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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



native county ia this departmeat of pastoral enterprize 

 had been about coeval with his own birth ; and long 

 before he commeaced his maiden herd at Holm House, 

 in 1816, " the haughty southrons" had learnt to regard 

 Durham as a very Goshen of cream and beef, and as 

 holding a sort of charmed existence, under such 

 proverbially cold and weeping skies. In fact they 

 had no excuse for thinking otherwise, seeing that for 

 six longyears, confirmation in the shape of — " The most 

 wonderful Durham Ox, for whom his owner has refused 

 the surprhing sum of two thousand yuineas ; weighs 

 thirty-five hundred weight ; admission only one shil- 

 ling" had been emblazoned on the iront of a yellow 

 caravan in almost every town and village in England ; 

 and they bad been invited at allhours, personally, through 

 a speaking-trumpet to " step up, Gentlemen, and judge 

 for yourselves." Comet's thousand-guinea sale in 

 1810 had also been well buzzed about from farmstead 

 to farmstead, till it traversed the whole length and 

 breadth of the island. The majority of breeders consi- 

 dered, on hearing it, that Durham and the CoUingscs 

 were playing either a very dashing or a very deep game ; 

 while more speculative philosophers, who could not have 

 indicated the region of the sirloin if they had been led 

 up to a beast, argued that, as the new shorthorned kind 

 had originally come from Holland, the Comet biddings 

 were only a revival in another shape of that Tulipomania 

 which had once driven the country of dykes stark mad ; 

 and that our Government ought at once to interfere as 

 theirs did. 



Be this as it may, those spirited biddings which Mr. 

 Wetherell heard as a lad beneath the lime trees at 

 Ketton, were not lost upon him ; and hence, eight 

 years afterwards, he set out on the Barmpton day with a 

 determination to go in merrily on his own account. 

 Thirty-four of the cows, and four of the heifers under 

 twelve months old, had been knocked down before he 

 Ciught Mr. Robinson's eye ; and then lots 41 and 43 — 

 Lady Anne and Cleopatra, both of them full of George 

 and Favourite blood — became his for 100 and 133 gui- 

 neas, and wended their way to Holm House that night. 

 Their luck was rather chequered, as Lady Anne died in 

 calving twins, and Cleopatra followed up a heifer 

 which never bred, with the very first-class bull Belzoni 

 (1709), by North Star (459). As he had hired this bull 

 from Robert Coliings, and used him for two seasons 

 before the sale, Mr. Wetherell did not care to bid for 

 him ; but, although he was eleven years old, the " by 

 Favourite, dam by Punch" strain induced that rare 

 judge, Mr. Lax, to give 72 guineas for him. Time, 

 li'iwever, proved him to have been the real lode star of 

 the Holm House fortunes, as he got not only the famous 

 llosanna during his stay, but two rare bulls, INlagnet 

 (2210) and St. Leger (1414), the latter of which Mr. 

 Wetherell sold to Mr. John Rennie, of Haddingtonshire, 

 for 250 guineas. This was not Mr. Ronnie's only hi^h- 

 priced purchase from him, as he gave him 500 guineas 

 for three cows, whose portraits, in a long array over the 

 Aldborough sideboard, still keep the memory green of 

 hi8 maiden herd. Tliey were three sisters by Comus, 

 out of a cow bred by Mr. Carter, of Tbeakston, 



v/ho was a near neighbour to old Mr, Booth, and made 

 an extensive use of his bulls. 



In 1828 Mr. Wetherell sold off all his Shorthorns, 

 and left Holm House; and in 1833 we find him living 

 " beneath the Gothic shade" of Durham Cathedral, and 

 commencing a new herd at Newton Hall, some three miles 

 distant. His spirit and fine judgment had still greater 

 scope in this second essay. He bred the Duke of Cla- 

 rence (9040) and King Dick (92G9), and sold the laiter 

 at fourteen months old to Lord Hill for 120 guineas. 

 He also gave 250 guineas for The Earl of Durham (5965), 

 to Mr. Miller, of Ballumby, Perthshire, but he 

 died in less than six months, leaving only three of 

 his get behind him, which, by way of set-ofF to such ill 

 luck, averaged 106 guineas at the hammer, when under 

 twelve months old. The estimation in which the herd 

 was held speaks best through the fact that at this sale in 



1847 four animals realized 500 guineas. 



It had been strengthened from time to time by very 

 spirited purchases. Emperor (1839), with his dam 

 Blossom, and his grandam Spring Flower, passed into 

 it at Mr. Hutton of Gate-Burton's sale, for 250 guineas, 

 100 guineas, and 70 guineas each ; and in 1846, Em- 

 peror justified his price by upholding the honour of the 

 district, as first prizeman in the second class, at the 

 Royal Show at Newcastle, against two dozen rivals. 

 Mr. Banks Stanhope's prize heifer also met sixteen at 

 the same show, and Lord Feversham's, Mr. Booth's, 

 Mr. Trotter's, and Mr. Wetherell's, were all highly 

 commended. Barmpton Rose was also an illustrious 

 unit in the Newton Hall herd ; but after Mr. Wetherell 

 had bred Princess Royal from her, he sold her in-calf 

 with Buttercup to Mr. Henry Watson, of Walkeriog- 

 ham, at her prime cost, 53 guineas ; and at that gen- 

 tleman's sale she and her nine descendants made 1033 

 guineas. Mr. Wetherell had originally purchased the mare 

 Morsel for about the same sum, sent her to Physician, and 

 sold her when she was in-foal of The Cure ; and so, in this 

 instance, the embryo calf Buttercup bcL-ame the dam of 

 Butterfly, who, when crossed with the once neglected 

 Frederick, produced not only the unbeaten but the 

 highest priced bull that the world ever saw. This is 

 not Mr. Wetherell's only connection with the Towneley 

 herd, as Mr. Eastwood purchased Blanche 5th, by Bates's 

 renowned Duke of Northumberland, out of Blanche 

 2nd, from him, and bore off Roan Duchess, by Whit- 

 tington, out of Red Duchess, by Cleveland Lad 2nd, 

 as well. Red Duchess and Blanche V. were both bought 

 by Mr. Wetlierell from JMr. Mawe, who had in his turn 

 bought Blanche V. from Mr. Bates. Mr. Eastwood's 

 pair kept each other company, not only in the journey 

 to Lancashire, but through their daughters in after- 

 years, in the yard at the Chelmsford Royal, where, after 

 passing into Col. Towneley's hands. Roan Duchess 2nd 

 was first in the Cow class, and the red and white 

 niaachs Cli next to her. 



It was with Blanche 5th and Red Duchess that Mr. 

 Wetherell commenced his third lierd at Kirkbridge, in 



1848 ; and three years after. The Earl of Scarborough, 

 (by Roan Duke, a pure Bates bull,) who was bred by 

 Mr. Mawe, and bought along with his dam at the Tetley 



