DECEMBER 417 



my three beasts were disposed of. Royal Duke fetched 26/., 

 turning the scale at 93 st. 12 lb. live weight, which is estimated 

 to produce about (i2> stone dead weight. The young bullock 

 and the heifer, aged about eighteen months, sold respectively 

 for 17/. 5 J. and 17/. Although he took first prize at the 

 Lothingland Show, Royal Duke has never quite come up to 

 expectations, as throughout his — for a bu'lock— considerable 

 career of two years ten months, he has proved himself but a 

 second-class ' doer.' Ultimately he was bought by our local 

 butcher for the same sum that the said butcher offered before 

 he left my yard, and as his journey to Harleston and the sale 

 expenses will come to at least i/. is.^ it is clear that we have 

 lost money by our enterprise. Still, it is a good thing occasion- 

 ally to sell stock at a public auction, as it advertises the fact 

 of the existence of a herd. For instance, the two young 

 things went away to Colchester, and those who bought them 

 may come back for more. 



December 9. — The weather to-day remains mild and windy. 

 On the farm there is little or nothing of interest to record. 

 The ploughs move from place to place, and throughout the grey 

 December days steal up and down the dripping fields. Beyond 

 the daily routine of stock-feeding, root-cutting, &c., that is 

 almost all. It is the dead of winter, in which few things grow, 

 and yet I suppose that vegetation does increase whenever the 

 temperature is above 42 degrees, for almost imperceptibly the 

 tender wheat shoots lengthen, and the young bean plants look 

 sturdier at each visit; also the green leaves of weeds spring in the 

 shelter of the hedges. 



To-day a widow visited me to enlist my interest, such as it is, 

 in the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution, to which ad- 

 mirable charity I am a small subscriber, and asked me to sign her 

 certificate of recommendation. For thirty-four years her husband 

 farmed no less than 680 acres of land in this neighbourhood, for 

 which he paid an annual rent of 930/ Now she is penniless. The 



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