Mr. Dickinsons Farm. 369 



had drained no less than 2600 rods with two and two 

 and a half-inch pipe tiles from three to five feet deep, 

 besides carting the tiles seven miles ; and when we 

 add, that he had stubbed up 720 yards of old fences, 

 and drained the ditches with four-inch pipes, and 

 planted 1030 yards of new fences, and the whole at his 

 own expense, with the exception of the quicks and 

 planting, we have a pretty good proof of what Saxon 

 perseverance can do.* 



* It was eight or nine years before he thought of shorthorns, and 

 when he did speculate in a bull-calf it could get no stock. The second 

 did not fare much better, as, after keeping it six months, it died off at a 

 day's notice. So far, so bad ; but nothing daunted, he went again to 

 the same herd (Mr. Birchall's, of Ribbleton Hall), and returned on 

 that occasion with Louisa and two bull calves. Louisa gained an H. C. 

 at the Liverpool and Manchester Show, but she would not breed to 

 Statesman, and then Mr. Birchall presented him, to make up for his 

 previous ill-luck, with Tipton (12,228) by Brewster (7847), as a mate 

 for her. From this lucky cross (which was the turning point of the Up- 

 holland herd) came Tipton Slasher (13,888), Amelia (the dam of Prince 

 of Prussia, and Duke of Holland), and the Duchess of Lancaster ; and 

 then Louisa considered her mission accomplished. 



Lancashire had hitherto bounded Mr. Dickinson's journeys, but he 

 could not resist a peep at the Fawsley sale, and returned with the ten 

 months' Pope's Eye (15,071), by Duke of Cambridge (12,742), from 

 Smockfrock, by Earl of Dublin (10,178). Never were 45 guineas better 

 laid out ; and Prince of Prussia, in 1857, and Duke of Holland, in 1858, 

 were the results of the cross with Amelia, but, as if to square matters, 

 their own brother died in i860, when he was four days old, and she 

 cast an own sister to them in the following year. 



Mr. Dickinson began as an exhibitor at the little Upholland gather- 

 ing ; but he got well beaten at first, and could do nothing until he sent 

 Louisa into the ring. His first Liverpool and Manchester prize was at 

 Warrington in 1853, when " Tipton" beat a large field for the yearling 

 bull prize. Amelia was also a great winner both at this Society and 

 others in the district ; and among her fifteen prizes she could count 

 one as " best cow or heifer in the yard," at Southport ; and that for the 

 " best tenant farmers' cow or heifer" twice over at the North Lancashire. 

 So far Mr. Dickinson has nearly 500/. to his credit side in prizes, and of 

 these 70/. (and five silver medals) were contributed by Prince of 

 Prussia. This bull was never shown till he was a yearling, and, except 

 when he thrice met Royal Butterfly, and one of Mr. Ambler's (once), 

 he never missed a first prize. It was rather hard lines to have Towneley 

 in such especial force at the time, but still a second to such a bull at the 

 Royal, with the first animal he ever showed there, and a third in the 



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