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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



bid 1200 gs. unsuccessfully for Royal Butterfly, bore 

 her with her companion off to Sydney. Royal Turk 

 did not return from Warwick, but was passed on to Mr. 

 Langston. M.P., for 350 gs. He was entered for the 

 Local Prize, which he won, as Mr. Ambler did not care 

 to sully his Dublin honours by allowing him to compete 

 with animals eight months his seniors ; and preferred 

 taking a second to Royal Butterfly with Prince Talley- 

 rand, whose age more nearly approximated to that of 

 the Towneley crack. 



The herd at present numbers about 28 females and 14 

 males, besides some 15 or 16 half-bred dairy cows, kept 

 partially to supply the work-people at the mills, which 

 are situated some three or four fields from Mr. Ambler's 

 own house at The Grange. These worsted mills are 

 driven by engines of 100-horse power, and give employ- 

 ment to about 1000 work-people. The principal part of 

 the wool consumed is grown in the southern counties, 

 and Notts and Northumberland; and comparatively 

 little is used of the long-fibred Lincolnshire. Laurel by 

 Petrarch (5729), the dam of Leviathan, who was sold at a 

 long price to Ireland, and her grand- daughter Lina, both 

 of them bred by Mr. Fawkes, were in full occupation 

 of Mr. Ambler's footpath as we approached. The old cow 

 runs back into the Booth's Studley- Verbena blood, and 

 though ten years have quite taken off her bloom, they 

 have still spared her all the fine old character of 

 the shorthorn. The red-and-white Venus by Baron 

 Warlaby, dam by Royal Buck (10750), and so into Mr. 

 R. Holmes of Ireland's Victoria tribe, was also there, and 

 " good to tell" from her Booth style of head, and large 

 middle rib ; but the somewhat big hips contrast un- 

 favourably with her remarkably nice offal. Here, too, 

 was Alice of the Captain Shafto sort, inheriting his red 

 colour, and, like many of his stock, compact, but 

 slightly deficient in size. Laura, another of his 

 daughters of the same type, and with a down horn, 

 formed one of a lot of five, which were grazing among 

 the Wiley-upon-SpofForth Leicesters in the Far Hill 

 pasture behind the house. Near her stood Lady Laura, 

 a stylish animal, with a remarkably nice forehand and 

 delightful breast. She is by Crusade from Lady Col- 

 lings, a daughter of Booth's Buckingham. A critic 

 might have looked in vain for rough shoulder points, 

 though perhaps he might have taken a trifling exception 

 to her hips ; but he must have been captious indeed to 

 find fault with Rose Duchess, who is a combination of 

 Maynard's Red Duke (13571), and Booth's Vanguard 

 (10994). She is a long low cow, with a very sweet 

 neck vein and open head, wonderfully level all over, and 

 with her rich red colour, just the consort for the white 

 Prince Talleyrand, to whom she has had a roan bull- 

 calf, Royal Prince. 



Acacia by Booth's Brideman (12493), from a Cap- 

 tain Shafto cow, was more remarkable for having had 

 a calf before she was two years old, than for any very 

 especial looks ; and then a short walk to a field behind 

 the Hall brought us into the very heart of the Captain 

 Shafto family, which there mustered four strong. They 

 were bought about two years ago from Mr. Henry 

 Smith, of Drax Abbey, and all produced heifer calves. 

 Niobe, the dam of Necklace, was a nice short-legged 

 strawberry roan, rather strong in the head ; and though 

 perhaps neater altogether, she was rather less than her 

 half-sister Calistra, a very nice cow both as regards hair 

 and quality, and full of milking character about the 

 neck. The same remark applies to Viviaof Booth blood, 

 a compact cow with a remarkably good middle. Here, 

 too, was Miss Milly, a grand-daughter of Mr. Fawkes's 

 old Fairy Tale, and linked to antiquity by her crumpled 

 horn. She is, moreover, somewhat patchy, and the first 

 one in the herd on which we could at all fasten that 

 soft impeachment. All her stock have gone out to Aus- 



tralia ; and the Daisy cow chewing the cud beside her 

 was bound for New Zealand as soon as she had calved. 

