November 10, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



379 



compelled to be content with a high commendation, or a com- 

 mendation only. There was then but one class for Coloured 

 hens and pullets, and one for cocks of all ages. Now there are 

 three classes for Coloured birds, three for Silver-Grey, and one 

 for White. If the Committee next year will take Mr. Hewitt's 

 hint, and give four prizes in each class, they will probably in- 

 crease the entries, and so improve the show. I trust, too, that 

 they will find something better than those excruciating wire 

 pens — with wire I mean on three or four sides — in which every 

 other minute the bird's tail is passing through or rubbing 

 against the wire, so that a show of three or four days' duration 

 is sufficient seriously to mar, if not altogether to destroy for a 

 time, the exhibition prospectsof many a fine bird. — E. M. B. A. 



TO SOUTHAMPTON SHOW. 



"Unto Southampton do we shift our scene."— (Shakesjieare's 

 Henry V., Act 2.) 



No. 1. 



I purpose to write two papers, the one to Southampton Show, 

 the other at Southampton Show ; the first dealing with gene- 

 ralities, the second with the specialities of the Exhibition. 



Hampshire, Hants, or Southampton used to puzzle and annoy 

 me when, not exactly yesterday, I was learning my English 

 counties. Shropshire or Salop was bad enough to remember, 

 but at least they both began with an S ; but Hampshire, HantB, 

 or Southampton was intolerable. What had Southampton to 

 do with Hampshire ? Then, soon after, I learned to connect 

 Southampton with travelling to the far east, and this did not 

 increase my love much, as friends, boyhood's friends, with 

 whom I walked in our playground, the precinct of an old cathe- 

 dral, " twining arms round each other's necks as only school- 

 boys can," to quote Dr. John Brown, had gone from South- 

 ampton, and fought and died in the Sikh war in the far India. 

 So I had little love for the place, but I knew it not, and, as it 

 proved, because I knew it not ; and now, thanks to poultry, I 

 have made the acquaintance of Southampton. 



Leaving Wiltshire on Monday week with a mist around me 

 was not encouraging, but unexpectedly meeting at my station 

 a brother parson and brother poultry fancier put a brighter 

 aspect upon affairs, and much mended matters. The day was 

 indeed dull and dreary, but then could we not talk pleasant 

 poultry talk, and then talk parson talk proper, and then hark 

 back to poultry again ? We did this on Monday, and though 

 the mist hung over us we minded it not. Westbury White 

 Horse stood out shaggy with mist, looking like a rough Shetland 

 pony. Curious that we should have in Wiltshire three white 

 horses cut on the downs — that on Cberrel Down, near Calne, 

 this at Westbury, and the one the boys cut out at Marlborough, 

 all better shaped than the original and far-famed one in the 

 Vale of White Horse in Berks. Talk, talk, and no view until 

 we come in sight of Silisbury Cathedral, and a long and good 

 view of it we had as the train wound slowly out of the station. 

 Does any reader know that most genial and kindly book of the 

 American blacksmith, " A Walk from London to Land's End 

 and Back ?" If he does, he will perhaps remember Elihu 

 Burritt's beautiful words about Salisbury Cathedral spire ; but 

 all will not have read the book, so I will quote them. Catching 

 a distant view of it, he says, " Beyond, like a long delicately 

 tapering finger, ringed at the middle juint, the spire of Salis- 

 bury Cathedral points upward, pushing its silver nail into the 

 lower clouds. For six times the life-length of the American 

 Republic that finger has been uplifted in sky, cloud, and storm. 

 In the most tempestuous years of English history, in John's 

 day, and Stephen's, and Cromwell's, it towered with steady 

 poise into the still blue bosom of the sky, like a petrified human 

 prayer, lifting the cross nearer heaven than it was ever raised 

 by other shaft on this proud island." As I passed, and gazed 

 and admired, I thought of these eloquent and graphic words. 

 No one more noticeable thing until Romsey braiugbt to mind 

 Lord Palmerston'a manly English character and career. Then 

 on further, and amid red brick and blue slate, and a gleam of 

 masts in the docks, I am at Southampton Station. 



And now, to use Shakespeare's words (and he almost always 

 will supply a suitable motto), 



" Unto Southampton do we shift our scene." 



Nowhere do old and new stand out in more direct and abrupt 

 contrast than in Southampton. The town is very old and very 

 new, but there exists a divider in the Bar Gate, an old gateway 

 not unlike, but much superior to, Temple Bar. In speaking 

 in Southampton it is "Above Bar" and "Below Bar" — below 

 Bar all old, above Bar all new ; below Bar trade, above Bar 



private residences ; below Bar much crowding of houses, above 

 Bar all width of streets and spacious parks or park-like squares. 

