November 17, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



399 



tiae these deceptions remain as unchanged as ever — viz., to 

 obtain by fraud that which they cannot hope to accomplish by 

 honest means. 



Mr. Wright remarks, " that the worst, or one of the worst 

 trimmers he ever knew is also a man who sells eggs that hardly 

 ever hatch." I fancy I know several amateurs who were the 

 victims of this individual, now happily removed from this and 

 all other fancies. He used to sell as " eggs from his best hens " 

 (which undoubtedly was true to the letter) eggs that, having 

 been incubated some week or so, on inspection proved unfer- 

 tilised. He sold them, gloried in his dead robbery, and gained 

 money. In short, there are knaves in all classes of society, 

 and, consequently, in the poultry world as among all around 

 us ; such are not poultry- fanciers, but money-getters only, and 

 it behoves all persons to be on their own guard for their indi- 

 vidual protection. Somewhat lately a gentleman, a stranger 

 to myself, but who, I am informed, is a young man of very 

 considerable means, wrote me a letter, requesting me to say 

 whether a pen of poultry he had bought at a very long price 



was the first-prize pen I had before me at the show 



particularly requesting me to give him " mv own candid 

 opinion of the affair," for if, as some of his friends told him, 

 they were not the birds, this would be the third time he bad 

 been taken in m the same way, to his great vexation." The 

 hamper being already dispatched, I was, as it were, compelled 

 to see them and to the best of my knowledge and belief I then 

 saw them for the first time in my life. As to the requested 

 candid opinion of the affair," I suggested in my reoly that I 

 thought • his want of caution proved him to be plucky, but 

 ™ , W 'f '^ t m , ay be ur sea, Why did I not conjointly pro- 

 secute? The birds were taken back and the money refunded, 

 the seller saying "they were not the birds he now believed, 

 out must have been exchanged in transit on the railway, and 

 he was a great loser." Surely arbitrators have quite enough 

 to contend with within the respective shows themselves, with- 

 out being pulled into constant hot water, brought on from the 

 want of care in confiding purchasers ; and if buyers will, in 

 direct opposition to the suggestions in my last letter, pursue 

 the almost certain course to such difficulties, however much to 

 be deplored, tbey must help themselves. 



Mr. L. Wright is undoubtedly correct in his advice, "never 

 to deal with a known trimmer;" but I must differ in opinion 

 with that gentleman in his mode of making such an one " feel 

 you despise him ;" this cannot be attained simply by the ap- 

 pellations of a "reverend sinner," the "scum," &a. On 

 minds so seared as those to whom I have just alluded, public 

 nLlv, ldual °P ini °n goes for little; their ill-gotten gains are 

 clutched as the result of their duplicity, and this one object 

 attained the expression of disgust of the victim and his friends 

 is lost altogether, and is as ineffective where there is no moral 

 sname to "make them feel," as would be a discharge of dust- 

 snot levelled at the back of an alligator or a rhinoceros. Their 

 only really vulnerable part is, in my opinion, a pecuniary one 

 and should I see the pen of birds alluded to again, that did 

 win, a thorough exposure at my hands will certainly ensue, leai'- 

 ~ e >IJ Iust < to Prosecution. I will not infer for a moment, as 

 Mr. Wright appears to do, that every individual who trims 

 is to be avoided as a man capable of even far more atrocious 

 acts than simply trimming, and no one could regret more than 

 1 should any instance of disgrace to an exhibitor, " who is 

 in the hands of his servant, and who knows little of his fowls 

 himself;" but judges, of course, cannot adjudicate on the 

 spot as to the actual aggressor, but simply on the act committed, 

 whilst I myself really fear (and I hope not uncharitably) that 

 m most_ cases of trimming, the proprietor and his man are both 

 rowing in the same boat, pulling together, and have the self- 

 same goal in view. 



Mr. Wright asks for the publication of the name of the pro- 

 testor to whom, in my former letter, I alluded as caught with 

 the cocks' combs (for there were two fowls), "sewn through 

 and through to keep them upright ;" adding be knew of one of 

 the protestors who stained the Cochin cock's wings, but he 

 thought it (unwittingly on my part), an injustice to refer to 

 such an "enormity," adding "one is not some." I confess 

 that _ Mr. Lewis Wright and myself differ very widely in our 

 opinions as to the justice or even good taste of publishing an 

 offender's name anew after he has already suffered disqualifi- 

 cation for his crime, and consequent punishment. The birds 

 were not disqualified by myself, but by one of the most shrewd, 

 expert, and conscientious of our judges with whom I am ac 

 quainted. This gentleman called my attention to them parti 



afterwards, he pointed out to me (in hand) the still unhealed 

 punctures — for the judge himself took out the stitches at the 

 former show — where the combs had been " sewn through and 

 through to keep them upright." A catalogue was, after judgirjg, 

 produced, and, as I had been previously apprised, they belonged 

 still to the party stated, and he was a protestor against trim- 

 ming. Not for publication, as I think it uncalled-for to the 

 offender to personally renew the charge so long time past, but 

 to satisfy the Editors of the Journal, I enclose to them the 

 name of the delinquent, and also that of the very reliable judge 

 who at the time disqualified. 



