JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ June 16, 1870. 



phos grandiflorns. (H. D., Royston).—l, Spirsea luevigata. (W. Oodbold). 

 — Claytonia gypsophiloides. (IF. Hodynon, Aepatna). — 1, Saxifraga 

 aizoidea ; 2, Saxifraga stellaris ; 3, Lysiinachia vulgaris; 4, Epilobium 

 palnstre; 5, Specimen not sufficient for identification. (Mrs. H. U. C. A.). 

 —8, Prunus Padus. 



POULTRY, BEE, AND PIGEON CHRONICLE. 



FOUR HOURS AT THE TAUNTON SHOW. 

 I have sometimes wondered whether puffing advertisements 

 paid the puffers, peeing they assume that there must be so 

 much credulity, stupidity, and gullibility in their readers, and 

 yet their being continued is evidence that they must pay. 

 Then, would people really believe in quack pills without the 

 puffing? or in "the best blacking in the world" if it were 

 simply very good and unpuffed? I fear not. " Have you got 

 rid of your Wild Duck eggs, of which you had hundreds?" 

 said I to an acquaintance. " Oh, yes, and made a little for- 

 tune by them; but, then, I knew how to advertise. I put in 



the ' Wild Ducks 1 Wild Ducks!! Wild Ducks !! !' 



Tour simple, plain advertisement does not do ; you must go in 

 for it strong." Now, I have always felt fireproof against puffs. 

 There are the puffing wine merchants, who send their circulars 

 to clergymen every month ; they have no effect on me. But 

 proof against puffs, either word-puffs or pastry-puffs, there was 

 one puffing advertisement which rivetted my attention and 

 caught my fancy. I had a long journey alone, the weather was 

 inclement, and the passengers few. I had read through my 

 newspaper, got up Bradshaw as if for examination, got tired of 

 my book, fell to yawning, and got tired of that, tried to look 

 out of the window, but " wind, steam, and rain " forbad ; then 

 thought of Turner's wonderful picture with that title, and got 

 tired of thinking even of that. Well, there was nothing left 

 to do but to stare at the advertisements pasted on the opposite 

 side of the carriage — at " Do you bruise your oats ?" or 

 " What ! South African." The latter an explanation of a 

 picture of three men tasting wine in a cellar. These adver- 

 tisements were soon exhausted ; I had no oats to bruise, and I 

 knew that Mr. Gladstone, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, 

 had said, " South African wine, innocent of South Africa, but 

 cognisant of the Isle of Dogs." Bat one advertisement (I keep, 

 like a child, the tit-bit for last.) pleased me, and I read it, 

 and thought of it, and it excited my curiosity, which I was 

 ashamed to find that such an advertisement could. It was an 

 auctioneer's advertisement, and surely the mantle of George 

 Bobins had fallen upon that man. It ran thus :— " House to 

 let in the far-famed Vale of Taunton, one mile from the town 

 of Taunton, in which are the best churches, the best chapels, 



and the best , best , best ," and so it went on 



enumerating everything that a town could contain, " best 

 doctors, lawyers, &o., &c, &c, in the West of England." Now, 

 that was an advertisement, and it made me have an abiding 

 wish to see the far-famed Vale of Taunton and the town of 

 Taunton. 



So now this Whit-Monday, Johnny Raw's day of rejoicing, 

 I am off to Taunton to meet an old friend, the Bath and West 

 of England Show. I smiled at Wells ; was starved and thankful 

 to give 3d. for a penny bun (a bad one) at Clifton ; ate coarse 

 beef and no salad at Salisbury ; I was to have had it a visitor 

 in this part, but Chippenham folks were not sufficiently awake 

 to the advantages of having it as a guest ; and now I am to 

 meet my old friend in the far-famed Vale of Taunton, and the 

 town where is the best of everything. 



It is pleasant to meet the old Bath and West of England. 

 There will be the old far-extending boarding ; the long lines of 

 machinery in motion, making this hot day feel hotter ; the 

 long tents with all sorts of machinery ; the fat pigs ; the beau- 

 tiful cattle and horses, with their guardians dozing on trusses 

 of hay ; there will be the pressing-man, who wants you to buy 

 new-fashioned churns, mangles, butter stamps, &z. ; there will 

 be pretty water-colour drawings, and some fair oil paintings, 

 and choice antique works of art, and abundance of lovely 

 Honiton lace, and gorgeous flowers, and charming music, and 

 last, but not by any means, to my fancy, least of all, the long 

 poultry tent, with its row of many little flags shimmering in 

 the air. There is one peculiarity in this poultry Show — it is 

 held in leafy June ; it is the great summer Show, and though 

 not as large as many, it is very attractive, and does the poultry 

 world great good, for, so many people being brought together 

 by the various attractions, very many walk through the poultry 

 tent and admire, and some become fanciers either of fowls or 



Pigeons. Other shows are often refuges from cold and wet, 

 but our old friend the Bath and West of England is a tent 

 show, with the summer air blowing in at either end, and the 

 canvas flapping pleasantly about one's ears. It forms part of 

 a great holiday scene, and doubly so on Whit-Monday. Snob, 

 a Whit-Monday, too, the perfection of a summer's day. The 

 best bit of railway scenery of the whole long pull from Chip- 

 penham to Taunton lies between Trowbridge and Eath, that 

 lovely vale, where the line hugs the Avon all the way, and per- 

 fect hills and woods rise around by Bradford, and at Freehford 

 and Limpley- Stoke, and Warley. Five hours of travelling, 

 and I am at Taunton station, where yelling men strive hard 

 and try hard to get one into their especial vehicle. Selecting 

 an open one, I am soon seated for a drive through Taunton. 