 In the old part crop out portions of the old stone walls mixed, 

 and mingled, and built in to red brick bouses, like warts on a 

 hand, with this difference, that the warts are far prettier than 

 the hand. In some parts of the Below Bar there are remains 

 of ancient towers and military architecture. Above Bar is my 

 temporary home. By the way, I always feel that a friend's 

 house in a strange place is my home there, so different the 

 feeling when in lodgings or at an inn ; and never did I find 

 kinder friends or feel more thoroughly at home than at South- 

 ampton. 



The poultry show will not be opened until Tuesday afternoon, 

 so I stroll about ; and further Above Bar come upon one park, 

 or, more properly speaking, large park-like square, called 

 " Watts's Park," because a marble statue of the good little non- 

 conformist Isaac Watts, D.D., a native of Southampton, stands 

 in its centre. There, in gown and bands, and with hymn-book 

 in his hand, stands he who was the best writer of children's 

 hymns this country ever produced. It is said that on this 

 spot, overlooking Southampton Water, and viewing the beautiful 

 country beyond, Watts wrote the lines — 



" Coutd I but Btand where Moses stood, 

 And view the prospect o'er ;" 



and it is for this reason that the statue is there placed. On 

 the pedestal beneath the statue are four bas-reliefs, the best a 

 group of little children in the dress of the day, and in their 

 midst the good little doctor and his hymn-book. Over this 

 group are the suitable and true words, " He gave to lisping 

 infancy its earliest and purest lessons." In another such park 

 is a statue of Lord Palmerston, and in another one of some 

 worthy Mayor of former days. Wide are the streets and well- 

 built the houses in the part above Bar. I stroll by the Water, 

 a beautiful long narrow estuary, with the New Forest beyond 

 it, and I stand at the door of the Carlton Hall, which, I am 

 told, is the largest room in Southampton, but no admittance 

 yet ; but of it and of its contents No. 2 Bhall, all being well, 

 tell next week. — Wiltshire Rector. 



POULTRY SHOW REPORTS. 



Fikst let me altogether disclaim any intention of inflicting 

 a wound on " Wiltshihe Bector" deep enough to require a 

 plaister. The utmost I wished was to give him just the gentlest 

 and friendliest dig in the ribs, and that, too, with no more 

 dangerous weapon than the stump of my old quill pen. 



"Wiltshire Rector" sets me down as a beginner. Cer- 

 tainly my experience is not so extensive as that of many, but 

 at all events I can claim as long experience as an exhibitor as 

 he can as your correspondent ; and in those breeds in which I 

 am most interested I think I know the points of a good bird 

 wiihout having to turn to the pages of the "Standard of Ex- 

 cellence " for information. Let me remind him that I did not 

 ask for information as to what birds ought to be, but what they 

 are at the particular show which iB being reported — how nearly 

 they approach to the perfection demanded by the " Standard." 

 But at the same time it could not but happen that in such 

 reports as I asked for much valuable information would often 

 be obtained incidentally, which would do much towards setting 

 at rest many at-present-debated questions. 



"Wiltshire Rector" instances Mr. Blakston's articles.^ I 

 regret to confess that I am absolutely ignorant of Canaries. 

 If I dared, I would say that the prizes seem to be awarded 

 always to the ugliest birds. Nevertheless, I never pass over 

 one of " W. A. B.'s " articles ; they are indeed so witty, so 

 much more than readable — so highly amusing. I have looked 

 back to the report upon the Crystal Palace Show referred to by 

 " Wiltshire Rector," and I perfectly agree with him thatit 

 is admirably done, but I entirely disagree with him as to its 

 not going into details. Let "Wiltshire Rector" read it 

 again. It takes each class separately ; it picks out the best 

 birds in each ; it points out the characteristics of many of 

 them ; it mentions in a way which could not offend the suscep- 

 tibilities of the most sensitive judge when he does not altogether 

 agree with the decisions ; in short, it is just what I have asked 

 for in the reports of our poultry shows, and I hope " Wiltshire 

 Rector" will take it for his model when he gives us his ac- 

 count of the next Bristol Show, which I trust he will be able 

 to see and to write about, that we may have the pleasure of 

 reading it. 



I take it that reports of poultry shows are written for the 

 benefit of poultry fanciers, to whom the much-abused details are 



