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The Prince Consort's farms:an agricultur
THE

PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS.
THE

PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

AN AGRICULTURAL MEMOIR.

BY

JOHN CHALMERS MORTON,

EDITOR OF ‘THE CYCLOPEDIA OF AGRICULTURE,’ ETC.: HONORARY MEMBER OF THE ROYAL
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF HOLLAND.

LONDON:
LAN GMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, ROBERTS, « GREEN.
1863.

The right of translation ix reserved.
DEDICATED, BY PERMISSION,

TO

HER MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY

THE QUEEN.
—— The writer of the following pages, which relate the |
aericultural career of a Wise Prince and an Ilustrious Man,
cannot lay down his pen without expressing here his humble
and grateful acknowledgments to Her Most Gracious Majesty the
(Queen, who has permitted this agricultural memoir of His Royal
Highness the Prince Consort, and has graciously accepted the

Dedication of the Work.
CHAPTER

I.

II.

III.

Iv.

II.

INDEX

CONTENTS.

THE ROYAL ESTATES
THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS
THE PRINCE AND THE LABOURER

BIOGRAPHICAL

APPENDIX.

LIST OF CONIFEROUS TREES AT OSBORNE AND BARTON

LIST OF ANIMALS EXHIBITED, AND OF PRIZES WON,
BY H.R.H. THE PRINCE CONSORT, AT THE MEET-
INGS OF AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES

PAGE

157

58—188

189—234

235—257

261— 265

266—273

276, 276
 

 

 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

 

sags e=
PAGE PAGE
OsBorneE House (sketch) a 4% Section or Manure House . 98
Osporneé Estate (map) . ; 11 Tue Royat Datry (sketch) 105
‘WuirpincHam Cuurcu (sketch) i . 21 Tue Prince Consort’s FLEeMisH Farm
Barton Homesteap (sketch) . 24 (map) . ; : 135
5 8 (plan) , 25 Tue FrievtsH Homesreap (sketch) 1386
<5 +i (isometrical projection) 27 3 53 (plan) . . 188
ALVERSTONE HomestTEaD (plan) 39 5 (section) 140, 141
BatmoraL Castie (sketch) . 43 a PA (details of roof) 143
BatmoraL Estate (map) . 45 Tue Norrotxk Homestzap (sketch) 150
INvVERGELDER HomeEsTEAD (plan). 51 ih Farm (map) . 151
= ts (isometrical ) 52 ‘i HomestEap (isometrical) 156
Tue Winpsor Estates (map) ‘ 62 ‘3 ‘3 (plan) . 157
Tue Prince Consort’s Home Farm (map) 74 Tue BacsHor Farm (map) . 172
Tae Suaw Homesteap (sketch)  . . 84 Tue RapLey Farm (map). . 1738
re % (plan) 85 Move Corrace, 1851 (plan and isome-
SECTION OF SHEEP SHED . : 87 trical projection) ; . 208
Tue Dairy Homestead (sketch) . 91 BRIcKFIELD CoTTaGEs (__,, 4 ) 212
hy 5 (plan) 92 ALVERSTONE CoTTAGES (__,, ap. Bas
5 ,», (isometrical projection) 93 BaLMORAL COTTAGES (er ae TB
Evevation or Dairy Homesteap 94 Cottage AT ABERGELDIE (_,, » >) 217
SECTION oF Cow-HOUSE 96 Cottages aT WinpDsor (__,, »  ) 221
THE PRINCE CONSORTS FARMS.

HERE is no department of British industry which has
maintained a_ steadier progress than has latterly been
witnessed in our Agriculture—none which has achieved more
obvious improvement and success during the happy reign of
Queen Victoria. Within the past twenty years the agriculturist
has benefited by scientific research, by mechanical ingenuity, by
extended resources, and by increasing skill, more than during
any similar period in our history. Fertility has been increased
by the operation of new processes and of new implements, by
the importation and the manufacture of new manures, by the
cultivation of new plants, by the maintenance of a larger
stock of improved animals. National Societies have stimulated
and directed improvement by publishing both failures and suc-
cesses; and we have now from agriculturists and from scientific
men abundant records and satisfactory explanations of every
branch and kind of agricultural experience. Since 1840, the
date of Liebig’s celebrated work, agricultural chemistry, by
which farm processes and results are explained, has risen to

B
2 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

the rank of science ; agricultural mechanics have almost entirely
altered the machinery by which these processes are effected ;
and an agricultural literature describing, justifying, urging all

these changes has during this period been created.

To what do we owe an alteration and advance so great?
For the most part, doubtless, to the increasing wealth and
number of the population. On the welfare of consumers
depends the prosperity of producers; and when, as in the case
before us, the increasing numbers and necessities of the former
class have to be supplied from a limited area of production,
the ingenuity and energy of the latter class are necessarily
urged to the utmost. It is thus that agriculturists have shared
in both the promotion and the advantages of national pros-
perity. Their efforts have been stimulated, because rewarded,
mainly by the profitable demand which has existed for a larger

agricultural produce.

We claim, however, as due to other causes, much not
only of the guidance but of the incentive also to which the
recent great success of English agricultural industry must be
attributed. No one can deny, because every county may be
quoted for its illustrations, that the enterprise and public spirit
of individual cultivators have often served most usefully to
urge and lead the agricultural improvement of large surrounding
districts. And everybody knows that, besides the leadership of

great exemplars, the rivalry of brother farmers, excited by the
AN AGRICULTURAL MEMOIR. 3

premiums of agricultural societies, has tended much to the

improvement of farm practice.

Both of these considerations hold a leading place in an
agricultural memoir of H.R.H. the Prince Consort. Among the
many proofs that may be given at once of his devotion to
his adopted country, and of the rare wisdom by which from
the very outset of his career it was inspired, none impresses
English farmers more than the energy and cordiality with
which in both of these directions he laboured for the improve-
ment of the first of English interests. Accustomed as His
Royal Highness must have been to that system of external
patronage for the promotion of agricultural progress which pre-
vails in other countries, where a government subsidy is the
solution of every difficulty in the way of schools and of
societies, he nevertheless at once, on his arrival here, heartily
accepted the English principle of unassisted combination for
the attainment of the end desired. And, having entered the
ranks of agriculturists as tenant of the royal farms, he united
with them also in the membership of our great agricultural
societies. Competing there as with brother farmers for the
distinctions awarded to successful exhibitors, and exhibiting on
his farms at home all the leading agricultural improvements
of the day, he threw the whole weight of his position as the
first of our fellow-countrymen into both of the leading means
of agricultural improvement to which we have adverted. And

B2
4 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

thus for one-and-twenty years, seizing every occasion of fresh
effort, whether afforded by the establishment of new societies
or by the introduction of new inventions, quietly, but heartily,

and constantly, he laboured in the field of agricultural progress.

No wonder that the lamentable intelligence of his sudden
death was received with especial grief by agriculturists. Sym-
pathy with our widowed Queen, of itself enough to make a
nation mourn, was in our case deepened by a sense of the
immense loss which we too had sustained. The Prince Consort
had chosen to be one of us, in a sense more intimate than
even that in which he had become our fellow-countryman. Ours
was the one industrial pursuit in which he could personally en-
gage, and he was this year especially to have been our leader.
He had accepted the Presidency of the National Agricultural
Society ; and we all looked forward to the recruited membership,
the cordial cooperation, and the redoubled spirit and activity
which, during the current year, were certain to ensue under
the influence of his Name—under the influence of that life-long
example which had made his name so powerful for good. For
the election of the Prince was no mere compliment to rank—
it was the fairly earned acknowledgement of a long and dis-
tinguished agricultural career. And the position was accepted
doubtless as no mere formal condescension or distinction, but as
enabling him to make one addition more to that long list of use-
ful and laborious patriotic efforts for which the Prince’s memory

will be always held in grateful reverence. Alas! it was little
AN AGRICULTURAL MEMOIR. 5

thought, when the Great International Exhibition at Kensington
and that other great international gathering—the Exhibition of
the Royal Agricultural Society at Battersea— were planned for
1862—it was little thought that in place of immediate leadership
and guidance there would be but the memory of our Chief—but
the remembrance of his wise counsels—the impulse from a Great
Heart no longer beating here—to urge and guide to their con-
clusion plans which he had devised with such hopefulness, pa-
triotism, and philanthropy. It has been, indeed, a grievous loss
to us that when his wise and energetic patronage of all that
is good and useful seemed, in its agricultural developement,
about to bear its best and worthiest fruit— when, as President
of the Royal Agricultural Society, he was about to infuse new
life into this institution, as he had into so many others—all
this prospect of a still more useful agricultural career should

have vanished from us.

It is the purpose of this volume to place on record the
particulars of his most useful agricultural life, and to describe
those improvements in the practice of English agriculture which
have been promoted by it, so that its influence may be re-
tained. A written account may reach some who are unable
personally to examine the estates, the operations, the results
described; and thus it is sincerely hoped that these pages may
in some humble degree contribute to the end which Her Most
Gracious Majesty the Queen has desired by the commands which

have been given for the maintenance of all those farms of which
6 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS.

His Royal Highness was the tenant, and of all those agricultural

relations which he sustained.

In the four following sections, accordingly, under which the
materials for this Memoir have been collected and arranged,
there will be found—first, a description of the estates which
had been purchased for the Royal Family during the lhfetime
of the Prince, and of the improvements which, under his direc-
tions, were effected in them—and, secondly, a corresponding
description of the estates which were rented by his Royal
Highness as a tenant-farmer. In the third chapter there is
given an account of the Prince Consort’s relations to the
labourers on his own estates, and of his efforts on a wider
field for the benefit of the labouring class in general. And the
last division of the book, more directly biographical, is devoted
to an enumeration of those events in his agricultural career
by which the interest felt by him in the prosperity of English
agriculture is so fully illustrated.

Besides the personal details which will be the chief
attraction of these pages, there is also, it is hoped, much
in them that will be professionally useful to the agriculturist.
The experience which has to be described on such subjects
as farm-buildings, land-drainage, steam-cultivation, tillage and
manures, cattle-breeding, grass-land management, cottage-building,
and farm accounts, is most valuable; and it is, we are glad
to feel assured, quite in accordance with the public-spirited

character of the Prince Consort that it should be published.
 

OSBORNE HOUSE

CHAPTER I.

THE ROYAL ESTATES.

HE above sketch represents the north-eastern front of
OssorNE House, which was erected by the late Mr. Thomas
Cubitt from the designs of His Royal Highness the Prince
Consort, during the years 1845-49. And the map on a following
page shows the boundaries and divisions of the estate connected
with it, which by successive purchases since that period has

become the property of the Royal Family.

The manor of Osborne, formerly ‘Auster burn’ or ‘East

Bourne’—the northern portion of this estate—passed by mar-
8 THE ROYAL ESTATES:

riage in the reign of Henry VIII. with the heiress of the
Bowerman family, its former proprietors; and after repeated
changes in the ownership, it became, in the early part of the
seventeenth century, the property of Mr. Blachford, of Sandhall,
near Fordingbridge. His grandson built the mansion, ‘one of
the best on the island,’ which stood within the Park when the
estate was purchased for the Queen in 1845. The present
House occupies the site of that mansion. It stands on the
highest ground of the estate, at the head of a valley sloping
eastwards towards Spithead—the royal standard thus appropri-
ately floating within sight of one of the great centres of
England’s power, and one of her great channels of communi-

cation with foreign parts.

The House is built in the Palladian style, a three-storied
building, in two principal portions, connected at the angles
by a corridor. The northern wing, which contains the royal
apartments, is in advance of the other, and thus commands
pleasant home views on three of its sides, and a noble land-
scape, including the opposite coast of Hampshire, towards the

north and east.

The manor of Barton lies to the south of the Park and
House of Osborne. It is mentioned in Domesday Book as
having been held of King Edward, and as having passed at
the Conquest, by royal grant, to Norman ownership. An
oratory of Augustines was established here in the thirteenth
OSBORNE AND BARTON. 9

century; and two centuries later it became the property of
Winchester College, from whose trustees, in 1845, it was pur-
chased for the Royal Family. The mansion, a_ substantial
Elizabethan structure, has been since repaired, re-roofed, and
in part rebuilt. It now contains suites of apartments for
Her Majesty’s use, for the royal attendants, and for the family
of Mr. Andrew Toward, who has been the resident manager
of all these estates since they became royal property. Con-
nected with it stands the homestead of the Barton Farm,
erected in 1852 from Mr. Toward’s designs, and described in

detail further on.

The northern end of the estate includes the Alverstone
and Heathfield Farms, purchased in 1845 respectively from the
Hon. A-Court Holmes (now Lord Heytesbury), and Mrs. Nash,
widow of John Nash, Esq. On the former of these farms a
new homestead has been erected. The latter remains in the
occupation of the tenant who held it at the date of its pur-
chase. With the exception of this portion, the whole of the
land was in the occupation of the Prince Consort; and under his
personal direction and superintendence during the past sixteen
years, it has been very greatly altered and improved. How
laborious and continuous the process has been may be gathered
from the list and quantities of the principal operations —- build-
ings, roads, drainage, planting — hardly yet completed. Upwards
of 400 miles of covered drains have been dug on the estate —

264 on the Osborne and Barton portion of it, and upwards
c
10 THE ROYAL ESTATES :

of 130 at Alverstone—and besides these many miles of open

ditches have been made through the plantations.

The buildings have included new mansions, new farm
buildings, new cottages and school, and a new church. A very
great length of new roads has been made, including drives for
upwards of twenty miles within the boundaries of the estate,
commanding every variety of coast and woodland scenery. By
a re-arrangement of the fields, the farms have been adapted
to the best and newest modes of cultivation. A great deal of
planting has been done, principally of elms and pines, as
avenues ; but large numbers, also, of rare Conifere, as speci-
mens, besides evergreens and shrubberies around the House.
The estate thus now presents as striking an example as is
anywhere to be seen of good land-management; so that in
itself, as well as for its connection with the agricultural career
of an illustrious man, it deserves the attention of agriculturists.
The improvements thus effected in the property have been
carried out, under the direction of His Royal Highness the Prince
Consort, by Mr. Toward, to whom much of the substantial excel-
lence and polish of its present condition is due. Nowhere are
better roads to be seen; the fences are perfect illustrations of what
fences ought to be; the land is divided by them into fields of
useful and convenient size; these are drained, and cleanly, deeply
cultivated by horse, and steam, and hand; and the homesteads

are particularly well adapted for the good management of the
1

OSBORNE AND BARTON.

 

 

REFERENCES

MAP
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OSBORNE AND ALVERSTONE,

 

 

 

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d Alverstone Homestead
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. ¢ Mount Misery

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| m Entrance Lodge

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| 2 The Queen

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ESTATE

MAP OF THE OSBORNE
12 THE ROYAL ESTATES:

live stock and the safety of the dead stock of the farm, and for

the economical manufacture of meat and of manure.

Before describing these buildings, and the cultivation of these
farms, it is right to refer more generally to the character of the
property, and to describe some of the chief improvements which
have been made in it. It will be seen from the Map that the
Osborne estate occupies the height and eastern side of that
promontory of land which les between the Medina River at
Cowes, and King’s Quay on the north coast of the Isle of
Wight. It now extends over a surface four miles long, and
nearly two miles wide. The district is in geological maps
coloured as belonging to the ‘Headon Marlstone’ and ‘ Binstead
Freshwater’ formations; but nearly all of it is obscured by a great
depth of gravelly detritus, which again is covered by a soil
everywhere more or less gravelly, but in some fields stiff and
intractable, and in others light and loamy, according as the
gravel is mixed with clay or sand. It is very seldom naturally
a rich and fertile soil; generally, as proved by the character
of the pastures and the stunted growth of the timber on the
estate, it is naturally poor and infertile. This is especially the
case on the Alverstone Farm, where there is a great deal of
extreniely rough pasture, and stiff, unmanageable ploughland,
which has not yet been for so long a time subjected to those

processes of improvement that have answered so well at Barton.

It must be understood, then, that this property is for the
most part a high-lying tract of land, about 1810 acres in ex-
OSBORNE AND BARTON. 13

tent, of which nearly 600 acres are the Park around the House
and between it and the sea, 400 acres are woodland, prin-
cipally in woods around the Park, and 700 acres are arable,

lying chiefly on the inland or southern side of the estate.

Walking from the Barton Homestead across the high land
to the north of it, you come upon the edge of the valley at
the head of which stands Osborne House; its terraces, gardens,
woods, and the lines of its own fine architectural elevation,
giving quite the impression of a palatial residence. Grassy
slopes tend eastward from it valley-wise in the midst of woods
on either side, over which the waters and the shipping of

Spithead are visible.

Though occupying the site of the former mansion, and
though surrounded now by well-clothed surfaces, whether terraces
or slopes or shrubberies, there is very little of the original
immediate neighbourhood of the House remaining. Ravines
have been filled up, and overhanging knolls have been reduced,
and an immense amount of earthwork had to be done before
the plans of the Prince Consort were accomplished. The central
promenade downwards through the valley is in some places over
fifteen feet in depth of moved earth; and some of the terraced
gardens laid out geometrically on the eastern front of the House
must be over even greater depths than this. An artificial mound,
now well-clothed with shrubs, lies on the northern side of the
principal approach, and carries a tank for the supply of the

fountains in the gardens—the water being retained by puddled
14 THE ROYAL ESTATES:

clay and cement alone—the success of what appeared at first
a very doubtful operation, being a proof of the extreme tenacity
of the clay thus removed. The walls and surfaces of the
terraces on the eastern side of the House are covered with rare
shrubs and flowering-plants; and it is a striking illustration at
once of the mildness of the winters here and of the improve-
ment in the inner climate of the soil produced by deep tillage
and thorough drainage, that myrtles and camellias and magnolias
blossom most profusely though kept throughout the year in
open borders; that orange trees bloom and fruit in the open
air, receiving shelter only now and then; and that the Chusan
Palm (Chameerops excelsa), altogether unsheltered, survived the
frosts of 1860-61. On the western side, where the public roads
are nearest to the House, it is sheltered and hidden by plan-
tations and scattered specimens of various evergreens, both trees
and shrubs; including the evergreen Oak, the Bay and Portugal
Laurel, the common Holly, the Deodar, Pinus Austriaca and
insignis, Thuja, Wellingtonia and Araucaria. The Prince planted
a great number of these trees himself; and not one was planted

without his personal directions.

The whole of the grass land surrounding the House has,
with the rest of the estate, been drained with pipes four feet

deep, in lines generally seven yards apart.* The roads through

* Weadd here amemorandum of the cost and drainage on 44 acres—thus averaging 7} yards
quantity per acre of drainage, varying from 3} to apart—cost 5/. 5s. per acre; and in another case,
4 feet deep, done upon the estate. Of thaton the 988 perches on 9 acres, rather wider apart, in two

Barton Farm, in one instance, 506 perches of pieces, cost 4/. 12s. 3d. and 5/. 8s. 6d. respectively.
OSBORNE. 15

it are simply 9 to 12 inch layers of broken stone and gravel,
laid in properly cut out beds on this drained clay land. The
gravel-pits upon the estate produce admirable road material, and
while the roads accordingly are everywhere exceedingly well
made, they have as a general rule been made without much
difficulty. There is, however, at least one exception to this in
a new road recently made along the steep shore and through
the wood on the northern side of the Park. Rock and clay
seem there mixed up so entirely without rule or systematic
structure, that the deepest drains and the most perfect surface
drainage combined with them, are unable to prevent the liability
to slips in rainy weather. A sea-wall has been erected along
half a mile or more of the shore, the top being laid out as
a sea-side promenade, and it is across the bank above this
portion of the shore that the road is led. Its line being for
the most part over ‘made’ land, it will not be until a complete
settlement and thorough drainage of the mass have been effected

that the road can be looked upon as safe.

A new Pier and landing-house have been erected at the
foot of the valley, at one end of the sea-wall just named ;
and from this, besides the carriage road, a footway leads di-
rectly up the valley to the House. On either side the slopes
are pasture land, sprinkled with trees and crowned with wood-

land — occasional patches of gorse, left with great good’ taste,

At Alverstone, 45 acres cost 4/. 4s. Gd. per acre siderably cheaper than it is now. The land is

for drainage in 1852, when labour was con- for the most part on a clay subsoil.
16 THE ROYAL ESTATES:

showing the originally poor, uncultivated character of the place.
Some sixty or seventy acres of grass land, immediately around
the House, enclosed within wire fencing, are kept constantly
cut with a horse-drawn lawn-mowing machine—which, after the
first spring cutting has been accomplished with the scythe, and
all the winter’s worm-casts have been removed, is found to
answer perfectly. Beyond these limits the grass is mown for

hay or grazed with sheep and cattle.

At one spot it is the subject of an interesting experiment
in the use of house-sewage. Looking across the valley in mid
winter from the southern side, you see ten or fifteen acres of the
land, below a certain line, green and growing in the midst
of the generally bleached ‘surface which poor grass land then
exhibits. This is where the waste of the House is used in irri-
gation. The drains from the Mansion used formerly to be taken
to the shore. This, however, created an almost constant nuisance
at low water, and for this a remedy was sought—just as it is
now sought for the nuisance which town sewage almost every-
where creates; and the success of the measures taken by the
Prince at Osborne may perhaps be found a useful euide to
efforts on a larger scale elsewhere. The original idea con-
templated such a filtration of the sewage as should retain in
compost with earth all the solid and most of the fertilising
ingredients of the liquid portion, letting the bulk of the
water thus treated run to waste in a perfectly deodorized

and, as it was believed, purified and inert state. It is found,
OSBORNE. 17

however, that while the nuisance has thus been completely abated,
so that the water which escapes is limpid and without smell, it
nevertheless carries with it much soluble matter of use as
manure; and thus many acres of land lying below the line
along which it is discharged over the northern side of the
valley, are greatly increased in productiveness and __ fertility.
The filter, designed by the Prince, by which this result has
been achieved ever since 1851, consists of a brick-built tank,
thirty feet long and four feet deep and as much wide, divided
into two equal parts by a wall across it which has a double
structure, with an interval of six or eight inches between its parts.
A similar double wall is provided at the end which receives
the drainage of the house. Into the space within the first
double wall the drains deliver their flow, which thus sinks to the
bottom and passes through holes at the bottom into the inner
tank. There it rises through three successive sets of trays each
carrying two or three inches deep of mould, through which the
water ascends to the surface of the first division of the tank.
Thence it flows down the space within the second double wall,
and in like manner rises through mould in the second half of
the tank, which it ultimately leaves in an almost perfectly clear
state and entirely without smell. This water is then conveyed,
partly by open channel and partly by hose, to one point and
another over ten or fifteen acres of land, being allowed to flow
unguided for ten or twelve hours at a time at each spot. At in-

tervals of two or three weeks the tank and its trays are cleaned

D
18 THE ROYAL ESTATES:

of all mud and sludge, and this is mixed with earth and forms
a useful compost. The success of this scheme, and the simple
manner in which it is carried out, seem to prove its adaptability
to the cases of large establishments, as workhouses gaols and
barracks, wherever sloping land exists, on which matter at pre-
sent wasted, could be turned to profitable account. As a con-
tribution to the solution of the sewage question, it may be
mentioned here that the waste of a household numbering perhaps
150 persons during three months of the year, is thus delivered
over fifteen acres, while the compost taken from the tank is
applied to about one-third more. The produce of the grass

is many-fold that of the land around it; and, eaten barer, it

affords food enough for three or four times as large a stock.*

A considerable portion of the Osborne estate is, as already

observed, and as is indicated in the Map (page 11), in

woodland.

* An interesting account of a successful adop-
tion of these plans is given by Mr. Menzies, the
Deputy Surveyor of Windsor Park and Forest,
in a pamphlet recently published by Messrs.
Shaw & Sons, of Fetter Lane, entitled, ‘A
Report upon the Management of the Sewage
and Irrigation at the Wellington College.’ The
tank, built upon the plan above described, here
deals with the waste of an establishment of 300
persons. The use of the water which flows
from it, and the points which seem essential to
its successful application, are thus described :—

“1st. That the whole sewage matter should
flow and act simply by gravity, unless some

This has been greatly improved of late years by

very economical pumping power can be applied
to the liquid alone.

‘2nd. That upward filtration is the only form
which will continue to work satisfactorily, and
make irrigation safe afterwards.

‘8rd. That the filtering beds should be com-
posed of burnt bog earth, although clay or house
ashes would also answer.

‘4th. That the ground to be treated should
be thoroughly drained previously, and deep
trenched, if similar to that at the College: and
that, if possible, light sandy soil should be ope-
rated upon in preference to clay. If only clay
land is obtainable, and old grass land is
OSBORNE. 19

attention to fencing, by a careful drainage with deep and fre-
quent open ditches, and by planting. The timber of the estate,
to a great extent originally of oak, is, as generally at the sea
side, very stunted and inferior. Few good trees exist in the
woods, chiefly coppice, of which the plantations consist. Large
numbers of coniferous trees have, however, been successfully
planted during the past ten years. Pinus Austriaca and in-
signis especially seem to prosper; and a note of the growth
and qualities of some others of the numerous species planted
as specimens and in quantity, has been kindly supplied by Mr.

Toward, and will be found in an Appendix.

A great deal has been done in the way of transplanting.
Trees of ten or twelve years of age are easily moved by an
apparatus capable of lifting and carrying a ton weight of earth
around their roots. At present the only produce of the woods
is faggots, hurdles, and wattle rods in faggots for fencing —
which are cut and prepared for sale at a cost of 3s. 6d. per
hundred, 3s. 6d. per score, and 4s. or 5s. per hundred respec-

tively. The average profit from the woodland, notwithstanding

be obtained. It is proposed to fold sheep over

the play-ground, and feed them with this grass.
‘6th. That there should be an abundant supply

selected, very close deep drains should be
put in.
‘5th. That grass land and kitchen vegetables

are the best crops to which to apply the liquid,
and that probably dairy stock are the best ani-
mals for consuming the grass, although it is a
most valuable assistant for draught horses, or
young stock, or for a change for saddle horses;
and would also be good for ewes or lambs early
in the year, when succulent food is difficult to

of soft water, free from strong mineral ingredient,
which can be made available without any great
expense being incurred in rendering it so.’
Plans and sections accompany the pamphlet,
and details of expenditure are added, so that
it is a complete guide to the operations of any
who may wish to follow the Osborne example.

D2
20 THE ROYAL ESTATES:

continual expenditure on planting, ditching, fencing, &c., has

exceeded 100/. a year.

The cottages of the estate have evidently occupied a great
deal of the attention of the owner. Illustrations of them will
be found in a chapter farther on, in which the efforts of the
Prince Consort for the interests of the labouring class more
generally are related. It must suffice here to state that there
are at present on the estate forty-five cottages for labourers,
thirty new ones having been erected during the present owner-
ship; some of them in the place of others in a ruinous
condition, which have been pulled down. They are now all
provided with three bedrooms each, a living room, back kitchen,
and offices; and a large garden is attached to each. They let

for 1s. 6d. to 2s. a week, apiece.

It must not be forgotten in the list of improvements
effected on the estate, that its parish church, of which a sketch
is given on the following page, has been last year rebuilt.* It
is now an extremely beautiful specimen of church architecture
in the Norman-Gothic style; the pointed arch of later times
being combined with the mouldings characteristic of the
earlier period. The whole is an_ illustration at once of
the fine taste and of the earnest religious feeling of the
Prince Consort. The church was erected from the designs of

* The church was designed by the Prince however exclusively at their cost, for private

Consort, and the plans were carried out at the contributions provided the sum of 845/., which

joint expense of Her Majesty and himself. Not was applied to the internal fittings.
WHIPPINGHAM CHURCH. 21

the Prince. Great simplicity in the general outlines is united
with great beauty, both of form and colour, in details; the
guiding principle, apparently, being the impossibility of over-
costliness of ornament, provided that it be instructive on essen-

tial points of religious truth. No incident or history of any

 

 

 

 

 

SKETCH OF WHIPPINGHAM CHURCH

merely human life is depicted on the walls or windows here —
the birth, the crucifixion, the resurrection and ascension of our
Saviour are represented, and He is exhibited as ‘the light of

the world, ‘the true vine, ‘the good shepherd.’

The Prince Consort, who, on his last visit to the building,
personally assisted in the unpacking and examination of the

coloured windows which present these pictures, never saw the
22 THE ROYAL ESTATES:

church in anything like a completed state. Indeed, it was not
finished at his death; and it has been since proposed that
a window in memory of himself should be added to the series
already placed by him. It was, however, immediately remembered
that the whole church is his memorial —a monument of his
own designing which recalls at once the purity and usefulness
of his character and life. The Queen intends, we understand,

to place a memorial to the Prince in her own pew.

Before leaving the more immediate neighbourhood of the
Palace on our walk through the Barton Homestead and Farm, let
us retrace our steps somewhat, and, skirting the southern edge
of the Park Valley, visit the Swiss Cottage and the Gardens of
the Royal Children. These are interesting for the proof they
give of the practical good sense that has guided the education
which the Prince thought necessary for his family; for here,
essentially, is a school, at which homely domestic and most
useful instruction is given and received. Every garden, con-
sisting of several plots, contains flowers (roses, lilies, pinks, &c.),
and, in separate beds, strawberries, gooseberries, currants, and
raspberries among fruits, and asparagus, artichokes, potatoes,
turnips, cabbages of various sorts, onions, carrots, parsnips,
lettuces, and other culinary vegetables. The cultivation of all
these plants has to be looked after; and close by, in the Swiss
Cottage, is a kitchen, where the vegetables which have been
grown by every little gardener may be washed and cooked ;

where cookery of other kinds is carried on; where, indeed, all
THE BARTON HOMESTEAD. 23

the apparatus exists for juvenile entertainments, given by those
who have thus themselves carried out the whole process, from
the planting of the seed or set, up to the preparation of its
produce as food. It is extremely interesting to see—in the
orderly arrangement of the tools, each one bearing its owner’s
name —in the well-tilled plots—even in the arrangements for
practice and instruction in the kitchen, as well as in the
admirable collections illustrative of various branches of natural
history in the Museum upstairs— proofs of that regard for the
systematic, the useful, and the practical which the Prince
Consort was known to possess. And still more interesting is it
to learn that not only are the immediate ends contemplated in
these things fully attained, but that the family bond is
strengthened, here as in humbler instances, by every homely,
family enjoyment shared in common. The Crown Princess of
Prussia still retains her little garden, and produce from it is

sent each summer from Osborne to Berlin.

Let us now walk through the Barton Homestead, whose
position on the estate may be seen upon the Map (page 11).
The sketch represents it as seen from the south; the clock-
tower of Osborne House, which lies to the north of it, being
seen upon the left, in the distance. The plan is given in
page 25, and at page 27, an isometrical projection, taken from

the north-east, is represented.
24 THE ROYAL ESTATES:

The buildings are hidden from the House by their sunken
site, and by plantations along the edge of it. The road-
way to the Barton House, lying thus along the foot of an
abrupt bank, is at the top of the surface more gradually

sloping from it, on which is a series of east and west rows

 

 

SKETCH OF THE BARTON HOMESTEAD

of buildings and of yards, connected by the higher cross line
of barns and thrashing-house; and at their western end the
rickyard stands. The outer row of buildings near the road _ is,
like the Barton House, built of stone; the remainder of the
homestead is of brick, and roofed with ordinary red pantiles.
Coming to it from the farmhouse, you pass between a double
row of shedding, set apart on one side as a cottage, coach-house,
&c., and on the other as implement-shed, house-stable, &e. A
little study of the Plan and of the index upon it will show

how easy is the communication in these buildings between those
25

THE BARTON HOMESTEAD.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

REVERENCES THE BARTON HOMESTEAD ee | pees ae
A Dwelling house 1 Slaughter-house n Root-store, under
a Implement-shed \ ie
‘ : B Cottages 2 Boiling-house Straw-house
b Stable SCALE OF FEET , | : .
Nao-stabl | co Aviary | 8 Manure-shed o Mill-room, oat-
; ok . 3 20 400 450 | D Pleasure grounds! 4 Pigsties bruiser, bean-
d i. -house ' pn Garden | 6,6 Bulls’ housesand yards splitter
¢ Sottage | » Home offices 7 Coal-shed p Oil-cake crusher
f Implement-house | : Ask ad Grinds
Implement-shed | 8 Ashes and Grindstone
g 3 eee aah sp
% Cart-shed = | 7] = = | 9, 10 Poultry-house aerate ma
é Do. and Granary eet ie por |
. 4 =z » Chaff
ae oe : Li ] i li s Barn
kk Feeding-house Lats — zy 4 Bains Howse
70 Hay and chaff rs : als = ea w E o
Straw-house z . — u Boiler
re cee if ot wCarpenter’s shop
: a y s xx Cattle-sheds
r Si e and yards
qr x Cor
" = L y Cattle-yard
E sie 4 g zSheep-shed and
6 |6 “lo 2’ yard
D —_—
pL
a - 7 corr
L
iE
Fe f | li J h | i
PLAN OF THE BARTON HOMESTEAD
26 THE ROYAL ESTATES:

parts which are connected in use; and this, as saving labour
in the management of stock and produce, for whose shelter
they are designed, is the true key to the merit of farm
buildings. The rick-yard and root-stores lie on the farther
(western) side of the thrashing-barn and turnip-house, so that
corn is easily brought to the thrashing-machine, and roots are
easily brought to the turnip-cutter. These roots are cut by a
stationary oscillating turnip-cutter, and filled into a truck upon a
tramroad, by which all kinds of food are easily conveyed to their

destination in the feeding stalls and boxes on either side of it.

The straw-barn, which is of course close to the thrashing-
barn, is also close to the yards where straw is needed, to
this central roadway down the feeding-house where it is also
needed, and to the roadway between it and the stables. The
labour of carriage here, also, is thus reduced to a minimum.
It is also close by the chaff-house, passing thither through a
chaff-cutter, by which it is reduced either to small chaff for mix-

ture with food, or to coarser chaff for litter in the cattle-boxes.

_ The machinery is well arranged. From the fixed engine,
erected by Messrs. Easton and Amos, shafting, fixed wherever
necessary, conveys power and motion to Clayton and Shuttle-
worth’s thrashing-machine with straw-elevator, Garrett’s chaff-
cutter, Burgess and Key’s oscillating turnip-cutter, Biddell’s
cake-crusher, Ransome’s corn-crusher, and Hughes’ mill-stones
on one side, and on the other to Parssons’ saw-bench in the

carpenter’s shed close by. In the implement-sheds are col-
TALLOAdSUTd TVOIULAKOSI

IO

aValsanoH NOLUVA FILL

THE BARTON HOMESTEAD.

27

 

 

 

QVaHLSHNOH NOLYUVE HG

 

   

 
28 THE ROYAL ESTATES:

lected, when not in use, the best farm implements of the
day ; Burgess and Key’s mower and reaper; Howard’s ploughs
and harrows; Crosskill’s clod-crusher, a capital tool on the
heavy plough land; Chandler’s water-drill, which, on the other
hand, is not adapted to the adhesive soils of the Barton Farm ;
Garrett’s horse-hoe; Chambers’ manure-distributor; and, among
other things, an old and clumsy, but most efficient two-rowed
manure and turnip seed drill, brought from TFifeshire, many
years ago, by General Wemyss, and used every season still.
Among the machines must not be forgotten Smith of Wool-
ston’s steam cultivator, windlass, and wire-rope, worked by an
eight horse-power movable engine. It was introduced early in
1860 by the Prince, who thus ranks among the first of our
steam cultivators. Very little was done with it that season,
owing to the excessive rainfall, but it was made useful in the
spring of 1861, so that preparation for turnip-sowing had never
been more forward; and as a result in part of this, the turnip
crop was last year exceedingly good and uniform. Last autumn
about twenty days’ work was accomplished with it at a cost
of 152. in wages, 7/. 10s. in fuel, and about 12. in repairs.
During this time about one hundred acres of deep grubbing
were accomplished, at a cost therefore in immediate expense of

about 4s. 8d. per acre.

