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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



again. Their lambs are sold fat in the summer, and 

 the draft ewes are passed on in November to the Lan- 

 cashire butchers, and average from 171bs. to 191bs. a 

 quarter. Such is their peculiarly tameless nature, 

 acquired from four " roving years," that they will not 

 bear being taken up to feed. 



It was not until 1851, seven years after Knowlmere 

 had passed into Mr. Peel's possession, that he thought 

 of buying a pure shorthorn. Like his neighbours, 

 he merely kept common stock, and followed, on 

 a small scale, the usual fashion of sending calving 

 cows to Preston to supply the dairy, and heifers, steers, 

 and drape cows to Scotland and elsewhere, to be fed 

 off. The tenants of Col. Towneley, wha owns several 

 thousand acres in the neighbourhood, had especial ad- 

 vantages in point of blood ; and, during his days of ob- 

 scurity, the mighty Frederick dwelt at CoUey Holme, 

 near the source of the Hodder, and gave his fine mark 

 to many a score of calves. None of them, however, 

 had anything to do with the origin of Mr. Peel's herd, 

 which began with Pearl by Tom Steele (8715), from 

 Princess by Buchan Hero (3238), and two heifers 

 which didn't breed. At this time he had no particular 

 leaning towards any tribe ; and, by way of a start, 

 Baron Martin (14136) by Hector (8138) was purchased ; 

 and from him and Pearl sprang Young Pearl. Baron 

 Martin won the maiden cattle show prize for Knowl- 

 mere, at Whalley, in 1854 ; and his brother was highly 

 commended at the Carlisle Royal next year. Pearl 

 had a calf afterwards to Towneley's Frithbank 

 (1298); but nearly everything of hers and Baron 

 Martin's sort was swept off in the murrain of 1856, 

 which was severe enough to make nine breeders out of 

 ten throw up the task for ever. It raged without inter- 

 mission from the October of that year up to the April 

 of the next ; and the Knowlmere homesteads became 

 one great lazar-house. A common cow which was 

 bought in for milk was supposed to have spread the 

 taint ; and in less than a mouth it had gone through 

 nearly the whole herd. Still, in the height of its vio- 

 lence, it seemed to obey some subtle law ; and, while it 

 swept all the east side in one house, two Alderneys on the 

 west side never suffered at all. Even when it attacked 

 the first of a row, it did not go on in rotation, but ge- 

 nerally singled out the heaviest milkers for its earliest 

 victims. Crumbling of the lungs, which rendered it 

 impossible to chew the cud, was its most prominent 

 symptom ; and although the lives of a few were pro- 

 longed by the adoption <ff Horsfall's plan of gruel and 

 cod-liver oil three times a day, only two or three fought 

 through, and were kept up, in apparently the last state 

 of exhaustion, by iron and ether tonics. Old Pearl 

 withstood all infection ; and Pearley, by a Son of 

 Major, who was born soon after, was the only one left 

 of the race. 



" Never say die" is a motto which has seldom 

 brought grief to its utterer, and Mr. Peel, nothing 

 daunted by the sight of his Shorthorn necropolis, acted 

 right boldly up to it. He drew a cheque of 125 gs. 

 for Mr. Bolden's ten months' bull calf the Duke of 

 Moscow by Second Grand Duke, from Victory by 



Third Duke of York ; and in exactly four years from 

 the time of his purchase, the news was flashed along the 

 wires to him at Wiesbaden, that Malachite, the first of 

 his own breeding that ever entered a show-yard, had de- 

 feated a field of twenty-seven yearling bulls at the Canter- 

 bury Royal. This bull and eight cows and heifers still re- 

 main to testify to " Moscow," who was used for two or 

 three seasons, and then came an infusion of Booth blood, 

 with Valasco (15443). An exchange was made for a 

 time with Mr. Carr, between him and Prince Oscar, and 

 after a short second stay he was succeeded by The 

 Monk (11824). 



Ruby by Red Rover (11982), and Strawberry by 

 Frederick (11489) from Sprightly by Belshazzar 

 (1703), were bought at Mr. Smyth Owen's sale, to 

 cross with the Duke of Moscow. Mr. Culshaw arrived just 

 too late to bid for Strawberry, and as in the absence of a 

 vigorous competition she came toKnowlmere for GOgs., 

 her loss was not so severely felt when she died in milk 

 fever, after producing a bull calf. Ruby is still the 

 eleven-year-old matron of the herd, and Rowena by 

 Duke of Moscow, and Rebecca by Valasco, preserve 

 her line in female tail, at Knowlmere, from which her 

 Candidate and Muscovite have departed. Lally, the 

 dam of McTurk (14872), and his own sister Laurel, 

 (for which Mr. Drewry gave 50 gs. on behalf of The 

 Duks of Devonshire at a fortnight old) was another 

 special purchase to bring out " Moscow," and she 

 proved well worth her 86 gs., although her bull-calf 

 by him died. Mr. Cator's herd furnished Constance by 

 Selim (6654), her half-sister Queen of Hearts, by 

 Norfolk (9442), and Duchess of Norfolk, with an es- 

 cutcheon, which goes right back into Medora and Sister 

 to Isabella. Darlington 4th, of Bates's Percy blood, 

 was sold when in caif by The Duke of Moscow to Mr. 

 Atherton, of Speke, in exchange for Usurpation, and Roan 

 Cherry, with a " consideration." Cowslip 5th, of Bates's 

 Chieftain and Cowslip 2nd descent, was another Speke 

 contribution. She calved Cherry Lips, by Cherry Duke 

 2nd, scarcely an hour before her purchase; and her 

 half-sister Nelly O'Brien from Lily 2nd, a combina- 

 tion of Fourth Duke of York and Second Duke 

 of Oxford, was passed on by Mr. Atherton soon after 

 he bought her from Mr. Peel, for 150 gs., to the 

 Australians. Naomi did not breed, and now that Gari- 

 baldi has departed to seek his fortunes at Middleton 

 Hall, Pendant is the only representative of Pearley, 

 by Son of Major (11769). If Mr. Peel has inclined 

 latterly to Booth's bulls, he has gone in with equal spirit 

 for Grand Duke females. Among his purchases from 

 Mr. Bolden are Czarina, with two Grand Duke crosses, 

 and the dam of Czarovitz, by the Third of that Thou- 

 sand Guinea line. Bountiful, who came with her, has 

 also two Grand Duke crosses upon Baron Warlaby and 

 Leonard, &c., and the white Bride by Second Duke of 

 Bolton (12739), from Bridecake by Crown Prince 

 (10087), makes up the Lancaster trio. 



The sight of old Black Jet, with her Aighton Hero 

 foal, which had been highly commended at Burnley the 

 day before, served as a little interlude between the past 

 and the future, as we walked across the meadow to view 