 As she gives twenty-four quarts a day in the prime of 

 her milking, the captain who takes her out gratis, on 

 condition that provender is sent with her, does not 

 make a very bad bargain. 



The row of deserted pens which met our eye as we 

 strolled from the pastures to the homestead, bore melan- 

 choly witness to the departed glories of the Cochin- 

 Chinas, which once inspired the breast of Mr. Ambler, 

 and scores of others, to such deeds of daring, round the 

 auctioneer's table in town and country. No one was 

 less chicken-hearted in the chicken-mart. There 

 was a time when he and the late Lord Ducie, in their 

 " noble rage," piled half-guinea upon half-guinea 

 against each other at Covent-garden or Baker-street, 

 and when neither of them scrupled to go to 30gs. for a 

 hen. When the Earl died, Mr. Ambler was one of the 

 most active bidders at the memorable Tortworth sale, as 

 soon as Mr. Strafford quitted the society of the Duchesses, 

 and stood, glass in hand, among the fowl-pens. 

 Twenty- two guineas was the Watkinson Hall " closer" 

 for a brood of Cochin chickens ; and one of them alone 

 brought back within an ace of that amount. Satisfied 

 with his success, Mr. Ambler determined to get 

 quietly out of them, " when the steam was up," and 

 sold his sixty cocks and hens at all prices, from 5gs. to 

 18gs. a pen. Ten pens were parted with at Manchester, 

 which, along with Doncaster and Birmingham, was a 

 great exhibition-field with him ; and the rest realized 

 ixn . Geese, too, were his fancy during the poultry 

 mania ; and his last pen — whose stag goose weighed 

 27lbs., or only 31bs. less than the Birmingham Magog of 

 1860 — realized lOgs. There are no traces of these 

 glories now, save a iew small gilt bas-relief cocks, which 

 stand, like little crests, above the line of pens, facing 

 into the yard. The insides are not exactly left to the 

 owls and the bats, but serve as storehouses for swedes 

 and mangels, while a few Dorkings keep them aired at 

 one end, hard by the boar and bull stocks. 



In a paddock by themselves, where the sale-ring is 

 always staked out, was the thirteen-year-old Florence, 

 by Rex (6385), and descended from Booth's Me- 

 dora. She is a rare old cow, and by no means a 

 brilliant ruin yet, but with a stamp of head and neck 

 which look as if she had constitution enough to divide 

 among a whole herd. Mr. Ambler owes her to Mr. 

 Carr, of Settle, who bought her at the Rev. Thomas 

 Cator of Skelbrook's sale. And thus, having worked 

 off all the outsiders, we entered the homestead, 

 which occupies four sides of a square, and is lighted 

 by a large gas-lamp in the centre. On the west 

 side, directly facing the range of bull-boxes, is the ship- 

 pon, with its neat whitewashed walls, and calf-houses 

 behind, which, from their peculiar shape and the pile of 

 sawdust that was heaped in one, would remind us of 

 winebins ready for stacking. Let us hope that the Prince 

 Talleyrand vintage will prove as good as the Grand 

 Turk one. The side adjoining the hen-roosts is entirely 

 dedicated to pigs, who receive their nourishment either 

 from within or without, through Torr's patent pig- 

 troughs, and have their ventilation assisted by flues into 

 the hen-roosts above. The breed has come principally 

 from two Wiley sows, crossed with Old Joe of Towne- 

 ley descent, some boars from Mr. Roper, of Keighley, 

 and Balco from Mr. Mangel's, of Ripon. Master 

 Brutus, and his son Rifleman, now seem the bacon 

 monarchs of the yard ; and their consorts, Plume and 

 Georgie, lay stretched in repose on the midden, the lat- 

 ter representing in her person the undoubted dignity 

 of the Pure Cumberland Browns. The liquid manure 

 tank, large enough to rejoice the Mechian heart, is 

 situated at the east end of the yard, and drains from 



