48 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, April 20, 1858. 
MR. WORRALL’S GOLDEN-PENCILLED 
HAMBURGHS. 
Seeing in your paper of April 6th a letter from “ Birchen 
Cock,” in which he accuses Mr. Worrall of having plucked 
the feathers from the hackles of his Golden-pencilled hens, 
with which he won at Liverpool, I now come forward, not 
as a partisan of Mr. Worrall, for I never saw him in my life, 
and have had but little correspondence with him, but I must 
say, when I see a person openly accused of a dishonest action, 
and knowing at the same time it lies in my power to contra¬ 
dict the accusation, I feel in duty bound so to do. I happened 
to be a purchaser of one of the hens, referred to, of Mr. Wor¬ 
rall, and have minutely examined her hackle more than once 
(as for a pencilled bird she is remarkably clean), and confi¬ 
dently assert there is not the sign of a feather ever having 
been plucked from her hackle, or elsewhere. I think, if 
Mr. Worrall has made an unwarrantable attack upon the 
Preston Committee, there are others who have behaved much 
worse towards him. 
I know nothing against the Preston Committee; and, as I 
before said, I never saw Mr. Worrall in my life, but the only 
time I had anything to do with him he treated me as fairly 
and honourably as one party could treat another. 
I must trust to your impartiality for your inserting this, 
and will conclude w r ith impressing on the minds of those who 
have interested themselves in the affair, that such contentions 
in the poultry world are most detrimental to the poultry fancy 
generally; and if every amateur, who is fortunate enough to 
win a silver cup, is to be subject to such gross insults and false 
accusations from the less fortunate competitors, the poultry 
fancy will soon go to the ground; if not, those who are in¬ 
sulted and falsely accused will give up showing : and I main¬ 
tain, that the loss of such a man as Mr. Worrall would be a 
great loss to the poultry community at large. It must be 
remembered he is Secretary of one of our best Shows, or, at 
any rate, of the one which gives the best prizes ; therefore, 
I think, we ought rather to feel a debt of gratitude to him 
for the trouble he has taken in promoting the interest of that 
Show, than be continually hashing up false accusations against 
him. I only speak of him as I have found him, viz., a gen¬ 
tlemanly and honourable man.— An Amateur. 
EMPLOYMENT OF EXHIBITOR’S 
SERVANTS. 
Having seen a letter in your number of April 6tli, signed 
“Birchen Cock,” lam desirous of contradicting his statement, 
in which he says, “ May I ask, how it was that the servants 
employed on that occasion were men belonging to gentlemen, 
who exhibited to a great extent—and, by referring to the 
prize-list, it will be seen, figured considerably among the 
successful exhibitors ? I allude to Mr. Douglas and Mr. 
Gilliver.” I beg leave to assure “ Birchen Cock ” that he 
is misinformed, as to the former person, as Mr. Douglas was 
at Birkenhead during the judging of the Liverpool Show, and 
did not return until the awards had been made. Also, I 
would acquaint him that it is a thing I should not for a 
moment allow, that any servant of mine should undertake 
any employment except in my service ; and further, that Mr. 
Douglas had no orders from me to that effect,— William 
Warren Yernon, Wolseley Ball, JRugeley. 
W. GILLIVER AT THE LIVERPOOL SHOW. 
I KEEL that I must, in justice to myself and others, flatly 
contradict “ Fair Play’S ” assertion, charging Mr. Worrall 
with an unfair and improper proceeding in selecting Wm. 
Gilliver, a servant of Mr. Moss’s, to pen the 100 Game cocks 
at the Liverpool Show. 
The facts of the case are just theseThe pens not being 
finished the night preceding the Show, until a late hour, five 
or six of the Committee were there doing everything, in the 
most praiseworthy manner, to assist. By their unanimous 
consent Wm. Gilliver, being near, was asked to assist. It 
was thus lie had “the great advantage.” By the way, I 
should be glad to know what advantage he had by so doing ; 
for any exhibitor knows that each pen is numbered, as is each 
basket. So that he had not any advantage as to position. 
