Mr. Peel's Herd. 349 



won at Stockton, and The Sawyer was only beaten 

 a short head by The Spy, so that the stud won as 

 nearly as possible three races off the reel. The Moet 

 corks were drawn vigorously at Thorneyholme, when 

 the tidings arrived. It is generally brought by 

 pigeons, which are taken in by the carts to Clitheroe 

 in the morning, and there handed to a saddler, who 

 ties the telegram under their wings, and starts them 

 back. They make very short work of the twelve 

 miles, and come sailing up the valley, poised mid-air, 

 with many an anxious eye watching their flight. If 

 they don't go into their house, the saddle-room, that 

 great Tattersall's of the place, is in a feverish state, as 

 men and lads are burning to hear the home favourite's 

 fate. Oddly enough, on this especial day, the lad 

 was so busy with the York yearlings that he forgot 

 the pigeons, and Heseltine heard the news on his 

 march to York. 



Knowlmere Manor is barely two miles from Thor- 

 neyholme. Nature and civilization in the shape of 

 fell and meadow have long waged a fierce strife for 

 the sovereignty of the spot, but twenty years ago 

 Mr. Peel threw a handsome Tudor house into the 

 scale of the latter, and forced Nature to fall back 

 upon her foxes, her grouse, and, we may almost add, 

 her Lonks. The valley of the Hodder is one of the 

 last places in which we should have expected to find 

 such a substantial tabernacle, and we could almost 

 fancy that some wandering band of Freemasons had 

 reared it in the days when Tudor or Plantagenet were 

 living names, carved their quaint symbol as a me- 

 morial on the stone, and departed as silently as they 

 came. To a lover of wild scenery, however, the 

 choice is fully justified. Knowl Hill is on the right, 

 with its cap of fir-trees, and in the distance the dark 

 Staple Oak ridge crosses the valley of the Hodder, so 

 dear to the Northern tourist, and looks down on the 

 Root Stud Farm. About 125 acres on millstone grit 



