XIV 

 THE FIRST FARMER OF ENGLAND 



Here is a story of success in farming and stock- 

 breeding that reveals, in startling fashion, the 

 possibilities of a noble profession persistently and 

 intelligently pursued a recital that contains more 

 inspiration perhaps than almost any other that may 

 be told in SADDLE AND SIRLOIN circles the tale of 

 WILLIAM TORR. 



In the portrait you may see a faint reflection 

 of the "cheery sun-at-noonday smile" which was the 

 outward manifestation of a disposition that endeared 

 him at once to all who came into his presence. 

 He attained to a distinction second to none other 

 that can be bestowed upon a Briton-born, the 

 sobriquet of "the first farmer of England." In a 

 land where practically every man, woman and child, 

 from His Majesty at Buckingham Palace down to 

 the very humblest, have an inborn affection for the 

 soil and a pride in rural achievement, the phrase 

 we couple with the name of TORR is redolent of 

 fertile, well-kept fields, rare herds and flocks, rich 

 swards bedecked with buttercups, the hawthorn 

 hedge, the smooth hard highway winding in and out 

 between stone walls, distant spires or turrets half 



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