THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



283 



cer's Zadig, dam Wild Flower, by Bates's Duke of Rich- 

 mond, wlio fell to Mr. Maynard's nod on the Kirk- 

 levington day. Lucy II. is by Lord Foppington, and 

 the only cow retained with old Kirkee at the second 

 sale. Her dam, Lucy, was by Mambrino, the first 

 thorough-bred bull Mr. Marjoribaaks ever had, and, with 

 the exception of Lord Foppington, she is full Spencer 

 blood. She has all the characteristics of the Wiseton 

 herd, a slight absence of hair, and close texture of flesh, 

 and inclined, from age, to be a little patchy, but still 

 with fine character and a sweet head- and horn. Lady 

 Spencer, by Usurer out of Sibyl by Lord Warden, is 

 rather leggy, and " disappoints the pedigree," which 

 is unbroken in purity from Lord Spencer to Mason. 



Two very remarkable heifers of very opposite styles 

 stand near them, over which many a good judge has 

 already lingered minute after minute, and hardly made 

 up his mind then. Elegance, who was bred by Mr. 

 William Smith, is a complete combination of Booth and 

 Bates, as she is by Lord Raglan, a son of Harbinger, 

 out of Variety, a daughter of Bates's Third Duke of 

 York. She has very fine length, great in her girth, and 

 as even as a die, with the exception of a slight 

 fall from the hip to the rump. She has never been 

 shown yet ; but if she goes to Warwick, she will require 

 a good deal of getting rid of, in the two-year-old class. 

 Vesta is of Booth blood on both sides, as the first glance 

 at her Queen of the Isles' sort of head will tell, 

 through Royal Buck and Leonidas. She is a heifer of 

 a richer colour and squarer build than Elegance, but not 

 quite so much length. Her ribs and loins unite in a 

 very remarkable degree, and the former has, if possible, 

 more prominence than the hip. Helen by Booth's 

 Bridesman, dam by Captain Shafto, is very good in the 

 chine, and altogether a capital heifer, but she is unfor- 

 tunately just too old to show as a yearling. Ze- 

 nith by Booth's Prince George, dam Zenobia III. 

 by "the handsome Belleville," is a high-class animal who 

 has still to come out. Own sister to Mr. Wetherell's 

 renowned bull Statesman is here also, in the shape of 

 the white Silver Bell, by Earl Scarboro', a heifer with 

 beautiful flesh and hair, but perhaps a trifle too much 

 length. Water Witch is also from Mr. Wetherell's herd, 

 and runs back on her dam's side into the White Rose 

 and May Flower — a fine old tribe, of whose sound consti- 

 tution Mr. Lax was so justly proud. She was the last 

 we looked over, with the exception of Queen Bess III., 

 who stood in the farthest corner of her house. This red 

 heifer is all Booth, except one cross of Lawson's Wel- 

 lington, and her close rib and loin do the great York- 

 shire herd full justice ; but she is a little light of bone, 

 aad hence the judicious cross with Great Mogul 

 seems likely to hit. 



Six out of the nine young bulls are by Great Mogul, 

 who traces his descent through thirteen crosses, two of 

 them Favourite's, to the dim antiquity of " Jolly's Bull." 

 Oddly enough, he just reversed Marmaduke's rule, as 

 he has hitherto got all bull calves, save two. He is by 

 Grand Turk, bred by Mr. Bolden, out of Victoria 8th, 

 who was bought before calving for 60 gs., when she was 

 eleven years old. She never bred again, and was 



sold as barren at the sale for 61 gs., leaving 

 this splendid memorial of her brief stay at Bushey. 

 Mr. Marjoribanks had every temptation to let him 

 go, as Earl Fitzwillium's agent and Mr. Cart- 

 wright, a Lincolnshire breeder, both bid close up for 

 him ; but the almost moral certainty of winning with 

 him his first royal prize at Salisbury was worth thrice 

 375 gs. to Mr. Marjuribanks. His flesh and hair are 

 very grand, and so are his hind-quarters and thighs, 

 though he falls off slightly behind the shoulders, a fault 

 which was the only one that any one could urge against 

 him on the sale day. Of his bull calves, so far, three 

 are white and three roan. Both Great Magician and 

 Will-o'-the-Wisp have all their sire's fine quality and 

 rich hair ; but perhaps the former, as compared with 

 h^ half-brother, might strike an observer as having a 

 rather finer stamp of head, and the latter rather more 

 length of quarter. Corporal Trim has a good deal of 

 the Tempest character about him ; and Jack Sprat 

 glories in a white coat as curly as a Scot, or the love- 

 locks on Statesman's forehead. The son and heir, Cock- 

 of-the-Walk, out of Rosa Bonheur, is a very taking 

 calf — a deeper and richer roan than his sire, and looks 

 as if he had, with his fine straight top and his well- 

 formed shoulders, an eye to the " Lammas Meadows" 

 festival next July. Lord of the South, by Windsor II., 

 out of Earring by Harbinger, is just eligible for the bull- 

 calf class, and has a rare top and crops ; and Baron of 

 Bushey, by Bridesman, just seven weeks his senior, 

 stands next him, and is, as Mr. Tallant terms it, "a 

 true Lax," compact and well put together, and with 

 fine character throughout. Tell Tale and Lady But- 

 terfly were the only heifer calves ; the latter right 

 worthy of her dam Red Butterfly, and the very 

 picture of her. 



Only one more remained, and that was a little 

 Alderney calf, the very image of a fawn, which was cosily 

 housed in a pig-sty. We might well regard it, with 

 Sir Lytton Bulwer, as 



" At dusk and dawn a lonely Faun, 

 The last of the Grecian dreams," 



when coming weary with the contemplation of fore-quar- 

 ters and sirloins to refresh the eye with a peep at future 

 spare-ribs and bacon in the long range of pig-styes, we 

 found that all their occupants save five were gone, and 

 that no less than a hundred had been sold off last year. 

 And so foiled in our search, we put up our note-book, 

 and strolled into Mr. Tallant's office, as a refuge from 

 the bitter wind ; and when we had looked at the painting 

 of the ancient steer, we once more sped back from 

 those quiet pastures and straw-yards, to the " moil 

 and dust of life" in the great lamp-lit metropolis of the 

 world. 



Chapter IV. 



MR. WETHERELL'S HERD. 



It is now upwards of forty years since this celebrated 



judge of Shorthorns first fell into the Durham fashion, 



and commenced breeding them, on the farm near Pierce 



Bridge, where he was born. The rising fame of his 



