If we are to have a hard winter, a seat in such a goes more for sport itself than pay, depend upon chimney corner would be no bad berth. What a it; and many a good story might he tell us, of cozy, comfortable fireside picture it is! One might what he has done on "a shiny night." It is a almost abandon (only just for a time, of course), cold night, for a wonder; so let us go in for halfthe customary furnishing of an English hearth-an-hour, and hear what he has to say. Now, the smiling wife and prattling children; the kettle gently-rap-tap! singing on the hob, and the tea-tray, ready laid. Look at the old black gaze-hound there, scorching his toes, and evidently fighting one of his recent battles o'er again-the last turn he gave the inountain hare as she made for the woodland; or that particularly quiet thing he had all to himself the other morning. We should be sorry to say our Macassar-headed friend is a poacher, and not a keeper; but he certainly does look very much like it. Beyond the half lurcher-like Snowball, that yet more cross-bred dog, watching so intently the click of the gun-lock, is something like King's evidence. Who shall say of what sort he is, or what work he does? Is he to hunt, or to shoot to? Either, no doubt, as occasion inay offer. Small the blame he will have for running in at a limping leveret after he has stood to her in her form, and given his fellow-felon the first chance. Besides, the man does'nt look like a servant; those uncombed locks and queer-fitting continuations have nothing "uniform" about them; this fellow And in a moment, that old gun is in a yet more cozy nook of the chimney place, and those few birds are thrown quickly into some other corner, where it would take you or us an hour to find them. And old Snowball gets up half-savagely, while his Jack-of-all-trades companion sets up every bristle on his back, and growls out as plainly as a dog can speak, "What the devil does any body want here at this time of night?" Not so their worthy master. Half-asleep, with his pipe stuck mechanically in his mouth, he opens an inch and a-half of the door, until quite sure it is not Mr. Plush from the Great House, or Master Tipstaff from the Station. Because, as he explains, "they are always a worriting a poor honest chap, who works hard to get his living"-the deuce does anybody know how though, without it be Messrs. Mongrel and Snowball aforesaid. Let us leave the worthy trio to the uninterrupted enjoyment of their own society. DEATH OF MR. JONAS WEBB, OF BABRAHAM. It was but a fortnight or two back, on passing through Cam- | bridge, we heard that Mrs. Jonas Webb was lying dangerously ill at the house of her brother in that town, and that Mr. Jonas Webb himself was in anything but good health. Already we have had to announce the decease of that estimable lady, while we have now to record the death of her dear husband, who survived her but five days. Mr. Webb is declared to have sunk under an attack of gastric fever, though there is no question but that his sys. tem never recovered from the shock experienced by the loss of his partner. A man of naturally fine feelings and strong affections, he was unable, in his own debilitated state, to struggle on without the good prop with which a kind Providence had so long blessed his hearth-stone. Mr. Jonas Webb may be said to have died in the very height of his success. It is true that he had gradually got clear of the famous Southdown flock, as last summer witnessed their final dispersion. The glories, how ever, of the sheep had already been replaced, and at the great Metropolitan Show of this last summer Mr. Webb exhibited a young Shorthorn bull of his own breeding, which, in addition to the prize of its class, took the gold medal as the best male animal of the section. In fact the repute of Babraham had in this way become as generally well established, and the American speculator, the Spanish noble, or the French commissioner went down quite as much prepared to look at and bid for a pure-pedigree cow as even for a score of short-wool ewes. This visit to Babraham was in itself an event in a man's life, though we little thought, as we left the scene in July last, that the handsome, portly presence of Jonas Webb himself would never again give a genial grace to the occasion, however well the gatherings may prosper in other hands. Mr. Jonas Webb never went far from his birth-place for a home of his own. He was born at Great Thurlow, in the county of Suffolk, on the 10th of November, 