146 THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FARM. 



being so numerous, and representing so many breeders, 

 afforded a good study for the tiro who could have an 

 able Mentor to point out the characteristic points of each. 



There was a wealthy-looking grand-framed cow of 

 the Marjoribanks formation ; there were the elegant, 

 ai'istocratic-looking maidens of Sir C. Knightly's 

 moulding ; a useful, thick-fleshed, big, matron, bred by 

 Jonas Webb, whose artistic hand, had he lived only a 

 few years longer, would have established a famous kind 

 for both butcher and dairy ; there were a few specimens 

 from that keen judge, Mr. Wetherall, with the true 

 ring of his stylish Silver Bell sort ; there were a few 

 square-built cows of the much-belauded Waterwitch 

 tribe, bearing in their dewlap the mark of old Van- 

 guard, but with the most cantankerous horns that it is 

 possible to conceive. Above all, however, were the 

 lovely massive Towneley Butterflies. "Them's the 

 pick," I heard a master-butcher remark to his fellow, 

 as with a dainty movement the celebrated White 

 Butterfly wound her way amidst the herd over the 

 bedding of deep muck, to a sweet lock of hay in the 

 corner of the manger, beside a heifer that had recently 

 calved, and to which she whispered, I doubt not, in her 

 own considerate gentle way, a few words of matronly 

 counsel, just as a Marchioness of thirty years might 

 over the cup of tea she was sipping, by way of company to 

 the young Lady Maud, whose reclining attitude and pale 

 features were significant of a recent interesting event. 



The average, so far as I could make out, was about 

 £37 for the cows : but there was a general feeling that 

 " if Strafford had been there," there would have been 

 a vast improvement in the prices obtained. " That 

 Tattersall of Shorthorns," as the auctioneer of the day 



