308 
The late William Torr. 
life, living at Riby, exceedingly active, up early to ride our 
farming, sitting up later than suited me to talk over what we 
had seen, what he had done, and what he was going to do at 
Aylesby, to which he shortly afterwards removed. He had a 
famous lot of blood-ponies, and mounting me on one of the best, 
took me over the land at a hard gallop, often as straight as if we 
were riding to hcfunds. As he rode he lectured ; one question 
was sufficient to bring out an essay. He was one of the best 
talkers I ever met in my wide travels. 
" No one could have had a better guide to North Lincoln, a 
more eloquent lecturer, or a more genial host. His fixed idea was 
doing everything on his farm in the best manner. I afterwards 
visited him at Aylesby, where the house and farm-buildings 
were laid out from his own plans. They were full of ingenuity 
and thoughtful contrivances. His labourers' cottages were very 
good. I remember that he was very severe on the cupboards 
and closets of Prince Albert's model cottages. He had quite a 
mania for originality, and in 1854 could by no means reconcile 
himself to the important position the great implement-makers 
were taking up. 
" He was very proud of his pure Leicesters, of which he had 
purchased in 1848 thirty ewes at the sale of Mr. Bakewell's 
lineal representative. He was very strong on the importance of 
constitution, as well as of pure pedigree, in cattle and sheep." 
His Lincolnshire friends, after the Gainsborough Show of the 
North Lincolnshire Agricultural Society, in 1864, subscribed 
and presented him with a testimonial, in the shape of a full- 
length portrait of himself, in recognition of his services to agri- 
culture. 
His picture was well drawn by ' The Druid,' so late as 1870, 
in the following sentence * : — " When behind ' the iron horse,' or 
flying over the grass by the roadside on the ' woldsman's pony,' 
he makes very little account of time and space ; and what with 
home (to wit, calling his orders out of his bedroom-window at 
5 A.M.) and county and Royal Agricultural business, few men 
have thrown such an intense earnestness into life, or worked so 
hard for others. At home, if you see a distant and ever-moving 
figure in the park, and not unfrequently in shirt-sleeves for 
coolness, among the heifers or the ewes, there is no mistaking 
' Torr of Riby,' although he is not exactly ' composed ' after 
his presentation-portrait by Knight, R.A., a 340-guinea tribute 
from his friends. Inventing a prize gate, or sketching out a 
new set of farm-buildings, or planning a model-cottage, or 
giving evidence on cattle transit before the Privy Council, or 
making an after-dinner speech, or rising on a point of finance, 
* ' Saddle aud Sirloin.' — Nortli, p. 474. 