 But let us imagine a pause here, and have a little historical 

 gossip about Taunton. 



By the Saxons it was Tanteen, pronounced so still by the 

 inhabitants, showing how a pronunciation will linger though 

 the spelling may change ; subsequently it was Tawnton and 

 Thorneton, being on the river Tuone or Tone. It is a place of 

 great antiquity, Boman coins have often been found there. Its 

 castle was the residence of Ina, King of the West Saxons, about 

 a.d. 700. The place figured again in history in Henry VII.'s 

 reign, when Perkin Warbeck seized the castle and town. It 

 figured again during the great rebellion, then in the Duke of 

 Monmouth's time, who was defeated at Sedgemoor, not very 

 far from the town, and, worst of all, it was the Bcene of brutal 

 Judge Jeffries's bloody assize. So there is much historical 

 interest attached to the town. 



But to return. Here I am starting from the station ; the 

 streets, clean and wide, are in perfect holiday trim ; trees, root- 

 less of course, are for the nonce — firs chiefly — planted in rows 

 on either side ; and as to flags, Taunton people must be manu- 

 facturers of them ; bright clean houses, here and there pretty 

 gardens, of which I get peeps through open gates, and the 

 hilver balls of Guelder roses amid other shrubs, copper beeches, 

 laburnums, &c , top their branches over walls and will be seen. 

 I meet the Foresters in all their greenery, and a grand tableau 

 vivant with Eobin Hood, arrow and all, with a bride by his side. 

 Then comes a regular West-of-England procession, a benefit 

 club of Shepherds, two and two, and carrying a brass crooi, 

 with which crooks they seem to threaten one, or, perhaps, they 

 only threaten the ladies with false chignons, for, indeed, they 

 look determined to crook off something or other. The scene 

 is charming ; so clean a town one seldom sees. 



A mile's drive and I enter the Show. Eighteen years since the 

 Bath and West of England began at Taunton. It was a small 

 Show then, and the day terribly wet; it has had seventeen 

 years of gipsy-like wandering life, and now returns for the 

 year to its first quarters. The Show seems larger than ever. 



But to the poultry tent, which was large and roomy, and 

 had every comfort for the birds, except that the meal seemed 

 very bad ; this an inadvertence, doubtless, but bad food should 

 not be given to valuable fowls after a long journey. 



Class I. SjMiish, eleven pens, but three unfortunatelv empty. 

 Class II. Dorkings, Coloured. Here Mr. John Martin, formerly with 

 Lady Holmesdale, at Linton, was far a-head with his splendid pen, 

 the cock rose-combed, of the old Linton sort. Darlings, White, were 

 not great. Cochins, Buff, Mies Jnlia Milward first by a long way, 

 though the hen of Mr. Cattel's, the second-prize pen, was a good bird. 

 The hens of this class were deficient in leg-feathering. Of Brown 

 and Partridge there were only three pens. White Cochins. — In the 

 first-prize pen the hen was small ; in the second-prize pen the hen was 

 a nice bird. The Dark Brahmas were not too good, not such birds as 

 Mr. Hinton nsed to show in days of yore. The LightBrahmns cannot 

 be praised much ; the hens were weedy, the cocks scraggy, the legs 

 not sufficiently feathered. Next, the Game. I must notice that I 

 think dark legs in Piles are hardly the thing. The Silver-pencilled 

 Hamburghs were a good class ; in the first-prize pen, the hen very 

 good. Tho Golden-spangled were also nice. The cock in the first- 

 prize pen had just the comb a Hamburgh ought to have. The Silver- 

 spangled were a wonderful class for so far south. The French fowls 

 were numerous. In the " Any other variety," an excellent pen of 

 Black Hamburghs, belonging to the Duke oi' Sutherland, toot first. 

 Mr. Gloyn second with Black Minorcas ; and third to those quaint- 

 looking fowls, Cnckoo Cochins, belonging to Mr. Godfrey. 



Among the Duels of any other variety were several pens of the pretty 

 Carolinas, just the birdB fit for a small piece of water. Mr. Fowler 

 was first, and Messrs. Ashton second, with a beautiful pair of Gargany 

 Teal ; Mrs. Watts third, with Carolinas. 



Sebright Bantams, five pens, and all either had prizes or com- 

 mendations. Bantams, White or Black, the latter good, especially 

 Mr. Cambridge's first-prize hen, which is a beautiful httle bird. In 

 regard to the Game Bantams, there was not a first-class cock in the 

 Show. The wings, which ought to go up high, would and did come 