During the spring of 1862, and up till June 1, the follow-
ing work has been done:—115 acres have been cultivated from

seven to nine inches deep, once over, the total’ cost being
THE BARTON HOMESTEAD. 29

261. 7s. 2d., or about 4s. 7d. per acre. This has been

done in twenty-three days, costing therefore

£ & a.
For labourers’ wages, at 16s. 6d. a day ‘ ‘ . 18 19 6
Coals. : ‘ 5 : ‘ - 5 9 6
Oi. : : : ; . 1 1 8
Repairs (Blacksmith). ‘ ; ‘ , ; 16 11

£26 7 2

The work done has been accomplished on an average at
the rate of five acres a day, but frequently seven acres a day
have been cultivated where the land worked well, notwith-
standing that in the strong stiff clays there were delays at the
turnings, in consequence of the ground being so wet and soft
that the anchors were drawn in, so that it was often a diffi-

cult and tedious matter to get them out.

The accommodation for stock in the buildings is exceed-
ingly good. A thirteen-stall stable, with two loose-boxes at
one end and harness-room at the other, provides accommo-
dation for the horses of the farm. ‘The stalls, six and a-half
feet wide, are provided with a rack on one side on the level of
the manger, for chaff, hay, or green food, a manger for corn.
and a small tank for water in enamelled iron. The whole
of the stabling and cattle-sheds are well supplied with water
by natural gravitation from a spring and pond outside, and
all are drained to a tank in one of the yards, to which the
cattle -stalls and courts also have their liquid waste directed, and

whence it is taken at intervals by water-carts to the pasture land.
30 THE ROYAL ESTATES:

The central line of buildings contains a double row of
accommodation for cows and fatting cattle — boxes or stalls
or calf-pens—on either side of a gangway furnished, as already
said, with a tramway. Parallel with this, on the other side
of intervening yards, is other shedding for the yard-fed
cattle not yet put up to fatten; and on the southern and
eastern sides of the eastern yard, facing, respectively, south and
west, are the well-arranged pigsties. In the eastern yard, too,
are bulls’ houses near the cow-byre, and boiling-house close by
the piggeries; and below the eastern yard, on the southern
side of it, are sheep-yard and shedding used as a lambing-
house. There is thus ample accommodation for the machinery
and the horse-power of the farm, for the cows and fatting
and store cattle, and for the pigs and sheep. As a last
illustration of the fitness of the arrangements for the economy
of labour, we may point out the granary, built on arched
and fire-proof floor over the cart-sheds, thus enabling the

easy loading of the carts for market.

The live stock of the farm includes thirteen working horses,
chiefly Clydesdales, three or four mares, and a pure Clydes-
dale stallion, brother to the prize filly shown by the Prince
Consort at the Leeds Show, and son of the prize stallion
shown at the Chelmsford Meeting of the Royal Agricultural
Society. Three or four mares are bred from every year, so
that of all ages there are generally twenty-four to thirty horses.

Twelve to sixteen Alderney cows, and a bull of the same
THE BARTON HOMESTEAD. 31

breed, are kept. The dairy is within the farm-house; a
good example of simplicity and cleanliness of arrangement
and management. Hight breeding-sows of the black Sussex
breed are kept, and their produce are for the most part
fattened as large porkers, being killed when from four to eight
score lbs. apiece. The stock at any one time thus generally
comprises one hundred pigs, or thereabouts, of various ages.
Besides the cows, and their produce reared for breeding purposes,
some thirty or forty Galloways are purchased every year at the
Barnet Fair, fed in the yards on straw and turnips during
the first winter, turned out to the pastures during summer,
taken in to the boxes and feeding-stalls during the following
winter, and fattened off as fast as possible on turnips, swedes,
mangolds, hay, cake, and meal. In feeding, excepting in the
case of the pigs, no cooking of food is practised. Hay and
straw and roots are cut into chaff and slices, and corn and cake
are crushed and ground; but the food is given in an uncooked
state. A flock of forty to one hundred Dorset ewes, in lamb
by a blackfaced ram, is purchased every autumn. Lambing com-
mences before Christmas. Both ewes and lambs, fed first on
turnips brought to them in the shed and pastures, are at length
folded in the turnip-field; the ewes receiving there about half
a pound of oil-cake apiece and a few peas daily, the lambs
having liberty beyond the fold, and receiving, in addition to
the turnips, as many peas as they choose to eat; both thus

fattening together. The Dorset lambs, thus fed, have been
32 THE ROYAL ESTATES:

this spring worth 38s. to 40s. apiece in the months of April
and May.

A flock of three hundred South-down ewes is also kept,
and their produce kept on, and fattened and sold, at twenty
The stock of all kinds which

has a place in the Michaelmas inventory, when it is as low

or twenty-four months old.

as at any time during the year, thus varies from 800 to
1000 head.

The following is the list for the last two years, and for

1856, since which considerable advances have been made :—

Horses 14 20 20
Colts and Foals 6 11 il
Milch Cows 16 10 14
Calves A, BA 57
Other Cattle 40
Rams 3 J 4 4
Ewes . 206 422 829
Lambs . 147 246 300
Other Sheep . 800 111 _—
Swine 54 51 91
802 929 826
Let us now take a walk across the farm. It includes

1856

1860

1861

820 acres, of which 412 are permanent pasture, and thirteen
are waste and wood. The cropping of the remainder last year

was as follows :—

Wheat, 86 acres; barley, 44; oats, 64; beans and peas,

26; vetches and rape, 24; potatoes, 2; turnips, 88; carrots
THE BARTON FARM. 33

and cabbages, 3; mangold-wurzel, 8; clover, 50—the corn
crops thus amounting to 220 acres, and the green crops to

175. The cropping this year is as follows :—

Acres Acres
95 Wheat 77 Turnips
61 Barley 3 Cabbages and potatoes
46 Oats 24 Vetches
54 Clover and grass 10 Pease
3 Trifolium 6 Fallow

16 Mangold-wurzel

On the Map at page 11, the arable fields of the Barton
Farm are numbered—the rest of that portion of the estate,
with the exception of the two outlying fields in the extreme
north of it which are also plough-land, being pasture. Not-
withstanding discrepancies of acreage, the rotation adopted is
essentially a four-course series. When, however, one corn crop
follows another, as oats or barley after wheat, a dressing of
guano is given. Since the purchase of the estate, an im-
mense improvement has been effected in the land, not only
by tillage and drainage, but of course also by the purchase
of artificial and other manures, and of cattle food. Less is
done in this way now than in former years, when it was
more needed. Thus, in 1856, they purchased 717/. worth of
manure; in 1861, they applied only 214/. worth. In 1856,
they used 480/. worth of corn and feeding stuffs; in 1861, they
bought only 2807. worth, The produce per acre of the crops .

has thus been raised to from four to five quarters per acre of

F
od THE ROYAL ESTATES:

wheat, four and a half to six quarters of barley, and from five to
seven or eight quarters of oats. A few acres of Belgian carrots,
for dairy cows, and of cabbages which yield most useful autumn
produce, are generally grown. And five or six acres of corn
stubble are sown each autumn with the Trifolium incarnatum,

yielding most useful early spring food for the stables.

White mustard is also occasionally grown as a stolen or
catch-crop. The Swedish turnips, of which there was last
year an unusual extent, are grown either in rows sown by the
Suffolk drill upon the flat, or by the sowing machine already
referred to on the raised drill system adopted in Scotland ;
and on this plan of cultivation, as the crop then _fol-
lowed a failing mangold plant, there were last year several
fields. The crop was remarkably full and even, not a blank
being visible in the planting, and a good average size pre-
vailing through the fields. In general, superphosphate and
ashes are depended on for a crop of swedes. The dung of
the boxes and yards is applied upon the clover for the wheat
crop, and for mangolds, cabbages, and carrots. A large quantity
of manure is thus provided, and, with the artificial aids already
named, the farm is growing in fertility. The manure from
the Royal Mews is also purchased for the farm, and this is
a clear addition to the land, as all the hay and straw of the
farm is consumed in the courts and buildings of the farm
itself.
THE BARTON FARM. 35

On walking over the fields you are struck with the
excellence of the roads and fences. These last are almost
entirely new, ie. made since the purchase of the estate; they
were planted a single row of thorns in lines prepared carefully
for them by deep digging and manuring, and they have since
been kept perfectly clean and well trimmed—one man having
the sole duty all round the year of looking after them. They
are now a good sheep fence, occupying not more than two
feet in width, and being about three feet or three and a half
feet high. The land is cultivated close up to them, and the
fields are clean. A mixture of holly with thorn is added, with
great success, wherever the fence runs under trees, in which
case thorn alone will not prosper. The wheat fields just
coming into growth (June 1862) promise extremely well. The

clovers are yielding a heavy swathe to the scythe.

The cultivation of the land is expensive as regards manual
labour ; from 1,000/. to 1,100/. are paid annually in this way,
besides 200/. or thereabouts put down as the cost of corn and
hay harvest. Piece-work payment is adopted wherever possible,
as in the case of turnip and corn hoeing, and that of tying and
stooking corn after the reaping-machine. From 4s. to 4s. 6d.
are paid per acre for this harvest work; and from 10s. to IIs.
per acre are paid for two hoeings of the turnip crop. The
mowing-machine and the reaper, and Garrett’s horse-hoe, have
somewhat diminished the expense of labour, and at the same

time increased the efficiency of the work done.
F 2
36 THE ROYAL ESTATES:

In no particular is Barton Farm more interesting than as
an illustration of the relations which ought to subsist between
a master and his servants. Mr. Toward has always received
personal instructions from H.R. H. the Prince Consort, and now
from Her Majesty, who desires that everything shall be retained
and carried out as the Prince had willed it: and these instruc-
tions are carried out by foremen, each responsible in his own
department. This arrangement, by which the full use is made
of all the ability of the men, and by which the position of
the foremen over them is efficiently maintained, in no degree
interferes with the personal interest directly taken by the Queen
in the fortunes and affairs of the labourers and _ cottagers
on the Royal property. Many an instance is related of the
kindly sympathy both actively exercised and most touchingly
claimed by Her Majesty in intercourse with her humbler
neighbours. No wonder that the sore affliction which has
befallen her is felt as having also befallen the whole com-
munity, and especially those, from the highest to the lowest,

in more immediate contact with the Royal Family.

A large number of labourers are employed on the estate
and farm, and provision is made for their accommodation by
recently erected blocks of large and roomy cottages, each con-
taining two, sometimes three, apartments below, and _ three
bedrooms above, and all supplied with good and useful gardens.
To these reference has been already made, and a_ fuller

description of them will be given hereafter. About seven carters
THE BARTON FARM. 37

and ten regular farm labourers, besides twelve or fourteen others
on the average, are regularly employed, and the field work of

women is also an assistance during spring and summer.

The wages of the men are 14s. weekly, and they pay
generally 2s. weekly for their cottages. They have in almost
every case been on the estate from the commencement of the
present ownership. They are all English, and for the most

part natives of the locality.

In hardly anything was the practical supervision of the
Prince Consort more marked than in the monthly personal
examination by him of the farm accounts. Details and abstracts
of all the expenditure were every month submitted to him;
the sums expended in labour, the sales and purchases, were thus
recorded and reported, and the totals carried out from month
to month. And the annual summary, including valuations at
the beginning and close of the year, furnished a detailed and
precisely constructed annual balance-sheet. And it is to the
honour of the management that a large annual sum, to be
credited as rent, has always been derived from the farm
management of the estate. The valuations on which the
nature of the balance so materially depends are most. strictly
and carefully conducted. We have had the opportunity of ex-
amining the annual accounts, and some of the successive valua-
tions. ‘They have been increasing in amount from year to
year, as might have been expected on a farm which has been

rising so rapidly into fertility by dint of drainage, cultivation,
38 THE ROYAL ESTATES:

and continual purchases of cattle food and manure. At a
recent autumnal valuation, there were 1,000/. worth of farm-
horses, 1,200. of cattle, 1,4007. of sheep, 200/. of pigs; nearly
3,0002. worth of corn and hay, 1,000. of implements, and 500.
of root crops; and a farm capital of more than 8,000/., invested
on the 800 acres.

The expenditure and returns connected with the estate are
annually recorded in a simple form of accounts under the
different heads of pleasure grounds and gardens, woods, drainage,
roads and drives, fences, woods and earth works; and a similar
system is adopted for the farms, the divisions here being for
labour, manure, implements, live stock, corn and feeding stuffs,
salaries, rents, and rates. The plan of these accounts, which is
adopted on all the farms, is due to Mr. Harrison, Secretary to
the Privy Purse, who drew it up in consultation with Mr.
Toward and the late Mr. Wilson, the bailiff of the Windsor

Farms.*

The southern end of the estate is occupied by the
Alverstone and Heathfield Farms. Of these only the former
was in the Prince’s occupation. It is about-350 acres in extent,
fifty being in permanent grass. The homestead on it, whose
plan is given on next page, was erected in 1855. It includes,
as the following references to the index letters on it show, a

line of buildings occupied as cart-sheds, stabling, implement-

* A copy of the monthly returns on which the annual statement is based will be

given hereafter.
THE ALVERSTONE HOMESTEAD. 39

store, &., and on the opposite side an intervening road, a
rick-yard and open court, the latter surrounded on its other three

sides with feeding-stalls, cow-byre, pigs’ house, open shed, and

 

 

 

 

 

 
    

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

barn. The house, used as a farm-house for Mr. Pristo, the

2
tH] b RICK YARD

—— :

SS ’ LA]
a] a |e e d

|

4 | | oF

— eigiee Baas H lssaweeecc

ag hand f ZW.
“4 [Floor] e Z

I if
Fad (00 J/SO FEET

PLAN OF THE ALVERSTONE FARM BUILDINGS

REFERENCES TO INDEX LETTERS

a Cattle-yard & Loose box
6 Straw-barn ¢ Stable
e Thrashing-barn m Corn and Hay Room
d Implement-store, with granary n Stable
above it o Loose box
e Cow-shed p Tool-house

f Hay-house
g Calves’ house

g Cart and manure shed
r Mess-room

h Byre and Fatting-house
2 Root-store
J Cart-shed

resident farm manager, stands a little apart.

The drainage is still being carried on ;

s Rick-yard
t Offices
u Farm-house

The Alverstone Farm

has been a shorter time in hand than the rest of the estate.

roads have been lately

made through it; much of the extremely rough grass-land on
40 THE ROYAL ESTATES:

it is being broken up; some of the arable-land, extremely
stiff and intractable, is being laid down again in pasture
after a course of improving tillage. The cultivation is essen-
tially on the four-course system, viz.: 1. wheat, 2. clover and

grass, 3. oats, 4. vetches, turnips, rape, and mangold-wurzel.

Large quantities of town dung, consisting of the contents of
out-houses, piggeries, and cow-byres, are brought from Newport,
where it is purchased for 4s. 6d. per ton. The value of this
dressing was very obvious on the young wheat as it appeared
this spring. The plant was much inferior where the ordinary
farm-yard dung took the place of what had been brought
from Newport. Great variety of soil exists upon the farm.
Some of the land is so extremely stiff that ploughing needs
a four-horse team, while elsewhere on the lighter land there
is an open turnip soil, yielding sometimes heavy crops of
oats. Halfway up the hill, between the gravel and the clay,
lie fields whose subsoil is made up apparently of alternate
layers, and here the effect of land drainage, witnessed espe-
cially on certain grass fields at the northern end of the
farm, has been very obvious and beneficial. The rough por-
tion which is being broken up on the clay land below is
drained and ploughed and roughly tilled, the tussocks of
rough grass are burned, and the whole is left till another
year. It is then again ploughed and cultivated, and left for
a second, and even sometimes a third year, before the pro-

cess of decay and comminution is sufficiently completed to give
THE ALVERSTONE FARM. 41

any prospect of profitable arable culture. The loss by mere
time is but of the rent, and as this, on a fair valuation of
a good deal of the original land, does not exceed 5s. per
acre, it is less expensive to do the work thus slowly, availing
oneself of the natural process, than, by laborious and repeated
burning, ploughing, and harrowing, to create less perfectly
an artificial tilth. Besides purchased bulky town manure from
Newport, which is found especially adapted to the clay soils
of the Alverstone Farm, large quantities of chalk are used;
twenty-five tons, or thereabouts, per acre, are bought for 73d.
per ton at a distance of three miles, and laid during autumn
and winter on the land, and ploughed under with great ultimate
improvement of the soil, which is thus rendered capable of more

marked improvement by the use of other fertilizers.

In the midst of the Alverstone Farm lies the ‘tilery of
the estate, where capital goods are turned out of all colours —
white, red, and black. Moulds are used for every sort of brick
required in the drainage either of fields or roads, or stalls, or
yards, and for every variety of brickwork connected with walls,

windows, chimneys, roofs, eaves, and flooring.

It is not fair to conclude this report of well-organised
management, with its results on the Osborne estate, without
remarking on the great contrast which the property exhibits,
when it is compared now with the date of its purchase. This
is attributable, of course, originally, to the good judgement

G
42 THE ROYAL ESTATES.

displayed in the plans adopted by the Prince Consort, and
since then to the liberal and constant countenance and support
given to Mr. Andrew Toward by both Her Majesty and His
Royal Highness in carrying them to their present successful issue.
Fields of all shapes and sizes, surrounded by ragged and
broken fences, bad roads, poor cottages and buildings, have
been replaced by trim and shapely enclosures, good cultivation,
the best possible accommodation for both inhabitants and farm
stock, and every other evidence of intelligence and _ liberality
in the owner, and of welfare and contentment among the

labourers.

We travel now to the northern end of the island, and
visit the other property acquired for the Royal Family during
the lifetime of the Prince.
 

BALMORAL CASTLE

BatmoraL Caste, of which the southern front is represented
above, stands in the parish of Crathie, on the right bank
of the Dee, on a natural platform at the foot of a hill called
Craig-Gowan, about fifty-two miles WSW. from Aberdeen.
The new mansion was commenced in 1853, after various
alterations and additions had been made to the old house,

which stood to the south of the present building.

The general style is the Scottish Baronial, modified, of

course, with a view to meet modern wants and convenience,
G2
44 THE ROYAL ESTATES:

and exhibiting, therefore, more of the character of a modern
mansion than of an ancient stronghold. It was designed
by Mr. William Smith, architect, Aberdeen, and executed under
his superintendence, according to orders received from time to
time from the Prince. The plans and elevations were sub-
mitted to the Prince Consort in June 1852; but many
important additions and alterations were introduced by His
Royal Highness during the progress of the building, which he
constantly watched with great interest. The Prince had ex-
pressed to the architect his wish that the building should be
‘not like a palace, but like a country gentleman’s house ;’
and, accordingly, there is less pretension about it than many

might expect.

The ornamental details are judiciously introduced, and
have been admirably executed in the beautiful granite of which
the Castle is built. Among them are a number of pannellings,
cut here and there on the external wall, illustrating the various
sports of the country: the subjects chosen by the Prince — the
designs for them by the late Mr. John Thomas, sculptor, being
deeply cut in bas-relief. The Castle includes two principal blocks
of building, joined by connecting wings; and at the angle rises
a handsome tower, the principal feature of the Castle, thirty-
five feet square, with a circular staircase turret at one corner,

about one hundred feet in height.

At the west angle of the south front are the carriage

porch and the entrance-hall leading to the corridor, which
‘ BALMORAL. 45

runs behind the principal rooms. These are situated on the

west and north sides, and are fifteen feet high.

The kitchen offices, forming rather more than three sides
of a square, are built on a lower level than the Castle, to

suit the ground; and the ball-room, a handsome apartment,

 

   

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46 THE ROYAL ESTATES:

sixty-eight feet by twenty-five, is situated along its west side,
so as to screen the offices from the dining-room windows and

from the terrace and grounds on that side.

The Map on the preceding page gives the outlines of the
estate on which Balmoral Castle has been built. .The district
here represented is a capital specimen of the mountain scenery
of the Grampian range. There are indeed few localities which
display so well the characteristic features of the Highland land-
scape as the upper valley of the Dee. Situated in the midst
of the Grampians, far from the usual routes of the traveller,
it enjoyed until lately almost entire seclusion, interrupted only

by the annual visits of the sportsman and the naturalist.

From the village of Ballater (where the upper district may
be said to commence) to Castleton-of-Braemar, a distance of
eighteen miles, and embracing the parishes of Glenmuick,
Crathie, and Braemar, the valley is narrow, in many cases not
exceeding half a mile in breadth, and sometimes barely affording
room for the road along the banks of the Dee, which traverses

its whole length in a deep and rapid stream.

The mountains bounding the valley rise in abrupt and suc-
cessive ridges, culminating on the south side in the steep and
rugged Lochnagar, and on the north in the still loftier peaks
of Ben-a-bourd, Ben-A’an, and Ben Macdhui.

Not only the banks of the river, but many of the lower

hill sides, are covered with the weeping birch, the mountain
BALMORAL. 47

ash, the trembling poplar, and the dark pine or Scotch fir,

growing in all the wild luxuriance of nature.

The arable land is confined to a narrow strip of light
sandy soil on the immediate banks of the Dee and its tri-
butaries, while the upper parts of the mountains, and the
ridges and narrow glens between them, are covered with a
moory or mossy soil, forming, during the summer months, the

pasture-grounds of large herds of red deer.

Owing to its position in a deep and narrow valley, under
the shadow of the highest mountains in the kingdom, the
winters are severe, the thermometer not unfrequently falling as
low as twelve degrees below zero, while the summers are
generally warmer than in: the low country, where the heat is

tempered by neighbourhood to the sea.

Balmoral is situated in the centre of this district, on the
northern slope of Lochnagar, and in the parish of Crathie.
It is bounded on the north by the Dee, on the south by
Birkhall, on the east by Abergeldie, and on the west by the
forest of Ballochbuie.

It formed part of the ancient lordship of Braemar and
Strathdee, which, in 1564, was conferred by Queen Mary on the
Earl of Moray in a charter which is still extant, and specifies
the rent-charge payable to the Earl. Early in the following

century, Balmoral passed into the hands of the Farquharsons
48 THE ROYAL ESTATES:

of Inverey, a branch of the Farquharsons of Invercauld. In
this family it remained till 1798, when it was purchased by
James Earl of Fife for 7,020.

‘In 1836, the Right Honourable Sir Robert Gordon leased
the property for a period of thirty-eight years, with the view

of converting it into a deer-forest.

Considerable sums were expended by him on judicious im-
provements, including the erection of a handsome villa on the
bank of the river, and near the site of the present Castle. At
his death, in 1847, the remainder of the lease was purchased

by H.R.H. the Prince Consort, from the late Earl of Aberdeen.

In 1848, the Royal Family paid their first visit to Balmoral,
and in 1852 the fee-simple of the estate was acquired from
the Fife trustees. Its area is about 10,000 imperial acres, of
which, at the date of the purchase, only 200 were arable, and
800 under natural wood, chiefly birch or Scotch fir, while the
remaining 9,000 consisted of wide tracts of moss and moorland,
interspersed with high, rocky ridges, bounded on the south by
the lofty precipices of Lochnagar.

While Balmoral, we believe, fully realised the expectations
of His Royal Highness, who admired the picturesque beauty
of the scenery, and enjoyed its dry and bracing atmosphere,
he soon discovered that it was too limited in extent to afford

full scope for the sport of deer-stalking, which was one of the
BALMORAL. 49

main objects of a Highland residence. The adjoining estate of
Birkhall was therefore purchased in 1849 for H.R. H. the Prince
of Wales. This added 6,000 imperial acres, of which 400 are
arable, and 400 under wood, while the remaining 5,200 acres
consist of moorlands similar in character to those on Balmoral.
The property was now bounded on the south by the Muick.
In the same year the intermediate estate of Abergeldie was
obtained on a lease of forty years, containing 14,000 imperial
acres, of which 500 are arable, and 1,200 under wood, while

upwards of 12,000 consist of moss and moorland.

The three estates, thus united, form a triangle, with an
area of upwards of 30,000 acres, bounded on the north by
the river Dee, on the south by the water of Muick and the
Lochs Muick and Dhu-loch, and on the west by Lochnagar,
and the succession of rocky ridges extending down to the Dee.

The whole is known as the Balmoral Deer-Forest.

In extent, as compared with the Athole Black Mount
and Mar Forests, it is far inferior; yet, from the quiet of
its extensive woods, and the excellence of its pasture, it has be-
come a favourite haunt of the stag, and numerous herds are
to be found constantly within its boundary, affording sport, in

proportion to its extent, equal to any of the larger forests.

No sooner had the Prince Consort obtained possession of
these estates, than measures were taken to increase the com-
fort and elevate the condition of the tenants.

H
50 THE ROYAL ESTATES:

The population of the district are thinly scattered, and in
several cases they are so isolated and distant from the parish
school, that it was in many cases useless to the children. To
supply this defect, commodious school-buildings have been erected,
teachers have been appointed with liberal salaries, and the means
of a religious and practical education have been brought within
the reach of every family. A library, too, was established at
Balmoral, the gift of the Prince, consisting of upwards of 500
volumes, selected by himself. All the cottagers on the estate

have access to it, and it is very generally and gratefully used.

The agriculture of a mountain district is of course of a
very simple character. The chief lessons, indeed, to be learned.
here, are those regarding the relation of landlord and tenant.
The increase of the game (chiefly red deer) within the district
soon led to considerable destruction of crops: substantial fences
have accordingly been erected to prevent this for the future.
New cottages have been built where needed, on simpler plans
than have been considered necessary in the Isle of Wight. They
are described and illustrated farther on. Homesteads have been
built where the extent of the holding has rendered them de-
sirable. We give a plan and isometrical projection of one of

the new homesteads lately erected.

The Invergelder Farm, part of the Balmoral Estate, contains
from sixty to seventy acres arable, divided into six fields lying

parallel to each other along the bank of the river, with about ten
BALMORAL. 51

acres of rough woodland pasture. The soil is light and sandy.
The Dee at some early period had swept over it, leaving enor-
mous boulders of granite imbedded in the subsoil. At the time
the property was purchased, and for several years after, the farm
was held by a tenant who had allowed land, houses, and fences
to fall into the most wretched disorder. After his removal, and
since the Prince came into possession, extensive improvements
have been made; handsome and commodious farm offices have

been erected; fences renewed; every field, subjected to a green

 

 

LIST OF REFERENCES

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PLAN OF INVERGELDER HOMESTEAD

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52 THE ROYAL ESTATES:

crop, fallow-cleaned, limed, and laid down in permanent grass.

In summer the grass is stocked with four-year old Highland sheep,

 

 

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ISOMETRICAL PROJECTION OF INVERGELDER HOMESTEAD

which supply the household with mutton during the visit of the
Court in autumn; and in the winter Her Majesty’s hill ponies
have the run of the fields. It is proposed, by and by, to
establish a small dairy upon the farm, with the view of supply-
ing butter and milk for the royal table.

The Private Grounds which surround the Castle extend along
the valley of the Dee for nearly a mile, and contain upwards
of 120 acres. They slope from the base of the beautifully
wooded hill of Craigowan on the south, by a series of natural

terraces, to the river on the north, and vary in breadth from
BALMORAL. 53

100 to 400 yards. These terraces are thickly studded with the
weeping birch, mountain ash, trembling poplar, and other in-
digenous trees. Betwixt the terraces vistas have been opened,
affording distant views of the river, the neighbouring mountains,
and other picturesque objects. Artificial mounds have been raised
at various points, and planted with hardy shrubs and ornamental
trees. Fountains, flower gardens, ponds, have not been  for-
gotten. The cost of these works has been very great. All
have been executed from plans by His Royal Highness, and

will long remain a monument of his good taste.

From causes unnecessary to specify, the estates of which
H.R.H. the Prince came into possession, had for many years
been greatly neglected. The dwellings of the tenants, the farm
offices, and fences, had fallen into decay ; the cottages, or rather
hovels, of the labourer and poor were wretched. No regular
system of cropping was followed. Modern improvements in
agriculture were not known, or at least they were disregarded.
If the rent was regularly paid, very wide discretionary powers
were allowed the tenant, as to the rotation of cropping he
followed. The consequence was that weeds luxuriated, the thistle
and dock struggling for a supremacy over the scanty crops of
oats and bere: and, as might have been expected, the return
was unprofitable. The whole of the arable land upon the three
estates of Balmoral, Abergeldie, and Birkhall did not exceed
1,100 acres. This was divided into small farms or crofts— few

exceeding twenty-five acres, the majority not being of half that
54 THE ROYAL ESTATES:

extent, while the number of tenants was over sixty. A croft of
this size, two or three half-starved cows, a Highland pony, or
it might be two, a few score of sheep, all turned out to shift
for themselves on the hills, constituted the wealth of most of

the tenants.

To apply a remedy to evils so obvious may appear a very
simple process, but only those acquainted with the character
and disposition of the people, and with the management of
Highland property, can appreciate the difficulty of it. To get a
Highlander to change a custom handed down to him from
his forefathers, or to adopt an improvement on it, requires
great patience. His feelings, and even prejudices, too, however
mistaken, are often of a nature we cannot but respect. The
love of country is a sentiment amounting to a passion in the
heart of a Highlander. Other lands may be fairer, but the
mountains and streams of his native strath are ever associated
with his earliest and dearest recollections. To be driven from
them is looked upon as a calamity, an injury never to be
forgiven; and the landlord is branded as an oppressor who
ventures to adopt such a practice. Mr. M’Kay, in his ex-
cellent remarks upon the management of Highland property,
makes the following observations upon this subject: ‘Through-
out the Highlands, the relation between landlord and_ tenant
has hitherto been different in many respects from what it is
in other parts of the kingdom. Here the relation compre-

bends more than is included in being simply parties to a
BALMORAL. 55

business transaction, in which nothing further is looked for on
either side beyond the strict fulfilment of a stipulated contract.
As in ancient times the Highland chieftain was looked up to
as the leader, protector, and father of his faithful retainers, so
to this day, and in these peaceful times, do the occupiers of
land in the Highlands respect and honour their landlords.
The tenantry here have descended in direct lineal succession
in the same possession even to as great an extent as the
proprietary, and the principles held by their fathers, their at-
tachment and adherence to their landlords, have been faithfully
handed down and imbibed by their posterity. And who would
not desire to foster and preserve this happy relic of feudal
times, and save it from the rude grasp of the prevailing
mammon-worshipping time-serving spirit of the age? How much
more honourable and gratifying is it for a proprietor thus to
live in the affections of his tenantry, to be loved and honoured
while he lives, and to be truly mourned over when he dies,

than, living or dying, to be cared for by none of them.’

Sentiments of a similar kind were entertained by the
Prince Consort. No views of self-interest entered into his cal-
culations. He loved the people, he admired their character,
and he respected their prejudices. as the antique vestiges of
other days. His Royal Highness believed, that if they were
ignorant, it was because the means of education were deficient ;
if they were indolent, it was because they had little field

for encouragement to exert themselves; if sometimes slovenly
56 THE ROYAL ESTATES:

in their habits, it was because from poverty they were com-
pelled to live in comfortless mud hovels. To increase the
comforts of his tenants, to elevate their moral and social con-
dition, were objects steadily kept in view, from the time the
Prince became a proprietor of Highland property; and they

were pursued with unabated zeal till the end of his life.

Anxious as His Royal Highness was to remedy the state
of matters we have indicated, he was well aware the cure
must be the work of time. It has been already stated, that
school-houses were erected, and teachers appointed for the educa-
tion of the young; and that to give a taste for reading, and
increase still more the means of information, an excellent library,
the joint gift of Her Majesty the Queen and the Prince,
was established at Balmoral, and thrown open, not only to

tenants and servants, but to all in the neighbourhood.

To describe the numerous improvements effected by the
liberality of His Royal Highness upon the different estates,
would prove tedious by repetition. It will be sufficient to
state, generally, that comfortable cottages have replaced the
former miserable dwellings; that farm offices, according to the
size of the farms, have been erected; that money has been
advanced for the draining, trenching, and improvement of waste
land; that new roads have been opened up, and old ones re-
paired; and that fences have been renewed, and upwards of

1,000 acres of unreclaimable land planted.
BALMORAL. 57

But it was not to agricultural improvements alone that
His Royal Highness’s attention was directed; he saw the
advantage of encouraging tradesmen and labourers of good
character to settle upon his estates. Houses and gardens, with
a croft where it could be conveniently added, for the keep
of a cow, were provided at a very moderate rent, for the black-
smith, the carpenter, shoemaker, tailor, and general merchant.
Similar encouragement was given to the steady labourer:
and the extensive works thus undertaken were carried on over
a series of years, so as to give constant employment. To the
cottages thus erected Her Majesty and the Prince have been
frequent visitors, cheering the hearts of the humble inmates

by their kind enquiries and tokens of remembrance.

We have to add here the expression of our best thanks
to Dr. Andrew Robertson of Indego, by whom the above
account of the Balmoral Estates has been written. Dr. Robertson
has acted as Commissioner over the property since its purchase
for the Royal Family—and the practical execution of the
many benevolent plans and improvements which have been here
described has been throughout entrusted to him, under the im-

mediate direction of His Royal Highness the Prince Consort.
38 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

CHAPTER ILI.

THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS.

HE Prince Consort’s farms in the neighbourhood of Windsor

Park include (1) the Home or Dairy, and the Shaw Farms,

(2) the Flemish, and (3) the Norfolk Farms, and (4) the Bag-
shot and Rapley Farms.

Of these the Prince Consort’s Home Farm is_ wholly
pasture, two others are only partly arable, and the last is to a
great extent woodland, heath, and waste, being retained chiefly
as a game preserve. They extend, in the whole, over about
2,400 acres, 700 acres being arable, and the remainder grass
and woodland. Their position, relatively to each other and _ to
the Great Park amid which they lie, is shown on the map
on page 62, which is drawn on a scale of rather less than

one inch to the mile.

Though under one tenancy as well as under one ownership,
they represent a great variety of agricultural management, and
are characteristically separate and distinct. His Royal Highness
stood, we believe, alone in British agriculture, as in himself the
exemplar and exponent of a greater diversity of farm practice

and experience than any other single agriculturist; so that there
AN AGRICULTURAL MEMOIR. 59

can be hardly any farmer in the country to whom one or other
of the many facts illustrated on these farms is not personally

and professionally interesting.

A great variety of farm buildings exists upon them. There
are the gorgeous dairy and magnificent cattle range of the Home
farm, fit for inspection by Royal visitors; and the well-planned
combination of stabling, cattle-boxes, stalls and yards, poultry
house and piggeries, with the covered sheep-shed over open
floor and manure-tank underneath it as a_ special feature,
at the Shaw Farm. The compact and compendious arrange-
ment under a common roof of covered yard, with the stable
on one side, and straw and food house, thrashing-barn, and
granaries at the end of both— probably the latest improve-
ment in modern homesteads —is seen at the Flemish Farm.
There is the old-fashioned thatched and wooden barn, with
stabling, granary, and cart-shed arranged around a large working
court, in one corner of which stands the comfortable farm-house,
at the Norfolk Farm. And there is something similar to this,
though an improvement on it in respect to facilities for thrash-
ing and for pig and cattle feeding, at the Rapley Farm. All
of these, except the last-named buildings, are fully illustrated

by drawings and descriptions in the following pages.

Again, the live stock of these farms is a very good col-
lection and illustration of our best breeds of cattle, pigs, and

horses. At the Shaw and Dairy Farms there is a_pure-bred
12
60 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

short-horn herd; at the Flemish Farm one of the best Hereford
herds in the country; at the Norfolk Farm a capital herd
of Devons; and at the Bagshot and Rapley Farms there is a
stock of Galloways and Kyloes annually bought for feeding :
and from nearly all these herds His Royal Highness had been
a successful exhibitor at the Shows of the Smithfield Club and of
the Royal Agricultural Society. At the Shaw there is a herd of
well-bred Berkshire pigs, and at the Home Farm an excellent
stock of the well-known white Prince Albert’s Windsor breed.
The horse-stock of these farms includes our two best breeds for
agricultural purposes—the Clydesdale and the Suffolk: and of
the former especially there is a capital breeding stock, as well as
many good working teams. None of these farms, unless those
at Rapley and at Bagshot be so considered, are especially
adapted for sheep husbandry. Though, however, there is no
particular merit in their sheep-stock, a good deal of interest
attaches to its management, and to the practice of shed-feeding,

which has been adopted for several years on the clay-land at
the Shaw.

