.*
* It may not be amiss to run over a few of the principal winners from
Sultan's day. Oscar, British Lion, Gilbertfield, Barrator, Waterloo,
Canaradzo, Scotland Yet, Ciologa, Neville, Sam, Canopy, Jacobite,
Cardinal York and Picton, Bold Enterprise, Blue Light, Black Cloud,
Border Union, Matilda Gillespie, Motley, Tollwife, Ladylike, The
Baron, Selby, Clive, Monarch, Mercury, Hughie Graham, and King
Lear, &c., have all been touched upon in volume "South" of "Field
A Waterloo Cup Day. 395
A quarter past ten, and there is no time to lose ;
off comes Mr. Warwick's overcoat, and he mounts a
good looking grey. Requiem and Morning Dew are
in the slips, but three hares get away before Raper
gets a slip to his mind. It was a bad beginning, as
both got unsighted before they had been long at it,
and Fern." The whole is in the words of Mr. Nightingale or Mr.
Warwick.
Sultan was own brother to Empress, " and a good dog that South-
port week," when he had 167 against him for the Cup ; but he was not
first class, either in work or pace. Empress was the best of the
pair, and her defeat of O Yes ! O Yes ! ! O Yes ! ! ! with one of the
terrific Eaglesham hares, where "fur" does "run like fury" was her
finest performance. She was a very handsome squarey bitch, with lots
of wear and tear, and good all round, and was left in amongst the last
six with her brother at Southport. Bugle was a short, thick, and not a
fashionable style of dog, with great pace and muscle, steady to his game,
and clever in every way, though not a smooth runner, and with a curious
style of pitching himself from his hind legs. His blood always united
remarkably well with King Cob's. Earwig was not a flyer, but he went
a good steady pace. Emperor, the sire of O Yes ! O Yes ! ! O Yes ! ! !
was left in with Earwig, for the Waterloo Cup, but Mr. Easterby declared
Earwig (the worst of the two) the winner. Emperor was a very good
dog, but rather thick and plain. Both of them were blacks ; but one of
them had a white tail end, nose, and claw. When Glider was in the
slips with Rocket, there was no telling them apart, except by Rocket's
black muzzle. Lord Sefton mistook them, and galloped back, shouting
"Glider's won I" Mr. Robert Bennet bought Rocket, Ranger, Reuben,
and a bitch for 120 guineas at Chatsworth.
There is little question that Bloomsbury is the worst runner on the
Waterloo Cup roll. Priam, by Emperor, was, "perhaps, the best big
dog of this day." He ran at 74-lb., and yet he was a first-rate worker,
and never gave a chance away. Mr. Pollock's Major was a fast but not
a first-class dog, and beat, among others, Father Tom M'Guire's cele-
brated Irish bitch for a cool hundred a-side. Still " he couldn't use his
hares as some of them can." All that can be said of Titania is that she
was " a good steady bitch, but not a great one." British Lion was an
every-day dog, very game, and always ran respectably. Harlequin, a
slow son of Emperor, won his courses by steadiness (which was his
sire's specialty), and had a memorable one with Oliver Twist (brother
to Senate). " Oliver" was "a great dog, and a wonderful killer." He
won a sixty-four-dog stake at Lytham, without being once challenged,
and he killed every hare. This talent with his teeth was the more
remarkable, as he had a short thick neck. He had great power, and
went a rattling pace. Senate was a bad killer, but a rare wrencher,
and a steady racing-like dog. He ran a hare at Lytham for a quarter
396
Saddle and Sirloin.
and then Requiem went on with the hare by herself,
and had such a severe singlehander, that the hearts
of her backers die within them, and any hopes of
pulling off 33 to I become a vanishing fraction. Then
every eye is on Lobelia as this rare granddaughter of
Canaradzo comes out bright and beautiful, and not
of an hour, and the very next week he won the Waterloo Cup, for
which Webb's Flirt ran up. He was "a wandy dog, full of muscle,
and his wrenching had always this grand peculiarity, that he did not
wrench too harddid not put them too far round, but gave no opening,
and kept the game to himself. It was done in the real Eglinton
Waterloo style he never wrenched the hare out of his line."
Shade was a useful steady bitch ; handsome, but with no remarkable
pretensions in pace or work. Slater's Sandy ran hares in a dodging
sort of a way, but he got well placed for all that. Magician was a
racing-like dog, with good speed to his hare ; high on the leg, but with
no great wear and tear about him. Hughie Graham's finest race in the
Waterloo Cup was with Staymaker. He got very badly away from the
slips, and Staymaker led in a most splendid racing stretch. Hughie got
up inch by inch, and headed the dog sixty yards from the hare. He
gave two or three wrenches, and then turned her into Staymaker's
mouth. (" Immense cheering.") Tom Oliver, who won a pony on it,
was so delighted, that he threw himself down on the bank, and roared
with pleasure, and kicked up his legs "like some one daft." Mr.
Temple, true to his usual way of expressing his satisfaction at a very
grand course, promptly lay on his stomach, and threw his heels over his
back. Hughie had another fine trial with Mocking Bird, in the Water-
loo Cup. She had a particularly fine eye to a hare, and when it dis-
appeared in a ground hollow, she exactly marked where it would
reappear, and gained a length or so, while Hughie ran out a bit. She
met two or three wrenches, and then Hughie was busy again, and she
killed out of his mouth. " The Bird" wanted a very fast stout hare, as
she was not a remarkable worker, and Ebb fairly beat her on this point
at Amesbury. " She threw herself at her hare farther off than any
greyhound I ever saw." Egypt was a thick, little, short dog, rather
like Jacobite.
Cerito had fine pace, and sense tc correspond; and her heaviest
beating at Altcar was when she met Dalton a dog who put in a great
deal of work in a little time for the Plate. "As a killer there was
nothing like her for safety and science. Her measure was perfection.
She would never make a flying kill, but draw herself back and be
ready for the turns, and kill them just on the bend or the broadside."
Grass was her forte. Waterloo (a bad killer), on the contrary, was all
for bare fallows, and went as light as a cork over it. Wicked Eye was
a rare drain-jumper ; in fact, she skimmed them in her stride like
a swallow, and could always make a couple of lengths at them. Protest
A Waterloo Cup Day. 397
one mass of diachylon plaster as she was last year.
She hung in the slips a little, and then she warmed up
and raced past Exactly in the brilliant style of her
Trovatore days, and made a masterly kill. The Lan-
cashire men may well shout for her after such a per-
formance, and wish her well through the Cup. Now
ran very much in her style, and with great spirit ; but she was not in
such small compass, and took more time to settle. For pace she beat
Riot in a short course ; but Mr. Randell's bitch was a steadier worker.
Sackcloth was a good steady dog, and a very close worker, beautiful
both at his turns and wrenches. He was one of the British Lion
blood, "an every-day dog," and the amount of travelling which he
had to Ashdown and back before he won the Waterloo Cup has known
no equal. Judge, whom he beat in the fourth course for the Cup,
was a grand dog, and a great worker when he settled. For work,
pace, and fencing combined, Riot has perhaps never had a peer, but
like Patent she failed twice in the Waterloo Cup. Reveller (Seagull)
had not her pace but he ran in very determined style when he had
steadied down and ceased to rush. Rival was a lovely fencer ; and she
never gave coursers a greater treat than at Sundorne, when the hare
threaded a holly fence near the Castle, and she and Jebb's No Hurry
were "just like shuttlecocks in the air, backwards and forwards."
There were never so many lamentations heard at Altcar as when
Sunbeam failed to beat King Lear for the Cup. He had got a fearful
bucketting the day before, as, when he had run Tempest to a standstill,
he took off with a hare to Hill House. His great point was his
beautiful, smooth working, but his pace was not like Judge's. Effort
went a great pace, and put in plenty of work in the earlier part of the
course. If the hare lived, he would slacken and then come again. This
style was very observable in his courses both with Barman and Prize-
flower at Hampton Court. Regan went with great fire, which he did
not communicate to his stock, and was a rare timber and iron-hurdle
jumper. He had fine pace and led Woodpigeon at Patshull Park
farther perhaps than one greyhound ever led another. Cardinal York's
style was nice, but not equal to Picton's. Little Trip-the-Daisy had a
low, stealing way with her, and was wonderfully game. When she beat
Belle of the Village at Suclbury, she ran the hare till it dropped dead,
and was so exhausted that she had to be carried to her carriage in Mrs.
Cartwright's rug. Bribery had a slow, game, and persevering style.
She would get to her hare, drive it a mile, but not kill it. Sapphire
was great over the Downs. She would go through a sixty-four-dog
stake without ever being challenged, and make a course short by
killing.
Maid of the Mill was a fine big racing bitch, a little too arched in
her back, and a trifle lacking in length. At Waterloo she fairly ran
round Blue Hat in a short course ; but she beat Sampler handsomely in
398 Saddle and Sirloin.
the drain jumping begins, and sorely tests the limbs
that are stiff with " age's frost." Some bound over
them in their stride like antelopes, or use the com-
fortable pole ; others go at them with faces indicative
of resignation and agony combined, and if a foot
slips there is a roar like a salvo of artillery down
a noble one. Roaring Meg was very determined and steady not very
fast, but so very persevering. Canaradzo had very fine pace, fire, and
working power. He commanded himself beautifully, and was particu-
larly determined and clever in closing with his hare. In his Waterloo
Cup he gave Faldonside a regular towelling, and only let Gilbert get
first turn by favour of the ground. His stock are generally rather
quarrelsome and require work. If they are bad they are very bad, or
the reverse. The dogs, on the whole, have been best. His sister, Sea
Pink, always went best over Altcar ; but, owing to temper, she would
often throw out very wild turns, like Protest in her first course. She
was a game bitch, and she never showed it so much as when she came
again in a course at Sudbury, where Bribery had got her beat. Sea
Foam was rather faster than her, and very much steadier. Chloe's
thighs, hocks, and back ribs are perfection ; if she has a fault, it is that
she is half-an-inch too long in her fore legs. She was a little short of
fire from the slips, but had good pace, always greater than Rebe's in
her stretches, was smooth in her work, and clever with her teeth. It is
upon this last point that her consort King Death's fame principally
rests ; and some of his cross kills were very beautiful to see. Bluebell
had the same talent, and saved some courses out of the fire by it.
Ciologa, the best of the Scotland Yets, was also a wonderful flying
killer, and went through a 32-dog stake at Sudbury with only one point
against her, made by Klaphonia.
Patent was a dog of great power, not especially fast, but very cool
and steady, and certain to kill when he once got possession. He had
a nice style of driving, and went beautifully from his turns. One of
his cleverest kills was at Tredegar, when he fairly grabbed puss as
they flew a fence together, and again when he beat Calabaroono in
Scotland. Like all the Davids, he did not excel on marsh or ploughed
land. Like David, again (whose bitches don't require much work), he
never seemed tired. After being beaten at the Waterloo, he wound up
with three cups in a month at Hereford, Ashdown, and the Scottish
National. In the Craven Cup he had a splendid half mile straight with
Riotous Hoppicker. They ran almost locked from Kingston Warren
Bottom to Compton Bottom ; and then the dog began to draw out, and
reached his hare two lengths first. Save and except Master M'Grath,
Mr. Warwick considers him quite the best dog of the last seven or eight
seasons. David was a steady and cautious dog, and not a flyer. He
had ordinary pace, and did not close resolutely with his game. He was
unlucky in his Waterloo Cup, and went head over heels into a ditch ;
A Waterloo Cup Day. 399
the line. Occasionally a stout gentleman determines,
rather than be left behind, to jump or perish in the
attempt. He is gravely advised by some athlete to
" pull himself together/' whatever that process may
be ; he balances his arms, rushes, regardless of family
considerations, at his work, funks, towers, is deposited
but his name lives in his stock, when far flashier greyhounds are forgot-
ten. Calabaroono had fine pace, and a deal of cleverness. Still,
Jessica was very nearly too much for him in the Plate at Altcar. She
was getting very busy at last ; but the hare did not live long enough.
Rebe was one of the most persevering bitches that ever was put in slips
at Altcar, and she went a good pace as well. She had a remarkably
clever way of taking a drain and then stopping herself ; and she twice
overdid Sea Pink by that dodge, as the latter got over and tumbled about,
while the black was scoring-up points. King Death had only just the
best of the pace with Rebe in the Waterlo Cup run-up ; but the hare
soughed. Theatre Royal "just wanted a little pace, or she would have
been quite first-class. " Kingwater's action was as smooth as oil, but he
was rather soft-hearted. His pace was wonderful, and he had cleverness
to correspond. His finest course was with Romping Girl for the
Douglas Cup, in the Greenfields at Abington, Crawford St. John. It
was a very long slip, and they ran neck and neck for three hundred
yards, when Romping Girl drew out and got first turn. Kingwater had
the second, and the bitch the third, and then she raced past him, and
ran her hare to a standstill. Romping Girl's daughter, Restless Belle,
understood driving in the highest degree. She would drive them a mile,
and never bring them round, and let nothing else get in. Prize Flower
could go a good pace, and delighted in long game courses; and Belle of
the Village was very staunch, and excelled in a long driving course on
the downs. Cauld Kail was a very steady and smooth runner, but not
exactly brilliant. Fieldfare was not fast, but smooth at her turns; Silk-
worm had good pace, but did not like to be punished; Cheer Boys was
a very game dog, and ran like a puppy at Ashdown in his fifth season ;
Grand Master was a rare puppy until he met with his accident ; and
Mr. Warwick always quotes the way in which he knocked about a
hare on the Black Hill, Abington, as a marvellous specimen of "high
art."
Brigadier went rarely through the Liverpool Cup, and was only once
challenged by Fieldfare. He was so clever with his hare, that she must
have jumped over him to get in. This was once done at Hordley by
Butterfly (by Lopez), and she won the Cup by it. Brigadier's daughter,
Brigade, is a beautiful bitch, with great pace, very determined, and very
clever withal. She goes faster from her turns than Jane Anne (now
Sweetbriar), who, clever and game as she was, rather lacked pace. Bab
at the Bowster was hardly so brilliant as Brigade last season, but very
determined and clever, and goes a great pace. In fact, she is good all
400 Saddle and Sirloin.
with a splash, and ignominously crawls out up the
opposite bank. What comfort is it to him to be told
to " put on more powder" when all is over, and he is
wet up to his middle ? A policeman in a helmet has a
most tremendous reception when he jumps short, but
still there is not the fun there was when fewer people
came, and poor John Jackson, in his lusty manhood,
went striding and shouting with his short stick in his
hand, over the ditches, and when Jem Mace, or Joe
Goss, were putting on condition after that fashion.
And so the courses go on, and at last the crowd,
some six or seven thousand strong, line the high em-
bankment on both sides of a field where Patent ran
one year. A sort of nervous thrill goes through them
when a beautiful worked course has been run in full
view between Jolly Green and Innkeeper. " One
more bye, and then the crack comes out," is the key
to it. They are so closely packed that it is difficult
as you stand to see right along the bank. In a minute
a roar is heard at the distance, and we know that the
black is coming. Nearer and nearer, and the shout is
taken up all along the line, as when the St. Leger
horses reach the Intake turn, and the last struggle
begins. Mr. Warwick tears along at full gallop on the
grey, almost level, and twenty yards to the right of
the hare, in order to be handy at the finish ; and then
round, and seemed even better in her 1868-69 season. Lobelia was
good at all points, and never was greyhound more cut up than her in
her first course for the Waterloo Cup, with Lord Soulis, and yet she
went through the stake and won it. She was just too clever for Trova-
tore all that season ; but Master M'Grath was in turn too much for her
when they met in the Waterloo Cup. The Irish dog's pace and tact
were almost supernatural. He jumped a ditch into the road with Lobe-
lia ; the hare came short back over the hare-bridge, and the dog jumped
back, and nailed her as she came over, to use Mr. Warwick's words,
"just as a cat does a mouse." "It was," he added "the cleverest
thing I ever saw. " In the earlier part of the course Lobelia led on the
inside, he raced past her, and put the hare to her ; then he gave her
another go-by, and then came this remarkable kill.
A Waterloo Cup Day. 401
comes the black dog with the white breast and the
white neck mark, going like a whirlwind twelve lengths
ahead of Borealis. She looks, in fact, like a mere
terrier scuffling after him, and when she did get up,
the Irish dog had raced right into his hare, and flung
it up half dead into the air. Raper said that he had
never seen a greyhound go so fast, and the Cup
seemed to be over. Then Woman in Black delights
the Irish division once more, and Ask Mamma and
Charming May ran as sweetly as ever. Except Lady
Lyons, there was nothing more beautiful than " May"
on the field. Ghillie Callum then gives the Scotch-
men a good turn, and fastens on his hare, when he
kills so savagely that they are obliged to bite his ear
before he will resign it. Two other dogs cannot settle
the knotty point, and so they dash away and jump a
wide ditch, holding the hare between them. Luncheon
succeeds, and the coursers are found in carriages, or
on the top of them, on the grass, or sitting on a rail
" transacting business" with hampers and parcels
which would have done Epsom no discredit. Even a
horse and gig rolling in a ditch doesn't rouse them.
They were a singularly quiet and well-behaved crowd,
and though the stewards had left them pretty nearly
to their own devices, in despair of handling so many,
they encroached but a very few yards. It was a fine,
genial day, and each man seemed bent on good-
humoured enjoyment, and an oath or coarse word was
almost unheard.
Luncheon over, and we got into position for the last
time that day, and all along the Engine-house
Meadows. For some time it was hopeless to begin, as
" fur" was too plentiful ; but at last they came off the
fallows by singles, and Master M'Grath was slipped
once more. There was no enthusiasm over this
course. On he sped raking lengths away from Hard
Lines, but after turning his hare he tumbled and got
shaken, as he put in no really good work afterwards,
D D
4<D2 Saddle and Sirloin.
and Hard Lines killed. The crowd were quite still
and disappointed, but there were some cheers as Lord
Lurgan, who loves the sport dearly, and boasted a
huge pair of leggings, walked up to him to pat him.
Then arose the bronchitic strains of that comical
old man who had gone about all day with Master
M'Grath blazoned on his hat and selling sweetmeats :
"Master M l Grath 'Umbugs T followed by a list of
the towns in which they were patronized, one of which
seemed to have an especial ludicrous suggestion in it.
We cannot say that " still his speech was song," but
on it ran, " Four a penny / puts it in the sinking
fund my wife taks the money, and I niver see it noe
moor." Malt Liquor, Ghillie Callum, and Randolph,
a son of Romping Girl, went with immense fire, and
some began to fancy Ghillie for the Cup. " India
Rubber ' Umbugs ! India Rubber ' Umbugs /" from
the old quarter, whose wares were re-christened as
each good dog won, told of the victory of another son
of Ewesdale, and we could not forbear leaving our
post to see the beautiful blood-red Lady Lyons rubbed
down after winning. But the twilight draws on, and
at last the hare supply begins to fail.
Not a beater can be seen, as they are far away,
quietly stirring up the hares, and sending them steal-
ing over the fallows, towards the big sough, which has
been such a city of refuge to them time out of mind.
We stand waiting for minutes while Raper has Bab
and Sir William in the slips. " Sporting Eagle
' Umbugs niver see it noe moor" indicate the last re-
gistered winner and break the reverential silence
which falls on all good coursers, when such a prima
donna as Bab is coming once more on to the stage.
At last the word is passed that a hare is in sight ; Bab
is ready for her, and a beautiful course, ending with a
rattling kill, carries the bonnie Scotch lassie through
her second round. Such was the opening day, and
the next night found the puppies all beaten off, and
Cheshire Cheese-making. 403
England and Ireland each with one, and Scotland
with two champions. Ireland and Scotland fought it
out at last, and Lord Lurgan's dog could only beat
Bab about a length for speed, and get very little the
best of the working. Perhaps two such flyers never
met before, as the winner has never been beaten, and
the loser, we believe, only once. Bonfires were lighted
on Friday night on the hills near Belfast, to tell of the
second Waterloo victory of their black dog. At
Waterloo, it created such enthusiasm in the bosom of
one Celt, that having flung away his own hat, he rushed
at Lord Lurgan, plucked off his lordship's wideawake,
flung it wildly into the air, and kicked it when it came
down again.
CHAPTER XIV.
Johnson : "Mrs. Thrale's mother said of me what flattered me very
much. A clergyman was complaining of want of society in the country
where he lived ; and said, 'They talk of runts that is, young cows.' 'Sir,'
said Mrs. Salisbury, ' Mr. Johnson would learn to talk of runts ;' mean-
ing that I was a man who would make the most of my situation, what-
ever I was." He added, " I think myself a very polite man."
