THE FARMER'S MAGAZIT^iE. 



APRIL, 1858. 



PLATE I. 



MATCHLESS; 



A LINCOLN CART STALLION, THE PROPERTY OF MR. T. B. T. HILDYARD, OF FLINTHAM HALL, 



NEWARK. 



This horse took the first prize of 30 sovs., as the best of all the stallions for agricultural purposes, 

 at the Salisbury Meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. He was entered and shown at 

 Chelmsford the year previous, but drafted out, as it was said, from not being a good mover. His 

 action since then has been wonderfully improved, and certainly at Salisbury there was not a horse in 

 his class at all equal to him in his paces. He stepped as light and lively as a pony. Matchless has, 

 however, other strong recommendations — a splendid head, neck, and shoulders, good old-fashioned 

 quarters, and extraordinary size and substance. His legs, perhaps, are not quite so clean as they might 

 be. But the greatest of all his attractions, to the common run of sight-seers, is a most beautiful mane, 

 fine in quality, and extraordinary for its length. As a show horse it certainly gave him a most imposing 

 appearance ; and as a picturesque noble-looking animal, the SufFolks and other mere utilitarians had 

 no chance with him. 



Matchless, bred by Mr. Haytoe, of Simperingham Fen, near Folkingham, in 1851, is by the King 

 of the County, out of a Champion mare. 



PLATE 11. 



THE LATE MR. THOMAS KIRBY, OF YORK. 



This well-known dealer and sportsman, whose name has for nearly sixty years been connected with 

 English stock, was born at Osbaldwick, near York, in the August of 1770. As he was born and brought 

 up a Catholic, the parish register contains no entry of his birth, and owing to the lapse of years, he has 

 forgotten the exact date. From his very boyhood, " the current of his being set to" horses ; and when 

 he was barely 21, he made his first voyage to Russia in charge of a cargo 'of them, and entered the ser- 

 vice of Count Poltrowsky, who had upwards of 100 brood mares in his paddocks. For a long series of 

 years his life consisted in perpetual Russian voyages, sometimes twice in a summer, and occasionally 

 with two ship-loads of horses. His two sons as well as himself had once a very narrow escape from 

 being " washed away in the flood" at St. Petersburgh, when every horse but one in his stable perished, 

 and that was floated into a sort of garret, from whence its exit was of the most precarious kind. So 

 great was the favour with which the Grand Dukes regarded him, that one of them entrusted him to 

 smuggle over some English porter, and he was wont to carry it by a bottle at a time to the palace, when 

 he went ostensibly to chat with them about horses. On one occasion the cork came out with a rush, 

 and if the sentinel had not good-naturedly accepted his explanation, as to its being " frisky beer," he 

 would, as the Grand Duke laughingly told him, have been sent off for a certainty to Siberia, for a 

 season's wholesome meditation on " Barclay and Perkin's entire." 



Orville was the first blood horse he ever purchased, 2,000 gs. being the price, and he proved a most 

 successful venture. Lottery, whom he sold for £l,600, to go to France, was another immense favourite. 

 Bourbon also came into his hands from Lord George Cavendish, for 1,100 gs., Brutandorf for 500 gs., 

 Muley Moloch for 1,500 gs., St. Giles for 1,000 gs. (sold to the Americans for just the same price). 

 General Chasse for 2,250 gs.. Van Tromp for 2,000 gs., and Lanercost for 3,000 gs. Otterington's price 

 OLD SERIES.] U [VOL. XLVIII.— No. 4. 