Leaving now the stock for the tillage and cultivation of
the soil, we have over all these occupations admirable illustra-
tions of the advantages of land drainage, a good deal of
experience of late years in cultivation by steam power, and a

large and long experience in the use of manures.

There is every variety of soil on these several estates,
AN AGRICULTURAL MEMOIR. 61

between the stiff clay at the Flemish and the Shaw, and the
light and peaty sands and gravels at Bagshot and at Rapley:
and an account of the improvements which by the means
_ enumerated have been effected on them during the tenancy of
the Prince Consort, is in fact a history of the agricultural
improvement of all the soils of England during the past
twenty years. His Royal Highness found most of these farms
imperfectly equipped with buildings, and undrained; the pastures
generally rough and rushy, and in many cases covered with
brambles and with gorse; the plough-land on many of these
occupations encumbered with hedges, and without sufficient access
by good roads; the whole arrangements without system, and the
management bearing little reference to that progress of English
agriculture all around which he desired to encourage. He has
left them in all respects an agricultural example, and his aim
by means of them to encourage agricultural enterprise and im-

provement is obvious throughout.

Let us now walk round them, and examine their build-
ings, stock, and cultivation in detail. Leaving Windsor by
the Long Walk, the Home and Shaw Farms, under the
control of Colonel the Hon. Sir Charles Phipps, K.C.B., and
the immediate management of Mr. Tait, lie close upon our left,
between the avenue and the river. The Flemish Farm lies a
mile upon our right, at the farther end of the drive; and
beyond it and rather to the left, about four miles from Windsor,

lies the Norfolk —the two last being under the management of
62 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

 

REFERENCES

a The Prince Consort’s
Shaw and Home
Farms

6 The Prince Consort’s
Flemish Farm

ce The Prince Consort’s
Norfolk Farm

d The Bagshot and Rap-
ley Farms

Ji. TY

   
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
    

THE WINDSOR ESTATES |

 

 

 

2 MILES

 
WINDSOR GREAT PARK. 63

Major-General the Hon. A. Nelson Hood, and in the hands of
Mr. Brebner. Some miles beyond the Park, in the same direction,
eight or nine from Windsor, and close on the edge of the
heath, lies Bagshot Park, formerly the residence of H.R.H. the
Duke of Gloucester. The Home Farm here and the Rapley Farm
close by, were retained chiefly as a game preserve: but they, too,
are under the direction of Major-General the Hon. A. N. Hood,
the resident manager being Mr. Graham. The Map (page 62)
shows the relative positions and distances of castle, park, and
farms, and the lines of road connecting them. Of the beauty
of the landscape which includes them, of course the Map
gives no idea. It must, however, suffice to say, that for the
lover of fine timber the drive to the more distant farms is a

very great enjoyment.

Nowhere are there older and finer plantations, or more
glorious individual trees, than Windsor Park contains. Thanks
to recent researches, and very much to those of Mr. Menzies,
the present Deputy Surveyor, a definite history attaches now
to almost every portion of the whole. Records dating even
from Henry VIII’s time—from Elizabeth’s time —from that
of James (the first Scottish arboriculturist who interfered in
the management of the timber here) — from that of the
Commonwealth — from Charles IL.’s reign, and those of William
and of Anne—can now be quoted in relation to one or
other of all the plantations in the Park and Forest. And

besides his love of accurate history, which, along with that of
64 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

the picturesque, is. here so pleasurably gratified, the visitor to
the Prince Consort’s Farms, supposed, of course, to be more
especially agricultural in his tastes, has these also gratified as
he drives.along. He learns that, thanks to measures carried
out under the Prince Consort, who was Ranger of the Park,
the poorest of rushy bottoms, or, in drier places, ferny covers,

have become as well grazed pasture-land as any in the country.

This has all been done since 1851, when the Hon. C. Gore
became sole Commissioner of Woods, and Major-General F. H.
Seymour became Deputy Ranger of the Park. The improve-
ments in the Great Park date from their appointment, and are
the result of their zealous co-operation with the Prince. Step
by step the greater portion has at length been deeply drained.
And the process of improvement is being still continued at
the rate of eighty to one hundred acres annually. Drains four
feet deep, at eight- to ten-yard intervals, are dug, care being
taken where near trees rather to let them point at the planta-
tion than take them by it; and thus the risk of stoppage
by tree roots is reduced to a minimum. The rushes are
mown repeatedly every year. They soon disappear under this
treatment; and from a full head of shoots to every tussock
gradually dwindle, until one or two shoots only from the out-
side of every plant make their appearance; these last are
spudded out by hand, and so that mischief also disappears.
The grass after drainage, and the spreading of much of the
earth from the drains, became full of thistles. These, how-
WINDSOR GREAT PARK. 63

ever, were destroyed by diligent mowings and_ spuddings.
And in addition to these means levelled at the destruction of
weeds, the growth of the true grasses is encouraged by manuring
and other vigorous treatment. As each plot is drained, it
receives a liberal dressing of farm-yard dung and_ bonedust,
and is fenced about with high deer-hurdles. During the first
summer the grass is mown; and in the second a herd of West
Highland cattle is fed closely over the ground, receiving 4 lbs.

of oil-cake daily apiece during the time.

It has resulted as the upshot of all these measures, that
the greater part of Windsor Park, which only lately was
an undrained, swampy, or rushy pasture, is now as_ well
grazed as any land in the country; and the change is a
striking illustration of those means of cultivation adapted to
the grasses to which the generally poor condition of our

pastures is now directing so much attention.

Let us, however, as we pass along, take down some of
the many interesting particulars which Mr. Menzies is kindly
telling us with regard to the timber in the park. Our drive
takes us, in the first place, down the Long Walk from the
Castle. This imposing avenue of elm trees was planted about
the year 1680, i.e. in the reign of Charles II., to whose officers
and their immediate successors much of the present beauty of
the park is due. It extends in double rows on either side
of the drive, thirty feet from tree to tree, with an interval

K
66 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

of about one hundred feet between the two double rows. It
reaches from the Castle gates more than two and a quarter miles
in length towards Snow Hill, on a point of which in the line
of the avenue stands the equestrian monument of George III.
The avenue originally contained about 1,650 trees. Some
years ago the Prince Consort called the attention of the office
of the Woods and Forests to the decaying state of many of
the elms, and a detailed examination by Mr. Menzies in 1858
showed, that of 1,652 trees, the original number, only 712 are
now absolutely sound, while as many as 105 are ‘seriously’
decayed and injured. In a recently published correspondence *
the plans are described by which it is proposed gradually to

renovate and so preserve this magnificent plantation.

In the portion next the Castle, individual trees, in ac-
cordance with these plans, have been here and there cut down
—the old roots entirely removed—large holes dug and _ filled
with fresh loam, drainage being first provided; and in these
spots very fine young elms, already carefully trained, and more
than once transplanted so as to fit them for readily taking
to their new position, have been placed. Beyond the double
gates, where the soil is more clayey and less congenial to the
elm, the removal of trees of stunted growth, or of chesnut
and other trees planted where the elm had altogether failed, is

to be carried out upon a larger scale. One plantation, including

* Tenth Report of the Commissioners of H.M. Woods and Forests, July 1, 1861.
WINDSOR GREAT PARK. 67

a double row, twenty-three such trees (i.e. 230 yards) in length,
has been already formed. The original stunted growth has been
removed, the whole has been deeply trenched over, according
to the plan recommended in the report to His Royal Highness
the Prince Consort by the late Duke of Bedford, Mr. Sneyd,
Mr. Gore, and Mr. Clutton. This includes ‘a gradual system
of replanting in masses’ in this part of the avenue, leaving
undisturbed for the present all elm trees which are in health
or have any ornamental character, but removing all such of
older date as are dead, dying, or unsightly, and without exception
all those younger plants with which vacancies have from time to
time been supplied, since it is plain that they have not thriven,

and that they give no promise of ever making good trees.

In these plantations accordingly, only one of which has yet
been finished, the trees have been removed, and the land has
been trenched up three feet deep, and left, after drainage, for
some time to mellow. Immense quantities of loam from Snow
Hill have been brought on to the land, and the whole is thus
put in admirable condition for insuring healthy growth when
planted. Larch and Scotch fir have been planted in lines four
feet from tree to tree over all this space; and oaks, carefully
trained by previous transplanting and otherwise, are placed in
their midst in the lines of the former avenue, and at the old in-
terval (ten yards) from tree to tree—their actual positions being
however in the intervals of those occupied by the former trees.

The larch will act as ‘nurses’ to the young oaks, and the whole

K 2°
68 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

are thus placed under the most favourable circumstances for

healthy and vigorous growth.

As a protection from the deer and hares a careful fencing
was required; and one which with occasional painting should
last for thirty or forty years, until indeed the trees are out of
danger, has been devised and erected by Mr. Menzies. It is
a six-foot iron fence, seven-barred, the separate bars being re-
ceived in tubular sockets in the uprights, thus enabling con-
traction or expansion (without warping) by heat; and up to
thirty inches from the ground a wire netting is placed. If
fastened to the lower bars of this fence, it would soon have
been destroyed by the deer and cattle by their trick of in-
serting their horns and scratching them against anything of the
kind. Accordingly every upright at about thirty inches from
the ground is furnished with an arm projecting horizontally
about a foot or eighteen inches inwards towards the plantation,
and at the end of these arms, protected therefore by the lower
bars of the fence, the wire netting is fixed. The whole is a very

complete specimen of good and careful management.

Fine, however, as is much of the avenue, and interesting as
are the plans in progress for its preservation and renewal, it
is not until you escape from it altogether, and reach the
farther end of the park, that you are in the midst of the
finest trees of which Windsor boasts. The history of many of

the plantations here situated is particularly interesting.
WINDSOR GREAT PARK. ‘ 69

Mr. Menzies has done a great deal towards clearing up
this history, and his researches amidst parliamentary records
and elsewhere with this object in view have been singularly
successful. Among other points thus determined, we learn that
all the pollarded oaks date previously to James’s time. The
old law in Henry VIII’s reign provided that shrouding and
pollarding were to be done not oftener than once in seven years;
and then nothing was to be lopped or cut larger than a
deer could turn over with its horns. James, ‘the first Scot-
tish arboriculturist, put a stop to this pollarding altogether ;
and thus we have one great and easily recognisable date

affecting the age of much of the timber, clearly marked out.

Another date of interest as affecting the park more gene-
rally is that of much of the timber standing frequently in
rows, though in the midst of the park at its farther end.
The land hereabout lies in ridge and furrow, and_ the
date of the trees and of the ridges is the same, being that
of certain old leases in the time of the Commonwealth, by
which the land was let for arable culture and a rent secured
for public purposes. Immediately on the Restoration, under
the guidance of a less utilitarian spirit, the hedges were
removed, though hedgerow-planted trees were left, and the

land was relaid in grass, the ridged form of surface remaining.

It was at this period that the Long Walk was planted.

James II. has left no mark upon the park; but his successor
70 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

William, and again Queen Anne, especially the latter, did a great
deal of planting. And one of the most distinguished of the long
list of Rangers was Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, who held the

office forty years, a period when much planting was accomplished.

In the present century, especially since 1810, when the
importance of oak for naval purposes and the scarcity of it
were beginning to claim attention, a large extent of planting has
been done. Some of the finest young plantations, averaging
now about forty years of age, lie beyond the park. Anyone
desirous of seeing how nature, merely watched, or on rare
occasions helped, carries on the pruning of her timber trees, can
study it advantageously here; the office of the forester being
confined (as he sees the necessity of thinning to be naturally
asserting itself) to the selection of the trees to be removed,

and of those which shall remain.

In and around the forest, too, as well as here and there
within the park, are some magnificent remnants of olden
time; individual trees carrying back the eye and mind to
periods probably before the date of the Conquest, and previous
therefore to the erection of any part of the Castle. One
magnificent oak, about thirty feet in circumference, stands by
the so-called JF orest-gate,. which, calculating at the rate of
twelve or fourteen annual rings per inch, must be more than
800 years old. Of this, and several other of the most note-

worthy trees in the forest, connected with each of which
WINDSOR GREAT PARK. 71

there is some special history, photographs have been taken by
the Karl of Caithness, and these will soon be published in a
work on the history of the forest under its successive
Rangers, by Mr. Menzies. Materials for this work have been
sedulously gathered by Mr. Menzies during the past twelve
years in which he has held the office of Deputy Surveyor
of the Crown Estates here. Among the latest matters which
he was about to submit to His Royal Highness the Prince
Consort, was a proposal to place iron pillars by each of the
groups, plantations, and principal solitary trees, intimating the
date and history of each which had been thus determined.
On the Tuesday of the week previous to the Prince’s fatal
illness, Mr. Menzies waited by command at the Castle to lay
before His Royal Highness the materials he had collected for
a description and historical account of the forest; but the
message was sent—how serious its import was little then sus-

pected — that ill health forbade his examination of them.

Beyond Snow Hill, at the farther end of Windsor Park,
stand the buildings for the performance of the work which falls
within the office of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests to
direct, and that of the Deputy Surveyor to carry out. There is
here a complete arrangement of buildings for all the carpenter's
and other work connected with the whole of the estate. How
large a business is here carried on may be gathered from the fact
that the superintendence of 14,000 acres of land and forty

miles of road is thus included.
72 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS: :

There is a turbine driven by pond water from a high
level, and a fourteen horse-power engine, originally movable, of
Clayton and Shuttleworth’s, for driving saw-mills, boring, mor-
ticing, and other machines. There is also stabling for a con-
siderable number of horses employed by the Surveyor. A large
staff of carpenters and other mechanics is engaged, and a
great deal of work connected with the conversion of timber,

erection of cottages, &e., is done here.

It was the Prince Consort’s wish that every labouring
man should be comfortably housed within a mile of his work.
How different this spirit from that which had actuated
previous exclusiveness may be gathered from a remark made
during one of the last interviews at which the Deputy Sur-
veyor received the instructions of his Royal master.—‘ You
may depend upon any suggestion of that kind having my best
support when it comes officially before me. Accordingly groups
of cottages have been erected on the outskirts of the park,
where provision for comfort by good-sized living rooms, with
an adequate number of bed-rooms, has been wnited with ex-
tremely picturesque elevations and exteriors under the designs of
Mr. Teulon the architect. To these reference will be made in
the sequel. Our drive through the park has in the meantime
rather led us astray from the purpose with which we started

of describing the Prince Consort’s farms in succession.
THE SHAW AND HOME FARMS. 73

1. Tue Prince Consort’s SHaw anp Home Farms.

As already stated, many important agricultural subjects have
long been well illustrated on the Windsor Farms. Nowhere
else, within so small an area, are so many excellent illustrations
to be seen of the various styles of building suitable for the
Homestead. Hardly anywhere is the value of tillage and land
drainage as aids to fertility better shown than on the clay land
farms of the series. The fertilisation of the land by the direct
application of artificial manures, and by the feeding of live stock
so as to enrich the natural manure from stables and yards, is
carried out with energy and judgement. The importance of
pedigree in breeding stock is exemplified in the Short-horn,
Devon and Hereford herds, which are kept on the Home, the
Norfolk, and the Flemish Farms respectively. And a great deal
of useful experience has on all the farms, whose soils vary from
the stiffest clay to the lightest sand, been acquired on the equally
important subject of plant cultivation. One or other of these
subjects will be referred to in detail in our successive accounts
of these farms; and the description of the Shaw and Home
Farms, which are so well equipped with farmeries, may be
appropriately prefaced with general remarks on the theory and

construction of farm buildings.

But first, as to the history of these, the nearest of the
holdings to the Castle: they have been the property of the Crown

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now for many generations—the latest acquired portion having
been the Shaw Farm, occupying with the Clayhall lands the
southern part of the Map, on page 74. This was obtained by
purchase 200 years ago from the former owner, a Frenchman,
Mons. de Shawe, whose name thus still attaches to the land.
The Home Park was, till within the past twenty years, divided
by the public road to Datchet; but this, on the formation of
the railway across its northern end, and in consideration of certain
other advantages then ceded to the public, was at that time
diverted to its present route farther from the Castle. Till 1849,
when the Prince Consort took them in hand, the Home Farm
included merely the park and grounds of the Castle, and the Shaw
Farm had been an appanage of Frogmore, formerly in the occu-
pation of H.R.H. the Princess Augusta. On the death of Her
Royal Highness in 1840, Mr. Watkins, who had long had the
management of it, took the farm for a few years, and he was

succeeded by Mr. Cantrell.

The Prince became the tenant of it and of the Home
grounds in 1849. The whole is now a continuous estate, in-
cluding the Royal Gardens and the Frogmore Grounds, the
position of which is shown by shade lines on the Map. It
was at first, along with the Norfolk and Flemish Farms, under
the immediate direction of the late General Wemyss, to whom
the credit is due of having advised the Prince Consort both to
take the Shaw Farm into his own hands, and to build the new

homesteads both there and on the Home or Dairy Farm.
L2
76 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

The. Shaw Farm includes 308 acres, of which about 120
are arable; and the Home Park amounts to 540 acres wholly
pasture, of which, however, more than 120 acres are occupied

by pleasure-grounds, plantations, gardens, buildings, and roads.

The estate includes several varieties of soil. The southern
portion is a stiff adhesive soil upon the London clay formation ;
the Thames side meadows are good alluvial grazing grounds ; the
upper pastures of the Home Park next the Castle are on the chalk.
For the combined farms a sum upwards of 1,000/. a year was paid
in rent and taxes by the Prince Consort, who took them in a very
wild and unequipped condition. Besides providing, of course, the
proper farm capital invested in its cultivation, he also contributed
upwards of 6,000/. towards the two sets of farm buildings which
are erected on it, and which we have now to describe—prefacing,
however, our account of them with the following remarks on

farm buildings generally.

Farm Boripines.

The original purpose of a farmstead is shelter — shelter for the horses and im-
plements employed in the cultivation of the Jand—shelter for the produce of the land
thus cultivated—shelter for the live stock fed upon some of that produce. A stable
and a barn were from the first the essential parts of a farmery. The implement shed
came much later. The granary was frequently but the barn’s floor, on which the
gradually accumulating store of grain lay in its own chaff as the flail added daily to
its quantity; to be finally cleansed and sent to market when the work of thrashing
was completed. The straw lay exposed in heaps close by. The live stock were either
folded in the turnip. fields or foddered in the pastures, or fed on straw in yards.

So far from being the last, shelter for live stock is now the first consideration with
ON FARM BUILDINGS.

~
st

the farm architect; and this is quite in keeping with the true theory of the subject.
What that theory is may be understood from the following statement of it: —

Agriculture is for the most part done out of doors. The difference between
the wilderness and the cultivated field is little more than one of guidance and
degree. The same living seed, the same porous soil, the same vegetable refuse
as manure, the same rain-water, air, and sunshine, are the causes everywhere of
vegetable growth. In the field, indeed, the seed is chosen, placed, and covered;
while on the waste it is scattered broadcast by the wind, and lies upon the surface:
in the one the soil is broken, pulverized, manured; in the other, it is softened by
the rain and thaw, and receives its annual dressing only of fallen leaf. In both,
however, the natural agents are the really efficient ones; the cultivator does but
choose the plants on which they shall be brought to bear, and so prepare the soil
that their influence shall be the more productive.

The buildings of the farm, therefore, to begin with, are merely houses for the
farmer and his labourers, and shelter for his implements and working cattle. So
long as only plants are cultivated, agriculture is just a series of operations — drainage,
tillage, and manuring—which only give effect to the natural influences of rains, and
air, and sun. Well-arranged plantations sheltering from wintry winds in spring —
deep drains enabling the descent of the first warm showers, and thus improving the
underground climate at the season of most vigorous growth—tillage deep and perfect,
multiplying that inner surface of the soil which represents at once the pasturage of
the roots of plants and the store-room of their food—all these do but intensify the
operation of nature’s fertilising agents; and the sowing machine and hoe confine
their influence to such plants as are worth cultivation. But so long as the farmer
merely cultivates these plants, he wants no shelter for them. No more buildings
are needed on their account than are needed for the wild plants of waste places.
And even when he gathers in their fruit, which nature does not do—excepting
shelter for himself, his labourers, and his tools, but little help of this kind is required.
Barns are going out of fashion. The crops of wheat and other corn are heaped up
in stacks upon the stubble, and thatched against the rain; carrots and potatoes are
pitted in the field. In the one case the thrashing machine is drawn up beside the
rick, and sacks up its grain ready at once for the market; and in the other the
measure and the market cart carry off the roots immediately for sale. In neither

need the produce once be housed.

It is not for the sake of plants, but for the sake of animals, that we require
78 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

the elaborate and well-furnished homesteads which are described in these pages. And
the reason is plain. The air, which is the very feeding ground and nurse of plants,
is’ the solvent and destruction of the animal. It is as necessary, indeed, to animal
life as it is to vegetable, but in a very different way. If growth be in both cases
as the erection of a building, the air is in the one case the very material which the
builder uses, while in the other it is useful chiefly in burning waste stuff out of
his way, and it is likely at any time to extend its ravages and destroy both the
raw material he employs and the result of his labour. A living plant upon the
ground exposed to air, and rain, and sunshine, increases and produces—a living
animal similarly placed becomes emaciated, dies, and disappears. It is but a
moderate estimate of the ordinary rate of movement in the air from which we
must conclude that during its summer life there beat on the surface of every
square inch of green leaf the particles of several hundred thousand cubic feet of air—
enough to burn up hundredweights of wood— but instead of being consumed, the
plant is fed by all this air. Had so much passed by every inch of surface pre-
sented by the lungs of a sheep or of an ox the animal must have been destroyed ;
the food it ate would have been as completely burned as if passed through a
furnace, and the ‘furnace’ walls themselves would have yielded to the flame. Of
course nature provides that so much air shall not be allowed to act upon the animal ;
the quantity it breathes is regulated by the capacity of its lungs— and the quick-
ness of breathing depends, among other causes, on the exercise it takes, and on
the coldness of the air; but it is on our power of influencing this process, and of
diminishing its destructive effect, that the economy of the meat manufacture chiefly
depends. And it is thus a capital point in the theory of farm buildings that air,
which is the food of the living plant, is the solvent of the living animal.

Farmeries (if we except the granary) are meat manufactories. Look at the Plans
given in this volume — you will see every apartment labelled ‘cow-house,’ ‘feeding
boxes,’ ‘covered yards’ for cattle and for sheep, ‘ pigsties,’ &c. The object is to feed
in shelter, amid drier, warmer air than can be had outside. There is less waste in

feeding —a smaller portion of the food is used as fuel — the air is less destructive.

The provision of accommodation for the feeding cattle is thus the main purpose
now-a-days of farm buildings, and on the nature of that provision depends the style
and general character of the homestead. You may adopt ‘Hemel’ feeding, which
consists in placing the.feeding animals two and two in small yards, each with a shed

capable of accommodating two with comfort; these sheds are littered three or four
ON FARM BUILDINGS. 79

times a week, and the dung and wet straw are thrown out and suffered to accumulate
in the yards. Or you may adopt the more wasteful practice of feeding larger
numbers together, in larger open yards with sheds at one end— which is a common
plan in the earlier stages of the process. You may adopt Stall-feeding, common
under circumstances of limited room, where every ox is tied by the neck to one spot
or to one division of a food-trough along the side of a shed. Each. is allowed a
width of 4 or 4} feet, and where the system is best carried out, they have a gang-
way ahead of them, a space of 4 or 5 feet wide behind them, and a high roof over-
head; the stalls are littered every morning, the dung and wet litter being removed
to the yard; and the bedding is again examined in the evening, and the driest
parts of it are shifted towards the middle of the lair. And there is the practice
of Box-feeding, in which the cattle are placed in a railed division of the roofed
floor, each being allowed a space of about 9 feet by 10 feet in which to move at
liberty; they are littered every morning with from 16 to 20 lbs. of long straw, or
long straw chaff, and the corners of the bedding, where it remains the driest, are
every evening pulled into the middle. The soiled litter accumulates under the
cattle at the rate of 6 or 8 inches a month, and their troughs, supported by pins
at either end, are raised as the flooring rises from which the animals feed. The
trough, it may be mentioned, is most conveniently supported on two pins at each
end: when both are in, its position is fixed; when the upper ones are withdrawn,
it turns over and hangs bottom upwards till the next meal, in a position that will
insure its cleanness. Lastly, there is the practice of feeding in covered yards, where
a roof shelters from the rain, and the litter accumulates, being spread so as always
to furnish a dry lair—the roof being at the same time high enough to insure
fresh air and ventilation. For the younger cattle open yards are perhaps the
next best thing to the open pasture; for fatting stock of full age complete shelter
is necessary to economy and profit, and it should be combined with adequate liberty

and a dry lair, as it is in box-feeding, in order to perfection.

Whichever plan be adopted, it is certain that the widest experience indicates
most unequivocally the benefit of a dry bed, of pure air, of sufficient warmth, and of
moderate exercise. These, together, unite health and economy of food in the most
profitable proportion: warmth and restricted exercise diminish the consumption of

food, and comfort with moderate exercise ward off disease.

That all the circumstances which chemistry and physiology point out as neces-
sary to the perfect health and the economical growth of an animal, are compatible
80 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

with either the Box or the Covered Yard method of feeding there is ample experience
to show. No complaint is likely to be made of either as to warmth; 16 or 20
pounds of straw daily will keep an animal comfortable on an accumulating lair so
far as regards dryness; and the advantages of pure air are more easily insured in
box than in stall-feeding—a fact which one who has tried both will at once acknow-
ledge, and which an inexperienced man might expect from a box-fed animal: having
at least twice the room of one that is tied; his litter, too, being trodden down so
hard as effectually to hinder the fermentation by which alone the noxious gases

are produced.

We must, however, leave now these general considerations,
and recommence the work of description. The following are the

results of our discussion :

A modern homestead is an establishment for the manufacture
of mutton, beef, and pork—enabling the feeding of live stock
with less expense of labour and of food. The true principles
of construction and design have long been known. The connec-
tion in fact of all such portions of the buildings as are con-
nected in wse saves labour; and covered yards, boxes, stalls,
providing a sufficiency of healthful exercise, perfect ventilation,
and warm shelter, economise the food of feeding cattle. The
combination of these two leading principles is now attempted
by all good designers of farm-buildings. To these must, however,
be added a third consideration, which has latterly come to be
considered of almost equal importance—namely, the shelter of
the manure which is made in these cattle-houses, and its pre-

servation at once from loss by evaporation and from ex-

posure to the rain.
ON FARM BUILDINGS. 81

How are these principles carried out upon the Prince
Consort’s farms ?— At His Royal Highness’s Norfolk Farm, the
homestead represented at pages 156 and 157 was probably the
best of those upon the old fashion, which stood when the Prince
Consort became the tenant of these estates. LHxcepting the com-
fortable dwelling-house, it is built for the most part of wood and
thatch, and it includes that leading feature of all the old
homesteads—a large square working court, containing the
dung-pit, and surrounded by a large barn, a dwelling-house and
offices, cart-sheds, and stables, on the four sides of it. In
addition to these there are at the Norfolk Homestead a number
of subdivided yards and cattle-sheds and pigsties for the accom-
modation of live stock. But with all the picturesqueness, roominess,
and even comfort of this old style, it is plain enough, from the
description of these buildings at page 158, that there is a great
loss of labour in the conveyance of straw and provender to
the yards and stables, and a great loss of fertilising matter by
the exposure of all the farm-yard manure to the weather. In
the Rapley farm-buildings, on the Bagshot Estate, of which
no drawings have been given, the design as described at page
177, is an improvement upon the original form of homestead,
the characteristic yard being divided by a central line of
building, bringing that class of the animals accommodated in it
nearer to their food and litter than they otherwise would have
been, and giving shelter, moreover, to a larger quantity of stock
than the same ground would otherwise have accommodated.

M
82 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

At the Alverstone farm-buildings already described (page 39),
there is the same central yard with surrounding barn and sheds
and stables, with, however, greater concentration and less exposure

than the plan generally involves.

At the Shaw Farm and at Barton, the latter of which
has been represented and described at pages 25 and 27, we
have instances of good modern homesteads, retaining to some
extent the principle of open yards, providing, however, ample
and suitable accommodation for feeding and breeding stock in
stalls and boxes, and furnishing good illustrations of nearly all
the methods of construction referred to above. The latter of the
two is to be preferred for the roomier arrangement of its parts,
and for the more direct communication between those of them
whose use depends each upon the other, as of the straw barns
with the stables, feeding stalls and yards, and of the root store
with the cattle to be fed. The former, of which we shall
immediately give the drawings, errs in the too closely packed
arrangement of its parts; but it is interesting as containing,
in obedience to the wishes of the Prince, in its yards, stalls,
boxes, hemels, and sheep-sheds—a great variety of appliances
for feeding stock, for the purpose of comparison with each
other.

At the Home Farm, exclusively for dairy stock, as being
designed for an exclusively pasture farm, the principal features

are a magnificent house for the accommodation of the cows,
THE SHAW HOMESTEAD. 83

and a large manure house, to which, for the preservation of its
fertilising ingredients, the soiled litter from this cow-house is daily
moved. For other stock there is ample provision in calves’

houses, yards with sheds, and pigsties.

The Flemish farmery is the most compendious of the series,
and perhaps the most of all in accordance with the latest agri-
cultural requirements. A covered yard arranged in either stalls
boxes or large enclosed spaces, an open yard with shed for
breeding stock, and a stable abut upon straw-house, chaff-house,
&c., in connection with barns, and thrashing-machine, and granary
—the whole being under one roof. And there is an open working
yard, with implement and cart-shed and cottages close by. These
will receive detailed description hereafter. They are the most
successful of the series in developing those principles of arrange-
ment and construction already named; and, in fact, the relative
merit of these farmeries appears to increase pretty nearly in the

order in which we have named them.

The sketch on the following page represents the Shaw
Homestead as seen from the grass field between it and the
Royal Gardens. On page 85 there is given a plan of these
buildings, with a scale from which their dimensions may be
learned, and an isometrical projection representing the height,

roofing, and arrangement of the different parts.

These buildings were erected in 1853 from the designs of

Mr. G. A. Dean, the architect, to whom, under General Wemyss,
M 2
84 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

the Prince Consort communicated his desire on the subject.

His commands were that ‘ plain and substantial buildings should

be so arranged that each description of stock might be kept

and tended apart from the other, suitable aspects being given to

 

SKETCH OF THE PRINCE CONSORT’S SHAW HOMESTEAD

REFERENCES TO LETTERS ON THE PLAN

East Raner
a Cart and Wagon-sheds
6 b Cart-horse Stables
e Harness-room
d@ Chaff and Corn-bins
e Hay and Corn-shed
Ff Drill-shed
99 Men’s Living Rooms, with Sleeping Rooms over,
and Clock Tower
hk Implement-shed

Norrn Rance
2 Foreman’s Cottage
jj Steward’s Stable, Gig-house; and Hospital for
Sick Stock
kk Poultry Department
m Poultry Woman’s Cottage, by the entrance from
Her Majesty's Rooms to the Farm Offices
tino Blacksmith’s, Carpenter’s, and other Shops,
Wood-yard, Saw-pit, &c.

West Rance
A Corn Bay
B Hay Bay
CC Cut hay and straw

 

D Corn-mixing Rooms, Thrashing-machine, and
Straw-bay

E Sheds for Corn to be thrashed and for Chaff
from Machine

G Boiler-room

H Coal-shed

I Artificial Manure-shed

J Boiling-house

Piccrery DrparTMENT
K K Open Shed, and Sties with Yards for Store
Breeding Sows
L Slaughter-house
M Boiler-house, with Food-tank

Centre Raners
pg Yard and House for Stallion
qp' Yards and Houses for Bulls
r s Cow-house and Yard with Calf-pens
s’ Root-store
tu Hemels, with Boxes on the farther side of
the Gangway
vw Yards and Sheds for Store Stock
y Sheep-shed, with central Gangway and terminal
Food-house at <
 

THE SHAW HOMESTEAD. 85

 

 

 

 

 

    
 

150 FEET.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Obed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
86 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

the several parts, and the arrangement being contrived so as to
imsure the economical performance of all labour to be done
within them.’ The design very fairly carries out the Prince’s
intention. It will be seen that the poultry, the swine, the
feeding cattle, the sheep-shed, the stables, are placed in distinct
and separate localities accessible with the straw-cart, the dung-
cart, or the turnip-cart by roads which intersect the whole:
The buildings stand upon a square of ground —the sides running

north and south, east and west, respectively.

The row upon the eastern side includes cart-shed at either
end, two-storied lodging house in the middle, and farm-stables.
The row on the western side includes carpenter’s yard and
shed, thrashing-barn and granaries, steam-engine and_boiler-
house, floor for mixing chaff with pulped roots, and piggeries
around three sides of a small square in the midst of which is
the food-house for their supply. Between these two north-and-
south lines on the east and on the west sides of the square,
there are three rows of buildings, with roadways between
them, and also between their extremities and the two lines
already described. The first on the northern side includes fore-
man’s house, poultry house, and blacksmith’s and carpenter’s
shops. The second row includes a series of boxes, hemels (small
yards) facing south, and boxes, with a large root-house for the
supply of the whole, where Gardener’s and Moody’s turnip-cutters

are fixed and worked by strap from a shaft, to which motion is
THE SHAW HOMESTEAD. 87

given by a small oscillating one-horse steam-engine standing on
the floor, steam being brought for it along a pipe from the
thrashing-engine boiler-house just across the road. The third
row occupies nearly half the width of the square, and its whole
length between the two lines of buildings at its east and west
ends. It is divided midway by a wide shed, in which shed-
feeding of sheep on sparred floors is adopted; and on either side,
with sheds at their further ends, are two capital yards for young
stock. The sheep-sheds answer the purpose of rapid fattening
well. One hundred and fifty Cheviot wethers are fattened in
them every season. The floor is divided into pens about 9 feet

square, holding six sheep apiece. They receive cut roots and

oO z . ap

SCALE OF FEET SS

A
il

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

:
fF
a

 

 

S

a EOL IS S SSE AdSSS - aN

SHEEP-SHED

cake, and thrive fast compared with the progress made out of

doors. The section of the building here given shows the nature
88 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

of the accommodation, and the size and depth of the tank beneath
into which the manure from the sheep falls. Ventilation is in-
sured, imperfectly however, by the louvre boards in the side walls,
and the divisions into pens are shown upon the plan. As many
as 100 cart-loads of capital solid dung are taken from the tank
every spring, and used with great effect on the mangold fields.
A principal fault in the arrangement is the imperfect access given
to the vault where it accumulates, and from which it has to be
lifted through trap-doors in the floor. Owing in all probability to
this accumulation of manure and imperfect ventilation, the place,
though admirably adapted for rapid feeding, does not turn out

good mutton.

The dwelling house, detached from the homestead, and well
seen in the sketch (page 84), is now the residence of Mr. Tait,
the manager of the farm. It contains a suite of apartments (x
upon the Plan) for Her Majesty’s use: they are placed at the
end of a fine avenue, and together with the steward’s house, form
a very pleasing and picturesque object. From these rooms the
Queen can walk in comparative privacy to the poultry depart-

ment, and thence through the whole range of buildings.

The various departments of the farmery are separate and
well defined. The poultry department is managed without
interference with the farm operations, as are also the black-
smith’s and carpenter’s departments. The barn machinery com-

prises, besides the thrashing-machine, oat, bean, and cake-crushing
THE SHAW HOMESTEAD. 89

mills, a flour-mill, straw and chaff-cutters, hoisting machinery, &c.
The granary is on the third floor, and is furnished with tackle
for loading carts outside. The arrangement here is too closely

packed for convenience.

In the piggery department, shown at x and wm in the plan,
the styes surround the boiling-house, at the back of which is a
large tank in which the food is fermented. The central position

of this building insures economy in feeding the animals.