Croker's Life of Dr. Johnson, vol. vii. p. 194.
Cheese-making in Cheshire The late Captain White and Dr. Bellyse
Mr. D. R. Davies's Herd Cattle Plague in Cheshire Penrhyn
Castle Sir Watkin Wynn's Hounds Mr. Naylor's Herefords.
IF cheese had been our mission in Cheshire we
certainly saw plenty of it, when the County Agri-
cultural Society held its meeting on the Roodee, and
wives and spinsters crowded the long booth to look at
the champion lot. One of its four cheeses was
brought to the dinner, and was pronounced good but
not superfine. Mr. J. D. Harding, the professional
cheese-maker, who did so much towards teaching
Ayrshire* the Cheddar plan, spoke in the course of
* See " Field and Fern" (Soutn), pp. 278-285.
DD2
404 Saddle and Sirloin.
the evening with no small energy against mere rule of
thumb management. We heard this Makesbury
" Minister of Public Instruction" very well, but the
acoustics of the room are so bad, that although we
were not more than thirteenth from the chairman, Mr.
Barbour, the only thing we gathered from him and the
speakers round him, was the word " Rabbits."
Cheese-making in Cheshire runs very much in
families. Some have a sort of hereditary genius
for making it almost irrespective of the land, which
is generally a very strong loam, and others, with
every chance and appliance, never make a first-rate
article.* The cheese farms generally run from 100
* The following is a portion of Mr. Harding's lecture on Cheese-
making, delivered before the Tarporley Club: "There should be a
proper dairy room ; but this indispensable item in dairy practice, as a
rule, is wanting throughout the length and breadth of our land, in the
absence of which there can be seldom a guarantee for making good
cheese. The milk, so delicate in its nature, requires to be deposited in
a place entirely free from every impurity ; the floor of the room should
be clean, and every precaution taken to render it dry. Cement should
be used where necessary to fill up joints or cracks, so as to destroy
every lodging-place for filth ; every utensil in use should not only be
clean but appear with a polish. The milk should be poured into a re-
ceiver outside the dairy-house, and conveyed by a pipe, or rather an open
shoot or conduit, to the vsssel prepared for its reception in the milk-
house, that the milkers may not enter the dairy. Under these circum-
stances milk may be kept sweet in ordinary weather, in a temperature of
63 to 65 degrees, during the night in one vessel (say, the cheese tub), to
which the morning's milk may with safety be added, and a fine cheese
be the result. I cannot understand why persons prefer the labour of
making cheese twice a day, when cheese of a superior description can be
produced by making once as I have described. As to preparing the milk
for the reception of the rennet, in the absence of Cockey's or any heating
apparatus beyond 100 degrees, during the summer months it frequently
happens that no heating is required, the evening milk in the cheese tub
having stood at 56 to 70 degrees ; and that of the morning coming in to
mix with it at a temperature of 90 degrees, will at once fix the bulk at
78 to 80 degrees, the temperature required. The rennet, which should
be perfectly sweet and its strength practically known, should at once be
introduced and stirred into the milk so as to take immediate and univer-
sal effect, and at once arrest the particles of cream, and prevent their
escape to the surface. If the atmosphere be close and damp, and the
temperature high, care should be taken to prevent the over-heating of
Cheshire Cheese-making. 405
to 200 acres statute measure ; some few may be
larger, but the majority scarcely average 150 acres.
The general estimate is a cow to every 4 acres, in
addition to which there is the usual proportion of
stirks and calves. Of course, where the farmers bone
any portion of it, lest its condition became affected before the rennet is
added. It is not safe to heat it. The evening milk may have acquired
sufficient acidity to slightly affect litmus paper, to which there is not
always much objection ; but if it has remained perfectly sweet, a little
sour whey of a clean acid taste may be added to assist the rennet, the
quantity being regulated by the experience of the dairy- woman. Break-
ing the Cheese : The coagulation should occupy fifty to sixty minutes, it
may then be cut across at right angles with a long knife or other cutting
instruments, when the whey should immediately begin to appear. With
the milk at this stage of the proceedings, in the condition I have de-
scribed, the character of the future cheese is entirely subject to the skill
of the operator. To follow the Cheddar method, after remaining a short
time in this state, it should be broken or cracked up carefully, to prevent
waste, when a little whey is taken off and warmed. When the breaking
is completed, this heated whey is poured over it, which tends to harden
the curd and clear the whey, when the curd will be found to be in small
and distinct particles : it is then allowed to subside. A portion of the
whey is then drawn off and heated for scalding, which may occupy thirty
or forty minutes. The curd is then stirred up, and the heated whey
poured amongst it until it has reached a temperature of 100 degrees. The
stirring is continued till the particles of curd again separate and sink,
when the whey remains clear. With Cockey's heating apparatus, the
breaking and the scalding is performed by one operation, the tempera-
ture being gradually increased during the stirring till it reaches 100
degrees. There is probably less necessity for the curd being so finely
broken when it is not to be scalded, as there would be some difficulty
in again collecting it without the application of heat of a high tempera-
ture. After being subjected to the heated whey for twenty-five or thirty
minutes, the whole of the whey is drawn ff, the curd becomes a com-
pact mass, which is heaped up on the convex bottom of the tub ; the
temperature being carefully retained, the whey readily escapes. When
this is effected, which may occupy from one to two hours, according to
circumstances, it is placed in the press to remain twenty or thirty
minutes, when it is removed and broken in the mill, and salted with the
best refined salt (which is prepared for the purpose by Titley of Bath),
at the rate of lib. of salt to 561bs. of curd, when it is again placed
in the press. The next morning it is turned in the vat, and a dry cloth
is given to it, which is not subsequently wetted. At the end of the
third day it is removed to the cheese-room and bandaged, when it is
turned every day for a few days ; as it hardens it is turned twice a week,
and ultimately once, till it is sent to market at two to four months
old."
406 Saddle and Sirloin.
and manure heavily, the same land will carry many
more, but rich grass does not improve the quality of
cheese. The rent is not regulated by the price of
cheese, and there is no bowie system as in Ayrshire.
Cheese-making commences in early spring, with what
is termed " the Boosy Cheese ;" but the opening day
of "the prime season" is the I2th of May, or "the
turning-out day " when all cattle begin their summer
grazing, and cheese is made more, or less, until Octo-
ber 1 2th, when the ley season closes.
The principal cheese market is at Chester. There
is also one at Crewe, but the factors generally travel
about from farm to farm, and purchase the whole or
the greater portion of their cheese from the same
places, year after year. The cheese of the North or
North Eastern part of the county is made for the
Manchester market. It is lifted from the farms about
October, and is used in a green state ; and in fact it
will not keep. The farmers adopt this plan because
they want to have no trouble with their cheese during
the winter months ; they have also no loss in weight,
and they get their money sooner. A much smaller
quantity of cheese is now made on the Knutsford side,
as the demand for milk in Manchester has increased
so largely. Tarporley and the country round Chester
is of good report ; but perhaps the best Cheshire
cheese, which is generally sent to London, is made in
the Nantwich and Broxton Hundreds. This cheese
is made to keep, and is generally not lifted from the
farms until February or March It commands a higher
price in consequence, and is worth, on an average, 90^.
per cwt, whilst the more ordinary sorts range from 55.$-.
to 8os. Prices ruled high in 1869, and they were at
their lowest point before the cattle-plague fell upon
the county with such fearful virulence.
Our " Cheshire worthies " are connected more or
less with the Roodee. Of old Joe Maiden and his
doings, and the wooden leg of later life, we have told
Captain White. 407
elsewhere, and we can see his smile of pleasure as
Captain White looked over his youngest son, one Cup
day, when he heard that he was intended for a whip,
" to see if he had good legs and feet." We never
remember the immortal Captain so amusing as when,
with Sir Watkin and two ex-masters of hounds, he
was helping to dig out a fox on a frosty bye afternoon
in the Wynnstay Woods, and stood at a bolt hole
with a stick, as he said, to " nobble " him. Again he
was very great, when he was bidding at Mr. Blenk-
iron's for Lord Stamford, and kept popping his head
at intervals out of the window of the drag, and re-
questing Mr. Tattersall to " knock him down." He
was always very good-natured if any writer asked
him about old times, and most pathetic on the horrors
of the great frost of '15, when he was obliged to leave
Lincolnshire, where he was hunting with Mr. Asshe-
ton Smith, and employed his London leisure in look-
ing at the skaters and the bonfires on the Thames.
He hardly understood being followed by a pencil,
and his scream when he saw one produced with an
author at the end of it, was a sort of compound of
Tom Ranee's and Rachel's for intensity. And then
his language and his power of simile, when he described
the points of his hunter Harlequin ! The echoes of
the laughter of those who heard him, must linger yet
in the smoking-room at Cherry Hill. If there was a
bit of fun, there he was in the midst of itj with a joke
and a comment which would have often sounded as
nothing in another man's mouth, but were so rich and
so mellow in his. He and Mr. Osbaldeston were born
in the same year, but the " Old Squire " outstayed
him, although he was reduced to his Bath chair. He
rode his grey mare, Alice Grey, which originally cost
him 2O/., for ten or twelve seasons, in fact almost to
the last, over Cheshire. Every year he had a week or
two with The Duke's at Badminton, and enjoyed the
stone walls amazingly. He was also a good deal at
408 Saddle and Sirloin.
Quorn, while Lord Stamford was master. He would
ride anything, but Comet was generally " the Captain's
horse," and they were wont to joke him about having
cut his initials on him with his spur, when the pair had
a bit of a scramble at an ox fence. He was Master
of the Horse to his lordship and then to Mr. Naylor ;
and one of his proudest recollections was the way in
which (when, in consequence of Godding's illness, he
and the head-lad were in charge) he hood-winked the
touts about Macaroni's trial. The Manchester men
grumbled at the hard measure which he sometimes
dealt out to them ; but the mirth of the land is gone,
and the Cheshire covert-side now lacks its most radiant
element.
" I would give half a hundred men,
Black Douglas were alive again."
Dr. Bellyse was nearly as well known in the county
as his father, and by virtue of his long connexion with
coursing he was always allowed to ride with the beaters
at The Waterloo. He was true to the sport to the
last, and a fall from his pony at the Sudbury meeting
somewhat hastened his end. Latterly he did not run
dogs in public, but still he bred a few for private cours-
ing. Bachelor, the founder of the Bugle blood, was
bred by him, and he never forsook that strain. He
left Audlem some years before his death, and the
practice which he had inherited was" transferred to his
son. Latterly he occupied a pretty little Cheshire home
at Dorfold not far from Nantwich. His love of the
leash peeped out a hundred ways from Cerito on the
wall to the " Stonehenge " and " Thacker " on the
table, and the greyhound couchant on the paper-weight
and inkstand. Everything about him was as natty
as himself. He did not inherit his father's taste for
the Turf, but he treasured the stories he had heard
from him of The Roodee, and the Mostyn Mile.
Beyond keeping the box of silver spurs (over which
he waxed quite eloquent when it was drawn out) and
Mr. D. R. Dames Herd. 409
the lineal descendants of the black-breasted reds, he
had quite deserted " the Sod." We remember him
once saying, as he put a carving-knife into a pair of
noble pullets which tasted like pheasants, after their
final three days' bread-and-milk probation in a dark
pen, " It's like carving gold ; what would my poor
father say if he saw us ? he wouldn't have killed them
for two hundred guineas apiece." Our friend had,
however, only anticipated the change in public taste,
as these martial roosters did not average more than
ids. to 18^. per pair at the hammer.
Mr. D. R. Davies' herd is kept near his residence,
Mere Old Hall, at the Bucklow Hill Farms, where he
has nearly 400 acres, inclusive of plantation belts, in
his own hands.* Mr. Davies had a second herd of
* He began in February, 1862, at Mr. Grundy's, where he purchased
after the sale Victoria Regina of the Booth, and Roan Queen (served
by First Grand Duke of Wetherby) of the Bates blood, by way of
starting impartially. To these were added in due course Medora by
Master Rembrandt from Mr. Barber's, Surmise by May Duke from Mr.
Hales', Mildred Rose and Dairymaid (both of the Sylph tribe) from
Mr. Jonas Webb's, Leonora from Mr. Jolly's, Countess of Burlington
by Third Grand Duke and Minstrel 2nd from the Duke of Devonshire's,
Cherry Empress from Mr. Logan's, Stanley Roan from Mr. A. May-
nard's, Lady Best from Mr. Langston's, and Thorndale Duchess and
Thorndale Rose from Mr. Robinson's. Gradually he went for Bates,
weeded-out animals not of that blood, and began with Marquis of Ox-
ford by Sixth Duke of Oxford from Moth. After him he bought Ebor,
who was third to Forth in the old bull class at Newcastle Royal, and
second at the Manchester and Liverpool meeting. Then he went on
with Garibaldi by Third Grand Duke from Cambridge Rose 6th, which
he bought in 1864 from Miss Combe. On February 23rd, 1864, he sold
two dozen females and nine bulls, and made 120 guineas for Master
Warlaby from Leonora, whereat the Cheshire farmers, who know of no
tetich prices for "a bull fed on rushes," cheered lustily. The average
was 3 1/. os. gd., and Mr. Platt and Mr. "Whitworth were the leading
purchasers. Since then he has purchased Cleopatra 5th by Qth Duke
of Oxford and Charlotte 4th by Duke of Knowlmere (first prize at
Plymouth Royal) from Mr. Logan, Bracelet and Bland (own sisters) by
Sir James from Mr. Wythes, Moss Rose 2nd by 4th Duke of Thorn-
dale from Mr. E. L. Betts (Preston Hall), Moss Rose (dam of the
above) from Mr. Foster (Killhow), Wellingtonia by 3rd Duke of
Thorndale from Mr. Mclntosh (Havering Park), Harmony by Cherry
4io Saddle and Sirloin.
eleven cows and heifers, some of them calves when
the plague began. He believes that preventive mea-
sures failed, simply because, when the grass came, he
placed his cattle in the field for a short time daily, out
of the influence of chlorine gas. In this belief he is
confirmed by the experience of his near neighbour,
Lord Egerton of Tatton, whose milch cows and feed-
ing stock were subjected to the same treatment, but
never allowed to leave the shippons. Hence, in spite
of a severe attack of the plague on several farms in
the vicinity of the Tatton Home Farm, they all escaped,
while some of the West Highland bullocks in the park
went down. Chlorine gas was quite the fashion in
Cheshire, and as farmers were very "jealous" of con-
tagion, every rural policeman carried, at the sugges-
tion of Professor Stone, a wooden kit with him, as
well as a waterproof bag, for disinfecting his dress.
The kit had four compartments for bottles of muriatic
acid, chlorate of potash, Stockholm tar, and "soap
and sundries." The two former generate chlorine gas
by contact, and a few drops of the tar poured upon
some hot cinders will disinfect boots or clogs when
suspended on a poker within reach of its vapour. The
inspection dress is made of strong calico and fashioned
like a diver's, and it is fumigated and made ready for
the next visit by putting it into the bag along with a
perforated box in which chlorine gas has been gene-
rated and retained on pumice stone.*
Duke 3rd from Mr. Adkins (Millcote), Cleopatra 9th by Lord Oxford
from Mr. Harwood (Winterford), Grand Duke of Essex 4th by Grand
Duke 4th from Mr. Mclntosh (Havering Park), and Twelfth Duke
of Thorndale, bred by Mr. S. Thome of Thorndale, U.S. The last
named was one of the animals offered at the Windsor sale, and after-
wards purchased from Mr. Thomas when in London.
* Mr. Davies' shippon is at the junction of three roads leading
to Chester, Warrington, and Knutsford, and in the centre of a district
through which the plague wended the same fatal way that it did in the
last century commencing near Warrington and coming along the low
ground. In the small township of Tabley alone 662 beasts died ; 41
Penrhyn Castle. 411
Shropshire sheep have been another great fancy of
Mr. Davies, and he has won at the Royal North Lan-
cashire, the Manchester and Liverpool, the Yorkshire
and Cheshire, with his rams. For the last two or
three years he has given a prize for the sort at the
Yorkshire Show. The flock numbers ten score ewes,
and has been established from the oldest and best
flocks in Shropshire Horton's, Matthews', Crane's,
Evans', Smith's, and others, and the wethers are all
sold off as shearlings. Many of his rams went last
year to South America, Australia, and Germany, and
one of the latter took the first prize at the Leipsic
Fair. Horton's Lord of the Isles, Duke of Kent, and
General Lee (all Royal prize winners) have been used,
and did much both for size, heavy flesh, and wool.
We did not care for the estuary of the Dee, its
countless small flat " lumps" of coasting vessels, and
were slaughtered, and only 20 per cent, were left. It skipped some
farms and attacked others, and it would sometimes in its later stages
take one cow and return to the same herd for another victim at the
lapse of three weeks. Cleanliness was of no avail, and some of the
very worst kept shippons escaped. Mr. Davies' precautionary efforts
were unintermitting from the first. Every beast about the place was
vaccinated; hyposulphite of soda, beginning at 3lbs. and so on to 5lbs.,
was mixed for four or five months in 100 gallons of water, and chlorine
gas was used night and day in the shippon. Sawdust was substituted
for straw, in consequence of its absorbing the faces better, and being so
much more easily removed. The cattle were never more blooming than
when they were turned out in the middle of May, for a few hours daily,
into a field adjoining the shippon and abutting on the high road.
There was no infected farm nearer than a mile, but at the end of three
weeks an Alderney heifer was taken ill and died in 36 hours. She had
no symptoms of illness about her except a slight discharge from the
vagina, and until the veterinary surgeon opened her he thought she was
ruptured. The bull by which she had been recently served was
slaughtered immediately, but there was no arresting the evil, and in
two days more nine or ten were down with it. Leonora, from Mr,
Jolly's, was the first decided case, as they found her one morning with
her back up, her coat staring, and her head and ears drooping ; but
Lady Best from the late Mr. Langston's, Minstrel from Holker, Heiress
from Mr. Hales', Cherry Empress from Mr. Logan's, and Water Girl
from the late Mr. Anthony Maynard's soon followed suit. They sick-
ened for three or four days, and on the fourth there was a strong dis-
4 1 2 Saddle and Sirloin.
great manure and alkali works, but we should have
been sorry to miss Conway Castle or Rhyl, or that
peep up the rich vale of Clwyd, with its black cattle
and scraggy sheep, its Cathedral of St. Asaph, and its
old castle of Ruddlan. The railway follows the line
of the sea-coast in all its windings, till it comes in
sight of the bold, rocky headland of Penmaen Mawr,
and the blunt surface of Priestholme or Puffin Island,
which is the very Bass Rock of those Western Seas.
Generations of fishing fowl have made it their fishing
residence since a Prince of North Wales fixed his eye
on the promontory of Penrhyn (head of the mound),
from which only a few miles of salt water divide it,
and founded the first castle of that name. The soli-
dity of his masonry still speaks for itself in a small
portion of the western side ; but he would stroke his
beard in amazement if he could rise for one hour be-
charge from the nose, eyes, and vagina. They could neither lie nor
stand ; their legs and heads were never still, and their moanings were
sad to hear. They would become feverish, and then shiver like a man
in the ague, and their faces were quite lax and costive by turns.
As they were very valuable stock, and Cheshire was at its wit's- end
in the hope of discovering some alleviation or remedy, the local com-
mittee consented to have them treated, but everything was useless except
the iodine ointment, a compound of iodine, mercury, and lard, which
was recommended by Mr. Lawson, veterinary surgeon of Manchester.
His object was to set up a counter-irritation if possible, and the
ointment rubbed twice or thrice a day on the chest gave apparent relief.
When applied in the early stage it seemed their only chance, but unfor-
tunately it was not thought of till some of the best had died. The
climax was generally on the fourth day, and those which died often
lingered on about three days more. One old cow of the Towneley
blood fought on for upwards of a fortnight. When the turn for the
better came, frequent doses of oatmeal-gruel were administered. Up
to that point they could not be got to take anything, as their mouths
were sore with inflammation, and they did not even notice water.
Countess of Barrington and Surmise were never so ill as the others, but
they wasted to skin and bone, and it took them and seven others (which
had all been treated with iodine ointment) several weeks to recover
their bloom. None of these nine survivors out of thirty-six were able
to carry their calves, but slunk them, a perfect mass of putridity, after
which they " came to hand" much quicker. Royal Agricultural Journal
(H. H. D.).
