THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



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grown into. Greatheart was a very catching horse, with 

 the beautiful Castrel style of forehand and top ; but his 

 loins were defective, and he h;id completely pumiced 

 hoofs, in addition to an old fracture of one of the pas- 

 terns, and except for giving colour and spirit to tiie 

 scene by his handsome and pluyful presence, it was diffi- 

 cult to see why he came at all. Spencer did not look 

 himself at all — dull in his eye, loaded in his points ; in 

 fact, we could hardly have told the elegant fiery Chester 

 winner, in the lazy, listless bay of Thursday. In the 

 ring he grew a little more animated ; but we never, ex- 

 cept for one instant, saw lam look really himself, and 

 his action is poor at l he best of times. Canute improved 

 very much when stripped, and went before his judges 

 with thrice as much gaiety. His back and limbs arc 

 unexceptionable for a hunter sire, but his forehand is 

 very ordinary, and he shows especially badly in his walk. 

 He has always been a bad- mettled horse, and he re- 

 quires a good deal cf judicious showing ofi", and that was 

 well done. Although they also called up Greatheart, 

 General Williams, and Sir Harry Martin a second time, 

 it was soon pretty evident, from watching the judges, 

 that they had only Spencer and Canute in their eye, 

 and, after a long discussion, the victorious white ribbons 

 were handed to Canute, and, as in 1857, Spencer had 

 once more to be content with the green. .Why cannot 

 the Royal Agricultural Society hand out its rosettes as 

 promptly, instead of adhering to their system of leaving 

 the decision to ooze out on the Wednesday, and deprive 

 their five shilling visitors of two-thirds of their pleasure 

 and instruction ? 



The Coachers were an admirable class, and in fact'we 

 never saw ten such good horses together, more especially 

 as this sort of horseis fastdyingaway before the thorough- 

 bred. Yorkshire, however, seems true to them, and 

 keeps them well up to the mark by judicious thorough- 

 bred crossing, instead of resorting to the old heavy 

 Cleveland blood. Two such four-in-hands might have 

 been picked from them as no man sat behind yet. The 

 winner, Inkermann Hero, was a very beautiful colour, 

 and had rather more style than the rest, and stood won- 

 derfully well alone, which is an immense point. General 

 was on the shortest leg of the lot, but his hocks were 

 rather too near ; and The Colonel's head was against 

 him. The wonder of the class, however, for his age, 

 was the two-year-old Cardinal, whose merits were also 

 recognized at Driffield the week before ; but he was 

 slightly spoilt by a capped hock. 



The Roadsters numbered seven ; and with the excep- 

 tion iA Howthorpe Prickwillow, who was rather neat 

 but small, were quite a picked lot. The winner, Sere- 

 nader, was a son of the Chester winner, and both he and 

 the second, Young Wildfire, are by Troubadour, and be- 

 long to Mr. Uidsdale, of Ripley. They are as unlike 

 as horses can be, as Young Wildfire " is quite the gen- 

 tleman," while the other has plenty of character in 

 front, but is mean behind. This class require very 

 handy aide-de^ camps ; and, with the exception of Sere- 

 nader's, a smart young ftUow in plaid, and worth at 

 least two points to his horse, scarcely any of them 

 seemed able either to handle their horses, or to run a 

 yard. Their efforts in the latter line were of the most 

 rheumatic kind. Two roans lent a good deal of 

 style to this show. One of them. Roan Napoleon, 

 had to doff five medals on entering the ring, but still his 

 action was not a triumph ; and the other, Achilles, who 

 had been second at Driffield the week before, was 

 deservedly commended. Young Merrylegs carried ofif the 

 same honour, sind no horse in the yard stepped out 

 more stylishly, and the judges seemed never tired of 

 seeing him perform. 



If two moderate ones had been left at home, the eight 

 other carthorses would have formed a very choice group. 



