AprU 1, 1876. ] 



JOUBNAL OP H0BTIG0LTDB3 AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



263 



ia Balham. Often and often had I passed it in spring, and 

 autumn, in summer, and especially in winter, but it always 

 smiled a welcome. Pleasant-looking treey Balham ! for after 

 all the fine trees were what had captivated my eyes, and made 

 we wish to see the place. 



But what a winter we have had ! How cruel to man and 

 beast, and bird ! Oh, that snowy freezing December, and Feb- 

 ruary still worse to bear because of the mild January preceding. 

 Surely March will make amends ! but March 1st piercingly cold, 

 with north-east wind, no sun, no cheerfulness. March 'iai just 

 the same. March ^rd rather worse, because of little spiteful 

 snowflakes that almost blind one. What days to walk up Picca- 

 dilly with the wind in your face ! Metropolitan railway stations 

 usually cheerful, bat cheerless now, with shoeblack boys having 

 no customers, for people dare not stand still and take bronchitis. 

 March 4th comes, and — " Why, really, you don't mean it, do 

 you? there you are at last, my old friend, Sol." Positively 

 there at ten o'clock is a little sunshine, more at eleven, and by 

 noon, when I reach Balham station, it is really a pleasant bright 

 March day. 



Now has come the time at last to walk through the place I 

 had 80 often admired in passing. How broad, and bright, and 

 pleasant the street is ! how well kept the houses and gardens ! 



There is my friend, a butcher's boy (N.B. — Always ask your 

 way of a butcher's boy, for he is a walking, or rather driving, 

 local directory). I pause till the said boy, rosy and plump as 

 his beef, has ceased his flirtation with that pretty maidservant. 

 Just as a hungry man is an angry man, so an interrupted lover 

 is liable to be cross. " Will you tell me where Mr. Vander 

 Meersch lives?" "Why, sir, at Lower Tooting." "Well, ia 

 this Tooting?" "Some calls it so, but I call it Balham, and 

 TJpper Tooting begins at the ' Wheatsheaf.' Gc straight on for 

 a mile, cross a broad way, and on the left opposite, a big red- 

 brick house, is Mr. Vander Meersch's." Now, there's a butcher's 

 boy for you ; his imformation clear, concise, and easily remem- 

 bered. Had I interrupted his love-talk I should not have had 

 such a good direction. Note. — Always be judicious, and do not 

 speak at wrong times. Attention to this and like matters make 

 a man get on comfortably in life. Discretion oils the wheels of 

 life and makes the machine run on smoothly. 



Thanks to that butcher boy my troubles are at an end. I 

 stroll on in enjoyment, not in doubt. Presently I come to the 

 " Wheatsheaf," for there is its sign, and there in the door the 

 host. I come soon after to the broad crossway. There's the large 

 red-brick house, just one of those you rarely see anywhere except 

 near London. Why it is I know not, but around London there 

 are grand red-brick mansions, their colour toned by time, most 

 pleasing to the eye, giving an idea of warmth and comfort which 

 no stone can give. Some stone for dwellings chills, as, for in- 

 stance, all who know Aberdeen feel chiUed when walking the 

 streets by the cold grey granite of the houses. 



Would that men would now make such good red brick as in 

 the years when Hampton Court was built, or when many such 

 houses were as the one I now look at. Directly opposite I see 

 Mr. Vander Meersch's name on a wicket, and walk in through 

 a nice roomy garden to a most snug old-world romantic home 

 (for home is the only word), named " The Walnuts " — suitable 

 name, for walnuts came to England in Henry VII. 's reign. Soon 

 I enter a regular cosy parlour ; and though I am as yet alone 

 I know it is Mr. Vander Meersch's, for on a side table is a stuffed 

 Black Trumpeter, a bird that in life I remember well, and a 

 grand bird it was. There, too, on a table in the window ia a 

 stuffed White Jacobin, another grand bird ; but as yet we Pigeon 

 fanciers have not found a bird-stuffer who is a fancier, and 

 therefore no dead specimen has justice done to it. Above me 

 chirps a good Norwich Canary; at my feet is a toy terrier, 

 while a black retriever makea love to my hands. Around me are 

 glorious hyacinths, and I sit and wait for the master's arrival, 

 feeling a fancier in a fancier's home. 



I do not wait long, for Mr. Vander Meersch soon arrives, and 

 with him I begin the tour of bis premises. He is particularly 

 fortunate in having so much space, and yet so near London. 

 Before the house lies a square of lawn all — house and lawn — within 

 walls. On the lawn are fowls enjoying a ramble. Two sides 

 of the lawn running around the interior of the outer wall are 

 wooden poultry houses and runs, each a semi-detached villa, 

 with a run at either end of the block ; two houses and their 

 runs, then two more, and so on all round the two sides. They 

 are very neat erections and do not look awkward, as they are 

 low-roofed. 



Mr. Vander Meersch manages to keep thirteen different varie- 

 ties of fowls, in size varying from Black Cochins to Game 

 Bantams. There were Hambargha, too, of every variety. I waa 

 glad to aee the Black Cochins, for they are a class which need 

 much to be taken up by fanciers. We have plenty of good 

 Whites, but Blacks are few indeed. I stroll round admiring 

 the neat arrangement of the houses and the excellence of their 

 inmatea. Indeed the whole plan is admirable, including the 

 •exercise-lawn in the centre, with flower beds protected by wire. 



