THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



285 



but few as yet to the Royal shows, he has won there five 

 prizes for bulls, and two for females j and taking these 

 into account, his sum total of prizes is 424, represented 

 by i^l,127 in hard cash, six cups, ten gold medals, and 

 ninety silver ones. 



The commencement of Dodd's career at Watkinson 

 Hall was naturally marked with a leaning to the old 

 blood, among which he had gained his experience at 

 Farnley Hall, and he gave so good an account of them, 

 that Gulnare by Norfolk, Medora of Booth blood, and 

 Fair Frances by Sir Thomas Fairfax, all in-calf to 

 Laudable, returned in his company from the Farnley 

 draft sale in 1850. Two of their produce were 

 Lord Byron, (11710) and Miss Frances, the latter 

 of whom in the days of her greatest development, 

 scaled a little beyond 20Ost., and girthed nine feet two. 

 She began well at Thirsk, with the first prize as a calf, 

 and after being second at the Windsor Royal next yenr 

 to Lord Hill's heifer she finished off with her 

 twenty-third prize at the Birmingham Fat Show of 

 1853. At Smithfield, the week before, she had been 

 just beaten for the head prize in her class, and the gold 

 medal, by Mr. Phillips, of Wantage's heifer, as one of 

 the judges thought her a trifle too strong in the hair, 

 but the decision was " corrected" (as the saying goes) 

 when they met again in Warwickshire. Mr. Ambler's 

 feast of fat things did not end here, as his White Rosa- 

 mond by Monarch (7249) (sister to the lS47-gold medal 

 ox of Mr. Manning's, of Rothersthorpe, from whom he 

 purchased her) put the seal to her Darlington Fat Cup 

 victory, at Smithfield in 1855 ; and the memorandum 

 below her picture is to the effect, that she was seven 

 years old, and weighed 205 st., exclusive of loose fat, 

 hide, and offal, when she was led out of Baker-street to 

 the block. 



Mr. Ambler's first sale was in 1852, and the catalogue 

 embraced nearly a hundred animals, principally by 

 Senator (8548) and Broker (9993) who had been pur- 

 chased from Lord Ducie. Prices were low at the time, 

 and no reaction was brought about by Mr. Strafford 

 that day. Mr. Dugdale gave the last nod both for Miss 

 Frances, and Gem, a daughter of Gulnare, at some- 

 thing beyond a hundred ; but the former was bought 

 back when she failed to breed, and " put up" to fatten 

 forthwith. The same mishap befel Heirloom, which 

 passed over to Mr. Ambler along with Bloom from the 

 Killerby sale, as the nucleus of Herd No. 2. Bloom 

 produced Dr. Buckingham (14405) by Hopewell, who 

 departed after a sojourn at Mr. Cruickshanks's, for Old 

 Kentucky; and the Duke of Richmond (7996) of the Bates 

 blood, and Mr. Anthony Maynard's Crusade (7938) be- 

 came the tenants of the bull -yard. The latter was only 

 kept for five months, during which he was very exten- 

 sively used, and then Baron Warlaby (7813) reigned in 

 his stead. Mr. Ambler went still deeper into the Booth 

 blood, by purchasing some Harbinger (10297) heifers, 

 among a lot of females, from Mr. William Smith, of 

 West Kasen , and lastly by the hire of King Arthur (13110) 

 from Killerby. The celebrated Grand Turk (12969) 

 and Britannia came as calves from Mr. Bolden's ; and 

 Lally, of the Bates blood, from Mr. Grundy's, Lady 

 Colling, from Mr. Emerson's, of Eryholme, where 

 Phoenix, the grandam of Comet (155), was bred, and 

 Gilliver (11529) by Lord George (10439) from Bates's 

 Blanche, were also among the fresh accessions. 



Cowslip by Upstart (9760) was purchased from Mr. 

 Tanqueray, in calf with Captain Balco (12546) ; but he 

 left the herd at ten months old for Athelstaneford, where 

 he did such yeoman service to Mr. Douglas. Grand 

 Turk, however, atoned for his loss, and it is to this son 

 of Grand Duke (10284) and Richard Booth's Young 

 Rachel that Watkinson Hall owes its especial renown. 

