THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



465 



THE HERDS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE AYLESBY HERD. 



Since the days when Richard Ostler mounted his bit 

 of blood, and rode with his saddle-bags to Barmpton 

 and Ketton, to try and effect a good bull hiring: with the 

 Collingses, Aylesby has always been a chosen home of 

 the Shorthorns. Robert CoUings might well declare at 

 his sale, that " no one has so much of my blood as 

 Ostler of Lincolnshire;" seeing that Aylesby (44) by 

 Favourite, dam by Favourite; Barmpton (.54); and 

 " Brother to the White Heifer that travelled," were 

 nearly always in residence. His foible was, that he was 

 ready to sacrifice everything for form and neatness ; 

 and in his desire to "get them to fall small," he made 

 them very delicate as well. He had quitted Aylesby for 

 Audby near Louth, when his stock were sold off in the 

 April of '31 ; and in consequence of their deterioration, 

 and the gloom of the era, his average was a very poor one. 

 "Commodore by Rival, £"71," was knocked down to 

 Mr. Codd, of Holton, who was then styled the CoUings 

 of Lincolnshire ; and Mr. Torr, who was farming with 

 his father by , went in for Flora by Cato, and her 

 dam Cherry, and three or four others. At this time, 

 Philip Skipworth was Mr. Drake's tenant at Aylesby 

 Manor. No one had better original ideas on breeding ; 

 but although an old tup, Garrick and Granby to wit, 

 was his especial crown of rejoicing, he had quaint 

 stories to tell of every bull in the North, and of every 

 Yarborough foxhound. 



Neither Charles Uppleby among the elder, or Tom 

 Brooks and Field Nicholson among the younger 

 " Brocklesby boys," could beat him over the cream of 

 the country, from Grainsby Healing to Roxton Wood ; 

 and he derived his Shorthorn title from the purchase of 

 " Young Favourite (252) by Comet, 140 gs.," upon the 

 Ketton ; and " Lilly" and" Violet," by North Star, and 

 " Princess 155 gs.," upon the Barmpton day. It was, 

 however, as a breeder of Leicesters, that he has left a name ; 

 and Mr. Torr reaped the advantage of his experience, 

 when, in 1847, hepurchased four hundred of his ewes, full 

 of Granby blood, for £1,800 ; and in the following year 

 entrenched himself as tenant within the moat of the old 

 Manor House. He thus acquired a rare germ for the 

 future Aylesby flock, as " old Philip" had never been 

 thrifty at a tup letting, and he knew equally well when 

 to hold. Philip Skipworth, senior, who was the lucky 

 purchaser of Dishley-bred ewes, first established the 

 flock. Such was its fame that the Leicestershire Society 

 in vain offered him 30O gs. for the use of " The Aylesby 

 A;" and when four Lincolnshire men had conjointly 

 hired one Leicestershire tup for 1,000 gs., he did not 

 scruple to give 600 gs. for another on his own account. 



Succeeding to such an Aylesby " field azure" in sheep 

 heraldry, we can hardly wonder that Mr. Torr's heart 

 is even still even more with Bakewell than Booth. The 



choicest rams from the Bakewell, Stubbins, Breedon, 

 Stones, Buckley, and Burgess flocks had all done good 

 service to Philip Skipworth, and Mr. Torr has maintained 

 their pure seventy years' lineage, by only going for his 

 blood to Normanton, Barrow, and Holme Pierrepont. 

 His Leicester ram flock, whose letting has become quite 

 a Lincolnshire festival, early in September, numbers 

 about a hundred ; last year 555 of his Leicester ewes 

 were put to them ; and about two thousand sheep in all 

 are annually brought to his clipping boards. Their 

 little white ivories, which leave but a doubtful reversion 

 for the Shorthorns, have boundless scope, as the three 

 farms at Aylesby, Riby, Rothwell, and the marshes 

 near the Humber, amount to upwards of 2,100 acres, 

 of which 500 are in permanent pasture. 



There had long been a good old-fashioned breed of 

 Shorthorns at Riby, with Badsworth (47), and Palm- 

 flower (480) as their progenitors ; but Mr. Torr has 

 got entirely rid of them, along with the delicate Ostlers, 

 and the doubtful blood of Lord Adolphus Fairfax. This 

 magnificent impostor was as handsome as a picture ; but 

 after paying 100 gs. for him to Mr. Whitaker, con- 

 jointly with Mr. Smith, of West Rasen, he was well 

 sold for 300 gs. " Waterwitch by Fourth Duke of 

 Northumberland, 56 g8.,"atthe Rev. Mr. Cator's sale, 

 was a purchase of a different caste ; and at present two 

 dozen of her female descendants preserve the memory 

 of Kirkleavington at Aylesby. Her dam Waterloo 

 Third was one of the two Norfolk cows, which passed 

 over to Skelbrook at 80 gs. each. Mr. Cator would 

 have had no such luck, but the praises which were be- 

 stowed upon them by every visitor reminded Mr. Bates 

 so vividly of the one season's exchange between Norfolk 

 and his Second Hubback (which destroyed all kind feel- 

 ing, no one knew why, on his part towards Mr. 

 Whitaker), that he could no longer bear the sight of 

 them in the old cow pasture on the Yarm road. Water- 

 witch was calved in 1843, and only fed for the butcher 

 last year, after breding seven heifers to Baron Warlaby, 

 Vanguard, and Crown Prince ; and the produce of these, 

 crossed again with Booth's bulls, are among the leading 

 features of the present herd. Besides hiring exclusively 

 from Warlaby for sixteen years, Mr. Torr has availed 

 himself of every favourable chance to pick up females 

 of the same descent. Sylphide with her two daughters 

 Sylph and Young Bracelet, and her grandaughter 

 Bracelet Third by Vanguard, together with Gertrude 

 and her daughter Lady Hopetoun, and the two Killerby 

 Maids, are accessions from the Killerby herd ; Fair Maid 

 (with her two daughters, Fair Fame 1st and 2nd— both 

 by Vanguard), and Britannia trace direct back to Fame 

 and Broughton of Warlaby ; and Blanche and Rennet, 

 who have fourteen in their clan, hold the same relation 

 to Young Anna, the lot 2 of the Studley sale. 



In point of magnitude the herd exceeds anything 



I I 2 



