Lord Berwick s Herefords. 439 



comes that remorseless stick tap, and another ram is 

 in the sale-pen. Mr. Preece begins at eight A.M., and 

 only ten minutes is allowed for refreshment ; and if 

 you look in again at three, expecting to find his tones 

 like those of a raven in bronchitis, you find him going 

 freer and better than ever. The lover of red mullet, 

 who longed for a throat from London to the Anti- 

 podes, with swallow all the way, might rest contented 

 with having such a windpipe. 



We could not pass Shrewsbury without seeing Lord 

 Berwick's Hereford herd. At any other time we 

 should have delighted to linger in those rich pastures, 

 to which Walford, Attingham, Albert Edward, and 

 Severn had lent so much renown ; but the shadow of 

 death was on the house, and the agonies of an illness 

 such as few have borne were about to receive their 

 grand relief at last. His lordship was able to attend 

 the Canterbury Meeting ; but he made no secret of 

 his conviction that he should leave home no more. 

 He retained all his old pleasantry despite his suffer- 

 ing ; and when he was asked why he thought one of 

 his bulls had been passed over by the judges, he said, 

 " They are so fond of me, they are determined to see 

 me again." 



For a short time after his return he managed to 

 creep out, and look at the Herefords ; but since the 

 beginning of the barley harvest, he had never been 

 seen by his men. Farming was not his only delight 

 when in health. He loved to rear the choicest fowls, 

 and drive the best American trotters, and he made a 

 rifle at his own forge, which one of our first makers, 

 who was in ignorance as to its origin, pronounced to 

 be nearly faultless. He had succeeded to an encum- 

 bered estate, and knowing how to " scorn delights, 

 and live laborious days," he had the courage to be 

 content with his little home at Cronkhill, instead of 

 the stately hall at Attingham, and accomplish the 

 purpose of his life, to leave a clear inheritance for 