Penrhyn Castle. 413
fore cockcrow, and visit the massive Anglo-Norman
keep, which his descendants have reared. For up-
wards of fifteen years did the Anglesea quarrymen
patiently hew out block after block of grey limestone,
to embody Mr. Hopper's designs.
A continuous ride of fifteen miles from its lodge-
gate through Caernarvonshire scarcely brings us to
the limits of the Penrhyn property, which comprises
other estates in the same county, and extends in the
shape of sheep farms to the top of the snow-peaked
mountains which join the Snowdon range. His lord-
ship has been most diligent in draining, and succeeded
most effectually in ruining his snipe-shooting. One
field of 34 acres involved an outlay of 8 SO/, for blast-
ing, draining, and trenching with the spade, and the
rough morass at the foot of the mountains required
10 cwt. per acre of half-inch bones, in addition to the
two latter processes, before it could be made suitable
for sheep. The mountains, however, pay something
more than a tribute for their surface wealth in the
shape of tons of slate, which are being daily raised by
2700 workmen in the quarries near the village of
Bethesda. The blocks are blasted out, and then split
up and cut by hand or machine, ready for transport
down the five or six miles of tram-road, which carries
them to the railway and the Bangor pier. Slates
haunt you everywhere. You find them fixed up
lengthways and bound together with iron for fences ;
they start up as corn-chest panels, chimney-pieces, and
water cisterns in the cow-houses ; they bristle on wall
tops as chevaux defrise ; they form the narrow passage
by which his attendant slipped craftily up to Marma-
duke whenever he required " hooking ;" and, cut into
countless shapes, they bear the last living tribute of
many a simple heart, " Er cof am" in the beautiful
churchyard of Llandegai.
The park wall of Penrhyn, which measures about
seven miles round, commences in the immediate out-
414 Saddle and Sirloin.
skirts of Bangor, and skirts the old Chester road for
the first two. The dairy is close to one of the lodges,
and carried us back, with its cool slate slabs, its mimic
fountains, and its white and blue rimmed delf bowls
(on which the emblazoned boar and griffin surmount
the Bruce's heart and locket), to the dainty dairy of
England beneath the Belvoir woodlands. The farm
buildings themselves are a substantial stone pile, rather
noticeable for their convenience within than any archi-
tectural pretensions without. Many of the calf-boxes
in the second yard were especially built for Dorkings,
in the days when the fowl mania was at fever-heat.
Penrhyn has pretty well held the lead in Welsh
runts,* both at Birmingham and Smithfield, since
* Most money is asked for the black runts from Anglesey ; but they
have become "more coloury" than they once were, and many of them
are red. The dealers go to the yards in the spring of the year, and
take them younger, and they can make of them at 2^ years what they
used to do with a year more on their heads. The graziers in Essex and
Kent buy young heifers of 15 to 18 months (many of them from Caer-
marthenshire), call them "calves," and winter and feed them off.
On good land the heifers "have more swell on them" than the bul-
locks. The latter go principally to Leicester and Harboro' markets,
and not on to Northampton. Some of the best three-parts-bred, twos
off, make i6/. to 2O/. in good years. The Midland Counties men buy
bullocks in October, and keep them twelvemonths, but seldom a
second winter if they can help it. Mr. Bennett of Marston is an
especial admirer of North Wales blacks. He generally picks six of the
best to get up for show, and sometimes feeds a hundred. William
Evans buys a great many in the spring and after August for the Mid-
lands ; and the three brothers Roberts, and David Owen, and Jarratt
all bring large supplies to Daventry, Rugby, Leicester, and Harboro',
and the remnants on to Northampton. The Evanses (William, John,
and Lewis) were once very great in the trade ; but all of them are dead.
Richard Evans is one of the oldest in the trade, and brings many
Shropshires as well as Welsh beasts, and Dan Davis has had a great
lot down the last three years. "Spectacle Jones" has sometimes
brought nearly 1200 to the Midlands between March and November;
but he has in a measure retired now, and only looks to old customers
and his farm.
In Anglesey beasts generally do well, as there is plenty of green
crop ; and " the calves" went to Barnet Fair until the plague regulations
were put in force. Heifers used to go only to Essex, but now more of
them go to the Midlands. The bullocks have the best land, and a bull
Penrhyn Castle. 415
1855. One of its heaviest was sold for 661. at 4 years
6 months, and cut up to 220 stone of 81bs., whereas
the others have generally run from 180 to 200. The
Chester and Warwick Royal Shows brought out the
heavy blacks of Penrhyn in great force. Ten out of
the twelve winning cards, and four of them firsts, were
their portion on the Roodee ; and at Warwick the
head bull prize, open to all breeds save three, fell to
their lot, with Lord Southesk's Polled Angus, and
H.R.H. Prince Albert's Alderney next in merit. A
cross between the Welsh and West Highland was
tried. It improved the quality of the beef, but the
females did not milk so well, and the calves fell small.
Whitaker bulls, followed by some of Mr. Fawkes's
is often put in with the heifers, so that if they do badly, there's the
calf. There are now many more buyers of heifers in the Midlands than
what there were eighteen years ago, and they turn off two sets of heifers
to one of bullocks.
Caermarthenshire and Cardiganshire both get Pembroke bulls.
The former county has them of a good sire, but coarser in quality ; and
Cardiganshire, for lack of green crops, hardly attends to them as it
might. Pembroke keeps the black line most pure ; but all these coun-
ties use Hereford as well as shorthorn bulls. Its Roosa and Castle
Martin beasts are pure. The latter have more quality and less bone,
and are shorter legged, and not so big as the Roosa beasts. The Castle
Martin lack fineness of horn ; but it is a favourite saying, " Don't buy
me a bull without a good thick horn his stock feed and come to the
weight best." The Castle Martin cows are generally good, and, like
most Pembrokes, with white spots, and white under the belly, and horns
yellow with a black tip. In Pembrokeshire horses are often seen yoked
in front of oxen in carts. In Caermarthenshire many of the runts are
brindled and black, and with " a white ribbon," like the almost extinct
breed near Hexham. The bulls are small, and anything but good ; and
even in Anglesey, West Highlanders, Galloways, and Herefords are all
creeping in. They are now of all colours black, brindled, dun, red,
black with white face, &c. ; but still the better pasture and green crops
keep them at the head of the poll for size.
Glamorgan has got rid of the old sort, and taken more to Herefords,
or white and smutty-faced black beasts. Only one or two keep the old
white-tailed sort, which were higher on the leg than the modern
Glamorgans. The moderns are not a good lot of beasts, coarser than
the Pembrokes, excellent workers, and good for the pail, and generally
red-brown or ruddy, and dragged up on bad iron ore pasture. Many
of the best ponies and best trotters come out of Glamorganshire. There
4 1 6 Saddle and Sirloin.
and Sir Charles Knightley, introduced the shorthorn
blood to Penrhyn some skx-and-thirty years ago, and
about 1851 a few pedigree females were brought from
Edgcott, Rothersthorpe, and elsewhere. Booth's
King Arthur and Vanguard were both hired, and
Marmaduke was a very good 4OO-guinea purchase ;
and the herd has not only taken firsts with a Love-
more steer and cow at Birmingham, but the first calf
prize with Jessamine at the Canterbury, and again
with Waterloo 26th at the Leicester Royal.
Sheep-breeding has been made a great point of
both at the home and the mountain farm, which lies
at the foot of the mountains, fully five miles away.
The flock, which numbers about two thousand, is
really half Cheviot and Welsh, and the wethers are
kept to four years old for the sake of their mutton.
A disposition to kemp or hair in the Welsh fleece has
been very much counteracted by a cross with the
Cheviot, which has increased both the quantity and
texture of the wool, without spoiling the flavour of the
mutton or the natural hardness of the sheep. The
Leicesters and Shrops form a distinct flock of from
1000 to 1 200 on the lower Penrhyn Farm. The
are also many ponies in the upper part of Radnorshire. The fairs are
cried at Chapel, and many ppny lots are sold from 50^. to 7/.
Beddgelert, Llanllyfui, Llanberis, Capel Curig," and Bettws are all noted
fairs (and so is Llanbedr, between Conway and Llanrwst) in October
for cattle, wethers of all ages up to six, and broken-mouthed ewes. The
four- year-old wethers have gone as high as 2%s., and the draft ewes to
22s. for England. The fair at Menai Bridge is held monthly, and
dealers, as elsewhere, have generally had the offer of everything, so
that you are obliged to outbid them. Llangefui is also a fair of note,
and Caernarvon, Conway, and Llanerchymedd are for steers principally.
Caernarvonshire has good feeding between the base of Snowdon and
the Menai Straits, and again between the Rivals and Llyen districts.
Welsh mountain farms of 1000 to 1400 acres will let for 6o/. The
grey-black sheep don't generally die well ; in Caermarthenshire the
whites are better liked, and in Merionethshire yellow legs and black
faces are more the order of the day. July I5th is the general clipping
time, and they are pretty generally their own shearers. It strips away
from the neck, and leaves the scrag as bare as a deer's.
Penrhyn Castle. 417
former were originally bred from Robert Smith's
stock, crossed with rams from Hewitt, Sanday, and
Burgess. One season they were crossed with Cots-
wolds, but the result was a general ungainliness of
frame and lumpinesss in the shoulders. First-class
" Shrops" have been the latest introduction. They
required a short time to become acclimatized ; but
their mutton finds Welsh purchasers at all seasons,
which the Leicester fails to do.
Pigs have also been successful prize-takers, and
many of them are sprung from a sow and two boars
bought at Earl Ducie's sale, and the progeny of one
of the sows alone made nearly 3OO/.
A mile walk from the first lodge down the great
Parliamentary Road, for which Wales has to thank
the late Sir Henry Parnell, brought us to the village
of Llandegai. " Twenty -four hours from London to
Holyhead" seems stamped on it yet, as, although the
grass is growing on the sides, the middle testifies how
carefully Telford must have executed the subpaving
and draining. Posterity has, however, to pay pretty
freely for its dashing, break-neck memories of the
Chester and Holyhead mails. Before road-making
rose to the dignity of a science, the late Lord Penrhyn
had made one from Capel Curig, which, by adopting
the base of the triangle for its route, brought grass
and grief to Conway ; and a picture in the castle re-
presents him pointing out on a map the intended route,
which spurned many of those valleys along which
Telford was content to creep. At Llandegai flower
worship seems to exercise the same manifold witchery
as the chirp of the knitting needles. The Virginian
creeper, the foreign currant, and the cotoniastns
cling round every porch, ready to burst into bloom
under a milder sky, and the hydrangea and fuchsia
are wont to peep in at many a lattice from " plaited
alleys of the trailing rose" half-way up the mountain..
Passing up a dark-shaded avenue of yew-trees we
E E
4 1 8 Saddle and Sirloin.
read in the chancel how the first Baron Penrbyn, a
Chancellor and Bishop, and the Lord Keeper Wil-
liams, " enriched the county with buildings, agricul-
ture, and plantations," and then leaving the ro^d to
wind itself out of sight among the trim laurel banks
near the school-house that fitting In Memoriam of
the late Mrs. Pennant we strolled through the Cistle
grounds on our homeward route to Bangor.
The high winds and the nature of the soil may
have borne hard on the oaks and ashes ; but they
battled with the sycamores in vain, and the laurels,
hollies, and rhododendrons "enjoyed themselves
amazingly." Looking down from the terrace of the
Castle near which Her Majesty planted two trees
on the last morning of her visit they formed one
richly-tangled mass of green, under which many a
white scut was seen darting back at each fresh foot-
fall, from his trip for the tiny grass blades among the
bracken and the briar. The ground is blue with the
hyacinth, and the ragged robin with its scarlet leaves,
creeps coyly among the fern. Far beneath,
" Where alders droop and willows weep,
You hear those streams repine,"
as the Ogwen flows through its wooded valley to the
sea ; and whatever belief we might have previously
accorded to the legend of the Virgin Monacella who,
according to the guide-book, protected Welsh hares
under her skirts in a grove and the year of grace 604,
when the Prince of Powys hunted them near Pennant
Melangell was wholly dispelled, as the kennel cry of
the harriers rose above its murmur at feeding time.
The place seemed a complete epitome of sports and
agriculture, which would keep struggling for pre-
eminence.
A merino ram roamed in a garden meadow with
a steeple-chase brood mare, and an English dop- and
a French vixen fox (which had a litter of cubs)
A Mountain Ride. 419
chained up as good genii in front of the boxes, in
which The Hadji succeeded Russboro', Malcolm, John
Cosser, Coroebus, and Mango, and where the hunters
for Northamptonshire are soiled down.
In the cart stable there was a score of horses, nine
of them greys by Matchless, the Salisbury Royal
winner ; and the mare at one end was pointed out as
the last love of Russboro'. The Eleventh Grand
Duke with his sweet breast and head met us right
well, and behind him came the deep-fleshed Duke of
Geneva out of Marmaduke's box, who had a two to
one run with Booth's venerable Prince Alfred at
Peterborough not long after. Messrs. Robinson and
Tallant were with " The Duke," but Mr. Savidge
would not give in. A Welsh bull and Sambo from
Montbletton represented the black bull interest, and
the latter has been put to native cows. Old Marma-
duke had left eighteen or nineteen roans behind him,
and none of them much prettier than Duchess of Lan-
caster 5th, and a sweet head and breast marked China
Rose of the Duke of Geneva's line, and reminding us
of Stanley Rose in her colour. Runts and Cheviot-
Welsh sheep are in the park, and the latter know
no knife till five years old, and then at I5lbs. per
quarter.
Now we take our road towards Snowdon, and past
the great slate works. " Holy Thursday" is the
miners' favourite holiday, and four or five hundred
keep it by being up betimes, and off with guns and
terriers after that " Welsh wolf," the fox. Nine full-
grown ones have been in view at one time on the side
of Glydyr Mawr, and the assembly of hunters in full
chase with whoop and halloo on their track. If they
can take them alive, it is a guinea for a full-grown one,
and half a guinea for a cub, to go in to the Grafton
country. These "wolves" take great tithes, and
twenty lambs a week have been known to go.
Scotch fir, larch, oak, and ash are all on the moun-
E E 2
42O Saddle and Sirloin.
tain sides, but they are generally clothed with larch
against the west winds, which are very fierce for nine
months in the year. To the right are the slate works,
looking like great bastions of rubble with steel blue
terraces of slate rock. There are millions of tons of
rubble at the tip head, and the arsenic galleries seem
like hermitages in the rock. The rubble has buried,
lava-fashion, the old church of Starns, but his lordship
has built a new one in lieu of it higher up the moun-
tain. There are others in the neighbouring town of
Bethesda, beyond which we come to the Vale of Nant
Franckon, where the tup never leaves the ewes, and
the gimmer is always a nursing mother. But " Nature
is a holy thing ;" they are titled roamers, and there is
not much restitution. Jones, own brother to Owen
(seeing that the eldest son often takes the father's, and
the second the mother's name), hunts them with dogs
upon the mountains, and gets them back with their
necks and half their bodies peeled. Above us is the
Idwal Lake, with its dark legend that birds will not
fly over it. In it are the one-eyed trout, which being
interpreted are trout too quick for men with two eyes.
Then there are goats, white, with blue necks and spots,
waiting to be milked. A solitary man is doing his
bush-harrowing, with furzes bound in a gate (which he
has taken off for the purpose), and. top-dressing with
the road dung he has gathered in his barrow. A
cormorant, with his crop full from his valley stream
fishing, sails off aloft to his lake, and it gets a great-
coat colder as we near Capel Curig, and face Snowdon
at last.
The North Wales sheep are generally white in the
face and legs, and the ewes have scarcely any horn.
The flocks number from 50 to 500 ewes, and some of
them are still larger. Very little care has been taken
to select proper tups; bad ones reign on from year to
year, and a progenies vitiosior follows in male tail.
The hoggs are mostly brought to the low grounds in
Welsh Sheep. 421
winter, and the older wethers as well, before they go
to the butcher or gentlemen's parks in England to be
finished on grass. Among the smaller Welsh farmers
they only see turnips or hay occasionally. In fact,
they never take very kindly to turnips, from not
having eaten them in their youth, and they would
rather starve at a show than touch artificial food.
Like the Shetland sheep, they own no covering but
the sky. Many of their mountain haunts are little
better than large loose heaps of stones with patches of
coarse grass in the crevices. Others, on the contrary,
have good pasturage, at great heights, from 1500 to
1800 feet, and these are generally overstocked. Some
Caernarvonshire sheep-walks are 3000 feet above sea-
level, and are let at a rent proportioned to the quality
of the pasture, and not, as in some parts of Scotland,
according to the number of sheep kept. Several of
the tenants have rights of commonage for so many
head of sheep, but this is not generally to the flock-
master's advantage, as it often tempts him to put more
sheep on the already overstocked commons, and keeps
the poor animals in such a state of starvation that the
winter cuts them off by hundreds.
At four years old the fat pure Welsh wethers
do not weigh much above 4olbs. dead weight,
and clip from i^lbs. to 2lbs. of washed wool. The
Blackface cross was tried, and brought an increase
both in size and wool, without any sacrifice of hardi-
ness ; but it was not persisted in, as the wool came
coarse, and the mutton rather yellow. Lord Penrhyn
has done much by crossing the Welsh with the Cheviot
ram, which is bought on the first day at Kelso Ram
Fair ; and on one of his lordship's mountain farms
they have thriven well at an altitude of 1 800 feet.
The Penrhyn Castle crosses are bred on the mountain
farms, and sent down to be weaned and wintered.
They then return to the mountain for three years, and
are brought down at their fourth winter and kept on
422 Saddle and Sirloin.
grass, a few turnips, and hay if the weather is very
bad, and killed off when they are ready. Sometimes,
but very rarely, the cross produces a true type of
Welsh sheep. Two crosses of Cheviot have increased
the Welsh sheep from 4olbs. dead weight (i.e., carcase
without the head or legs from the knee, when the
farmers sell by so much per Ib.) to about /olbs.,* and
have also more than doubled the wool, on which the
second cross seems to have good effect. Sheep of
this cross were too heavy for the mountain, and the
trial of a cross-bred ram sent down the size again. It
was also found that the continued use of the Cheviot
ram, which improved the texture of the mutton, and
gave it more fat, as long as it was confined to two
crosses, tended to make it too light in colour. No
pure Welsh leg of mutton should exceed 4|lbs. ;
larger ones are doubtful in their origin ; and even a
voucher that they were from the Vale of Conway and
the parts about Penmaen Mawr, would not satisfy a
man of strictly eclectic appetite. For Welsh wool,
pure and simple, the highest quotation has been 15^.
It has now come down to 8^?. or <)d., while the cross-
bred still touches i6d. Both are brought by the
Yorkshire and Lancashire wool-staplers. The Welsh
people still knit stockings and comforters as industri-
ously as ever from the old sort ; and there are mills in
Anglesea and Caernarvonshire where flannels, blankets,
and winseys (a sort of tweed) are manufactured prin-
cipally for home consumption.
Radnorshire, or, as it was once more termed from
the bench, " that little sheep-walk, which calls itself a
county," where pony-fairs are still given out by the
clerk in the porch on Sundays, has some very Astecs
of sheep about Cwym-dau-ddwr, or " the dingle of the
two rivers," Wye and Elan, near the church of St.
* Fed on hay and turnips, they have reached 90! b*.
^
Bridget. The range of hills, with hardly a hut for
shelter, extends for twenty miles by the course of the
Wye, along the upper part of the country, which in
Scottish phrase " marches " with Montgomeryshire,
and " the sweet shire of Cardigan." Rhayader is the
little town of the hills twenty miles from Radnor and
about six more from Kingston. The flocks seldom
number above 400 ewes ; ram selecting is a refinement
not much cultivated ; and the gimmers generally
" chance it " with the old ewes. Light scrags and big
bellies are among their attributes ; their sharp or "keen
noses " are nearly as white as their faces, and their
bleat is as meek as a kid's. Storms and hard fare
make sad havoc among the lambs, both in preventing
doublets, and starving nearly a fourth of the singles
which do come. Foxes have also a goodly portion,
and even the ravens and hooded crows will make a
sally, drive off the dam, and when they have picked
out the lambs' tongues and eyes, they devote their best
energies to the flanks. Still, with all their disadvan-
tages of pasture and inbreeding, " the capon-thighed
ones," as the jobbers call the Upper Radnorshires,
swell out nicely after four years old, when they have
left their hills for rich lowland grass.
