202 



JOURNAL OP HOKTICTJLTUKE AND COTTAGE GASDENEE. 



[ September 8, 1863. 



DccKs (Ronen).— First, T. C. Trotter. Second, R. M. Stark. Highly 

 Commended, R. M. Stark. 



DrcKS (Any other variety).— First, .T. R. Jessop (EaBt-Indian). Second, 

 R. M. Stark (F.ast-lndian). Highly Commended, R. Gowden, Bridlinpton. 



PiGEO.NS.— 6Vo/j/>ers. — First, W. Watson, Beverley. Second, W. Witty, 

 jun., Coltingham. Ciirrlers. — First, W, Watson. Second, T. Ellringti'n, 

 Woodmansey. Trumpeters. — First, F. They, Beverley. Second, H. Yardley, 

 Birminj^ham. Jacvlins.—Ywi^t, J. K. jessop. Second, T. FUrington. 

 Highly ComiHended, T. lUlringtOD. Tniitaih.—VlTi^r ,1: . lillrjngton. Second, 

 "W. Watson. Highly Commended, J. 11. Jessop. Tfr/i'^/fr^. —First, F. They, 

 Second", J. R. Jessop. Hit^hly Commended, G. J.:rratt, Hull. Barbs.— 

 First. 'P. Ellrington. Second, W. Witty, jun. J\'b«.'!.— First, F. They. 

 Second, J. R. Jessop. At<ti other variety.— YlX'^X, H.Tarriley tOwls). Second, 

 J. R. Jfssop (Turbits). iiighlv Commended, T. Stathers. 



Radeits.— First, G. Teal. Secoud, G. Loft. 



The Judges were M. H-anter, Esq., Green Hamerton, near 

 York, and P. Ferguson, Esq., EisTay Park, near Beverley. 



PEIZES AT THE LAST SHEFFIELD POULTEY 

 SHOW. 



" Exhibitor " inquired last week if the prizes at this Show 

 were ah-eady paid, and in reply I can inlorm him they are 

 not, nor do I think them Ukely to be. I wrote to the Secre- 

 tary four times on the subject before I could get an answer, 

 which aU your readers will agree is very bad policy on the 

 pai't of a manager of alfaii's. Being rather put out at re- 

 ceiving no answer after posting the third letter, I thought I 

 would see what a fourth would do in, rather strong tei-ms. 

 This immediately brought a supplicating letter as follows : — 



■• I deeply regret that your ijrevious letters have been un- 

 answered, but I have been from home about a month 

 engaged on business, and the party who should have at- 

 tended to the con-espondence must have neglected it ; and 

 I am still fiu'ther sorry to say, that owing to many difS- 

 culties thi-own in the way of the Show by several members 

 of last year's Exhibition Committee, it resulted in a total 

 failure. Tliis, added to the fact of my other speculations 

 (before and since the Show), being singularly unfortunate, 

 I am compeBed to resort by pressvu-e of my creditors to the 

 Court of Bankruptcy to relieve me from my difficulties ; and 

 although I may be released from my debts, you may depend 

 I sliall feel it both a pleasure and a duty (should I at some 

 futiu-e time attain a position to discharge your claim), to 

 do so." 



What is the proper epithet to apply to a man who takes 

 everything upon his own responsibility, the financial depart- 

 ment included, holds the Show, gives it out as a complete 

 faUitre, pockets the entrance fees, &o.,ivithout paying a single 

 fai-thing as prize-money, and takes lumself out for a month 

 or more on business, as he calls it ? 



Do you think there is any jiossibOity of the money 

 eventually being paid ? 



I hope this subject will not cease without a little dis- 

 cussion ixnd investigation. — Alius Exhibitor. 



[If there was any Committee for managing the Sheffield 

 PoiHtry Show all its members are bound in honour, and 

 may be in law, to pay the i>rizes awarded. If, on the other 

 hand, as you say, the Secretai-y, now a bankrupt, " under- 

 took everything," and the exhibitors accepted his sole re- 

 sponsibility, we agi-ee with you that the prizes ai-e " not 

 likely to be paid ; " but those entitled to thern might prove 

 as creditors against the bankrupt's estate. — Eds. J. of H.] 



BEE-KEEPING IN DEVOIST.— No. XXI. 



A TRIP TO THE SEASIDE. 



I 'VE been to the seaside — 



"Oyes; I know," mentally interpolates the reader. "Bath- 

 ing machines, Bath chairs, perambulators, importunate 

 donkey-boys, circulating library, lots of children at the 

 diggings, used-up dantlies, ultra-fashionable young ladies in 

 balloon skirts, pilfering landlady, bad cooking, and worse 

 attendance." 



