34 Saddle and Sirloin. 



carried on. He was equally given to woodcraft, and 

 spent a great deal of time with his foresters, advising 

 them as to judicious thinning. He planted 1000 acres 

 in addition to the 1500 he found on the estate. Larch 

 was his favourite as regards profit, and oak, beech, and 

 lime as ornamental trees. 



Of Shorthorns and Galloways Sir James was an 

 excellent judge. He began with the former and soon 

 established a good herd, but experience convinced 

 him that they were not suitable to the soil and climate 

 of the bulk of his estate, and they had, therefore, to 

 give way to "a black dairy." He did not declare 

 himself in favour of any particular breed of sheep, but 

 he introduced sheep-farming on to his estate. It 

 is a noteworthy fact, that all the old Netherby leases 

 which were in existence when he became baronet in 

 1854, contained a clause prohibiting the farmers from 

 keeping sheep, on account of their being destructive to 

 the fences. Few men knew better about a horse's 

 points, and he liked the cross between a blood sire and 

 Cleveland mares, but he never made any high prices. 



In 1821-25, before he entered on public life, he 

 hunted a good deal in Yorkshire, and generally 

 stayed with his old friend Mr. Starkie, near Golds- 

 borough. In after years he gave his mind more to 

 shooting ; like most tall men, he was a good, steady 

 shot, and during his session labours he always looked 

 keenly forward to the Twelfth, and the ten days 

 among the grouse at The Flatt in Bewcastle. It was 

 in defence of his rights as lord of the manor of Nichol 

 Forest, that he had to fight the case of Graham v. 

 Ewart through the Exchequer, the Exchequer Cham- 

 ber, and the House of Lords, before it was solemnly 

 decided that he was entitled to hunt, shoot, fish, and 

 fowl over Bailey Hope, a stinted pasture within that 

 manor, under the preamble of the Enclosure Act, 

 which reserved his right to " other rights, royalties, 

 liberties, and privileges in and over the same." Lord 