A sheep-washing day on the Wye is a very pic-
turesque and primitive matter. The flock-masters and
their men fling them off a rock, and on they go, through
stream and eddy, from hole to hole and stone to stone,
till they reach some sure landing-place below. There
is also quite a muster from the sheep-farms with
scissors, shears, and pitch-pot on shearing and lamb-
marking days. The Lord of the Manor's paddock is
generally full of estrays, which have a withy round
their necks, in token of errantry ; and it is each shep-
herd's duty to go there periodically and claim his
sheep by their marks on payment of so much a week
for their food. The wethers are generally kept up to
five years old, and are then sent to Welshpool, and
424 Saddle and Sirloin.
more especially to Newtown Fair on October 26th,
where the jobbers and farmers have often 1000 to
pick over.*
Sir Watkin Wynn may well have foxes counter-
salient on his quarterings. His career as M. F. H.
extends over nearly thirty seasons, and when John
Walker became huntsman, on the death of Will
Grice, in 1848, he found forty-five couple of hounds
in the kennel. Sir Watkin had given 400 guineas
for four couple when Mr. Foljambe's were sold off.
There were no stallions, and the Duke of Rutland's
and Lord Henry's kennels were generally resorted
to, as well as Mr. Foljambe's Render and Shropshire
Comrade. Tamerlane, by Belvoir Fencer, from Grove
Tempest, and Herald, by Belvoir Grappler, from
* What has been said about Upper Radnorshire applies as much to
the higher parts of Montgomeryshire and Cardigan, but with this ex-
ception, that the Cardigan wethers seldom go to a fair. Many of them
are bought for parks, and improve amazingly on the 5lbs. to 61bs. per
quarter which they would weigh on their arrival. Once the farmers
were glad to sell the draft ewes at all prices, from 3/. los. to 7/. a
score ; but although there is little or no change in their size, the jobbers
and the railways have brought them out, and i8/. to 2O/. has been
reached for them. Some jobbers will buy their 10,000 from two or
three counties, and have no difficulty whatever in placing them out each
September and October. Many of them are bought for the lower
ground in Montgomeryshire, and others go into Surrey, Bucks, and
Berks where their fame as sucklers has preceded them and breed
excellent early lambs by a Leicester or Southdown. A small per-
centage are killed in driving, and they require some shepherding before
they settle down to their new rural life, as they have been known to
break all bounds, and to be drowned in the rivers and ditches.
In the lower part of Radnorshire a different style of sheep and sheep-
farming prevails. Radnor Forest and Clun Forest, which form the
boundary-line between Montgomeryshire and Shropshire, have been
enclosed. The paring-plough has done its work, and seeds and turnips
on the hundred-acre allotments have succeeded heather and ling. The
hardy, close-fleeced Shrop has also been a most able adjutant, and
lambs by him from the Clun Forest ewes, and fed on these pastures,
are worth from 30^. to 35^. at seven months. Very good lambs of the
sort are also to be found about Knighton, and some of them near Kerry
Pole (which lies in the route of the sale wethers from Knighton to
Newtown) fetched 54^. as two-shears last year. Royal Society's
Journal(Yi. H. D.), 1867.
Sir Watktn Wynris Hounds, 425
Wickstead's Handmaid, were the cleverest of the '48
entry, and Herald was used. In 1850 Walker's firs*-
entry was made, and Hopeful, Heroine, Harriet, and
Harbinger, with Primrose and Proserpine, all of them
by Wynnstay Admiral, were its peculiar stars. The
late George Wells (a first-class whipper-in, a good
servant in every respect, and a beautiful horseman
over a stiff country) and James Shaw were the whips,
and poor Shaw was drowned during cub-hunting in
the Dee near Nanty-bellun Tower. He had galloped
towards a ford in order to stop the hounds, which
were running for the Chirk Woods, and tried to
cross by some rocks, when the horse slipped and he
was dragged into deep water. Rufus, Rutland, Ruby,
and Ruthless, all by Belvoir Gainer, were great entries
in 1851-52, and the purchase of Gossamer, Gertrude,
Gratitude, and Gipsy, at old Mr. Drake's sale, was a
fine hit. The foundation of the present pack was not,
however, laid until 1853, and then with Cautious,
Captious, Chorus, Charlotte, Caroline, Cheerful, and
Curious, by Lord Henry's Craftsman from Wynnstay's
Precious (own sister to Phantom) by Bruiser by Che-
shire Bruiser. Like their sire, Craftsman (by Lord
Ducie's Comus, from Burton Sanguine), they had rare
quality and shoulders, were determined drawers, and
hardly ever smeuzed a fence. Adjutant and Anderton
by Herald, Phcebe and Prophetess by Belvoir Royal,
and Phcenix and Princess (a clipper) by Burton Cham-
pion, from Proserpine, were the strength of the entry
in 1854, and the following year brought in Goblin and
Governor, by Herald, both of which were used.
Herald was a rare dog to hold the line down a dry
road in the spring, when foxes run roads very much ;
and so was Goblin.
The year 1855 was the renowned Wynnstay Royal's
first season. He was one of four which came in of a
litter by Fitzwilliam Singer, from Wynnstay Rarity,
by Yarborough Harper by Yarborough Rally wood.
426 Saddle and Sirloin.
Tom Sebright always called Singer his best, and he
told Walker, " You've got a plum in Royal." He was
a great fence jumper. When the fox was sinking, he
once tried to fly a double post and rails up hill, near
Gredington Park, and fell back. However, he went
at it again and over, and Lord Combermere never
forgot it. Walker always thought him the best he
ever followed, and the Belvoir, Grove, Fitzhardinge,
Badminton, Fitzwilliam, Cheshire, and Eglinton ken-
nels all borrowed, or sent to him. The Beaufort Rag-
lan, a first prize stallion at Islington, was by him, and
the Belvoir kennel bred from two of his sons. Never
was hound more attentive to business in and out of
cover, and no whip ever crossed his back. He hunted
for ten seasons, and died in his thirteenth. Even in
the ninth he ran well to head ; whether going to cover
or returning home, it was his whim to be a quarter of
a mile ahead of Walker, and he would wait for him
and wave his stern when he came to a cross road.
His stock have the same habit; and Walker left
eighteen couple of them in the kennel. The old dog
was sent in a basket to London, to be painted by Sir
Francis Grant in the Wynnstay presentation picture
of Sir Watkin and Lady Wynn. Unfortunately no-
thing would induce him to rise in the studio, and there
he sat, looking steadfastly up in the face of Sir
Francis, who presented Walker with his sketch of him,
and a very cherished centre bit it is in the parlour at
Marchwiel.
In 1856 the produce of "We are Seven" of the
Craftsman and Precious litter were entered, and
Comely, Clara, and Conjuror proved the best of the
four couple. In 1857 the blood of Mameluke (by
Yarborough Comrade) gave much strength to the
entry, and Old Pyramid, whose ham-string was bitten
in two by a fox, contributed two couple of good ones
by Yarborough Harper. The Ruthless litter of seven
was also a hit, as Walker had taken her on specula-
Sir Watkin Wynris Hounds. 427
tion to Quorn when Mr. Richard Sutton sold off, and
got Lord Henry's permission to use one of his pur-
chases, Rambler. This was a great season, and 58
brace of foxes were killed, principally in the Garden
country, Styche, and Shavington Park. The foxes
never went so straight, and some of them ten to twelve
miles. In 1858, Actress and Amazon, by Belvoir
Singer (by Comus, the stoutest blood in the Duke's
kennel), from Wynnstay Abbess, were the pride of
the entry, and so high couraged, that Walker had to
take them out eight days in succession to get master
of them.
Grappler, by Craftsman, from Gaiety, was another
pet, and we so well remember the greeting of him and
his guardian, in his puppy season, through the kennel
rails, " He's tasted three foxes, and likes them very
much." Ruler from Pamela was the first Royal puppy
in 1859, when Belvoir Guider and Yarborough Nettler
were dipped into pretty deeply. Rosy, by Belvoir
Clinker, was the crack bitch puppy of the year, and
Prattler, Prompter, and Proserpine, by the same dog,
from old lame Pyramid, were rattlers. There was
only one clever Warwickshire Saffron viz., Sylvia, in
1860 ; and in 1861 came Rustic, Rover, and Relish,
from Guilty, the first great lot of Royals. Six couple
of Beaufort Roderick's, all of them rare drawers, were
amongst the 1862 entry. His colour, red pye, was
against him ; but his stock were undeniable. Royal
got a first-class litter from Stately, two couple of
which were shown in a sweepstakes against six Royals
in Mr. Foljambe's kennel. Mr. Parry and Mr. Wil-
liamson were the judges, and declared for Mr. Fol-
jambe's. One of the two couple, Signal, fell off the
Nescliffe Rocks near Baschurch, and rolled seventy
feet with the fox ; and another, Stormer, was four
days up an earth. There was a splendid entry in
1863, and two stallions, Clinker and Chaser, came out
of the two couple of puppies by Grappler, from Cap-
428 . Saddle and Sirloin.
tious. Painter, by Belvoir Druid, from Posy, was a
rare dog, and Walker always reckons him second to
Royal. The Singer blood came out in its highest
strength in 1864, as nine out of the 15 J couple were
Royals, and nearly all did well. Forester, by Fol-
jambe's Furrier, from Wynnstay Countess, was a rare
one of the sort in the 1865 entry, and so was Romeo,
by Fitzwilliam Regent from Rally. Mr. Foljambe's
Furrier had been strongly used, and he was borrowed
by Sir Watkin in exchange for Royal on condition of
having the pick of the kennel ; and 5^ couple by him
were kept.
The kennel has not gone down in Charles Payne's
hands. Challenger by Yarborough Vaulter from
Wynnstay Careful was the first crack entry, along
with Grappler, Gallant, Gertrude, Gamesome, Pretty
Lass, Remus, and Romulus, all of them by Guider.
Seaman by Foljambe's Sparkler from Comfort, and
Sportsman, Sanguine, and Songstress by Statesman
from Tragedy, are also quite to his mind, as well as
Solon, Sylvia, and Speedwell by the same dog from
Prudence. Friendly and Garland are beautiful bitches,
and 2\ couple of very clever ones, Captain, Conqueror,
Comely, Comedy, and Captive, were entered out of
the Chaser and Prattler litter.
At the Wynnstay sale in 1858, three hunters
averaged 4837. Among them was Constantine, with
a strong dash of Arab on his dam's side, and a great
favourite of Sir Watkin's. So were King Dan, Cassio,
and Castor, the last of which went into Mr. Little
Gilmour's stable. Cassio, like Castor, was bought in
Ireland, and Mr. Gilmour bid 420 guineas for him.
After 500 guineas, Mr. Anderson and Mr. Foster
fought it out, and Mr. Anderson's " 620" decided the
day, amid loud cheering all round the ring for " Pic-
cadilly pluck." He was a thorough specimen of a
wiry fifteen-three Irish horse, very deep in his back
ribs, and like all the rest with excellent legs and feet,
Sir Watkin Wynris Horses. 429
and with a peculiarly expressive, old-fashioned muzzle,
and very straight hind legs. Railway King was a re-
markably handsome hack, and Phoebe, by Charles XII.,
which had been ridden by Walker for eight seasons,
in some of his severest days, had not mark or blemish
on her.
It may be set to the credit of his fine horsemanship,
that he never staked but one horse, and killed but
one, which put its foot in a grip, during his eighteen
seasons at Wynnstay. Simpson, the stud groom, who
had been with Sir Watkin for twenty-two seasons,
brought the horses out in great form no easy task,
as the sale took place one month after the season, and
Sir Watkin's hounds are proverbial for making long
days. They have no grass roads, and frequently
never get home till ten or eleven at night, after thirty
miles of road work. Nearly the whole of Sir Watkin's
horses are Irish, and have been selected for him by
Lord Combermere at four years old. Walker finished
with Limner, and Shropshire, and Sir Watkin pre-
sented him with the former when he retired to his
small farm and his " Shrops," within a stone's throw
of Marchweil Gorse. Its " red rascals" have laid a
heavy poll-tax on his poultry, but he bears it like a
stoic, and revenges himself by hunting them two or
three days a week. The Don, Cockatoo, the Major
(an entire horse and great for an hour), the stout
December, the Emerald Mare, Silvertail, President,
Phcebe, and the Felon have been among his especials.
He brought his own Nimrod from Fife, where the
dark chestnut had left several foals of four seasons,
besides hunting all the time. Sir Watkin then bought
him, and rode him for two seasons, and Walker for
two more. Mr. Lloyd took The Felon to Leicester-
shire, where " the bay stallion" in such hands made
many a well-mounted field remember him.
The Monday s fixture is in the Garden country,
which is principally grass. Royalty is its great cover,
43 o Saddle and Sirloin.
and Walker's best thing was from there nearly to
Bryn-y-pys, over Worthenbury Meadows, down to
Bangor, and across its steeple-chase ground, when
they changed foxes and got beat. It was fifty
minutes without a check, and grass nearly all the
way ; and only seven saw the finish. The Broxton
hills and the Peckforton hills are neutral, and require
routing perpetually. At Larges Gorse they only find
old foxes. Sir Watkin gets to the hills once a fort-
night, if he can, and likes to sink the vale for the
Cholmondeley country. There have been many good
runs from Peel's Gorse, and also from Captain
Glutton's Gorse and Burton's Wood, but the foxes are
generally bred on the hills. Some rare runs have also
been known from Maesten with Cholmondeley and
Garden foxes. The Cheshire men meet Sir Watkin
principally on the Monday, and Mr. John Coupland
and the Messrs. Behrens are their standard-bearers.
On Tuesday, it is the turn for the Shropshire or
Baschurch country, which has much more plough, and
always requires a great deal of wet to carry a scent.
Hopton Gorse and Boreatton are favourite meets, and
Woodhouse or Aston is generally drawn from Rednal
Station. The foxes are small and lengthy, and the
enclosures large. Petton Gorse, which has some fine
woodland foxes, is a great draw from Baschurch
Station, and they sometimes go with a good fox
ten or eleven miles through Oteley Park to the
Duke's woods.
On Thursday, they are generally in the Oteley
Park country, and have some rare finds at George's or
the Duke's, or Lee's woods, but like the Baschurch
country it requires plenty of rain.
On Saturday, it is the turn for Sutton Green
Gorse, in the Gresford country, Marchwiel Gorse,
Cloverley, Shavington Park, and Styche, from which
they run to Combermere, that alma mater of fox
cubs, and often into the North Staffordshire country.
The Leighton Hall Herd. 43 1
Shavington Park to Peel's Gorse, and vice versd, is
a very favourite fast thing, with a rare scent over grass.
The cub-hunting is confined to the Wynnstay
Woods for a week or ten days, beginning with the last
week in August, until the corn is cut. Then they
adjourn to the Duke's Woods (so called after the late
Duke of Bridgewater), which have rare lying, and are
full of foxes. Chirk Woods furnish an off-morning
from Wynnstay, but when they draw Llangedwin
Woods, they shift to kennels on the spot, and stay
out a week. Sometimes they go there at the end ol
the season to make a finish. Oswestry racecourse
for Llandforda is the last day of the regular season,
and the Welshmen come out to see the sport on their
ponies. The general average of " noses" is fifty brace,
of which twenty are killed in cub-hunting.
A forty minutes' ride down the Vale of Welshpool
was a grand relief after Oswestry that dullest of
towns when Sir Watkin does not meet at the race-
course. The Severn, which has lent its name to one
of the noblest bulls that ever grazed in its pastures,
wound humbly along amid its sedge and willows,
crossed here and there by a rustic hand-bridge.
About 200 acres of clay and loam interchanging along
its banks, furnish Mr. Naylor with good grazing
ground for his Herefords ; but the majority of 1500,
which form the Leighton Hall Farm, consists of Long
Mountain and High Sheep land, all of which has
been gradually enclosed. Not many years since it
was clothed with heath and furze, and wiry tufted
grass, among which Welsh sheep and ponies worked
hard for their living, and mountain flax flourished.
The plough has crept stealthily up its sides, and
although the highest part is too cold for wheat, it is
kindly enough for oats and barley. It must have
required some nerve to settle under that bleak Moel-y-
Mabb, but Mr. Naylor forecasted well. Year by year,
the handsome design of Mr. Gee, built of the blue
43 2 Saddle and Sirloin.
stone of the district, and pointed with light grey
coigns and dressings from Ruabon, have become more
and more embedded in its groves of larch and fir ; and
while a " Capability Brown" has been busy among the
terraces and gardens without, Sir Edwin Landseer
and cunning ornithologists have furnished many of
their choicest treasures for within.
The farm buildings, which occupy no less than six
acres, and lie about half a mile away from the house,
were begun in '52. The five vaults for roots are each
two yards in height, by three in breadth, and forty
yards long, and another root house occupies the entire
space above them ; and it is as much as two men with
a horse and cart can do to clean up the daily manure.
Water collected from the dingles and drains on the
farm plays a sixty horse-power part, in accordance
with the cunning triple arrangement. It is worked
through turbine No. I in the top compartment, which
drives the thrashing-machine and chaff-cutter ; then it
is returned thirty-two feet below to No. 2, which is
attached to the flour and pulping mills, and the sawing
machines ; and lastly, to a much lower level, where
No. 3 grinds bones and pumps liquid manure into the
tank on Moel-y-Mabb, 500 feet above the level of the
folds. Eighty tons of bones are ground annually.
The pulped roots and other prepared substances are
conveyed over canvas working on a succession of
rollers into bins below, where they are mechanically
mixed in proper proportions, and conveyed by tram-
roads to the feeding stalls and the winter houses.
The liquid manure is carried through iron tubes over
nearly seven hundred acres. It has more effect on the
alluvial soil than the clay ; but go where we might
over the farm, we saw pipes ready to receive the hose
for its application, and its liquid arch busy at work on
the young grasses.
The herd was under tne charge of the bailiff, Mr.
David Williams, who has always been on the estate,
The Leighton Hall Herd. 433
and known no other love than the Hereford and the
Shrop. The herd, which is to Herefords what the
Sittyton is to shorthorns, numbers about 320 ; and
about 1 200 Shrops are annually brought to the clip-
ping stools. They have averaged about 5 Jibs., and
have thriven well on the high ground. As for the
cart-horses, which were principally of Royal Oak and
Brown Stout blood, we have seen very few to equal
them in England or Scotland. The Hereford blood
is a combination of Jeffreys or whiteface with Yeld or
Tomkins, which is founded upon the Tully Grey. In
Mr. Yeld's hands it became a complete union of light
and dark grey with mottle face, while the use of The
Knight (185), Sir David (349), Big Ben (248), &c., in-
troduced the whiteface element in its highest strength.
The Knight and the Big Ben cows (which might be
known by their curly coats and dark muzzles) hit best
to Silvester (797), who had a double dash of Silver
(540) in his pedigree.* As to the hardihood of the
Hereford, Mr. Naylor has had the most convincing
proof, as he purchased a score of Galloway heifers to
cross with them, and found that their produce, which
were blacks with white faces, thrive still better than
their dams through a Long Mountain winter.
No nurses are kept, and the period of nursing, even
with the Royal in view, seldom extends beyond four
months. Mr. Naylor has taken two firsts, &c., at the
Royal with Laura and Adjutant (1480), and eight
firsts and seconds, as well as a gold medal at Birming-
ham and the Smithfield Club. With the exception of
Shrewsbury, the herd does not visit provincial shows,
but a Napoleon medal in the hall shows that its repre-
sentatives did not cross the Channel in vain. A
Silvester cow was in training for the next Christmas,
and the stages of her girth were duly chalked above
* Since then Salisbury (2204), Tom King (2830), Patron (2669),
Victor (2857), and Prince Arthur (3344) have been used.
F F
Saddle and Sirloin.
her. On January 2nd, she began at 6 feet 1 1 inches,
March 2nd found her expanded to 7 feet 7 inches, and
April 4th to 7 feet 9 inches, and there seemed every
reason to hope that she would touch Variety, who
finally filled the tape at 8 feet 8J inches. This com-
fortable-looking daughter of Mistletoe was red and
white in large patches, but Mr. Duckham proved her
rigid orthodoxy of descent in reply to a newspaper
doubter, and her two first prizes at Baker-street and
Bingley Hall were suffered to remain unchallenged.
CHAPTER XV.
