26G 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, July 27, 1358. 
the integrity and ability with which he has discharged his 
duties as arbitrator at the public meetings of this Society. 
The design is artistic, and the workmanship leaves nothing to 
be desired. Beneath a massive oak, whose gnarled branches 
would betoken the lapse of centuries, stands a stag, apparently 
listening to the distant approach of some unwelcome intruder. 
The bark of the tree is of frosted silver, happily relieved by 
highly burnished foliage ; and among the upper branches, is 
affixed a glass bowl, curiously manufactured, to represent 
common ice. This being surmounted by a net-work of silver 
wire, forms, altogether, a complete and elegant flower-stand. 
It is wholly of sterling silver, and w r as manufactured under 
the directions of Mr. William Tait, of Syke Hill, Preston. 
ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY’S 
POULTRY SHOW. 
Chester, July 22nd. 
i Let us suppose a merchant, the head of a good old firm, 
| feeling that younger men were pushing him hard, and aware 
! that a little fresh blood, and some of the vigour and elasticity 
j of youth were wanting to keep him in his position. Let us 
| suppose that such an one found in his establishment a young 
man jmssessing all the necessary qualities, but not exactly 
| so important in the way of family and wealth as himself. 
Let us imagine that he enters into a partnership with him 
for seven years ; that the good effect of it is immediately 
seen in the increase of his business, and in the extent of 
his connections; that the young partner is able to bend to 
humble, but safe and useful customers, and to make to them 
concessions which the old gentleman would not submit to; 
| that the business circle of the firm is enlarged, and that the 
I smaller clients introduced form a reserve and an element 
' of strength, which will be available when the old customers 
of the firm have dropped off in the natural course of events. 
| In the face of these results, fancy the old gentleman forbidding 
the younger partner to be plagued with these small cus¬ 
tomers, giving him notice of dissolution of the partnership, 
j and summoning those, who were witnesses to the deed of 
association, to attend to see it annulled. 
Would not a friend take the old gentleman by the hand, 
and reason with him,— 
“ More in sorrow tlian in anger,”— 
“ My dear Sir, you are old, and not quite up to the present 
times. People are dissatisfied with your stiff mode of doing 
business; you will find your profits falling off. Your con¬ 
nection is an old one ; and as old clients die, you will have 
none to take their places. You have strong opponents, many 
of them formed by yourself originally. You depend on the 
yearly profits of your trade ; do not throw them away ; keep 
the young partner.” Imagine the old gentleman positively 
refusing any concessions of the sort; would not his friends 
grieve when they witnessed the dissolution of partnership? 
So did we when we attended the last Poultry Show of the 
Royal Agricultural Society of England. 
As we journeyed on to Chester, we passed in review, in 
our mind’s eye, the different Shows we had seen, from Lewes 
to Salisbury. The crowd always about the poultry. What a 
sight did the space between the horses and the birds present 
last year ! What crowds, especially of the fair sex ! and how 
many hundreds of what we may call the lower classes re¬ 
joicing that they had something that identified them with 
the Royal Agricultural Society! They could look at and 
admire the cattle; but they understood poultry, and many 
looked forward to becoming exhibitors. Many looked for¬ 
ward to forms of entries, but, alas ! they looked 
“ For a form that shall never return.” 
And we now proceed to give an account of the positively 
last poultry performance in connection with the Society— 
“ ’Tis true *tis pity, pity ’tis ’tis true.” 
