TFTE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



28l 



THE HERDS OF G RE AT B RITA IN. 



Chapter III. 

 THE BUSHEY HERD. 



The North-Western traveller, who may have a glance 

 to spare from his newspaper or his book, cannot have 

 failed to observe a low square range of farm buildings, 

 grouped near some haystacks on a "gentle emi- 

 nence," near Watford, while the white chimneys of 

 the Squire's peep coyly out from behind a clump, 

 in an undulating lawn to the left. If the " Herd 

 Book " is a name unknown to him, he passes 

 it by as a comfortable English homestead, to which 

 he may expect to find a dozen winsome marrows 

 on his route North ; but if, on the contrary, he 

 has ever dived into that vast hereditary Peerage of Hoof 

 and Horn, with its " Queens," its " Blossoms," its 

 "Duchesses," and its " Butterflys," it suggests to him 

 many a pleasant recollection of Marmaduke, and the 

 slashing biddings for Great Mogul. 



The view from the hill on the foreground, where Mr. 

 Wetherell's glass fell at last to so brilliant an average 

 on that 



" Merrie afternoon iu May," 



is very comprehenBive. The visitor who longs to com- 

 bine pedigrees with the picturesque, must stroll as far 

 as Bushey Heath, if he would catch a glimpse of the 

 once-mitred Abbey of St. Alban's, and the Keep of 

 Windsor ; but here Moor Park, Cassiobury, The Grove, 

 and Hazlewood, all contribute their quota to the richly- 

 wooded panorama on the West; while Scots Wood, High 

 Wood, and Bury Grove afford snug lying to the foxes 

 of Lord Dacre's hunt, and shelter to the shorthorns 

 against the "angry East." The Bushey Grove pro- 

 perty, which is somewhat intersected by lanes, consists of 

 a farm of 400 acres, of which from 170 to 200 are mown 

 every year. Its soil, which rests on a chalk substratum, 

 is of rather thin staple, and very productive of blue peb- 

 bles and flints, which are nevertheless turned to ample 

 account, as paving for the raised causeways in the cattle 

 yards ; but it renders a much more sterling ac- 

 count of itself in the three hundred tons of mangold- 

 wurtzels, stacked in long array near the straw-yard, and 

 which were just being brought into use, for the first time 

 on the day of our visit. 



It is about sixteen years since Mr. Stewart Marjori- 

 banks commenced breeding Shorthorns. Disregarding 

 pedigrees, and trusting to care and high-feeding, he at 

 first bought a promiscuous lot of cows at a moderate 

 price, and crossed them with the bull Mambrino (7196), 

 yrho was bred by John, Earl of Spencer. This herd 

 was sold off in the June of 1850, at the low average of 

 £29 14s. for 59 head. The foundation for a second 

 herd was immediately laid. Several cows and heifers of 

 roundabout blood, it is true, were included among the 

 new purchases ; but fetill the germ of better things was 

 to be found in Rennet and Dowager Queen (which Iiad 



many crosses of Booth's best blood), Mary of the 

 Gwynne tribe, and some few by Bates's Cleveland Lad 

 2nd. They were crossed with Lord Foppington 

 (10437) bred by Mr. Fawkes; but the new blood had 

 not sufficient time to develope itself in three years, and 

 in May, 1853, the 6G head only averaged ^'33. Lord 

 Foppington and Sir Ronald, and several cows and 

 heifers were purchased by Mr. Wilson for his Royal 

 Highness the Prince Consort, who was then just begin- 

 ning to form a herd ; and the selection of their Bushey 

 Grove successors was placed in the hands of Mr. Tallant, 

 who had become Mr. Marjoribanks' bailiff on the October 

 previous. 



This time, no pains or money were spared to procure 

 first-class stock. Herds were inspected, from Cobham 

 to" Ciinnie Aberdeen." Theagentsof Col.Towneley and 

 Mr. Marjoribanks were found competing for a Jeweller 

 heifer to the tune of two hundred at Mr. Grundy's ; 

 and Mr. Cruickshank, like another Lord Ullin, was 

 "left lamenting" (with a pocket full of guineas) 

 that his herd had been rifled of its fairest daughter, 

 Khirkee the First. King Arthur was hired as a 

 cross from Mr. John Booth ; while Marmaduke, a com- 

 bination of The Duchess and Princess blood, was 

 bought at the Hendon sale, when only seven weeks old, 

 for 100 gs., and a 300-guinea cheque was borne back by 

 Mr. Culshaw to Towneley Park from the Chelmsford 

 Royal Show, in lieu of Master Butterfly 2nd. At the 

 end, however,of four years, Mr. Marjoribanks " hedged'* 

 again, and ^90 2s. 5d. was the splendid average for 59 

 lots. The plan is not exactly orthodox, but it had at 

 its third test the merit of being as successful as it is 

 dashing and novel; although, in spite of the greatest 

 skill and care, it must place Bushey at a sad disadvan- 

 tage, when the pets of the Warlaby and Townley herds, 

 &c., have to be confronted for a battle royal. Mr. 

 Marjoribanks, who had won many local prizes, never 

 entered the Hanover Square lists till the summer of 

 1855 at Carlisle; when four yearling heifers and the 

 yearling bull Panmure formed the lot, and although only 

 one of them earned a commendation, the whole five 

 found a purchaser in Comte de Seraiacourt, for 100 gs. 

 each. At Salisbury, however, in 1857, Bushey came 

 out with Great Mogul, beating, among others, Mr. 

 Richard Booth's Lord of the Valley in the bull-calf 

 class, and was second to him in turn at York ; while at 

 Chester he was second as a yearling: bull to Viscount 

 Hill's Hetman, and then held his own against all comers 

 at Northallerton. His next appearance in public is, 

 we believe, deferred till 1860, as he has a more 

 important mission to achieve for posterity than laying 

 on fat and flesh for Warwick gazers. 



The incidents of the last Bushey sale, and the beauti- 

 ful bloom in which the lots were brought to the ham- 

 mer, quite form an epoch, like Ketton, Wisston and 

 Kirklevington, in shorthorn lore. Great Mogul then a 

 V 2 