Not a bit of it, my deai- Sir or Madam. I 've been to a 

 little hamlet in the wilds of North Devon, nine miles from a 

 market town, four miles ii'om the butcher's, a couple of miles 

 from a letter-box, and the same distance from church, per- 

 fectly free from the abominations you have recited, where 

 we could do as we liked, and enjoy to the uttemiost a fine 

 open sea (Lundy Island in the distance, but beyond that the 

 broad Atlantic with no land in a straight line nearer than 



America), and an excellent beach. Oh ! the delights of that 

 happy time, when we lodged in the quaintest of farm-houses, 

 with doorways and cross-beams in the ceilings that barely 

 cleared one's head ; Ix'droom doors made in the ijrimitive 

 fashion of three rough phrnks nailed to cross pieces at the 

 top and bottom, and seciu'ed by a wooden latch, over wliich 

 I stuck my penknife to guaixi against accidental intrusion. 

 What shouts of laughter arose the fj-st morning, v.lien the 

 children found themselves imprisoned by the misbehaviour 

 of the only iron latch that our dormitories boasted, and 

 were ultimately released by a vigorous apjiHcation of the 

 shoulder to the outside. \Vh:;t fun it was when, neglected 

 by the butcher, and with no poultry immediately available, 

 we were reduced to dine upon eggs and bacon fried to a 

 tiuTi by that excellent farmer's wife whose cookeiy was 

 always perfection, and brought in hot and crisp by her 

 buxom daughter, at once the most obliging and efficient of 

 attendants. What joUy rides we had in the spring cai-t 

 driven by the good-natured farmer himself, and drawn by 

 his stalwart horse sixteen hands high and rising five years 

 old, that would walk more than four miles an hoiu-. and 

 trot something like fourteen without a touch of the whip, 

 which in fact his driver never carried. Not a little proud was 

 he of this really fine animal, which had been bred by himself; 

 nor was he ever tired of expatiating on his courage, fine 

 temper, and manifold good qualities. Did we not ride in 

 this way over Vt'^ooUacombe Sands, three miles long, and 

 listen with moistening eyes and bated breath whilst our 

 conductor related how, two winters ago, nine stout ships 

 failed to weather the Morte {ancjlice, death) Eock at the 

 entrance of the Bristol Channel, and all came ashore hero 

 and went to pieces in one fatal night, when eight out of 

 their nine crev/s were drowned, mth the exception of two men 

 who alone siu'vived to tell the tale ? With what interest did 

 we look at that gorse covert where, in almost the last stage 

 of exhaustion, the master and sole siu'vivor of his ship's crew 

 dragged himself one dark night, and with nails torn ofl' and 

 fingers lacerated by clinging for deai- life to those rugged 

 rocks against v/hich he had been hurled by the pitiless 

 breakers, laid himself dov.Ti in utter ignorance of his posi- 

 tion until the gxey light of dawn enabled him to crawl to a 

 habitation some two or three miles inland. How surjjrised 

 were we when on aixiving at the little village of Morthoe we 

 suddenly found ourselves in the midst of donkeys and oi^nli- 

 sation in the shape of visitors from Ilfracombe. Need I say 

 that the children were rather impatient of the time we de- 

 voted to the examination of the ancient chiu'ch recently 

 restored by the munificence of the incumbent, and contain- 

 ing the remains and a monument to the memory of Tracey, 

 one of the murderers of Thomas a Becket, by whom it was 

 founded seven hundred yeai's a,go, or describe with what 

 delight they scrambled on donkeyback, and set ofi' down the 

 hiU to enjoy a gallop on the sands, and pick up shells at 

 Barrycane ? Then came a plunge into the sea and a battle 

 with the breakers, resulting in a glorious swim outside, 

 alternately lifted on the toiD of a watery hill and then sinking 

 into a dark green valley extending on either band as fai- as 

 the eye could reach, as we rose and fell with the Icng swell 

 of the Atlantic. 



" Not;, Mr. Bee-keeper, this is all very well ; but don't 

 you know that Kingsley has described North Devon scenes 

 and characters far better than you can ever hope to do ? and 

 that when you last went to the seaside you dwelt in stylish 

 lodgings at a fashionable watering-place, where you visited 

 and were visited by your bee-keeping friend who assumes 

 the convivial initials, and that you declared you were vei-y 

 comfortable, and enjoyed it immensely ? and don't you know 

 what somebody says in that nasty Latin wliich I never could 

 understand, something about a Ttncc and a. siiiior*, which I 

 thought was very interesting to ladies, but which I am told 

 means only that a cobbler should stick to his last ? and so, of 

 course, a bee-keeper should stick to Ids bees, for you know 



a parson should " 



Yes, yes, my dear Madam, I do know, and fully admit 

 the justice of all that you would urge, but I am coming to 

 the bees presently ; and in the meantime you may aUov.- me 

 to tell in my own way how much we enjoyed ourselves, for I 

 have a couple of keen Editors over my head with two pairs 

 of sharp scissors in their hands, by one or the other of wliich 

 * Nc sutor ultra crepidam — Let not the cobbler go beyond his last. 



