THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



iiZ 



It must not, howeverj be supposed amid the record 

 of such enthusiasm, that shorthorns exercise a spell over 

 her ladyship, to the exclusion of the other farm details. 

 No one can enter with greater spirit into the general 

 management of the land, and grudge expense so little 

 to keep ic in heart. All the implements are from the 

 best makers, and have been personally selected for their 

 efficiency in the show-yard trials, and their adaptation 

 to the peculiar soil. Steam ploughing has also occupied 

 her ladyship's thoughts, and she informed us, that she 

 trusts in due time to submit to the public an engine 

 and plough of her own invention. Books of authority 

 upon this and many other subjects of scientific farming, 

 as well as a chemical chest, met our eye ; and amid all 

 these more alluring mental activities, the dwellings, 

 education, and comfort of the labourer, and his relation 

 to his employer, have formed the subject of her own 

 and Sir Robert's most anxious care. 



Branches Park, near Cowling, to which they removed 

 from Chippenham Park, last August, lies about six 

 miles from Newmarket, in the Cheveley direction. Earl 

 Stamford's string, some five-and-thirty strong, with 

 Diophantus third, and Febrifuge's golden chesnut 

 glancing gaily in the sunlight about twelfth, were taking 

 a slow canter over the Bury Hill; and as we rode that 

 morning up the beech-shaded ascent, we thought how 

 often poor Frank Butler and Uncle Sam were wont to 

 walk, growling in the spirit, along it, and shed many a 

 weary pound to reach their eight stone seven. Branches 

 is supposed to have been the hunting-seat of Henry II. and 

 Fayre Rosamond, and in the absence of any regular his- 

 tory of SufiFolk, the tradition derives support from the fact, 

 that a famous grazing piece in the park is still known to 

 cowherds as Rosa's Lea or Rosaley. There are also some 

 remains of old painted glass in Cowling church, which, 

 although barbarously repaired, indicate sufficiently, by 

 the blending of castles, crowns, and English roses, that 

 some monarch once took his ease in the parish. On the 

 site of the present house, which was built in the reign of 

 " good Queen Anne," and had a couple of wings built 

 to it by Mr. Dickens for the special reception of 

 the Prince Regent on one of his Newmarket visits, there 

 once stood a small castle or castellated keep, surrounded 

 by a moat, part of which still lingers in the gardens. 

 Her ladyship is quite at issue with the commentators, 

 who maintain that the royal residence was at Kirtling 

 Castle, and argues that castles with such architectural 

 pretensions as Kirtling can show, were not found in 

 England so early as the eleventh century. The farm 

 adjoining the house, which is rented from Mr. Simpson, 

 the present proprietor of the estate, consists of 375 acres, 

 and another of 150 will shortly be added to the holding. 

 The soil varies, but may generally be taken as 18 inches 

 of stiff loam on the top of clay, and we needed no 

 better pri/nd facie proof of its strength than the splendid 

 oaks it has reared. The season prevented us from seeing 

 the grass in anything like perfection ; but we understood 

 that her ladyship had been duly advised by her consult- J 



ing counsel, the judges of the little cattle show she has 

 established at Newmarket, to graze the park thissummer. 



The herd, of which from 20 to 30 are for private 

 sale, number about seventy at the Home Farm, and 

 about a dozen at the other, which is shortly to be given 

 Up. Her ladyship writes us: — "There are nineteen 

 pure Booths among them ; five out of the rest have six 

 crosses of Booth, and the others have four, or at least 

 two." Their pedigrees are set forth in full in the annual 

 Branches Catalogue, which, with its naive confessions 

 and its interesting foot-notes, promises to open up quite 

 a new era in this once dreary field of ff. g. g. d. litera- 

 ture. If Mr. Carr has been more brief in his note?, 

 he has gone a step beyond her ladyship, and called, for 

 old Windsor's sake, the easel and the camera to his aid. 



On our arrival at Branches, we found them ready 

 to our hand in three divisions— the milking cows 

 in Rosaley, whose hedge divides Cambridgeshire from 

 Banstead Park Wood, in Suffolk ; the higher-bred ones 

 on the other side of the iron rails in the park ; and the 

 bulls, the calves, and the Dublin-bound in the yard. 

 The great majority of the cows have nursed their own 

 calves, after passing through a winter of well nigh fod- 

 der famine. The mangels and turnips were a farce, the 

 hay was bad, and, in fact, oilcake was the only main- 

 stay. This state of things had touched Roxana, a 

 daughter of Lord of the Valley and Rowena by Ham- 

 let, very lightly, and if she were not too small to please 

 many judges, she would be good enough to go on with 

 for country shows. So far, she has been merely shown 

 at Skipton as extra stock, and earned a high commenda- 

 tion at Keighley in Queen of Athelstane's and Almack's 

 Belle's class, without any " training " to aid her. She 

 has all the nice hair and colour of Duchess 77th, and 

 her walk alone is one or two points in her favour. Her 

 own sister Baroness, a great milker, has more length, 

 but not the same make-up, and her coarse head rather 

 sets one against her. Next her was the good-haired 

 Lady Salisbury from Mr. Budding's sale, whose deep 

 forequarter, great breast, strong hips, and peculiar top 

 stamped her as " Baron Warlaby for a ducat." Breed- 

 ing is so much her forte that she has produced three 

 single calves within twenty months ! Princess of Saxe 

 Weimar, who was once second to Mr. Stratton's Warwick 

 prize-cow Matchless 4th at the Bath and West of Eng- 

 land, seemed a nice even-made cow, with capital ribs 

 and loin, and a short neat leg. Hildegarde by High- 

 flyer (11576) was in poor condition, and rather plain 

 behind, but Booth to the life in her head ; while Rose' 

 bud's specially savoured of Prince Arthur. Joan of 

 Arc was equally faithful on that point to her sire Van- 

 n-uard, and her best characteristic is her talent for the 

 dairy, which she develops for about seven months in 

 the year, at the rate of 23 quarts per diem. Dahlia 

 has required milking three times a-day for five months 

 in the year j and Rose of Braithwaiie has equal reason 

 to boast of her udder as Eyeirighf has of her neat 

 bone. 



