The National Register.
London, England, 1811-06-30 00:00:00

ATIONAL if

•
yard, where sheepshearing was exhibited in the best 'styles
Ile view of prize rams, boars, and Merino rams, closed the
morning inspection. The company assembled numerously at
dinner; and the toasts of " Constitution and King," and" The
• Prince Regent," being drank with great applause, Mr. Coke
rose, and after an interesting detail of the progressive improve-
ment in the tillage and sheep stock of the county of NortOlk,
said, he felt it his duty to state his further opinion on the effects
of the cross of a part of his Southdown flock by Merino tops.
He wished it could be more favourable than what he was
about to state. From the further trial he made this (the fourth)
year, he must candidly confess, he had reason to believe, from
this experience, that however one cross might answer, a fur-
ther progress would not prove advantageous to the breeder.—
Still, however, he should continue the cross this year, as he had
promised, and which in all probability would enable him to
form and declare a decisive opinion. Mr. Coke then gave—
liteding in all its Branches, :old " Lord Somerville, the
Prosperous Promoter of the Merino Breed;" for which his
Lonish;p. in a few words, returned thanks.
After the health of the Duke of Bedford, and Success to the
Improvement of Agriculture in the county of Bedford, Mr.
Whi bread's health was given, with a handsome eulogium on
hi general energetic exertions for the public good. This called
up Mr. Whitln.ead,arcd drew from him a neat and appropriate
apt. ch ; after returning his hest acknowledgments for this mark
of their respect, in the course of which he lamented that it
sh tultl devolve on him to advocate the cause of the poor
Mel in,' defrueeless flocles, and that a Noble Lord who had
ve: fried s:) prosperous an harvest from them, should have heal d
t:ieir cone!emnation witiefflt uttering one word in their defence.
111, however, as it might become him, he would offer a few
words in their favour. lie could not but think his Honourable
had passed too hasty a judgment upon this race of
fmeignersi and that the Noble Lord who had most profited by
their introduction, had silently abandoned them to their fate.—
Was it certain that sufficient experiments had been fully tried,
on which to found a clear and conclusive opini,•n of their in-
trinsic t: Brit ? Might not the ill-shaped and ill-conditioned
state of their pr: geny be derived from an i'judiciouspersayer-
ancc in breeding from old decrepid sires ? Thinking it pro
that it might be so, he would entreat a little further
in their tllvour, on tha score of clemency, before the - weei
doomed to banishment under so high an authority as that under
which they were now threattned.
A Gentleman pre sent (the Rev. Dr. Bate Dudley), whose
judg:,tent in stock come; not be questioned, had that day select-
ed one of t. is cross out of tbei' pen, so superior in symme try
andcouiditioir, that he request d it might be presented this
evetriog, that its excelbecy might be demonstrated. He there-
fore hoped and trusted that some pause would be allowed before
a final sentence of condemnation be parsed on this unfortunate
though perhaps still meritorious race. Mr. Coke, in reply, ob-
served, that he bad only stated the result of his expjimeet, and
his own opinion thereon. It mieht he that the Negrette sort,
from which be bad bred, of the King's fl,,ck, were not of the
best, Or the reasons assigned by his Hon. Ft tend might occasion
the detec.s he noticed ; at all events he should continue the

_ ... .
Eros.; an )tlier year, Nvizil the same care and atlentien, which, he
tad nu doubt., would pr,ve decisive of their merits or demerits.

