238 NORTH LANCASHIRE 



A born fancier of all kinds of stock and no respecter 

 of persons, he would yet give some consideration to 

 the opinions of the son of his landlord on the type 

 of sheep to be encouraged, and was even open to 

 advice on that touchstone of knowledge the manage- 

 ment of grassland though his joy when he managed 

 to trap two " authorities " in a contradiction was great 

 and unconcealed. A would-be buyer happened along, 

 and we sat on the hillside and watched the play 

 the preliminary feintings when the buyer made much 

 of the cows he did not want to purchase, and then 

 asked casually what was the price of the others that 

 were a bit off, the systematic examination point by 

 point with appropriate depreciations on one side and 

 praises on the other, the final offers and walkings 

 away all for the pure love of the game, for each 

 man was aware of the quality of his antagonist and 

 confided to us afterwards that " he knows nigh as 

 much as me." A matter of 5s. a head separated 

 the parties at the end ; the buyer, who had never 

 ceased to lament the lack of keep on his place, was 

 to write if he really found he had any grass when he 

 got home. 



The whole of the farm was given over to stock- 

 raising, and we never saw a finer stamp of general 

 purpose Shorthorn than on this and the neighbouring 

 farms in the valley. A warm roan was the favoured 

 type, neither all reds nor whites being in much esteem 

 locally. They were not registered, but the blood was 

 there ; the local farmers all breed for quality and take 

 the greatest care in the bulls they buy. The original 

 country stock was always of good repute, and the 

 famous Townley and Knowlmere herds which half a 

 century ago were close at hand have doubtless left 

 their mark on the cattle of the district. Our host had 



