THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



485 



sea gulls out for a wade, or a stately heron standing on 

 one leg and a green- weed reef, ready to strike a fish; and 

 at the next there would be a troop of plump pheasants 

 feeding on a knoll. The inland side presents a range of 

 rocky fir-clad terraces, with primroses still lingering at 

 their base: just the spot which a professor of geology 

 might choose to " spend a wedded eternity with a grey- 

 wacke woman ;" while occasio:ially up some gorge, we 

 could catch a glimpse of a distant church, or what 

 seemed like a beacou-towcr. Guides and beacons for 

 centuries have been too often useless across those 

 treacherous sands ; and " One little man, round-faced, 

 drowned 1577," "A poor apprentice and officer for 

 salt," "A native of Geneva (Domcnico Curatto;," and 

 " Nine in one cart" — are but a tithe of those who have 

 gone down. 



SchulofF, son of Cossack, the pet bay sire of the 

 district, was committing his for tunes, under safe convoy, 

 to the sands that day, and a sight of his beautiful top, 

 as he trotlcd down the road near llolker, was a pleasant 

 object with which to begin " a quiet afternoon" among 

 the herd. The Duke of Devonshire's Home Farm at 

 llolker consists of some five hundred acres, three-fifths 

 of which is in grass. Part of it is light loam, part on 

 peat, part on land reclaimed from the sea, and the rest 

 on rock. The park is hardly strong enough to make 

 Highlanders fat ; but it does yeoman service in freshen- 

 ing up annually one-hundred-and-fifty shorthorn 

 bullocks, which are purchased as yearlings at Milnlhorpe 

 and Lancaster, and sold oif at Brough Hill. The same 

 number of Southdown ewes compose the flock, which 

 was brought some five-and-twenty years ago from His 

 Grace's property in Susses. Since then it has been 

 crossed extensively with Mr. Jonas Webb's tups, and 

 last year thirty-five ewes were added from Mr. Rigden's, 

 of Hove. 



His Grace commenced operations in 1840, by the 

 purchase of thirty cows and heifers from the neighbour- 

 hood of Castle Howard, with two or three crosses of 

 the Earl's herd ; and followed up the blood by the hire 

 of Sir Launcelot (516G) for three seasons, and subse- 

 quently Lord Marlboro' (7166). At Mr. Bates's sug- 

 gestion, he then bought Goodness and Ceremony at 

 Wiseton. The former of this pair cost 80 gs., and was 

 the dam of Balco 2nd, who left Mr. Ambler's hands for 

 America, and there won the United States prize. His 

 sire Balco (9918) had been added to the Holker herd 

 at the Kirklevington sale; Homer (2134) was also an 

 importation from Wiseton, along with King Lear (8196), 

 who cost 200 gs., and left very little to show for it. In 

 fact. His Grace felt that this first essay was not to his 

 mind, and hence the entire herd of fifty lots fell under 

 Mr. Strafford's hammer in 1851. Aided liy his land- 

 agent, Mr. George Drewry, who had come to Holker in 

 1845, His Grace then slowly and surely laid the founda- 

 tion of a second. Tlie first purchase of Oxford loth 

 for 200 gs. at Tortsvorth, decided what was to belts 

 leading feature, and as one of her sisters, Oxford 11th, 

 died from lightning in Captain Gunter's hands after 

 breeding six bulls, and the other, Oxford 16th, went to 

 America, Holker may with truth boast of having the 

 only Oxford females in England. The two latter were 

 sold for j&l,029 at the Hendon sale, where Mr. Drewry 

 made a good hit, with Lady Barrington 8th. Her calf 

 Barrington (12447) had been purchased previously by 

 Mr. Fisher, of Adelaide, for 200 gs., and she was in 

 calf at the time to Duke of Cambridge (12742). The 

 eldest of the two Cambridge Barringtons, which she 

 produced at Holker, is now sold to Mr. Scollick, of Al- 

 dingham Hall, in the neighbourhood, and the second 

 was handed over to the butcher in consequence of an 

 accident, when he was only rising three. Cleopatra, a 

 daughter of the Earl of Dublin, and Minstrel, bred by 



Mr. Parkinson, also came from Hendon ; and Sarah 

 Gwynne, who was purchased from Mr. Saunders, of 

 Nunwick, laid a solid Gwynne foundation in new North- 

 ern soil. Among the other principal purchases were 

 Laurel by Grand Turk, and Well-a-Day by King Arthur 

 (13110) at Mr. Ambler's sale in 1857. The pair cost 

 100 gs. when only six weeks old, or 19 gs. more than 

 Lady Feversham, who was bought from the Rev. Thos. 

