THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, 



375 



be five months gone in calf with Duchess (GG), who also 

 crossed the Atlantic with 700 gs. on her head— a sum 

 never before attained for a female. Duchess (66) re- 

 mained at Hendon for a considerable time, and calved 

 a heifer to the Duke of Glo'ster, for whom Captain 

 Gunter offered 500 gs. in vain ; and she had not only 

 twin heifers to the same bull next year in America, 

 whither he departed at her side, but has bred regularly 

 ever since. 



But we must hark back. Duchess (70) was accom- 

 panied by her two calves — the red and white (73), and 

 the roan (77). Both are by 6th Duke of Oxford, and 

 the elder one, which wore the first prize ribbons at 

 Wetherby, last autumn, had the more substance, and 

 the younger the more elegance of the twain. On the 

 whole we preferred the latter, and it needed only a sight 

 of her to prove that there was no degeneration in the 

 Duchesses, and that there could be no mistake between 

 mellowness and looseness. 



And then we got among the Duchess (G9) tribe, and 

 as the old cow had calved her fourth that morning, 

 we waited, in due course, on her; and her Duchess 

 (76), a thirteen-months heifer, came out first to do the 

 family honours. She is wonderfully good over the 

 loins, and looks a milker even now. Her dam is very 

 great in this respect, and they had to milk her for some 

 time before she calved. She was lying down after the 

 labour of the day, and hence, though we could not fully 

 judge of her fine length, there was enough to catch the 

 eye in the gentle grandeur of that head, which was 

 specially modelled for Mr. Brandreth Gibbs's testimo- 

 nial. In quality she was quite equal to the rest of her 

 tribe, but on a larger scale altogether. 



We asked in vain for Oxford 11th, but she was struck 

 with lightning in the park last July, and died soon after 

 of apoplexy. She had bred six bulls, one of them Lord 

 Feversham's Royal prize winner, and she was in calf to 

 her son (6th Duke of Oxford) when she died. Of her three 

 bull calves in Captain Gunter's hands, only one, Grand 

 Duke of Oxford, by 2nd Grand Duke, has come to ma- 

 turity : and it was with him that Prince Albert dipped 

 into the Bates blood in 1857, and Colonel Kingscote in 

 1858. One of her two by Duke of Cambridge was born 

 dead ; and the other, Duke of Oxford, met with a most 

 singular end at Earl's Court, A rat had got into his 

 trough, and frightened him so that he ran out of the 

 shed, and in trying to jump the rail into his paddock he 

 fell on his head, and fairly splintered his horn into his 

 brain. This bull-breeding propensity does not run in 

 her son 6tb Duke of Oxford's veins, as hitherto ninety 

 per cent, at least of his get have been heifers. We had 

 scarcely emerged from the presence of Duchess (69), 

 when he appeared, and it was not difficult to guess from 

 whence all that richness of hair had come to the stock. 

 He was a perfect Esau at his birth , and in this respect 

 he is perhaps superior to his brother, but, unlike him, 

 he has never been shown. The first three of his stock 

 were born in Canada West, and one of them won the 

 first prize at Toronto. 



And now having got rid of the night-mare numbers, 

 which might well make us one of those 



Who dreads to speak of 98, 

 Who trembles at the name—" 



we got once more among the heifers ; and Fair Maid of 

 Wetherby, by The Buck, out of Mr. Combe's Flirt, by 

 Puritan, and Moss Rose, were the frewh introductions. 

 The former of these two was commended at Northaller- 

 ton, and the latter was second in the same class to 

 Windsor's splendid daughter. Queen of the Isles, who 

 beat Nectarine Blossom, Great Mogul, Fifth Duke of 

 Oxford, Royal Butterfly, Queen of Trumps, Rose of 

 Athelstane, Maid of Athelstane, and, in short, every 

 winning animal in the yard, for the special X20 

 prize. Such a defeat is far better worth recording than 

 scores of lesser victories. Many have differed as to the 

 merits of Captain Gunter's two ; but we decidedly go 

 for the roan Moss Rose, who is the thicker, though 

 perhaps not so level, as her companion. Her 

 shoulders and head are perfection, and she has a proud 

 style of showing herself, which is some points in her 

 favour ; and we have seldom seen a greater coquette in 

 this way. Her style and quality all comes from Sixth 

 Duke of Oxford, as her dam Red Rose is a very 

 mean-looking cow, but a wonderful milker. The 

 Duchess of Oxford, a thick square beast, by Fourth 

 Duke of Oxford, and purchased at Mr. Sainsbury's 

 sale, followed her ; and there were some historical recol- 

 lections connected with her Badminton brother. He 

 not only won the .£100 gold medal at Paris, for the 

 best animal of English breed, beating Mr. Stratton's 

 white Smithfield gold medallist of '56 ; but he was so 

 toothsome in death, that the French committee awarded 

 the roast beef, and, we believe, the soup prize to his 

 remains ; whilst a Highlander, also from Badminton, was 

 victorious in the boiled beef post mortem. We only 

 saw one of the Grand Duke of Oxford's get, and that 

 was a pretty-looking bull-calf. Earl of Oxford, with all 

 the hereditary Duchess marks, and then we were sum- 

 moned to a levee of eight calves in the barn. Red 

 Blossom, sister to Moss Rose, soon caught the eye; but 

 although she is a better toucher than her sister, she has 

 not the same substance and grandeur. There were 

 also our old friends the twins, and Mr. Knowlcs soon 

 composed a tableaux of these two venerable aunts with 

 their neat dark roan niece, Duchess (80), between them. 

 Then there was Modesty, and Ada, a daughter of Acorn, 

 by Ilandel, a fine but leggy cow, who was drawn up 

 on parade at the barn-door as we came out. Her dam, 

 Apple, was sold for the Emperor of the French's dairy, 

 and gained, it was said, the honour of having her milk 

 reserved for the heir to the throne. With her this herd 

 of full fifty head came to a close, and we did not care to 

 adjourn through the pouring rain to the pigs for an 

 afterpiece. Hence we contented ourselves with hearing 

 that in 1853 those styes of Ducie and Wiley blood 

 made i,'400 in prices and prizes in one year, and that 

 there were eleven medals among them ; and on the 

 morrow we went our way once more, in search of fresh 

 herds and pastures new. 



