128 FIELD AND FERN. 



the full value, both as regards flesh and consti- 

 tution. One cross of it was all he went for, 

 and hence his remark that "people have asked 

 me for West Highland crosses in defiance of warn- 

 ing.' 5 He fully allowed that " a good beast is a 

 good beast however come j" and then he adds, most 

 wisely, " but we cannot depend upon succession 

 without pedigrees." Upon every point he took the 

 public into his confidence, and gave copious reasons 

 for his new belief. When he abandoned his prejudice 

 against stock by Lord Kintore's bull, it was " the 

 stock of old Rose that compelled me ;" and when he 

 began to wean his calves on oilcake, he only did it 

 "in deference to contrary opinions." 



His reverence for the English " shorthorn homes" 

 and their owners was unbounded. Marquise, a fifty- 

 guinea heifer from Sir Thomas Cartwright's, seems 

 to have been one of his earliest purchases from them, 

 and she proved cheap at ninety to Mr. Longmore. 

 Alice was bought at Mr. Charge's sale in the May of 

 '45, and he tells with no small glee how at the York- 

 shire and Durham County she had beaten Mr. Booth's 

 Bud or Modish. Then we learn how " the grieve 

 was sent for particular information, and perhaps to 

 buy one of Sylph's descendants," and how he came 

 back with Ladye Love (whose dam Belinda departed 

 to found a tribe at Babraham) for 67 and expenses, 

 but not in-calf. Again did that devoted grieve cross 

 the Border " expressly to bring back Carnation by 

 Benjamin (1710), dam by Ganthorpe, and so to 