The stock yards, shown at v, w, x, are divided into four,
for keeping separate, if it should be so desired, distinct breeds of
stock, or stock of different ages. The central range comprises the
sheep-shed, including the arrangements just described for feeding

on an open floor over a tank for the collection of manure.

The bullock-boxes, in the range shown at letters wu, u, are
without open yards on the north side, while those on the
south possess them. This arrangement was carried out by com-
mand, as His Royal Highness wished to ascertain which of the
two plans was best for fattening bullocks of various breeds.
The provision-shed, s in this range, is well placed for supplying

food to animals in the various ranges of the building.

The accommodation for cows is small in consequence of
the dairy being at the Home or Dairy Farm. It was therefore
intended to keep in this steading only the few breeding animals

N
90 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

intended for exhibition. The bull and stallion boxes adjoining

the cow-byre are commodious and well fitted up.

The whole of the buildings are well drained and supplied
with water. There are various manure tanks having holes with
plugs in the topstones, so that on taking out the plugs, portable
pumps may be employed for pumping the liquid either into carts

or on the manure in the stock yards as may be desirable.

It is proper to add, that the principal defects in the designs
of the buildings are the cramped and confined arrangements of
the thrashing-barn and granary; and the long carriage of straw
and food to stables and yards. Defects of construction have since
been corrected at considerable expense: those which are inseparable

from the design unavoidably remain.

We tum now to the homestead of the Home or Dairy
Farm, designed and erected by Mr. Turnbull in 1852, which
certainly in no degree shares the faults just named. For a nobler,

bolder design, fit for a royal farm, has never been erected.

The old Dairy Homestead at Frogmore was built in the form
of a square, with the piggeries and other buildings projecting
from the north side. These buildings had been built at dif-
ferent periods, as the necessities of the farm required. They

were not arranged on any regular plan, and consequently were
THE DAIRY HOMESTEAD. 91

very inconvenient. Sarah, the celebrated Duchess of Marlborough,
former Ranger of Windsor Park, had had a garden at Frogmore,
where the old homestead subsequently stood, and the principal
cow-house had been its orangery. This part of the buildings
served its purpose tolerably well, but all the remainder of the
farmery presented a most ruinous appearance, and had been

often compared to the homesteads of the worst parts of Ireland.

   

SKETCH OF THE PRINCE CONSORT’S DAIRY HOMESTEAD

The buildings were not only inconvenient and ruinous in them-
selves, they were also ruinous to the health of the cattle; and
in 1845-46 a great many valuable animals were lost from pleuro-
pneumonia and other diseases. This was not to be wondered
at, because when the River Thames was flooded the water rose
to the level of the floors, and some of the houses could not be
used. In addition to these evils, the old houses required a great
yearly expense to keep them in habitable repair. For these

reasons His Royal Highness the Prince Consort, in 1851, resolved
N2
92 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

that an entirely new farm steading should be erected, suitable

for the requirements of this important appendage to the Castle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
  

 

 

 

 

 

   
 

 

 

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PLAN OF THE PRINCE CONSORT’S DAIRY HOMESTEAD

REFERENCE TO THE INDEX LETTERS

a Gangways o Straw-store
6 Cow-house p Horse-boxes
c, ¢ Cow-sheds and Yards q Stables
d, @' Sheds and Yards for Young Stock r Loose boxes
e, ¢ Hemels for Bulls and other Stock s Cottages
f Calving boxes t Cottages
9, g' Pigsties w Cart-shed
h, hk! Yard and Shed v Hospital
i, y Sheds and Yards w Entrance Archway
j,j Hay-house z Drainage of Yards and Stables to
k Clock-tower the Manure-house which is shown
¢ Stores in the isometrical Drawing
m Slaughter-house y Yards

n Boiling-house z Calves’ house
AVaLSANOH AUIVA S.LYOSNOD AONId AL JO AALLOAMSITd IVOLULAWOSI

THE DAIRY HOMESTEAD. 93

 

   

 

SaLHOSNOO WONTHYd FHL

 
94 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

General Wemyss had at that time the charge of all the
Prince Consort’s farms, and Mr. Turnbull received the Prince’s
commands to consult with the General on the subject; and
after considerable discussion the site of the future homestead
was resolved upon, and Mr. Turnbull’s plans adopted. The works

were at once commenced, but not completed until 1855.

These buildings, represented in the sketch as seen from
the north-eastern side of them, are also shown in plan and

in isometrical perspective in the previous pages.

The principal feature in the arrangement is the magnificent
two-rowed cow-house with its wide central gangway and _ lofty
roof. The arrangements for watering and for draining, the latter
being shown by dotted lines upon the plan, are most perfect
throughout the building. The structure consists, it will be seen,
of no fewer than five lines of building abutting upon a cross
line which connects them, and which carries a clock-tower in
its centre. A roadway runs across the other ends of these lines
and gives access up the intervals between them, which are used
partly as roadways and partly as open yards. On the other side

of this cross road, occupying therefore the same relative position

 

 

WESTERN ELEVATION OF CART-SHED, ENTRANCE, AND COTTAGES
THE DAIRY HOMESTEAD. 95

as the cross line of building on the other side, stands another
line with a fine architectural elevation, of which a separate
drawing is given: it faces this dividing road. The other elevation
of this row is seen in the isometrical drawing, which very beauti-
fully gives the general style of the structure. It includes cart-
shed, cottages, loose boxes, and stables. From the southern end
of it you walk up the space between the first two rows of which
the main structure consists. On your right hand is a series of
pigsties, fed from the roadway through Crosskill’s hanging flaps.
You may also look into them from the gangway separating
them from the cow-shed, which is provided with an open
yard upon its other side. On your left hand are other pig-
sties, stores for food and _ litter, boiling-house, slaughter-house,
&c.; the whole of this department being a most complete
establishment for the accommodation of the valuable herd of
the Prince Albert Windsor pigs. Traversing the gangway in
which the road terminates, you pass yards, 2, d’, and stores for
straw and hay, 77, to the other side of the building, where is
another open yard d’ provided with sheds, a calves’ house, z, and
hemels ee’, for feeding cattle, cows, and bulls. Between this, the
fifth ridge line, and the fourth, there is, as between the first and
second, a roadway, and on the other side of this roadway is a
shed like the cattle-shed of the second ridge line, furnished, as it
is, with an open yard. The central line is the noble cow-byre
to which reference has already been made. Its dimensions will

be gathered from the following section. The stalls are 9 feet
96 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

wide, for two cows each, divided by slate partitions. The iron
trough for each is divided into three compartments—the central
division for water. The raised gangway, a, has a stone floor

with slabs of slate on either side of it. The pipes, d, supplying

 

 

SECTION OF COW-HOUSE

water to the drinking troughs, lie below the passage floor. The
stalls and passage floors are asphalte. The gutter, 6, presents
a sloping cross section allowing of the easy escape of water,
which falls at intervals into the drain shown in section below
it. The plans and sections will enable the reader to follow the
general design of the architect, and also to detect many clever
points of detail by which Mr. Turnbull has obviated difficulties

and avoided liabilities to nuisance.

It will be seen that ready access is given to all the yards
and sheds for litter (chiefly fern-leaf mown from the Park, and

stored away for its winter purpose); and that from the centres
THE HOME FARM. 97

77, and n, and o, where hay, pig food, and meal are stored,
easy access is given by the gangways, a a, to all the feeding-
houses, stables, cribs, and boxes where the stock are kept.
The whole of the floors are laid upon a strong bed of concrete,
and this has completely prevented rats, mice, and other vermin
from burrowing below them. The several yards for cattle have
drinking troughs stationed in them, supplied on the self-feeding
principle ; and there are hydrants placed in various parts of the
buildings, with a plentiful supply of water from the Castle
water-works in case of fire. The surface water from the roofs
and roadways is carried away by a separate set of drains, which
are not shown in the plan. The whole of the door and window
jambs, the ornamental coping, corbels, terminal pieces, and panels
in gables, are executed in terra cotta. This was done by the
command of the Prince Consort, who took great interest in
superintending the erection of the homestead, declaring when it
was finished that he possessed the best cow-house in the world.
The reader will easily gather, by an inspection of the plan,
how well and with how much economy of labour it is adapted
to its purpose. In nothing is this saving of labour more
considerate or more economical, than in the provision of
cottages for the herdsmen and young men employed in them.
These occupy a position, s and ¢, on either side of the central

archway.

It may be added that the whole of the soakage and

drainage of the sheds and yards is conducted to a manure-
0
98 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

house, outside the plan, but represented in position in the isome-

trical drawing, and also in longitudinal section below.

 

 

 

 

  

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SCALE (N FEET

LONGITUDINAL SECTION OF DUNG-PIT

The soiled litter is every morning wheeled from the road
upon the level outside, along the gangway, a a, extending into
this house, and tilted over into the space below upon the floor, 6,
from which it is removed by cart, which has access down a
sloping road at the other end. The liquid drainage finds its
way into the tanks, d and f, and is pumped out either to the
water-cart which takes it out to the pasture land, or on to the
heap of manure itself, which being loosely piled in this receptacle
is liable to ferment. The closed roof and walls hinder most
of the loss, however, to which it is thus liable. The value of
this saving will be insisted on hereafter; meanwhile it may be
observed that a manure-vault of the dimensions indicated by the
plan and section —viz., 30 feet in width by 35 feet in length,
and 10 feet deep—is found sufficient room as an appendage to
buildings affording stall and box accommodation to about two

hundred cattle of all ages, and fifty or sixty swine.
THE HOME FARM. 99

One of the chief features in these buildings evidently is
the ample accommodation for pigs—gg on the plan. The com-
paratively smaller white Prince Albert’s Windsor breed — from
sixteen to twenty breeding sows—are kept here. The pure
Berkshire—ten to twelve sows—are kept at the other farmery.
In both cases there is ample demand for the young stock for
breeding purposes. Mr. Tait gives the preference to the former
breed, both for fecundity and for precocity. As much as 7O0J.
worth of produce has been sold out of the piggeries at the

Home Farm alone in a single year.

The dairy stock, for which ample accommodation is pro-
vided on these premises, is for the most part kept here. Nearly
two hundred head of stock are now kept —-about eighty cows in
general of the Short-horn breed, besides ten or twelve Alderneys.
The Short-horns of course are not yet all pure pedigree stock
—the pure-bred herd has been growing into existence only

during the last eight or ten years.

But since 1855 pure Booth bulls have been used over the
whole. Prince Atrrep, 13494* (successful at the North Lincoln-
shire Show in 1859, and hired in succession by the Prince Consort,
the Emperor of the French, and Lady Pigot) — Firz-CLarence,
14552, and now Lorp Horewet, 18239, have been used over
both the pedigree cows and the other stock, and the whole are
thus rapidly acquiring a high-bred and common family character.

* The numbers are those of Coates’ Herd Book.

02
100 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

The pure pedigree herd are descended chiefly from the

following cows :—Aliw (1853) by, Earn or Dustin, 10178, bred
by Sir C. Knightley, and bought at the Fawsley sale for 100
guineas — Rachel (1850), bred by the Prince Consort, by
GotpsmitH, 10277, dam Matchless by Firznarpince, 8073 —
Narcissus (1851), bred by Mr. Trotter, of Bishop Middleham,
by 3d D. or Yorx, 10166, dam Norna by Duxe or Ricumonn,
7996, bought at the Hendon sale for 72 guineas — Cold-
cream (1851), another Fawsley cow, also got by Ear or
Dusiin, 10178, and also purchased for 100 guineas at Sir C.
Knightley’s sale— Graceful (1852), bred by Mr. Majoribanks,
got by Facrorum, 11455, dam Gertrude by Goneaway, 10279
— Bracelet (1856), bred by the Prince Consort, by Prince
Aurrep, 13494, dam Oowslip by BELLVILLE, 6778— and Sally
(1853), bred by the Prince, by Lorp Foprineron 104387,
also out of Cowslip. Sally was the second-prize heifer at
the Paris Show in 1855. Besides these a few others more
recently introduced and some of shorter pedigree might be
included. The cows first named have all been good breeders.
Alix and Coldcream have each had six calves, and Sally six
since 1856. Graceful and Rachel have had six each, and
Narcissus five since 1855. They are kept in fair breeding
condition. Much of their milk goes to the dairy, and no
turnip or other roots therefore are given to them—they have
hay in winter and pasturage in summer. A ready sale at long

prices is easily obtained for young bulls, and the heifers are
THE HOME FARM.

101

taken into the herd and have already begun to add to its

number, as by Annette daughter of Alix, and Rosewood and
Ruby daughters of Rachel.

We give here the families of the two Fawsley cows, as

they are probably the chief nucleus of the future herd.

‘COLDCREAM’ AND HER DESCENDANTS.

Coldcream (Sept. 7, 1851),
by Eart or Dusiin, 10178;
dam Pansy by Grey Friars,
9172 (bred by Sir C. Knight- ¢
ley, Bart. and purchased for
100 guineas at the Fawsley
sale in 1856).

( 1. Duchess (May 30, 1856),
by Duxe or Campriner, 12742.

2. Prince Leopoip (Sept. 4,
1857), by Prince ALFRED, 138494
(sold to Sir E. Kerrison, Bart.
for 40 guineas).

3. Carolina (Oct. 1858), by
Prince ALFrep, 138494.

4. Sir CHarues (Nov. 6,
1859), by Frrz-Ciarence, 14552
(sold to Commodore Stockton,
U.§., for 100 guineas).

5. Lady Constance (Feb. 11,
1861), by Frrz-Crarence, 14552
(shown as a yearling at Batter-
sea).

 

6. Comely (Jan. 27, 1862),
i Buckineuam, 17471.

Delhi (Jan. 27, 1858), by
Granp Duke oF Oxrorp, 16184
(has had a calf, since dead).

Datura (Oct. 19, 1859), by
Fitz-CLarence, 14552.

Douxe oF SutHertanp (Dec.
19, 1860), by Frrz-CLarENce,
14552.

Dusze or Beprorp (Nov.

 

| 1861) by Bucxinenam, 17471.

[Carolina and Datura have
now (August, 1862) produced
heifer calves to BuckincHam,
17471.]

The second column contains the calves of Coldcream, the

third those of her offspring; of which, Duchess, has had four

calves, and Carolina and Datura one each.
102 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

Coldeream, her daughter Duchess, and her granddaughter
Delhi are now all in calf to Lorp HopeweE.L, another Booth

bull: she may thus be pronounced a profitable purchase.

The other Fawsley cow is Alix, of whose descendants we

give the following list : —

‘ ALIX’ AND HER DrscENDANTS.

( 1. Srr Cuarzes (April 12,
1856), by Duxe or CamBripge,
12742 (dead).

2. Str Cuartes (May 23,
1857), by Prince ALFRED, 13494 f Prince Arruur (Nov. 1,
; 1860), by Firz- Cuarence,
14552 (shown at Battersea).
Alix (Jan. 4, 1853), by Earn 3. Annette (April 5, 1858), 4
or Desiin, 10178; dam La- < by Prince Atrrep, 13494. Prince Leopotp (Feb. 22,
takia by Grey Friars, 9172. 1862) by Prince ALFRED,
4. Anna (Oct. 8, 1859), by | 18494.
Fitz-CLarEnce, 14552.

5. Agax (Feb. 28, 1861), by
Fitz-Ciarence, 14552.

6. Anemone (Feb. 4, 1862),
| by Bucninenam, 17471.

 

It must not be forgotten that while the value of the herd
for breeding purposes, and the revenue from it derived from the
sale of bulls, have been regarded in its management, its services
as a dairy herd for the use of the Castle were the original
reason of its formation. And Alix and Coldcream were pur-

chased for their actual dairy qualities as well as for their good
THE HOME FARM.

103

descent through a celebrated dairy family of the Short-horn

breed.*

In addition to these, Narcissus, bought at the Hendon

sale, besides

breeding three bulls, all sold, has a yearling,

Norma, by Firz-Cuarence, which was shown at the Battersea

Meeting :
Matchless,

Harotp, 8131), has four

and Rachel, bred by His
by Firzuarpiner, 8073, and g.

Royal Highness (dam

dam Myrtle, by

descendants —fosewood, by Prince

Aurrep, Ruby, by the same bull, Regalia, by Frrz-Ciarence,

14552, and Rosette, by Buckinenam, 17471.
Ruby and Rosewood have both

and was shown at Battersea.

The last is a calf

bred —and Ronatp and Roya Prince, their calves by Buck-

INGHAM, 17471, are now in the herd.

It will be seen from this account that now, with several

crosses of Booth bulls,

and occasional

purchases from other

hands, an important herd is gradually growing up.

* Both Coldcream and Alix were by the Ear
or Dustin, a bull descended from Princess by
Napier, 6283, and through the former from
Be.vepERE, 1706—and thus on both sides
from herds in which the present pampering
system of treating Short-horns was carefully
avoided. It is, perhaps, as a consequence of
this that the cows descended from him have
possessed remarkable milking properties. Mr.
Adkins’ herd sold last year, at Milcote, Strat-
ford-on-Avon, included a number of his descend-

ants, and the dairy quality of the herd there,

as well as the excellence in this respect of
many of the Fawsley cows, is to be attributed
to the influence of this bull. The late Earl
of Ducie, who was the principal owner, after
the Kirkleavington sale, of the celebrated
Duchess tribe of Short-horns, wanted much to
procure a cross of the Ear, or Dubin for the
Duchesses on account of his proved influence
on the milking properties of his descendants—
an influence which may one day give a special
value to the large number of animals in the

Windsor herd descended from him.
104 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

The Prince had ‘hardly been an exhibitor of Short-horn
stock in this country. He was, however, a successful exhibitor
at the International Show at Paris, as already named, and had
proposed exhibiting at the International Show this year at
Battersea, to which end Prince Arruur, a yearling bull by
Fivz-Ciarence (14532) out of Annette, a daughter of Alix by
Prince ALFRED, and two yearling heifers out of Coldcream and
Narcissus, were got ready. His Royal Highness was, however,
as is well known, a constant exhibitor of other stock at English
shows, and a large case full of medals won by him lies on
the table in the Queen’s apartment at the Farm House. But
to the fortunes of his herds at the shows of the Royal Agri-
cultural Society, and of the Smithfield and Midland Counties’

Clubs, attention will hereafter be given in detail.

The Royal Dairy stands near the homestead just described.

It is represented in the following sketch.

The old dairy at Frogmore had been built in the reign of
George III., and consisted of two compartments-—one of them
octagonal, and the other of an oblong plan— connected by
means of an opening in the division wall. A small tazza
fountain stood in the centre of the octagonal room, and the
tables and shelves were of Yorkshire stone. But as _ these
rooms did not afford sufficient space for the milk, a temporary
lean-to shed had been added. The churning and _butter-rooms
were detached, on the opposite side of a small yard; and the

dairy-woman’s cottage was attached to the milk-house.
THE ROYAL DAIRY. 105

The drainage of the whole group was into a large cess-
pool directly under the windows of the milk-house, and quite

close to the wall. Moreover, in the milk-house itself, there was

 

 

 

THE ROYAL DAIRY

a considerable space between the heads of the windows and the
ceiling, without top ventilation. The natural consequence of
all this was that the milk ‘would not keep here in hot
weather, so that in summer time it had to be placed in the

cellar of an old house hard by, formerly the residence of the
bailiff.
The whole of the buildings were badly planned; the arrange-

ments were unfit for their purpose ; exceedingly inconvenient ;
P
106 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

and out of repair. Mr. J. R. Turnbull of Windsor Castle accord-
ingly received the Prince Consort’s instructions to draw up a report
on the best plan for a new dairy, with all the necessary appen-
dages ; and the following list of conditions and particulars to

be observed in its erection was ultimately approved.

There was to be shelter from the south and west, with
free circulation of air around the building; no trees were to
be closer than 30 feet from the walls, and any neighbouring
shrubs were to be single standards; the situation was, if possible,
to be upon a gravel subsoil; there was to be ample ventila-
tion within the building, at both the top and sides of the
apartment, with proper means for regulating the same; double
windows were to be provided for the exclusion of heat in
summer and cold in winter; a plentiful supply of water was
to be provided for dairy purposes, and for cleaning and flushing
the drains; no cesspool was to be allowed near the dairy; the
floor and walls were to be covered with glazed tiles; the tables
or shelves were to be of marble or slate; the walls were. to be
built hollow, and the roof was to be made so that vicissitudes

of temperature should not affect the milk.

These particulars were determined on as the conditions of
any design that might be prepared; and the architect was
instructed by the Prince that while His Royal Highness wished
to have an ornamental dairy, no beauty of ornament would

compensate for want of every-day usefulness.
THE ROYAL DAIRY. 107

The old bailiff’s house at Frogmore was converted into a
cottage for the dairy-woman, and it was resolved that a new dairy
should be erected on the north side of it. Mr. Turnbull’s plans
founded on these instructions were made, and approved by the
Prince, and the works were begun about Midsummer 1858. The
site of the building is dry gravel; the floor is laid upon brick
arches, with an empty space about three feet high below the
arches. The external walls are hollow, with ventilation. The
drains are of glazed tubular pipes, and provided with means of
efficient flushing. The roof is boarded and covered with asphalted
felt, over which the laths are nailed for the tiles; the inside of
the roof is lathed and plastered, having ceiling joists fixed below
which carry the lower ceiling; and the space between the outer
and inner lath is ventilated. The floor is laid with tiles of an
incised pattern, with a rich majolica border, presenting the ap-
pearance of a Turkey carpet, and it is both beautiful to the eye
and agreeable to walk upon. Below the tables, and extending
their whole length, are reservoirs about two inches deep, laid
with tiles, to contain a flowing stream of cold water, and pro-
vided with arrangements for filling and emptying. This arrange-
ment preserves the coolness of the room in summer. The walls
are covered with tiles of a white ground, carrying a star pattern
in mauve colour, and the whole is enclosed by a border of tiles
bearing a running pattern in green and white. Several bas-
reliefs in majolica are also introduced on the walls, the subjects

being agricultural and descriptive of the four seasons. The walls

P2
108 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

are crowned by a frieze and cornice, executed in majolica, the
former of elaborate and flowing design. Medallions of the Royal
Family are introduced, supported by sea-horses, alternating with
shields bearing monograms, dolphins, &c. The cornice is en-
riched by a running pattern in majolica, representing the leaves
and fruit of the orange. The sloping part of the ceiling, which
extends up to the roof-tie, is painted and enameled, with a
pattern of extreme beauty and delicacy. The soffit or flat part
of the ceiling under the roof-tie is filled with majolica panels
in the manner of coffers, a number of which are perforated to
afford a passage for the air to and from the ventilator above ;
and the sunken ground of the remaining panels is coloured, so
that both present a uniform appearance. At either end of the
dairy is a fountain of majolica ware, designed by the late Mr.
Thomas, rising from a shell supported by a heron and bulrushes.
And on the south side of the dairy is a fountain in statuary
marble—a water-nymph pouring water from a jar. The tables
are all of white marble, the frames and supports being taste-
fully decorated in colour, with Belgian and Devonshire marbles.
The windows have double casements, the inner filled with stained
glass, representing daisies and primroses, with a border of may-
blossom. These casements open for ventilation, and there is also
top ventilation by a syphon ventilator, on ‘ Watson’s principle,’
which externally forms a turret, rising from the roof. There
are two recesses on the south side, and one on the east side,

lined with tiles of an elegant pattern, and fitted up with orna-
THE ROYAL DAIRY. 109

mental racks, on which are exhibited some fine specimens of old
china. The roof is supported by six ornamental pillars, on the
top of which are clusters of small twisted shafts, carrying the
ornamental arches in connection with the ceiling and roof; the
pillars and all the splayed parts of the ceiling and mouldings

are richly decorated in colour and highly enameled.

The exterior of the dairy is in the Renaissance style. It
is protected on the south side by the dairy-woman’s cottage,
and on the west by an arcade of elegant design, with a taste-
fully enriched frieze and cornice, bearing an inscription that the
building was ‘ Hrected in the twenty-first year of the reign of
Her Majesty Queen Victoria. The windows are formed of Bath
stone, and the whole building is surmounted by a frieze and
cornice with perforated parapet of lace-like pattern, the arms of
Her Majesty being introduced at one end of the building, and
those of the Prince Consort at the other. The roof is covered
with red and blue tiles in alternate rows, and finally surmounted
by a handsome octagonal turret ventilator, terminating in the
crown and orb. The sides of this turret are filled with elaborate
perforated panels, on which are introduced the arms of Her

Majesty and the Prince Consort.

The old bailiff’s house, converted into a cottage for the
dairy-woman together with churning-room, scullery, &c., has been
altered, its exterior being brought into unison with the new
building, and provided with similar windows and roof, and a

handsome bracketted cornice.
110 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

The plans and general arrangements for the dairy were
designed by Mr. Turnbull. The designs for the internal decor-
ation were by the late Mr. John Thomas, sculptor and architect.
Mr. Thomas received the commands of the Prince Consort for the
various decorations, and the designs were repeatedly altered under
the direction of His Royal Highness, nothing having been carried
out without specimens, embodying his own suggestions, having
first been submitted for his approval; and every detail, both of
colour and of form, underwent a most careful revisal by him,
before they were finally carried into execution. It may also be
worth recording, that every portion of the designs for these
decorations is original, and that they were manufactured by

Minton and Co., expressly by command of the Prince.

There has been thus provided an apartment some 36 by 20
feet, and about 20 feet in height, with marble shelving all around
it and marble tables in the midst, on which white milk dishes
stand. There is accommodation for about 240 gallons of milk,
in 114 dishes of white ware, on the double central and marginal
marble shelves. The whole is as perfect a combination of colour,
form, and lustre as was ever provided for the purpose which it

serves, and which is observed in the design throughout.

The utensils are of the best common kind—common barrel
churn, &c. An accurate account is kept of the milk, cream,
and butter which pass through the dairy—the dairy book con-

taining columns in which are daily recorded the number of cows
THE SHAW AND HOME FARMS. 111

in milk, the quantity of milk brought in at morning and at
evening, the quantity of cream obtained daily, the quantity
churned, and the number of pounds of butter they produce. A
daily record is also kept of the quantities supplied to the Castle

under all these heads.

It is right that more particular reference be made to the
two breeds of pigs which are kept on these farms. The white
Prince Albert’s Windsor breed are descended from the stock of the
late Earl Ducie, Mr. Wiley of Yorkshire, and Mr. Brown of Cum-
berland. They are a white moderately large breed of great pre-
cociousness; and the high prices obtained for young stock are
justified by the many prizes received at both the Royal Agricul-
tural Society’s competitions, and those of the Smithfield Club and
the Midland Counties’ Association. The Berkshire breed kept
at the Shaw Farm are descended from the stocks of Mr. Hewer
of Sevenhampton and the late Rev. C. James of Devonshire. For
these also high prices—8/. to 10/. for the young boars — are

obtained; and both are a source of large revenue to the farms.

Our account of the live stock of these farms will be incomplete
if no reference be made to the flock of Cheviots which Mr. Tait,
the resident manager, has introduced with great success. ‘Two
hundred ewes are annually brought from the North and crossed
with the Leicester ram — one of the results being the entire free-
dom of the flock from foot-rot, which when a South Down flock
was kept, used to be a great plague. The lambs and draught
112 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

ewes are fattened in the boarded sheep-shed already described.
The main purpose of the flock is to feed down the grass land

nearest to the Castle, over which the dung-cart is not taken.

The horses of these farms also deserve a notice. They are
of the pure Clydesdale breed-— six of them brood mares. Briton,
one of the best stallions of the breed, having won the Highland
Society’s prize in his class in 1855, and the English Agricultural
Society’s prize at the Chelmsford Meeting in 1856, was purchased
in 1855 for the Prince Consort, at the price of 250 guineas, and
has since well earned the large sum given for him. The colts
by him realise high prices, several having been sold for 100/.
and 150/. each. The Prince had been frequently successful as an
exhibitor of these horses at the English Agricultural Society’s
shows. His last act as the tenant of the Shaw Farm, about three
weeks before his death, was to direct Mr. Tait to nail up over
the stalls the premium cards which had been placed over two of
his horses at Leeds, and which had lain till then in the farm-

house unattached.

The work of the farm is done by five pairs of these horses
—a large number for the extent (120 acres arable and 600
pasture), and more than would be needed were it not for the
considerable extra labour connected with roads and estate manage-
ment. They are managed on the Scottish plan, the men working
during the full summer day—from 6 to 11 and again from 12
to 5. They are worked hard and well fed. receiving two bushels
THE SHAW AND HOME FARMS. 113

of corn a week, and a daily feed of beans in addition during seed

time and severe work, with as much hay as they will eat.

The live stock of the farm, thus, in all, includes about 200
head of cattle of all ages, 400 sheep, 120 swine, 20 horses,
colts, and fillies. Besides the buildings and the stock, the
cultivation of the arable land should be described. It lies at
the southern extremity of the Shaw Farm, and is a stiff soil
cultivated on a five-years’ course of cropping; namely — 1.
mangold wurzel and Swedish turnips; 2. wheat; 3. oats; 4.
half beans and half clover; 5. wheat. The cropping is thus suffi-
ciently severe, only 36 acres out of 120 being in what are
generally understood to be “restorative” crops. But, indeed, that
term belongs now to an obsolete school of agriculture: for the
object of the farmer is to use the soil as a machine as actively
as possible, taking from it as great a value of produce in as
short a time as he can, and taking care to supply the raw
material of the manufacture in quantity sufficient to maintain

the yield of the manufactured article.

There is no lack of manure. The Park supplies immense
quantities of fern, which is used as litter in the yards; and
great store of yard dung is obtained thus and from the con-
sumption of hay by the large dairy herd, and that of hay and roots
by the young stock. The arable land is accordingly in a high
state of cultivation. Forty tons of mangold wurzel per acre are

a common crop, and as much as sixty have been obtained.

Q
114 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

The kinds of crop cultivated are the Chiddam and Uxbridge
white wheat, the winter oat, which is sown in autumn upon the
cleaned wheat stubble, receiving in March, over half its extent,
a seeding of 20lbs. of clover per acre, which thus comes round
only once in ten years. The other half of the oat stubble is well
cleaned and manured, and sown with the common tick bean in
the following spring, and both bean and clover stubble are
ploughed up for wheat. Lastly, the wheat stubble receives a
thorough fallowing and a heavy dressing of dung in the autumn,
and is sown next May and June with mangold wurzel (Gibbs’
yellow globe) and swedes, also from Messrs. Gibbs, with the water
drill, which washes in about 2 cwt. of guano per acre into the
drills along with the seed. The seed is thus sown on the flat

in rows about thirty inches apart.

The permanent improvement of the land has been carried
out not only by roads and buildings, but by drainage; the land-
lords, H.M. Commissioners of Woods and Forests, giving the tiles,
and the tenant being at the cost of the labour. Drains 4 feet
deep and from 20 to 30 feet apart, have thus been carried under
all the clay lands, at the cost of about 6/. per acre. As at first
conducted by Mr. J. Parkes, one-inch pipe tiles were used ; when
the work fell into the hands of the late Mr. Wilson, who assumed
the management of the farms under Sir Charles Phipps after the
death of General Wemyss, a larger tile was used with less risk of
injury and stoppage. Besides drainage, heavy dressings with

chalk and lime composts and then with bone dust and other
THE SHAW AND HOME FARMS. 115

manure, followed by close feeding with -cake-fed Highland cattle
and sheep, have effected an entire change in the character of the
pastures, which, formerly marshy, poor, and rough, are now well

grazed, sound, and fertile.

No better illustration of the condition of the land, and of
the methods by which its character has been so improved, can
be given than in the words of the late Mr. Wilson himself, in
the following report for Sir Charles Phipps, to be presented to
the Prince Consort, which he drew up at the close of the last

year of his charge : —

Report FOR THE YEAR 1857.

The system of management which has been in progress of formation for some
years, is now in full operation, and we only propose to adopt such improvements as

experience may suggest or any change of circumstances may render necessary.

The weather during the year 1857 has been perhaps more favourable for agri-
cultural purposes than any season in our remembrance. The hot dry weather in
the early summer injuriously affected the hay crop, pasturage and turnips, and
during the excessive heat the cattle made little or no improvement; but the
mangold has never before been so good, and the autumn rains were followed by
such fine mild weather, that the forage has been most abundant, and consequently

a saving in the consumption of hay has been effected.

The corn crops have also been very superior. The average of the several crops

on this farm may be stated as follows : —

Per Acre \ Per Acre
Wheat 42 bushels | Mangold 42 tons
Beans 3 + D8 45 : Swedes ‘ ke
Oats . 5 86 C=, Hay .

These crops compare favourably with those of East Lothian, which is so highly
farmed; the following being given in the statistical report as the averages of that
county in 1857, viz.: — 264 bushels of wheat, 454 of oats; and 194 of beans.

Q 2
116 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

If we were to sow the more prolific but coarser varieties of wheat, which are
grown in some of the eastern counties, our average produce might be 10 or 12
bushels per acre greater; but the Uxbridge district being famed for wheat of fine
quality, the best always commands a high price. I can also generally sell a con-
siderable quantity to be taken to a distance for seed; and it therefore seems better to
grow varieties of good quality. The wheat from this farm topped Uxbridge market

for the season, with some that was sold in August, for 72s. per quarter, and weighed
67 lbs. per bushel.

Owing to the improved condition of the grass land, and also to fewer animals
remaining to be fattened, when so many are sold for breeding purposes, a smaller
extent of root crops is now required, and we are therefore endeavouring to grow a
greater proportion of grain, and lessen the necessity of purchasing so much corn
and straw. In 1858, 62 acres will be in wheat; 11 in oats; 4 in barley and

tares; 7 in beans; 12 in clover; 26 in roots.

The land intended for roots in 1858 was ploughed as soon as the wheat was cut,
and after being cleaned received a dressing of farmyard manure. About twenty
acres of this field have since been ploughed with six horses twelve inches deep; and
the remainder was ploughed with four horses nine inches deep, followed by a sub-
soil plough drawn by four horses, which moved the earth to the depth of eighteen
inches from the surface.

In accordance with your instructions, we have, while progressing with the improve-
ments of the land and stock, endeavoured to conduct the business of the farm in the
manner that would produce the greatest profit. We may add that the fall of price
of live stock in the latter part of the year, before our principal sales were effected,
materially affected both the receipts and annual valuation, and consequently the
profits also on the business of the year.

The same system has been adhered to in regard to the management and sale of
live stock as formerly, viz.: — The best. male animals are used that can be obtained.
The young male animals that are fit for breeding purposes are sold whenever a fair
price is offered. All the best females are retained for breeding purposes — and the
worst sold whenever there are too many on the farm. It is sometimes necessary, for
the sake of a connection, to deviate from this rule when a fancy price is offered
for female animals, but this should always be an exception and not the rule. We

have not experienced any falling off in the demand for good animals, and during
THE SHAW AND HOME FARMS. 117

the year have forwarded stock to Scotland, Ireland, France, Denmark, Silesia,
Wurtemberg, and Australia.

Ten acres of grass land have, as formerly, been dressed with fifteen cwt. of bones
per acre, and a great extent has been dressed with chalk or farmyard manure.
Wherever this has been done, the coarser grasses gradually disappear, and are replaced
by finer herbage, which the stock eat much closer, and the fields subsequently
have therefore a greener and more even appearance. The hill is much improved
by the manure and folding which it has received; and as the appearance of the
place will be much improved when all the land adjoining the Castle has been
similarly treated, I propose to postpone the improvement of the grass lands at
Shaw Farm until this has been accomplished.

We find, however, that although the farms produce a large quantity of grass,
and the stock depastured are remarkably healthy, yet the animals do not accu-
mulate fat so quickly as they do in several districts of this country. This is no
doubt partly owing to the grass having been frequently cut for hay, without re-
ceiving sufficient manure. Whatever injury has been sustained from this cause will
be remedied by the present liberal system of management; but it is much easier to
make land produce a full quantity of grass, than to make it good for fattening, if
it has been deficient in this respect in its natural state.

