THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



295 



shire Society. There was a wholesome " bitter" about 

 the whole business. The show of stock was held in 

 one of Mr. Bass' yards. The refreshments were laid 

 out in a malt-room. A dinner for seven hundred was 

 provided in the cooperage. The terms of the ticket 

 distinctly specified that " malt liquor was included ;" 

 and the Rifle Volunteer Baud discoursed sweet music, 

 " by the kind permission of Captain Bass." The very 

 taste of the prize cheese went to sut;gest a pint of pale 

 alo with it, while the best class of the entry was that 

 for dray-horses. Allsopp and Bass — Worthingtou and 

 Robinson — Salt and the Brewery Company — encir- 

 cled you on all sides. They had dairy cows — and 

 high-bred heifers — and cart mares — and sows and 

 pigs — and so on. But still everything went back 

 to beer ; and high authorities amongst cattle and 

 sheep sunk into utter insignificance as you stood before 

 them with a glass of bright amber-tinted nectar in your 

 hand, and asked what they thought of tlial ? A man 

 to be a judge of anything here must be a judge of beer; 

 and shorthorn Solons, and layers down of the law in 

 " lands " and " furrows," had no rank whatever, save 

 " by the kind permission of Captain Bass." 



The meeting was, in fact, the joint exponent of the two 

 great interests involved in those national watchwords — 

 Beef and Beer. The Society itself very judiciously did 

 all in its power to unite the two, and instituted a special 

 prize with this object. It was one open to all England 

 for the best entire dray-horses; and, as we have 

 already intimated, the result was a long way the first- 

 class of the occasion. There were no less than twenty- 

 five entries, and these included famous stallions of all 

 breeds and sizes. The Burton brewers, indeed, are 

 taking to a new reading of what a dray-horse should 

 be. They find that mere weight and height do not 

 wear well ; and now for some years the Messrs. Bass 

 have been getting into a lighter and more active sort of 

 horse ; while Worthingtou and Robinson have been 

 trying all kinds, either English or foreign, with 

 the SHme aim in view. Already is there a 

 marked difference between the London-porter and 

 the Burton-ale horse. The latter comes in 

 cheaper and lasts longer; and the wear and tear in 

 this description of horse-flesh is a very serious item. 

 Two or three years' work is, with the majority, all they 

 are good f<jr. Then, there are something like twenty 

 brewery fii.ms in Burton; and Basses have eighty 

 horses, Allsopp's forty, and so on in proportion, either 

 to the extent of the trade, or the amount of road work. 

 There should, thus, be ample opportunity for a prize 

 stallion in such a district, and certainly there were 

 plenty to pick from. Mr. Hemmant, of Thorney 

 Fen, Peterbough, sent the Lincolnshire " Bay Em- 

 peror," the first prize agricuUurul horse at the War- 

 wick meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society. Mr. 

 Badham entered a namesake— the Suffolk " Chesnut 

 Eiiperor'* — similarly distinguished at Cliester in the 

 year previous. Mr. Robinson, of Manchester, Irought 

 " Young Napoleon," the Yorkshire prize horse at Pon- 

 tefract, and a winner of seventy other premiums. Mr. 

 Massey nominated the black Victor, the second best at 



Chester ; and Mr. John Manning the brown Shire horse 

 Sampson, the winner of the special prize at Warwick. 

 Mr. Hare found another Suffolk in Goliah, the Walden 

 fancy, and Lord Anglesea a third of the same breed. 

 Then there was a grey of some repute in Cheshire, 

 and a black roan four-year-old from Alfreton, 

 that well merited all the commendation the 

 judges could give him. But the judges and 

 the brewers scarcely went together, and the former 

 took generally the grandest and heaviest horses they 

 could find. Their choice lay between the well-known 

 Napoleon — who, with his immense substance and good 

 action only needs cleaner hocks — and the Northamp- 

 tonshire Sampson, wonderfully improved since War- 

 wick, and now grown into a very handsome and perfect 

 animal. His forehand is really grand, his legs remark- 

 ably good, and he is altogether a big horse without 

 lumber, standing an honest seventeen hands high. 

 The judges ultimately allowed him the preference, 

 placing Napoleon second, and the other Warwick 

 horse, Emperor, third. They would not have the Suf- 

 folk Emperor, and never did we see him show so 

 badly. He was overdone with soft flesh, and went 

 poking along as if ti'ying to hide his beautiful head, 

 and heartily ashamed of the undignified position he 

 occupied. Still the chesnut was in favour with the 

 brewers, at whose especial request he was entered, and 

 there is yet a chance of his travelling in the district. 

 In the class of dray horses in work Worthington 

 and Robinson showed a very clever Suffolk that has 

 had a year of it over the London stones, and with him 

 three or four Flemish horses. The first premium, 

 however, went to an iron grey, reaching sixteen hands 

 three inches high, the property of Messrs. Baas ; the 

 same firm sending a smaller one from their stable, 

 to which it was said they themselves gave 

 the call. It is rather to be regretted that 

 three of the Burton brewers were not made 

 judges of dray-horse3. Not that we would quarrel 

 with the dicta of the gentlemen selected, who 

 acted well up to the long-accredited notion of what 

 such a horse should be. As, however, we have said 

 already, the brewers declare that they want something 

 of a different stamp ; and it would have been a lesson to 

 breeders to have seen them choose for themselves. 



Mr. Price, Mr. Perks, and Lord Hill contributed to 

 a creditable, but by no means an extraordinary show 

 of Shorthorns. Mr. Robinson, jun., exhibited a pair 

 of Swiss cows, with immense bags, declared to give 

 twelve gallons of milk a day, and fifteen pounds of 

 butter a week. Mr. Faulkner sent the best Longhorn 

 cow seen for many a day. Level and low, full in flesh, 

 and kindly in touch, such a specimen would almost 

 tend to rekindle the taste for this nearly obsolete 

 breed. There were sheep of all varieties — Leicesters, 

 Southdowns, and Shropshires ; and Mr. Harrison 

 made a show of itself with his large and small boars. 

 There was a moderate class of hunters, and some 

 promising young stock by " the Great Unknown," a 

 stallion that Mr. Bainbrigge has just rescued, and 

 may yet turn to good account. Fowler's plough was 



