Nunwick Hall. 97 



type of his shorthorn faith.* Since his father's death 

 in 1866, Mr. Saunders has kept up the shorthorn 

 charter. They hold, however, a divided allegiance in 

 his mind with Sweetbriar (late Jane Anne), the heroine 

 of three well-fought fields, and Sam, the Whitehaven 

 Cup winner, and other S's of the coursing world. 



" Twenty-six there and back" had not a consoling 

 sound, as we left Keswick one December morning 

 on a walking tour to the Honister Crag end of Butter- 

 mere Lake. The way was very dreary, when we 

 were fairly on the muirland, with nothing to break 

 our sullen tramp mile after mile, save the sound of 

 Keskadale Beck, as it grumbled over stones and under 

 water-gates, and the faint bleat of the Herdwicks as 

 they crossed the road, and sought for a sweeter bite 

 by the springs in the rock. The distant opening in 



* Homer, of Lord Spencer's breeding, was his first good bull, and it 

 was by a cross between him and the Windermere tribe, that Mr. William 

 Parker brought out the Pearls, for which Mr. Saunders went in so boldly 

 at the Yanwath sale. A few White Roses were the only relics of the first 

 Nunwick Hall sale, and with them and Abraham Parker Mr. Saunders 

 went to work to found his second herd. It was sold off just before the 

 Carlisle Royal Meeting, and Filagree (150 guineas, Mr. Alexander) 

 helped up the average to 40 guineas for fifty-six. Fanchette (31 

 guineas, Mr. Sanday) was the speculative purchase of the afternoon, 

 and only a Pearl heifer-calf was " left for the land," when — 



" The last wheel echoed away." 



Mr. Saunders did not leave her long with 300 acres to herself, ard 

 Fleda and Lady's Slipper were bought at Fawsley the next year, after a 

 punishing finish with the Americans. Mr. Torr mounted a ladder near 

 a stack amid the pour-down of that historical day for shorthorns and 

 bought Garland and Chrysalis for himself and Mr. Sanday, and each of 

 them produced ten calves ; while Alix and Cold Cream proved a perfect 

 cornucopia of calf and dairy produce at the Royal Home Farm. Fleda 

 was in calf with Baron Fawsley, and the cross with Prince of Glo'ster 

 produced Nunwick, who in his turn was the sire of Mocassin, from 

 Lady's Slipper, the bull that Mr. Adkins selected as the corner-stone of 

 his third herd, as being full of Favourite blood. Nunwick was a good 

 show-bull, and at Penrith, in 1859, Messrs. Culshaw and Douglas 

 placed him, after a very long discussion, before Mr. Watson's General 

 Haynau ; but he was beaten on his next public appearance by Captain 

 Spencer's Young Ben. 



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