Since Mr. Wilson left in 1858,* Mr. Tait, from Dunrobin,
Sutherlandshire, has had the management of the estate. A great
deal of the further grassland improvement, referred to in the
above report, has since been accomplished by him, and the

land is now in admirable condition.

We have described it and its buildings thus fully, believing
that both in the management and the equipment of the land,

* Mr. Wilson then entered the service of the leaving behind him a wide and well-tried re-
late Duke of Richmond, at Goodwood; buthe did putation for high professional ability and for
not long survive. He died in the year 1860, sterling personal worth.
118 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

there is much that English breeders and farmers may most

usefully copy.

One word further on the implements employed. Wood’s
combined mower and reaper used annually over 400 acres of
grass and 80 acres of corn — Howard’s and Hornsby’s ploughs —
the Scotch carts both for manure and harvest purposes — Cross-
kill’s and Cambridge’s rollers and clod-crushers — the American
hay-rake —the hay-tedder, Garrett’s thrashing-machine, Gardener’s
and Moody’s turnip-cutters—are the implements in use. About
thirty men and boys are in constant work—some of them
are employed in drainage work during winter; and of course
a larger number are engaged during harvest time. The labour
bill is very great, considering the large proportion of pasture
land — being about 900/. a year for ordinary labour, including
of course a great deal spent in draining and in maintaining
the condition of roads, and the good order and even polish
which a Royal farm must exhibit. And to this must be added
about 500/. spent in harvesting 400 acres of grass and 80 or
90 acres of corn. The wages paid average 13s. apiece weekly

to the men.

It may be mentioned that the sewage of Windsor runs to
the river in a covered way through the meadows below the
Dairy Homestead. No use has hitherto been made of it; and
although the methods of disinfecting the valuable manure which

thus runs to waste are now sufficiently well understood, yet the
THE SHAW AND HOME FARMS. 119

fear of a nuisance as the result of any failure in such an attempt
has hitherto forbidden the proposal to turn it to account, by
irrigating with it the otis lands along the banks of the Thames,
where it could be applied with little difficulty.

Although His Royal Highness the Prince Consort was not
here landlord, as at Barton, the other relations in which he stood
gave scope for the illustration of his character as an employer
and a neighbour. And one of the most interesting of these illus-
trations was to be seen in the interest which he took in the

welfare of the young men whom he employed. One part of the

buildings at the Shaw Farm is an eight-roomed house, where a
number of them are lodged. It is furnished with a room where
they take their meals, and another used as a reading-room

and for an evening class.

This evening school is earnestly and laboriously conducted.
A schoolmaster, Mr. Bembridge from Windsor, comes at night,
three times a week during winter; and the award of a bible
or of a money prize at the end of the season is regulated
by the attendance of the scholars, of whom twenty to twenty-
five are generally present, as well as by the specimens of their
work in writing and arithmetic, which have been annually sub-
mitted through Sir Charles Phipps to the Prince. We have
had the pleasure of examining one of the annual collections of
copies and exercises thus prepared for examination. It con-

tained a number of short reports, extremely well written from
120 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

memory, of a lecture on the Life Boat, which had been delivered
by the curate of Windsor, passages written from dictation as a
test of both penmanship and _ spelling, and examples of various
rules in arithmetic,— and the whole was a capital illustration, both
of good teaching and of attention. Tne prize awarded to any of
the labourers attending this school was always, in the first in-
stance, a bible, bearing on its title-page the intimation that it
was the gift of the Prince; in subsequent years a money prize
was given if deserved. In another chapter, a more detailed re-
ference will be made to this very interesting feature in the

management of the Shaw farm.

Although, of course, in the daily management of these farms,
as in that of others of the series, His Royal Highness could not
be supposed personally to interfere, yet the frequent walks taken
by the Queen and himself round the two farmeries, his personal
inspection of the monthly report presented through Sir C. Phipps,
his instructions given with reference to competitions at the
national exhibitions, and his frequent enquiries and conversation
about the evening school, amply proved his interest in these
farms. Their daily management of course lies directly in the
hands of Mr. Tait, the resident manager; but it has been
seen that everything necessary for the vigorous, neat, and skill-
ful management of the land— men, horses, implements, stock,
and buildings—had been provided by the tenant, perfect in
their kind.
THE SHAW AND HOME FARMS. 121

We have shown, then, that the walk round the two Home
Farms at Windsor is one of high agricultural interest. Your course
from Windsor leads you down the noble avenue of Elms known
as the Long Walk; you pass through the Shaw buildings, and
leaving the Royal Gardens on your right, reach the Home
Farm, and after admiring its stock and the noble accommo-
dation for them, you visit the Royal Dairy—the Aviary and
the Kernels, also well worth seeing, are close by. And you
regain the Shaw Farm and the residence of Mr. Tait, by a
walk through the now deserted grounds of Frogmore House —
beautiful in the magnificence of their timber trees, the smooth-
ness of their grassy glades and slopes, and the mixture of
their groves and mounds and ornamental water; interesting,
too, for the mausoleum newly erected in their midst, where
lies the body of H.R.H. the late Duchess of Kent; soon,
however, to be more sadly interesting still for another resting
place which is being provided, where the remains of His Royal
Highness the Prince Consort will lie in the midst of scenes of
quiet beauty, and close by those just visited of intelligent
activity, both of which he loved so well.
122 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS :

2. Tue Prince Consort’s Fuirmisu Farm.

Though receiving for the future the name of His Royal
Highness, and justly so, for on none of the farms had
there been a greater change during his tenancy of it, the
Flemish Farm had, nevertheless, been for many years in the
occupation of a Royal tenant. It received its name in the
reign of George III, when it and the Norfolk Farm were set
apart as illustrations—so they were intended—of the two systems
of management known as the Norfolk and Flemish respectively.
Since it passed into the occupation of the Prince it has been
entirely remodelled; roads have been made; gorse and fern have
been removed ; the fields have been re-arranged; the old buildings
have been removed; a new homestead has been erected. And
it has all been drained under the superintendence of Mr. Parkes,
4 feet deep, at the cost of 3/. per acre, exclusive of pipes and
cartage. The whole neighbourhood, too, has partaken of the
improvement. Your walk to it, from the farms just described,
is across the best grazed portion of Windsor Great Park, where
the great improvements in the grass lands, already described, have

been effected by drainage, chalking, and manuring.

Of this last agency a good illustration was afforded ten
years ago, by experiments made here under the direction of
the Prince Consort, the very satisfactory results of which were de-
scribed in the Journal for 1853 of the Royal Agricultural Society.
THE FLEMISH FARM. 123

The following report of them is taken from that volume :—

EXPERIMENTS ON TOP-DRESSING GRASS-LAND IN WINDSOR GREAT Park.
(Communicated by order of H.R.H. the Princy ALBErt.)

The land marked I. was enclosed from open pasture and cropped for hay, for the
first time. The whole land so enclosed had received during the winter about twelve
loads per acre of deer-pen manure, valued at 2s. per load. This manure seemed
never to have produced any effect, in consequence of the long drought succeeding
its application; and though its value ought to be stated against the crop, when con-
sidered generally, it has not been taken into account in the above statement, which

is intended to show a comparison between land under two artificial manures, and

land of the same description without them.

The land marked II. was a portion of a meadow, which has long been cropped

for hay every year.

the artificial manures.

This land received no other treatment than the application of

Statement showing the Result of Experiments on Grass, in Windsor Great. Park, with
Artificial Manures, 1852.

 

 

 

 

3a Date of Value at | Produce of | Value at | Balance
Land Experimented upon ae ae Top eer ih > eames £3 per Load] surrounding £3 tn favour
9 r Aci U: e) Tr of Top-
&8 Bene Dressing Peis tees of 18 cwt. Acres per Load ‘Dressed
£ os. da. ewt.qrs. Ibs.| £ s. d, |ecwt.qrs.lbs.| £ sd. Los. a
I. High Undrained
Land.
One Acre with Guano|2 cwt.|1 4 8 (May 22)July22) 3034/5 26/8 0 O|1 6 8/8 15 10
One Acre with Ni-|2 cwt.|1 17 10 4 $3 2920/418 4/8 0 O/]1 8 8/311 8
trate of Soda
Il. Low-lying Mea-
dow Land.
One Acre with Guano|2 cwt.|1 4 8] ,, |July16} 2730/4 126/9 0 0/1100/3 2 6
One Acre with Ni-|2 cwt.}1 17 10] ,, 8 2500/4 8419 0 0]1100/2 13 4
trate of Soda.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
124 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

From the above statement the benefit resulting from liberal top-dressing of grass
is apparent. The aftermath on all the top-dressed land was also superior to that
on the rest of the field, but no difference could be seen betwixt the two sorts experi-
mented with. On the application of guano there seems to be considerably the
greatest profit; but as experiments have been tried in other localities in which the
nitrate of soda has had the superiority, the explanation of the difference in the
effects produced must be sought for in some peculiarity of the soil. In both cases

stated above, the soil and subsoil consist of clay, not very tenacious.

It is believed that the difference in the produce of the dressed and the un-
dressed land is greater than may be expected in ordinary seasons, in consequence of
the weather and other circumstances having been exceedingly favourable for the
application of the manures. No rain had fallen, and there had been constant dry-
ing easterly winds from February till May 22, the day of application, and con-
sequently the grass had made no growth whatever. The manures, therefore, on
being applied, came immediately into contact with the roots, and on May 26, genial
rains commenced, which continued almost without interruption till the day of cutting.
The surrounding grass seemed never to make a start all the season, which the

smallness of the crop will show, while the top-dressed land improved daily.

F, H. Snymour, Deputy Ranger.

W. Menzizs, Deputy Surveyor.
Since the date of this experiment a large. experience in
various quarters has been recorded, and especially by Mr. Lawes
of Rothamsted, St. Albans, in the same pages, upon the effect
of manures on pasture land; and it has been shown that
nitrogenous manures, such as ammonia and the nitrates of soda
and potash, tend especially to encourage the growth of grasses,
while the phosphates, alkalies, and mineral manures tend rather
to encourage that of the clover. The whole research to which
the above report is a contribution, proves that our pastures,
no less than our arable fields, are directly amenable to the

influence of management. Though, however, the term ‘cultiva-
TILLAGE AND LAND DRAINAGE. 125

tion’ thus applies to our grass as well as to our ploughlands,
and pastures need manuring, drainage, weeding, and may even
receive tillage with advantage, just as arable land, yet it is
to the latter more especially that the last-named of these

cultivative processes is applicable.

The Prince Consort’s Flemish Farm, with its clay soil, is a
capital illustration of the benefits of the drainage and thorough
tillage of arable land, and therefore we preface our account of it
by a short statement on these two subjects. Not so much,
however, on the methods by which tillage and land drainage
are effected, as on the nature of the results thus achieved. It
is right to add that this interpolated essay on the subject which
the Flemish farm especially illustrates, may nevertheless be alto-
gether passed over. The continuity of the story would not be

broken though the next eight pages were omitted.

TILLAGE AND LAND DRAINAGE.

It is no mere alteration of ‘quality,’ by which a thorough fallow of the land
in dry weather fertilises the soil. It is as much by an actual addition of particles
in the one case as in the other that tillage is the equivalent of dung. Guano,
superphosphate, lime, however, act not only as direct additions of the food of plants,
but also as reagents in the soil by which useless matters there, and even mis-
chievous matters there, are converted into food. And so does tillage. The enor-
mous inner surface of the land —that by which every particle of the soil is wrapped
about — is multiplied by tillage, and so not only are the particles which it covers
laid more open to the influence of external agencies, but they do themselves exert
a prodigiously increased activity in their influence upon the air which thus is
made to interpenetrate the whole. That air contains the substance of plants. Every
126 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

process of putrefaction or combustion fills the air with the substance of once
living plants. And it only needs that by tillage the soil shall be brought through-
out its substance into contact with fresh surfaces of air to enable it to extract and
treasure up for living vegetables once more the very atoms which have consti-
tuted its fertility before.

The Rev. 8. Smith of Lois-Weedon, indeed, says that in all clay soils containing
the mineral elements of grain perfect tilth dispenses with the need of manuring,
and there cannot be a doubt that deep and thorough tillage enables soil to draw
immensely on the stores of vegetable food contained in air and rain. Others again,
thinking they read their garden experience aright, say that perfect tilth dispenses with
the need of drainage; and there can be but little doubt that deep tillage facilitates
the operation of whatever drainage may exist, whether it be natural or artificial.

In both these cases the useful lesson is well taught, that it is true economy
rather to put the cheap and copious storehouse of Nature’s agencies to its fullest use,
than by laborious and costly artificial means to imitate expensively their operation.
Such a lesson applies, indeed, beyond the advantages of tillage to the methods
by which tillage is to be obtained. Among the earliest suggestions of cultivation
by steam power was that of reducing by its means the soil to tilth at once. The
land was to be torn down as the deal is torn down at the saw-mill. Though
before the machine it may have been as hard and firm as wood, behind the tool as
it advanced at work it was to lie as light and fine as sawdust. But it has at length
been found that it is better because cheaper, and more perfect too, to leave this
last refinement of the tillage process to the weather, which does it without cost.
The land is now torn, ‘smashed up,’ or moved and thrown about by plough or
grubber in great clods and lumps. This is best done in dry autumn weather, and
thus it lies till spring. Certainly no climate is better adapted for cheap tillage
than the English. The rains and frosts of winter following a dry September and
October must penetrate and thrust asunder the clung and hardened masses of
the soil. No two particles shall remain adhering to each other, if you only give
room and opportunity to the cheapest and most perfect natural disintegrator in the
world. No rasp, or saw, or mill will reduce the indurated land to soft and
wholesome tilth so perfectly as a winter’s frost. And all that you need to attain
its perfect operation is, first to provide an outlet, by an efficient drainage of the
subsoil, for the water when it comes, and then to move the land while dry and
break it up into clods and fragments, no matter how large they be, and leave them
for alternate rain and drought and frost and thaw to do their utmost.
TILLAGE. 127

Given a clay soil once cleared of all perennial weeds and thoroughly drained,
and its cultivation in the future will be a marvel of cheapness and efficiency
when compared with its cultivation in the past. For, how many ploughings and
harrowings, and rollings, and grubbings have been needed hitherto as a preparation
for wheat on such soils? And if by any chance an attempt at growing roots on
such a soil was made, what a business and a series of processes it was! <A
team of horses such as we have in England for clay-land tillage, will weigh,
with men and plough, at least 2 tons, and over every 10-inch width, from end
to end of every field, this 40 cwt. must tramp and slide in the effort to lift and
loosen (!) each 10-inch strip of earth, What a contrast to the operation of
the steam-drawn plough, resting on two large wheels and weighing altogether
some 27 cwt., drawn once to every 40 inches width; by which a deeper and more
thorough ploughing is effected! In the former case every operation created the
need of another. The team and tool together hardened a floor, below which
water could not penetrate; or if engaged in harrowing or in rolling they hardened
the earth they were trying to reduce, and so made another operation needed.

Examine any valuation of ‘acts of husbandry’ to an incoming tenant in a clay-
land district, and if the subject is a new one you will be astonished at the
multitude of operations, the repeated ploughings and harrowings, the crossings
and re-crossings —eg., ‘four times ploughed, thrice dragged, eight times harrowed,
twice rolled,’ not uncommon in the attempt to grow turnips—the miles and
miles of work per acre—the army of horses and tools and men engaged — and
the weeks and months of work to which it all amounts. Talk of Romaine’s
steam cultivator and his ‘cumbrous’ apparatus, weighing perhaps 14 tons, tra-
versing a 7 feet width at once!— we have in an old-fashioned clay land fallow
as much as 14 tons traversing every foot in width—we have a man and boy
and team of horses walking at least 60 miles per acre—we have work in Sep-
tember or October, in April, May or June, July, August and September.

It is possible to simplify this work somewhat—we can save both horse-flesh
and shoe-leather, and the temper of the farmer too — grow better crops, and save

his pocket in the process,

Let this clay land be drained —and there need be no fear of drains 4 feet
deep not ‘drawing,’ if after drainage it be deeply cultivated while the soil is
dry. Let us suppose it once cleaned; then, after harvest, cart on what manure
or lime or both it is intended to apply; plough it in by steam power and leave
128 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

it rough till spring. When dry in March or April put the steam cultivator
through it, and it is possible at the same time to harrow it effectually by steam
power, and it will at once be ready for any spring-sown crop it is intended to

grow, whether grain or green crops, barley, oats, turnips, tares, or mangold wurzels.

There cannot be a doubt that on clay lands especially which have been laid
open in fields of at least 30 acres with straight fences, and then well drained, the
steam plough is destined to produce a marvellous change in the whole character
and productiveness of English agriculture. The owners of the clay lands of this
country are indeed at length to be congratulated. Their turn has come at length;
and whereas the lighter soils, by marling, sheep-feeding, and artificial manuring,
have hitherto been foremost in the march of agricultural improvement — thus con-
tributing more than any other to that increased produce of food which English
fields have of late years provided—we may now expect, by drainage and effective
tillage, that the stiffer lands will take their turn in front-— making the most rapid
progress, yielding larger produce, more profit, and more rent.

A light soil is a machine; and as you must provide the rags before you
get the paper, or you must feed in the wool before you get the cloth, so here
you must supply the food for plants before you can expect a crop. The clay lands
of the country, on the other hand, are a strong box already full of treasure. What
the owner of this box or the tenant who hires the use of it from year to year re-

quires, is not so much a quantity of raw material to be converted by its means,
as by a machine, into material of greater value and utility — but a clever pick-

lock, and skill to use it well, by which to get at stores already there.

Such a picklock now exists — has, indeed, existed always: but it is now applied
with unusual energy and skill. It is the clay farm that henceforth will be in
greatest demand. In hiring it you take not only the groundwork of a manufactory,
as it were, but you have access to a mine. You take not only a given surface
whose natural fertility is indicated by the sedge and rush and grass of untouched
meadow land, and from which, by dint of air and frost and sunshine, you mow or
reap a certain annual crop —but you have a depth of soil beneath that sur-
face which the chemist tells you is full of valuable matter, much fuller than
the sand soil is, which only needs skill for its extraction and utilisation. The
picklock to this treasure-house is land drainage. Once give rain free passage
through this soil, and let it take air through and through it in its train, and an

immense quantity of the raw material of our manufacture will be at once provided
TILLAGE. 129

from the natural supplies. The material which for light land you must bring from
the ends of the earth, is already here beneath the surface; and it only needs for the
attainment of fertility that air and rain and light be brought to bear upon it, and
free passage of soil-water be provided as a vehicle of it all to the roots of plants.

But the drainage of clay soils has rarely hitherto been thoroughly effected.
You dig trenches at 7- or 8-yard intervals, some 3 or 4 feet deep, and through
pipes placed there you expect that all the rain which falls upon the field will
escape, after gradual penetration of the whole, and filtration past every particle of
all this 3 or 4 feet mass of earth. But after this, you cultivate the upper layer
of this mass in a manner which interposes between it and the lower layers an im-
pervious floor. Three or four ploughings of grain stubbles before the succeeding
Peas and Beans, with long teams of cattle travelling to and fro upon the floor over
which the soil and under which the subsoil lies, are an effectual induration, which
spoils your attempts at drainage. This floor is fatal to land drainage, and therefore
to fertility. It must be broken up, and this can be only done effectually by
steam-power. Steam ploughing or steam cultivation, after drains have been dug,
is the way to ensure good drainage. Tillage by steam-power under such cir-
cumstances is the true picklock, by which the exhaustless stores of food for plants
in all clay soils —lying now inaccessible as in a strong box— may be laid open to
the roots of plants. The breaking up of the floor which horse cultivation hitherto
has laid immediately below the surface, and the breaking up of soil and subsoil,
and exposure of the whole to air and rain on its way downwards to the drains, will

exert a marvellous influence on fertility.

What, then, are the means by which this steam tillage is to be effected? Mr.
William Smith, of Woolstone, Buckinghamshire, employs an ordinary thrashing steam-
engine: this he stations in a corner of the field that is to be cultivated; by it he
works a double windlass ‘time about,’ one barrel of which winds up a wire rope while
the other lets it off, and thus this wire rope is drawn to and fro around pulleys
stationed in the corners of the field that is being worked. As a link in this
rope his 3 or 5 tined grubber is placed— it is thus drawn from end to end of
the field, turned and brought back again, so breaking up the stubble or un-
ploughed land on which it works. This system has been adopted by several
makers—:Mr. Smith of Woolstone, Mr. Howard of Bedford, and others. In the
Agricultural Gazette of November 30, 1861, an account was given of many thou-

sands of acres thus cultivated last autumn, at a cost for fuel and wages, and

s
130 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

repairs, of 4s. to 5s. per acre for one-way work. To this must be added the cost
of the tear and wear of the rope and machinery and the interest of the capital
employed; and the cost of steam tillage on this plan thus amounts to generally 6s.

to 8s. per acre for stirring clay soils once, 6 or 7 inches deep.

There is another plan carried out by Mr. John Fowler of Leeds, in which an
engine of greater power is used, nominally indeed of 10 to 14 horse-power. It
travels along a headland, and from it around a horizontal pulley; underneath it
there extends a wire rope to the other end of the field, there embracing a corre-
sponding horizontal pulley underneath a low carriage on sharp wheels, which, sinking
into the ground, constitutes an anchorage against a lateral pull. The pulley under
the engine has movable rims which grip the rope tightly wrapped around it; and
so, as the engine works this pulley, it draws the rope to and fro around the
anchor pulley. The engine travels along its headland, and the anchorage travels
along the opposite headland, and the rope, drawn to and fro between them, drags
as a link in its length a framework of ploughs or cultivators, which thus turn over
or stir the land in their course. It is not necessary to go into a detailed
description of these cultivating machines and apparatus. It must suffice to say
that by means of them some thousands of acres were described, in the paper
already quoted, as having last autumn been ploughed from 6 to 8 inches deep,
for from 5s. to 7s. per acre. To this must be added tear and wear of rope and
machinery and interest of capital, raising the cost to from 8s. to 10s. per acre.
In both of these cases, the cost by horse-power would have been greater, and, as
already described, the efficiency of the operation would have been considerably less.

We add one word more on Land Drainage, to which til-
lage is so closely related. And in place of rewriting an oft-
told tale, we prefer to quote and condense our own remarks
from a lately published work.*

If rain water has no escape through the soil, then it first stagnates in

and on the land, and afterwards flows over it or dries off it. By stagnation,
water hinders a variety of chemical processes within the soil, which are dependent

on the presence there of air; by flowing over the surface of the land it carries

* The ‘ Farmer’s Calendar.’ Routledge.
LAND DRAINAGE. 131

away the finer particles of soil and of the manure laid on it; and by evaporating
from its surface it cools the surface of the land. But it is on these three
particulars—the warmth of the soil, the soluble ingredients of the manure, and
the chemical action within the soil of air and of water holding it in solution
—that fertility depends; and thus it is that land through which the rain-fall
does not percolate is injured by it. If, on the other hand, the rain-fall is
enabled thus to percolate, then (1) it carries downwards with it, and drags
downwards after it the air, which is so necessary an agent within the soil in
the preparation of the food of plants; and (2) instead of flowing over the soil,
and carrying its fertilising ingredients to waste, its contents, taken from the air
which it has traversed, are added to the warehouse of the soil, and a direct
addition is thus made to the food of plants within it; and (3) instead of
cooling the soil by evaporation, it carries, during spring time, the warmth of
returning summer to the roots of plants, whose vitality and consequent energy of
growth are thus excited. And besides all these particulars, in which the influ-
ence of moving water within the soil is contrasted with that of stagnant water
there, you must remember that one great use of water in the land is to dissolve
out the soluble ingredients of the soil, and carry them by the roots of plants,
which may thus be fed; and no such use can be expected of it while it is
stagnant. Its continual percolation through the land is therefore needed, not
only as introducing chemicals which, as in a laboratory, prepare the food of plants
—not only as introducing useful ingredients to the store-room of the food of
plants —and not only as improving the underground climate on which early spring
and rapid growth depend— but also as facilitating the movement of feeding
matters within the soil, thus introducing activity into the feeding process; in

other words, facilitating growth.

How, then, are you to induce this percolation downwards of the rain-water
through the soil? Observe the process in those portions of your farm where it
naturally obtains. It was thus that the late James Smith, of Deanston, came to
adopt and advocate the so-called frequent-drain system. If, in addition to his
copying nature by providing under the whole surface of the land a multitude
of exit channels, so that, as towards fissures in the subjacent rock, the water
should sink where it fell, and find its escape outwards through the subsoil, he
had also imitated her in her best examples where fertility is seen on deep soils
over a porous subsoil, and placed his exit channels at a depth which would
have needed for their operation a passage of the rain-water through a greater

s 2
132 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

thickness of the soil than in the Deanston system was required, that system
would then have never been disturbed. Mr. Smith’s plans, however, were per-
fected only when to drainage was added subsoil ploughing. His theory was, that
the rain dropped, where it fell, to the depth of the deep tillage, and then flowed
along the subsoil to the drains; and these were trenches filled with broken stones
nearly to the level of the subsoil ploughing. But this would be a very imperfect
result of land drainage. The perfectly drained soil and perfectly cultivated farm

does, indeed, more and more ignore the distinction of soil and subsoil.

Under perfect tillage, the object aimed at is to obtain a much greater depth
of useful feeding-ground for plants than is provided by mere tillage implements.
There are substances much below the reach of plough or cultivation on which
plants feed, and for which their roots will go; and the subsoil (if so it must
be called) will be more and more improved as a store-room of food for plants
by any means which shall ensure the percolation of rain-water through it: and
this can be effected only by deep drains. Even in the case of clayey soils
there cannot be a question of the fact, that drains four feet deep are admirably
efficient, wherever pains are taken to break up the soil by cultivation when it is
dry. Let it be remembered that the sole operating cause in land drainage is
the weight of the water, and there will then be less astonishment that the deeper
drain should be more efficient than the shallow one. There is, in fact, in the

former case, a greater weight of water pressing its way out of the exit-hole.

You would indeed do well to think of the mass of earth through which you
can get rain-water to percolate, not as so many inches deep of soil, but as so
many tons weight or cubic yards of material, which by cultivation and rain-water
you have to fertilise, and from which, by rain-water and by living plants, you
have to extract and convert the fertility you have conferred. No doubt the
principal limit put to the depth of drains is the cost of this depth; for the
greater depth of deeper drainage does not justify us in materially diminishing
their frequency and so shortening their length per acre. But admitting the
greater cost of the deeper drains, and supposing that drainage 2, and 3, and
4 feet deep will cost 3/., and 4/., and 5/. respectively per acre, yet we must
remember that the mass of soil actually drained by these several operations,
supposing the average depth so drained to be 18, 30, and 42 inches deep
respectively, amounts to 65,000, 109,000, 152,000 cubic feet respectively per acre;

and the mass of soil which is thus placed so as that rain shall percolate through
THE FLEMISH FARM. 133

it, amounts to probably at least 3,000, 5,000, and 7,000 tons in the several cases;
thus costing ll. for about 1,000 tons of earth in the cheaper shallow drainage,
and 1/. for 1400 tons of earth in the last case, which, though dearer per acre,
is thus shown to be cheaper per the weight of earth laid open by it as the
feeding ground of plants. Looking upon drainage, therefore, as the means of
rendering fertile not so much a surface as a mass of soil, it is plain that the

deeper and more costly drainage per acre may be the cheaper of the two.

The whole subject of deep drainage and thorough tillage,
to which reference has thus been made, has received admirable
illustration in the fields of the Prince Consort’s Flemish Farm ;

and we now return, therefore, to our work of description.

In the Map of this Farm on a following page the num-
bered fields are arable, and the others are pasture. The stone
roads are represented by shaded lines, the green rides by dotted

lines. Thus every field is in either way easily accessible.

The buildings are centrally placed. The cropping is this
year (1862) as follows :—Nos. 1 and 5 Wheat, about 34 acres;
No. 8 Beans, about 15 acres; Nos. 3, 4, 10, 11 and 12 Oats
and Barley, about 80 acres; Nos. 2, 6, and 9 Turnips, Mangold

Wurzel and Fallow, about 50 acres; No. 7 Clover, 114 acres.

The rotation is a four-course, modified in both the ways
which have been recommended; namely, by taking beans instead
of clover over one half of the clover break, and by taking
barley after a corn crop in place of after the roots or fallow.

The whole arable land amounts to about 190 acres, and there
184 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

are rather more than 200 acres of pasture-land and wood-land,
the whole occupation including nearly 400 acres. It is for the
most part a very stiff soil, and has been greatly improved by
its regular division into fields, its tile drainage four feet deep
and seven yards apart, its admirable buildings, and its thorough
tillage. Fowler’s three-furrow steam plough, with a 12-horse
engine, has been at work for the last two years. Mr. Brebner
informs us that in the autumn of 1861 it ploughed 158 acres
‘ from eight to ten inches deep in thirty-nine and a half days,
including all the time lost in stoppages and in removals from
field to field. The wages paid during this time were
251. 13s. 6d., and the coals and oil consumed cost 20/. 7s. 6d.
Breakages during this time cost 4/. 10s. The expense of
ploughing this stiff clay land to so great a depth thus amounted
in this instance to about 6s. per acre. If the tear and wear
of the wire-rope and machinery, and the interest of capital were
added, the cost per acre would amount in all probability to as
much as 10s. or 11s. an acre. This, however, is much less than
such work could be done for by horse-power, and the efficiency
of the work is much greater. In the spring of 1862 the land
lay dry and friable, needing only a working with the grubber
across the former furrow to reduce the whole to tilth. The
effect of the use of steam-power in cheapening the _horse-
labour of the farm has been considerable. Twelve or thirteen
horses used to be employed on it, undertaking, however, of

course, a good deal more than the mere labour of the farm.
THE FLEMISH FARM. 135

 

 
 
 
    

a The Homestead
5 Foreman’s House

 

L i % 10
SCALE IN CHAINS

    
    
  

  

  

 

 

 

 

MAP OF THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FLEMISH FARM
136 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

Since the employment of Fowler’s 12-horse engine the work

has been easily done by eight.

One of the fields, No. 9 on the Map, was set apart, by Her
Majesty’s desire, during the Battersea Show of the English Agri-
cultural Society, for the exhibition of the steam-plough, in order
that foreigners and others might have an opportunity of seeing

it at work within easy reach of London.

 

THE FLEMISH HOMESTEAD

The buildings on the Prince Consort’s Flemish Farm, here
represented, were designed and erected by Mr. J. R. Turnbull, of
Windsor Castle, in conformity with very comprehensive and detailed
suggestions and directions from His Royal Highness, in 1858.
They are one of the most complete homesteads in the kingdom.
The principle is one of the best for uniting compactness with

easy arrangement of parts. A central covered yard has a stable
THE FLEMISH FARM. 137

on one side of it and an open yard on the other. At the
end of these, and separated by a covered cart-way, stand root-
house and straw-house for the supply of the cattle and horses,
with thrashing-barn and granary; and close by, detached from
the main block of the building, near the stables, are the cart-
shed, implement-shed, and cottages for the ploughmen. The
drainage of the whole buildings is conducted to a tank at
some little distance from the buildings, and there by hose and

jet it is spread over the grass fields on a lower level.

The plan on the following page and the accompanying
isometrical projection of these buildings, with the table of

references, will enable the reader to understand their arrange-

ment.

The connection of the various parts is most natural and
obvious. The horses come out of the stable, and are at once
close by the cart and implement-shed. They are yoked in
carts, and carry the corn from the stack through the gangway
between p and o, where the sheaves are unloaded and thrashed
at o; the straw falls away into the straw-barn at n, and the
grain goes upwards to the granary. From 7 the straw is carried
the shortest possible distance to a b ¢ and g and h. If the
carriage of the litter should rule the position of the several
feeding places, then this principle has been well observed in
this instance. The soiled litter from the stable g, is thrust
through openings near the floor into the covered yard 6, and

T
138 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

 

 

}O 1OU
50 ” Z 209 FEET

HOMESTEAD AT THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FLEMISH FARM
(Designed and erected by J. R. Turnbull)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
THE FLEMISH FARM. 139

INDEX TO REFERENCE LETTERS.*

a a’ Cow-yards open

b' Loose Boxes

66 Covered yards for young Stock
ce Feeding-boxes

dd Calves’ pens

ee Cow-stalls

f Saddlery

gg Farmhorse stable

h Piggeries

2 Shed, with Liquid Manure Tank near it
J Turnip-cutters

k Pig-food and Cisterns

o Thrashing-barn, containing Meal-mill, Ouat-
and Bean-crusher, and Cake-mill

p Sheaf-barn

qg Boiler-house

r Engine

s Shed for Portable Engine

t Fowls

ww’ Bulls’ houses

v Forge

w Cart-shed

w! Implements

«x Loose Box

 

2 Cut chaff y Nag stable
m Passage 2 Cottage
nm Straw-barn

that from the cow-stalls e, into the open yard at a’. It thus
gets trodden down into a solid material which suffers no waste

while waiting its application to the field.

The machinery in the barns and houses is well arranged
and well selected. Messrs. Clayton and Shuttleworth put up the
whole of the machinery, consisting of one of their eight horse-
power fixed steam engines, which works a thrashing, winnowine
machine, and corn-mill, manufactured by them, a chaff-cutter
made by Messrs. Cornes, a litter-cutter by Messrs. Ashby, an
oat and bean crusher by Messrs. Turner, a cake-breaker by
Messrs. Garrett, a root-cutter by Messrs. Gardner, and a pulping-

machine by Messrs. Bentall.

When the work of thrashing is going on, three men re-
move and build the straw, two men and two boys unload
* We are indebted for these drawings of the Prince Consort's Flemish Homestead to a

forthcoming work by Mr. Bailey Denton, Jun., on the Homesteads of England.
T2
140 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

the carts as they arrive, and feed the mill. By the corn-stack
stands a big tripod used, when building the rick, for suspending
the cradle taken from the cart wheels which together consti-
tute the harvest cart. Pulleys are brought into use by which
the inner cart frame on which the load is brought in from
the fields is pulled by the horse up to a level with the
rick and left there, while the one just unloaded is placed upon
the empty wheels and taken back to the field for its load.
In the shed outside are Fowler’s steam-plough, Bentall’s broad-
share, Hancock’s pulverizer plough, which met with more than
its match on the stiff clay soil of the Flemish Farm; Phillips

and Gardner’s turnip-cutters, and Wood’s mowing-machine.

A cottage containing several bed-rooms, a kitchen, and
a sitting-room for the unmarried ploughmen is part of the
farmery. Very comfortable accommodation is thus provided, and

the establishment is in fact a model ‘ bothy.’

A great deal of instructive detail exists in the history and
construction of these buildings. The spot chosen for their
erection was fixed

upon because of

 

 

its central posi-

 

|
|
|
h

Hl

 

i

Sy (eA
sas

tion. There was, 2 a ee

A ie Rec ees oeell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ll

dit

however, a great Eee

deal of earth-work and excavation needed to adapt it; and it

was distant both from bricks and gravel. In Mr. Turnbull’s
THE FLEMISH FARM. 141

hands, however, both of these difficulties were obviated, by the
expedient of making bricks and burning ballast upon the spot
with the excavated material. The nature of the excavation
may be gathered from the section of the buildings (below), in
which it will be understood that the drawings on the two
pages should have been continuous—the party wall 7 in both
drawings being the same. The yards are covered with ballast
and road-metal about a foot deep. The ballast is valuable as
a corrective of the damp, which might otherwise have been ex-
pected from the clayey site of the buildings. The walls are

in every case built on a concreted foundation.

The following are the references to the index letters on

these drawings :—

A Stable—a Manger; 6 Gutter; ¢ Floor of stalls; f division of cow-stalls; g gutter
Heath stone pitching over concrete behind cows; 7 wall between covered and
BB Covered yard divided by railing (d) and open yard
gates, as seen here and in the plan, page C Open yard divided by wall and gates and
138—e gangway between yard and cow- provided with open shed

The flooring is everywhere concreted — having been dug

  

10 20ft
SCALE OF FEET

out low enough to hold a large thickness of lair. That of the

 

cow-houses, chaff-house, and passages is asphalted in addition,
142 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

and thus a complete security is provided against the lodging
of rats and mice. The flooring of the stable is paved with

stone above the concrete.

