The Sun.
London, England, 1860-10-12 00:00:00

WEYHILL

RP FAIR.

The great six days' fair commenced on Wednes-
day, for sheep only; the second day is for beasts
and horses, the third day for cheese and hops, the
fourth day the principal hop fair, and the two I:kst
chiefly for implements of husbandry, toys, and
miscellaneous goods of every description. Booths
standing the year round for this fair alone are
rented for the six days at from £lO £3O each by
innkeepers and retailers of provisions, the hop booths
also at a price, as also covered offices for the hop
factors selling by samples. In the morning, before
daybreak, droves of sheep were being driven on
every road leading to Weyhill, many being penned
by six o'clock and sold by breakfast time, the chief
number being cleared away by noon. The sum
realised for the hiring of sheep pens this year
amounted to £3OO odd, which goes to the church
clergyman of Weyhill, who has the letting of the
same.

The well-known breeders of Stockbridge, An-
dover, Whir well, Overton, Whitchurch, the three
Wallops, the Tarrants, and other parishes in
Hants, besides many other breeders of Down sheep
from Sussex and Wilts, had some splendid droves
at the fair, the judges computing the gross number
of Southdowns to be 200,000, and of half-bred and
other sheep of 50,000 more.

At the opening of the fair sales were but slow,
as the prices asked were too high to suit the buyers,
but as the morning advanced a reduction of 2s. per
sheep was submitted to ; then flock after flock
changed owners, and were driven away in all
directions.

Hampshire Downs were most in demand, best
ewes selling at from 40s up to 50s each; second
quality from 38s to 40s each; a few very superior
ditto making above the top figure above named.
Some fine tegs were sold at from 40s to 45s for
sheep, others at from 36s to 40s; best lambs at front
36s to 40s; a few reaching 42s to 445; fat wethers
realised full 5s per stone of 81b ; ditto, ewes, 4s 4d
ditto.

Sussex Downs were also excellent in quality,
and rather larger in size than the Hants flocks,
consequently some lots realised 2s per sheep more
money.
Wilts Downs, smaller than either of the above-
named sheep, were in good dEmand, yet prices varied
considerably; best ewes not making more than 38s
to 40s each ; tegs from 34s to 36s ; lambs, 30s to
32s ; fat sheep, at from 4s 4d to Os per 81b.
The horned sheep being chiefly those left from
Appleshaw fair were not of the finest quality, or
the size of the Somerset and Dorset sheep generally,
still many were large and good, making good prices,
so that by noon nearly all the sheep of every size
and breed had changed owners, The amount of
money realised was estimated by competent judges
at nearly half a million, and the quantity of sheep
at the fair more than 210,000, being an excess of
10,000 over the number in 1859, and 60,000 ditto
in 1858, prices being 4s per sheep dearer than those
sold in the first-named year, and Gs each above the
prices of 1858.
The hnp fair this year will cut but a sad figure
compared with the last four or five productive
years, as many of the Farnham growers have few
pockets to bring of this year's growth—the duty of
that town and district not being expected to realise
£2,000, against from £14,000 to £20,000 other
years.

DR CUMMING ON PROPHECY.

(From the Manchester .Examiner.)

The friensds of Dr. Cumming will probably thank
us for having afforded that learned gentleman an
opportunity of explaining all about the 21 years'
lease. It was he who introduced the subject, and
the facts, as stated by himself, certainly seemed to

us susceptible of an -awkward inference, affecting
not merely his inconsistency—the point which had
been already the theme of an amusing disquisition
in Punch—but his honesty. At the same time we
suggested it only as a matter which required to be
explained. We were quite certain that a gentle-
man of such perfect unexceptionability of conduct
would be guilty of nothing which he deemed dis-
honest, or even unhandsome, but this only increased
our obligation to indicate an apparently weak
point, at which, if left unelucidated, some "scoffer"
might carp. Our commercial readers will best ap-
preciate the conclusiveness of the defence. The
payment of a certain rent for 21 years seems to
have been on the landlord's side the very essence
of the bargain, though his ignorance of prophecy
cannot be laid to the charge of Dr. Cumming. Each
acted according to the•light that was in him ; and if
the balance would have been in the doctor's favour
it is an advantage to which he is not unfairly entitled
as a set-off against the time and labour which he has
devoted to prophetic studies. As a means of solving any

future difficulties of the same kind, there is on®
arrangement which we incline to think entirely
fair. Should Di. Cumming have occasion to take
up another 21 years' lease, let him first send to the
landlord a copy of his " Great Tribulation." lithe
latter, with the facts properly explained, and, so to
speak, with his eyes open, chooses to close the bar-
gain, no outsider will have the slightest cause for
cavil. Dr. Cumming has taken our remarks on
this part of the subject a trifle too seriously. He
could not have shown more earnestness in rebutting
them even if he had felt their force.