1796, being the second son of Mr. Samuel Webb, of West Wickham, Cambridgeshire, in which county his ancestors had long resided. Commencing business as a farmer at Babraham, in Cambridgeshire, in 1822, he speedily turned his attention to the breeding and the improvement of Southdown sheep; while his object and success will be perhaps best told by himself, in a letter he addressed to the Farmer's Magazine, nearly twenty years since, on the occasion of his portrait being given in that work: "I commenced breeding Southdown sheep as soon as I began business for myself, about twenty-two years since, from s conviction, through many experiments made when at home with my father with many different breeds of sheep, that more mutton and wool of the best quality could be made per aere from Southdown sheep than from any other bread, upon nine-tenths of the arable land in this country, where sheep are regularly folded, especially where the land is poor and the animals have far to walk to fold. I began by purchasing the best bred sheep which could be obtained from the principal breeders in the county of Sussex, regardless of expense, and have never made a eross from any other breed on any occasion since. At the meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, held at Cambridge in July, 1840, I won the first prize for the stock ewes and lambs of the Southdown, or any other short-woolled breed of sheep, and also the first prize for the shearling-stock ewes, at the same meeting: since which time I have never shown for any prize but for rams, being convinced of the ruin inevitably brought upon all breeding stock by overfeeding. I believe I only raised two or three lambs from the nine shearling ewes which I had fed to exhibit at Cambridge; and I lost, I think, four of them also. My brother Samuel, who also resides in the same parish of Babraham, has shown for the shearling-ewes prize for the years 1841, 1842, and 1848, and has obtained the first prize every year from my blood of sheep, he having purchased the ewes of me, and always hires my rams to put to them; he has been equally unsuccessful with those which he has over-fed. I won three out of four of the prizes offered by the Royal Agricultural Society of England, at the meeting at Liver pool, in 1841, for Southdown, or any other short-woolled breed of sheep; and at Bristol, by the same society in July, 1842, I won two, out of four, of the rams' prizes; and also at Derby, in 1843, at the meeting of the same society, I won three out of four of the prizes for any kind of shortwoolled sheep; but in feeding sheep for that occasion, I over-fed two of my best, and killed them before the show took place: they were both two-year-old sheep, and were each highly commended by the judges, as yearlings, at the Bristol meeting. I had refused 180 guineas for the hire of the two sheep for the season. I also quite destroyed the usefulness of two other aged sheep, by over-feeding them last year. They never either of them propagated throughout the season, and I have had each of them killed in consequence, which has so completely tired me of overfeeding that I never intend exhibiting another aged ram, unless I greatly alter my mind, or can find out some method of feeding them which will not destroy the animals, and which I have hitherto failed to accomplish. What I intend exhibiting in future will be shearlings only, as I believe they are not so easily injured by extra feeding as aged sheep partly by being more active, and partly through having more time to put on their extra condition, by which their constitutions are not likely to be so much impaired. I wish particularly to let the public know that in future I do not intend exhibiting aged rams, through the reasons which I have stated. You can, if you please, also notice my repeated success at the Smithfield Club, and that I also obtained the first prize at the Highland Society's show at Dundee in 1843-the only time I ever exhibited stock in Scotland-for the best shearling Southdown ram, the only prize I showed for; and, contrary to the rules of the society, the committee decided to have my sheep's likenesses taken for the society's Museum at Edinburgh. One of the rules of the society is, that no animal shall be taken as a specimen for that purpose, unless it is full-grown. My sheep was considered in every respect more finished and complete than any old sheep which had been exhibited. I also won the two first prizes last year, at the Royal Irish Society's meeting