 He holds the post of honour over the sideboard in the 



dining-room, just above the Challenge Cups, which 

 stand there in silver array, to tell of Yorkshire, Lanca- 

 shire, and Cumberland triumphs. Master Butterfly 

 (13311) vanquished him when they met at the Chelmsford 

 Royal, but he was the only one thit ever achieved it ; 

 and at Athlone, Rotherham, Durham County, and five 

 or six more purely local shows he had no peer. He 

 was three years and a-half old when he went to 

 Chelmsford, and girthed eight feet eleven inches, just 

 six inches more than his length from horn to tail ; Eind 

 perhaps, making every allowance for their difference in 

 style, two nobler animals than himself and the Towneley 

 crack have never met in a show-yard. It was hard to 

 be second with such a bull, but Mr. Ambler had ample 

 and timely consolation in the bull-calf class. 



The second sale, in 1855, was a mere draft of 

 heifers and young bulls ; but such was the impetus 

 which the fame of Grand Turk gave to the third and last 

 in 1857, that its average (84 gs.) exceeded any of those 

 then on record, with the exception of Lord Ducie's and 

 Charles CoUing's. Three heifers by him, Miss Night- 

 ingale, Lady Mary, and Western Lady averaged above 

 200 gs., and the two last named are now located the 

 one in Kentucky and the other in Melbourne. His 

 son Grand Master (14643), who appears in his master's 

 portrait, was second to Mr. Challoner's Field Marshal, 

 in a class of 132, at Dublin, in 1856, and first that 

 summer in his class at Paris, wheie he found a ready 

 purchaser for Sydney. Second Grand Turk (14645) from 

 Cowslip was never exhibited, and went across the At- 

 lantic as a yearling ; and Lady Gulnare and Frances 

 Fairfax also bore pledges of his love to the American 

 pastures. The white Albion, whom the Americans talk 

 of sending over, like a second Benicia Boy, to challenge 

 all the aged bulls at Canterbury, was the produce of the 

 latter ; and about the time that his son Great Mogul 

 (14651) was the hero of the Bushey Grove Ring, Grand 

 Turk himself was shipped for Mr. Thome, with 300 gs. 

 on his head, and there he is to this day. The biddings for 

 him were not lively, and very unlike those which took 

 place that afternoon between Keir and Aylesby Manor, 

 for the possession of Britannia. At last, victory declared 

 for the Rose against the Thistle, but 270 gs. was the 

 amount of the cheque which Mr. Torr drew. Mc'Turk 

 (14872), in obedience to his name, passed into Mr. 

 Stewart's hands for 135 gs. ; and Museum (14968;, a 

 grandson of Baron Warlaby's, went for 160 gs. to 

 Australia. 



The Baron Warlaby blood has always thriven here. 

 Napoleon, one of his sons, won the head bull-calf prize 

 at the Chelmsford Royal, and was sold on the ground 

 for 200 gs. to Mons. St. Marie, for the Emperor of the 

 French ; and his famous daughter Woodbine was 

 bought by Mr. Ambler from her breeder, Mr. Dudding, 

 of Panton. She was bought by an American breeder at the 

 sale ; but (as she was luckily due to calve the week be- 

 fore the ship started), on second thoughts, which were 

 " best " for Mr. Ambler in this instance, they left her 

 behind. Her half-sister, Princess Royal, was also 

 bought back, and died in labour with Royal Turk. 

 This young warrior composed, along with Woodbine 

 and Lady Blanche, that, celebrated Saxon trio which 

 made such a successful descent on the Emerald Isle last 

 spring. Eighty-two yearling bulls were drawn up in 

 array against Royal Turk, but without avail, and he 

 also received the silver medal as the second-best Bull in 

 the yard, Lord Talbot de IVlalahide beating him with 

 Priam, by Mr. Ambler's Comet (11298). Woodbine 

 kept him in countenance with the head prize and gold 

 medal for cows ; and Lady Blanche was A 1 among 31 

 in the yearling heifer class. She then went to War- 

 wick, and, coupled with Lady Florence, won a special 

 prize, and Messrs. E. and N. Tooth, who had just 



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