** But a plain leg of mutton, my Lucy,
I pry'thee get ready at three ;
Have it smoking, and tender, and juicy,
And what better meat can there be ?
And when it has feasted the master,
'Twill amply suffice for the maid ;
Meanwhile, I will smoke my canaster,
And tipple my ale in the shade. "
Thackeray.
Shropshire Sheep Lord Berwick's Herefords Sir Bellingham Graham
Coursing at Sundorne Mr. Corbet Old Bob Luther.
SAMUEL METRE and George Adney may be
said to have been the great founders of the " Im-
proved Shrop." To hear many of the breeders talk
one might fancy that there had never been any
" alloy blood" no quality from the Southdown, no
fat back from the Leicester ;* but that the Shrop as
it now exists is the original " image which fell from
* As far as we can ascertain, the first cross tried by the late Mr.
Meire in 1810 was that with a Southdown bred by Mr. Tench of Brom-
field, and as the fleece became very important, a Leicester was used
soon after with the best effect as regards wool and mutton. This was
all done before ram-breeding in Salop was studied, and its sheep con-
sidered a distinct breed. Mr. Samuel Meire brought rams out after
Shropshire Sheep. 435
Jupiter." We are told that many Southdown rams
have gone into the county, and the modern men are
said to have been to Mr. Rigden on the same sound
mission, to keep up their quality. We have also heard
of them purchasing Hampshire Down as well as Ox-
fordshire Down rams. Still many of the best flock-
masters deny that they use them, and there it must
rest. They can take their honest stand on the fact,
which no one can gainsay, that as regards breeding
and folding, liberal fleece, and power of thriving on
damp lowlands no sheep pay more per acre than the
" Shrops." The sort were once more park-ranging,
and difficult to fence against. The rams of the
speckle-faced breed of the country had large horns,
and the wethers of the sort were stubborn in coming
to maturity, and best for " mutton-eating kings " at
three. The long-necked and narrow-sided speckle-
faces were more confined to the limestone districts ;
while those on the gritstone bore much more re-
semblance in look and height to a Leicester, but
with very inferior wool. Some breeders are rather
fond of forcing the lambs, and putting them to the
ram about a month behind the rest of the flock.
The result is to open the milk veins to such an extent
that they will nurse two lambs better after their second
yeaning ; but the loss of size and of life as well, when
the lambs happen to fall large, does away very much
with the profit.
" The Shrops " have spread very generally over
Warwickshire, Staffordshire, and Worcestershire, and
many of the rams have found their way to Leicester-
shire, Essex, Cornwall, and Wales, and draft ewes to
losing all his Herefords with pleuro-pneumonia. He had attended Mr.
Ellman's sales in Sussex, and saw how the Southdowns had been
managed, and felt sure that he could produce a more valuable animal.
The first auction of his rams was held in the Raven and Bell, and
proved successful, then at the New Smithfield, and afterwards at
Berrington.
F F 2
436 Saddle and Sirloin.
Bucks and Cheshire. Foreigners, and even Norwegians,
are fond of them, but in Scotland they have made no
head. The damp soil of Ireland suits them to a
nicety, and generally at the sales, if no one else will
give 61. for a ram, an Irishman is there to snap him.
Sometimes a breeder crosses the Channel, and runs a
cargo of rams. Australia and Canada occasionally
purchase ; but the flockmasters at the Antipodes con-
sider them a little too large for their purpose. Five-
and-twenty years ago 5/. was thought a great price
for a ram, and so was io/. within fifteen years ; but of
late they have taken quite a spurt, and no one has
done battle so hard and so successfully to give them
a position as Mr. Preece. At the Royal meetings
they have gradually crept ahead. In 1855 they had
special local classes at Colonel Clive's expense at
Glo'ster; in 1859, at that of the Warwick Committee;
and the following year they took up their ground at
Canterbury, and have ever since had separate classes.
Except it is an aged sheep, a Shropshire ram is safe
to sell, and the Midland men especially bear testimony
to their certainty as lamb getters. The Moores and
Williams are great middle-men, and buy them all
through the county.
A Roman nose is not liked, and it seldom indicates
a nicely-covered sheep. Some of the breeders attri-
bute it to a cross with Hampshire, and others with
Cotswold. The true Shrop ewes should have pro-
minent hazel eyes, short faces rather hollow in the
forehead, with not too much whisker, but well covered
with short, soft wool, and " speaking " ears rather wide
apart. " The muffle is a great catch " with some
buyers ; but where it exists, the back is often not so
well covered, and narrow loins and a deficiency on the
top of the rump often accompany it. As in many
other breeds, transparent ears, light scrag, and delicate
head indicate fat on the back and along the sides.
Irish buyers like the faces dark, while the home
Shropshire Sheep. 437
breeders are more for a little speckle in the grey, and
dead against a fallow face. The grey tip on the nose
is quite a Salop hall-mark, and, as it gradually in-
creases, it gives the ewes a look of extra age. Lambs
will sometimes fall perfectly brown in their coats ;
but, if true-bred, they come to the right shade before
twelve months are over ; and if their faces are white
to begin with, it gradually shades off into the Shrop-
shire brown-grey. The breeders get them as wide in
the chest as possible, and not too small in the bone,
and a very large scrag too often goes with thin and
flat sides. Many of them are sheared in March, and
clothed till the weather is kind. A well-fed shearling
tup will cut iclbs., and we have known them touch
1 5 Jibs. It was once the practice to shear the lambs,
and get off about lib. all round ; but it was found
that they did not winter so well, and they are now
dipped instead.*
* Mr. Samuel Meire's Magnum Bonum holds a high place among
the tups, to which reference is made in many a fire-side council. He
was used for eleven seasons, and his dam, wh<j was so large in the
rumps that no Southdown could serve her, lived ill she was twenty.
Perfection, the first-prize shearling at Chester, \t as one of his sons.
Mr. Adney's Patentee, by his Buckskin, was beaten in the older class
at the same meeting. The Patentees were rather light in their faces,
and generally with a speck on their off-hind leg, and with wonderful
hardy constitutions. Worcester Patron was his nephew, and is remem-
bered for his capital scrag, and one of Patentee's sons, which was let for
1 20 guineas, did a great deal for Mr. Byrd. He also did something
towards setting up the flock of the Brothers Crane, who are as great in
the Shropshire ewe classes at the Royal Agricultural Society, as Mr.
Horton in the rams. Liberty, Nobleman, and Celebrity have been the
Brothers Crane's best ewe sires. Celebrity was by "Jukes's Sheep,"
who was always a great wool getter. The Cranes began their career as
Royal shearling ewe winners at Canterbury, and they took five firsts and
three seconds in 1860-65. Their Leeds seconds are the biggest they
ever showed, and were by the sire of Commonwealth. Their ewes by
Nobleman came in at Plymouth. Mr. Thornton's Laurel was also a
great ewe getter for them. Mr. MaunselFs Macaroni was very cele-
brated for his fine coat and rumps. Mr. Coxon's Duke of Newcastle
was the first shearling at the Newcastle Royal in a grand class. He was
purchased by Mr. Coxon for 8o/., from his breeder, Mr. Thornton of
or TU
438 Saddle and Sirloin.
It is a great sight to go into the Shrewsbury market
during the Ram Fair, and find Mr. Preece, that St.
George of the " Shrops," at work among his " grand
rams" and his " superb ewes." Above you, perched as
it were in a little eyrie, is the school which Butler and
Kennedy have made so famous, and where France,
Riddell, Cope, Bather, Druce, Gifford, Munro, Clark,
the Mosses, and Hallam, &c., are among the well-
remembered names of first-class classic renown. Mr.
Preece speaks in " headlong galloping anapaests"
below, as, with a variety of air sawings which remind
one of the yeomanry cavalry at sword exercise, he
knocks down his 200 rams in six hours. Each ram
goes up at five guineas, and on go the biddings by
half a guinea to ten guineas, and at a guinea beyond
that. Purchasers can't hang half a second, or down
Pitchford, who had let his sire for 65 guineas ; and he did his new
owner good service, as he let 22 rams at 22/. "js. one season.
According to the Shropshire men, the cross with Hampshire or
Southdown shows a tendency to run to gut, and the Hampshire black
comes out on the tail and behind the ears. The Southdown has always
added quality, and the Hampshire has strengthened the bone and frame
generally, and improved the wool. Oxford Downs did the same ; but
no Shrop man will allow that they improved the flesh. In some flocks
the crossing has been rather wild, and a touch of Lincoln is said to have
been introduced. The original speckle features are more due to the
sheep on the Longmynd hills, and the dark features and clean, snaky
heads, bare of wool on the cheeks and poll, seem to throw back to the
Cannock Chase sheep.
The Clun Foresters may be cousins-german to them ; but they run
much more into the Welsh sort, of which there are two quite distinct
one with tups whose heads are not much bigger than a jack-hare, and
hornless ; and the other with horns, mane, and beard. The original
Clun Foresters are gradually disappearing before the Enclosure Com-
missioners, and many of them are not above 3lbs. a quarter in excess of
the Welsh. They are only brought off the Forest once a year to shear,
and then they don't reach 3lbs. Some are kept on the Forest till they
are six or seven years old. They are thick, round-rumped sheep, and
perfect stoics in enclosed fields, when compared with the Welsh, which
have the cunning of the monkey in breaking bounds. They have
generally a dark brown face and legs and small horns, with lots of
hardihood for the hill, and are capital nurses for early lambs by the
Shrop or Leicester, when they are bought for park-feeding.
Lord Berwick 's Herefords. 439
comes that remorseless stick tap, and another ram is
in the sale-pen. Mr. Preece begins at eight A.M., and
only ten minutes is allowed for refreshment ; and if
you look in again at three, expecting to find his tones
like those of a raven in bronchitis, you find him going
freer and better than ever. The lover of red mullet,
who longed for a throat from London to the Anti-
podes, with swallow all the way, might rest contented
with having such a windpipe.
We could not pass Shrewsbury without seeing Lord
Berwick's Hereford herd. At any other time we
should have delighted to linger in those rich pastures,
to which Walford, Attingham, Albert Edward, and
Severn had lent so much renown ; but the shadow of
death was on the house, and the agonies of an illness
such as few have borne were about to receive their
grand relief at last. His lordship was able to attend
the Canterbury Meeting ; but he made no secret of
his conviction that he should leave home no more.
He retained all his old pleasantry despite his suffer-
ing ; and when he was asked why he thought one of
his bulls had been passed over by the judges, he said,
" They are so fond of me, they are determined to see
me again."
For a short time after his return he managed to
creep out, and look at the Herefords ; but since the
beginning of the barley harvest, he had never been
seen by his men. Farming was not his only delight
when in health. He loved to rear the choicest fowls,
and drive the best American trotters, and he made a
rifle at his own forge, which one of our first makers,
who was in ignorance as to its origin, pronounced to
be nearly faultless. He had succeeded to an encum-
bered estate, and knowing how to " scorn delights,
and live laborious days," he had the courage to be
content with his little home at Cronkhill, instead of
the stately hall at Attingham, and accomplish the
purpose of his life, to leave a clear inheritance for
44O Saddle and Sirloin
those who were to come after. Sir David had but just
left his box, and yielded up his beef of sixteen
summers ; the framework of old Albert Edward, a
Royal winner at Gloucester and Lewes, was there ;
but Severn looked as beautiful as when, after being
defeated by Claret at Warwick and Hereford, he met
and vanquished him at last in the show ranks at
Ludlow.* Will o' the Wisp was also a wonder, with
his twist below his hocks, and so was his daughter
Adela from Agnes ; and as you loitered through the
boxes, you would sometimes see three great yearling
bulls of the heavy-fleshed Silver or the larger Rebecca
tribe amicably hob-nobbing together.
At Attingham the deserted stable-yard looked big
enough for the Quorn stud ; but it was a sad scene of
decay. Part of that fine square was wattled off for
the lambing, and as we walked in under the main
archway, a troop of rats dashed into cover among the
wood heaps and nettles. The rooks were cawing their
vespers on the elms, and the old hall, with but one
* Claret (11,761) by the Knight (185) was bred by Mr. Richard Hill
at Golding Hill. Mr. Hill kept, like his father, to the Grey Knight
blood, and took a Royal first for bulls at Salisbury, Chester, Warwick,
Leeds, and Battersea. Milton by Chanticleer (1173) was his Battersea
gold medallist, and Lady Ash his Smithfield gold medallist. His uncle
bred a Hereford, which was fed by the Ea/1 of Warwick, and won
against some ninety opponents, and his horns are kept in Warwick
Castle as a trophy. His cow Shewers also won the first prize at
Smithfield in 1859, when it was Pitt Hill, Hill Tudge, and Tudge
Pitt, at three fat shows. Jenny Lind, the dam of Milton, hit to no less
than eight bulls. Claret was sold for 52 guineas, when he became too
fat to work, and was raffled and won by a maltster, who sold him to the
late Mr. Bowen of Shrawardine Castle. People bet who had never bet
before about his getting calves; but he became fine enough to "go
through the eye of a needle," and got several score. He went about at
Shrawardine with an iron mask and a chain to his leg, but eventually he
turned very savage, and having fulfilled his mission, he was sent to the
butcher.
The foundation of Lord Berwick's herd was laid in February, 1844,
at the sale of Mr. Salwey of Ashley Moor, who went entirely for the
Knight Grey blood, which his lordship crossed with the white face.
Sir Bellingham Graham. 441
small lamp burning faintly in its regiment of windows,
stood out gaunt and drear in the twilight. It was
" The sad, old story
Of Whig and Tory"
of that fierce rivalry at the poll, which has laid the axe
at the root of many an oak, and left so many old
county homes, which once never lacked a fox from the
family gorse, or a horse for the County Cup, to the
keeping of two old servants.
We have heard the question put to many a hunting
man from eighty to twenty-five, " Did you know Sir
Bellingham Graham by sight ?" and the invariable
answer was, " No." It would have been strange if
they had, as, after achieving a name in nearly every
sport, he had given them up, like Sir Charles
Knightley, full forty years before he died. After that
he was hardly ever seen in public, and passed his time
between his Yorkshire seat of Norton Conyers, and
Boodles, where he was quite a Lyndhurst on points of
Tom Thumb (243) of the Knight Grey sort, and of whom his lordship
always averred that he would get fat on nettles ; Hotspur (855), bred by
Mr. Jeffries ; Wonder (420), sire of Albert Edward, from Mr. J.
Hewer ; The Count (351), from Mr. Carpenter of Eardisland ; Walford
(871), the sire of Attingham, Severn, and Napoleon 3rd, from Mr.
Longmore ; and the eternal Sir David (349) were the principal patri-
archs of the herd. His lordship won 27 firsts and seconds at the Royal
Agricultural Shows at first more with bulls, and latterly with females.
Attingham was first at Carlisle, Walford at Windsor, and Albert
Edward at Gloucester and Lewes. At the sale in September 1861,
there were 176 lots, and the males averaged 4O/. and the females 287.
Silver was sold for 65 guineas with her calf, and seven of the tribe made
373/. i6s. Jewess, the youngest of the Rebeccas, stayed at Cronkhill
with Conqueror by Sir David, and Apple Blossom (40 guineas), the
highest-priced grey, went to Leighton Hall. Carlisle (40 guineas), a
daughter of Silver's, became Mr. G. Porter's, and then Mr. Duckham's,
and turned out the most lucky of speculative bargains. Severn made
46 guineas, or a trifle over butcher's price. Will o' the Wisp (47
guineas), Albata (53 guineas), Eva (52 guineas), Agnes (Mr. Baldwin,
51 guineas), Beauty (Mr. J. Hewer, 43 guineas), Adela (Her Majesty,
57 guineas), and Lord Grey (the only grey bull) departed for Downton.
442 Saddle and Sirloin.
hunting law, and seldom absent from the annual
dinner of Masters of Hounds. He had enjoyed his
baronetcy for just seventy years, and had taken his
part in the days of the Regency, when the Prince's
court sallied forth for their evening promenade on the
Steyne ; the ladies with their high head-dresses and
spreading " peacock tails," and the tall young York-
shire baronet, the two Mannerses, and Colonels Hellish
and Leigh as their esquires.
He began his M.F.H. career with the Badsworth,
and had a taste of the Atherstone and Pytchley. In
the latter country, from some cause or other, he be-
came very unpopular. His foxes were killed, and on
one occasion the very mail was hung with their dead
carcases as a sort of defiance. Still he fought on,
and determined to have a grand field-day ; he turned
down seven brace one night, but not a hound could
speak to it in the morning, and he drew every cover
blank again. A gamer man never gripped a saddle,
and he showed this in an eminent degree when he
hunted the Quorn. He had a severe fall one day, and
some of his friends propped him up against a stack,
while a local practitioner almost bled him into a syn-
cope, in conformity with the rude surgical view which
then obtained favour on that point. He was taken
thence to a farm-house ; but he proved a very hope-
less subject, and on the third or fourth day he had
himself lifted on to his horse, and tried, pale as a
ghost and hardly able to sit upright, to hunt his own
hounds.
His great hunting name was made as Master of the
Shropshire and the Albrighton, and it was there that
he had Will Staples and Joe Maiden as his whips on
300 guinea horses, and latterly Will in command, with
Tom Flint and Jack Wiglesworth as his lieutenants.
Woodman and Virgin were his favourites in a pack,
which was composed of the drafts of his own, which
he sold to " The Squire" on leaving the Quorn,
Sir Bellingham Graham. 443
and that which " The Squire" brought with him
from Notts. His hunters had been always more
his pride than his hounds, and " for great, good
horses" up to fifteen or sixteen stone his stable has
perhaps never been equalled. A man cannot for love
or money get together nowadays such horses as
Freemason, Beeswing, The Baron, Jerry, Paul, Treacle,
Cock Robin, &c., in his boxes at one and the same
time. After he had given up hounds, he bore part in
the merry hunt evenings at The Tiger at Beverley, and
it was he who went to have a look at " little Mr.
Bethell" in bed with Mr. Tom Hodgson to hold the
light. Curiously enough he did so " because I have
heard of him all my life and I never saw him," and
that was just what people said about him in turn.
Mr. Bethell sat up speechless with amazement, when
his curtains were drawn aside, and two gentlemen in
scarlet appeared to scan him, but he accepted an
apology very graciously next morning. Mr. Tom
Hodgson delighted in telling the story, and won-
dering at his coolness, but old port had to bear the
blame.
In 1816, after five seasons, during which Sir Bel-
lingham had only won one race and received forfeit
for a match in several attempts over York and Don-
caster, he achieved the St. Leger at the third time of
asking, with the Duchess, late Duchess of Leven. The
good Yorkshire colours of Bishop Burton harlequin,
and Hornby Castle chocolate, were next to him on
half brother to A'tlsidora and Rasping by Brown
Bread, and twice over subsequently the mare showed
them that there had been no mistake in the matter.
The mare had lost no form when she was brought out
to meet the two-year-old Blacklock over two miles
the next September, and with two to one on her she
won in a canter. These odds were shifted on to
Blacklock, and in fact became twenty to one when the
pair met over four miles the next year, and the mare
444 Saddle and Sirloin.
(then Mr. Lambton's) was pulled up completely beaten
half a mile from home.
We have not space to speak of half of the good
coursing grounds in England ; but we cannot pass by
Sundorne. If the supply of hares could be depended
upon, it is a more delightful spot than any, with its
old grass and elms the ancestral home of the Corbets,
which brings back to fox-hunting hearts the thoughts
of Will Barrow, " another cheer for the blood of old
Trojan," and the mouldering mullions of Haughmonc
Abbey. The coursing takes place in the park and on
the home farms ; the hares are all driven out of the
ploughs, wood hurdles are placed against the wire
fences, and the crowd have to stand like soldiers.
Some of the finest coursing comes off when the hares
are driven from The Wood and past the house, for a
straight gallop across the park. The little beech tree,
with the seat round it, where Tom Raper has often
crouched in his red jacket, and bided his time, once
with Riot and Hopbine, and again with Hopbine and
Reveller in the slips, is as full of venerable associa-
tions in its way as " The Bushes" at Newmarket.
The hare must be a cracker indeed if she can reach
the old oak refuge of Haughmond Hill.
