EOTAL sociETr.] PEINCIPLES AND PEACTICE OF [kotal society. 



tion, was accomplished by Mr. Jonas Webb, 

 and arose out of one of those trifling circum- 

 stances from which great results often ema- 

 nate. His grandfather was a breeder of rams 

 in Korfolk ; and it was one of the oddities of 

 the old gentleman, at his annual sales, to put 

 his grandsons to ride on his tups, without 

 saddle or bridle, but making them hold fast 

 bj the immense horns of the animals. Ex- 

 periencing both the pain and the diificulty of 

 retaining his seat on these occasions, it sug- 

 gested itself to tlie mind of Jonas, that, if 

 ever he arrived at manhood, and bred sheep, 

 he would endeavour to provide them naturally 

 with " better saddles of mutton." A lean 

 hurdle-backed Norfolk ram was at this time 

 the animal ; which, indeed, might have better 



racing qualities, but could not compare, in 

 eating qualities, with the beautiful firkin- 

 bodied Southdown, for which Mr. Webb re- 

 fused 500 guineas at the Paris Exhibition of 

 lS5i). Nothing but Norfolk sheep could 

 have thriven upon the uncultivated Norfolk 

 heaths of former times ; and nothing but the 

 roots of artificial grasses, the cake, and the 

 corn of modern days, could have brought the 

 Babraham "Downs" to their present state of 

 matchless perfection. 



We have now arrived at the period when 

 Norfolk is no longer foremost in the race of 

 agricultural improvements, and when the new 

 era commences in the foundation of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society of England, incorporated 

 by special charter. 



THE EOTAL 



CHAPTER II. 



GEICfTLTTJKAT, SOCIETY; DEAINAGE ; THE FIRST FIELD DEAINED ; Tm 

 POPvTABLE MANUKES ; THE GEOLOGISTS; THE GAINS OF FAEMi:-.G. 



CHEJIISXS ; 



THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 

 The source of the present mode of farming 

 dates from the foundation of the Eoyal Agri- 

 cultural Society, in 1837-'38. The late Mr. 

 Henry Handley, M.P., has the merit of having 

 suggested the formation of this association, in 

 a pamphlet which he published in 1837, and 

 which seems, very rapidly, to have carried 

 conviction to the minds of those who became 

 the originators of the society. Mr. Handley 

 was a Lincolnshire squire; an excellent judge 

 of stock, and a good sportsman ; whilst he 

 cultivated liis own estate, it is said, with a 

 higher degree of intelligence than was usual 

 in his time. The first meeting of the asso- 

 ciation was held at Oxford, in 1839 ; and the 

 first number of its Journal appeared in the 

 following year. It was placed under the 

 editorship of Mr. Philip Pusey, who died in 

 1854, wiio was a good writer, an ardent 

 farmer, and who devoted his time, his talents, 

 and his fortune to recording the progress of 

 89-1 



his favourite science, and stimulating improve- 

 ments in every direction to which his influ- 

 ence extended. He is said to have been an 

 example of "that delightful combination of 

 scholarship and practical energy which is so 

 common in England ; and he exercised the 

 double influence of an accomplished gentle- 

 man and an enliglitened agriculturist." 



It is impossible to calculate the benefits 

 which have been conferred on English agri- 

 culture by the establishment of this society. 

 The brightness of its own light has been dif- 

 fused through the remotest corners of tl)e 

 land. In the able article from which we have 

 alreadv quoted, it is stated that, "with its 

 council of peers, squires, tenants, and imple- 

 ment-makers ; its professors of chemistry, 

 botany, and veterinary art; its thousands of 

 subscribers spread over every county of Eng- 

 land ; its journal of transactions and reports ; 

 and, above all, its annual encampments in the 

 centres of successive districts, has done lur 

 farmiui? what the great fairs of the middle 



