THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



125 



of his triumphs ; on the contrary, tliey were happy to see him 

 a promoter of one of the great national interests (applause). 



To the "Army and Navy," Colonel Wale and Captain 

 Davis, K.N. , responded; and the toast of the "Bishop and 

 Clergy of the Diocese" was acknowledged in a most conciliatory 

 and pleasing address hy the Ven. Archdeacon Yorke, which 

 elicited the thorongh approval of all his hearers. 



Mr. Fisher Ilobbs, and several other gentlemen, having to 

 leave by an early train, were unable to be present at the dinner. 

 Mr. llobbs bid up to beyond sixty guineas for a ram, which 

 was ultimately se. ured by Lord Leicester. 



" The Landlord of the Soil" (loud cheers). 



Mr. Adeane, M.P., responded, and observed that the 

 greatest ambition of his life was to live in friendship and good- 

 will among his neighbours. 



The Chairman, in giving the toast of the evening, said in 

 the course of the proceedings he had been face to face with the 

 Queen, shaken bauds with the squire, enlisted himself with 

 what Mrs. Malaprop called the " miliutary" (loud laughter), 

 and ruled the waves, like Britannia, with the sons of the ocean. 

 He had burnt like a rocket, and he now came down like the 

 stick. But he found bimaelf in the midst of the fold, and face 

 to face with the owner of the fold, whose triumphs they were 

 that day met to celebrate (applause). With reference to the 

 fold, he had to announce that 61 sheep had been let before 

 dinner at an average of £21 each. When it was remembered 

 that these meetings had now continued for no less than 32 

 years, he thought it would be considered that the old adage 

 was not true, and that there was something to be preferred 

 before leather, viz., mutton (laughter). But was mutton 

 always mutton ? Was it not sometimes pork (laughter) ? As 

 in duty bound, he had endeavoured to cram himself down upon 

 the subject, and he found that both male and female mutton 

 contained a good deal of pork. In one perplexing passage a 

 sheep was called a hoggett (laughter). A sheep was also 

 called a tup hog; and as if by way of compensation for a 

 practice resembling that adopted in Turkey for the purpose 

 of establishing a class of compulsory bachelors (much 

 laughter), he was called a wedder. Again, after shearing, 

 he was called a shear hog ; and even the fleece sounded 

 rather grisly, for it was called hoggett wool(laiighter). The 

 females also exemplified swinish elements in their nomen- 

 clature, for a female lamb was called a gimmer hog and a 

 ewe hog (laughter). He thought, without going further 

 into the matter, that he had a right to propound a question 

 which he now proposed, and which would, he thought, 

 puzzle the best initiated to solve in less than twelve months. 

 The question was — What, in a sheep, whether male or 

 female, was the relative proportion of pork and mutton by 

 which the joint appellations were justified r' (loud laughter.) 

 Passing from the fold to the shepherd, he could assure 

 them that their host was fast becoming an annual difficulty 

 to him. His demands were so large that, like the Frencli 

 financier, Necker, he (Mr. Yorke) was always afraid of a 

 deficit. He had sought, in times gone by, to furnish a kind 

 of portrait of Mr. Webb. He had frequently depicted him 

 in prose, but there were certain qualities of mind and nature 

 which could not be approached by an artist. Neither 

 Rubens nor Titieus could paint the inner man. Who 

 could gild refined gold, or paint the lily ? Still he would 

 make one more effort. An article in the Qnarterhj Review 

 for April, on the " Progress of English Agriculture," stated 

 that the Leicester breed of sheep was for some time adopted 

 by Mr. Coke, but afterwards the Southdown was substituted 

 for it. The perfection to which this breed had been brought 

 in the present generation by Mr. Jonas Webb might be said 



to be due to one of those trivial circumstances which were 

 always influencing events in the worid. This was the cir- 

 cumstance : His grandfather was a brce'der of Norfolk 

 rams, and it was the amusement of the old gentleman, at 

 his annual sales, to set his grandson riding on his tups, 

 holding fast by their huge horns. Could they imagine their 

 present host holding fast in this manner? (laughter) These 

 races on sharp-backed rams determined .Jonas — and the 

 letters in the word Jonas could, singularly enough, be 

 transposed to Jason, the great author of the golden 

 fleece — to breed animals with better saddles of mutton. 

 The beautiful firkin-bodied Southdown for which Mr. Webb 

 refused £500 at the Paris Exhibition had been one of the 

 results of the experiments made (cheers). After some fur- 

 ther observations on Mr. Webb's estimable qualities, the 

 hon. member proposed that gentleman's health, and" Suc- 

 cess to him in all his undertakings" (loud cheers). 



Mr. Webb, in responding, said he feared their worthy 

 chairman had praised him more than he deserved, but he 

 would try to merit what had been said of him. With re- 

 gard to the company generally, he thanked them most sin- 

 cerely for the kind manner in which they had supported 

 him. The present hiring had resulted in one of the lowest 

 averages which had taken place for years ; but he was not 

 at all disheartened by this state of things, to which various 

 circumstances had contributed. If his friends had been 

 selling their wheat at a higher rate, he should no doubt 

 have had a better price for his sheep ; and he hoped that 

 those gentlemen who had made such good purchases during 

 the day would come forward with better prices next year. 

 Something had been said by the chairman during the even- 

 ing about the Limited Liability Act, and he thought 

 they had had limited liability in operation during the day. 

 Wheat had now become almost so cheap that they could 

 feed dogs and pigs with it ; this would clear it away, a better 

 price would be obtained for it, and consequently a better price 

 for sheep. The health of his landlord had been proposed and 

 drunk, and the chairman had observed that a good landlord 

 made a good tenant. He did not profess to be a good tenant, 

 but he had got a real good landlord. Mr. Adeane was cer- 

 tainly rather a young man, and he (Mr. Webb) had had the 

 honour of living under his brother, father, and grandfather ; 

 but he had never met with a better landlord than his present 

 one. He had publicly let rather fewer sheep this year than 

 on former occasions, but he had been doing a good deal of 

 business with foreigners, who could not be present, and he 

 could not eat his cake and have it too. Last year he let one 

 of his sheep to an American for 197 guineas; but since then 

 there had been an extraordinary panic across the broad Atlan- 

 tic, and their American friends had not thought proper to 

 come across the water. On previous occasions he had also 

 had very material support from the Emperor of the French. 

 Another customer, a Norfolk gentleman, was about to dispose 

 of his sheep, and he (Mr. Webb) trusted he might have a 

 good sale. Having entered into these explanations, Mr. Webb 

 closed his observations by expressing his hope that the present 

 occasion was not the last on which his friends would assemble 

 under his roof (applause). 



Mr. Parker Hammond proposed the health of the hon. 

 chairman (Loud cheers). 



The Chairman returned thanks, and assured the company 

 that his services were always at the command of his friends. 



Mr. Webb expressed his hope that Mr. Yorke would do 

 him the favour next jear to fill the position he at present oc- 

 cupied. 



" The High Sheriff of the county"— (Cheers), 



