THE FIRST FARMER OF ENGLAND 109 



hidden by the oaks or elms that guard some stately 

 home the open country of this island garden of 

 the North Atlantic! To be first, or even among the 

 first, in a land which above all other lands realizes 

 in fullest measure one's fondest dreams of all that 

 God's great out-of-doors should be, stamps him to 

 whom it is applied as possessing every claim to 

 that immortality with which we love to invest those 

 whose portraits pass the curtains of the inner shrine. 

 May election to that chamber be ever closely guarded! 

 TORR was a Lincolnshire man who first of all 

 became a master of the arts of tillage, his crops 

 being the envy of his brother tenants throughout all 

 the east of England. An admirer of good sheep, he 

 took up the Leicesters, giving them that unremitting 

 care and thought which has made Britain so famous 

 for its fleecy wonders. His heart, however, was ever 

 with the Shorthorns, and after due deliberation he 

 decided to cast his fortunes with the house of BOOTH. 

 His real career as a cattle-breeder began when in 

 1 844 he leased the famous Leonard, one of the best 

 stock-getters of his day, and to the very last he re- 

 mained a devoted and determined adherent of that 

 line of breeding. Like all other great constructive 

 breeders, he put ultimate results above temporary 

 expediency. He had a definite end in view from the 



