110 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



The Royal, in the days when " they were not so 

 particular." His two best sows, however, died at the 

 same time as his two bulls North Star and Duke of 

 Cambridge, just before the Carlisle Royal, and he tired 

 of pig breeding from that time. 



Netherscales, which is the property of Mr. Unthank, 

 and farmed by him, along with a farm which he bought 

 at Hutton End, lies about six miles from Penrith 

 and about four miles from the Plumpton station on the 

 Lancaster and Carlisle line. We had made no appoint- 

 ment, and the remembrance of that walk make us shiver 

 yet. If we had kept-np to the tenor of the vows we then 

 mentally registered in all apparent sincerity, The Mark 

 Lane Express and horned stock might hive looked-out 

 for another chronicler. There were no hovels about, 

 no houses ; and as fast as we got under one tree, it 

 became wet through before we could look out for another 

 with rather more impervious foliage. Eventually we 

 stumbled upon a woodman's chimney-corner, and were 

 refreshed during the rough-drying process with anec- 

 dotes of the man, who had been hung at Carlisle three 

 days before, and who had, it seems, made his first essay 

 in cruelty, by killing a tiresome tup-lamb with his bill- 

 hook. However, we reached Netherscales with all its 

 Capt. Shaftoe and Old Cherry memories, under a gleam 

 of sunshine at last, and occupied the two hours between 

 that and the next lucid interval in the weather by 

 gathering notes of their history. Still, famous as this 

 pair have been in Ring and Herd-book memory, they 

 have left no mark on the present Netherscales' herd, and 

 have proved in the long run far less valuable to Mr. 

 Unthank than Venus, whose tribe, after several sales 

 at 100 gs. and upwards, has by no means died-out. Mr. 

 Unthank bought her when a heifer, along with Lively, 

 at the sale of Mr. Bustin, of Dolphonby, near Eden 

 Hall, who owed much of his shorthorn success to his 

 early friendship with Messrs. Collins and Mason. 

 Lively placed little to the credit side ; but Venus 

 produced seven calves, two by Gainford (2044), to 

 begin with, and two as her finale by Chorister, who was 

 bought by Mr. Sober Watkin for 90 g8.,at Mr. Anthony 

 Maynard's sale, and let by him to Mr. Troutbeck- 

 Prince of Wales by Chorister was the old cow's best 

 hit, and his yearling victory at the Hexham and the 

 Royal Irish meeting at Belfast, procured him a new 

 owner at 200 gs. in the Marquis of Exeter. His Irish 

 travelling companion was Mr. Hill's Eden by Gain- 

 ford. They went together in a waggon from Carlisle to 

 Port Carlisle, and had been safely landed back again in 

 Cumberland when a message was received to the effect 

 that certain entries were informal, and that the aged- 

 bull class must be judged over again. Mr. Hill did not 

 care for a second sea-risk, and Recruit took the prize. 



Old Cherry came on to the scene about the beginning 

 of 1843. She had been "as blooming and soft and 

 fair" a calf as Col. Cradock ever welcomed at Hart- 

 forth, in the summer of '28 ; but nature seemed to have 

 exhausted itself with so many calves, and she was tied- 

 up to feed. For years she had been a sort of heroine 

 in Mr. Unthank's mind, although he had never seen 

 her ; and when, by the merest chance, he heard of her 



doom, he set-out at once for Yorkshire, in quite a spirit 

 of knight-errantry, and bought her, with her fifteen years 

 on her head, for nearly twice as many pounds. He had 

 rather a weary time of it, getting her across the West- 

 moreland moors, and the venture did not look very hopeful 

 when she broke to His Royal Highness, who then reigned 

 at Lowther. Wonders never cease, and her Sir Francis 

 calf of the next May, worthless as he proved, earned 

 that name right well. Captain Shaftoe had arrived at 

 Netherscales the same year, and the cherished object ap- 

 peared at last on September 4th, 1845, in the shape of 

 his daughter Queen of Trumps. The old cow was so 

 weak after calving, that when Mr. Unthank left her, to 

 fetch a drink, she fell sideways on to her calf, and no- 

 thing but the greatest care, and incessant inflntioa 

 through the nostrils with the kitchen bellows, brought 

 it round at all. In process of time it grew into rather 

 a nice little cow, and bred Second Queen of Trumps 

 to Belleville, in the days of his twenty-five-guinea 

 renown. Old Cherry was never in season again, 

 and she became so crippled that Penrith had the 

 eating of her in 1847 and the nineteenth year o* 

 her age. Second Queen of Trumps was then chopped 

 away to ]\Ir. Douglas, of Athelstaneford, for Baroness 

 Amelia, Queen Athelstane, and another ; and her 

 cross with Captain Balco produced Third Queen of 

 Trumps, who swept the three royal national two-year- 

 old heifer prizes on " the grand tour" of '53, and died 

 within sight of New Orleans that winter, with 450g8. on 

 her head. Such were the Netherscale variations upon the 

 popular " Cherry Ripe." 



Captain Shaftoe's history was a less chequered one« 

 Mr. Unthank had become deeply smitten at Richmond 

 with his short legs, rich quality, and gay looks, when 

 he was the first prize yearling of the Yorkshire Agricul- 

 tural against Belleville, Cramer, and Belted Will ; but 

 he had no little difficulty in persuading Mr. Lax to part 

 with him for £200. The late Mr. Benn, always en- 

 thusiastic in the shorthorn cause, lent the Lowther 

 van, and as Mr. Unthank sold " The Captain " after a 

 coupleof seasons for a£100 advance, to Mr. Loft, of Lin- 

 colnshire, his second Richmond thoughts proved as good 

 as his first. Mr. Parkinson, of Leyfields, gave the last 

 bid of 325 gs. for him at the Trusthorpe sale, and won 

 ii the aged class with him at the Northampton Royal, 

 the same year that his half- brother. Baron Ravens- 

 worth (7811), gained that honour among the year- 

 ling bulls. After coming second to Mr. Bates's First 

 Duke of Oxford, at the Yorkshire Show of that year, 

 he changed hands a fourth time, for 140 gs., to Mr, 

 Smith, of West Razen, who kept him for five years, and 

 then sold him to his brother, in whose hands he died. 

 He had a great propensity to fatten, and got his cows 

 very good and compact, but rather too small. Skelton 

 was the best of his Netherscale bull descendants, and he 

 in his turn begot California. Among other purchases of 

 choice blood were Daphne Gwynne, from Mr. J. P. Sen- 

 house; Hartforth by The Provost and Sweetbriar, from 

 Colonel Cradock ; and Ormolu (not in calf), for 55 gs., 

 from Mr. Spearman, while on the per contra side we 

 find Valiant and Gavazzi sold to Colonel Towneley, Em- 



