THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



67 



" butcliei-'s bill" will be less costly to the naiioa. And 

 now to business. 



Ah ! here stands, first and foi'omost, a Devon steer, 

 belonging to the Earl of Leicester, " the very effigy," 

 as old writers used to say, of those I saw at Holkham, 

 when attending, for the first time, in 1806, the sheep- 

 shearing of T, W. Coke, Esq., afterwards Earl of Lei- 

 cester. I am old, and unfashionable enough to regret 

 that that honoured and renowned name should ever 

 have been smothered by the dust of a resuscitated 

 peerage. The generation (of which I am proud of 

 forming a member) to whom that name is a household 

 word is fast dying out. In looking round the markets 

 which I was accustomed to attend, I now see very few 

 of those who were cotemporary with the "Holkham 

 chieftain," and the rising generation wiil only be ac- 

 quainted with the name as a subject of history. Holk- 

 ham Hall, it is true, still remains, and the domain is an 

 ever-living witness of the undying fame of the man who 

 made "the wilderness to blossom as the rose," and 

 converted a sterile and intractable soil into a perfect 

 garden of production. But I am strangely digressing 

 from my subject. How is this ? No. 1 does not ob- 

 tain a prize this year ! After upwards of fifty years' 

 practice, has the Holkham grazier suffered his stock to 

 degenerate ? Be this as it may, I rejoice to see the 

 principle of strict impartiality exhibited by the judges 

 in passing by No. 1, and awarding the first prize of £"25 

 to No. G, to which is attached the plebeian and diminu- 

 tive cognomen of " Robert Farthing," of North Pether- 

 ton ; the second prize of £10 co " John Dunning, of 

 Creech St. Michael" (both in "Zumerzet"); and the 

 third of j£5 to William Heath, of Ludham Hall, near 

 Norwich, who was dragged into notoriety last season 

 by a very questionable charge, which was most satisfac- 

 torily rebutted. The Earl of Leicester, therefore, with 

 No. 1, went into the background. I have referred par- 

 ticularly to this first class, as an illustration of the fair- 

 ness and impartiality by which the decisions of the judges 

 are pronounced, and without any intention of going 

 through the various classes in the same minute way, 

 which would occupy too much of your space. 



It appeared to me that the Devon cattle sustained 

 their reputation for condition and appearance better 

 than any of the other breeds, although there were some 

 noble specimens amongst each. They do not, how- 

 ever, keep up their size and weight as formerly ; and in 

 this respect only they appear to me to have degene- 

 rated. Possibly, some of the breeders may have kept 

 on without changing their stock ; and it would be well 

 for them, perhaps, to procure bulls of the original breed 

 from Devonshire. This also may apply to the other 

 races, which require renewing as time wears on. 



Mr. Farquharson's Devon ox (No. 15) was a magnifi- 

 cent animal, and the first prize in Class 2 was justly 

 awarded to him ; his Royal Highness the Prince Con- 

 sort coming in second-best, the only cattle prize ob- 

 tained by him this season. There was one animal in 

 this class which I thought should not have been passed 

 over— No. 13, the property of iVir. H. II. Ball, of 

 Hankridge, which seemed to me superior to No. 14, 

 which obtained the second prize. The Devon cow, No. 

 32, Class 4, was a beautiful animal, and sustains Mr. 

 Heath's credit as a grazier, as does also the Hereford 

 ox No. 44, Class 6 ; both these obtaining the first 

 prizes, respectively, of £20 and £25. The Hereford 

 cattle were generally good, but few of them were what I 

 should call very superior. This was also the opinion I 

 formed of the Shorthorns, which appeared to me to have 

 been less sedulously cared for than usual. Whether 

 this was fancy, or whether it has arisen from the de- 

 pressed state of the farming interest, I must leave other 

 and better judges than myself to determine ; I cer- 



tiiiuly thought that, geneially speaking, the cattle-show 

 was not equal to that of former years. One thing, 

 however, I was glad to see, although it may have origi- 

 nated in one of the causes I have stated : very few of 

 the cattle in any class exhibited that error of over- 

 feeding which results in rendering their carcases unfit — 

 I had almost said — for human food. It is perfectly 

 disgusting, the idea of sitting down at table to a mass of 

 blubber only fit for an Esquimaux or the tallow-melter ! 

 What on earth is the use of keeping pigs three months 

 after they become blind with fat, and unable, from the 

 smallness of their bones, to sustain themselves upon 

 their legs five minutes at a time ? These Daniel Lam- 

 berts of the stall and the sty are only fit to be exhibited, 

 like him and other obese monsters, at so rnuch a head, 

 and, when dead, to be converted into candles ; being, as 

 I heard a gentleman remark, " better for the lights than 

 the liver," 



But what have we got here ? That giant with huge 

 horns can never be a Highland Scot, with which breed 

 I have always associated the idea of smallness of carcase 

 with (like most little people) abundance of pugnacity. 

 We used (my father and I) to purchase generally the 

 Galloway Scots ; but one year we purchased a dozen of 

 those irascible gentlemen the Highlanders, who soon 

 showed that the old feud was still in existence ; for they 

 drove their Lowland companions fairly out of the yard, 

 with sundry holes in their sides from their detestable 

 horns, which were as sharp as needles. But this mon- 

 ster of a Highlander is quite another class animal, and I 

 find belongs to the West of Scotland (Angus), and 

 seems as quiet and orderly as if he was an elder of the 

 kirk. Not so a polled gentleman a few stands from 

 him. Look at that eye, with " a lurking devil in its leer," 

 as Shakspeare says. He has adopted for his motto, 

 "Noli me iangere," as I found to my cost; when I 

 touched his ribs, he flung out at me sideways. I es- 

 caped. Standing a moment to watch his pranks, another 

 person stepped before me, and began examining him quite 

 scientifically ; when another fling of the left leg sent him 

 heels over heads against me. " 'Tis well," thought I, 

 " you have no horns, my fineiellow, or you would play 

 the mischief with them." 



Of all breeds of sheep, I admire the pure Southdowns : 

 there is something so quiet and modest in their beha- 

 viour, so gentlemanly in their " dress," if I may use the 

 word, that they commend themselves to everybody's 

 goodwill. Those of Mr. Rigden, who bore off" the first 

 prizes in Class 35 & 36, and the Duke of Richmond's, who 

 also gained the first prize in Class 37 and the second in 

 35, were perfect aristocrats for symmetry of shape and 

 fineness of their coats. The Holkhan sheep, too, were 

 very excellent ; but I missed with regret the stock of 

 my countryman, Mr. H. Overman, of Weasenham, 

 whose flock was sold off last spring, and who has since 

 himself been removed from this world, we trust, to a 

 better. And thus, another of my contemporaries, whose 

 fatlier I knew fifty years ago, has admonished me that 

 my own days are almost numbered. 



The show of long-woolled sheep did not appear to me 

 so good as last year, the Cotswold particularly. It 

 made me think that the farmers begin to feel the times, 

 and are less disposed to expend money in the perfecting 

 of their stock. Those of Mr. Foljambe gave me the 

 most pleasure to look at them. The pure Leicesters 

 are indeed a handsome breed of sheep, improved as 

 as they were by Bakewell. The Cotswolds are large and 

 coarse, but are well suited to supply the manufacturing 

 and other densely-populated neighbourhoods. Besides 

 which, they are a hardy breed, and wiil thrive in situa- 

 tions where the Leicester and the tender Downs would 

 scarcely live. 



I now come to the pigS; kst, but not least, in the 



F 2 