But the Royal Agricultural Society always seemed to treat 
poultry as a proud, poor man treats the illiterate, it may 
he vulgar woman, whom he has married for her fortune, 
lie likes the money, but he is ashamed of the wife who 
brought it. 1 his is inexplicable to us. Not to put poultry 
in the Inst place is second only in turpitude to sacrilege or 
high treason. Tastes differ. We once met a man at a 
revel, who said, if he were rich, he would pay a regular 
professor of single-stick to have a match with him every 
morning before breakfast: that was to please himself. We 
have met with hundreds who have tried to please everybody, 
and we just ask ourselves whether we are trying to do it in 
this report. No ; we are not. We do not want to please 
the Royal Agricultural Society of England. We would not j 
dip our pen in gall,—“ we wouldn’t; no, we wouldn’t; no, 
not for twenty pounds, we wouldn’tbut if we knew the raw 
spot on the Royal Agricultural Society of England, may we 
never be charming if we would not dip it in vinegar. Give 
up poultry indeed! It made us shudder to hear a fine 
specimen of a pig-breeder and exhibitor, who was trying the 
“ Sol-fa” of a family by smart ash-stick visitations, first on 
what will be the hams, next on the future fore-loins of a 
porcine tribe, and who thereby elicited all the sounds that ' 
exist between a squeak and a grunt, and, by uncommon 
activity, managed to make all the pen “give tongue” at 
once, declare the “ cocks make such a crowing, he could 
not hear himself speak.” He will have his peace and quiet¬ 
ness next year. There was once a woman—perhaps, we 
should say a lady i she was the wife of a large hop-grower. 
She hated a good hop year. It interfered with the house ; 
the master was never at home; if he were, somebody or 
other, with dirty shoes, was always wanting him ; the place 
was not fit to be seen; and, for her part, she wished there 
were no hops. One year she was in her glory,—there were 
none ; her house was clean ; nothing disturbed her. Next 
year the same, and another, and then there were misgivings, 
and little luxuries had to be given up; and then the hops 
ceased altogether, and the good lady had peace, quietness, 
and ruin. This is too often the result of a search after 
peace and quietness, and of abandonment of ordinary things. 
The most showy are not always the most profitable. Now 
for poultry. 
There was a capital display of JDorTcings , and we mav here 
make a remark, which will hold good throughout, that we have 
never seen the birds in such good condition as this year. 
With the exception of the Turkeys, they were most of them 
in hard plumage. The chickens were more numerous than i 
the adults. Both classes afforded triumphs to Captain 
Hornby, who took the first and second prizes in each. We 
were very pleased to see one of the veteran exhibitors in this 
class, the Rev. John Hill, who was also successful. The nine¬ 
teen pens of Spanish formed, in the opinion of the Judges 
one of the best classes ever seen; not that the fortunate pens’ 
were so much in advance of all predecessors, but from the 
numbers of good birds that were there, and from the difficulty 
there was in deciding on the merits and consequent classifi¬ 
cation of the successful. 
A reference to the prize list will show that most of the 
awards went to new names. 
. The next is a cla ss that is daily growing in public estima¬ 
tion—we speak of the Game, which produced twenty-four 
competing pens. The names of the successful will be a 
guarantee for the quality of the birds shown -—Messrs 
Hornby, Hindson, Wright, and Won-all. ' Ixes " r3 ' 
The Cochins brought out our old friend, Mr. Punchard in 
the character of first-prize taker. This is a bad season of 
the year for adult Cochins; as, though they may not be in 
deep moult, yet their plumage is shabby, and their feathers 
seem more perishable, and of a softer nature than other 
fowls. 
There was an excellent class of Brahma Pootras, all good 
handsome, birds, and able to vindicate their claims to respect 
and attention at the hands of those who send out prize lists 
Whether for size, beauty, or condition, these birds deserved 
distinction, and Mr. Botham may boast of his victory. 
It is almost needless to say, Mr. Archer took two out of 
three prizes for Silver-pencilled Ilamburghs. We fancy one 
ot the causes of this gentleman’s success is, that he carefully 
selects pencilled birds, while many have fallen into the error 
ot choosing them with spots, which, instead of forming 
pencilling, stand by themselves on the white ground and 
make a speckled fowl. 
We must speak very highly of two hens in Mr. Lilly’s pen 
ol Gold-pencilled: even Mr. Worrall had to be content with 
the second prize. The Silver-spangled were good birds, and 
clear tails are becoming common. We have, however, seen 
