230 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, July 13, 1858. 
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POULTRY SHOWS. 
July 16th. York. Sec., Mr. It. Smith, cutler, 10, High Ousegate, York. 
Entries close July 8th. 
August 7th, 9th, 10th, and 11th. Crystal Palace (Summer Show). 
Entries close July 10th. Sec., W. Houghton. 
Augitst 18th. Airedale. Hon. Secs., J. Wilkinson and T. Booth, 
Shipley. 
August 28th. Halifax and Calder Yale, Sec., Mr. Wm. Irvine, 
Holmfield, Halifax. Entries close August 14. 
October, 7th and 8th. Worcestershire. Sec., Mr. G. Griffiths, 7, 
St. Swithin’s Lane, Worcester. Entries close September 23. 
November 29th and 30th, December 1st and 2nd. Birmingham. Sec., 
Mr. J. Morgan. Entries close November 1st. 
December 17th and 18th. Halifax Fancy Pigeon Show. Sec., Mr. 
H. Holdsworth, Woolshops, Halifax. 
January 8th, 10th, 11th, and 12th, 1859. Crystal Palace (Winter 
Show). Sec., W. Houghton. 
N.B.— Secretaries will oblige us by sending early copies of their lists. 
GATHERINGS ABOUT DORKINGS. 
cc On ! Torn, the weather is too hot.” 
“ Is it ? Let us have a row on the Thames.” 
11 Eaugli! I crossed it this morning, and have been sick 
ever since. Let us go for a stroll.” 
“ Very well; where shall it be ? ” 
“ To Hampstead.” 
“ Oh! you everlasting cockney ; you have no idea beyond 
your great metropolis and its suburbs.” 
Granted ; it is a line place. But, if you want to get away, 
let us ride thirty or forty miles out of town, take our knap¬ 
sacks, and then pedestrianise.” 
“ Good. What line will you patronise ? ” 
“ The Brighton.” 
“ Be it so. We start to morrow.” 
Those who held this conversation were both young men, 
full of health and strength, and both of moderate but inde¬ 
pendent fortune. 
The next morning saw them in a railway carriage, which 
conveyed them to a station on the Brighton line, where they 
alighted, and started at a venture across country. There is a 
rural charm about portions of this county, which is not to be 
found in many others. An improved system of farming is, 
doubtless, profitable and beneficial, but it is an enemy to the 
picturesque. The long stretch of land, without a hedge or a 
tree, is monotonous and uninteresting, but in this part of 
Sussex the fields are still divided by good thick hedgerows ; 
the gates are such as, probably, were in use a century since, 
not swinging open, but lifting out of grooves. In fact, every¬ 
thing afforded to our cockneys the change they sought. They 
wandered down the shady lanes for some miles, enjoying 
everything as it presented itself to their notice, and were glad 
at last to see a clean, comfortable-looking roadside inn,—not 
a new square stucco railway hotel, but one that still looked 
rural and old-fashioned. A comfortable table and bench, 
under a spreading Oak in front of the house, and on the 
patch of green sward that divided it from the road, invited 
our dusty travellers to rest; and unstrapping their knapsacks, 
they threw themselves on the seat, like men who were dis¬ 
posed to prove that exercise had prepared them to enjoy 
whatever fare the house might afford. Their first question 
was, whether they could have home-brewed beer, and they 
received the sad and ever-recurring answer, “As good as 
home-brew'ed. Pale ale and bottled stout are excellent sub¬ 
stitutes, but when a Londoner gets into the country, he 
yearns for a draught of that delightful beverage, sweet with 
the malt, bitter with the hop, bright in colour, clean in the 
mouth, and which, rendered fit to drink by proper age, in¬ 
stead of scientific process, leaves not a twang behind. Our 
friends were not disposed to bo over nice, and were heartily 
discussing their bread and cheese and pale ale, when a higgler 
drove up in his cart. 