But Mr. Corbet has gone, and Sundorne coursing
days are not what he left them. His father hunted
Shropshire as well as Warwickshire ; and his Norman
ancestor was not only " a most cunning marksman
against hart or doe," but his valour at Acre secured
him, from " Richard, the Lion Heart," permission to
bear the two ravens on his shield. Another ancestor,
one Peter Corbet, was a mighty hunter in the reign of
Edward the First, who granted him letters patent to
take wolves in the Royal Forests. Being thus bred,
as it were, to every phase of the chase, it is no wonder
that the late Mr. Corbet took to harriers as soon as he
returned from college, and hunted five days a fort-
night. He was also a staunch guardian of foxes, and
Mr. Corbet. 445
very fond of private coursing, which Mr. Henry Lyster
of Rowton Castle, near Alberbury, and Mr. Robert
Burton, of Longner, whose estate adjoined Sundorne,
always shared with him.
"The Squire" was a tall, good-looking man, and
always dressed for these field days in a cut-away black
coat, Bedford cords, and long black Hessians. A
chestnut roan cob was his favourite mount, and
with his trusty eye-glass affixed to his hat, no one
enjoyed the sport so much. His staff of coursing
retainers were staunch enough to please Will Shaks-
peare, if he could have once more taken his " fallow
greyhound" and gone forth to " find him a hare on
Cotsale," as Morris the huntsman, Caywood the
keeper, and Warwick the Master of the Horse,* were
the leading three. He had once twenty brace of grey-
hounds, and four rare puppies. Cricketer, Coronet,
Colonel, and Collie, in one season. Cricketer ran in
Mr. Warwick's name, and won nearly 3<DO/. ; but
Hughie Graham bowled him over in the Waterloo
Cup.
Rich and poor, all lunched alike in the ruins of
Haughmond Abbey on the public coursing days.
The beaters would begin under the Ring Bank on the
seeds and wheat, and come inside the drive on to the
grass, and work gradually up to the Abbey for one
o'clock. Mr. Burton, in his white cords and green
coat, and mounted upon one of his i6st. hunters, was
the field director. His claim was indisputable, even
on mere kennel grounds, as he was the breeder of
Mocking Bird by Figaro out of Malvina. She was
sold at his sale for nine or ten guineas ; but run where
* Mr. Warwick gave his maiden judgment at Coombe, in 1853, and
wore the sc .rlet thrice at the Sundorne meetings, before his good
master died. Canaradzo's year (1861) found him at the Waterloo
meeting, and he has judged there ever since. In the season of 1867-68
he judged 101 days, and decided 2677 courses, and his practice is not
diminishing.
446 Saddle and Sirloin.
she might, north or south, he was always there to
look on. He was very intimate with Mr. Lawrence.
Butterfly, by Lopez, was another of his breeding. Mr.
Randell's dogs bore a great part in the Sundorne Cup
struggles. Will Nightingale loved to tell of a run up
between his Rival and Mr. J ebb's No Hurry. It was
run off on the Drawbridge Field and The Springs,
each of them about forty or fifty acres, and No Hurry
killed and won the Cup. Riot and Avalanche was a
capital give-and-take course under the Ring Bank,
and the black bitch, who made two wrenches and a
splendid kill, had just the best of it. Rhapsody had
some rare racing stretches in a great course with Ajax,
from the " Race Course."
The Challenge Cup (which was in reality a tea and
coffee service of some 6o/. value), to be run off between
the winners of the Haughmond and the Pimley stakes,
produced some very fine contests. One was in the
Autumn of 1856, when "The Squire" was on his
death-bed. He loved to hear of every course to the
last, and each evening Mr. Warwick, who was first
slipper and then judge, went to his bedside and told
him of them, point by point. On this last occasion
the recital had more than its wonted interest. Revel-
ler won the decider for the Pimley Stakes against a
fawn dog, Judge, which was hardly in the course, and
then Hopbine and Riot ran their last course for the
Haughmond Stakes on the lawns before the castle.
The hare was driven from the coppice, and every inch
of the run was on grass. Hopbine, slightly favoured
by the slip, led Riot to the hare, and was quite as
clever in all the after work. The Challenge Cup was
not run off till the next morning, and then only half-
a-dozen m ~ to see it at eight A.M. It was fixed for
that hour, that Mr. Warwick might go to judge at
Chartley, ; ,nd hence, although the rain came down in
torrents, tl icy were obliged to go to work. A hare
was found in Gregory's Coppice, and the pair had a
Coursing at Sundorne. 447
very long slip^ and Hopbine led Reveller, with five to
four on him, two lengths to his hare. The dog got
the second turn, and then the bitch took possession,
and drove her hare to Albright Lea plantation and
won.
The meeting dwindled away after The Squire and
Mr. Burton died, but Mrs. Cartwright renewed it in
1864. It was there that she laid the seeds of the ill-
ness which killed her, and as she was too ill to go to
Meg's Waterloo Cup, it was there that her active
coursing life ended. A more kindly and energetic
woman never breathed. Her stakes were never ad-
vertised, and yet she always filled them. Her meet-
ings were Longford, Sundorne, Vale of Clwyd (where
Sea Pink and Sea Foam came out and won), Talacre,
Abergele, with its fine Radland Marshes, and Sud-
bury, with its one-hundred-acre Great Hayes, where,
as she used to tell with such pride, Ciologa went
through a thirty-two dog stake, and had only one
point made against her by Klaphonia. She thought
that after that performance of Canaradzo's sister she
must really give up her idol Riot in her favour.
Oddly enough she hated a large greyhound, and yet
her house pet was a 6slbs. one, by Beacon from
Avalanche. He was given to her by Mr. Ainsworth,
and had once the honour of beating Sea Rock in a
bye at Abergele. She never ran him in- public, but
yet she never left him at home ; and her photograph
was taken with him in her hand.
" In memory of Robert Luther of Acton, who died
Sept. Jth, 1862," was the inscription on a funeral
card, which was received with sorrow by every fox-
hunter in the United Hunt. " Robert " was es-
sentially a character, a tall, grey-headed elder, sixty-
two, and fifteen stone, and Earl Powis had no farmer
of whom he felt more proud. He held a thousand
acres under his lordship at Acton, three miles from
Bishop's Castle, and was nearly as good a judge of
448 Saddle and Sirloin.
" Shrops " and Herefords as he was of fox-hunting.
The Hereford bull Chieftain was his property for three
seasons before that celebrated steer getter went to
Mr. Monkhouse. " Robert " generally contrived to
unite business and pleasure, and he made his bargain
for the bull just after he had broken up a fox. He
might be said to hold the United country in fee simple,
and never did man work harder to maintain his posses-
sions. On Tuesday he would be at Stanner Rocks, near
Kington, and on Friday he would trot up to the meet
fifty miles away at Panty Fryd, Montgomeryshire, all
fresh and ready on the Tuesday's horse. Once upon
a time another pack was set on foot near Kington,
and a claim was made to part of the country, but
nearly all the landlords stuck to Robert and his
"divine right of kings," although the usurpers did
cause him a few blank days in his best covers. He
dated his introduction to fox-hunting from the days
when he joined in without a saddle, and " wrapped my
long legs under the horses belly'' Then he became
acquainted with Mr. Beddows's father, and entered so
well that he at length hunted the hounds for him. The
hares had to stand the brunt up to Christmas, and he
often boasted that on the last day he hunted hare, some
twenty seasons before his death, he came home with
his seven brace.
The hounds were partly the property of Mr. Bed-
dows, and were strengthened by the purchase of Mr.
Gittas's, a step which brought Luther into the Rad-
norshire country. He always hunted twice a week,
and was generally at it from the latter end of Sep-
tember till the first of April, and left off happy with
five-and-twenty brace of " noses." He liked to breed
from the " old Welsh blood " of Jones of Cwmbreath,
and would let no one have a dip into it. The dog
hounds were not very large, but those who stood on
the hills and heard them come up the valley like a
peal of Lancashire bellringers, cared for no other
Old Bob Luther. 449
music. Some of his long and low bitches went a
better pace and said much less about it. He kept
them under very little control, and they were so
eager that when they came near a cover they would
break away and throw tongue as if they were on a
drag. Luther always waited for the body of the pack,
and generally seemed to drop on them at the first
check, and he did not speak in D minor if any one
was meddling with them and getting up their heads.
Letting them make it out for themselves was his
maxim. He always fed his hounds himself from
" the offal of the farm and tail ends " as he expressed
it ; but whatever that comprehensive mixture might
be, he generally had them in bloom, and if his temper
was at " set-fair " he would draw on till dark. He
dearly loved a meet at Pilleth or Monaughty Gorse
in the Knighton district. " / like the country, and 1
like the buoys in it!' was the phrase through which he
invariably denoted his preference. Although it was
in his country, he never went to Breidden Rocks till
within three seasons of his death, and then he had
five or six brace of foxes on foot round the Rodney
Monument.
He hated to have a red coat in the field ; and when
he saw a fresh one coming he would sidle up to some
of his green brigade, whom he could depend upon,
and say, " Mind that man, he'll be sure to slwv you the
way along /" If he couldn't have a cut at them him-
self he liked to have it done by deputy. Still he
knew the country so well that he was generally close
up at the finish. Top boots were quite as much under
his ban as a red coat, and it was only during his last
eight seasons that he appeared in a velvet cap. A
green swallow tail with light metal buttons, jack
boots, and white cords, which he made a point of
smudging well with blood at each Whaw Whoop !
were his chosen apparel. His voice in cover was a
very melodious one, and his horn shake when he did
G G
450 Saddle and Sirloin.
find was worthy of Herr Kcenig. He jumped nothing;
and " Get the hurdle up, or I'll have to get down!'
came over and over again in a run. " / never jumped
a hurdle in my life : Yes, I did do it once ; I saw two
ladies jump a flight in the Stratton country, so I was
obliged to follow" was a great saying of his. He
never omitted the sequel : " / put my arms round my
horse's neck, and saved myself when he knocked the
hurdle down'' For his weight, he had good wind and
action to the last, and generally led his horse down
hill but never up. Rheumatic twinges made it rather
hard for him to get into his saddle again, but when
he was down and warmed to his work he ran well.
Latterly he was rather short of heavy weight
carriers, but the rat-tail mare, the big bay horse
Forester, and old brown Boxer did him good service.
Boxer carried him well to the last, and went the same
pace all the way, and crept through the most unlikely
places. It was " Now, Boxer, come along !" and
Boxer would crawl a bit and then " pick himself
over" like a very Leotard. The Herefordshire men
once sent and asked him to come and have a turn at
some foxes which had beaten them at Shelford
Bridge, and Luther said it was " like asking advice of
an old doctor',' but his horses were knocked up at the
time and he had to frame an excuse.
For nearly thirty seasons he never missed a meet
save twice, and on one of those days he was obliged to
attend a funeral. Some said that he was unwell
on the other day, but very few believed them. Heat,
wet, and cold seemed to have no effect on him ; and
his fine constitution and abstemious habits made him
proof against his habit of rough-drying. He would
come home from hunting or farm work wet to the
skin, and stand and dry himself before the fire till
you could hardly see him for vapour. He lived in an
odd, old place, but he kept a good table, and sat at
ease with his coat off, his shirt collar and waistcoat
Old Bob Luther. 45 1
wide open, knee breeches, short boots, and generally
pipe in hand. " Robert is an immortal" said the
United men, although his hair grew greyer beneath
the rusty velvet, but they reckoned him up wrongly.
Inflammation settled upon his lungs in August, 1862,
and he kept trifling on with it, in defiance of his
doctor, and so the strong man bowed his head at
last. An hour or two before he died he sent for
Bumper and two or three more of his best hounds to
his bed-side, and they were almost the last objects on
which his eye rested. The pack reverted on his death
to Mr. Frank Beddows ; and Mr. John Harris, who
had acted with Mr. Amiss as amateur whip to
them, took poor " Robert's" horn.
452
CHAPTER XVI,
Flush with the pond the livid furnace burned
At eve, while smoke and vapour filled the yard ;
The gloomy winter-sky was dimly starred ;
The fly-wheel with a mellow murmur turned ;
While, ever rising on its mystic stair
In the dim light, from secret chambers borne ,
The straw of harvest, severed from the corn,
Climbed, and fell over, in the murky air.
I thought of mind and matter, will and law.
And then of him who set his stately seal
In Roman words on all the forms he saw
Of old-world husbandry : I could but feel
With what a rich precision he would draw
The endless ladder and the booming wheel !
Did any seer of ancient time forebode
This mighty engine, which we daily see
Accepting our full harvests, like a god
With clouds about his shoulders it might be,
Some poet-husbandman, some lord of verse,
Old Hesiod, or the wizard Mantuan
Who catalogued in rich hexameters
The Rake, the Roller, and the mystic Van ;
Or else some priest of Ceres, it might seem,
Who witnessed, as he trod the silent fane,
The notes and auguries of coming change,
Of other ministrants in shrine and grange,
The sweating statue, and her sacred wain
Loud-booming with the prophecy of steam !
Charles T. Turner.
Clayton and Shuttleworth's Works at Lincoln Lincoln Flocks Tom
Brooks and John Thompson Aylesby Manor Tuxford and Sons'
Works at Boston.
NO one who has been in Lincoln can fail to have
heard of Clayton and Shuttleworth's works
" down hill." The twelve acres on which the present
premises stand were once a complete morass, and
there was nothing for it but to drive down piles
Clayton and Shuttleworlti s Works. 453
wherever a foundation was to be made. A walk of
rather more than half a mile from the High-street and
down the Witham-side brings you to the door of the
works, the mess-room of which is approached from the
outside. It is furnished with rows of ovens at each
end, and about 300 of the outlying workmen take their
meals there every day a fact to which the heap of
milk-cans, each with its curious "hall-mark," bear
ample testimony. Just inside the gate grows a vine,
facing the south, the only bit of nature that we see in
that great workshop of art. Both water and rail are
most handy. A canal, running by the centre of the
main yard, opens up communication with the river
Witham, the Foss Dyke, the Trent, and Humber, for
the conveyance of pig-iron from Scotland, deals from
the Baltic, &c. ; and a branch line communicating
with the various railways is laid down throughout the
works, and is furnished with an hydraulic lift and cranes
for hoisting the engines and machines on to the
trucks.*
It would take a jury of mechanics two good days to
* This firm had its origin in 1842, when the brothers-in-law, who had
been in a different line of business on opposite sides of the present Stamp
End Dock, began to make thrashers and portable engines on a small
scale. The nucleus of the manufactory was a row of workshops on the
side of the Witham, with offices above them. The treacherous nature of
the soil is proved by the crumbling state of some small walls which
are not built on piles ; but all those difficulties were overcome, and
gradually six acres have been covered with buildings, while the other
six are devoted to yards and the stacking of timber. Much of the earlier
business was confined to the casting of water-pipes (including those for
the many miles of water-service from Miningsby brook to Boston), and
general railway work, as instanced by a bridge across the Trent for the
Nottingham and Grantham Railway ; but in 1849, when the firm com-
menced exhibiting their portable engines and thrashers, and were
awarded a prize by the Royal Agricultural Society at the Norwich meeting,
they determined to take up this branch of agricultural engineering as their
specialty, and devote their whole energies to its development. The
result was that the plain thrashing-machine gradually received the addi-
tion of shakers, riddles, blowers, elevators, and screens, and stood forth
as the complete finishing machine of 1854. Gradually the firm has
lengthened and strengthened its stakes until above 1200 workpeople are
454 Saddle and Sirloin.
compass the twelve acres and report upon the things
which they had seen and heard. To us the task seems
about equivalent to describing Niagara. The first
shop we enter is the turning, fitting, and erecting de-
partment, filled with lathes and slotting and drilling
machines in great variety. Three cranes traverse the
top of the erecting-shop, and lift all the heavier engine-
fittings on to the boilers. Here we counted twenty-
eight portable and two fixed engines in process of erec-
tion, and three old ones in for repairs. A side-door leads
into the stores, where a large number of connecting-
rods, cylinders, chimneys like huge inverted hats,
governors which regulate the pace by their ball-laden
arms, and all the other component parts of engines,
employed at Lincoln, and about 400 more at the branch workshops at
Vienna and Pesth.
The first catalogue was published in 1850. In 1855 it was translated
into German and French for the Paris International Exhibition, and
gradually into nearly all the European languages. It had to record no
common triumph, the firm having taken a leading position at all the in-
ternational exhibitions namely, the prize medal in London, 1851 ; the
first-class medal at Paris, 1855; two prize medals in London, 1862; and
a gold medal at Paris, 1867, for portable engines and thrashing machines.
At the Royal Bury Meeting, in 1867, every first prize for steam-engines
(against twenty-five competitors), as well as I5/. for a finishing thrashing
machine, and a silver medal for special improvements, fell to their lot.
Besides these, a great number of medals and money prizes have been
gained by them at Royal and local shows in England and on the Conti-
nent. Up to the present time the firm has sent out over 9700 engines
and 8600 thrashing machines. The great corn-growing districts on the
Danube have been one of its principal foreign spheres, and for more
than ten years past it has supplied Hungary, Wallachia, Bessarabia,
South Russia, Australia, Chili, &c. Besides the branches at Vienna and
Pesth already referred to, the firm has established agencies in all parts
of the world. Their finishing machines and their engines are to be
found, as a writer in the Mechanics' Magazine puts it, "not merely in
the happy homesteads of England, but also in the steppes of Russia,
the pusztas of Hungary, the Canadian prairies, and in the Australian
bush." In short, by the system of complete division of labour which
has been adopted, and the introduction of special machine tools classi-
fied according to the variety of work to be done, a degree of perfection
in the workmanship is reached which can be attained by no other
means.
Clayton and ShuttlewortJi s Works. 455
are held ready for the erector's use. Each set of fit-
tings is ticketed with the name of the man who put
them together, so that he is at once responsible for
his judgment if anything goes wrong. So completely
is this system carried out that each engine as it leaves
the shop, receives a number, and is registered in a
book, with the position of the tubes and every par-
ticular. Hence if repairs are needed there is no diffi-
culty in identifying and sending off what is wanted to
any part of the world. We glance at the brass-cast-
ing house and its clay cores and boxes full of red
Mansfield sand, and carry away with us from another
place the recollection of some open sand-castings on
the floor, which look like a gridiron of fire, sacred to the
departed Beefsteak Club.
Now we are out in the open once more, with three
graceful chimney-stalks, each 100 feet above us, and
winding our way among the engines in the test-shed.
They are tested to double the working pressure by
means of cold water through a force-pump ; and, as it
has not the same expansive power as hot, all danger
of explosion is avoided. The great forge house, of
some 1 80 feet long by 80 feet wide and 20 feet in
height, was our delight. Its white walls and chimneys,
under each of which a couple of the fifty-two furnaces
stand, give the whole a cool and pleasant look, while
the smiths, with their white nightcaps., are busy at
their anvils, and six steam hammers do their won-
drous and remorseless part. The most beautiful
process is fixing the tires on wheels. A tire is taken
red-hot out of the furnace, and fitted on to the wheel,
above a sort of tank. In an instant the whole edge
of the wheel is one mass of flames, and then it sinks
suddenly beneath the water. For a minute or more
the surface is covered with graceful wreaths of white
smoke, and the union of wood and iron is made ; and
some rivets complete the work. There is one little
smith's shop under the roof of the turning department
456 Saddle and Sirloin.
in which merely the tools are made ; and its neatness
is such that we seem to fancy that we have some pic-
ture catalogue in our hands, and have just arrived at
" Interior of a Dutch Smithy." We also marked the
mode in which the pattern is withdrawn from the
mould by machinery, without any of the risk which
attends the handling of even the most experienced
and skilful workman. The boiler-shop is a most
spacious apartment, 255 feet long by 190 feet broad,
where punching and shearing machines are doing their
work with a gusto which seems almost human.
After a little more experience of the clatter of ham-
mers and the deep, dull thud of the steam rivetters,
we are glad to change to the " lagging" house, and
witness the casing of engines with felt, wood and iron ;
and then we quit the birthplace of these green-with-
chocolate wheeled monsters for the painting-shop,
where the thrashing machines are receiving their drab-
and-red facings. Four are there, radiant with paint,
and destined for England, Wallachia, Bessarabia, and
Bohemia. Their framework, when intended for use
in Europe, is composed of oak, and when in Egypt,
India, &c., of teakwood. In the lighter departments
hard by, the workmen are busy with tin cups for
corn elevators, and wire riddles ; and anon we are
among huge barrels of raw linseed oil and other de-
lights of the kind, which would no doubt make a
Russian or a Laplander desire a tasting order on the
spot.