 Cator, of Skclbrook, on the following day. At Mr. 

 Harvey Combe's sale, the Gwynnes had a "iOO-guinea 

 accession in Dustie ; and Cosey, by Colheistone (6903), 

 and Comfort, by Lord Scarboro' (14852), mother and 

 daughter, joined the herd for rather lesn than half that 

 sum on the Aldborough day. 



The first bull purchase of importance in the new era, 

 was that of the Earl of Warwick (11412), of the Piin- 

 cess tribe, in 1854, and bred by Mr. Stephenson, the 

 breeder of Belvedere. He was bought from Mr. Gil- 

 bert, of Burton Field."!, Warwickshire, and Countess of 

 Oxford, Lady Love, and Nonsuch are still here to speak 

 for him. His stock were, however, principally bulls, and 

 he was sold to Mr. John Benson, the iigcnt of the Duke 

 of Bedford, who has done much for short-horns in 

 Devonshire. To him succeeded Cambridge Barrington 

 2nd ; and although there are five bulls and heifers left 

 by him, a sight of the Countess of Oxford 2ad, and 8th 

 and 10th Dukes of Oxford, is enough to make one regret 

 that a cross which hit so exactly, should have ended so 

 soon. Then came Hogarth, by Harbinger, from Roba, by 

 Baron of Ravensworth. He was bred by Col. Towne- 

 ley, and let by him into Ireland ; and then sold to Lord 

 Spencer for '220 gs., and so on through Holker to Dr. 

 Dickinson, of Ulverstone, the breeder of Young Ben, 

 and many other capital shorthorns. At present 8tli 

 Duke of Oxford is principally used, and all the Ox- 

 fords went to Third Grand Duke both this year and 

 last, accompanied by Laurel on their first visit. 



A walk to the top of Bigland Scaur, which looks 

 right down upon Holker Park, gave us the most com- 

 prehensive bird's-eye view of the pastures, the history 

 of whose Shorthorn tenantry we have briefly essayed to 

 trace. The rocky platform on which we stood, seemed 

 like a sort of Arthur's Seat, and the profusion of oaks, 

 ash, and sycamore through which we wound our path 

 Vv'ould have delighted "John Peel with his coat so 

 grey," in the time when he could .shoulder his pole and 

 summon his trusty eight couple, for a crusade against 

 the mountain foxes. To our righc lay EUerside Breast, 

 pointing over some thousand acres of peat towards the 

 lake country, where the snow was just seen to linger 

 upon Coniston Old Man. More in front of us, was 

 the hill of Hoad, rising above the woods of Low Frith, 

 from whence the seaboard stretched boldly away past 

 Ulverstone, and Conishead Priory, to the headland at 

 Peel. Ulverstone was a fitting feature in a Shorthorn 

 landscape. Its Young Ben had a few days before de- 

 feated all comers in the aged bull class at Dublin ; and 

 we had but to carry the mind back to its August show, 

 to see its brace of Barons, Messrs. Torr and Sanday, ad- 

 judging its ten silver challenge cups, and Mr. Unthank 

 beckoned over the rails into the ring, to decide the moot 

 point between Duchess 77th, her companion Moss Rose, 

 and Mr. Eastwood's Rosette. 



Just beneath us, to the right of Holker Park, lay 

 fully 130 acres of reclaimed land. The salt-marsh was 

 nearly all drained to the depth of four feet, with two 

 inch pipes, covered with peat moss or soil, to act as a filter 

 and keep the sand out of the drains. It lias been cropped 

 with oats, green crops, wheat, and clover in succession, 

 and the latter yielded two heavy crops last year. Now 

 it is in wheat again ; while the sandy pare, on which 

 there was no vegetation, will be in green crops. 



Up to 1855, the herd were kept in a farm-stead on 



