THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



44] 



Lady Pigot's equally legitimate and unceasing aim is to 

 be foremost among the best in the shorthorn classes at 

 The Royal. The taste for the Red, White, and Roan 

 had not grown up with her ladyship from girlhood. In 

 fact, it was not until the autumn of 185G, during a 

 residence among the grouse hills at Oban, that she began 

 to care for cattle at all, and tlien it was not the sight of 

 any Athelstaneford or Southwicke shorthorns, but of a 

 quartet of shaggy West Highlanders belonging to Mr. 

 McFaydzen, of Glen Machree, which fii-st kindled her 

 ambition. The lot consisted of three white heifers 

 under a year old, along with a three months' dun bull, and 

 140 gs. was the price. The bull's head was not exactly 

 orthodox; but his development of frame was almost 

 faultless, and well entitled him to his title of " Glen 

 Lonan's Chief." Fortune was not coy in dispensing 

 her favours; as " The Chief" was five times in the 

 Show-yards, and never beaten save once, and then by 

 Lord Breadalbane's at Aberdeen. The Dublin Society 

 gave him a silver medal ; the Bath and West of England 

 followed suit ; and the Chester Royal put the seal on 

 this first venture, by awarding him the prize challenge 

 cup, for the best bull of any breed save three. History 

 says nothing of the three heifers, except that a New- 

 market butcher got them ; and ere long, as other pur- 

 chasers only looked and rode away, Glen Lonan's Chief 

 followed them to the shambles, leaving nothing but his 

 picture in her ladyship's boudoir to upbraid her for de- 

 serting her first love, and a calf called H'ujhland Lassie, 

 whose heifer calf by Sir Roger is quite like a curly red 

 Durham. 



Her ladyship was perfectly guiltless in the spring of 

 '57 of the great antagonistic creeds of Booth and Bates, 

 and of the endless disputations and searchings of heart 

 to which they have given jise ; and, singularly enough, 

 her first herd visit was to Captain Gunter's at Earl's 

 Court, Brompton. A bid and a protracted treaty for 

 Autumn Rose was the result of that afternoon's 

 saunter through the Duchess domains; but it came to 

 nothing ; the rose was ultimately destined to bloom in the 

 Imperial stalls, and her ladyship purchased Happiness 

 for 250 gs. from Mr. Jonas Webb. She was a fine, large, 

 heavy-topped animal, by Lord of the North (11743), 

 and had a Cheltenham (12588) bull-calf, which was 

 styled Happy Land, and sold on Mr. Wetherell's sale 

 day. The other, which was also a heifer, by Chelten- 

 ham, died ; and she herself caught a severe cold, whei. 

 returuing from the Dublin Show (where she took the first 

 prize and silver medal, and the gold medal, as the best 

 cow), and sank, as her ladyship believes, from the too 

 free use of the fleam. With Sir Robert Pigot this cow 

 was always an immense favourite, and he has still his 

 doubts, whether she has left better behind. Cheltenham 

 himself was the next purchase for 120 gs ; but the Fates 

 were still bitterly adverse, and in the December of '58 he 

 was sent up in vain to London for sale, and a severe cold 

 on the lungs, which he caught from waiting for 8 hours in 

 the rain and an open truck at the Cambridge station, soon 



sealed his death warrant, without a butcher. A few cows, 

 with one or two crosses, in calf to Cheltenham, and 

 selected by his Grace the late Duke of Rutland, formed, 

 along with Second Duchess of Glo'ster and Princess of 

 Saxe Weimar, from Mr. Jonas Webb, the relics of the 

 first attempt at forming a Shorthorn Administration. 

 Upwards of £G00 had been " lost in the first year from 

 deaths and inexperience ;" but still, ashcr ladyship writes, 

 " I was determined to persevere," and Princess of Saxe 

 Weimar was the turning point. This heil'er had ac- 

 companied Belvoir Lady to the quarters of Sixth Duke 

 of Oxford, and the produce, a rich roan heifer, sold at 

 three months for 50 ga., to Mr. Rich, of Didmarton, 

 Wiltshire, proved the first good item on the credit side. 



This brings us to the end of 1857, when the Babra- 

 ham premiership ended, and that of Warlaby began. 

 Lady Pigot's first introduction to Mr. Richard Booth 

 was at Salisbury, where the two-year-old heifer Happi- 

 ness found herself in " the best of all good companie," 

 with Rose of Athelstane and Queen of the May, and 

 shared in the universal commendation of the class. The 

 sight of the latter made her ladyship take the resolve in 

 favour of Booth blood, and accordingly, with charac- 

 teristic energy, she offered, by letter, a few weeks after, 

 to rent Crown Prince for a month, at any price that 

 might be set on him. The response was in the negative, 

 and the Warlaby code on this head was alike sternly 

 maintained, when a second offer came to send Happiness 

 and three other cows at 25 gs. a-piece. Foiled in her 

 efforts at the fountain head, her ludyship rested for a 

 time, and then paid a visit to Mr. and Mrs. Carr, at 

 Stackhouse, in the autumn of '58, and purchased and 

 conveyed home with her| in due mail-train state, her 

 first Booth, to wit. Baroness Warlaby, for 150 gs. She 

 was a pretty and stylish sort cf heifer ; and after win- 

 ning head prizes both at Ipswich and Glasgow, and 

 breeding Pride of the Valley (who has since been sold 

 to the Spanish Government), by Lord of the Valley, 

 and Prince Arrogant by Prince Alfred, she brought back 

 her price from Mr. Leslie, M.P., of Glasslough Castle. 



November the fifth, of the same year, was her lady- 

 ship's first "quiet day at Warlaby." Aldborough had 

 been already visited, and Mr. Wetherell had turned a 

 deaf ear to the ofi'cr of 200 gs. for the yearling Stanley 

 Rose; and Mr. Booth was equally obdurate, when 

 350 gs. was bid him, for Orange Blossom, a very 

 doubtful breeder. Like Tennyson's Lord Ciiancellor, 



He dallied with his golden chain, 

 Aud smiling, pat the questionby, 



when he was begged at all events to " sell something, 

 if it's only quite a little calf," and recommended the 

 fair persecutor to visit his old friend Jolly in the village, 

 and give him seventy guineas for Empress of Hindos- 

 tan. No advice could have been sounder, as a 30 gs. ad- 

 vance was very shortly afterwards offered to her ladyship 

 for her bargain, and as promptly refused. Stanley Rose 

 had, nevertheless, left a very deep impression ; and in 

 the March of the next year, she was transferred by a 