One side of the works is pretty nearly devoted to
shops for wood-drying, when it has come in from its
weather probation in the yard ; and upon each stack
of wood, oak, ash, elm, and pine in the yard, the date
of stacking, the quantity, and the thickness are
marked.* The oak which is intended for the spokes
* Situated in the centre of the woodyard is the woodshop, where are
vertical, circular, and band saws ; tenoning, mortising, and planing
V OfTH?-
UNIVERSIT
Lincoln Flocks. 457
of wheels is all split, so as to get it along the grain.
This wood, which principally comes from Hereford-
shire, Warwickshire, and Northamptonshire, is also
exclusively used for the frames of thrashing-machines.
The axle-beds are made of ash, and so are the felloes
of the wheels, as no wood, save the old witch-elm,
which is hard to get, can rival it in elasticity. Maho-
gany is also required for the riddles, but it is of the
Bay-wood kind, and perfectly free from knots, which
is not the case with the Honduras. We might have
lingered for hours as a silent watcher in the wood
machine-shop, where the steel arm and that of thew
and muscle combine in planing, and finishing, and
drilling holes, and other curious arts ; but it was
Saturday, and the dinner-bell was sounding the close
of the labours of the week.
About fifty thousand Lincoln wethers are generally
brought out at Lincoln Fair, which is held on the
Friday after the last Tuesday in April. It is just the
time when the marshes and the rich lands of Boston
and Spalding want the hoggs from the turnip fields of
the wold and heath. The Silver Cup given by the
Lincolnshire Bank for the best five-score of hoggs, has
fallen into disuse, as the flockmasters learn the strength
of their neighbour's hand, and will not try. The late
Mr. Greetham won it for several years, and he has
machines, for preparing the frame timbers and boards of the thrashing
machines before they are laid in the above-mentioned seasoning- sheds.
Here, also, all the wood wheels required for the engines, thrashing
machines, and straw elevators (from 100 to 160 per week) are made.
Amongst the special tools in this department we noticed a clever spoke-
lathe, which is prepared to turn any shape, whether round, square, or
oval, according to the pattern given to copy from. The refuse timber,
sawdust, and shavings made by the machinery in this shop drop through
holes in the floor, and are used for heating the steam boilers. There is
still the "case-hardening" to notice, by which process a surface as hard
as steel is produced on such of the working parts of the engines and
machines as are subject to wear. This consists in heating them for a
number of hours in a furnace surrounded by a composition, and plunging
them, while hot, into cold water.
45 8 Saddle and Sirloin.
made 4/. iSs. for a hundred.* Some few put Lincolns
on Leicesters, but it is the more common practice to
use the Leicester tup, and Mr. Greetham had a strong
dash of Aylesby blood on his fine Lincoln foundation.
Manchester, Wakefield, and the manufacturing dis-
tricts are the largest consumers of Lincoln mutton.
There is plenty of it to spare, as Lincolnshire has but
one large town in it, and being thinly populated
throughout, it is a larger exporter of farm produce
than any other county in England. The Lincoln tup
hoggets will regularly cut half a tod of wool (i4lbs.)
on turnips. Mr. Walesby has dangled in vain before
the breeders' eyes for years a prize for a tod (281bs.)
tup-fleece, but none of them have taken it. The wool
goes principally to Bradford to make bombazines, or
to be worked up with Continental short wools. Some
of the manufacturers are buying the best lustre that
they can to replace alpaca. The finest lustre wool is
* The Biscathorpe letting was not so successful as usual in 1869, but
Mr. Dudding of Panton, took an aged sheep for 66!., and the plum of
the shearlings went to Mr. Going of Ireland for 65/. The joint ave-
rage for the 60 shearlings, 32 two-shears, and 28 three-shears, was
I2/. 2s. 6d. Mr. Kirkham's letting average in 1864 was 22/. I2s. \d.
for 150 rams. The ram which headed the lettings at i6o/. was let for
I37/. in '65. Very few breeders like to lack a Chaplin sheep, as the
flock is about the oldest in the county. In 1869, the ten shearlings and
four aged sheep let at Panton averaged iql. 2s. i$d. Two of the former
made 3i/. and 3O/. Sixty-six shearlings and old sheep were sold at
an average of I7/. 14^. 2d., three of them making 4O/. each, and another
36/. The Panton flock has been bred on the Panton farm for ninety
years. Old Panton, who has done yeoman service in improving the
breed, was bred by Mr. Dudding, sen., about twelve years ago, and sold
to Mr. Kirkham, when four years old at 70 guineas. His produce may
be safely averred to have made more money than any sheep in England.
The Messrs. Dudding (who sold fifty rams at an average of 2O/. 9^. $d.
this year, and made the best average in Lincolnshire) lamb 800 ewes,
and clip, with hoggs, over 1200. The other leading ram breeders in the
county of Lincolnshire are Messrs. Morris, Clark, Kirkham, Chaplin,
Vessey, Casswell, Davy, and Gilliat ; the old flock is now reduced and
in the hands of Mr. Walker of Durham ; and the largest flockmasters
are Messrs. Sowerby, Bramley, Ealand, Fieldsand, Chatterton, Welsh,
Tharpley, and Martin, who lamb from 1000 to 500 each. In 1866, the
Tom Brooks. 459
at once the produce of the strong chalk and the marsh
land. It flourishes on the east side of the county,
beginning from the Barton marshes on the Humber
side, and so by Caistor and Louth to Spilsby. It also
follows the rich land from Lincoln to Peterborough,
by Market Deeping, and over the marsh-land tract of
Spalding, Holbeach, and Long Sutton, to the very
borders of Norfolk.
Lincolnshire lost a fine old sportsman in Mr.
Thomas Brooks, or " Tom Brooks" of Croxby, as he
was familiarly called. For many years past Tom had
officiated as judge at the Royal and other great
shows. He liked being among the hunter or the
blood-horse classes ; and his stalwart figure, with his
rather high broad shoulders, thinnish legs, and some-
what small, weather-beaten head, made him a man of
mark in the centre of the ring. He knew his work
thoroughly, and would not brook " veterinary dicta-
tion ;" and his rejoinder when one of them raised his
late Mr. Greetham sold 220 hoggs off his Riseholme Farm at the Lin-
coln April Fair at 5/. each.
We read in the Farmers* Magazine: "In 1826, Mr. Dawson, of
Withcall, killed a three-shear sheep, weighing 964 Ibs. per quarter ; a
two-shear weighing Qilbs. per quarter; and a shearling, yilbs. per
quarter. Mr. Robert Smith in his report of Lincoln sheep at the War-
wick Show, states that ' he has known 14-months-old lamb-hoggs slaugh-
tered at Lincoln April Fair, thirty together averaging 35lbs. per quarter,
and one hundred together clipping I4lbs. of washed wool each. It is
not the common practice for breeders of Lincolns to have them fit for
the butcher at 14 or 15 months old ; but they are generally kept until
they are 22 to 28 months old, when their weight will be from 30 to 4Olbs.
per quarter, and they cut a second fleece weighing from 10 to I4lbs.
The weight of wool of an entire flock, under fair average management,
is about 841bs. each ; in some cases, especially on good layer, this
weight no doubt is exceeded. Mr. John Clarke's Lincoln prize ram
clipped 5 1 fibs, of wool in three years, an average of 174 Ibs. each year;
while a neighbour of his, in 1859, clipped 327 hogget fleeces, which
weighed altogether 130 tods, an average of over 1 1 Ibs. per fleece. The
Lincoln breeders consider the mutton of admirable quality, having less
fat, and a greater portion of fine-grained lean flesh, than the Leicester.
The ewes are good breeders, but like the Cotswolds and Leicesters they
are not good sucklers."
460 Saddle and Sirloin.
hat, and remarked, " It seems then that I may retire
I am not wanted here," caused many a laugh
among those who "could see Tom saying it." To
the last he could go a burster in the hunting field for
a short distance, and no one loved the sport better, or
remembered more accurately the work of every great
Brocklesby hound. Old William Smith's name
brought up many a racy story, told in a dry, quiet
way. He bought a large number of hunters for Baron
Rothschild ; and although he did not bother about
breeding blood stock, he liked a race dearly. We well
remember meeting him in the paddock on Carac-
tacus's Derby-day, and his telling us that he " didn't
quite see the winner," but he had his eye on Lord
Clifden, as a regular clinker for the next Derby, and
that he should never see such a two-year-old again.
He was also a capital judge of cart-horses (although he
hated the job), and a grey he met at the Worcester
Royal was the apple of his eye.
A few weeks before his death he had the misfortune
to have one of his little fingers chopped off in a cir-
cular sawing machine. It did not heal well, and at
last he applied some salve, which cured it, perhaps
too quickly. After that he burnt the back of one of
his hands severely. Both of these accidents told on
him ; and then he got very wet over a farm valuation.
On reaching home he took to his bed, and lay there
from the Tuesday to the next Monday, when he died.
Lincolnshire will long think of her fine old hunting
" worthy."
Mr. John Thompson, on the other side of the
Humber, died not many weeks before him. For some
time past he had been complaining slightly of illness,
and Mr. Teale, the celebrated surgeon of Leeds, had
warned him that his heart was affected, and that he
must beware of all excitement. However, Sir Clif-
ford Constable's staghounds came to look for an out-
lying deer, and to uncart a fresh one if they failed to
Aylesby Manor. 461
find it. He came out on a horse which his son had
purchased from Captain Percy Williams, and was de-
lighted with his mount, as he did not previously think
that it was up to his weight. His friends were sur-
prised at his wonderful spirits ; and there is no doubt
he over-exerted himself in clambering up the side of
one of the Holderness drains. He chaffed an old
friend who followed, and required some help from a
hunting whip. Five minutes after that he must have
felt dizzy and dismounted for a minute. Only one
person, a girl, saw him ; and she said that he stood
for a minute or two holding his horse's rein, and
then sank down as his hand slackened its hold. He
must, in fact, have died as he stood. There were
few men more beloved and honoured, and the Royal
lost a very useful shorthorn and sheep judge by his
death.
Hull was plenteously placarded by its four ex-
pectant M.P.'s, to prove that " Codlin, not Short, 's
your friend" in Downing Street ; and we were glad
to be over the Humber, and among the sixty-eight
big and thick-fleeced rams at Aylesby Manor Quid,
Patron, Rifleman, Romulus, and Co. These Lei-
cesters are from the flock of eighty years' standing,
which the Philip Skipworths made with Garrick,
Granby, and Aylesby A (for whom the Leicestershire
Society made a 3OO/. offer in vain), and which Mr.
Torr has kept up by constant resort to head quarters
at Normanton, Barrow, and Holmpierrepont. It was
the ram-letting day, but some familiar faces John
Booth, Nainby, Frank lies, Gibbons, and Tom Brooks
were lacking when we sat down in the old barn,
whose rafters once rung with their merry jokes and
speeches, and we could only drink to their memories.
The old kennel yard below is full of yearling Booth
bulls. Few could recognise in it now any traces of
its original mission ; but even before the days of the
Pretender, the combined packs of Pelham and Tyr-
462 Saddle and Sirloin.
whitt sallied forth from it at dawn, to try the furzes
for fox or hare, and had miles upon miles of unen-
closed breezy wolds for their hunting grounds.
Aylesby Manor is pretty nearly the centre of the
2300 acres which Mr. Torr has in hand, principally
under Mr. Drake and Colonel Tomline, M.P. He has
also 300 acres of grass, and 250 of marsh on the
Humber side near Immingham and Stallingboro',
and an outlying farm at Rothwell, where three
sycamores mark the highest point of the Lincolnshire
wolds. However, when behind " the iron horse," or
flying over the grass by the roadside on the " wolds-
man's pony," he makes very little account of time and
space ; and what with home to wit, calling his orders
out of his bedroom window at 5 A.M. and county and
Royal Agricultural business, few men have thrown
such an intense earnestness into life, or worked so
hard for others. At home, if you see a distant and
ever-moving figure in the park, and not unfrequently
in shirt-sleeves for coolness, among the heifers or the
ewes, there is no mistaking " Torr of Riby," although
he is not exactly " composed" after his presentation
portrait by Knight, R.A., a 340 guinea tribute from
his friends. Inventing a prize gate, or sketching out a
new set of farm buildings, or planning a model cottage,
or giving evidence on cattle transit .before the Privy
Council, or making an after-dinner speech, or rising
on a point of finance or a change in the prize-sheet at
the Smithfield Club and Hanover-square, come equally
natural to one " with the concentrated energy of half-
a-score of men." Riding-horses he does not keep ;
but the old black pony by Highflyer had thirteen
Primo foals, all black, with white ticks, seven colts
and six fillies, and averaging fourteen three. Dr.
Beevor's Bobby was used on these fillies, and from
them the present riding-stud had its origin. Every-
thing must be unique and pure of its kind. At
Aylesby the cats are all black, and the game-cocks
Aylesby Manor. 463
and hens black-breasted reds; Captain Barclay's
Dorkings flourish at Riby and the Dales; Rouen
ducks at Rothwell and Riby ; and in the long sedgy
lake at the head of Irby Dales Glen scores of black
Buenos Ayres ducks, with their burnished green heads,
are disporting themselves along with the water-hens.
The grand array of Vanguard cows Gloamin,
Gleamy, Glittering Star, Golden Gem, Glisten,
Genuine Gem, and Gauntlet have died out, and in
the Church pasture we looked on the massive white
Bracelet 4th, the last of the old cow's descendants in
female tail, and ripening to go off on grass at about
9Ost. Guide Post and Genoa, with the fine old head,
were " up" for Christmas ; Lady Zillah and Warrior's
Plume were the North Lincolnshire prize heifers of
the year ; but still the buxom Cherry Queen 4th, with
second Royal honours awaiting her, was the dainty
queen of the cow yards. There too was Blink Bonny,
the good thick matron, with the short tail. She was
once put up for fat, and honourably earned her re-
prieve by being in calf. Weal Royal with the true
Booth loin, Fair Dane, the pale red Flower of
Denmark, Clarence Flower, Mountain Flower, and
Bright Queen were among the beauties in the park,
and Weal Bliss was ripening for future shows in
Canada.*
* Mr. Torr commenced hiring bulls from Killerby and Warlaby in
1844, and began with Leonard for two seasons. Since then he has had
Baron Warlaby, Vanguard (for six seasons, and again to help Hope-
well), Sir Leonard, Crown Prince, Hopewell, British Prince, Fitz-
clarence, Prince of Warlaby, Royal Bridegroom, British Crown, and
Governor General, with Helmsman, Roseberry, Thornberry, Leonidas,
Brideman, Clarence, Monk, Lord Blithe, and Mountain Chief in aid.
Dr. M'Haleand The Druid were hired from Mr. Barnes in Ireland; and
Booth Royal, Breast Plate, Killerby Monk, and Blinkhoolie have been
the home-bred Booth bulls in use. Vanguard got no show bulls but
Grey Gauntlet. His cows, of which we have mentioned the finest,
had great size, fine hair, and deep flesh. Several of the above were
amongst the 16 cows and one bull which died of splenetic apoplexy a
few years since. Water Nymph is the last of them ; and, one with
464 Saddle and Sirloin.
From Aylesby Manor, its claims of long descent
from Burgess and from Booth in field and fold, and
the sum-total of its other agricultural activities, we
pass to Boston, or the metropolis of the fens. Time
was when we thought nothing of getting out of the
train at Louth and walking ten miles west, for an hour
with Jack Morgan on the Southwold flags ; but we
have no such mission now, and leaving Spilsby, a
little red-roofed town on a hill, to our right, we cross
the Witham, whose pike have "none like," hard by
the big sluice gates and the glorious lantern tower of
St. Botolph's. It looks down on a diocese of count-
less towers and spires. They stand in serried rank like
another, Vanguard left full 200 head of stock on the place. During
the year that Vanguard was exchanged for Crown Prince, he got Bride
Elect at Warlaby. Fitzclarence left grand cows, and British Prince
good substance and ribs on his stock. At one time there were 26
heifers by him, all very light roans with cherry necks. Baron Warlaby
and Royal Bridegroom both got good bulls. Dr. M'Hale's stock had
a fine outline, but were a little too high on the leg. Mr. Torr has sold
upwards of 200 yearling bulls, at an average of more than 5<D/., to all
parts of the world, not excepting Bessarabia and South Russia.
The herd has sprung from nine tribes, (i) The Bracelets^ which
represent Killerby, became extinct with Bracelet 4th. (2) The Ribys
and Brights date to Rennet and Blanche 2nd, representing Studley.
Rennet by Fanatic was bought for 40 guineas at Mr. Marjoribanks's sale,
and bred three bulls, which were sold for 44O/. Her heifer Riby Rose
by Vanguard brought the tribe out. Blanche 2nd by Zadig came from
the Greys, and there was only a cross or so difference between hers and
Sylphide's pedigree. Blanches are all " Brights ; " and Bright Queen
and Bright Dew by Fitzclarence are the best of the sort. (3) The
Barmpton herd has descendants through Sweetbriar or rather Flora of
Farnsfield, a daughter of a very good cow Formosa by Sir Thomas.
From her sprang the Flower tribe, a particularly favourite one with Mr.
Torr. Of these Flower Girl by Londesboro' was the chief; and there
were three good Vanguard sisters Flower Nymph, Flower Maid, and
Flower Lady. (4) The Sylph is composed entirely of descendants
of Sylph through Lady of the Manor and Lady Mary Bountiful,
daughter of Belinda by Ranunculus. They are another branch of the
Milcote Charmer or Sweetheart tribe. (5) Fawsley was only repre-
sented by the Garland tribe, but they are all gone. They sadly lacked
hair and style. (6) There are only three Telluria females to represent
that once leading cow at Wiseton* (7) The Hartforth goes back
through Cherry Duchess 3rd by Second Grand Duke to Old Cherry.
Cherry Queen 4th by Royal Bridegroom is one of the most promising
Aylesby Manor. 465
martello outposts all along the Wash, from Sutton to
Fishtoft, where John Conington of Boston, one of the
very foremost classical scholars of the century, has
just been laid to rest at only 44. It has needed cun-
ning chartsmen to map out the shifting channels amid
all that treacherous sand ; and we marvel as we read the
sea-lore, which tells how " if it be night, you should keep
Lynn Well Light E.N.E. until Hunstanton Light ap-
pears a deep red, and then anchor in 7 or 8 fathoms,"
et cetera. Drains and sluices have done a wondrous
work on that once dreary level, and made it a land of
rich farms and pleasantly-shaded gardens instead of a
heifers in the herd, to which this tribe has principally contributed
females. (8) Kirklevington is represented by the Water Witches, whose
dam Water Witch by Fourth Duke of Northumberland was bought at
Rev. T. Gator's sale. She had seven females, which have swelled to
forty. Baron Warlaby crossed best with this Waterloo tribe, as Van-
guard was too big for them. Warrior's Plume by Breast Plate is quite
a crack amongst them. (9) Mr. Robson of Cadeby> near Louth,
furnished a tribe from Moon Beam and Gold Beam. They are all G's
and M's, but the G's are the best of the two.
The flock consists of 1200 breeding ewes, of which 500 are pure
Leicesters, kept entirely at Aylesby. No lean stock is sent to market,
the whole of the lambs being fed on the farms, as well as some lean
ones in addition, which are bought in the autumn to make up for losses,
&c. At Riby the proportion of gimmers annually introduced into the
flock is fully one-third ; but at Aylesby it is less, as fine breeding ewes
are kept on to an indefinite age.
In 1848 Mr. Torr succeeded the younger Philip Skipworth (whose
father gave 600 guineas for a ram from Leicestershire) in the occupation
of Aylesby, and bought the pure Leicestershire flock of 400 ewes for
1500?. Since then the tups used have been almost entirely hired from
Burgess and Sanday ; one or two others, however, have been obtained
from Buckley and Stone. All the new blood has, therefore, been
obtained from the purest flocks of Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire.
The letting-books of the last twenty years show how much, and how
widely, Aylesby blood is appreciated. A very large number of rams
have gone to Ireland, some to France, Australia, and California, and a
few even to Jamaica and St. Helena ; while Mr. Torr numbers amongst
his home customers residents in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and most of
the English counties.
