THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



Having learnt all they could teach him here, he 

 left at a comparatively early age, and went at once 

 into the plough trade. He quickly saw the ex- 

 tensive field that was opening before them, and 

 commenced working upon it with characteristic 

 energy and determination. The limits of the 

 Bedfordshire plough rapidly extended, and young 

 Howard was to be seen in attendance on it at 

 nearly every meeting of importance. The first 

 Show of the Royal Society that he attended was 

 at Liverpool, in 1841 ; when, although not twenty 

 years of age, he himself held the plough and took 

 the first prize of his class on Aintree race-course. 

 He again went to work as the practical man on 

 CoombeDown, Bristol, the following year, and again 

 divided the honours as the best ploughman with 

 the best plough. Since then he has never missed 

 a meeting of the Society ; while he turns up in the 

 West Countree, at Carlow in Ireland, Berwick 

 on the Border, and all sorts of far-away places, 

 with the same pleasant, winning look, and good 

 story of " what these fellows think of us." It is 

 scarcely necessary to dwell on a history that is so 

 thoroughly identified with that of his House. In 

 fact, Mr. James Howard is the representative- 

 man. While his brother Frederick, by some 

 years his junior, is working up accounts which 

 are pronounced to be a model of excellence 

 and financial arrangement, the other is " all over 

 the country." As a consequence, he has come to 

 be recognised accordingly. Mr. James Howard 

 has been twice elected a member of the Council of 

 the Royal Agricultural Society, upon which he still 

 sits. Three times has he been put in again as one 

 of the Committee of the Central Farmers' Club ; 

 and where he continues to act. For the second 

 time in succession he was, during the last Smithfield 

 Show week, selected as a Vice-president of the 

 Association of Agricultural Engineers. His quali- 

 fications for all these oflfices are well known, but 

 we must yet add to the list. As the inventor of a 

 clever moulding machine, fast coming into general 

 use, and that has done much to supersede the 

 tedious employment of skilled labour, he has 

 been lately enrolled as a member of the Institution 

 of Mechanical Engineers— a grateful compliment 

 honestly deserved. Tracing him nearer home— a 

 finer proof, perhaps, of a man's real worth— he is 

 a member of the Town Council of Bedford, a 

 Director of the projected extension line of the 

 London and North- Western Railway between 

 Bedford and Cambridge, and one of the most 

 active of the founders of the Bedford Working 

 Man's Institute. A lieutenancy in the Rifle Corps 

 now forming may go to complete the pubhc 

 distinctions and appointments of Mr. James 

 Howard ; and as a proof of the heartiness with 



which he takes anything up, it may be mentioned 

 that he will proceed to Hythe for " practice". 

 Into the more sacred duties of a husband and a 

 father we do not care to travel. But as a weak 

 point in his character, justice compels us to add 

 that he has not been able to resist the temptations 

 of authorship. Having once been directly referred 

 to, he had to admit himself to be the writer of the 

 pamphlet on "The Manufacture of Agricultural 

 Machinery Considered as a Branch of National 

 Industry" ; the declared object of which was the 

 abolition of the prize system. The argument here 

 is well and closely put, and the style has both force 

 and simplicity to recommend it; but the deduction 

 is one to which Mr. Howard's own succe-is is, 

 surely, a contradiction! Still, his brother manu- 

 facturers considered it very nicely done ; and really, 

 if the point had been but the right way, we might 

 have thought so too. 



It may well be imagined that the premises at 

 the " Barley Mow" gradually became quite unequal 

 to the growing trade in the Bedford ploughs, and 

 every available space that could be converted into 

 a workshop was successively secured. Some two 

 or three years since it made out quite a morning's 

 walk to call round at the dilFerent works. In this 

 hour of need the services of a rising young 

 architect — Mr. Robert Palgrave, of Pall Mall, but 

 himself the son of a Bedford townsman — were 

 called in, and the present handsome, extensive, 

 and beautifully-planned block of buildings deter- 

 mined upon. A most convenient site was selected. 

 On the north the grounds run right down to the 

 Ouse — a river navigable to the ports of Wisbeach 

 and Lynn. On the south the chief entrance to the 

 Works opens appropriately enough on the road to 

 Woburn, so famous for its agricultural gatherings 

 in the time of another Duke of Bedford, and still 

 deservedly known for a good landlord and an en- 

 hghtened tenantry. But it is from their eastern 

 aspect that the Britannia Works will be most 

 familiar to the traveller. He journeys now little, 

 either byroad or river, and the line of the Midland 

 Railway comes close under the great plough- 

 manufactory, while the London and North Western 

 is almost as handy ; both having branch hues into 

 the Works. The whole range of buildings occupy a 

 space of some fifteen acres ; and their erection, in- 

 cluding the purchase of the land they stand on, has 

 been made at an outlay of about five-and-twenty 

 thousand pounds. They are probably, as now just 

 completed, the largest works in the world devoted 

 to the manufacture of field implements, and one 

 shop alone occupies an acre of ground. The general 

 arrangement and construction have been pro- 

 nounced to be admirable, and Mr. Palgrave has 

 evinced a degree of taste and skill in appropriate 



