THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, 



105 



ESSEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETl. 



MEETING AT SAFFRON WaLDEN. 



The "weather permitting" proviso with which 

 Masters of Hounds head their advertisements, threatens 

 to live right round to another season. Never, indeeJ, 

 was such a consideration of more importance than it is 

 just at present. Nothing would appear to jirosper, and 

 all from this very drawback. The mowing grass is rot- 

 ting instead of ripening ; and the wheats are sickening 

 for a little warmth and genial sunshine. Fruit is scarce ; 

 and flowers, if they dare to blossom, are quickly robbed 

 of all their bloom by the wind and the rain. The pur- 

 suits of pleasure and business are alike interfered with. 

 The London season is passed within doors. Pic-nic par- 

 ties are adjourned sine die. The very mention of water 

 trips and yachting matches is received with a shudder ; 

 and visits to Kew, Erith, or Richmond postponed in- 

 definitely for "some fine day." He must be a sanguine 

 man who now depends upon such a promise. We ra- 

 ther face our " liabilities" with a kind of grim despair, 

 and talk with bated breath of getting through or over 

 them the best way we can. 



It must have been with some such sensation as 

 this that the Management of the Saffron Walden 

 Show proceeded to their several duties. They wanted 

 nothing but favourable weather to insure a most 

 successful meeting. Never since the formation of 

 the Society had the entries been so generally good. 

 Never before had the object been so thoroughly taken 

 up. There was not a district within the range of the 

 Association but was well represented. Never, in a 

 word, had Essex stood so strong for stock — horses, cat- 

 tle, sheep, and pigs. . Then the county was admirably 

 supported by the town. Rarely has any place been 

 more tastily adorned than was Walden last week, with 

 its turreted arches, its flowery sentiments, and its 

 wreaths of welcomes. The country gentlemen, again, 

 backed the townsmen, and you stepped from the street 

 into Lord Braybroke's Deer Park — the finest show- 

 ground it was possible to ask for. The railways ran 

 special trains, and with no lack of travellers either; 

 and the neighbourhood made all due preparation for the 

 reception of their stranger visitors. But this was all 

 to no purpose. In those few words that an English- 

 man so well understands and appreciates, Tuesday 

 turned out a thorough loet day. It rained almost from 

 the time the judges went to work in the morning, until 

 the company were sitting down to dinner in the eve- 

 ning. And the triumphal arches were hurried through 

 unhonoured and unseen; and the watery welcomes were 

 trickling tears upon the passet'-by. And the mighty 

 Suffolks were praying Professor Simonds to let them 

 go home again ; while the placid shorthorns suffered 

 in silent dignity, and the prize sheep looked as misera- 

 ble as perhaps only a sheep can look when he is 

 undergoing the gradual process of getting wet 

 through. There could have been scarcely a man who, 

 when he went to pay his shilling at the lodge entrance, 

 but would have been rejoiced to hear that the meeting 

 was put off until next week or next month ; that the 

 cattle had been sent back, and the dinner brought on, 

 from half-past four to half-past twelve. 



As it was, a great proportion of the stock — of the 

 horses especially— never kept to their standings or num- 

 bers, and many, we imagine, left the park almost as 

 soon as the visitors entered it. The judges, however, 



spoke highly of the Suffolk horses, and generally com- 

 mended the whole class of aged stallions, in which a 

 home exhibitor, Mr. Slater, stood first, with a horse of 

 his own breeding ; and Mr. Jonas Webb, also, with 

 one of his own sort, second. It was a close thing be- 

 tween the two, and Mr. Webb's horse, which has been 

 in strong use, as well as in constant work on 

 the farm, is a smart-looking, active young animal, 

 with more fashion about him than many of the 

 Suffolks. By a i-ecent rule of the Society, Mr. Bad- 

 ham was prevented from again sending Emperor, 

 but he had Havelock in the entry ; and Mr, Carter, 

 Mr. Sturgeon, Mr. Brown of Felsted, Mr. Giblin, 

 Mr. James Christy, Mr. Hutley, Mr. Partridge, 

 and Mr. Perry were also amongst the commended — 

 rather a significant compliment to a class of no 

 less than eleven known horses. Still all these, and 

 they nearly all entered for the open prize, were beaten 

 by a gentleman from Suffolk itself — Mr. Hare, of Hol- 

 brook, who thus maintained the honours of the home- 

 bred. The few two-year-old colts were by no means of 

 equal merit, and the Judges withheld both premiums ; 

 but there were some very handsome mares and fillies. 

 From a glance at those we did happen to come across, 

 it is manifest that the Suffolk is being crossed out of his 

 peculiar purity into something better. Many of those 

 shown at Walden were, clearly, improved upon. They 

 had neater heads, finer and more "open" eyes, with 

 shoulders well laid back, and, in fact, much of the heavy 

 " character" of the animal fast disappearing. With 

 well-drained lands and easy-running roads we can afford 

 to lose a little lumber. As the names of the exhibitors 

 who stand on the prize-list will show, nearly all the 

 agricultural horses were the chesnuts, now almost as 

 general in Essex as in the adjoining county. Mr. 

 Colvin, however, furnished one remarkable exception 

 in a pair of great fine piebald mares, that ought to 

 fetch any price, from their power and colour combined, 

 for Wombwell's Menagerie, or the heavy business of 

 Batty's Circus. 



The roadsters and hackneys were not altogether so 

 good as they were at Chelmsford, or even at Colchester. 

 From what we saw of the hacks, there was nothing like 

 Mr. Hutley's gay galloway, or the Boxted miller's little 

 chesnut. Then the weight-carrying hunters wanted 

 Lord Redesdale to look after them. If either of the 

 two mares could live with twelve fctone on her, it was 

 quite all she was up to. A long way the best of this 

 division was Mr. Roofe's Norfolk trotting-stallion, a 

 horse with wonderfully grand action, and at the same 

 time very fast. He is, too, very clever and hand- 

 some to look over, and by a lucky chance we just caught 

 him, as with a " by-your-leave" he was threading the 

 crowd for his quarters. The thorough-bred prize 

 stallion Horatio is the first that ever yet took a prize in 

 the county class, this having been refused at both Chelms- 

 ford and Colchester. He is a neat, useful nag, but 

 scarcely looking quite so weU-bred as he ought to be. It 

 will be found that he also took the twenty-five pound 

 premium in the all England class ; but surely the com- 

 petition here should be far better than it every yet has 

 been. 



If the cart-horses were all Suffolks, the cattle were 

 all Shorthorns ; and it is noticeable to see how they are 