In the roofing of these buildings Colthurst’s three-ribbed
tiles are employed, the last row being Beadon’s patent eaves
tiles, which constitute a spouting for the roof water. The
sections on the following page show the wall carrying the iron
socket for the rafter, and the iron tie connecting it with a
corresponding socket at the other end of the span. Beadon’s
tiles are bedded in cement and screwed to the rafter, and
make a perfectly strong and efficient spouting. The roof is of
exceedingly neat construction, with iron tie and ring bolt, and
wooden struts. The principal rafters are 9 inches by 3 inches
in section, and 8 feet apart. All other dimensions may be
obtained from the scale given with the drawing in the pre-
vious page. The arrangement for providing ventilation to the
covered yard is seen both in the section given there, and in
the diagram on the left hand of the following page. It will
be observed that the central roof is raised some 10 or 12
inches above those on either side—the iron sockets receiving
the rafters on either side of them at the two different’ levels,
while between the two the open space provides for the passage

of fresh air as shown by the arrow.

In further reference to these buildings it may be mentioned

that wherever the walls in the plan (page 138) are represented in
THE FLEMISH FARM. 143

shade lines, it will be understood that there is a second story.

Thus over the thrashing-mill and boiler and engine-house there

 

SECTIONS OF EAVES

A Lower roof of covered yard 6 Gutter for roof of 4

B Higher roof of covered yard e Gutter for roof of B

C Outer eaves of stable roof d d Tron sockets for rafters of A and B
a Beadon’s patent eaves tile ¢ Iron socket for rafter of C

are granaries ; and in the cottage the second floor is arranged in
sleeping rooms for the ploughmen. The walls are whitened with
a silica wash which does not rub off, and is thus clean as
well as clean-looking, which whitewash rarely is. The prin-
cipal doors of the buildings are slung by friction wheels upon
a horizontal iron rod resting on iron sockets built into the
wall; and they slide to and fro without difficulty; thus easily
shutting and opening gateways where collections of litter on
the surface of the ground would interfere with the motion of

a door upon hinges.

Water is laid on to the stables, and to troughs in the open
and covered yards. The stable fittings, with rounded brick
144 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

_coigns, substantial oaken posts, elm stall divisions, and wooden
mangers, everywhere carry out the instructions of the Prince,
that the substantial and the useful, not the merely elegant and
beautiful, should guide the construction. The buildings cost,
we understand, upwards of 6000/. of which not one sixth was
provided by the landlord, H.M. Commissioners of Woods and
Forests. The Prince entirely approved of these buildings, which
combined, as he declared, usefulness with elegance of outline
of arrangement and of material, in just the right proportion ;
so much so indeed, that His Royal Highness repeatedly re-
commended them to his friends abroad, and the plans were
accordingly sent more than once both to Germany and Hungary
for execution on estates there. The plan has also been erected

in more than one instance in England.

As stated at pages 76-80, the main purpose of these
buildings is the shelter of the live stock of the farm: and
we have here live stock worthy of them. When, some years
ago, it was resolved that at the Prince Consort’s farms there
should be cultivated herds of our three principal breeds of cattle,
His Royal Highness instructed Major-General the Hon. A. N.
Hood to purchase the foundation of future herds of Herefords
‘and Devons for the farms in his charge. And now, after six
or eight years’ care, the herd of Herefords at the Flemish Farm
is one of the best in the kingdom. Four cows, Young Damsel,
Hedgehog, Topknot, and Vienna, were bought at the Earl of
Radnor’s sale in 1855. Brecon, a bull bred by Mr. Walter
THE FLEMISH FARM. 145

Mayberry, was purchased for 120/., in March 1856. At Viscount
Hereford’s sale in the same month, Cherry, Fanciful, Damsel,
ftose, Plum, Huntington, Morello, Heather-bell, cows and _ yearling
heifers, were purchased at high prices. In the following month
Gwenllian and Zoe, three-year old cows, were bought of Mr. W.
Mayberry. In August of the same year Superb, a two-year
old heifer, which had just taken the first prize at the Salisbury
Show of the Royal Agricultural Society, was purchased of the
Earl of Radnor. She is by Caruiste (923), who was first in his
class at the Carlisle Meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society
and at the Cardiff Meeting of the Bath and West of England
Agricultural Society. There is a heifer, Maud, by Wunpsor
(1456), from her in the herd, and also the bull Maximus
(1650), by Brecon. Maximus won the first prize at the Warwick
Meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society, and again in his
class at the Battersea Meeting, and many of the younger
members of the herd are by him. Since Maximus, Superb
has regularly bred bull-calves which have been fattened. She
was herself bred by the Earl of Radnor, and was the only
Hereford remaining unsold at the sale when his Lordship gave
up Hereford breeding. In 1858, Lupa, Ceres, Proserpine, and
Juno were purchased at Lord Berwick’s sale; and at the
sale last year of the same herd after the death of that noble-
man, Hva, Alberta and Adela, yearling heifers, were pur-
chased for prices between fifty and sixty guineas each; and
GariBaLpI (2007), a bull-calf, was purchased for sixty-six guineas.

U
146 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

Hereford breeders will know, from this catalogue of the prin-
cipal animals in the herd, the particular strains and families
of the breed which are represented in it. Of the older cows,

Young Damsel, Topknot and Damsel have no descendants in
the herd.

GaripatpI, bought at Lord Berwick’s sale, is by SEvERN
(1882), which took the third prize at the Warwick Meeting
of the Royal Agricultural Society, and with cow and offspring
took the first prize at Hereford in the same year. (GARIBALDI'’s
grandsire, Watrorp (871), was first in his class at the Windsor
Meeting in 1851, and the best of any age or breed at the Inter-
national Show at Paris, in 1855: he also won the Sweepstakes,
open to all England, in 1850, at Ludlow. ‘There is thus ample
testimony, in the public awards of prizes, to the merit of the
stock from which this herd is descended.

The other purchases at Lord Berwick’s sale are of equally
good descent. va, Alberta, and Adela were all of the so-called
Silver tribe. Hva and Adela being granddaughters, and Alberta
a daughter, of a cow purchased in the market from a grazier, by
the late Lord Berwick. Although at the time much was said
by the dealer from whom they were purchased, his Lordship took
but little heed of his information, which he afterwards regretted.
From the general character of this cow Stlver, he resolved to
breed from her. So little, however, did he at first think of

her, that her first calf was made a steer of, and it was not
THE FLEMISH FARM. 147

until after the celebrated cow Carlisle, now the property of |
Mr. Duckham, editor of the ‘Hereford Herd Book, had begun
to develope her many beautiful points, that his Lordship rightly
valued Silver. Carlisle was a winner of first prizes at the
Carlisle, Chelmsford, and Salisbury Meetings of the Royal Agri-
cultural Society. From her first calf, Szlver continued regularly
to breed heifers, until a few weeks after the death of her
former owner. Carlisle was by Apert Epwarp (859), and it
is rather unaccountable, that after the great success of her pro-
duce by this bull, although Atserr Epwarp continued in the
herd, he was never used again, all her subsequent produce being
by ArtincHam (911), until the bull-calf of last year, which was
by Severn (1382). Of Silver's produce after Carlisle, Beauty,
her next calf, won second prizes at Salisbury and Warwick, and,
with Severn and their offspring, was first at Hereford. Those
whose duty it was to judge her at Leeds considered her too
pampered an animal to be shown as a breeding cow, and
therefore passed her. Next followed Ada, dam of Eva, also
winner of a second prize of the Royal Agricultural Society.
She was placed third in her class at the Battersea Show. Then
came Agnes, another winner of a second prize at the Royal
Agricultural Society’s Show, and of a high commendation at the
Leeds Show, where her daughter Adela, now of the Royal herd,
was the admiration of the yard. Adela received the first prize

in her class at Battersea; and so did her sister Adelina.

ue?
148 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

Of the bulls named in this account of Silver, three of
whose offspring are in the herd at the Prince Consort’s Flemish
Farm, we add that A.serr Epwarp was placed first in his
class at the Lewes and Gloucester Meetings of the Royal
Agricultural Society, and that Ceres, Proserpine, and Juno in
the herd, are by him. ArrincHam was first at the Carlisle
Meeting. Srvern has been already named as third at Warwick,

and, with cow and offspring, first at Hereford in the same year.

There does not seem to be any need of pursuing the
description -of the herd in greater detail. Enough has been
said to inform anyone of the descent of the various animals
of which the herd is composed. Of the cows and heifers now
in the herd one is by Jerrries (587); three are by VENtson
THE Seconp (1442); one is by Drewsnatt (858); five are by
Puantom (1035); two are by Vanauarp (1109); two are by
Youne Drwsnatt (1125); one is by CaruisLeE (923) ; two are
by .ArrincHam (911); three are by Apert Epwarp (859) ;
one by Witt o tHE Wisp (1454); and one by SeEvERN
(1382). Besides these there are a number of young stock by
Winpsor (1456), and Maximus (1650), bred ons the farm,

whose pedigree has been already given.*

Besides the exhibition during the last few years of breeding
stock from this herd, the Prince Consort had long been a

* The numbers are those of Eyton’s Herd Book, to the editor of which, Mr. T. Duckham,

of Baysham Court, Ross, we are indebted for many of the above particulars.
THE FLEMISH FARM. 149.

successful exhibitor of fat stock of MHerefords. Latterly his
herd has been maintained chiefly from its own members,
and will compare with any in the country for the purity of its

descent and the quality and uniformity of its character.

We have only to add of the Prince Consort’s Flemish Farm,
that, unsuited as its soil is to sheep-farming, the only remaining
stock upon it which has not been named, is that of Berkshire
pigs, descended from stock of Mr. Pain, of Laverstoke, and Sir
F. Goodricke, Bart., the Rev. Mr. James, of Devonshire, and

Messrs. Hewer and Sadler.

It is, however, especially as exemplifying the influence of
drainage and tillage on a stiff clay soil, that the Prince Consort's
Flemish Farm, under the management of Major-General the Hon.
A. Nelson Hood, is a useful agricultural example. On a naturally
poor clay soil, inferior pasture land broken up has by these
means yielded 36 to 40 bushels per acre of wheat, 60 to 80
bushels of oats, large crops of mangold wurzel, clover, and beans.
It may well be visited as an example of good cultivation under
originally untoward circumstances—as furnished with one of the
best sets of farm buildings in the country—as supplying a useful
contribution to a still limited experience of steam cultivation —

and as stocked with a capital herd of well-bred Herefords.

We now proceed once more across the Park to the Prince

Consort’s Norfolk Farta.
 

SKETCH OF THE PRINCE CONSORT’S NORFOLK HOMESTEAD

3. Tue Prince Consort’s Norrotk Farm.

The above sketch represents the cattle-yards and buildings
of the Prince Consort’s Norfolk Homestead, as seen from the
erass-field to the south-west of them. They are situated about
two miles from the Flemish Homestead, across the Great Park
and at the farther end of it. Including a large extent of poor,
open, and almost unenclosed pasture land on its eastern side,
the Prince Consort’s Norfolk Farm is a tract of about 700
acres, 200 of which, or thereabouts, are arable. .The soil is
much lighter than that of the farm just described: a great

deal of it is a light sand, and while a good deal is a stiffish
THE NORFOLK FARM. 11

loam adapted for wheat and beans, it is all capable of turnip

cultivation. It is thus adapted to the Norfolk system of man-

 

 
 
  
     
  
 

« The homestead
b Cumberland lodge and
gardens ,

c The Queen’s school
d Paddocks and shed

 

renm ASCOT

 

 

a 3p 29 30
SCALE IN CHAINS

MAP OF THE PRINCE CONSORT’S NORFOLK FARM

 
152 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

agement, which was adopted here when George III. was the
tenant of the farm; since that time a large quantity of the
lighter land on the eastern side of the farm, which was cul-
tivated on that plan, has been laid down in permanent grass.
The four-course rotation, with occasional ‘stolen’ crops, as of
trifolium, vetches, rape, &., is still adopted on the heavier
portion of the arable land which remains. Probably one-fifth
of the land may be in clover and beans. Mangold wurzels
and swedes form one of the regular ‘breaks’ in the rotation ;
one-half in general being carried off the land and the remainder
fed on it with sheep wherever the land will admit of it.
Chandler's liquid manure drill is used in putting in both
swedes and mangolds on the lighter soils of this farm with
good effect. A considerable quantity of artificial manure, guano
and superphosphate is thus applied; from 300/. to 400/. worth
in all per annum is used on corn and green crops. The cul-
tivation has hitherto been done with twelve or thirteen horses ;
but, like the Flemish Farm, it can be cultivated with about
eight now that it shares in the work of the steam-plough.

The compact form of the farm, the central position of
the buildings, the arrangement of the fields, and their accessi-
bility by roads, are all well shown in the Map on the previous
page. The arable fields are numbered, and the following has
been the cropping of the land this year:— No. 1, Oats 38
acres; No. 5, Beans 20, and Clover 15 acres; No. 2, Mangold
THE NORFOLK FARM. 153

Wurzel 39 acres; No. 3, Turnips 32} acres; Nos. 7, 8, and 9,
Wheat 573 acres; No. 11, Winter Barley 19 acres.

From this list of crops it will be seen that counting the
bean crop along with the clover, the place of which it occa-
sionally takes, about one-half of the land is in green crops
and the other half in grain. The large proportion of turnips
and mangold wurzels is needed for the maintenance of a flock
of some 400 Hampshire sheep, which, with the help of the
Flemish Farm, are kept here, as well as of a herd of nearly

100 pure bred Devon cattle of all ages.

The Devon herd is the principal feature of the farm.
It has arisen since 1856, when, contemporaneously with the
commencement of the Hereford herd, at the other farm, the
Prince Consort, through Major-General Hood, purchased the
nucleus of his future stock. Mr. Brebner, who had been six-
teen years in the service of His Royal Highness, and has for
the last nine of them had the immediate direction of some
1600/7. worth of labour annually on the Flemish and Norfolk
Farms, in 1856 bought of Mr. George Turner, of Barton, near
Exeter, Zouave (556), a one-and-a-half-year old bull. Both
he and his offspring in the herd are illustrations of the safety,
and indeed the advantage, of close breeding — the relationship of
parents being disregarded so long as both possess the qualities
desired in their offspring. Thus both the dam and sire of
Zouave were by a common sire, Mr. Quartly’s Kart or Exerer

xX
154 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS :

(38) ; and the son of Zouave, CoLoneL (387), has been put more
than once, with advantage, to heifers of the same parentage with
himself. Zouave won the Royal Agricultural Society’s first prizes
in his class at Carlisle and Chelmsford, and their second prize
at Chester. His son, CotoneL, bred by the Prince Consort, dam
Rosa, bred by Lord Aylesford, and bought of Mr. Turner, won
the first prize in his class at the Barnstaple Meeting of the
Bath and West of England Society, the Royal Agricultural
Society’s second prize at the Chester and Warwick Meetings,
and their third prize at Leeds, and he was highly commended
at the Battersea Meeting. Another bull now employed in the
herd is Crown Prince, by Napotzon (259), bred by the Prince
Consort from Peace-and-Plenty. His dam, now in the herd,
was bought, a seven-year old cow, two years ago of Mr. J.
Quartly. She also is by Mr. Quartly’s Ear: or Exerer (88).
Crown Prince won the first prize in his class at the Leeds
show of the Royal Agricultural Society, and again the first
prize at Battersea. He is descended from Curly, which Mr. F.
Quartly believed to be one of the best cows he ever bred.*

The purchase of cows and heifers commenced in 1856
with Fancy, bought of Mr. W. Farthing, of Stowey Court,
Bridgewater: her first calf, J/lex, won the first prize at Leeds
last year, and after appearing at the Birmingham fat show was

sold for 551. Fancy has continued to breed regularly, and her

* We have to thank Captain Tanner Davy, interesting and instructive particulars in the

the editor of the Devon Herd Book, for several history of the Prince Consort’s Devon herd.
THE NORFOLK FARM. 135

last calf, Prince Aurrep, by CotoneL (357), was shown at

Battersea, and won the first prize in the class of bull-calves.

It is plain from the distinctions thus achieved by this
herd, though so lately established, that it includes animals of
the very highest excellence and breeding. Others, however, may
still be added to the list. Thus Verbena, bred by Mr. Turner,
and bought in 1856, won the Royal Agricultural Society’s first
prize in her class at Lewes and Gloucester. Prince Arruur
(492), son of Spot, another cow bought from Mr. Turner, won
the second prize at Salisbury, and was commended at Chester.
Lily, bought of Mr. Webber, of Haiberton, won the first prize
of the Bath and West of England Society at Tiverton, and
their second prize at Taunton. Garcia, bred by Mr. Halse,
of Molland, won the Royal Agricultural Society’s first prize at
Lincoln. And besides these, others could be named as having
bred prize winners at the fat stock shows. In addition to a
large number bred on the premises, the herd now includes
twenty-three cows and heifers bought of Mr. Turner; five pur-
chased from Mr. R. Mogridge, and five from Mr. T. B. Morse ;
three from Mr. J. Quartly; two from Lord Portman, and two
from Mr. T. Webber; and single animals from Messrs. Ellis,
Miller, W. Farthing, J. Merson, and Rev. W. Marriott. The
herd, however, ought rather to be traced to the breeders of
the animals, than to those from whom they were originally
purchased. But it must suffice to say, that all the best names

in the history of the Devon breed are represented in this herd.
x 2
156 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

It is from the stock of Messrs. Quartly, Halse, Farthing, Turner,
and Mogridge, that the best things in the Prince Consort’s
Devon herd have descended. It is simply a breeding stock; there
is no dairy; the calves remain with the cows all the summer,
and the accommodation for them, in pastures, paddocks with

sheds, and the old-fashioned buildings of the farm, is very good.

 

 

 

 

ISOMETRICAL PROJECTION OF THE PRINCE CONSORT’S NORFOLK HOMESTEAD

The drawings represent the arrangement and construction
of the several parts of the Homestead. They are of the old-
fashioned kind, wooden and thatched; barn, stables, and_ sheds,
being arranged around a large quadrangle, of which Mr. Brebner’s
comfortable residence and its offices occupy one side, while below

and on the sunny side lie other sheds and yards for stock.
THE NORFOLK FARM. 15

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SCALE OF PELL

60 90
I

i

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PLAN OF THE PRINCE CONSORT’S NORFOLK HOMESTEAD

REFERENCES TO INDEX LETTERS ON PLAN

ab Farm-house and offices

e Nag-stall

ad Granary

e Farm-horse stable

f  Shepherd’s house

gh Boxes and stalls for cattle

z Carter’s cottage and carpenter's shop
jj  Cart-shed and implements

kl Fatting-sheds

m m Cow-sheds and yards

nn
oo
pp
g
rr
ss
t
uw

UU

Yr

Sick-bay

Cow-shed and yard

Bull-houses and yards

Turnip-store and cutter, boiling-house, &c.
Pig-sties

Mill-house, with chaff-cutter, &c.

Barn and threshing-machine
Poultry-houses

Tool-house and z cart-shed

Cow-houses and yards
158 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

The Homestead has the merit, which old thatched buildings
often have, of comfortable lair and housing for the live-stock.
It has also the questionable merit of picturesqueness, which
is often the result of a rambling arrangement, not to speak
of dilapidation and decay. Here, however, everything is kept
in good’ and trim repair; and the picturesqueness is the
result of position on sloping ground among trees, of high
thatched roofs and gable-ends, rather than of the lack of any
plan of arrangement. The plan, however, on which they have
been built is not a good one; and it will at once be seen
from our drawings how much labour is lost in the conveyance
of food and litter to the cattle, when the process, as it must
be conducted here, is compared with the process as carried
out at the Prince Consort’s Flemish Farm. The buildings date
from the reign of George III., who was for many years tenant
of this farm. His Majesty’s bailiff, Mr. Hatch, ultimately occu-
pied the farm upon his own account. George IV. again took
it into royal occupation, Mr. Ingall being His Majesty’s bailiff
under Sir Samuel Hawkes. He was succeeded by Mr. Ken-
dall as manager under William IV. Messrs. Kendall and Day
and Godwin followed as farm managers under General Wemyss,
who superintended the Royal farms for Her present Majesty.
After the death of General Wemyss, Mr. Brebner* came here

* We have to thank Mr. Lewis and Mr. plan of the Norfolk Homestead, and drawing up
Fischer, agricultural pupils of Mr. Brebner, registers enabling a description of the Prince

for their friendly assistance in preparing a Consort’s herds.
THE NORFOLK FARM. 159

from Bagshot, and the farm was then placed under the super-
intendence of Major-General the Hon. A. Nelson Hood.

This is the history of the changes in the tenancy of the
land during the past half century. It is interesting chiefly as
showing that the land has nearly always been in the occupa-
tion of the Crown. The tenancy is free—rent being chargeable
on only a portion of the Prince Consort’s Flemish Farm. Rates

and taxes amounting to nearly 200/. a year are paid on both.

Mr. Brebner came to the stewardship of these farms from
much poorer land. The Bagshot farms are for the most part
on a poor and hungry soil. They and the Prince Consort's
Norfolk, Shaw, and Flemish Farms make a complete series of
increasingly stiff soils, on which the varying importance of
manures and tillage and land-drainage receives the completest
illustration, including as it does instances in which the land
is a mere machine, into which manure must be put before
the crops made of it can be grown—just as rags must be
fed into the mill before the paper can be forthcoming from
it: including instances also in which the soil is already full
of the raw material of plants —a _ strong-box, in fact, full
of the raw material of the manufactured crop, which only
needs, by tillage and land drainage, to have the stores already
there made available, in order to the creation of fertility :
and including instances between these two extremes, in which,

by both tillage and manuring, and a judicious rotation of
160 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

crops, the soil may be economically employed as in part a

naturally provided apparatus for the production of crops.

We have already pointed out the relations of land drainage
and deep and thorough tillage to good agriculture, as illustrated
in the former occupations of this series; we have now to point
out, as they are illustrated on the Norfolk Farm and elsewhere,
the offices performed by manure and rotations of cropping, in

the maintenance of fertility.

The following remarks, accordingly, on crop rotations and ma-
nures, have been drawn up, like the short essays on farm buildings
and on tillage and land drainage, interpolated at pages 76 and 125,
as a general exposition of that branch of farm practice which each
farm in its turn most strikingly illustrates. The Prince Consort’s
Norfolk Farm is not a special illustration of the excellence of
farm buildings such as the Home and Shaw Farms exhibit; nor
are the advantages of drainage and steam tillage so well illus-
trated on it as they are on the stiff clay soils of the Prince
Consort’s Flemish Farm. It is one of the more ordinary class
of farms, on which the farm-yard manure, somewhat expensively
and wastefully made in an imperfect homestead, has to be sup-
plemented by the purchase of artificial manures, and in which
the natural resources of the soil have to be husbanded and
helped by adopting a rotation of crops which shall draw upon
them as lightly as may be. The following short essay on an
CROP ROTATIONS. 161

important part of farm management, which is especially illus-
trated on the Norfolk Farm, is therefore properly inserted here ;
but the reader may pass it over, if he chooses, resuming the

thread of the story at page 166 :—

Crop Rotations AND Manuring.

These two subjects are related just as a manufacture is related to the supply
of its raw material. We take our crops one after another, in the order in which
they shall the most economically draw upon those stores of food for them which
are either naturally present or artificially supplied in the soil, 2.e. in the order in
which each is the most likely to prepare the land for the others by taking from it
less or adding to it more of what the succeeding crop requires. Till twenty or
thirty years ago, the proper succession of crops was tnought the most important
part of farm practice; for then each crop was grown simply upon the natural
supply of the mineral food which tillage had prepared for it within the soil, and
upon the ordinary supply of organic food which in the débris of the previous
crop had been added to the land. And accordingly, landowners, when fencing
about the cultivation of their estates with conditions on which the maintenance
of the value of those estates was believed to depend, made the rotation of crops
which was to be followed the principal condition of them all. And the main
feature insisted upon was the adoption of the alternate system of husbandry, as
it was called, in which exhausting grain crops were alternated with manure-producing
green crops. The primitive rotation to which tenants were then restricted was the
Norfolk or four-course system, of whose natural tendency to maintain fertility

Professor Johnston speaks thus, in his ‘ Lectures on Agricultural Chemistry :’—

‘If, after a skilful manuring, turnips grow luxuriantly, it is because the soil
has been enriched with all that that crop requires. If a healthy barley crop
follow the turnips, it is because the soil still contains all the food of this new
plant. If clover thrive after this, it is because it requires certain kinds of
nourishment which neither of the former crops has exhausted. If, again,
luxuriant wheat succeeds, it is because the soil abounds still in all that the
wheat crop needs—the failing vegetable and other matters of the surface being
increased and renewed by the decaying roots of the preceding crop of clover.

y
162 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

And if now turnips refuse to give again a fair return, it is because you have not
added to the soil a fresh supply of that manure without which they cannot

thrive. Add the manure and the same rotation of crops may again ensue.’

The four crops named would not succeed so well in any other order, because
the exhaustion of the soil by each would then have more rapidly unfitted it for
the production of the others. The reasons for a rotation of crops may be more
largely stated thus—and we shall again condense and quote our own remarks

from a recent publication, ‘The Farmers’ Calendar :’—

If clay land be best for wheat and beans, and moist sandy land be best
for oats, and gravelly soil for barley, and if turnip soils are for the most part a
tolerably distinct class, why not devote land permanently to the growth of the
crop for which it is thus the best adapted — growing wheat and beans permanently
on stiff soils, barley and turnips on light soils, and so on? Whence the need of

taking these crops one after another? The following is an answer : —

In the first place, every farmer must grow a number of crops whether he
has a variety of soils upon his farm or not, because the relation in which he
stands to his labourers requires that a pretty even quantity of employment be
provided all the year through. If one or two crops only be cultivated, this will
not be the case—the labour will be accumulated at one or two parts of the
year, and so men will either be idle during long intervals, or they will at any
rate be unable to find constant employment on the same farm, which it is for
the interest of all parties they should.

Then, again, not only must we grow a number of crops on account of our
labourers, but we must grow a number on each farm because of our live-stock —
not only are employment and wages wanted every month in the year, but food
for cattle is wanted every month in the year, and for this reason, therefore, as a

general rule, a variety of crops is needed on the farm.

But why must these crops be taken after one another? To this question
there are several answers. Thus, first, any one plant when grown successively
and repeatedly on the same plot of ground does under ordinary circumstances
and according to ordinary experience degenerate and dwindle. The wheat plant
will, if it come to a ripe maturity at all, do so in a stunted form; but it will

probably, more or less, die before it arrives at maturity. The turnip will, even
CROP ROTATIONS. 163

if taken so seldom as once in every four years, in the course of time no longer
bear so quick a succession, it will acquire a diseased and stunted and forked
growth. The clover plant is another illustration of the same truth — the so-called
clover sickness being consequent upon the frequent recurrence of the clover crop
upon the same ground. The improvement of grass lands with their age, though
an apparent, is not a real exception to the rule of these instances. Different species
and even different classes of plants grow together on the same land there; and
so one of the conditions provided by a rotation of crops, viz. the demand upon
the soil being varied by the cultivation of a variety of crops, is secured.

But besides plants degenerating as a general rule if taken repeatedly from
the same ground, it is found that crops succeed better when taken in a certain
order after one another. Thus wheat grows better after beans than after oats
or barley, and a succession in which grain crops and green crops alternate is
found in general practice more productive than one in which grain crops follow
one another. This experience of the productiveness of the crops we cultivate is
one of the reasons for a rotation in the place of a succession of crops. The
explanation of this experience is a point on which the attention of scientific men
has been more bestowed, probably, than on any other point in the whole range
of farm practice. There are three principal theories founded more or less

fairly on observed facts, by which the need of a rotation of crops is explained.

(1) There is the theory founded on the fact that: plants during growth
excrete certain juices from their roots which are thus returned to the soil.
De Candolle entertained the idea that a crop might render the land on which
it grew unsuitable to itself by overloading it with this excreted matter, and that
though the soil was thus rendered unsuitable for the crop in question, yet it
might not be unfitted for the growth of another. The excrementitious matter of
one plant might indeed be real nutriment to another; and thus was explained not
only how wheat after wheat would not prosper, but also how wheat succeeded better
after beans than after some other crop, as oats or barley, or even turnips or
potatoes. This theory, though consistent with the actual experience of the farmer,
has fallen into disrepute. It is now believed that organic juices excreted cannot
remain unaltered through months of exposure in a soil to be in force when the

young plant again comes to be drawing its nourishment from the soil in question.

(2) There is the theory of exhaustion. It is known that the mineral part
of a plant does not correspond in composition with that of the mineral matter
y 2
164 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

in solution within a soil, and by repeating the plant therefore on the same land
it is obvious that certain ingredients in the soil will be exhausted sooner than
others — faster, indeed, than the natural process of disintegration will supply
them from the more permanent part of the soil. Wheat taken repeatedly from
the land, straw and all, will rob it rapidly of its soluble silica; turnips will
rob it rapidly of its potash. But if these crops be taken in succession the soil
will have a longer time in which to accumulate and present for use the necessary
ingredients when the crop requiring them as food shall come round again. This
second theory does receive some countenance from the researches of the chemist
into the composition of plants. And if the composition of our ordinary crops
per acre does not fully tally with it (the turnip and mangold crop, which are
restorative crops in practice, taking in reality more out of the land than a
wheat crop or a barley crop, which are in practice the especially exhaustive crops),
yet it must be remembered that these green crops are not sold off the land in
ordinary farm practice, and that the straw of our corn crops and the hay of our

grass crops are also returned to the land through the animals fed upon them.

(3) Nevertheless, the theory now most generally held is a different one yet.
In the first, the soil is supposed to require a succession of crops because each
poisons the ground for itself; in the second, because each exhausts the ground
for itself; and in the third, because in the system under which green crops
alternate with grain crops, the former by their consumption on the land accumulate
there the fertilising matters which in their growth they have absorbed from the air.
This is the theory to which the Rothamsted researches have led Mr. Lawes. It renders
the theory of exhaustion perfectly consistent with the facts of every farmer’s experience.

Apart from scientific explanation of the fact, it may be alleged that the
power of a rotation to maintain the fertility of the soil depends practically on the
quantity of meat which can be made during it per acre by the consumption of
its green crops. This is owing to two circumstances — first, the very obvious one
that the quantity of manure made upon the farm depends on the quantity of
live-stock fed upon it; and secondly, the fact, that the plants on which our
sheep and cattle are fed, leafy and succulent in their growth, draw their nourish-
ment from the air as much as from the soil, so that, the manure derived from
their consumption not only supplies to the surface soil on which we place it
most of the mineral matters drawn upwards from both soil and subsoil by the

crop, but it adds fertilising matters drawn downwards from the air, which are thus
CROP ROTATIONS. 165

a clear addition to the fertility of the land. How very materially rotations vary
in their power thus of either using or replenishing the fertility of the land,
may be judged from the cropping of the Prince Consort’s Shaw, Flemish, and
Norfolk Farms respectively. Of every 100 acres on each of these three farms, 70,
68, and 61 respectively are in grain sold off the land; 30, 32, and 39 respectively
being in green crops consumed upon the land. Or if the bean be reckoned among
the restorative crops, it may be said that these occupy 40 per cent. of the clay
soil farms, and 50 per cent. of the light soil farms.

An ordinarily managed clayey soil, richer naturally, can be made by tillage to
yield continuously a larger proportion of grain produce; while for the lighter soils
we not only need a larger proportion of manure-producing crops, but we have to
enrich the manure thus provided by a large consumption of purchased cattle-food,
and to add to it by a large consumption of purchased fertilisers. And this is where
crop rotations and artificial manuring have a common bearing. By the one we
endeavour to economise the natural supplies of fertilising matter; by the other we
add artificially to their quantity. And it is by our discoveries of guano, and of
the nitres, and of their agricultural value, and by the enormous extension lately of
the manure manufacture, that the latter process has so far displaced the other, that
now it is generally understood a liberal cultivator, with ample stores in the manure
market at his command, may grow what crop he pleases, in the order most con-
venient to himself, without any necessary damage to the natural fertility of the
land. How entirely different, indeed, farm practice has become of late years by the
use of guano and of manufactured fertilisers, every energetic cultivator knows;
and no one more than the tenant of the Prince Consort’s Norfolk Farm, if his
practice could be compared with that of half a century ago. The object is now
rather to feed the crop than to fertilise the land. The dependence is not upon
the general effect of a good rotation, but on a treatment of each crop in accord-

ance with its known requirements.

In the ‘ Agricultural Gazette’ of March 24 and 31 of 1862, there is described
by tabulated figures the actual practice of manuring on 2,292 acres of light pasture
land, and 11,760 acres of light arable land; on 4,305 acres of heavy pasture land,
and 4,523 acres of heavy arable land; on 8,384 acres of medium pasture land, and
23,357 acres of medium and various arable land;—or in all on about 55,000 acres
of arable and pasture land on 129 farms in the principal counties of England and
Scotland. There are also reports from nearly all these farms of the ordinary
166 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

management of this department. of agriculture in the neighbourhoods from which
they are sent: and the quantity of artificial manure which is shown by these
returns to be used on the lands of every energetic cultivator, is astonishing; show-
ing, as the Prince Consort’s farms have already done, that English agriculture is
now a systematic, energetic, scientific manufacture, employing larger capital and more
labour than any other in the conversion of raw material into valuable produce.

There is one material applied almost universally in English agriculture, which
acts midway between tillage and rotations on the one hand, in quickening and
conserving natural fertility, and the application of purchased manures upon the
other, as an artificial addition to this natural fertility—and that is lime. The tables
just alluded to show that, excepting the chalk and limestone districts of the country,
liming, at intervals varying from six to twenty years, is almost universal. An application
of 10 cwt. up to 10 tons per acre, at intervals of four years up to four or five times as
long, is the rule of English agriculture. When a large dressing is applied, as of
200 to 300 bushels per acre, a long period elapses before it is applied again; and
thereafter a smaller application, as of 30 or 40 bushels in compost, over the
clovers before breaking them up for wheat, once in a rotation or in every other
rotation, is commonly addopted. It has the effect of rendering farm-yard manure
more effective, of making clay lands work more kindly and produce more abundantly,
and of diminishing, if not entirely removing, on light soils the liability to finger-
and-toe disease in turnips. The instances in which the reports just named declare
no lime to be used, are confined to those cases where either the subsoil or the
farmer has already once for all filled the soil with an excessive dose.

On all the Prince Consort’s farms, and especially on the Shaw and Flemish
Farms, lime composts are annually used; the whole series in this, as in other
respects, illustrating by their management that practice of using, economising, and
supplementing the natural resources of the soil, which has been the subject of these

remarks on crop rotations and manures.

We return now to our work of description. The fertility
of the Prince Consort’s Norfolk Farm is not only created and
maintained by land drainage and deep tillage, and by the
observance of a good rotation of crops, but, as in all other

instances of energetic cultivation, it is added to by liberal
CROP ROTATIONS. 167

artificial dressings of manure. About 250]. worth are annually
applied of guano, superphosphate of lime, nitrate of soda, salt,
and soot; and in addition to these, the natural manure of the
farm is improved by the consumption of no less than from
5002. to TO0/. worth of purchased cattle-food, cake and grain.
At the Norfolk Farm the manure thus made lies in open
yards until carried to the field. There can be no doubt that
great waste thus ensues. A certain amount of decomposition,
which is wasteful of its volatile products, goes on wherever
a moistened heap of vegetable matter is allowed to accumu-
late, and a great deal of the soluble products of that decay
is also washed to waste. All this is saved at the Prince
Consort's Home and Flemish Farms—in the first by carrying,
as we have already said, all the soiled litter of the stalls to
a manure-house, where rain is not allowed to fall on it; and
in the second by manufacturing the manure in a covered yard.
Lord Kinnaird says, that in his experience of covered manure-
yards he has found seventy cubic yards of the dung made
there to be equal in fertilising effect to one hundred taken from
similar manure made in open yards. And this difference in
the quality of the dung made in the open and covered yards

respectively has been quite realised upon the Prince’s farms.