It was understood that Mr. Grovesdid not choose to send 

 Conqueror, when he leurnt that Nonpareil was to enter 

 the lists ; and certainly that beautiful dapple bay made 

 competition Impcless, and never showed to finer advan- 

 tage. Black Douglas, described in the catalogue as 17 

 hands high, has won nearly as many jjrizes of a smaller 

 stamp, and was second to him here; and the judges were 

 a good deal taken with Merry Tom, a very superior 

 style of horse, but three trials convinced them that he 

 had no action. 



A Magpie hunting mare, with a very mean foal, by 

 Daniel O'Rourke, was the best in her class, which was 

 decidedly weak. Kail was rather coaching, with plain 

 ears and not great back ribs. Marigold had a good 

 foal, but lacked liberty herself j and The Yore, who was 

 at Chester, looked like very ragged and unsatisfactory. 

 Blink Bonny, the winner of the coaching-mare and foal 

 class, had no style whatever about her head and neck, and 

 was, to our minds, far below the Lord of the Manor mare 

 next her, who was very good in front, but short in the 

 croup, with a most remarkably " flush" set tail ; and a ca- 

 pital foal by Farnham, Jessie by Old Merrylegs, had it 

 quite to herself in the roadster Mare and Foal class ; and 

 the grey winner in the Agricultural Class was as good a 

 cart mare as there was in the yard, though Dutch was 

 not far behind her. The decision in the three-year-old 

 Hunting Gelding class amazed every one ; and we believe 

 that the judges themselves defended their fancy on the 

 score of action. Mr. B. Johnson's commended 

 chesnut, by Young Galaor, was a little gaudy, but a 

 hunter all over ; and a celebrated master of foxhounds, 

 who stands at no price, and sauntered up to share in 

 the general astonishment, declared that he himself would 

 give .£150 more for him than the winner. Orion was 

 rather short, and high on the leg at present, but will 

 make up into a great slapping horse ; and the Bay Pre- 

 sident was up to great weight, but rather coarse in his 

 forehand. Don John was represented by a well grown 

 and rather coaching animal ; one of the Cures was 

 neat but small, while the other had all his sire's fine 

 character about the head, and was a particularly nice 

 horse to stand behind ; and the Sweetmeat had rare 

 quarters, but was rather dipped in the back. Those 

 wonderful legs and feet which Maroon communicates to 

 all his stock, were seen to great perfection in the pure 

 three-year-old hunting filly of Mr. Gofton's ; and the 

 prize coaching gelding. Young Aide-de-camp, was also re- 

 markably true and even made. Polly, the winner of the 

 Three-year-old Hackney Geldings or Fillies had capital 

 legs and length, but we thought her neck a little too 

 long for her vocation ; while The Troubadour chesnut had 

 his sire's forehand exactly. The Two-year-old Agricultural 

 Geldings or Fillies were a decidedly good class, and we 

 could have lingered for hours to look at " Bob" and 

 " Drumber," the most exact match, and the best pair 

 of agricultural horses we ever saw in a show yard. 



The fifteen in the Four-year-old Hunter Class seemed 

 to give the judges immense trouble, and we thought that 

 they would never have got through them. Vaulter, by 

 Voltigeur, who won in the three-year-old class last year, 

 followed in his stable mate Jeweller's steps, and, al- 

 though apromising horse, h;' is hardly so good as we ex- 

 pected the winner of such a prize and the special silver 

 cup to be. The Politician bay had a great deal of com- 

 pactness andfinishabouthim; and Impudence, although 

 lie rather lacks character, especially in his forehand, did 

 much credit to Auctioneer. The Extra Stock entry was 

 rather great in hunters, and the best of them to our mind 

 was Sultan, by the Britit-li Yeoman, though he wants 

 to grow down a little. Troubadour got a silver medal 

 in this class, and showed in still greater perfection than 

 he (lid v.'hen he won the hackney prize at Chester. 

 Taking the horse decisions as a whole, they were not so 



