4i0 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



for females; but Old Fatrump, the great-grandam of 

 Eclipse, was first at the Devon Agricultural at Exeter ; 

 and Newton and Cardiff conferred similar honours on 

 Curly (97), the dam of Napoleon III. Since Salisbury, 

 Mr. Davy has scarcely sent an animal to the Royal; 

 but, in spite of the scarcity of fodder, which has made so 

 many owners decide not to "go on" with their beasts, 

 we expect to find him firm in his September resolve that 

 "Prince Alfred and Rose of the Valley shall take up the 

 running at Leeds." 



This curly son of Lady Bess (,820) was the inmate 

 of the first shed we entered ; and hard by him stood his 

 half-brother, by Napoleon III., equally noticeable for 

 his wide loin, great evenness, and length of rump. 

 There, too, was a worthy half-brother of Napoleon III., 

 whom Mr. Da\y used for two or three years. About 

 half the herd are by Napoleon III. ; and Mr. James 

 Quartly esteemed him so highly, that he sent the dam of 

 his Napoleon, her sister, and Napoleon's sister to him. 

 From this point, the herd began to crowd upon us, de- 

 tachment after detachment, in an almost bewildering 

 profusion. We had scarcely made the acquaintance of 

 four bull and three heifer-calves, including a very nice 

 handler by Prince Alfred, from Pretty Maid of Rose 

 Ash (1685), a calf by Palmerston (476) (who died after 

 Mr. Davy had purchased him back from Lord Portman), 

 than the herdsman and herd-boys arrived, with four 

 more, bound for the Shute meadows. Curly (97), the 

 dam of Prince Alfred and Napoleon III., was leading 

 the van ; and behind her, Cinderella (70), by Nelson 

 (83), the biggest (Brown not excepted) that we had 

 seen in Devon ; with sweet Lady Bess (820), and her 

 dam Curly (97), worthy of her, every whit. Then we 

 had our first peep at the stock of Eclipse, who has 

 gone to Australia, in Young Pretty Maid, a cow as re- 

 markable for her length as her peculiar yellow tinge. 

 There, too, with her thin, neat head and neck, and 

 shape like a forest-deer, was another, for which Mr. 

 Davy refused a high price from Lady Poltimore ; while 

 Modesty (1496) had no just cause to veil herself in the 

 distance. 



Some Exmoor ewes shared the Flitton Green Meadow 

 (part of which is flooded and cut four times a-year) with 

 another lot, old and young. Among them we noted the 

 Eclipse heifers from Gaylass and Cherry — the latter, 

 whose dam was sold to Lord Portman, of great promise 

 and size; while Treasure by Napoleon the Third, and a 

 heifer by Napoleon from Young Picture, were true to 

 the beautiful fore-quarter, which is such a Devon 

 speciality. The leakings of the flood meadow rather 

 cost us a wade, to get at the old bull shed. Napoleon 

 the Third, Palmerston, Nelson, and Eclipse were all 

 kings here in their turn, and a bull-calf by Napoleon 

 the Third from Curly (97) was now its principal 

 tenant. "Hark back to the Shute Meadows!" was 

 then the word, where Pretty Maid (1685), the smallest 

 there, but beautifully light in the bone, and her 

 daughter Flitton Maid, a coAf with a very rare middle 



by Eclipse, and the neat Lady Flitton awaited us, with 

 Profit (992), tiie dam of Lord Fortescue's bull Flitton 

 (414). Meanwhile the herd boys had been scouring the 

 gorse brake to secure us a peep at the Palmerston 

 blood, six of which came scampering down the lane, 

 with their dams, tails erect, to the levee. Five out of 

 their six months of sucking were over, and they all did 

 the amplest credit to their nurses — none more so than 

 the only heifer among them, from Young Queen, and a 

 bull calf from Young Picture, with hair as long and 

 shaggy as an Argyle, and a dewlap extending to his 

 very lips. This robust character and development of 

 dewlap is the especial type of the get of this bull, who 

 died before he could be shown at the Royal, from a 

 rick in the back when he was bulling. 



Flitton Old Tree, that far-famed tryst of the fox- 

 hunters, made us halt for a moment en our way to 

 Cross Cose, a little farther up the hill, where Princess 

 of Prussia, of splendid size, and with a back like a table, 

 first caught our eye. Already she has won a prize at 

 Cardiff"and the Bath and West of England. Three heifers 

 by Napoleon the Third from Young Flower, Pink, and 

 Beauty, by Eclipse, were good, and Rose of the Valley, 

 amply fulfilled our expectations. Some more bull- 

 calves roamed the Barns Close, and there was an ap- 

 parition of yet more on a distant eminence ; but we 

 had seen enough cows and bulls for one week, and were 

 glad to beat a retreat through some sheds and Dutch 

 barns, and sit down for a space to rest. Our day's toil, 

 however, was not ended — and the shadows had long 

 since descended on the hills, ere we had reached, by 

 slow degrees, the top of Five Burrows, and at last 

 descritd the twinkling lights of Emmett's Grange, 

 which guided and bade us welcome to the Knight ponies* 

 and the " Bobbies" of Exmoor. 



Chap. XXVII. 



THE BRANCHES PARK HERD. 



That life would be as nothing without enthusiasm 

 on some point or other, is an axiom which the 

 veriest cynic has never cared to gainsay. Under its 

 influence " the weaker sex" have long since spurned 

 the conventional limits of cross-stitch, tambour-work, 

 and Broadwood's Patent. Miss Anne Richards was 

 wont to leave her coach-and-six, and beat for hares, the 

 live-long day, at Ashdown, with her kirtle up to her 

 knee. The white plumes of the boldest tenants of the 

 side-saddle are seen, season after season, in the front rank 

 over those breezy Wiltshire plains, or the pasture lands 

 of The Quorn. Mrs. Ferguson Blair, the authoress of 

 one of the very best manuals ever written on poultry, 

 can aver that she has won four hundred and sixty- 

 seven prizes up to this date, and that to attend 

 forty yards a- day, and hatch a thousand chickens 

 a year, is her especial crown of rejoicing ; and 



* See Sporting Review for October, 1860. 