There are people who, while they admire the delightful 
writing, the sweet written landscapes, and the sound Christian 
philosophy of Izaak Walton, are disposed to speak of him 
with a sneer because he was an angler; and some may, 
pci flaps, smile, when w r o say that this cart laden with live 
fowls, touched a sympathetic cord. They were both poultry- 
fanciers. Now, the truth is, we are not sufficiently indulgent 
to each other s hobbies. Peter Pindar tried to teach us in his 
. tale. Sir Joseph could not make his friend warm on Tulips : 
“he has no soul for beauty,” said he of his friend. “Mad 
as a March hare about trumpery flowers,” said his friend of 
him. But a butterfly passed, “ an Emperor, by Jove,” and 
in pursuit he trampled the Tulips to the ground. A French 
writer lias hit the right feeling on the subject happily:— 
“ Or, puisque chacun a les siens, 
Nous avons tous les notres. 
A votre tresorier, les miens, 
Et je rirai des votres.” 
Fishing and poultry are both humanizing and refreshing 
pursuits. They are both recreative—they lead to quiet and 
rural scenery. Many a weary body, many an aching brain, 
many an over-wrought mind, have left their labours, and, 
seated in the shade on a bank, watched a hen with her 
chickens, or the proceedings of a favourite set of fowls, till 
the whole current of thought has been changed, and a balmy 
feeling of rest and peace has taken the place of painful 
lassitude. 
The higgler took the bit from his horse’s mouth, gave him 
water, and buckled on the nose-bag. 
It need hardly be said, our friends left their repast to look 
at the fowls, with which the coops were filled. The man was 
pleased they noticed them, and, like sensible men, finding he 
knew more than they did, they asked him to sit down with 
them, and give them some information on the subject. 
Without attempting the dialogue, we will give the substance 
of it. 
This man’s occupation w r as to collect poultry for the Lon¬ 
don market, a work of some importance in the spring. The 
competition in many parts of Surrey, Sussex, and Kent is im¬ 
mense, and three or four higglers will almost quarrel over a 
coop of fowls. One of these men will keep two or three horses 
constantly hard worked in collecting poultry. The attendance 
is not confined to markets, but he calls at all the farm-houses 
where they keep fowls, and will bespeak them at a fixed price, 
weeks before they are fit for the table. It is a common thing 
during the spring, in London (and it has been the case this 
year), for good fatted fowls to make from 5 s. to 7s. each. 
These are, of course, choice birds ; but those of lower quality 
will, if young,'—that is, birds of the year, alw r ays at from twelve 
to sixteen weeks old,—make large prices. He particularly 
impressed on our travellers that what he called the run on 
poultry, had rather lessened the supply than otherwise, during 
the scarce time of year, because every one, hearing of large 
prices for exhibition birds, was afraid to sell early chickens lest 
he or she should sell a future ten-pound note, for a present 
five shillings. 
But the point to which, especially one of our friends, wanted i 
to turn the conversation, was on exhibition birds. He was a 
breeder and exhibiter of Dorkings, and had been surprised at 
some decisions he had seen and heard of in these classes. He 
rightly thought, from a practical man he must learn some¬ 
thing ; and he also appreciated the opportunity of having 
plenty of subjects, to enable him to have a live dissection. The 
higgler’s mirth was first excited by his saying, that a Judge 
had told him that toe generally give the preference to single- 
combed birds. Indeed, many people doubted the purity of 
the rose-combed birds, and he then elicited the following 
reply :— 
“ That wherever you breed for colour, you must prepare to 
make some sacrifice of size. Great bulk can only be attained i 
by breeding from the largest birds to be had, especially the 
hens. That, for this reason, many of the largest birds were ' 
the most faulty in colour; for instance, the cocks came with 
breasts copiously spotted, or splashed, with white, with white 
sickle feathers, and with cup-combs ; while the hens come of j 
every shade and hue. He wished Dorkings to be judged for ! 
shape and size, rather than colour.” 
When asked to describe a Dorking, he said—“ He wished a 
large square frame, great width of shoulder and back, short 
legs, plain five claws, a fine, intelligent, but not a very small 
head, deep breast, rather protuberant than otherwise, a straight 
back, and the llesh laid regularly on all over. He gave the 
preference to the rose-comb, because he thought them the 
heavier birds.” These points were explained and elucidated 
by birds taken from the coops, and our travellers left him, not 
a little edified by their afternoon with a Sussex higgler. They 
also learned to think lightly of that superficial and nervous 
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