We leave now the farms which lie within the bounds of
Windsor Great Park, and travelling southwards three or four
miles, as seen upon the map (p. 62), we reach the neigh-
bourhood of Bagshot, where other land was held in the oe-

cupation of the Prince Consort.
168 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

4. Taz Prince Consornt’s Baasnor anp Rapiey Farms.

If ‘a great head of game’ be considered fatal to good
agriculture, farms that are maintained chiefly for the purpose
of a covert and provision for their game can hardly be ex-
pected to furnish agricultural lessons, except by way of warning.
We have, however, here lands mixed up with plantations and
intersected everywhere with covers, where pheasants have fallen
to a single gun at the rate of one per minute for an hour
and a half together,—on which there is nevertheless many
a point of interest to the farmer. They are the last of the
large number of farms of which the late Prince Consort was
the tenant; and to some of the points connected with them,
which both the landowner and the tenant-farmer may be in-

terested, we have now to direct attention.

Bagshot Park was the residence of the late Duke of
Gloucester. Mr. Toward, now over the Osborne estate, was
manager here during the late Duchess of Gloucester’s life, and
the gardens, then maintained in perfect order, still bear testi-
mony to his taste and skill. The land, sandy and _ peaty all
over that district, is especially adapted for the growth of
rhododendrons, and the grounds near the house are a perfect

blaze of beauty in the month of May. They are also inter-
THE BAGSHOT AND RAPLEY FARMS. 169

esting for the large number of fine specimen trees and shrubs
which are here collected. One of the finest plane trees in
the country stands close to the house on one side, and one
of the finest clumps of cedar trees on the other. One of the
few Deodars originally brought into this country stands in the
shrubbery — now a noble specimen. Jere also are remarkably
fine specimens of the Chinese juniper, an unusual example of
the Scrub pine (Pinus Banksiana), the finest Cunninghamia
or Araucaria lanceolata in England, and a wonderfully fine

specimen of the Scotch fir.

It is interesting to learn, as Mr. Standish of the Bagshot
Nurseries informs us, that the small-leaved variety, which here
presents a straight bole thirty inches in diameter and probably
forty or fifty feet in height, is of the Russian—the true Riga
—variety of Pinus sylvestris, and much the finest of the three
known to foresters; the Swiss variety being the least valuable,
the Austrian next, and this Riga variety being worth by much

the most. Other sorts of pine have capital illustration here.

One or two remarkably large and handsome beech occur.
The thorn, in individual trees here and there within the
Park, is nowhere larger or better grown. The oak is occa-
sionally very fine; one in particular in front of the mansion
is a magnificent specimen. Of the graceful, quick-growing,
worthless Turkey oak, which flourishes on the same sandy soil
with the birch, there are also several good examples.

Z
170 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

Like the Norfolk and Flemish, these farms are under the
presidency of Major-General the Hon. A. Nelson Hood.
Mr. Graham, the intelligent manager under him, was for some
time with the late Mr. Wilson upon the Prince Consort’s Shaw
and Home Farms, which have been already described. Leaving
these for Bagshot and for Rapley, he came from an _ estate
which had been long under good management, and was
naturally of fair quality, to one which lies within what is
naturally one of the poorest districts in the country. He left
farms furnished with buildings which emulate, and in some
features excel, any others in the island, for land which is
very poorly furnished with buildings, and very imperfectly
equipped in every way—for one of the poorest districts in the
country, where the game-keeper, not the farmer, had been for
many years in the ascendant, where the natural circumstances
were unfavourable, and where for many years no attempt had

been made at their improvement.

There was, however, even here a good deal of agricultural
interest to stimulate a tenant. The land had many years before
been under the management of one of the best farmers in the
country. The late Mr. Burness, who was latterly with the Duke
of Bedford at Woburn, had been manager at Rapley. The
buildings erected from his design, though now somewhat dilapi-
dated, possessed many good points. One of the best arrange-
ments of piggeries, since copied in all parts of the country, and

now in full operation, was a principal feature. A water-power
THE BAGSHOT AND RAPLEY FARMS. 171

threshing-machine, erected long ago, and then guarded night and
day from the lawless hands of angry labourers —vsince, however,
for many years disused — was still found to be in working
order. The condition of the land, and the quality and quantity
of the stock upon it, were at the lowest ebb; and all this, bad
enough in itself, was yet a good starting-point for an energetic
young man, who desired to carry out with vigour such plans of
improvement as General Hood, under His Royal Highness the

Prince Consort, might direct.

The Bagshot and Rapley Farms, which are represented in
the following Maps, although paying a rent to H. M. Com-
missioners of Woods and Forests, and worked with the capital
of the Prince, were less immediately under his eye than any of
the others, both owing to their distance from Windsor, and because
they were retained in occupation almost entirely for shooting pur-
poses. Nevertheless, the expenditure year by year needed to bring
them into good condition was not grudged, and in a few years’
time they will no doubt be as interesting to the farmer as the

sportsman.

The process is necessarily tedious. Over the principal part
of the land the soil is the poorest black peaty sand and
gravel. This, however, is more especially the case at Rapley.
The land attached to Bagshot Park is of better quality, and
yields fair crops. The accounts of both are kept together,

and we learn from them that besides the barley and oats
z2
172 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

grown on the farm (all consumed by stock), there has been

an expenditure annually of nearly 200. on cattle-food, and

 

 

         

SCALE IN CHAINS

__ QS aaneret if

 

 

MAP OF BAGSHOT FARM

of 180/. to 2002. a year on guano and artificial manures. In this
way, then, besides attention to the drainage of the land, and

its due cultivation in a restorative rotation of crops, it is plain
THE BAGSHOT AND RAPLEY FARMS. 173

that no means have been left neglected by which a gradual
increase of fertility may be attained. That much of the in-

creased produce is and will be destroyed by game is inevitable ;

 

5

|

 

 

 

 

MAP OF RAPLEY FARM

the farms will nevertheless be serving the purpose for which
they were intended, which no doubt has been, both to furnish
the requisite amount of sport when required, and to supply an
example of poor and light land farming, of some interest to

a large number of agriculturists.
174 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

The Bagshot Park, now occupied by Sir James Clark,
Bart., Her Majesty’s Physician, includes about 60 acres of pas-
ture and 100 acres of arable land. The adjoining Rapley
Farm includes about 120 acres of pasture and 160 acres of
arable land. The plough land in the former case is of fair
quality. Very promising wheat—a capital plant of red
clover and Italian rye-grass (seeded with 20 lbs. and 1 bushel
per acre respectively) — fields on which turnips had been fed
by sheep, and lying then scarified so as to mix up the soil
and sheep-dressing and avoid the loss of the latter in case of
rain-—and a ploughed wheat stubble ready for the mangold and
turnip crop taken over one quarter of the farm— made up the
cropping as we saw it early in the spring. The cropping this
year (1862) has been as follows:— No. 1, clover; No. 2, vetches
to be followed by turnips; No. 3, oats; No. 4, barley; No. 5,
mangold wurzel; No. 6, wheat; No. 7, turnips. The other land
unnumbered on the map is in permanent pasture. A good deal of
this arable land is sprinkled over with trees of oak and thorn ;
and, lying near the mansion, would add greatly to the beauty

of the Park were it laid down in permanent pasture.

At Rapley the rotation includes two years in grass, the
other crops being (1) wheat or oats; (2) turnips, mangolds,
and potatoes; (3) barley. On comparatively little of the land
can a good wheat crop be grown; it is a light, poor soil,
which would probably be improved by a dressing of the clay
lying not very deep as a subsoil. It is being, and will be,
THE BAGSHOT AND RAPLEY FARMS. 175

greatly improved by liberal sheep-farming. Very poor turnips,
owing to a bad seed-time, and other circumstances — compara-
tively poor grass — fair crops of barley and oats, also of

potatoes, were grown here last year.

The lupine, too, has been successfully tried. Two bushels
of seed are sown in May, without a dressing, in rows nine
inches apart. They need diligent hoeing while very young,
but as soon as the plants have fairly hold of the ground
they grow rapidly, flower in July and August, and by and bye
attain the condition of a half ripe crop. A boy with basket
and knife precedes the sheep, which are then folded over the
land. He cuts the seed into his basket and the sheep feed
after him. They eat readily the still succulent stems and
leaves; and the crop has this especial advantage in the eyes
of Mr. Graham, that it appears to be distasteful to all kinds
of game. A very valuable crop for poor light land is thus
available, especially where a great head of game exists —
the principal points requiring attention during its cultivation
being that it must be sown late enough and folded early
enough to avoid frost, which at once destroys it, and that
the land be kept clean by hoeing during its early growth.
Buckwheat, for the use of the game, is also sown to the extent
often of 20 or 30 acres; 14 bushels are sown in May, and the crop
is cut when most of the seed is formed, and turned carefully
until dry enough for harvesting, when it is stacked in the covers ;

being paid for, of course, by the game to the credit of the Farm.
176 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

The coarse Irish Cup potato is grown to a considerable
extent at Rapley. The crop is wholly consumed by pigs,
being steamed and mixed with ground oats and barley, also
the produce of the farm. The buildings are supplied with
water-power for the various purposes of threshing, cutting chaff,
and grinding corn; and the yards and sheds and stalls are

filled with a good stock of horses, cattle, and swine.

The two farms are nearly contiguous, the two maps do indeed
form one, that of Rapley being placed above the one of Bagshot.
A good many of the outlying fields in the Rapley Farm are too
poor for cultivation. The numbering of the fields is taken from
the Prince’s map, and the following is this year (1862) the cul-
tivation of most of them: — Nos. 10—12, wheat: Nos. 13, 14,
15, 20, 34, in pasture; Nos. 21, 23, 26, 31, 32, 33, in oats;
Nos. 24, 25, in clover; Nos. 27, 28, green crops; No. 22, rye;
No. 35, lupines; and No. 37, potatoes.

The farms are worked with five pairs of horses, some of
them good Clydesdale mares, from which, by the Prince Con-
sort’s prize Clydesdale stallion at the Shaw Farm, colts are
bred. There are now ten young Clydesdale horses in boxes
and in sheds opening out upon a grass field. The winter
stock includes about sixty cattle, half of them stores for fat-
tening in summer and winter, and the remainder fatting beasts,
Galloways and Short-horns, receiving 4 lbs. of cake apiece,

mixed hay and straw chaff, and Swedish turnips daily.
THE BAGSHOT AND RAPLEY FARMS. 177

About 300 sheep have been kept upon the farms—Hampshire
Downs and Cheviots. The ewes and lambs are fattened to-
gether during summer; the latter breeding flock being out
upon the pastures, and the former folded on the turnips.
Seven or eight breeding sows of the Berkshire breed are kept,
and there are generally sixty or seventy swine of various ages,
fattening in the capital L-shaped double range of sties, with

central gangway and steaming and food-house at the angle.

The buildings planned by the late Mr. Burness include a
couple of square yards, with threshing and other barns at
either end, and divided by the central piggery, the one side
including byres and feeding-houses, and the other being open
to the sun. Opposite one of these yards, on the open side,
stand: stabling and cart-sheds; and there are outlying houses,
granary, poultry-house, &c. They are of wood and tile or

thatch, and in a somewhat dilapidated plight.

The main items of receipt upon these farms are from cattle,
sheep, pigs, wheat and buckwheat; the expenditure is, as we have
said, large in manure, cattle-food, and labour. In the last
point especially the expenditure is large, as it must be in all
establishments conducted on the patriarchal system of keeping on
old servants long after they have lost their efficiency, and pen-
sioning them off when utterly unable to work. It is not to be
wondered at that land in these circumstances and naturally poor,
full of game, and being gradually brought into condition in spite

AA
178 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

of all these drawbacks, should at present be a tax upon the purse
and capital of the tenant.

The Bagshot district is especially useful, because of the
poverty of its natural condition, for all such operations as need
mere standing-ground. This, considering its neighbourhood to
London, they can find nowhere cheaper in the country. The
manufacture of soldiers out of raw material supplied from lanes
and pot-houses all over the country, has thus come to be con-
ducted hereabout on a great scale. And no less true an example
of a manufacture is furnished by the growth of grapes under
glass, also hereabout largely carried on. Compost heaps, bones
and ashes, and other fertilising matters, furnish the materials
out of which a living plant, in an artificial climate, manufac-
tures produce for the Covent Garden Market; and the very
same means are in operation on the Prince’s farms, under the
natural climate, aided, however, by the meagre natural supplies
which their poor soils afford, and resulting in the manufacture
of material for Smithfield and Mark Lane.

 

There only remains now to describe the system of accounts
by which the practical oversight of the expenditure on these
farms has been maintained. Formerly, the annual audit consisted
merely in the examination of a cash account, for the several
items of which vouchers were presented. There was, of course,

an annual valuation and balance-sheet prepared; but the absence
FARM ACCOUNTS. 179

of a sufficiently clear classification and allotment of expenditure
throughout the year, under the various heads from which
receipts also were derived, rendered it difficult either to exercise
an intelligent guidance of the outlay, or to understand the
causes to which the profit or loss upon the year’s proceedings

was properly attributable.

Mr. Toward at Barton, and for the Osborne estate, had
devised a very simple form of weekly labour account, which, to-
gether with an extract from his cash book, was sent every month
to H.R.H. the Prince Consort, and from this, with a waliacien
at the beginning and close of the year, the year’s accounts were

prepared by Mr. Harrison, Secretary to the Privy Purse.

The following two pages are to be taken as representing
the outside pages of this weekly labour account. They are, in
fact, the back of a folio sheet, on the front of which are drawn
columns for name, days of the week, and money paid as wages.
The front pages (second and third of the open sheet) are filled
first, and then, if more room is wanted, the further names appear
on the back (here given). At the foot, on the fourth and first
pages of this sheet respectively, are given the abstract of the
week’s account, and the title of the document. It is to be under-
stood, then, that these two pages are the back (fourth and _ first
pages) of a sheet which is seventeen inches long and twenty-two
inches wide, and which is filled with details of the daily work of

every labourer, as here drawn on a smaller scale.

AA2
 

180 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

 

NAMES SATURDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ABSTRACT

 

Labour on Farm

Haymaking and Harvest

Gardens and Pleasure Grounds
Woods

Roads and Drives .

Fences

Carpenters and Wheelwrights, Farm
Draining

Pensioners .

 

 

 

 

 
WEEKLY LABOUR ACCOUNT.

181

 

THURSDAY FRIDAY No. of Days

At per Day

Amount

Signature and Mark

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

d.

 

 

 

 

THE PRINCE CONSORT’S HOME AND

LABOUR LIST.

For the Week ending the

Amount

 

SHAW FARM.

186
182 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

In adapting Mr. Toward’s system to the Windsor Farms, the
forms have been altered to suit the different style of expenditure,
but the plan is essentially the same. Besides the cash book in
which all payments and receipts are recorded, and the ledger in
which they are arranged under the different headings deemed neces-
sary to convey a clear understanding of how the expenditure
has gone, and whence the returns have been derived — besides
the banker’s book, also, which is in fact the cash book of the
farm, for all monies received are paid into the bank, and all
payments are made by cheques—besides these, there are two
sets of periodical sheets filled up, one of them this weekly sheet
of the labour, and the other a monthly statement of payments,
of grain and other food consumed, of granary contents, and of
the live stock. We give these two sheets as good specimens of

the kind of forms required for such a purpose.

There is first the weekly labour sheet just described, recording
all the items into which the total weekly expenditure on wages
is divided (so many particulars to be entered in the cash book,
and transferred to the several accounts thus affected in the ledger) ;
and there is, secondly, the sheet which contains the cash account
(payments and receipts) on its inner folio (second and third pages)
—the record of granary and other returns on its first page—and
the record of task-work payments, and of debts due to and by
the farm, on its fourth page. On the four following pages this
form is represented, on a smaller scale of course; the size of the

whole sheet itself being, as already given, 17 inches by 22.
FARM ACCOUNTS. 183

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Consumption of Farm Produce and Purchased Food fox the Weeks
ended the day of 18
Species Quantity | FARM Value REMARKS
Qrs. | Bush. £ 3 d.
Wheat
Barley
Beans .
Peas
Oats
Tons | Cwt.
Oilcake
Bran & Sharps
Granary Return for the Weeks ended the day of 18
On Charge Remainin,
Species from ADDED ISSUED 6
1 on Charge
ast
Qrs. | Bush. Qrs. | Bush. Qrs. | Bush. || Qrs. | Bush.
Wheat
Barley
Beans .
Peas
Oats. .
6 (Wheat
= Barley
oH /Oats .
Tons | Cwt. Tons | Cwt. Tons | Cwt. || Tons | Cwt.
Oilecake
Bran
Live Stock Account for the Weeks ended the day of 18 || Difference
since last
Births|Deaths |} To Whom || Bought|| Sold
2 a
Cows | Cows |, Fat- £ls.Jdli£ls.iall 3
te Bulls in Milklin Calf Calves | Stores ting Total g 5
B a)
gL
a
m
a
Rams | Ewes | Lambs | Wethers| Tegs
ou
[oa] \
f |
a
L .

 

 

 

Boars | Sows | Sucklers Stores | Fatting

 

 

 

 

Lh
a
=.
pS |
— ai 2 oma Sr he
i o .
ZO ss g ° £
Aw | O48 Ale 1O} & |

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

| HORSES

 
184 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

 

 

 

DATE No. of - EXPENDITURE
18__ Voucher || From 18 to 18__

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
FARM ACCOUNTS.

 

 

RECEIPTS
From

 

18_ to___18__

REMARKS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
186 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MONIES OWING FOR
TASK WORK PRODUCE SOLD BILES UNESTD
£ s. d. £ a. | a. £ 8. d.

|
|
il

|

i |

|

: t

| |

{

No

THE PRINCE CONSORT’S HOME AND SHAW FARM.

GENERAL RETURN

OF

EXPENDITURE AND RECEIPTS,

From 18
To 18
FARM ACCOUNTS. 187

It is plain that anyone receiving these sheets, at weekly
and monthly intervals respectively, each acknowledging all the
balances recorded in its predecessor, has a complete account
current of the whole establishment; and that, when provided
with detailed inventories and valuations of the stock and produce
of the land, he has the means of determining year by year the
profit or loss of the year’s proceedings, together with all the

causes to which it has been due.

They furnish the material of a carefully kept ledger, the
accounts in which are weekly posted, receiving as their first
items the valuation of stock belonging to each, and of debts due
to and by each respectively, at the beginning of the year; then
all items of sale or purchase, receipt or payment, affecting each
during the year; and lastly, a valuation of the stock belonging
to each, and of the debts due to and by each respectively, at the
close of the year. The final balances under each account are
collected in a balance-sheet every autumn, their addition and com-
parison representing the ultimate financial result of the previous
twelve months. We have before us several of the elaborate
annual statements in which Mr. Toward’s weekly accounts and
final valuations have been thus epitomised by Mr. Harrison, so as
to yield their annual balances clearly and instructively ; several of
the weekly and monthly labour and cash accounts, also, of some
of the Windsor farms; but it does not appear to us that any
public interest would be served by their publication, nor that

anything more is required, beyond what has now been given,

BB 2
188 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

to teach the reader how a constant superintendence of expen-
diture was maintained by the Prince Consort, by means of the
periodical cash reports which reached him, and the annual

balance-sheets prepared from them.
THE PRINCE AND THE LABOURER. 189

CHAPTER III.

THE PRINCE AND THE LABOURER.

MONG the many striking public speeches and addresses of
His Royal Highness the Prince Albert, one of the earliest

and several of the most impressive related to the condition of
the labouring class.. It is the object of the following section
of this memoir to enumerate and describe the many proofs
existing within the Royal estates, upon the Prince Consort’s
farms, and everywhere within the personal influence of His Royal
Highness, of the earnest mind and genuine sincerity with which
these addresses were delivered. Nowhere more than in country
life, where the owner of the estate, or it may be only the
tenant of the farm, comes into daily contact with his poorer
neighbours, is there ampler scope for wise and _ considerate
benevolence. How fully all such opportunities were made use
of by the Prince will immediately appear in our farther reference
to Balmoral, Osborne, and the Windsor farms. Hear, however,
first the sentiments which he uttered on these subjects for the

guidance of himself and others.

On May 18, 1848, H.R.H. Prince Albert presided at a large

and influential meeting held at the Freemasons’ Tavern in Great
190 ‘THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

Queen Street, for the purpose of establishing and popularising the
principles on which the Society for Improving the Condition of
the Labouring Classes had been founded. He spoke as follows :—

‘ LApIES AND GENTLEMEN,

 

‘When four years since this Society
‘for the Improvement of the Condition of the Labouring Classes
‘was first established on its present footing, I accepted with
‘great pleasure the offer of becoming its President.

‘I saw in this offer a proof of your appreciation of my
‘feelings of sympathy and interest for that class of our com-
‘munity which has most of the toil, and least of the enjoyments,
‘of this world. I conceived that great advantage would accrue
‘from the endeavours of influential persons, who were wholly
‘disinterested, to act the part of a friend to those who re-
‘quired that advice and assistance, which none but a friend
‘could tender with ‘advantage.

‘This Society has always held this object before its eyes,
‘and has been labouring in that direction. You are all aware
‘that it has established model lodging-houses, loan funds, and
‘the system of allotments of ground in different parts of the
‘country; but it has been careful. only to establish examples
‘and models, mindful that any real improvement which was to
‘take place must be the result of the exertions of the working
‘people themselves.

‘IT have just come from the model lodging-house, the open-
‘ing of which we celebrate this day; and I feel convinced that
‘its existence will, by degrees, cause a complete change in the
‘domestic comforts.of the labouring classes, as it will exhibit
‘to them, that, with real economy can be combined advantages
a

.

THE LABOURERS’ FRIEND SOCIETY. 191

with which few of them have hitherto been acquainted; whilst
it will show to those who possess capital to invest, that they
may do so with great profit and advantage to themselves, at
the same time that they are dispensing those comforts to which
I have alluded to their poorer brethren.

‘Depend upon it, the interests of classes too often con-

‘trasted are identical, and it is only ignorance which prevents

a

their uniting for each others advantage. To dispel that
ignorance, to show how man can help man, notwithstanding

‘the complicated state of civilised society, ought to be the aim

of every philanthropic person; but it is more peculiarly the

* duty of those who, under the blessing of Divine Providence,

‘enjoy station, wealth, and education.

n

.

nw

‘Let them be careful, however, to avoid any dictatorial
interference with labour and employment, which frightens away
capital, destroys that freedom of thought and independence
of action which must remain to everyone, if he is to work

‘out his own happiness, and impairs that confidence under

.

a

nn

which alone engagements for mutual benefit are possible.

‘God has created man imperfect, and left him with many
wants, as it were to stimulate each to individual exertion,
and to make all feel that it is only by united exertions and
combined action that these imperfections can be supplied, and
these wants satisfied. This presupposes self-reliance and con-
fidence in each other. To show the way how these individual

- exertions can be directed with the greatest benefit, and to

ns

n

foster that confidence upon which the readiness to assist each
other depends, this Society deems its most sacred duty.
192 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

‘There has been no ostentatious display of charity, or
‘munificence, nor the pretension of becoming the arbiter of the
‘fate of thousands, but the quiet working out of particular
‘schemes of social improvement: for which, however, as I said
‘before, the Society has only established examples for the
‘community at large to follow.

‘The report of the proceedings of last year will now be
‘laid before you.

‘I must say—I hope I may say—that the Society has
‘ proceeded satisfactorily towards the accomplishment of its
‘objects; and that is owing particularly to the kind feelings,
‘the great experience, and undoubted zeal of Lord Ashley.

‘The next step which we contemplate taking is the
‘erection of a model lodging-house for families. I have no
‘doubt that the meeting will enable us to carry out that
‘step, and that the attention of the public will be more
‘generally directed to the objects which we have in view.’

This noble utterance of wise and large-hearted philanthropy
was no mere verbiage or rhetoric. We shall soon see how
cordially His Royal Highness himself laboured to discharge the
duty which he declared to rest especially on those who, under
the blessing of Divine Providence, enjoy station, wealth, and

education.

The erection of fitting cottages for labourers, which was an
object anxiously promoted by the Prince Consort, is the principal
aim of the Labourers’ Friend Society, which he then addressed

in his capacity of President and Patron.
THE SERVANTS’ PROVIDENT SOCIETY. 193

The encouragement of Benefit Societies, and of habits of
saving and self-help generally, was another object in which he
felt great interest. This is especially the field in which the
‘Servants’ Provident and Benevolent Society’ labours. His
Royal Highness Prince Albert presided at the annual meeting
of this Society, on May 16, 1849.

A deputation had waited upon His Royal Highness at
Buckingham Palace—we quote from an edition of his speeches —

and submitted to his attention the following facts, viz. : —

That the largest of all the classes of Her Majesty’s subjects

in this country is the class of Domestic Servants.

That the Society had begun with the fallacious notion, that
provision might be made for the old age of servants on a purely
benevolent or charitable system—that is, it was erroneously
supposed that the subscription of a few shillings yearly from
servants, and charitable subscriptions from the public, would
provide an adequate maintenance for aged and_ incapacitated
servants. That servants, as a class, are not provident; there being
little in the conditions of service which tends to providence:
that, in fact, to a very large proportion of this class, pecuniary
assistance is necessary in old age. That the number of old
servants who are paupers in workhouses is immense. That the
Society had adopted the system of encouraging and_ helping
servants to purchase Government Annuities for old age.

cc
194 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

The Prince entered fully into the case of the servants, and
was so strongly impressed with the importance of making
known the system of Government Annuities and of introducing
into it the many improvements of which it was capable, that, at
the close of a very long audience, when he was urged to pre-
side at a meeting for the support of the Society, His Royal
Highness replied : —‘ After what I have heard, I think I should
‘be wanting in my duty to the country if I did not comply with
‘your request.’ The following address was delivered by the Prince

when he took the chair of the meeting : —

‘GENTLEMEN, — The object for which we have assembled
‘here to-day is not one of charity, but of friendly advice and
‘assistance to be tendered to a large and important class of
‘our fellow-countrymen.

‘Who would not feel the deepest interest in the welfare
‘of their Domestic Servants? Whose heart would fail to sym-
‘pathise with those who minister to us in all the wants of
‘daily life, attend us in sickness, receive us upon our first
‘appearance in this world, and even extend their cares to our
‘mortal remains, who live under our roof, form our house-
‘hold, and are a part of our family ?

‘And yet upon enquiry we find that in this metropolis
‘the greater part of the inmates of the workhouse are domestic

‘ servants.

‘Tam sure that this startling fact is no proof either of
‘a want of kindness and liberality in masters towards their
THE SERVANTS’ PROVIDENT SOCIETY. 195

a

servants, nor of vice in the latter; but is the natural conse-

‘quence of that peculiar position in which the domestic servant

n

is placed, passing periods during his life in which he shares
‘in the luxuries of an opulent master, and others in which

he has not even the means of earning sufficient to sustain

‘him through the day.

‘It is the consideration of these peculiar vicissitudes which

.

makes it the duty of both masters and servants to endeavour

n

to discover and to agree upon some means for carrying the

.

servant through life, safe from the temptations of the pros-

a

perous, and from the sufferimgs of the evil day. It is on

a

that account that I rejoice at this meeting, and have gladly
consented to take the chair at it, to further the objects of
the “ Servants’ Provident and Benevolent Society.”

nN

n

‘I conceive that this Society is founded upon a_ right
principle, as it follows out the dictates of a correct appre-

a

n

ciation of human nature, which requires every man, by per-

n

sonal exertion, and according to his own choice, to work

nw

out his own happiness; which prevents his valuing, nay, even
his feeling satisfaction at, the prosperity which others have
made for him. It is founded upon a right principle, because
‘it endeavours to trace out a plan according to which, by

n

n

n

providence, by present self-denial and perseverance, not only

ns

will the servant be raised in his physical and moral condition,
but the master also will be taught how to direct his eftorts

in aiding the servant in his labour to secure to himself re-

a

n

sources in cases of sickness, old age, and want of employment.

It is founded on a right principle, because in its’ financial
‘scheme there is no temptation held out to the servant, by

cc2
196 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

‘the prospect of possible extravagant advantages which tend
‘to transform his providence into a species of gambling, by
‘convivial meetings which lead him to ulterior expense, or by
‘the privilege of balloting for the few prizes, which draws
‘him into all the waste of time and excitement of an _ elec-
‘tioneering contest.

‘Such are the characteristics of several institutions, upon
‘which servants and many of our other industrial classes place
‘their reliance. And what can be more heartrending than to
‘witness the breaking of banks, and the failure of such insti-
‘tutions, which not only mar the prospects of these unhappy
‘people, and plunge them into sudden destitution, but destroy
‘in others all confidence in the honesty or sagacity of those
‘who preach to them the advantages of providence ?

‘Let them well consider, that if they must embark in
‘financial speculations, if they like to have convivial meetings,
‘if they claim the right of governing the concerns of their

‘

own body, they must not risk for this, in one stake, their
‘whole future existence, the whole prosperity of their families.
‘Let them always bear in mind, that their savings are
‘capital, that capital will only return a certain interest, and
‘that any advantage offered beyond that interest has to be

‘purchased at a commensurate risk of the capital itself.

‘The financial advantages which the Society holds out to
‘servants rest upon the credit of the country at large, upon
‘the faith of the Government, and are regulated by an Act
‘of Parliament called ‘“ The Deferred Annuities Act.” They
‘are shortly these: According to published tables, which I
THE SERVANTS’ PROVIDENT SOCIETY. 197

‘have before me, persons, whose fixed income is below 150i.
‘per annum, can by small instalments purchase annuities de-
‘ferred not less than ten years, but beyond that limit to com-

‘

mence at any period the depositor may name. One annuity

‘

cannot be more than 30/., but he may purchase distinct
‘annuities for his wife, or for his children on having attained
‘to their fifteenth year. Should he at any time wish to with-
‘draw his deposits before the annuity has commenced, they
‘will be returned to him; should he die before that period,
‘the deposits will be returned to the heirs. In such cases

‘

the only loss will be the interest upon the money deposited.

‘ Although this wise and benevolent measure has been
‘enacted so long ago as the third year of the reign of King
‘ William IV., I find, to my deep regret, that during that whole
‘time, only about 600 persons have availed themselves of its
‘provisions. I can discover no other reason for this inadequate
‘success, but that the existence of the Act is not generally
‘known, or that people are afraid of Law and Acts of Par-
‘liament, which they cannot understand on account of their
‘complicated technical wording. I have heard another reason
‘stated, to which, however, I give little credit, namely, that
‘servants fear lest a knowledge that they are able to purchaye
‘annuities by savings from their wages, might induce their
‘masters to reduce them. I have a better opinion of the dis-
‘position of employers generally, and am convinced that on
‘the contrary nothing counteracts more the liberality of masters
‘than the idea, not wholly unfounded, that an increase of
‘means, instead of prompting to saving, leads to extravagance.

‘It is one of the main objects of this meeting to draw
‘public attention to this “Deferred Annuities Act,” and the
198 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

‘main object of this Society is to form a medium by which
‘servants may acquire the benefits proffered by it, free from
‘risk, cost, or trouble.

‘The other objects are—to provide a home for female
‘servants out of place, the usefulness of which hardly requires
‘a word of commendation; to provide respectable lodgings
‘for men-servants not lodged by their masters; and to estab-
‘lish a Registry for domestic servants generally, which will
‘form as well a place of advertisement for their services, as a
‘record of their characters, from which they can be obtained

‘upon application.

‘ Anyone who is acquainted with the annoyances and in-
‘conveniences connected with the present system of “ characters
‘to servants,” will at once see the importance of the intro-
‘duction of a system by which the servant will be protected
‘from that ruin which the caprice of a single master (with
‘whom he may even have lived for a short time only) may inflict
‘upon him, and the master from the risk to which a cha-
‘racter wrung from a former weak master by the importunities
‘of an undeserving servant may expose him. Nor is it a small
‘benefit to be conferred upon a servant, to enable him, by
‘appealing to a long record of former services, to redeem the
‘ disqualification which a single fault might bring upon him.

‘Should we only succeed in inducing the public at large
‘to consider all these points, we shall have the satisfaction of
‘having furthered the interests of a class, which we find re-
‘corded in the Report of the last Census as the most
‘numerous in the British population.
NATIONAL EDUCATION. 199

‘I shall now call upon the Secretary to lay before you
‘more in detail the points which I have slightly touched upon.’

It was not only, however, through the comforts of his home
which he would increase by improvements in the cottage, and
by encouraging self-help, but through education of the rising
generation, that the Prince Consort laboured in the interest of
the labourer. Many passages might be quoted from his speeches

in illustration of his feeling here.

A General Conference for discussing the position of the
question of National Education, especially in relation to the
early age at which the children of the working classes are
removed from school, was held on Monday, June 22, 1857, at
Willis’s Rooms, under the presidency of Prince Albert.

On taking the chair His Royal Highness referred to the pro-
gress which National Education had made within this century,
notwithstanding the extremely unsatisfactory point beyond which,
hitherto, our progress has not passed. Of the imperfect result

which is all that has been yet attained, he spoke as follows :—

‘It will probably happen that, in this instance as in most
‘others, the cause which produces the evil will be more easily
‘detected than its remedy, and yet a just appreciation of the
‘former must ever be the first and essential condition for the
‘discovery of the latter. You will probably trace the cause of
‘our social condition to a state of ignorance and lethargic in-
‘difference on the subject among parents generally; but the
‘root of the evil will, I suspect, be found to extend into that
200 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

‘field on which the political economist exercises his activity —
‘I mean the labour market—demand and supply. To dissipate
‘that ignorance and rouse from that lethargy may be difficult,
‘but with the united and earnest efforts of all who are the
‘friends of the working classes it ought, after all, to be only
‘a question of time. What measures can be brought to bear

n

upon the other root of the evil is a more delicate question,

nw

and will require the nicest care in handling, for there you

cut into the very quick of the working man’s condition.

‘His children are not only his offspring, to be reared for a

x

future independent. position, but they constitute part of his

a

productive power, and work with him for the staff of life ;
the daughters especially are the handmaids of the house,
the assistants of the mother, the nurses of the younger

nw

children, the aged and the sick. To deprive the labouring

a

family of their help would be almost to paralyse its domestic

a

existence. On the other hand, carefully collected statistics
‘reveal to us the fact, that while about 600,000 children
between the ages of 3 and 15 are absent from school, but

a

‘known to be employed, no less than 2,200,000 are not at

ws

schools, whose absence cannot be traced to any ascertained
‘employment or other legitimate cause. You will have to work,

wn

then, upon the minds and hearts of the parents, to place

n

before them the irreparable mischief which they inflict upon

n

those who are entrusted to their care, by keeping them from

ns

the light of knowledge, to bring home to their conviction

n

that it is their duty to exert themselves for their children’s

n

education, bearing in mind at the same time that it is not

only their most sacred duty, but also their highest privilege.
‘Unless they work with you, your work, our work, will be
EDUCATION OF THE LABOURER. 201

“

vain; but you will not fail, I feel sure, in obtaining their

ns

cooperation if you remind them of their duty to their God

a

and Creator.

‘Our Heavenly Father, in His boundless goodness, has made

n

His creatures that they should be happy, and in His wisdom

n

has fitted His means to His ends, giving to all of them different

ns

qualities and faculties, in using and developing which they fulfil

their destiny ; and, running their uniform course according to

n

His prescription, they find that happiness which He has in-

n

tended for them. Man alone is born into this world with
‘faculties far nobler than the other creatures, reflecting the image

a

of Him who has willed that there should be beings on earth

.

to know and worship Him, but endowed with the power of

“

self-determination, having reason given him for his guide. He

a

can develope his faculties, place himself in harmony with his

”

Divine prototype, and attain that happiness which is offered to

him on earth, to be completed hereafter in entire union with

Him through the mercy of Christ. But he can also leave these

«

faculties unimproved, and miss his mission on earth. He will

then sink to the level of the lower animals, forfeit happiness,

n

and separate from his God, whom he did not know how to find.

