746 
VETERINARY JURISPRUDENCE. 
starvation, likely to have been the cause of death. The lambs were 
valued by him at £1 Is. each, when sent to Mr. Stevens’s, and if proper 
care had been taken of them, hy April following, if "well done,” they 
would have been worth £2. Instead, when they came home, they were 
unsaleable, but he put them at 15s. each. He had fed them up since, 
and thought they might now be worth £1 5s. 
Cross-examined.—The lambs come from two places; one near Hythe, 
and the other near Romney Marsh. Sheep, if kept in the Marsh’con- 
stantly, were subject to diarrhoea, but graziers removed them in time, so 
as not to give them a chance to die. He had not put the price rather 
high, considering the price of mutton. He knew that many of the 
lambs had died when he went to Mr. Stevens, and he had seen 
worms in one of the carcases. He knew the lambs were on the common 
after they left the farm, before he took them away ; that was not a right 
thing, but it was as good food as they had had. He had expec ted that the 
lambs were to be fed upon hay, although the price to be paid was only 
7s. per head for the seven months, but lie had written a letter to Mr. 
Stanbridge, to the effect that he did not confine himself to price. 
W. Reuben , shepherd to Mr. Rigden, deposed that the lambs he had 
left at the Godstone station to go to Mr. 6tevens’s were all alike, and he 
had never seen them better than last autumn. On the 6th of April he 
again saw 11/ of them, on Hamsey Common ; they were very weak. 
He thought starvation was the cause of their condition. He was 
obliged to hire a horse and cart to convey them to the station, and was 
obliged to have two wagons at Ashford to convey them home. 
Isaac Bates, a grazier, at Snargate, Romney Marsh, stated that he 
had been accustomed to the breeding of lambs for several years. He 
had a number of lambs put out on Mr. Horsey’s farm, near the 
plaintiff’s ; and one day when he went to look at them he also looked 
at Mr. Rigden’s at Mr. Stevens’s, and he attributed their bad condition 
to the same canse as Mr. Rigden did. 
Mr. T. Page, farmer, of Dorking, stated that on the 31st of August 
he received 200 lambs from Mr. Rigden to keep. He only lost four of 
them. They did not appear affected with any kind of disease. 
Mr. R. Hobgen, farmer and grazier, and also a veterinary surgeon, in 
Kent, near Mr. Rigden’s, stated that the lambs of the last autumn were 
very fine indeed; in fact, no one in the parish had so good a flock as Mr. 
Rigden; when they came back there was nothing but skin and wool 
upon them. They had no flesh at all, and had the appearance of having 
been starved. They were much improved since, but would now never be 
made into sheep. 
Thomas Kingsmill, a shepherd in Mr. Rigden’s employ, stated that his 
master’s lambs last autumn were rather better than of the average 
quality. Those returned from the plaintiff in the spring were very poor 
indeed. 
Mr. Prentice and Mr. Lush having respectively addressed the jury for 
their respective clients. 
His Lordship summed up, and the jury found a verdict for plaintiff 
for £12 in the first action, and for defendant in the second. Mr. Stevens, 
therefore, obtained a verdict in both actions .—North British Agri¬ 
culturist. 
