THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



299 



THE HERDS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



Chapter XX. 

 MR. SANDAV'S HERD. 



The jealous loyalty with which the early breeders 

 of Leicesters guarded their Bakewell banner, comes 

 out no where in such strong relief, as in the rules of 

 their Ram Club, which bear date Jan. 5, 1790, and 

 pledged the 12 members (who paid 10 gs. each) to keep 

 the " transactions secret upon their honour." It first 

 saw the light at the George Inn, Leicester; but 

 it was perfectly untrammelled in its hotel patronage. 

 The Three Crowns, The Three Cranes, and the 

 Lion and Lamb, were all honoured in turn, at The 

 county town, and its councils were duly " tiled 

 in" at the Bull's Head, and the Anchor, at Loughboro'. 

 The rules were made, and kept with a sternness worthy 

 of Draco. No member might sell ewes or limbs to 

 breed from, unless he sold his whole flock, or dealt 

 with members alone. Only 10 ewes could be taken in 

 to tup, and those the property of one person. Not 

 more than two dozen rams could be shown to any per- 

 son or company at one time ; and members could only 

 show their rams to each other between the 1st and 8th 

 of June, when the general show commenced, and were 

 bound to hermetically seal their pens on July 8th, for 

 the space of two months. Moreover, so necessary did 

 it become to keep the wise men of the East in check, 

 that it was enacted that no ram should be let to members 

 of the Lincolnshire Society in classes (of four), at less 

 than 200 gs. each. Mr. Bakewell, of Dishley, which 

 was then the Mecca of their aspirations, had a bye-law, 

 all to himself, forbidding him to let a ram within a 

 hundred miles of his fold, for less than 50 gs. Having 

 thus guarded the outworks, as they thought, against all 

 invaders, they were most rigid disciplinarians among 

 themselves. If a member left the room at a meeting, 

 without full permission from the President, he had to 

 forfeit a shilling for every quarter of an hour he was ab- 

 sent ; and latterly they allowed a guinea to each mem- 

 ber present, and mulcted absentees to the same amount. 

 All recusants were at once denied a ram share or part 

 of a ram, from any of the members, and we find that Mr. 

 Sneape of Kirkby was solemnly admonished, and or- 

 dered, in the committee minutes, " to make concession," 

 because he had allowed Mr. Nixon, a butcher, to let 

 rams in his name in the Leicester market place. 



Mr. Paget was the president of this primitive brother- 

 hood, and Wm. Walker, J. P. Stone, John Bennett, 

 John Manning, Josh. Robinson, Nathaniel Stubbins, 

 Nicholas Buckley, R. Bakewell, F. White, John 

 Breedon, and Samuel Knowles, formed the rank and 

 file. The whole of them were eminent flock masters, 

 but all traces of six of their flocks have departed. The 

 Bakewell flock went first into Mr. Smith of Dishley's 

 hands, and then into Mr. Honeybourne's, and was 

 finally dispersed among Messrs. Stubbins, Stone, Bar- 



ford, Paget, Baker; of Elemore, and Philip Skipworth 

 the elder, whose purchase of ewes laid the foundation of 

 the present Aylesby blood. A descendant of Mr. J. 

 P. Stone (whose brothers Thomas and Samuel were also 

 first-rate breeders) has a small flock of ewes at Barrow ; 

 and Nathaniel Stubbins's have merged into Mr. Sanday's, 

 who holds, along with Sir Tatton Sykes and Mr. Torr, the 

 choicest portion of the Buckley blood. The afternoon 

 of June 19, 1798, just five years after the president had 

 held his successful sale, first made Holmepierrepont 

 and Stubbins names of mutton renown. The sum total 

 of the lettings was i?2,176 18s. for 31 rams ; and Philip, 

 Skipworth, who could not brook being in the back- 

 ground when a Lincolnshire quartet had dared to give a 

 thousand for "a Buckley," would not be denied 

 at 600 gs. Three years after, Messrs. St. George 

 and Astley did not scruple to close for a ram at 400 gs., 

 and would have gone on ; and in 1802, Messrs. Astley 

 and Reynall gave 600 gs. for two. In 1803, the ball 

 was kept merrily rolling. One ram let for 420 gs., and 

 Mr. Stubbins's ewe-serving charge was raised to 300 gs. 

 for 70, and 200 gs. for 40 ; and in 1805, a bid of 500 gs. 

 brought up the average for 31 to nearly 100 gs. About 

 1814 the Holmepierrepont flock was divided between Mr. 

 Stubbins's nephews ; part going to Mr. Joseph Burgess, 

 who had been for some years at Holmepierrepont, and 

 the rest to Mr. Robert Burgess, who made a modest 

 beginning at Cotgrave Place. About four years after, 

 the brothers joined flocks, and put 400 ewes to the ram 

 annually, but Mr. Joseph's bad health destroyed his in- 

 terest in the business, and he was heartily glad to see 

 his share of it produce some £4,772 18s. at the hammer. 

 This was in 1834, and as the Society's edict of only 

 letting forty rams had quite died out, the Cotgrave Place 

 lettings prospered right gaily. 



Wonderful assemblies drew up there, in those three 

 June days, two of which were devoted to showing, and 

 the last to letting. Yorkshire sent Sir Tatton Sykes, 

 Wiley, and Sunley ; Walker, Skipworth, Dawson, and 

 Torr represented Lincolnshire ; the Buckleys came to 

 look on from Leicestershire, and Stone, Hurlstone, 

 Parr of Wanlip, and B. Simpkins.as well; Inskipp, 

 Pawlett, and Sam Bennett did duty for Beds ; Beesley 

 and Hewitt for Northamptonshire ; Bullmore and 

 Doble for Cornwall ; and Robert Smith for Rutland- 

 shire ; while Holmes and Going were the "Irish 

 division," The pick of rams was large, but hardly 

 what it might have been, as owing to his not keeping 

 the ewes well enough, when they were put to, the crops 

 of lambs often fell short. The first letting in 1834 

 made £935 16s. for 74, or about £12 128. a-piece. 

 They were always let privately, and in 1836 the highest 

 price was about 50 guineas. Three years after, the 

 106 rams made £'1,767, and in 1839, when Mr. Bennett 

 gave £115 10s. for a shearling, the sum crept up 

 to £2,386 for 116, and iu 1841 it reached its modern 