After Mr. Torr's death the flock and the herd were sold by auction
at Aylesby Manor in September, 1875 the ewes averaged just five
guineas, and the 17 rams I7/. Js. 6d., but the herd met with an ex-
traordinary sale, upwards of three thousand people were present, and
the 84 head averaged 5io/. 19*. ; the flock and the herd realising
together 44,395^ n j - *>d. HH
466 Saddle and Sirloin.
home for the wild duck and the heron. Its inhabitants,
contrary to the old belief, are not web-footed, and
ague is unknown. Oats have long since lost their
monopoly of the soil. The carrot yield has been
thirty tons to the acre ; and wheat on warp land has
touched nine quarters. Woad with its seven-inch
leaves, springing from a carrot-like root, yields its
triple harvest for three years, and when pulled and
dried on wicker flakes is packed off to Leeds as a
mordant for blues and blacks. It lays no tax on
the wheat-feeding properties of the soil, and hence
wheat can be taken after it for three years in succes-
sion.
The warrens on the wolds above Alford have been
enclosed and cultivated within the last thirty years.
At " Hairby Hill" thousands of rabbits were slaugh-
tered yearly for the sake of their silver-grey pelts,
which were forwarded to St. Petersburgh, and their
carcases disposed of for 4^. to 8^. a couple at Louth,
Alford, Spilsby, and Boston. Between Burgh or
" Boro" (as many term it) and the sea is a portion of
a tract of marsh land extending from Grimsby to
Boston, which is considered the finest grazing land in
England. It is truly the land of " twenty thorpes,"
and a tale still lingers among those parishes of a parson
who resided at a distance from his cure, and was called
to account by his bishop for having omitted to hold
service for several Sundays. He replied to his lord-
ship after this fashion, " The roads are so bad, my
lord, that I defy the devil himself to get to the parish ;
but when the spring sets in and the roads are passable,
I promise to be there in time, and give his majesty a
dusting." It was in this neighbourhood that an
eccentric farmer lived, who, rather than pay the nag-
horse tax, which was levied in the height of the French
war, sold his nag-horses and rode regularly to Spilsby
market on a saddled cow. Spilsby was the early
home of Sir John Franklin, and a few miles further
Tuxford and Sons Works at Boston. 467
west is Revesby Abbey, the residence (before it was
rebuilt) of Sir Joseph Banks, who " stocked the park
with kangaroos." The old baronet sent a lot of them
to Brocklesby, where Lord Yarborough allotted them
a paddock, and every comfort and convenience. In
fact they were one of the lions of the place.
Seventy years ago, before Mr. William Wedd Tux-
ford, senior, erected his eight-sail mill in Skirbeck, no
fine wheats were grown on the fens, and it was long
after that time before millers ceased to send for their
finer flour into the Stamford and Spalding districts.
" Velvet Red " was then sown, and in due time it had
a successful rival in " Red Porky," or hog-backed
wheat. This humble windmill, which " all the bugle
breezes " only kept at work on the average for every
third day, until steam power stepped in, was the germ
of the works of Tuxford and Sons. It stands still
keeping watch and ward over the busy life which it
called into being, and not far from it is the grey tower
of Skirbeck church, which has borne many a hundred
months of that " hard grey weather " which blows
from the Eastern sea. The first mechanical link be-
tween " the wind wheel " of the past and the finishing
machine and portable engine of the present was on
this wise : During a very wet summer Mr. Tuxford
had been at great trouble to separate the sprouted
wheat by hand, and hence his flour made lod. per
stone beyond any in the Boston market. As his busi-
ness increased, he had to consider how the same
process could be effected in machinery, and after much
thought he solved the problem of the double motion
reeing sieve. He then applied to a craftsman in the
town to make the castings for his machinery, but that
philosopher dreaded a rival at his very doors, and
refused. Even the offer to give him the Birmingham
price, plus the carriage, failed to persuade him, and
the first reeing machine was built without his aid. A
picture of it, well worn with time, still holds the pride
468 Saddle and Sirloin,
of place in the Skirbeck Works' office, and at one
corner of it is the scoop with which the attendant
watched the machines, and at intervals skimmed off
the smut-balls, sprouted, and lighter grains which
worked their way to the centre of the sieve. With a
variation in the size of the wire, it has been used fo/*
grass seeds, linseed, and coffee berries, and sent to
Egypt for lentils.
A short ride from the Boston market-place where
the statue of Herbert Ingram, who knew, if ever man
did, as the poet of his own county has said,
" The seasons when to take
Occasion by the hand,"
tells its sterling lesson to the lads of his own town
brings us to the Skirbeck Works, which now occupy an
area of six acres. An Italian ship was discharging its
freight of linseed, as we skirted the Witham on our route,
and then we turned inland past the site of the mother
church, the old red Hussey Tower, whose flagstaff
leans in its decay over the battlement, and the pasture
close of the Augustine friars. A few girders and
plates for the Thames Embankment are stacked ready
for departure to the order of Mr. Webster, who began
his rapid upward career sixteen years ago as a master
builder in a small village near Boston.
The Skirbeck Works may be said to date from
1841, when they furnished a portable engine and
thrashing machine to the late Mr. Robert Roslin, of
Algarkirk, at a time when farmers hardly dared to
think of a fire in their yard. The machine was driven
on a frame, with the engine after the old fashion, and
was equal to thrashing-out eighty quarters of wheat
a day, with seven cwt. of coals. The firm's first port-
able combined machine was ordered by Mr. George
Holland of Wigtoft ; and having made their ground
sure on that point, they introduced their patent housed
engine with vertical cylinder at Exeter in 1850. Five
Tuxford and Sons Works at Boston 469
years after they were first for portable engines at
Carlisle, where the fuel was diminished from 81bs. to
3 fibs, per horse per hour.
Skirbeck has scattered its products far and wide.
In Hungary, France, and Austria more especially, it
finds its great European markets for engines and
finishing machines and centrifugal pumps ; and New
Zealand, Pekin, the Burra Burra Mines, Shanghai,
Cuba, Australia, Peru, and California have also sent
many an order. Its sawing-machines may be found
in Burmah, in whose wood yards elephants are taught
to pile the teak. It has sent traction-engines and
trains of waggons to Calicut, on the Coromandel
coast, to bring coffee down the ghauts from the plan-
tations, as well as steam packing machinery for wool
to the Queensland Government, and an engine to spin
wire for the telegraph works at Bengal. Two fibre
mills with hydraulic presses have gone out to Loanga
in Africa, to squeeze the juice of the giant reeds. No
ships can come within a mile of that coast, and no
horse can live there by reason of the Tsetse fly.
Hence the negroes had to draw the engine when it
was taken off the launches, and carry the other ma-
chinery in pieces on their heads. The " river horse"
holds his revels among the reeds, and his flesh is cured
like bacon for sale.
The draftsmen were busy with pencil and com-
passes in a long upper room, marking-out the line for
the busy colony of ten-score workers in wood and iron
below. A mysterious glass vessel filled with an oil-
like fluid on one table was bearing its part as an ex-
perimental model for some giant double-actioned
road-rammer, fated to descend with three-ton em-
phasis at each stroke. Among the wood models were
water-wheels furnished with different-floats ; and we
had " our first warning" of the water-wheel for Natal,
whose presence haunted us go where we might. Two
or three small waggons linked together stand idly on
470 Saddle and Sirloin.
the shelf, now that their mission is over of settling the
point of connexion between each, so as to cause the
whole train to take the same course on a straight road
or round curves. A traction engine with an endless
railway attached is taken on its journey across the
floor for our benefit ; and we also hear of an adapta-
tion of the half section of an Archimedean pump to
" a worm" for the transference of grain in a mill.
Pigs of iron are piled in the yard below, and
workmen are breaking them up for the furnaces. The
cold-blast iron comes from Shropshire, and Middles-
boro' and Scotland furnish the hot-blast, which is not
so strong in its texture, but has come into much more
general use on account of its price. Part of the Natal
wheel rests under a large shed, waiting for its buckets ;
and crossing over the yard, we are in the dark sand
regions among the moulders, who are busy at the
Thames'-side balustrades. In this shop, puddlers with
brawny sinews and "auctioneers" (which election bullies
have not cared to meet twice) are bending over huge
casting boxes, or treading in the clay for a girder mould*
as if they were working in a wine vat. Thomas
Sampson, who, like Ellis Maddison, has grown grey with
forty years in the service, comes forth from his nook in
the wall, to tell us of the giant cranes overhead and
the mysteries of " proper granulation" at furnace tap-
ping. The craft is of a less gentle kind in an adjoin-
ing shed, where we find some grand left-handed hitters
among the quartets which gather round the anvils,
or close up the rivets of the engine boilers. It is
here that iron owns its remorseless conqueror in steel
and man's device. A small bolt descends upon an
iron sheet and punches out a hole the size of a
lozenge, while another half-inch sheet, which is held up
to the tender mercies of an adjacent huge instrument of
torture, is cut as calmly as a bit of brown paper.
"The coach house" is across the yard, and there
stand upwards of forty engines ready for going out,
Tuxford and Sons Works at Boston. 47 1
and some of them packed for Japan. Blue was once
the body colour, but of late years the taste of custo-
mers has run in favour of green. An exact counter-
part of the one with two cylinders which did the best
duty at Bury viz. (3 pounds 2| ounces of coal for
each horse power per hour), stands in the outer room,
and others are drawn up in a shed, along with sections
of centrifugal pumps, which are equal to discharging
from 350 to 5000 gallons per minute.
Leaving the Iron King's dominions we enter those
of Wood, where seven combined finishing machines
are receiving their last touches, and we try to pene-
trate the mysteries of the adjustable screen. Patterns
of wheels hang on the wall like shields, and for the
third and last time we light on our Natal-bound
friend with his thirty-feet diameter. A word to a
carpenter in a mysterious model gallery running
along the centre of the roof, brings him down with
the wood coping model, and placing it on the
balustrades which are built up into form as they come
in from the founders, he shows us a portion of the
parapet of the Thames Embankment. All the wood
is seasoned for five years, under rain and sunshine in
the yard. The elm and the ash are nearly all from
the fens, and have 33 per cent, more gravity in that
rich clay loam than when grown on lighter soils.
Revesby and Kirkstead have furnished many a stately
oak, and there was a memorable purchase at Pinch-
beck of three oaks growing from one stool, which
fell before the wind in a night. It was some time
before the bargain was closed, and then the fallen
monarchs would never have seen Skirbeck, if a trac-
tion engine had not been sent to drag them across the
fens.
THE END.
INDEX.
ADNEY, Mr., and Shropshire
Sheep, 434.
Ainslie, Jack, and Gretna Green
Tactics, 45.
Aldborough Shorthorns, 170.
Althorp, Lord, and his Short-
horns, 124.
Atherton's, Mr., Shorthorns,
366.
Athole, Duke of, and Mr. T.
Duncan, 5.
Atkinson, Mr., of Peepy, 129.
Aylesby Manor, 461.
Ayrshire Cattle, 10, n.
BAKEWELL'S Longhorns, 141.
Bates, Thomas, and his Short-
horns, 146.
Battersea Show, 5.
Benzies, John, Mr. M'Combie's
Herdsman, 12.
Berwick's, Lord, Herefords,
439-
Black-faced Sheep, II.
Blair Athol, 258.
Blencathra Pack, 107.
Bolden's, Mr., Shorthorns, 384.
Booth Chart, 182.
Booth Family, 148, 193.
Booth, Mr. John, 193.
Booth, Mr. Richard, 199.
Border Leicester Sheep, 136.
Borton's, Mr., Leicesters, 219.
Bowes, Mr., 255.
Brampton Coursing Meeting,
117.
Brooks, Tom, 459.
Brothers Colling, 197.
Bruere, Mr., of Braithwaite, 177.
Buston, Mr., of Dolphinby, 91.
Byrns, Jim, 52.
CAMPBELL, Mr. Ivie, and
Coursing, 6.
Captain Shaftoe, Shorthorn
Bull, 95.
Carhead Pigs, 296.
Carlisle Races, 57.
Carlisle, Recollections of, 37.
Carlisle Swifts, 58.
Carriage Horses, 40.
Cass, William, Wrestler, 70.
Catterick Races, 191.
Celebrating a Pig Victory, 295.
Champion Bulls, 91.
Chapman, Wm., Wrestler, 72.
Cheese-Making in Cheshire,
403-
Chillingham Cattle, 135.
" Chips " in Wrestling, 77.
Cholmley, Sir George, 242.
Clayton and Shuttleworth's
Works, 452.
Clun Forest Sheep, 438.
Coach Horses, 55.
Coaching Days, 47.
Coachman's Fees, 51.
Coates's Herd Book, 281
I I
474
Index.
Colling, Brothers, 145, 197.
Corbet, Mr., 444.
Coursing, 6.
Coursing at Sundorne, 446.
Coursing Grounds, 370.
Crafty, 84.
Crozier's, Mr., Hounds, 107.
Culley, George and Matthew,
137.
Culshaw, Joseph, 329.
Cumberland Wrestling Cham-
pions, 65.
Curwen, Mr., Shorthorn Breeder,
87.
DALEY, Mr., "the Incledon of
the Turf," 59.
Davies', Mr. D. R., Shorthorns,
409.
Devonshire's, Duke of, Short-
horns, 382.
Dick, Professor, 2.
Dickinson's, Mr., Farm, 368.
Dog Stealing, 23.
Doncaster Moor, 319.
Drax Abbey, 269.
Drivers, Coach, 48.
Duchess and Grand Duchess
Shorthorns, 387.
Duncan, Mr., Clerk of Highland
and Agricultural Society, 3, 5.
Duncombe Park Shorthorns,
215.
" Durham Ox," 145.
EADE, George, Coachman, 50.
Eastwood's, Mr., Shorthorns,
Eccentric Sporting Characters,
173-
Ellman of Glynde, I.
FARHAM Church, 113.
Farham Hall and its Grey-
hounds, 114.
Farming on the Netherby Es-
tates, 33.
Farnley Hall, 287.
Fawcett's, Mr. James, Recollec-
tions of T. Bates, 150.
Fawkes', Mr., Shorthorns, 289.
Felton Agricultural Show, 133.
Feversham's, Lord, Herd, 215.
Fifth Duke of Oxford, 217.
Forster, Mr., Killhow, 80.
Fox Terriers at Yarm, 156.
GENERAL Chasse, 58, 320.
Glasgow, Earl of, 26.
Godwin, Thomas, 361.
"Golden Shorthorns, The," 79.
Gordon, Richard, Wrestler, 74.
Gordon, Sir Charles, 3.
Graham, Sir Bellingham, 441.
Graham, Sir James, 32.
Grant, Dr. , Master of the Teviot-
dale, 16.
Great Shorthorn Breeders, 145.
Gretna Green, 44.
Grey, John, of Dilston, 87, 121.
Greyhounds, Captain Spencer's,
93-
Greyhounds, Mr. Ivie Camp-
bell's, 7.
Gully, Mr. John, 311.
Gunter's, Colonel, Shorthorns,
155, 275.
Gwendale, 250.
HACKNEYS in Yorkshire, 249.
Hall Maxwell, Secretary of
Highlsnd and Agricultural
Society, 3.
Harding, Mr. J., Professional
Cheese- maker, 404.
Harrogate, 273.
Heaton Park, 359.
Herdwick Sheep, 98.
Hereford Cattle at Leighton
Hall, 431-
Hereford Cattle, Lord Berwick's,
439-
Highland and Agricultural So-
ciety, 3, 4.
Hodgson, Mr. Tom, 317.
Holderness Cattle, 142.
Holker Hall Shorthorns, 382.
Horses, Coach, 55.
Hound Show at Redcar, 159.
Hunting Casualties, 263.
Index.
Hunting Tragedy on the Ure,
264.
JACKSON, John, 205.
Jackson, Wm., Wrestler, 75.
KELBOURNE, Lord, 27.
Killerby and Warlaby Recollec-
tions, 193.
Killhow Sale of Shorthorns, 81.
Knavesmire, 259.
Knightley, Sir Charles, 148.
Knowlmere Shorthorns, 349.
" LAMPLOUGH Hawkies," 89.
Leicester Sheep, 219.
Leighton Hall Herefords, 431.
Lincoln Flocks, 457.
Longhorn Cattle, 141.
Lonks Sheep, 351.
Lowther, Colonel, 39.
Luther, Robert, of Acton, 447.
MAIL and Coach Days, 47.
Management of Herdwick
Sheep, 102.
Manchester Racecourses, 356.
Market Weighton Trotters, 248.
" Martingale," 326.
Marton-le-Moor, 189.
Maynard, Mr. Anthony, 188.
Maynard, Mr. J. C., 190.
Maxwell, Hall, Secretary of
Highland and Agricultural
Society, 3.
Meire, Samuel, and Shropshire
Sheep, 434.
Milner, Sir William, 262.
Morecambe Bay, 381.
Mountain Ride, A, 419.
Mulcaster, George, 84.
NAMING Horses, 30.
Neasham Hall Stud, 162.
Nelson, Mr., of Gates Garth,
98.
Nestor, The, of Shorthorns, 165.
Newcastle Races, 130.
Nicholson, Tom, of Threlkeld,
67.
Nightingale, Mr., 379.
Nunwick Hall Shorthorns, 97.
"OLD Anna," 215.
Old Posting Times, 42.
Otter Hounds, 21.
Otter Hunting, 24.
Osbaldeston, Squire, 314.
Osborne, John, 183.
PARKER, James, Coachman, 48.
Parrington, Mr. T., 165.
Peel, John, 109.
Peel's, Mr., Shorthorns, 349.
Penrhyn Castle, 413.
Pig Breeders, 303.
Pig Show at Keighley, 291.
Pigs, Mr. Brown's, 85.
Pigs, Mr. Wainman's, 296.
Pigs, Mr. Watson's, 86.
Pigs, Mr. Wiley's, 303.
Politics v. Shorthorns, 125.
Posting Times, 42.
Prize Fighting, 311.
Purity's Five Heats, 325.
RACING, Earl of Glasgow, 27.
Ramsden, Old Bob, 248.
Reed, John, Coachman, 49.
Richardson, Will of, Caldbeck,
67.
SCALEBY Castle, 83.
Sheep Washing in Wales, 423.
Shorthorns, Blencow Herd, 92.
Shorthorns, Boldero's, 384.
Shorthorns, Booth's, 148, 193.
Shorthorns, Bruere's, 177.
Shorthorns, Early, 144.
Shorthorns, Herd Book, 287.
Shorthorns, Holker, 382.
Shorthorns, in Vale of Eden, 90.
Shorthorns, Killhow, 81.
Shorthorns, Lord Althorp's,i24.
Shorthorns, Mr. Curwen's, 87.
Shorthorns, Mr. Peel's, 355.
Shorthorns, Mr. Unthank's, 94
Shorthorns, Nunwick Hall, 97,
Shorthorns, Peepy, 129,
Shorthorns, S. Wiley's, 21 1.
476
Index.
Shorthorns, T. Bates's, 146.
Shorthorns, *' The Golden," 79.
Shorthorns, Towneley, 331.
Shorthorns, Wetherell's, 165.
Shorthorns, W. Torr's, 462.
Shropshire Sheep, 434.
Sinclair, Sir John, 122.
Singleton's, Mr., Shorthorns
and Leicesters, 251.
Sledmere, 225.
Sparkler of the Hurworth, 164.
Spencer's, Captain, Greyhounds,
93-
Sporting Characters, 173.
Stockdale Uick, 230.
Sykes, Sir Tatton, 211.
TEAMS, Coaching, 53.
Teeswater Cattle, 143.
Teviotdale Pack, 17.
" The Times" Coach, 47.
Thoroughbreds at Sledmere,
226.
Torr's, Mr. W., Shorthorns,
463-
Tortworth Sale, 155.
Towneley Herd, 323.
Tuxford and Sons' Works at
Boston, 467.
UNTHANK, Mr., 94.
WAINMAN'S, Mr., Pigs, 296.
Warlaby Shorthorns, 198.
Warping, 271.
Waterloo Cup Day, 386.
Waterton, Mr., 305.
Watson's, Mr., Pigs, 86.
Welsh Cattle, 414.
Welsh Sheep, 420.
Wensleydale Sheep, 180.
Wetheral, ill.
Wetherby, 275.
Wetherell's, Mr., Shorthorns,
165-
Whitaker of Burley, 148, 287.
White, Captain, 407.
White, John, Gamekeeper, 13.
Wiley, Samuel, 211.
Wiley's, Mr., Pigs, 303.
Wild Cattle of Chillingham,
135-
Wrestling, 63.
Wynn's, Sir Watkin, Hounds,
424.
YORKSHIRE Hound Show, 283.
Yorkshire Roadsters, 249.
Yorkshire Show at Wetherby,
275.
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