Dr. Cumming charges us with having treated
the subject of his lecture with "levity, with ridi-
cule, and almost sceptic contempt." If he had said
that we had treated him in this manner, we would
have pleaded guilty at once. His pretensions cer-
tainly excite within us a scepticism the most pro-
found; and as for levity and ridicule his own ex-
position of an inspired prophet was so grotesque
that he had to caution his audience not to laugh—
an admonition which it was impossible not to dis-
regard. In fact, the hall rang with merriment.
In attempting to unveil the mysteries of Holy
Writ, a severe taste might have led him to refrain
from interlarding them with the criticisms of
Punch. Think of the Prophet Isaiah being solemnly
confronted with the dog Toby ! Since the doctor
has taken up this style of rebuke, we will frankly
tell him the whole truth. We will avow, then,
that our reverence for the prophetical writings is
strong- enough to make us instinctively shudder
when he subjects them to his horrible scalping
knife. He robs them to our mind of all their
mystery and beauty. He smears their drapery
with sordid mire, and fills their gorgeous visions
with smoke and soot and steam. When we see him,
spectacled and buttoned, with extracts from the
'limes and Punch within the leaves of his Bible,
stalking up to the veil of the temple, and essay to
rend it from top to bottom, we remember how
sublimely the miracle was once achieved, and
begin to think that the latter times of the

"scoffers" have arrived indeed. We feel shocked
at the ingrained coarseness of mind which
such treatment reveals. To feel its offensive-
ness it is not at all requisite to have a very pro-
fane taste—it is only requisite to have a moderately
religious one.
Dr. Cumming's treatment of the inspired writings
is chargeable with another result, against which it
would be only decent for a man in his position
,to
guard. We shall not presume to dispute with him
the use of the Hebrew tenses, nor even to affirm
whether or not he wholly ignores the wide distinc-
tion which must be drawn between the laws of
grammar and those of rhetoric. When he tells us a
Fist tense must be understood with a future signi-
fication, that "Woe" must be read " Ho," that
"shadowing with wings" means" defending with a
naval force," that "ships of bulrushes" are steam
vessels, and "swift beasts" are railway locomotives,
we meekly incline our secular selves before a doctor
of divinity. But what will his hearers think ?
What practical conclusions will be forced upon
their minds ? They will conclude, in the first
place, that they have been villanously cheated for
the last 300 years out of the real meaning of Scrip-
ture. Nor is this all. If one verse can be made to
undergo such a metamorphosis, why not another?
In this way a haze of uncertainty creeps over the
whole of the sacred text, till at last the persuasion
is invincible that the common version is useless and
positively mischievous, unless Dr. Cumming an be
bound up along with it. But the scepticism thus
engendered goes far deeper. It attaches to the
things themselves, till the bewildered inquirer is
disposed to regard an infallible interpreter as a
necessary complement of the inspired writings.
Thus, by straying from common sense, Dr. Cum-
ming leads his flock on the high road to Rome, a
place which in degree of horror he holds only
second to another which shall be nameless. As for
ordinary attempts to explain Scripture, Dr. Cum-
ming's mode of procedure tends to brill.' them into
utter contempt. By his loose canons of interpreta-
tion you may prove positively anything. There is
no theory, however grotesque and absurd, which
could not be defended by the weapons he uses. f
it suited him to treat St. Peter with as much
freedom as he bestows upon the prophet Isaiah,
imagination can but faintly figure what his yester-
day's lecture might have been. In the name of
decency and sobriety, we protest against Dr. Cuns-
ming's sacrilegious nonsense. On merely literary
grounds and as a matter of taste,
from the vital interests of religion, we stand up for
apart altogether
1
the august shades of these mighty men of old
against a modern theological
way beyond our usual domain,though
a
In pursuit of this eminent ave
dtihviimne bl‘evre ig
hger.
Wan-
dered
journalistsalong we claim a any,su right to speak on • b
-
as
ject that interests mankind. We do this by virtue
of the all inclusive home sum. Besides, the sub-
jects treated on both occasions are intensely secu-
lar. The destiny of Great Britain—why, this is
what we are talking about and humbly trying to
influence every day. The destiny of the Earth is a

—.....
wider theme, which we will modestly leave in the
doctor's hands. We are delighted to learn that he
and his children love their Tunbridge cottage be-
cause a sprig of heather grows near it. This smacks
genuinely of ! uman nature, which shows its
toughness by thriving so vigorously on the extreme
!1 verge of the present secular economy. Such send-
mentality ought, however, to be held in firm check,
I and our reverend friend must have a remarkably
1 happy temperament to be able to indulge it when
such vast forebodings are rumbling in the distance.
Considering the spiritual condition of the world,
considering the plight, in which, to speak soberly,
the Dies ire would find most men, Dr. Cumming
shows remarkable equanimity in being able to ne-
gotiate a lease in order to spend the last seven years
of the present economy near a bit of ileather. A bit
of heather ! Why, man, here are millions of immortal
souls whose longest torm of probation will not sur-
pass those seven years. In sr.eh circumstances, can
you, an honest Christian man, be sentimentalising
with your landlord over a bit of heather? Such
inconsistency betrays, the shallowness and un-
conscious insincerity,' of the theoriser, but does
not disclose tine-half his mischievousness.
Suppose thy. year 1867 should pass with-
out a Catastrophe, what will Dr. Cumming
have enabled the " scoffer" to say in 1868?
Surely it is more discreet, more consonant
with the narrow powers and narrower province of
man, to confine ourselves to the plain path of duty ;
and instead of rushinc, in where angels fear to tread,
and setting before hand the times and seasons which
it is not given to man to know, to leave prophetic
mysteries in their proper gloom, and humbly wait
till !leaven becomes its own interpreter.