132 THE DAILY LIFE OF OUH FARM. 



purpose of setting down in print what was known of 

 pedigree origin, but without success, as I will relate in 

 my next, being just now unable to lay hands upon his 

 letter. 



December, 1868. 



Bless the day that Her Majesty came forth from the 

 affectionate retirement with which we all so sincerely 

 sympathise, even while we regi'et it, to be a competitor 

 upon the agricultural lists of England, where her excel- 

 lent husband was formerly so fortunate. Happy may 

 the omen be of her winning the first prize in the first 

 class, as we were glad to notice. There was not 

 an exhibitor upon the ground but would gladly have 

 cheered her success had she been foremost in every 

 class, even with that loyal spirit which prompted the 

 M'Combie so gracefully to make his Queen a gift offer 

 of his most grand and laurelled Scot. 



Of the show itself I must remark and moralize 

 another time. There has been so much to tell the 

 tintravelled natives hereabouts, since our return, that 

 one is well-nigh sick of the remembrance — ovine, 

 porcine, and bovine. A fund of new ideas, and a 

 whole curiosity-shop of new, not over-expensive inven- 

 tions I have brought down for adoption in the improve- 

 ment, I trust, of domestic affairs. First and foremost, 

 then, did not our rich deep-milking household Aldemey 

 die of milk-fever in the summer ? and ever since I've 

 had no peace because I have not afforded to replace her. 

 But you know — I need not tell you — Christmas time 

 is a jolly time, and there's a good deal of that jollity 

 depends, you will remember, upon the humour and the 

 arrangements, culinary and other, of the placeris conjux 



