October 24, 1865. ) 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



351 



imagine that he was a timid author, and caused but oue edition, 

 and that a very Hmnll one, to bo printed. Perhaps, too, he 

 was not over-blessed witli cash ; however that might be, we 

 now scarcely know of the existence of nion- than one copy. 

 I'oor Moore, he dedicated his book to Sir William Stapletou, 

 Bart., as he says, " seekiut; a proper refuge against any ill- 

 natured censures." Of course he thought the learned natural- 

 ists would iiooh-jiooh Die jiages of tlie mere fancier, and for 

 the humble fancier the book would bo too dear ; so perhaps 

 Mooro lost by his work, and his wife in her pets — pet though she 

 herself might be — threw his book (I hope only figuratively) at 

 the poor man's head, and his authorship was tabooed ; he re- 

 gretted it as a weakness, gave the servant-maid (no Mrs. Moore 

 would do this) the unsold eoiiies, the greater number, to light 

 the tiro with, or the maid took them, .saying " Only Coliim- 

 barums. Mum, they don't matter;" and, as a conclusion, 

 Moore went to his grave lamenting he had ever been an author. 



Mooro describes himself thus: — "Mr. .John Moore, Apothe- 

 tarj', at the Pestle and Mortar, in Ijanrenco Pountneys Lane, 

 the first great gates on the left hand from Cannon Street, who 

 formerly lived at the Pestle and Mortar in Abchurch Lane, 

 London." An apothecary, then, was Moore, a member, I fancy, 

 of the old Apolhecaries' Company, for he was an educated man. 

 He was not a surgeon, not a grand bewigged doctor, who walked 

 about with a hollow-topped gold-headed cane, in which top 

 was some strong perfume, aromatic vinegar most likely, which 

 the doctor of the day — I fear a solemn humbug frequently — kept 

 smelling when in a sick room, till the habit grew, and in the 

 street, when in conversation, the gold nob was ever at tlie nose, 

 and the ignorant looked with awe upon that gold-headed cane, 

 and a very poor chance would a clever fellow who abhorred 

 humbug have had if he had started in doctoring without a 

 gold-headed cane. John Moore was none of these, he was a 

 Compounder and seller of drugs; others prescribed them, he 

 made up the prescriptions merely, so was guiltless if the patient 

 was killed, unless he made a mistake, and if so, he was the 

 man to take prescriptions to ever afterwards, as he would be 

 extremely careful in future. 



The little man at the " Pestle and Mortar," left the pestle 

 quiet in the mortar at times, and was in his Pigoon-loft, or in 

 the loft of his brother fanciers, tailing country walks to " cull 

 simples," and see Pigeons. Then came the thought of writing 

 a book on his favourites, and while beating his mortar he com- 

 bined the ingredients of his pills, and framed his sentences at 

 the same time. " Pestle and mortar" — the old apothecaries 

 had two mortars — one a large, heavy, three-legged thing, which 

 stood on the floor, which uttered when in use solemn sounds ; 

 the other, a little brass thing, which stood on the counter, and 

 which had a spiteful, sharp, ringing sound. A wag remarked 

 the big mortal' say.=!, " Linger him long, linger him long ; " the 

 little one, " Kill him quick, kill him quick." Now, whatever 

 skill John Moore possessed as an apotheearj- has long since faded 

 from all recollection, but his fame as an author lives, and will 

 live as long as a Pigeon fancier exists in the world. He writes 

 like a man of good taste (remembering the age he lived in), 

 and of good education. He writes modestly and correctly, 

 orderly and methodicallj'. His profession crops out now and 

 then, as in his chapters on the " Distempers of Pigeons " and 

 " Their Usefulness." He had read books of travels, and knew 

 better Latin than the dog Latin of his prescriptions. He was 

 something of a wit too, quaintly saj-ing when he did not believe 

 a tale, " Let who will swallow this gudgeon." I, also, would 

 note, that although an enthusiast, I find no one ill-uatm'ed 

 remark save this, " Mr. Hickman, a distiller, in Bishopsgate 

 Street (not one of the lying Hickmans)." Perhaps that family 

 pestered the jioor apothecary, always getting physio out of him, 

 and always ])romising payment, but forgetting their promise. 

 This made him write sharply, or, I rather incline to think, it 

 was mere fun on his part, and no Ijing Hickmans existed, he 

 eaid it to please his friend the distiller. 



Moore describes birds admirably, pointedly, clearly — you see 

 the bird as you read his description. This combined with its 

 truthfulness on fancy points, and its thoroughly practical 

 character, are the reasons his book became a standard work ou 

 the subject. A man who wTites what Uvea its century is en- 

 titled to praise ; nay, more, a man who struck into a new path 

 and did his work so weU that others for a hundred years after 

 did little more than copy him, is entitled to great praise. 