Come we next to the Pigeons, looking up as we pass to a loft 



above a stable — a deserted loft now, for it brought sad reflections, 

 for the rats forced their way in and destroyed many birds. First 

 within an enclosure I come upon Pigeons kept on the pen 

 system, almost as Rabbits are, the birds sitting in one part or 

 division and living in the one adjoining. In these I found good 

 Fantails, tame as cats from constant companionship with tbeir 

 owner, large Kunts, small African Owls, alao Jacobins, and they 

 were Mr. Vander Meeraoh's Jacobins that I particularly wished 

 to see. He is breeding not only for Blues but Silvers, and is on 

 the way to success. 



These colours will be a very agreeable addition to our shows. 

 We have Red Jacks and Yellow Jacks in abundance and of 

 admirable quality. Then come Blacks, striking by the contrast 

 of the white head and black hood, but other colours there might 

 be. Now, as I said, Mr. V. is breeding for Blues and Silvers, 

 and what we have begun to see good— viz., Whites, as witness 

 that beautifal White Jack shown by Mr. Fulton at the Bristol 

 .Show. The difficulty with the White is of course getting rid 

 of the bull eye and obtaining a good pearl eye in its place, as 

 bull eye and white feather will go together ; this, however, may 

 be done. There is another colour which I used to see — viz., 

 Mottles, which I should again like to be shown. 



A correctly mottled Jack would be as good a colour as in 

 Tumblers, and the old fanciers had Reds, Yellows, Blacks, 

 Blues, and Mottles. Duns would hardly be a desirable addition, 

 but a clear Blue as good in colour as a Dragoon would be a great 

 addition, for I fully believe in old Girton when he says " Jaco- 

 bins are by far the prettiest Pigeons of the Toy kind." We may 

 look for first-class Blues, Silvers, and Whites in a few years 

 from Mr. V.'a stock. Next I come into the largest compartment 

 of all for the Pigeons, some 30 feet long by perhaps 10 wide, all 

 roofed in, and with a close wire front. Around me are the 

 shelvea, on the old principle of being open, save having a blind 

 to hide the nests. 



All sorts of Toy Pigeons are before me, and some that are not 

 Toys — ^Turbita, Nuns, Barbs, Trumpetera, and Hragoons, and a 

 few Shortfacea. I handle several, and see Mr. V.'s plan of 

 matchiug-up for the season. To show the difficulties which 

 fanciers have to contend with, and true fanciers overcome, I 

 am shown a most perfectly Shortfaced Jack, but — it has orange 

 eyes ; then a Black with a chain and hood of marvellous length, 

 but — half its face ia black and the beak very pleasant-faced. 

 But these birds will form ingredients from which will come 

 grand and perfect prize birds. And herein lies the ceaseless 

 pleasure of Pigeon fanciers ; they have always a " Hill Diffi- 

 culty " to meet and surmount. I go on to other like, but less 

 lofts, and see many birds, upwarda of thirty varietiea being kept 

 by Mr. Vander Meersch. Among the Fantails was a blue-laced 

 hen, a rara avis indeed. Wiltshire met me too, for among the 

 White Pouters was one from Mrs. Ladd of Calne. 



Having made the tour of the premises to the great disgust of 

 a most savage bull-terrier, who regarded me probably as the 

 well-dressed head of a gang of burglars who had come disguised 

 as a clergyman in order to spy out the weak point for attack. 

 Oh, that bull-terrier, with his chain shortened to save my calves, 

 which quivered with fear, as I had to pass very near him once 

 or twice ! 



Returning to the house, having perambulated the whole pre- 

 mises and seen everything down to horse, Alderney cow, and 

 that terrible dog, I sit down to lunch in a room hung round with 

 old Mr. Wolstenholme's portraits of prize Pigeons ; almost 

 every fancier has them, and some of them are still good, although 

 time and fanciers have made great strides onwards since they 

 were drawn, as in the Trumpeter and Pouter; but the Lance 

 Fantail and the Black Short-faced Tumbler are excellent, and 

 will please for ever. Chattering over luncheon and talking 

 Pigeon-talk, I am next shown by Mr. Vander Meerach his prizes, 

 cups, and, what are much more useful, a silver tea-apparatus, &c. 

 I3ut the day wears, and I must be in Wiltshire by night. On 

 my way to the station I am shown peeps into the vast houses 

 for orchids, azaleas, heaths, &c., in BoUisson & Son's nursery, 

 with which Mr. Vander Meersch is connected ; thus he is a sort 

 of walking Journal of Horticidtiire, for hia life is spent among 

 flowers and birds. Happy man to be situated, and not " pent 

 in a populous city." But time and trains wait for no man, and 

 with a hearty shake of the hand with my pleasant Belgian 

 friend I hasten to Balham station, having enjoyed greatly the 

 best part of a fine March day with Mr. Vander Meersch. — 

 Wiltshire Eectob. 



TuE Bath and West of Engl.ind Society meet this year at 

 Croydon. The Exhibition opens on May Slat, and closes on 

 June 4th. Croydon being so quickly accessible from London, if 

 the weather proves favourable the visitors will be numerous. 

 The poultry prizes are liberal, and there are fifteen £5 cups. 

 We are sorry the Society adheres to the injurious rule of re- 

 quiring the birds to be delivered on the Saturday. We know 

 to our cost that the Sunday frequently spoils the looks of many 

 of the birds before the judges come round, for the pens are made 

 very dirty. We wish the Society would admit the birds on 