It being evident that Mr. Lewis Wright speaks rather from 

 theory than from practical experience on the matter of judging 

 poultry shows, and is, perhaps, scarcely aware of its present 

 difficulties, irrespective of any further additional labours, I 

 wish, therefore, to offer that gentleman a proposition that if 

 accepted will, I think there is not any doubt, finally settle the 

 question ; and let me assure Mr. Wright that I am quite open 

 to oonviction, for if I find myself in error I hereby pledge 

 myself to adopt his plans if they work well. We are now get- 

 ting into the short days, and I have many shows at which I am 

 engaged very shortly to officiate. Pray let me induce Mr. 

 Wright to accept the adjudications in a single instance. I will 

 use my best endeavour to cause some committee to acqui- 

 esce in the change. The entries shall not exceed five hundred 

 pens, for if there are more I will cheerfully take all the excess 

 on myself. We can arrange to begin, as promised us, by nine, 

 and the rest of the daylight is before us ; but I cannot, contrary 

 to all precedent, promise him a bed of Roses with his portion. 

 Interruptions and distractions from the committee asking for 

 advice, and from time to time the already completed awards 

 for the printed catalogue, may possibly occur. But Mr. Wright 

 shall have unrestricted liberty for the exercise to the full of all 

 his shrewdness and practical sagacity, not only to evoke in the 

 first instance the customary triple prizes from the original 

 chaos of the various classes, but also unmolested he may intro- 

 duce any of the American diplomas, very highly commendeds, 

 highly commendeds ( ' in the order of merit"), commendeds, 

 and anything further he pleases to do. When he has completed 

 his duties, if he can still say, " I look back on the general 

 results of my labours and am abundantly satisfied," I ques- 

 tion whether it may not prove much after the fashion of the 

 schoolboy when he sings — 



" Multiplication is a vexation, 



Division is as bad ; 



The rule of three does bother me, 



And practice drives me mad." 

 — Edwaed Hewitt. 



AT 



SOUTHAMPTON SHOW. 

 No. 2. 



"Unto Southampton do we shift our scene.''— {Shakespeare's 

 Henry V., Act 2.) 



Tuesday one o'clock the Show is opened, and soon after I 

 Btand within Carlton Hall, a long building with semi-circular- 

 headed windows on either side, and with an orchestra at the 

 end opposite to the one at which I enter. The bareness of the 

 walls is somewhat relieved by a portrait, bust-shaped, of some 

 one or other of the English poets, being painted above each 

 window, and an oil painting beneath, while the orchestra op- 

 posite me has an organ flanked by shrubs and flowers taste- 

 fully arranged. All this the eye takes in at once. On a closer 

 look one sees a table facing one covered with the silver prizes, 

 among which conspicuous by their beauty and value are the 

 cups given by Mr. Merrick Hoare, M.P., and his wife. Happily 

 for those who always win silver, there are not only cups but 

 egg stands (how suitable !), candlesticks, a tea urn, a jewel box, 

 spirit stands, the last intimatirjg that the health of the South- 

 ampton Committee and the Judge were to be drunk from their 

 contents ; and I saw among the prizes that very useful thing, a 

 biscuit tin ; indeed, cups were happily not in a majority. Let 

 other committees think of this. 



The poultry pens were arranged along the walls, and on each 

 end ; and there were two rows down the body of the Hall, where 

 also were the dear little Canaries and their kindred Finches, 

 while Macaws, Parrots, Pheasants, and the larger cage birds, were 

 across the further end ; while the Pigeons by an excellent and 

 very effective arrangement, had the orchestra all to themselves, 

 fancy that the worthy Committee, by 



I am half inclined to 



the way in which they numbered the pens, had an eye to the 



. health of all visitors, and especially of reporters, for the num- 



cularly ; at a show at which I was his colleague, held shortly ' bers dodged about Eublimely, and I had to walk hither and 



