Farnley Hall. 289 



brought new tenants to browse in the pastures of Farn- 

 ley, Broughton, and Denton Park, but tempted the 

 Duchess tribe to renew their strength in later years 

 near Wetherby.*' 



Farnley Hall, which was originally built in the time 



* Mr. Fawkes's career as a breeder of shorthorns may be said to 

 have begun in earnest with Mr. Whitaker's stock. His first purchase 

 was Norfolk (2377), a grand roan bull by Second Hubback, and then 

 such a favourite of Mr. Bates's, that he sent six heifers from Kirk- 

 levington expressly to be served by him. One of them was " my best 

 Duchess" 33rd, the great grandam of Grand Duke ; another, Blanche 

 by Belvedere, from whom Roan Duchess 2nd is in direct descent ; and 

 a third founded the Waterloos of Aylesby and Springfield fame. 

 Norfolk himself was from Nonpareil by Magnet, rather a gaudy cow, 

 from Mr. Barker of East Layton's sale, where Sir Charles Knightley 

 purchased Rosy and Primrose, which, along with Rufus and Little John 

 of Mr. Arbuthnot's breeding, virtually founded the Fawsley herd. In 

 1834, Mr. Whitaker bought Verbena (45 guineas) and the grand 

 Medora (40 guineas), both as heifer calves, at Mr. Richard Booth's 

 Studley sale, and bred nine calves from the latter. In the previous 

 year Mr. Whitaker sold off his herd, and again bought about three 

 dozen well bred cows, for the use of his work people at the Burley 

 mills. Mr. Fawkes was so much struck with the looks of some of 

 them, that he arranged with his neighbour to allow him to select 

 twenty for service principally by Norfolk. The compact was to be in 

 force for three years, and 10 guineas was to be paid for each of them, 

 doublets or not, at the expiration of a week, provided it was not a 

 black-nose, and had no symptoms of unsoundness. Hence, sixty were 

 transferred during that period from Greenholme to Farnley, and the 

 first ten bull-calves by Norfolk averaged 100 guineas each. The very 

 first bull-calf that was dropped received the title of Sir Thomas Fairfax, 

 (who won at the Bristol Royal, and twice at the Yorkshire Society) ; 

 and the Ohio Company offered 400 guineas for Norfolk in vain on that 

 trip, when, but for Mr. Whitaker's faint praise, they would have 

 carried off Duchess 34th in calf with the Duke of Northumberland. 

 However, they took away the Duke of York (1941) for 150 guineas, 

 who had been sold as a calf for 14 guineas at Mr. Whitaker's sale the 

 year before, and bought some lots at the Studley sale as well. When 

 he was rising four, 250 guineas was accepted for Sir Thomas Fairfax, 

 and he departed to Brawith, leaving eight-and-twenty " Fair"-named 

 calves behind. Old Fairy Tale long remained to testify to this beauti- 

 ful favourite, and she bravely supported his line with fourteen calves 

 since 1842. Medora had been helping meanwhile to carry on the 

 Norfolks, thrice from the old bull direct, and thrice from Sir Thomas 

 Fairfax, and when the three years' lease of Mr. Whitaker's cows had 

 expired, the Farnley herd mainly consisted of some thirty two-year-ol4 

 heifers. 



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