SHORTHORN HERDS OF ENGLAND. 453 



Lady Christie, with her grand udder, is a fine type of a dairy cow, 

 having yielded under test between seventeen and eighteen pounds of 

 butter per week, unfortunately she lacks the herd book requirements, 

 but having been bred at Rigmaden Park, there can be little doubt of 

 her having considerable shorthorn blood in her veins. Mr. Goodison 

 takes considerable interest in agriculture and on his small pleasure 

 farm, several experiments are being tried, of which another day we 

 shall have pleasure in hearing the result. 



Passing to the South of the Lake and thence over Kirkby Moor, 

 we come to Low Hall, placed well in the centre of the land which 

 extends from within a quarter of a mile of Kirkby Station situate 

 on the estuary of the River Duddon to the open common, and 

 many of the shorthorns when in their heiferhood, and not in profit, 

 are accustomed to graze on the verge of the heather. To the tenant 

 Mr. Geo. Ashburner the first prize was awarded by the Royal 

 Agricultural Societv when it held its meeting at Preston, " for the 

 best stock rearing farm, where the management was principally and 

 most successfully directed to the breeding and rearing of Live Stock." 

 The herd came into the present owner's possession after the death 

 of his father, the late Mr. R. W. Ashburner, in 1869, who had 

 founded it by the purchase of Lady in 1832, from Mr. William 

 Hodgkin, of Drigg, who was a near neighbour of Mr. Burrow, of 

 Carlton Hall, one of the earliest breeders on the West Coast. The 

 painting of her son, Favourite 3772, adorns the entrance hall at 

 Low Hall, and Duchess of Kirkby, the winner of upwards of one 

 hundred cups and prizes, traces to one of her daughters, while her 

 descendants in 1840, laid the foundation of the Hall Santon herd, 

 and some of their best stock traced to the Low Hall purchase. The 

 herd, when passing into the present owner's possession, was largely 

 composed of the Ruby and Gilliver families, and had been consider- 

 ably in-bred by the late Mr. Ashburner, thus the introduction of 

 fresh blood, as in the union of Tenth Grand Duke with the Ruby 

 cow, Nightingale Oxford, doubtless tended to produce the beautiful 

 Duchess of Kirkby, and one of the Gillivers also when bred 

 to Sockburn Lad 30024 the first sire bought by the promt 