at Belfast, and the Society's medal for the best ram of any breed exhibited at the meeting, never having previously shown my stock in Ireland. At the Saffron Walden Agricultural Society, which is open to any person in the United Kingdom, who chooses to subscribe to it, I obtained all the first prizes in all the classes of Southdown sheep, with the exception of two, during the whole period I continued to show in it; and I also won the first prize every year for the best pen of shearling wethers of any breed, which, I believe, brought the Southdown sheep more into repute, in this and the adjoining counties, than all the other prizes which I obtained, as there was at one time a strong prejudice against them." Even before the portrait could be published, as a pendant on which this letter was written, more material was ready; and the Editor had to add as a postscript: "Since receiving this communication from Mr. Webb, and which was previous to the meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society in July last, he has again been an exhibitor, in the class for shearling rams only, at the meeting at Southampton, and again obtained the first prize of 30 sovereigns." And we must again add, "since" when the prize-lists of the Royal Agricultural, and the annual lettings at Babraham, will tell how Mr. Jonas Webb's success as a breeder of sheep has still continued to increase, until, satiated with his own triumphs, he resolved to retire from the pursuit, and give others a chance. His active mind, however, could not remain idle, and with his wonted sagacity he took up the Shorthorn as he had done the Southdown. For years, indeed, the herd and the flock were going together; but it was not till the former was about to be resigned that the Babraham cattle came to take any especial prominence at the great meetings. The origin of the Babraham herd has been thus sketched in our Herds of Great Britain:-" The herd, which was begun in 1837, is made up from six different tribes, the first of which was purchased from a Mr. Allison, in Nottinghamshire. It consisted of Medusa and Moppet; and it was from the former, of the Spencer blood, that Mr. Webb bred Victoria, by Chancellor (3335), whom he showed at the Cambridge Royal as a yearling. Through this cow, whom he was especially anxious to cross with Mr. Adeane's best bulls, the tribe went on; and First Duchess of Richmond, Lady Godolphin (who had twins four times in succession), and Lady Caroline, the dam of four Lord Dacres, three of which went abroad, have sustained it right well. Two years later, Mr. Webb dipped again into the Spencer blood, with Dodona, by Alabaster (1616), from Mr. Mason's No. 6. She had already bred two calves; but although she was only five years old, she was thought to be a somewhat speculative purchase. However, she had twin heifers to Vanguard (5545), only one of which, Duchess, was retained, and then Countess, the dam of Lady Louisa and Lady Ann, the latter of whom has bred twelve living calves. Vanguard, who was purchased by Mr. Adeane from Wiseton for 50 guineas, as a calf, was a very good bull; and Mr. Webb used that gentleman's Pam (6272) and Paris (7814) very freely, and did not keep one of his own till he purchased Minstrel (8687), in 1845, from Mr. Maylans, of Warwickshire. He was by Accordion (5708) from Charmer by Little John (4232) of the Fawsley blood, which it seemed desirable to cross with Lord Spencer's. Scrivener (10791 was purchased from Lord Ducie in 1849, and through him and Lady Bird from Belinda Mr. Webb had a double dip into Old Usurer in one year. It was about this time, too, that he added Red Roan Kirtling by Battus (7816), from Bessy, half sister to Buttercup, to his bull list, and by put ting him on Countess, got the Marquis of Bute, the sire in his turn of the Earl of Hardwicke. Mr. Bates's stock found its first representative in Celia by the Third Duke of Northumberland, who was bought at Mr. Beaufort's, of Bletsoe, sale, in calf to Percy by the same bull, and the produce, the Countess of Hardwicke, was the eldest of ten, Mr. Webb's eldest son, Mr. Henry Webb, has some repre sentatives of the first three tribes at his farm at West Wickham; with their produce by Young Cheltenham, besides a pair of twin Duke of Cambridge heifers from Flora by Kirklevington (14333), and others of the Cheltenham stock, but time pressed, and we were unable to visit them. “A fourth tribe was added in 1848, through Belinda, by Ranunculus (2479), from Sylph by Sir Walter (2637). After Lady Bird by Usurer, she had Lord of the North (11743) and Lord of the South (13216). The latter went for 150 gs. as a yearling to Australia, leaving only four or five calves; and from the cross between Lord of the North and his dam, the only instance in the herd, came Young Sylph, who found a 120-guinea purchaser as a yearling at Paris. Belinda bred in all three bulls and three heifers; and Lady Bird, with four heifers by Lord of the South, still represent her in the herd. The purchase of Boddice, the founder of the fifth tribe, originated in Mr. Webb's not caring to go beyond his five-hundred guinea bid for Duke of Glo'ster (11382), amid the frenzy of the Tortworth sale; and hence he was determined to buy something in calf to him, as well as a bull by him. The determination was neither rash nor unfruitful, as Boddice (125 gs.), and in calf with Duchess of Glo'ster, not only brought a strain of Lord Ducie's old Bessy into the herd, but bred Grand Duke (12695), who was sold for 200 gs. at Paris; while Cheltenham, the 125-guinea Tortworth calf, and the sire of both her Grand Dukes, put his mark for good more unmistakeably on the herd than any other bull, and was sold after three seasons for the same price to Lady Pigot. The Princess tribe was also added through Daffy Gwynne, who was bought at Mr. Tanqueray's sale in calf to the Duke of Cambridge (12742); and it was in order to get a double 'Oxford mixture.' by crossing her with the produce, Duke of Cambridge (14433), that Mr. Webb would not leave The Beauty at Mr. Combe's." At the time of his decease Mr. Jonas Webb was a Member of the Council of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, the Chairman of the New Agricultural Hall Company, the Chairman of the Blood Manure Company, a member of the Smithfield Club and the Central Farmers' Club, and a shareholder in the Royal Farmers' Insurance Company. He died on the 10th of November, his birthday, in Cambridge, at the residence of his brother-in-law, Mr. Henry Marshall, aged 66 years, having only survived his wife five days. The funeral took place on Friday, Nov. 14, in Babraham churchyard, the procession consisting of three mourning coaches containing relatives and intimate personal friends. The 1st Cambridgeshire Mounted Rifle Corps joined the procession, under the command of Captain Pemberton, and a portion of the county police, with Captain Davies, R.N., the chief constable, at their head, were also present. The church service was read by the Vicar of Babraham, the Rev. J. Singleton, assisted by his brother; and in the presence of a large congregation the remains of the deceased were deposited in the family vault, where also those of his amiable and respected wife were placed a few days previously. The mourners included Mr. Webb's four surviving sons, his brothers, and ten other relatives. On the plain oak coffin were inscribed the words-" In beloved memory of JONAS WEBB who died Nov. 10th, 1862, aged 66," DEATH OF MR. T. B. NORTHEAST.-Noticeably enough, Mr. Northeast, one of the oldest breeders of Southdowns in the kingdom, died at North Tedworth, Wilts, on November 5th, the very same day as Mrs. Jonas Webb. Mr. Northeast, who was in the 74th year of his age, occupied a very influential position in his own county, not merely as an agriculturist, but as the agent for some large properties. He also filled the office of senior steward to the Smithfield Club at the time of his decease, and, in his long career, other prominent public appointments. Like Mr. Jonas Webb, he cultivated the Southdown up to a great size; and it was some time before the Sussex breeders took very kindly to the sort. Nevertheless, when he gave over breeding a few years back, his sale was very successful, and ranks well in the agricultural annals of the age. DEATH OF MR. J. RIDGWAY, THE AGRICULTURAL BOOKSELLER.-It is with sincere regret that we have to announce the decease of this well-known and deservedly respected man, after a trying illness of long duration. Mr. of agricultural works, both ancient and modern; while the Ridgway's establishment in Piccadilly was a complete depôt House was further known from its publication of able pamphlets on the leading topics of the time. Mr. Ridgway himself was one of the chief proprietors of the Globe newspaper, the publisher of the Farmers' Almanac and other standard works, as well as a considerable landed proprietor. He died on Thursday, November 20th, at Walton-on-Trent, in the 64th year of his age. |