MARLBOROUGH COLLEGE. 75 



fair which was held close to the College grounds, was attended by 

 dealers who came from all the country round. 



In our village here, where much of the subsoil is boulder clay, 

 foot-rot requires the shepherd's constant care ; for although I 

 have little doubt that all our farm-yard animals are descended from 

 those domesticated in Abraham's time, selection and survival of the 

 fittest have not yet changed the natural repugnance of the sheep's 

 hoof to anything but dry or rocky ground, such as their progenitors 

 enjoyed on the Himalaya mountains and elsewhere. Indeed, if we 

 left our flock unattended for two, or at the most three years, not a 

 single animal would have survived the combined ravages of foot-rot 

 and the progeny of the beautiful breeze-fly. But on the chalky 

 downs near Marlborough the case is different I believe, and when I 

 was at school. Farmer Beauchamp of this village was annually 

 deputed by my father and other land owners, to drive down to 

 Marlborough fair and make large purchases of sheep, free from the 

 evils which give us so much trouble. 



Whilst talking yesterday to one of the old Rectory servants, of 

 whom I am glad to say several are still residing here, she asked me 

 if I remembered a certain hamper which Master Beauchamp took 

 down to the " iron railings" for me nearly half-a-century ago. Of 

 course I did ! I should be as likely to forget my name or dweUing 

 place, and I was beginning to describe its shape, and size, and 

 colour, when the old lady cut in and gave minute details, which I 

 never knew or had forgotten, relating from the time when the 

 farmer knocked at the Rectory door, announcing his intended visit 

 to Marlborough, down to the moment when the basket was deposited 

 by her hands m the farmer's gig. Some natural tears the old lady 

 also shed recalling happy days, but wiped them soon, for although 

 Master Beauchamp has long been gathered to his fathers, no one 

 who knew him can talk about him without laughing. 



During Napoleon's wars he was drawn for the militia; and his 

 well-known figure, leaning on his shepherd's crook, beneath the 

 " stock trees " on the village green, was pretty sure to draw idlers 