Far from objecting, I think exhibitors should feel thankful 
so competent a person was selected to handle Game fowls. 
As to his having access to his master’s fowls on the day 
they were judged, that is a total fabrication. He was in my 
company at Birkenhead from nine o’clock in the morning 
until late in the afternoon; when, of course, the Judges had 
decided. 
I will conclude by warning “ Fair Play ” how he runs 
away with a hearsay tale. Let him ascertain the fact of the 
matter before he “rushes into print,” which might be better 
occupied.— John Douglas, Wolseley Aviaries. 
P.S. If “Fair Play” would play fair he would give his 
name and address. 
THE LIVERPOOL POULTRY' COMMITTEE. 
In the various attacks on Mr. W. C. Worrall, in the last 
few numbers of The Cottage Gardener, hints have been 
repeatedly thrown out in some of them that the Committee 
and Secretaries obtained their prizes at the last Liverpool 
Poultry Show by unfair means ; and allusions have also been 
made to some mysterious influence, said to have been exercised 
over the Game Cock class, by one Wm. Gilliver. I will state, in 
the first place, that, although the Secretaries and two of the 
Committee obtained prizes, three other members of the Com¬ 
mittee, who exhibited amongst them no less than twenty-three 
pens, had not any awarded to them; and as a proof that their 
birds were not altogether inferior, two of the latter, who also 
afterwards exhibited at Preston, had each a prize awarded to 
them. 
In the next place, I will state the plan adopted at Liver¬ 
pool for penning the birds, which will, I think, dispel some of 
the illusions which prevail on the subject by parties who have 
not seen the operation performed. As soon as the hampers 
were placed opposite the pens, which had the corresponding 
numbers attached to them, the members of the Committee, 
and the Secretary present on the occasion, each undertook the 
correct penning of one side of each avenue, and, for this pur¬ 
pose, took with him four men—one to cut open the hampers, 
turn over and stitch down the labels, ready for their prompt 
return after the close of the Show; another to take out the 
birds, and place them in the pens ; a joiner to fasten up each 
pen immediately; and a fourth man to carry the empty 
hampers away. And here, let me observe, that it would have 
been more convenient to have placed a number of the smaller 
hampers under the pens. The Committee, however, preferred 
having them removed out of the room, than, by allowing them 
to remain, give cause for even a suspicion to arise, that, by 
such means, the Judges might become acquainted with the 
names of the owners of the birds in the pens above. As I was 
not engaged in the avenue in which the Game cocks were, 
I do not know whether Gilliver was employed or not; but as 
there were altogether upwards of twenty men engaged at the 
same time, he may, for what I know, have been one amongst 
the number; and I can only say that I should have been glad 
of his services; as an inexperienced person, in endeavouring to 
take out of the hampers birds so wild, as some of them are, 
might easily relieve them of their tails (as some of my 
own have been at other Exhibitions), and rendered their 
chances of success hopeless. I do not recollect seeing a single 
one of the 100 Game cocks at Liverpool minus his tail; and 
I think, from the appearance of the birds, no one could bring 
a charge of unfairness in this respect. One would fancy, from 
the ravings about this man Gilliver, that his ghost must 
surely have haunted both the Preston and Wellington Game 
cock classes, as Mr. Moss appears to have been as successful 
at these, and other Shows, as at Liverpool. 
With respect to the mysterious understanding between the 
Committee and Judges, which has also been alluded to, I 
have not the slighest objection to state the part I had in it. 
After the birds were all penned on the Monday evening, the 
lights were put out, and the Committee separated. My next 
appearance in the room was at half-past four, P.M., on Tues¬ 
day; the Judges, having given in their awards, had retired 
shortly before that time, and I first saw them after the Ex¬ 
hibition was opened to the public on the Wednesday morning. 
The Secretary, as a matter of course, had to be in attendance 
