THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— June 17, 1850. 
Success is no novelty to these gentlemen in their respective 
classes. 
There was a hard struggle for the Poland cup, which went 
to Mrs. C. E. Coleridge. There were two hens of surpassing 
beauty in pen 300, the property of Mr. Tweed; but they had 
a sorry partner. There was also an excellent pen of Black 
with white top-knots; they were disqualified, the black 
front, which is common to them all, having been shaved 
oil'. There were some excellent birds among the varieties, 
especially a pen of Malays, belonging to Mr. Leighton. 
Mr. Harvey Dalton Bayley earned the Bantam cup with a 
beautiful pen of Gold laced Sebrights. It would be unjust 
not to give especial mention to Mr. Forrest’s Duckwings; 
they were beautiful. 
Mr. Davies showed very large Geese, which took the first 
prize. The Ducks were very good: Mr. Weston, \n Aylesbury s; 
Lord de Blaquiere, in Ronens; Miss Steele Perkins, in Buenos 
Ayrean; and Countess de Flahault, in Call Ducks, were 
first-prize takers. 
Many other pens deserved separate notice, but our limits 
will not allow it; and we are obliged to refer our readers to 
the prize list as published last week. 
The committee of the Windsor Show is so happily con¬ 
stituted, that the same praise is due to every member for 
their continual endeavours to minister to the well-doing of 
the birds, and the comfort of the visitors. 
WINDSOR POULTRY SHOW. 
The 9th clause in the regulations for this Show is thus 
worded :—“ All specimens must be at Windsor on Monday, 
June 2nd, by 10 r.M." 
In compliance with this rule, I arranged, with some 
inconvenience to myself, that my birds should be at the 
Show before the appointed time, believing that no exceptions 
would be made, and it was with great surprise that I heard 
from my man, who was on the spot, that an exception had 
been made in favour of Mr. Davies, and some few others 
residing in the neighbourhood, whose birds were not taken 
to the Show till ten o’clock on the morning of Tuesday, 
June 3rd, immediately before the Judges entered on their 
duties. 
Without waiting to know the result, I instantly sent the 
enclosed protest to the Secretary; and for the benefit of all 
future exhibitors I forward the answer I received, which, I 
submit, is the weakest defence of a bad cause I ever read. 
I do not agree with Mr. Chamberlain, that the committee 
have “ an unlimited discretion." I contend that they are as 
much bound to abide by the rules they publish as the ex¬ 
hibitors have to be guided by them; and that these last send 
their birds sometimes from a great distance, trusting to the 
honour of the committee that the rules will be strictly ad¬ 
hered to, and that favour and affection will not be shown to 
friends and neighbours. 
Mr. Chamberlain takes advantage of my having used the 
words, “ into the Show,” instead of “ at Windsor;’’ but even 
here his ground fails him, for the “ favoured few ” were not 
“ at Windsor" on Monday night at 10 r.M. ; they were kept 
at their own walks, and I leave any judge to see the ad¬ 
vantage birds jirst put in their pens from their own home, 
on Tuesday morning, will have over those who have been 
penned (like mine) since Sunday evening. 
Birds on the spot must always have an advantage over 
those coming from a distance; but why make this advan¬ 
tage still gr-eater by such (I must call it) unfair play ? 
If it was “ for the convenience of the committee” to have 
some birds sent on the morning of Tuesday, “ when the 
unpackers would be more at liberty,” I think if any indulgence 
(I should deprecate any to anybody) was to be allowed, it 
ought to have been to those coming from a distance. In 
this case, my poultry might have left homo on the evening 
of Monday, and would have been at Windsor in ample time 
on Tuesday morning. 
I have no personal feeling in this matter. I am bound 
to record the general courtesy and kindness of the committee, 
the care and attention bestowed on the birds, which were 
beyond all praise, and in consequence of which my poultry, 
having returned home, seem scarcely to have felt the Show. 
But there were many who, like myself, complained loudly of 
215 
the same thing, and who urged me to publish it; and as I 
believe that Poultry Shows must look for their great support 
to the confidence reposed by exhibitors in the perfect im¬ 
partiality of the committee, I can venture to state my 
complaint, in the hope that we shall not again hear of a 
committee exercising wbat they call an unlimited (and which 
1 considered a most improper) discretion. — Windham ; 
PIobnby, Knowsley, June Itli, 1800. 
The following are the protest aud the answer referred to 
in the preceding communication :— 
“ Gentlemen, “ June 3rd, 185(5. 
“ It is stated as one of the rules of the committee of 
the Windsor Poultry Show, ‘that no birds will be admitted 
into the Show after ten o’clock on the night of Monday, 
June 2nd.’ 
“ I am informed that Mr. Davies’s pens were not brought 
into the Show until ten minutes to ten on the morning of 
June 3rd. 
“If this is so, it is plainly very unfair to those who, like 
myself, were forced to adhere to the rules of the Show, and 
to bring their poultry from a distance; and I now beg to 
protest against any birds who were not in the Show at the 
proper hour being allowed to compete for the prizes. I 
have to request you will lay this, my complaint, before the 
committee, and that they will cause an inquiry to be made 
into the case. “ I remain, Gentlemen, 
“ Your obedient servant, 
“ To the Secretaries of “ W. W. Hornby, C'apt., R.N. 
“ The Windsor Poultry Show." 
“Windsor Poultry Exhibition, 
“ Committee Room, 
“ Sir, “ 4 th June, 1856. 
“ I have laid your protest before the committee, and 
in consideration of your undertaking to take no further steps 
in the matter, other than by publishing this correspondence, 
the committee have instructed me to give the following 
answer to your letter :— 
“ You are wrong in your quotation of Rule 9, to which I 
beg to refer you. The committee, in wording that rule, 
merely had in mind the difficulty of getting birds sent otf 
by the mail train the night before the Show in time for the 
Judges’ decision. 
“The committee consider that they have an unlimited 
discretion in carrying out the details of the Show; and in 
receiving birds on the morning of the Tuesday, the com¬ 
mittee consulted their own convenience, and even requested 
people residing in the neighbourhood to send their birds on 
Tuesday morning, when the unpackers would be more at 
liberty than they would be during the influx of birds the 
previous evening. 
“ The committee do not consider that there was any 
unfairness in such proceeding, and must, therefore, decline 
to interfere with the award of the Judges. 
“ Trusting that you will feel satisfied with this explanation, 
“ I am, Sir, yours very respectfully, 
“ Thos. Chamberlain, 
“ C’apt. Hornby, R.N., <tc." “Hon. Sec. 
[There can be no doubt that the committee of the Wind¬ 
sor Poultry Show committed an error; and if the committee 
claim to “ have an unlimited discretion in carrying out the 
details of the Show," in defiance of the rules published by 
themselves, by which they pledge themselves that Show 
shall be regulated, they claim a power which can never be ; 
admitted; for if admitted, then no exhibitor has a right to 
appeal against favouring relaxations of any rule, however j 
flagrant. There can be no two opinions upon the equity of 
rules published by a committee being as binding upon 
themselves as upon the exhibitors, and if one rule is more j 
binding than another upon a committee, it is that which ' 
equalizes the length of time the birds must be in the pens 
before they are submitted to the inspection of the Judges.] 
