THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



271 



iieve that if our best horses were kept back until they 

 were fairly seasoned, they would lose the Highflyers of 

 a by-gone day over the Round Course at Newmarket. 

 As regards hunters, there must be infinitely more 

 kept in Great Britain than formerly ; and as regards 

 their prowess, the flying Leicestershire horse, or of 

 the Pytchley, or of the Vale, would gallop round and 

 jump up over the good old-fashioned, short-tailed crop- 

 eared animal that did duty when hounds hunted up to 

 their fox instead of racing him down. Clever hacks 

 we fear are scarce, and great heavy-crested " Castle" 

 cobs, we are glad to think, are going out of use. Still 

 it will never do to go about, on such premises, with the 

 broad assertion that the English riding-horse has sadly 

 deteriorated, and that we can never be carried as our 

 forefathers were. Nevertheless the movement is quite 

 in the riglit direction. But let Lord Redesdale go on 

 to complete his good work. Let him do away with very 

 short courses, the three furlongs, a quarter of a mile, 

 and sucl) like distances. Let him, again, make it one 

 of his chief points not to have horses put into training 

 too early. Of course his scheme, as it is, will be regarded 



in many quarters as a most monstrous attempt at un- 

 due interference ; but we should have appreciated tha 

 bill far more, had it run on to enact that no race- 

 horse should carry less than seven stone, that he should 

 never run befcre he was three years old, and that no 

 course should be of a less distance tlian a mile, or 

 perhaps two. Let his Lordship also con>ider how far 

 practicable it would be that a stallion should be 

 "passed" or "licensed" before he was suffeied to 

 travel; and how such Acts as tliose which exempt 

 animals under a certain height from the payment of 

 any duty, actually affect the different breeds. 



This measure proceeds from a very high source. 

 We repeat that the aim is an excellent one, and at any 

 rate we should like to see it fully discussed, and by 

 none, incidentally, more so than by the farmers tiiem- 

 sehes. No class has suffered so much from the use of 

 rips, weeds, screws, and cripples; and if we can lielp 

 them to a better sort they may, perhaps, eventually 

 be able to make a better business of horse-breeding. 

 At present they are not equal to the demand. 



THE OUT-GOING TENANT.— RO S lER v. OVERMAN. 



The world is getting more and more averse to 

 " scenes," and " rows," and unprofitable quarrels. 

 The fine gentleman of a bygone era plumed himself 

 upon the placidity of his demeanour either in receiving 

 or avenging an insult, and ran his adversary through 

 the body with the same calm smile he might have 

 asked him to take a glass of wine. Although we now 

 scarcely proceed to such extremities, we are equally 

 inclined to make as little fuss as possible over our mis- 

 understandings. We do not hasten either to push our 

 disturbances to an issue without very good cause ; and 

 even then the losing side loses far more than the mere 

 matter in question. The defeat hangs to him. People 

 remember it hereafter, and his discomfitare is continu- 

 ally rising up in judgment against him. In fact, we 

 do not want these exposures and recriminations. Take 

 either the highest or the lowest orders of authority, and 

 the feeling is still the same. When counsel, having 

 been instructed to vilify each other's clients, are as 

 duly proceeding to do so, his lordship inter- 

 feres. The Court does not care to hear all this sort of 

 thing, and the point had far better be referred for pri- 

 vate adjustment. Or, even when Betsy and her 

 missis find they must part, it is quite as well to get 

 through the month's warning on good terms. The 

 saucy jade who 'slams the door after her as she leaves, 

 and the terrible termigant who runs on at her until she 

 is fairly out of siL'ht, neither of them profits much by 

 such conduct. The place gets a bad name, and the 

 girl goes after another with a damaged character. 



If in all classes of life these unseemly bickerings are 

 to be avoided, in none should they be more so than in 

 the relation between landlord and tenant. The very 

 welfare of either may greatly depend upon the proper 

 observance of a good understanding. A touchy, exact- 

 insr, over-punctilious landlord, " who picks a quarrel 

 if you step awry," is a man we instinctively fight shy 

 of; while the slovenly, never-do-well tenant, who 

 always leaves things worse than he found them, is, 

 from his very position, yet the more mistrusted. Only 

 let two such men get thoroughly to loggerheads, and 

 there is no end to it. There are customs to rake up 

 and covenants to quibble over, and facts to be sworn 

 to — either way, of course — and definitions to be played 

 at, and other such expensive amusemeats to be in,« 



dulged in. Unfortunately the mischief is rarely con- 

 fined to the prominent parties to the suit. A purtizan 

 spirit is sure to develop itself in the neighbourhood, 

 and much ill-feeling is the consequence. Even quiet 

 people are forced to interfere, and to give their opinions 

 on the merits of the case, " Was this good farming, 

 or was it not ?" And so on, until they get thoroughly 

 involved in the dispute, and into something like direct 

 hostility with those they had no intention to offend. 



It was, then, with considerable regret that we had, 

 a few weeks since, to give the particulars of "an im- 

 portant arbitration case," as it was called, held at 

 Luton, in Bedfordshire. It was a grave dispute be- 

 tween a landlord and outgoing tenant, involving a sum 

 of no less than six hundred pounds. Mrs. Rosier, a 

 lady of landed property, residing at Marlow, near Box- 

 moor, in Hertfordshire, was the complainant ; and Mr. 

 Overman, a name standing well in the annals of agri- 

 culture, the defendant. Mr. Overman, it appears, came 

 to the end of bis lease in the autumn of filty-eight, 

 when he prepared to and did leave his farm, as Mrs. 

 Rosier had then determined to put her own son in it. So 

 far, however, from there being any ostensible ill- 

 feeling between them, when Mr. Overman accidentally 

 meets the lady in a railway-carriage, he offers a rise of 

 one hundred and twenty-five pounds on his last rent 

 to continue his holding, not asking fir any repairs, as 

 he considered there were none required. So far, and 

 no people could promise to get quit of each other on 

 better terms. The lease was out, and, as one of the 

 owner's family was coming in, the tenant could, of 

 course, only go. There was no other man of his own 

 order preferred to him ; and so far from any apparent 

 ill-feeling arising out of the leave-taking, the two have 

 a friendly chat on the subject the first time they meet. 

 But some evil genius must even then liave been at 

 work.' They do not march quite with the spirit of the 

 times in Hertfordshire; and two people, who have 

 been for years together, cannot part without a row or a 

 squabble. To the tenant's expressed surprise, he re- 

 ceives a specification that many "repairs" were re- 

 (juired to be done by him. " \\ hether," as the charges 

 ultimately ran — " 1st. Wiiether the lease of Flamstead 

 Bury farm for a term of 14 years was duly executed oa 

 the 12th day of jyovember, 1844, Sadly. Whether 



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