In the evenim:.; the company were assembled at the sheep-
house, where tell lots of Southdown theaves, ten in each, were
sold at from twenty-five to twenty-eight guineas a lot. The I
Duke of Grafton, Lord Dtvidas, Lord Braybrooke, and the Hon.
W. Fitzroy, were the principai purchaurs. Some Merino rams,
Iludf bred ditto, and theaves, were also sold at reduced pi ices,
evidently affected by the disadvantageous, hut very liberal re-
port
mace by Mr. Coke after dinner, respecting the continua-
tion of his experiments on the crosses of that breed of sheep-
Torsnity.—After breakfast the company viewed the carcase
of the crops Merino wether, the sweepstakes on which, by I 2
subscribers, was won by 1)r. Bate Dudley. The slaughter-
house return was, carcase .s;t Pb.a (141 h. stone); tallow, Il lb ;
offal, 101 b. ; skin, 61h. The sheep proved very handsome in all
points. The eotrpany then rode and saw another extensive
field under turnip tillage. similar to that of the preceding day,
on which four different drills were employed in sowing turnips
with pulverized rape-cake. A ride through another branch of
fine crops towards the sea succeeded, in the course of which
the ingenious process of deal lug the new plants of turnips 'w ith
a canvas sweeper, was exhibited. A view of the prize we-
;hers and Southdown cups for letting, fills up the remaindt r of
this ..:ssructive forepart of the day, until dinner. In the even-
ing, 'he companl assembled at the sheep-pens, at the sale of
sotrhdown, and Ryeland crosses,
,and Southdown
tbeaves : the former sold low, hut the latter ztmsiderably higher
than the Mss oil Monday evening. Severitsl fine Southdown
rants were then lets by L.t.tery : the higlistit prised (mac were.
• drawn by Lord Diiiidr.s, Ir.t Owen Wyntib, and Mr. Bligk
• --

~~~:

'Ell..

PROVINCIALS.

A very singular phenomenon occurred in a wood, on the
estate of I'. Thornhill, Esq. at Calverley Lodge, in the storm of
the Ist ult.—The wind, which was due south, came in so con-
centrated a form, that it did not extend more than 15 yards in
width, and in its course swept down, or tore up by the roots,
ten stately oaks, one of them containing 67 feet of wood, and
which, in the opinion of Mi. Thornhill's woodman, was re-
moved three feet from its situation, though its weight, with
the earth attached to its roots, could not be less than seven
tons.
SINGULAR SPORTING MATCH !!!—A correspondent sends us
an account of the following curious occurrence, unexampled,
we believe, in the annals of gambling, which took' place at Deal
last Saturday :—" Captain C. of the 71st Foot, received ten
points at the winning and losing game of billiards, from Captain
B. of the East Kent Militia, and agreed to play the short robber
of three,for a wager of some consequence, mounted on. his Po-
ney ! Captain B. won the two first games, consequently the
match—hut unfortunately laid doitble or quits on the next, when
the Poney and hiswastcr cattle off victorious. In order to keep
the animal quiet when Captain C. played his ball, he was held
by the Marker, and /Iberia& supplied with Cakes from a neigh-
bouring confectioner."
Foraces FONE.—By the population of this place, which has
just been taken, it appears there are 1673 males, 9.024 f males,
total 3897 persona, and 841 families ; 765 inhabited houses, and
19 uninhabited, total 784 houses. In 1801, the number were
:is follows:—males, 1714; females 1891; total, 3605 ; 762 inha-
bited, and 20 uninhabited houses, total, 782, being an increase
of 92 persons, and only two houses since that period.
A few evenings ago, John Hall, a labouring man, went at
low water among the rocks, :It Hume Head, near CawsatM,
for the purpose of catching crabs, when, meeting with one ill
the interstices of the rocks, of a large size, he imprudently put
in his hand, for the purpose of pulling it out ; the animal, how-
ever, caught his hand between its claws or forceps, and, strange
as it may appear, kept its hold so firmly, That every effort on
the part of the poor fellow to extricate himself proved ineffec-
tual ; and no one being at hand to assist him, the tide came in,
and he was next morning found drowned:
It appeared by an inquisition, taken last week at Lincoln,
1)..1 fore the Coroner for that county,, that Simon Taylor, a
labouring man of Hanthrope, had been discovered by some
ne4.llbours with his throat cut in a dreadful manner, lying on
the flour. The wife of this poor mar, about a fortnight before
this catastrophe, aied the chi'd by her side, and preciptated
herself and child into a well near her house, and bosh were
drowned.

The Aossips at Maidstone have been thrown into great con.
sternation, by a story circulating among tht m respecting the
r. cent birth of a child, who, the moment It was born, as they
cx;iidently report, uttered these words :—" There will he a
prodigious crop of evty thing this year, but fuw people will
live to enjoy it ; ' and died immel:Ltt :y Con‘ndt ring the
nature of the prophecy, it seems to have bee:: a very Wi,e chiki
to retire at once, without exposing itself to any further incon-
vcnicnce.

A gang of thieves attacked the cottage of Mr. GA K
about two miles on the road from Heston to Hayes, on Totsday
night last, and after obtaining money and Vlate to the aniount of
901. they broke open the cellar door, and regaled themselves
with wine and brandy for about an hour, and decaniped. "I he
boost. stands detached, and only Mr. GAR it ETT, and a man and
nn:id-scrvant, were at h me. The thieves werr h.vc in nuinbur,
and Mr. GARRETT had, fortunately, taken 3001. to Lon:kit
Monday afteffnoon.