I said " Moore's Columbarium " is a scarce book. Mr. J. M. 

 Eaton has hai)pily reprinted it \rith notes of liis own and of other 

 authors. I have never seen an old copy of Moore. I wiU 

 relate Mr. Eaton's accoimt of hia finding "a genuine copy. At 



page I'Jl of his work he says — "Although it cost me many 

 pounds one way and the other to obtain this book (John Moore'H 

 work, 173.5], besides great loss of time, for I searched every 

 bookseller, north, east, south and west, besides advertising it 

 .^(neral times through the ditTerent channels, had I not seen 

 and read the work I should not have believed there was such a 

 bonk. The fancier to whom the work belonged, used to say it 

 was the only copy in the world. He pnmiised mo lie would 

 lend it to me (if he liad I had made up my mind to have em- 

 ployed some one to have written it out bi'fore I returned it), 

 init he had lent it to a fancier and could not get it back. I 

 still, therefore, hunted for the book, and the more I hunted 

 the further I was olT the scent. However, one day seeing two 

 boys, apprentices I suppose, in deep conversation at an ex- 

 tensive second-hand book shop — I believe if I had asked one of 

 them if he hud ' Moore on Pigeons,' he would liavo said 

 ' No.' (I had my wits about me for Die first and last time) — 

 I arrested their attention by saying, I \vould give them a 

 shilling's worth of brandy and water if they got the book I 

 wanted. I told the boys to consider before they said ' No.' 

 They looked at each other as if surprised. I think they smoUed 

 the brandy and water. After a little ccmsideration one of them 

 went down the long shop to his employer, who went and laid 

 liis hand on a book. I saw the boy coming with the book in 

 his hand, I thought it was something about Pigeons, but never 

 thought it was Moore's work. To my astonishment and delight 

 it was the very identical work I was in search of. Having it in 

 my hands, I thought my eyes would have darted out of their 

 sockets. I thought ' this book shall never leave my hands 

 whatever the price.' I bought it, gave the boy a shilling and 

 left, all pleased with the transaction." I do not doubt Mr. 

 Eaton's delight. 



Now, farewell old Moore, the first that gathered up the float- 

 ing ideas about Fancy Pigeons. I wish he could have known 

 how nis name and work would have lived. AVhcn next in 

 Loudon I will pay a visit, at any rate, to the street he lived in. 

 — Wiltshire Rkctor. 



CALNE POULTRY AND TIGEON SHOW. 



Ik "Wiltshire Rector's" account of the Calne Poultry 

 Show ill last week's Number, there is an expression which is 

 calculated to mislead your readers, which I am sure he never 

 intended, and which, if not explained, would be most prejudi- 

 cial to the success of any future Show of the kind at Calne. 

 He says " When I entered the Show (I presume he means 

 the grounds of Castle House, where the Show was held) at 

 one o'clock, one tent was then only in the act of being 

 reared." I fear this will be understood as either the Pigeon or 

 poultry tent, both of which were erected the day before, the 

 one referred to being a supernumerary tent for the Committee, 

 or some other purpose, for which, however, it was never used, nor 

 was its erection ever completed. With regard to the smalLness 

 of the pens for Turkeys and Geese (and here I would also reply 

 to the complaint of " The Toekev Prisoners at Calne," in 

 the same Number), it should be remembered that poultry shows 

 of any extent, in this part of the country, however much they 

 are desired and desirable, are few and far between ; that in a 

 rural district like this, where the majority of the fai-mers con- 

 sider poulti-y-keeping a very minor consideration, and look 

 upon a poultry-fancier as a weak-minded individual, who is to 

 be pitied if not contemned, it is most dilSeiilt to excite in the 

 public mind sufficient interest in such matters so as to raise 

 the funds necessaiT for the effectual carrying out of such an 

 exhibition, and that, consequently, with the exception of 

 Devizes, there is no place where pens can be hired except from 

 a great distance. On the occasion of the last Show, in 1862, 

 we did go to a distance in order, as we thought, to get the right 

 thing, and had to pay £8 for carriage ; but unless I am greatly 

 mistaken, the Tm-key pens were as small then, or very nearly 

 so, as in the present instance. To Devizes, therefore, on this 

 occasion we went, not feeling justified in spending such a large 

 item for caniage, and. obtained the largest pens we could, and 

 put the Turkeys in the most suitable ; more we could not do. 



As regards the remarks of the " Turkey Prisoners " — " We 

 envied the useless height of the Pigeons pens," I may state that 

 as there had never been a Pigeon Show at Devizes we were 

 obliged to use poultiw pens, and there surely could be no ob- 

 jection to the Pigeons having plenty of room, while the state- 

 ment that none of the officials were taU enough to afJlx the 

 commendatory cards, and that the Turkeys were exposed to a 



