THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



487 



Mr. Wilson, to use au old phrase, ia " the right roan in the 

 right place ;" a more active, honourable, zealous, attentive, 

 and kindhearted man than Mr. Wilson does not cxiat ; and 

 the character he nobly won at the Royal Farm at Frogtnorc, 

 has been fully kept up ou the princely estates of Goodwood. 



GORDON CASTLE. 

 Having already referred to the broad acres in Sussex, wc 

 now proceed to give a brief notice of his Grace's estate in 

 Scotland. The cultivated land which he possesses near 

 Gordon Castle amounts to about fifty -five thousand imperial 

 acres, four hundred of which are arable, and five hundred 

 (the park) pasture. The flock of sheep consists of twelve 

 hundred, five hundred being brecding-ewes ; one-half are 

 Southdown, the other Leicester. The Duke has twenty 

 shorthorn cows, forty West Highland cattle, besides young 

 stock. There is a public sale of young and old ewes and 

 rams of both breeds, and of young bulls, every year. In the 

 five-shift is grown — 



1st year turnips, 



2nd year barley or wheat, 



3rd year seeds, 



4th year ditto, 



5th year wheat or oats. 

 A little mangel wurzel, or mangold, as it is called, is grown 

 for the cows, but it does not succeed well, as the climate is 

 too cold. The Duke has been extremely fortunate in his 

 commissioner, jMr. Balmer, a gentleman who takes the 

 deepestinterestin the estate; and whose practical knowledge, 

 industrious habits, honourable feelings, and kind-hearted 

 conduct render him alike popular to the noble proprietor as 

 to the most humble retainer on the property. There is an 

 old maxim that " Whatever is worth doing at all, ia worth 

 doing well ;" and the admirable manner iu which the Gordon 

 Castle estate is kept up, proves that the commissioner has 

 heard of and fulfilled the adage. 



On the banks of the Spey, near Fochabers, surrounded by 

 the most beautiful plantations, stands Gordon Castle. The 

 castle was originially built by George, second Earl of 

 Huntley, and altered and enlarged in every succeeding age. 

 It was almost rebuilt by the late Duke, in all the elegant 

 magnificence of modern architecture. It extends in front 

 to five hundred and sixty-eight feet from east to west ; 

 being, however, of different depth, the breaks make a variety 

 of light and shade, which takes oif the appearance of excess 

 in uniformity. The body of the building ia of four storeys ; 

 and in its southern front stands the tower, entire, of the 

 original castle, by much ingenuity making a part of the 

 modern mansion, and rising many feet above it. The wings 

 are magnificent pavilions, connected by galleries of two 

 lower storeys ; and beyond the pavilions buildings are 

 extended equally to either hand, of one floor and an attic. 

 The whole of this vast edifice, externally, is of white free- 

 stone, cut in the most elegant manner, and finished all 

 round by a rich cornice and a handsome battlement. 



The first floor contains the dining-room, drawing-room, 

 breakfast-room,andseveralother handsome apartments. The 

 sideboard is within the recess of the dining-room, separated 

 by lofty Corinthian columns of scagliola, in imitation of verd 

 antique marble. In this room are copies, by Angelica 

 Kautfman, of Venus and Adonis, and of Dann?, by Titian! 

 of Abraham and Hagar, of Joseph and Potipher's wife, bj-^ 

 Gucrcino ; of Dido and St. Cecilia, by Domlnichino, besides 

 several portraits. In the di'awing-room is a portrait of the 

 late Duke of CJordon, by Raeburn ; and of the Duchess, 

 grandmother to the present noble proprietor, by Sir Joshua 



Reynolds. In the breakfast-room is a copy, by A. Kauft" 

 man, of the celebrated St. Peter and St. Paul, the master- 

 piece ot Guide Rheni, esteemed the most valuable in the 

 Lampiori Palace, at Bologna, and one of the best paintings 

 iu the world. Ten thousand sequins, it is said, have been 

 oftered for it. 



The library contains several thousand volumes; among 

 the most valuable is a folio manuscript of the vulgate bible, 

 and two MSS missals, beaulifLilly illuminated. There is 

 also a jMS of Bernard Gordon's Lilium Medicince, with the 

 date 1319, and the names of the copiers at the end. 



The hall is embellished by a copy of the Apollo Belvidere, 

 and of the Venus de Medicis, cleverly executed of statuary 

 marble, by Harwood. Here, also, by the same ingenious 

 artist, are busts of Homer, Caracalla, M. Aurelius, Faustina, 

 and a vestal. At the bottom of the great staircase are 

 busts of Julius Caesar, Cicero, and Seneca, all raised on 

 pedestals cf Siej(ina marble. With these -last stands a bust 

 of Cosmo the Third, Duke of Tuscany (connected with the 

 Gordon family), on an elevated pedestal. 



The most remarkable pictures at Gordon Castle are a 

 full length of James the Sixth, by Mytens. At the time 

 of the Revolution the mob had taken it out of Holyrood 

 House, and were kicking it about the streets, when the 

 chancellor, the Earl of Finlater, happening to pass b}', re- 

 deemed it out of their hands. A portrait of James, Duke 

 of Hamilton, beheaded in 1649, by Vandyke ; a half-length 

 of his brother, killed at the battle of Worcester, by the 

 same artist. William, Duke of Hamilton, president of the 

 revolution parliament, by Kneller ; old Lord Banff, aged 

 ninety. 



On the highway between Fochabers and the Spey is 

 the gate v/hich leads to Gordon Castle, consisting of a lofty 

 arch between two domes. It is embellished by a hand- 

 some battlement within the gate. The road winds about a 

 mile through a green pasture, skirted with flowering shrubs 

 and groups of tall spreading trees, till it is lost in an oval 

 ia front of the castle. There is, besides this, another ap- 

 proach from the east, sweeping for several miles through 

 the varied scenery of the park, which is nearly twelve 

 square miles, enlivened by different picturesque views of 

 the country, with the river and the ocean. 



The castle stands on a low flat, at some distance from the 

 Moray Frith ; the ground immediately rises towards the 

 east, about twenty feet in height. A second flat of con- 

 siderable extent succeeds, which terminates on the side of a 

 considerable mountain. The wood, without the appearance 

 of design, is disposed upon the plain in a variety of pleasing 

 forms ; and on the side of the mountain above it exhibits a 

 boundless forest, affording coverts for vast numbers of red 

 deer, and containing in its skirts an ample enclosure, 

 stocked with fallow deer. 



SALE OP EXMOOR PONIES AT HAMPTON FAIE. 

 — Mr, Knight's ponies and Mr. R. Smith's Galloway colts 

 were sold here. There were fifty ponies, of which the four- 

 year-old horses reached an average of £15 lOs. each, and the 

 horse ponies of other ages £12 63. each. Mr. Smith's Gal- 

 loways, by a thorough-bred horse out of Exmoor mares, 

 brought the excellent average of f,22 lOs. each. The prices 

 were considered to be very good for rough ponies, be it re- 

 membered, that had eaten the wild grass that nothing else 

 would eat. The whole amount realized was between seven 

 and eight hundred pounds. Some of the picked ponies made 

 thirty pounds each, and there were buyers and bidders from 

 thirteen different counties. « 



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