U2 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



300-guinea " closer," through Mr. J. B. Booth, from 

 the Durham to the Cambridgeshire meadows. Owing 

 to a mistake, she was not entered at Warwick ; but the 

 judges decided two to one in her favour against Duchess 

 77th at the Durham County; and their decision was 

 reversed both at Hull and Ulverstone. This daughter of 

 Earl of Derby and Moss Rose had a very bad autumn 

 of it after her show travels, and sank away almost to no- 

 thing from successive attacks of inflammation of the 

 lungs. Winter, however, brought bloom and flesh once 

 more ; and getting, by another mistake, into a fat class 

 at Framlingham, she made very short work of her op- 

 ponents, and set the sceptics prematurely groaning over 

 her sterility and looming demise. 



In spite of this little Stanley Rose fancy, her 

 ladyship, during 1859-60, kept steadily getting together 

 cows, with as many Booth crosses as possible. Mr. 

 Carr furnished Hildegarde, Rowena, Cherry Empress, 

 Violet, and Red Rose ; and then came a second lot, to 

 wit, Lady Grandison, Mistress Mary, Rosy, Lady 

 Bird, and Charlotte, the last four in calf with heifers to 

 Valasco. Woodnymph, Baroness, and a Royal Buck 

 cow were furnished by Mr. J, B. Booth ; Isabella 

 Hopewell, Cherry Queen, and Spicey were the first arri- 

 vals from Athelstaneford ; and we do hear of an exchange 

 which <nay cause Mr. Douglas's Ringlet (the dam of 

 Maid and Queen of Athelstane) to follow suit. Mr. 

 Barnes' Queen was an object of especial ambition; but 

 even 1 ,000 gs. for her and Victoria could not draw the 

 Irish Booth of his pair. Eventually Victoria crossed the 

 Channel for half that sum, accompanied by a gallant 

 luck-penny in young Brian Boru, a son of The 

 Queen and Dr. M'Hale. Rose of Promise, Pride of 

 Southwicke, and Rosamond were, shortly after, the 

 fruits of a morning at Mr. Stewart's sale ; and then her 

 ladyship became so fascinated with the blood of Sir 

 James the Rose, in Queen of Athelstane and Almack's 

 Belle, that although Mr. Douglas would hear of 

 jiothing less than 500 gs. for the one, and 200 gs. 

 for the other, the hopes of giving a successful defi 

 to the twins and Soldier's Bride at Leeds was too 

 strong; and in an evil hour she determined to risk 

 it. The Queea of Athelstane won two small firsts at 

 Skipton and Keighley under her new ownership, and 

 there her uninterrupted career of victory ended. She 

 went on apparently well, reaching six-feet-eleven in 

 girth, till December, when she began to lose flesh ex- 

 ternally. Still, although it was rather vexing to see 

 that Almack's Belle was beating her, not much was 

 thought of it, till about half-past seven one February 

 morning, when John Ward found her in her box in the 

 big barn, breathing very fast. A message was imme- 

 diately sent to the house, and Mr. Major was telegraphed 

 for to London ; but it was soon evident that there was 

 no chance. The shorthorn beauty had turned blue at 

 the nostril shortly before ten o'clock, and lost all her 

 circulation; and then, having made a last effort to 

 walk from one side, where she had been leaning, to the 



door of her box, she sank down, rather than fell, and 

 died without a groan. Her heart was found to be so 

 completely encased in fat as to impede its action, and at 

 least seven stone was taken out of her. She was four 

 months gone in calf of a red-and-white heifer to Lord of 

 the Valley, who filled up, along with Sir Roger by Wind- 

 sor, the space between Prince Alfred's hirings. This 

 seven-year-old son of Crown Prince and Vivandiere, 

 who now reigns at Branches Park, has passed quite a 

 royal existence. For three seasons he was at H.R.H. 

 The Prince Consort's Home Farm at Windsor, and 

 migrated in 1858 to St. Cloud. In 1859 her ladyship 

 hired him for 150 gs., and the Warlaby tariff was 

 increased to 200 gs. after his season of absence at Mr. 

 Dudding's. 



Highland Lassie, along with a Breton, a Polled Angus, 

 and an'Alderney, form a small coterie of their own with 

 the dairy stock at the farm, whei'e her ladyship also cul- 

 tivates the white breed of pigs. In this pursuit, as in 

 every other, she flew at high game, and gave Mr. Fisher 

 Hobbs 35 gs. for a brace of his black sows. The neigh- 

 bourhood did not take to them, and hence there was no- 

 thing for it but to sell off; and a 20-guinea sow of Mr. 

 Wainman's breed v/as the first white tenant of the styes. 

 Then came an improved Middlesex from Mr. Barker, of 

 Sunning Dale, which was rescued from a pen at Baker- 

 street, and reduced to a breeding state. A little sow of 

 Mr. Wiley's, and a boar from his H.R.H. Prince 

 Albert's, were afterwards purchased for the sake of the 

 cross, and about a score of their produce are sold or fed 

 off annually. The pig history of her ladyship's farm is 

 not without its night side. It was said of the famous 

 Dragon of Wantley, that when the supply of geese and 

 turkeys was exhausted, he could make a meal off a 

 church; and so the notorious "Manchester Gang," 

 when shorthorn men got to know them, were not too 

 proud to stoop to pigs and washing-machines. They 

 marked one of these sows for their own ; and it cost Sir 

 Robert and his lady a goodly sum to travel to Cottono- 

 polis, and rescue her, after divers conferences with the 

 police, from the knife of the butcher to whom she had 

 been sold. Her ladyship's boudoir contains no evidence 

 of these tastes, with the exception of a pig study by 

 Morland. A little cow piece by Cuyp also struggles 

 ineffectually in the interests of High Art, as Happi- 

 ness, Baroness Warlaby, The Empress, and Glen Lo- 

 nan's Chief—some of them, if not painted originally, at 

 least painted over by her ladyship — decide the issue in 

 favour of the Low. Prize medals are amusingly inter- 

 spersed with other knick-knacks and bijouterie on the 

 tables ; and the spreading horns of Cheltenham hang on 

 the wall in true allegiance to the death, with the neater 

 coronet honours of Happiness beneath. Queen of 

 Athelstane will have her niche as well; and a 

 London taxidermist is exhausting the resources of his 

 curious art in preserving her head and neck, which will 

 be exhibited ere long in the Kensington Museum, where 

 a Devon and a Poll Angus are embalmed already. 



