20 SPECKLED DORKINGS. 



jaunty air as the games, yet there is a house-keeping, satisfying look 

 about them, a development that will go far in recommending them 

 to the many. 



You will perceive mine is not altogether the dollar and cent appre- 

 ciation of a poulterer, but that I have a full value for the beautiful ; 

 a fancy, that is not satisfied with the tailless, booted breeds of India, 

 shorn as they^ are of those beautiful and graceful plumes which, in 

 all other varieties, give a balance to the bird, a justness to his pro- 

 portions, and a stateliness to his every movement. In the little, 

 strutting, booted Bantam, a feathered leg may be all very well, and 

 does but complete his foppishness, for he values them, and takes care 

 of them; but the neglected and broken feathers on a long-limbed 

 " Booby-fowl," do but increase the awkwardness of his appearance, 

 and the clumsiness of his gait. 



But to return to my more immediate subject, the " Dorking." 

 There is in every thing a fashion ; and when I was a youth, white 

 was the aristocratic color then in vogue, not only for its beauty, but 

 because it was less common than the darker colored. But in course 

 of time these gave way to the stronger bird of more varied plumage 

 which, then as now, was a larger, better constitutioned fowl; and 

 proved a better subject for the disgusting process of " cramming" a 

 practice then in common use with those who fatted poultry for the 

 London market. 



As late as 1846, I was in the yards of the celebrated dealers in 

 fancy poultry, the Messrs. Bakers, of Chelsea, and at No. 3, 

 Half-Moon passage, London, and was there shown a lot of very fine 

 speckled and brown Dorkings which I afterwards learned were intend- 

 ed for the exhibition of poultry, about to be held in the Zoological 

 Garden. Is it to be supposed that such men would risk their reputa- 

 tion by exhibiting mongrels in so keen a competition as they were 

 certain to encounter on that occasion? In 1845 I was present at one 

 of the Societies' exhibitions, and saw there half a dozen cages of col- 

 ored Dorkings to one of white. 



But lest all this should not be evidence enough to satisfy the exclu- 

 sives, I will quote for their benefit, from a work, the second edition ot 

 which appeared in 1823, entitled " A Picturesque Promenade round 

 Dorking in Surrey." At page 100 will be found the following state- 

 ments : 



"An incredible quantity of poultry is usually sold at the weekly 

 markets. This trade is chiefly in the hands of a few individuals who 

 regularly attend and supply the London dealers. There is also a 

 breed of fowls with five claws, well known among the poulterers in 

 the metropolis by the appellation of Dorking fowls ; one sort is per- 

 fectly white, and another of a partridge color. Columella in his 

 Husbandry, describes fowls of this kind, and it is conjectured that they 

 were originally brought here by the .Romans." 



Now, gentlemen of the hen-coop, I hope we shall hear no more 

 about white Dorkings being the only pure birds of the breed. In 

 my opinion, they will do very well if they can hold their own, in the 

 more important points of a good fowl, with the colored Dorkings. 



Yours, (fee., R. 