‘Gentlemen, I say man has no right to do this—he has

no right to throw off the task which is laid upon him for his
‘happiness; it is his duty to fulfil his mission to the utmost of

5

his power; but it is our duty, the duty of those whom Pro-

vidence has removed from this awful struggle and placed beyond

this fearful danger, manfully, unceasingly, and untiringly to aid
‘by advice, assistance, and example, the great bulk of the people,
‘who, without such aid, must almost inevitably succumb to the
DD
202 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

‘difficulty of their task. They will not cast from them the
‘aiding hand, and the Almighty will bless the labours of those
‘who work in His cause.’

How cordially the Prince rejoiced in any instance of the
success which he thus foretold, he has himself declared in a
speech made by him, on March 19, 1857, at the opening of the
Golden Lane Schools.

These schools, which are called the Schools of St. Thomas,
Charterhouse, are erected at the end of Golden Lane. They
are plain unpretending edifices, substantially erected, and well
and properly finished inside. Accommodation is provided for 264
boys at desks, and for an equal number of girls in working
classes and in the gallery; 372 infants are also accommodated
in the galleries and at the writing desks, giving a total of
900 children in all. The rooms are lighted with gas reflectors,
so that ample provision is made for evening classes for adults
and for those whose occupations prevent their attendance by
day. The cost of the building, including warming and _ school-
fittings, but exclusive of the cost of the site, has been 5,6811.
The other schools in the district, together with these just finished,
can accommodate no less than 2,600 children or adults at the

same time.

The ceremony of opening these schools took place in the
Girls’ School-room, on the first floor, which was quite crowded

with a numerous attendance of the friends of Education.
EDUCATION OF THE LABOURER. 203

H.R. H. Prince Albert having taken his seat, with the
Prince of Wales on his right, replied as follows in answer to’

an address read by the Rev. W. Rogers :—

‘Mr. Rogers anp GENTLEMEN, PRromMoTERS AND SUPPORTERS
‘or THESE Scuoots,—I thank you heartily for your kind and
‘cordial welcome. I rejoice at the opportunity which has this
‘day been afforded me of visiting this noble establishment,
‘and my satisfaction in doing so is increased by the circum-
‘stance that my visit occurs at a period of its existence when
‘the state of useful developement to which by your exertions
‘it has attained is about, by a continuance of the same ex-

‘ertions, to receive a still wider extension.

‘In the progress of these schools, struggling, I may say, from
‘the most lowly and humble beginnings up to their present and
‘noble dimensions, we find a striking exemplification of the Divine
‘truth, that the principle of good once sown is not destined to
‘remain dormant, but that, like the grain of mustard-seed, it is
‘calculated to extend and develope itself in an ever-increasing
‘sphere of usefulness; and we may confidently hope that what
‘you have now effected, following this universal law, will not be
‘limited in its results to the immediate objects of your charitable
‘exertions, but that it will prove the means of diffusing untold

‘blessings among the most remote generations.

‘For you, Mr. Rogers, who have been mainly instrumental,
‘and at great personal sacrifice, in bringing about this great good,
‘and for those who have stood by you, and contributed by their
‘support to the success of your efforts, there can, I am sure, be
‘no higher source of gratification than in the contemplation of

pp 2
204 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

‘your own work. The reflection that you have been the in-

‘

‘

strument, under Divine Providence, of conferring upon the
poor and needy in this vast district that greatest of all

‘boons, the means of obtaining for their children the blessings

‘of education and of religious instruction, without which any

‘lasting success in life or any permanent amelioration of their

.

n

n

n

n

nw

a

s

ns

n

«

n

lot would seem hopeless; and, still further, the feeling that
this inestimable blessing will be secured in a yet higher
degree to their children’s children, will carry with it its own
best reward. Still it will be a source of legitimate pride and
satisfaction to you to know that your labours have not been
unobserved, but that your noble and Christian-like exertions
to benefit those who cannot help themselves have attracted the
notice and admiration of your Sovereign, and of those who
are deputed under her to watch over and promote the edu-
cation and moral welfare of her people.

‘The means which you have adopted to effect your work of
benevolence appear no less deserving of commendation than the
object itself. You have not been content with the bare attempt
to force, perhaps upon unwilling recipients, a boon, the value of
which might not be appreciated ; but you have wisely sought
to work upon the convictions of the parents of the children
you wish to benefit by extending your assistance only to those
who, by a small contribution out of their hardly won earn-
ings, have proved that they are awake to a sense of the
vast importance it is to their offspring that the means of
being fitted to pass successfully through life, and by honest
industry to better their worldly condition, should be brought
within their reach.
COTTAGE BUILDING. 208

‘It is a source of high personal gratification to me that
‘I have been enabled by my presence here this day, and by
‘that of the Prince of Wales, to mark, not only my own appre-
‘ciation of your labours, but also the deep interest which the
‘Queen takes in the well-being of the poorest of her subjects ;
‘and that gratification will be greatly enhanced if, by this
‘public expression of the sympathy of the Queen and of her
‘family and Government, this noble cause shall be still further
‘advanced. Most earnestly do I pray that the same success which
‘has hitherto blessed your labours may continue to attend your
‘future progress, and that your example may stimulate other
‘localities to emulate your useful efforts.’

These extracts from the Prince Consort's speeches show how
cordially and unreservedly he took his place at the head of
every movement having for its object the improvement of the
labouring classes. We have yet to show how earnestly he

worked as well as spoke in their behalf.

1. Or CorraGE-BUILDING.

The drawings on a following page represent a house con-
taining separate accommodation for four families, which was
erected by H.R.H. the Prince Albert, near the Great Exhi-
bition building of 1851, as an illustration of the kind of
accommodation which a family requires—and of the means by

which it might be compendiously and economically provided.
206 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

As stated in a pamphlet issued by the Labourers’ Friend
Society, His Royal Highness had this building raised on his own
account, with the desire of conveying practical information calcu-
lated to promote the much-needed improvement of the dwellings
of the Working Classes, and also with the hope of stimulating
visitors to the Exhibition, whose position and circumstances might

enable them to do so, to carry out similar undertakings.

In its general arrangement the building is adapted for the
occupation of four families, of the class of manufacturing opera-

tives who reside in towns, or in their immediate vicinity.

The most prominent peculiarity of the design is that of the
receding and protected central open staircase, with the connecting
gallery on the first floor, formed of slate, and sheltered from
the weather by the continuation of the main roof, which also
screens the entrances to the dwellings. The four tenements are
arranged on precisely the same plan, two on each floor. The
entrance is through a small lobby (a—page 208), lighted from
the upper part of the door. The living room (6), has a super-
ficial area of about 150 feet, with a closet on one side of the
fireplace, to which warm air may be introduced from the back
of the range. Over the fireplace is an iron rod for hanging
pictures; and on the opposite side of the room a shelf is

carried above the doors, with a rail fixed between them.

The scullery (f) is fitted up with a sink (/”), beneath which

is a coal-bin of slate; a plate-rack at one end, drained by a slate
THE MODEL COTTAGES OF 1851. 207

slab into the sink, covers the entrance to the dust-shaft, which is
enclosed by a balanced self-acting iron door. The dust-shaft leads >
into a closed depository under the stairs, and has a ventilating
flue, carried up above the roof. The meat-safe is ventilated
through the hollow brickwork, and shelves are fixed over the

doors. A dresser-flap may be fixed against the partition.

The sleeping apartments (c, d, and e) being three in number,
provide for that separation which, with a family, is so essential

to morality and decency. Hach has its separate access, and a

window into the open air; two have fireplaces. The children’s
bed-rooms (¢, d) contain 50 feet superficial each ; and, opening
out of the living-room, an opportunity is afforded for the exer-
cise of parental watchfulness, without the unwholesome crowding
of the living-room by its use as a sleeping apartment. The
parents’ bed-room, with a superficial area of about 100 feet, is
entered through the scullery—an arrangement in many respects
preferable to a direct approach from the living-room, particularly
in case of sickness. The recess in this room provides a closet
for linen. In each of the bed-rooms a shelf is carried over the

door, with a rail fixed beneath it.

The same pipes which carry away the rain-water from the

roof serve for the use of the closets (q).

The peculiarities of the building in respect of constructive

arrangement are the exclusive use of hollow bricks* for the

* Tt is right to mention the fact that where the hollow bricks, here praised, have been used,

the houses have proved certainly colder.
THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

208

 

 

 

 

ISOMETRICAL PROJECTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PLAN OF UPPER FLOOR

 

 

GROUND PLAN

20

JO FEET

 

THE MODEL COTTAGES OF 1851
MODEL COTTAGE OF 1851. 209

walls and partitions (excepting the foundations, which are of
ordinary brickwork), and the entire absence of timber in the
floors and roof, which are formed with flat arches of hollow
brickwork, rising from 8 to 9 inches, set in cement, and tied
in by wrought-iron rods connected with cast-iron springers, which
rest on the external walls, and bind the whole structure to-
gether; the building is thus rendered fire-proof, and much less
liable to decay than those of ordinary construction. The roof-
arching, which is levelled with concrete, and covered with patent
metallic lava, secures the upper rooms from the liability to changes
of temperature to which apartments next the roof are generally
subject, and the transmission of sound, as well as the percola-
tion of moisture, so common through ordinary floors, is effectually

hindered by the hollow-brick arched floors.

The external and main internal walls are of patent bonded
brickwork, which has the important advantages of securing dryness
and warmth, with economy of construction: and another great
benefit arising from the use of hollow bricks is, that where they
are laid double, in parallel courses, without headers, as in the
patent bonded brickwork, the internal face of the wall is suf-

ficiently smooth to render plastering unnecessary.

The advantages afforded by the use of hollow bricks in securing
an effective system of insensible ventilation, deserves particular
notice. Fresh air is admitted from any suitable point of the ex-
terior of the building to a chamber at the back of the living-room

EE
210 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

fireplace, and, being warmed there, it may be conducted to any
convenient place of exit above the level at which the fresh air is
admitted. Vitiated air may be conveyed either into ‘the chimney

flue or to any other place of exit through the upper wall courses.

The mode of fire-proof construction, and the general arrange-
ment of the fittings of Prince Albert’s model cottage, have since
been used in the Model Houses built by the Society for Improving
the Condition of the Labouring Classes, under the direction of
Henry Roberts, Esq., F.S.A., This

model house was removed at the close of the Exhibition,

their honorary architect.

and it has been since rebuilt in Kennington New Park,

Surrey.*

* To this short notice of the model cottages
of 1851, we add the account which Mr. Roberts,
F.S.A., Honorary Architect to the Labourers’
Friend Society, gives of them, in his pamphlet
‘On the Essentials of a Healthy Dwelling’
(Ridgway). Mr. Roberts says :—

‘The Commissioners for the Exhibition of
1851 having replied to an urgent application
made for a site, “that a model lodging-house
does not come within the design of the Exhibi-
tion,” a memorial on the subject was presented
to his Royal Highness, who immediately ex-
pressed the most lively interest in the project,
and a desire that the contemplated model houses
should be constructed on his own account, in
effecting which, it was my privilege to act for
his Royal Highness as honorary architect.
With much personal trouble to the Prince, the

requisite official consent of four Government
departments was obtained, for placing the
houses in the Cavalry Barrack yard, opposite to
the Exhibition.

‘Amongst the number of visitors to the
Prince’s model houses, amounting to upwards
of 250,000, many gave evidence of their having
duly appreciated the object for which they were
placed in the Exhibition, viz., the conveyance
of practical information, calculated to promote
the much-needed improvement of the dwellings
of the working classes, and also the excitement
of those whose position and circumstances enable
them to carry out similar undertakings, and
thus, without pecuniary® sacrifice, permanently
to benefit those who are greatly dependent on
others for their home and family comforts.

The building was adapted for the occupation of

® This point was justly held by H.R.H. to be of primary importance to the adequate extension of the work.
The detailed estimated cost of the model block of four houses was 458/. 5s. 6d.
MODEL COTTAGE OF 1851.

The following are references to index letters on the plan:

@ ~~ Porch.

6 Living-room.

¢, @ Children’s bed-rooms,
e Principal bed-room.

211

tf Scullery, containing —
J’ Sink, plate-rack
Sf" Meat-safe, &e.

g Water-closet.*

 

four families of the class of manufacturing and
mechanical operatives who usually reside in
towns, or in their immediate vicinity — those,
in fact, by whose labour the larger portion of
the objects in the Exhibition had been produced.

‘The open staircase and gallery, giving access
to the upper-floor tenements, were prominent
features in the arrangement of these dwellings,
and their subsequent adoption in buildings con-
structed for working people in towns has come
under my notice in Edinburgh, at Liverpool,
Ramsgate, Brighton, Windsor, and other places,
as well as in London and on the Continent.

‘ The example which may, perhaps, be pointed
to in London as bearing the closest resemblance
to the original structure, and as fully answering
in a pecuniary point of view, is at Cowley Street,
Shadwell, close to a station on the Blackwall
Railway, where a number of miserable dwellings,
tenanted by the lowest class of persons, came
by inheritance into the possession of a private
gentleman, W. E. Hilliard, Esq., of Gray’s-inn.
Actuated by the most philanthropic views, he
decided on endeavouring to improve, not only
his own property, but also by example the im-
mediate neighbourhood; and his efforts have
The old

dwellings have been replaced by an entire

been crowned with signal success.

street of considerable length; on both sides of
which houses for accommodating in the whole

112 families have been built, on the general

plan of the Prince Consort’s Exhibition model
houses, with open staircases, giving access to
the upper-floor tenements. The twenty-eight
blocks of four houses cost 487/. each; and,
after allowing for ground-rent and all charges, I
can state on the authority of the owner, that
“they continue to pay upwards of 6, in fact
nearly 7 per cent. as a net return on the invest-
ment; and what,” he adds, “‘is perhaps of more
consequence, they are almost constantly let,
and are appreciated by the tenants, who, as a
rule, are pretty stationary, and not migratory, as
that class frequently are.”

‘Scarcely any foreigners who visited the Ex-
hibition of 1851 returned without examining
the Prince’s model houses, and but few left
without carrying back to their several countries
some of the publications bearing on the im-
provement of the dwellings of the labouring
classes, which were there abundantly distributed.
My own opportunities of judging of the effect
of this little structure enable me to say that it
gave to the movement an impulse such as it has
The

descriptive account of the building was translated

not received from any other single effort.

into German and published at Berlin : much of
it also appeared in French.’

* Experience has sufficiently proved that the
closet should always be in an out-house—never

in the dwelling- house.

EE 2
THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

212

 

 

 

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KITCHEN

KITCHEN

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BRICKFIELD COTTAGES, OSBORNE ESTATE
OSBORNE COTTAGES. 2138

We have given thus in some detail an account of the first
specimen of cottage-building in which the Prince Consort had
particularly interested himself. We have yet to describe the
improvements in respect of cottage accommodation which he

directed on his estates at Osborne and Balmoral.

The drawings on pages 212 and 214, represent blocks of
cottages erected on the Osborne Estate — the so-called Brickfield
(threefold) and Alverstone (double) cottages respectively. It will
be seen that, better than the plan on which the model cottages
of 1851 were built, these have provided a kitchen and a living-
room in addition to three bed-rooms. The plan of the Brickfield
cottages —a block of three — seems to us to unite ample accom-
modation with great elegance of elevation. The outhouses, of
which a good plan is given in the drawing on page 212, provide
a common ‘wash-house (a), with separate wood-house (0), piggery

(c’, c), &e., for the three cottages respectively.

In the case of the Alverstone double cottages (page 214) we
have kitchen (a), living-room (0), larder (¢), on the ground-floor,
the bed-rooms (d), with cupboard (e), on the upper floor. The
reference letters in both the plans, with the scale, sufficiently
indicate the nature and extent of the accommodation afforded.
It is only necessary to add that the rents charged vary from
1s. 6d. to 2s. 6d. weekly —that throughout all the cottages the
system of double external walls is adopted ; the full width of

154 inches being made up of 9 inches and 44 inches respec-
214 THE PRINCE CONSORT'S FARMS:

 

 

 

 

 

 

GROUND PLAN ONE PAIR PLAN

 

10 MN 20
scace or if 2 ? = Jrecer }

ALVERSTONE DOUBLE COTTAGE

tively, with a separating interval of 2 inches, adding greatly to

both warmth and dryness.

Mr. Chadwick, C.B., informs us that the death-rate on the
Osborne Estate amongst the labouring classes is only 12 in 1,000,
the rate for the whole kingdom being 23 in 1,000, and that
of the best rural districts known elsewhere being about 17.

There can be no doubt that the reduced rate at Osborne has
BALMORAL COTTAGES, 215

been due to the intelligent attention paid to the sanitary con-
dition of the cottages. ‘It may be said, adds Mr. Chadwick,
‘that if all the cottage property in the United Kingdom were
maintained in the same condition as that of Her Majesty and
H.R.H. the Prince Consort, the death-rate would be reduced
more than one-third, or nearly one-half. It would be as if every
third year there were a jubilee, and there was no sickness and
no deaths.’

To these illustrations we add others of the cottages erected

 

—

 

  

UPPER FLOOR GROUND

8

 

20 30 40
é e n t = FEET

 

SCALE of ttt

 

LABOURER’S COTTAGE AT BALMORAL
216 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

at Balmoral. On pages 215 and 217 are given drawings of
cottages built for labourers and tradesmen respectively. The
drawings on page 215 are of a cottage for a labourer — four-
roomed (a, 6, d, e), with space (c, f) for a bed-closet in addi-
tion, both on the ground-floor and above. Built substantially of
expensive mason-work, being of granite, they cost about 150/.
a-piece, though not above 2/. or 3. per cent. upon that sum is
charged as rent. The wages of the ordinary ploughman, for
whom they are intended, are, in that district, from 16/. to 200.

per annum with food, or 2s. 6d. a-day if paid in money only.

The plan on page 217 represents the superior accommo-
dation provided for the class of small tradesmen on the Aber-
geldie Estate. The rooms are all on one floor—a being the
house, 6 and ¢ living rooms, d e and f bedrooms, and g a

closet.

In the case of all these cottages the plans were prepared
upon the suggestion of His Royal Highness, receiving  cor-
rections from his hands during their design, and _ receiving
superintendence from him during their erection. Moderate rents
have been in every case charged —the advantage to the estate
being considered, not in the direct addition of annual money
return, but in the establishment upon it of a healthy well-

conditioned labouring population.
ABERGELDIE COTTAGES. 217

 

 

 

 

GROUND PLAN

& 10 20 30 40
SCALE JI | ! " IFEET

 

 

 

TRADESMAN’S COTTAGE AT ABERGELDIE

ER
218 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

2, Benerit Socreries.

Besides the direct personal effort and expenditure by which
the sincerity of those noble addresses on the improvement of the
Labouring Classes, which have been already quoted, was so amply
proved, the patronage and assistance of His Royal Highness the
Prince Consort were freely granted to every Society within his
reach having the same object in view. And especially were they
granted wherever either self-help, the most powerful of all agencies
for such a purpose, was being aroused, or that of others was being

economically or profitably engaged.

Windsor is surrounded by Societies of this kind thus
patronised; and it is not too much to say that there is not a
cottage of a well-conducted family of the labouring class, within
some miles of the Castle, which does not contain within it some
proof of the Prince Consort’s benevolent interest in their behalf.
We name some of these Societies here, for their history is, through

their connection with the Prince, proper for notice in this chapter.

The Windsor Royal Society, under the patronage of Her
Majesty the Queen and H.R.H. the Prince Consort, was formed
about ten years ago, to promote and carry out the improvement
of the dwellings of the working classes in Windsor. It is con-
stituted on the principle of a Joint Stock Company with limited
liability, with a capital of 10,000/., and power to increase the same.
THE WINDSOR ROYAL SOCIETY. 219

The amount of dividend payable to the shareholders is limited to
five per cent., leaving any surplus return available for the extension
of the Society’s operations. Donations are also received from those
who prefer thus aiding the objects of the Society, but they are
to be strictly applied to office expenses, or to such other outlay
as may fairly be considered to be peculiar to the working of a

Company in distinction from the operations of a private builder.

Freehold ground, midway between the Long Walk and the
Cavalry Barracks, containing nearly 13 acre, has been purchased
of the Woods and Forests, for 287/. 19s. 3d., including expenses,
and laid out for the erection of two rows of houses, opposite
one another, to accommodate, together, about forty families, each
having a small garden. A contract for building one half of

these houses was made for 2,240/.

The houses are in five blocks, the centre block and the
two corner blocks each combining two plans, and the remaining
blocks being alike in plan. There are four tenements on each
of these five plans; twelve of them have three, and eight,

adapted for smaller families, have two bed-rooms each.

The centre building, 90 feet in length, contains eight tene-
ments, four on the ground floor and four on the upper floor.
The middle compartment is on the plan of H.R.H. Prince
Albert’s Exhibition model houses, somewhat increased in scale

—these four tenements have three bed-rooms each. On either

FFQ2
220 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

side is a house arranged for two families, one above the other,
with distinct entrance access, and a fire-proof floor between them
—these tenements have two bed-rooms. The next building,
on either side, 36 feet in length, is a pair of double cottages,
with living-room, scullery, and pantry below, and three bed-rooms

up-stairs.

Each of the two extreme buildings, 70 feet in length, com-
prises two cottages in the centre, with living-room, scullery,
pantry below, and two bed-rooms over, while the two outer
cottages have three bed-rooms over. Of these two extreme
buildings an isometrical drawing and plans of the ground floor
and bed-room floor respectively are given in the following page.
The whole are constructed with hollow bricks, similar to those
used in the Exhibition model houses. The following is an index

to the reference letters :—

a Living-room, 13 ft. 6 in. by 12 ft. 6 in. Ff Bed-room, 10 ft. Sin. by 7 ft. 5 in.
6 Scullery, 9 ft. 4in. by 7 ft. din. g ‘3 13 ft. 6 in. by 7ft. 8 in.
c Pantry. a Tools.

d Lobby. y Water-closet.
e Bed-room, 12 ft. 6 in. by 10 ft. 3 in. | z Ash-pit.

The buildings* were designed by Henry Roberts, Esq.,
F.S.A., whom we have already quoted.

In 1861, the ninth year of the Society’s establishment, the
Directors could give the following account of the financial con-

dition of the Society :—

* The working drawings have been litho- for Improving the Condition of the Labouring

graphed, and are published by the Society Classes, 21 Exeter Hall, Strand.
221

THE WINDSOR COTTAGES.

 

 

 

ISOMETRICAL PROJECTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FLOOR

UPPER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GROUND FLOOR

40 FEET

eit

80
1

29

 

 

 

SOCIETY

COTTAGES ERECTED BY THE WINDSOR ROYAL
222 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

The paid-up Capital of the Company (including a loan of 320/.) now amounts
to 9,0201., which, except a small balance of 13/. 15s. 6d., has been expended as

follows :—
1. In land and cottages forming the Model Cottages (freehold) £6651 12 9
2. In the Church Street lodging-house (leasehold) . . . . 1032 14 6

3. In the land at the back of the Model Cottages (partly free-
hold and partly leasehold), and in the formation of the

PORG ae 3 ae es GS A ae ae ee Se ce ar «5806 4010
4. In the lodging-house in North’s Lane . . . . . . . 51516 4
£9006 4 5

The sum of 66517. 12s. 9d. has produced net during the past year 290/. 10s. 5d.,
or nearly 43 (4.36) per cent.

The sum of 1032/. 14s. 6d. has produced net 40/. 7s. 1d., or nearly 4 (3.9)
per cent.

The sum of 806/. Os. 10d. has produced net 71. 18s. 1d., or about 1 (.98) per cent.

And the sum of 515/. 16s. 4d. has produced net 37/. 5s. 1lid., or above 7
(7.22) per cent.

It is therefore clear that if the 806/. 0s. 10d. was rendered productive, all
difficulty would be removed; or if the land were sold, and the capital (8030. Os. 10d.)
restored, then the position of the Company would be satisfactory, and the remaining
capital sums, amounting to 8,200/. 3s. 7d., would produce a net return of 3681. 3s. 5d.,
or nearly 43 (4.48) per cent. This would be assuming that the land would only re-
pay its cost and the cost of constructing the road; but when it is recollected that new
buildings are being raiscd in the neighbourhood, and that land is in request, it
is believed that the land now in hand will finally realise upwards of 12001.

As a means of improving the condition of the Company, the Directors pro-
pose, at an early period, to sell the building land in question, which is now almost
unproductive. In a financial point of view, therefore, they are still sanguine

as to the successful result of the undertaking.

It is satisfactory to observe that the New Lodging House in North’s Lane, on
which 515/. 16s. 4d. has been expended, has proved most successful, and has pro-

duced, during the past year, a return of upwards of 7 per cent. The conveniences
THE WINDSOR ROYAL SOCIETY. 223

and comforts of this Lodging House appear to be fully appreciated by the working
classes, as the rooms have been constantly occupied. The attention of the Directors
will be given to the expenditure of further capital, when the building land is sold,

towards extending the operations of the Company in this direction.

The Directors have had their attention drawn to the purchase of cottage pro-
perty in this locality, with the view of improving the dwellings of the industrial
classes; but they have not hitherto been able to find property of such a description
as would justify them in recommending the Proprietors to expend further capital

for that purpose.

The Report goes on further to announce a dividend of
33 per cent. on the paid-up capital, and to intimate with
thanks the receipt of the dividends due to H.R.H. the Prince
Consort, to the Hon. and Very Rev. the Dean of Windsor, and
to W. Vansittart, Esq., M.P., as contributions to the Donation
fund for the year.

We refer to the proceedings of this Society here, because the
patronage of the Prince has been unquestionably an element
in its success; and also because every fresh example of successful
management of this kind helps forward the cause which he

had so heartily in view.

Major-General Seymour, who presides over the Windsor
Cottage-Building Society, has kindly given us the reports and
particulars of several other more directly mutual benefit societies,
which were either originated at the instance of His Royal
Highness or patronised by him from their origin. Among these

are the Royal United Benefit Society, and the Windsor and
224 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

Eton Annuity Society, all of them receiving the periodical
contributions of their members from among the labouring class,
and securing to them help in sickness, an annual income during
old age, or assistance for their families at death. We need
not go into any details of their constitution, history, and
success, because such institutions exist in almost every locality:
and where the management is, as here, in the hands of trustees
of sufficient authority and weight— where the funds are invested
in Government securities —and where the conditions as to pay-
ments, and receipts, and valuations, are regulated by  trust-
worthy actuaries, the success of such institutions is everywhere
secured. They are named here, as proving by the numbers
in which they have clustered around the Prince Consort’s
name, as the Patron of them all, how cordial was his willing-
ness to befriend every opportunity given to the working man
to help himself.

In the same class with these institutions should be named
the Windsor Royal Dispensary and Infirmary, and the Eton and
Windsor Savings’ Bank, to both of which the Prince gave his
cordial support.

The last institution on our list is one in which His
Royal Highness took especial interest. The Windsor Royal
Association for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Class,
presided over by Major-General F. H. Seymour, arose in 1850
from a desire expressed by H.R.H. the Prince Consort to bestow
THE WINDSOR ROYAL ASSOCIATION. 225

some mark of favour on cottagers in and around Windsor, who
were diligent in keeping their homes tidy. The design enlarged
as it grew, and eventually it embraced every kind of industrial
occupation. Neat cottages, well-cultivated gardens or allotments,
the bringing up of families honestly, long service of labourers,
artisans, and domestics, especially of young persons in their
first situations— are the objects sought out and_ rewarded.
Special notice is taken whether children have been duly sent
to school, whether sick clubs, savings’ banks, or other provident
institutions, have been paid into, or assistance given to poorer
relatives. It may be added, that, although religious observances
do not fall within the direct object of the Association, yet,
in the case of allotments, to labour in them on any hour of
the Sunday is a disqualification for reward; and while there is
no intention of holding out the hope of temporal favour on
account of attendance upon public Divine Worship, yet the
subject is inquired into, it being assumed that the habit is a

characteristic mark of every well-regulated family.

Besides rewarding the above-mentioned cases, which are
considered to be the best proofs of persevering diligence, the
Association also provides encouragement for the cultivation of
honest skill or any useful talent. For this purpose, an exhibi-
tion is held at the Annual Meetings of garden produce of every
kind, and of specimens of handicraft, whether in works of taste
or usefulness, executed by cottagers in their leisure hours; and

prizes are awarded for the best specimens.
GG
226 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

As much care as is possible is taken to secure the selection
of well-deserving persons. Recommendations for rewards, and
for leave to exhibit, are given by Subscribers or by the Com-
mittee. T'o facilitate the exercise of this privilege by subscribers,
forms of recommendation are sent to them every year some
weeks before the recommendations are required to be given in;
and the rules of the Association are printed at the back of
the forms. Honorary Secretaries, assisted by gentlemen residing
in the districts for which they act, go round every year to
inspect the cases recommended to the Society; and they are
responsible to the Committee, who finally accept or reject the
Candidates for reward. We extract this statement from a
pamphlet * giving a summary view of the objects and progress

of this Institution.

The rewards have been distributed at the Annual Meetings,
by the Prince Consort himself, and were originally given in
money paid at the time; but, since the year 1856, part of
the money has been paid into the Savings’ Bank; and the
Savings’ Bank book is given, instead of the money, to the re-
cipients of the prizes, in the hope that many may thus be
induced to continue to be depositors, and increase the sums
invested, by their own savings. In 1859 it was found that 163
prizemen of former years remained as depositors in the Savings’
Bank, entirely through the instrumentality of the Association.

During the last two years, the rule of giving honorary prizes

* Printed by E. P. Williams, Eton.
THE WINDSOR ROYAL ASSOCIATION. 227

without money has been acted upon, in all cases of persons
above the need of pecuniary aid; and these tokens of approval
are valued. At the Annual Meeting, in order to cherish a
kindly feeling, and add to the day’s enjoyment by the poor, a
dinner has been provided on the ground for all persons re-
ceiving rewards, as well as for their wives in cases where they
have been instrumental in earning the reward; and _ likewise,

hitherto, for all exhibitors.

It is a consideration of no small account, that, in the
carrying out of these plans, it can scarcely fail but that every
well-deserving member of the labouring class in the associated
parishes must, in the course of years, come under the notice
of the Association, partake of its bounties, and be cheered

and encouraged by its sympathy and honourable approval.

It would leave on the mind of the reader an imperfect
view of the design and influence of the Association, if this
statement of its operations closed with the account of benefits
to the persons receiving prizes from its funds. The Association
has a wider scope. It extends its care, as occasion arises, to
any question of a practical kind which may be brought before
it. Thus, it has taken an active part in the extension of
the Allotment System, from a conviction of its extreme im-
portance to the health, comfort, and moral improvement of the
labourer. The Committee has established allotments in Windsor,

where none existed before, and undertaken the management of

ae@2
228 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

others previously formed in the neighbouring parish of Clewer.
There are now ninety-four allotment tenants in connection with
the Association, and it is hoped that more land may yet be
obtained for so desirable an object. The Committee has also
taken up the question of model or improved dwelling-houses,
and with signal success. Certain gentlemen having a few years
ago originated the design, but being unable to carry it out
from want of any public organisation, the Committee brought
it forward, and formed the ‘Royal Society for providing
better Domestic Accommodation for the Industrial Classes, to

whose operations we have already referred.

From the year 1850, when the Royal Association was
formed, when 88 subscribers contributed 121/. to its funds,
and when 31/. was given in prizes to 22 persons, it has
grown, until on its jubilee year 1860, the subscribers num-
bered 213—the prize fund amounted to 275/. 15s. 6d.—as
much as 93/. was received from visitors to the annual Flower
Show —and 100 prizes were awarded, amounting in all to
2631.

Since its establishment it has administered a sum of nearly
3,0002., out of which nearly 2,300/. has been given in prizes
and rewards to upwards of 1,600 persons. During this period
it has induced a considerable number of the labouring class to
employ their leisure hours in useful or tasteful industry; it has

improved and extended the Allotment System in the neigh-
THE WINDSOR ROYAL ASSOCIATION. 229

bourhood; and it has led to the formation of another Society
which has provided many greatly improved dwellings for the
poor, and proved that such buildings may be made to yield
a fair profit on the outlay.

The Report of the Association for 1860 states that the
greatest possible interest has from the commencement been felt
by Her Majesty and H.R.H. the Prince Consort in all its
proceedings, and their support has been the mainspring and
stay of all its efforts. His Royal Highness, who graciously
accepted the office of President of the Association, condescended,
often at much inconvenience to himself, to preside at all the
Annual Meetings and distribute the rewards, with the exception
of one meeting only, when prevented by illness. The Com-
mittee considers it to be an honour to be the medium both
of conveying to the working classes of the neighbourhood the
assurance of the parental care and sympathy shown towards
them by the great endeavours made by Her Majesty and the
Prince Consort to improve the condition of their families and
their homes, and also of making known in other ranks of
society the high example here set of thoughtful and beneficent
regard for the feelings and difficulties of the poor.

On the twelfth Annual Meeting of the Association (1861) His
Royal Highness the Prince Consort, accompanied by the Prince of
Wales, was present for the last time. The several candidates

entering the royal tent in succession received from the hands of
230 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS :

the Prince, partly in money and partly in a savings’ bank certifi-
cate, the rewards to which they were respectively entitled; and, in
addition to this, a card was given to each intimating the
award of the premium, with the circumstances under which it had
been received; and to this card His Royal Highness, as patron
of the Institution, there and then affixed his signature. These
tokens of his personal interest are now to be found in almost
every cottage of a well-conducted family all round Windsor —
and very highly are they valued. During the past year (1862)
the proceedings of the institution, in mourning for its great
loss, have necessarily been conducted as privately and quietly
as possible. The exhibitors of garden produce, vegetables, and
handicraft, forwarded indeed their articles to the Town Hall as
usual on the Annual Exhibition day in June, to be there in-
spected by the judges; but the prizes then awarded were distri-
buted in each district separately, by the honorary secretary, with
as little display as possible. The prizeholders were presented on
their tablets with a photographic likeness of His Royal High-
ness, which was the best substitute the committee could devise
for the royal autograph which, in former years, it had been

their privilege to receive,

It is plain from the account thus given of the Society’s
proceedings, that it is energetically engaged in a most useful
career. We do not attempt to hide the fact that prizes, if

that word must be retained, for moral conduct, for personal worth,
EDUCATION OF THE LABOURER. 231

and for continuance in service, have been condemned; nor is
it attempted to defend them on principles of abstract right.
They are, nevertheless, an institution to which both labourers
and gentry have been long accustomed in South and Midland
England; and its destruction would be the severance of a

useful tie between classes which are naturally far enough apart.

The Prince Consort, aiming practically at a useful end through
the usual and accustomed channel, and not agreeing with
the condemnation above alluded to, gladly threw the weight of
his personal influence in furtherance of this and every. other
opportunity afforded him of enlisting the sympathies of all
classes in a common useful object; and of benefiting the
labouring class, by the proof which was thus given them, that
their employers are their friends, and that the highest in the
land watch their progress and improvement with interest and

goodwill.

3. Epucarion.

We have no right in an agricultural memoir to recite the
many illustrations which exist in the history of the past twenty
years of the Prince Consort’s hearty interest in the work of
national education. From one of his public addresses on this
subject we have indeed made quotations, but the point to which
His Royal Highness then alluded — the shortness of school life in
the case of the children of labourers—is especially a difficulty

in the agricultural districts, and thus suitable for notice here.
232 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

There are but two ways of meeting it; and in both of
them efforts, under the direction of the Prince, were made, and
a short reference to these must close this chapter. The one is
the improvement of the instruction given in our common
schools, so that it shall be made obviously plain to the
labourer himself how much his child loses by being taken
from his school too soon. The maintenance of good schools on

the Osborne and the Balmoral estates has been named.

The other method of meeting the difficulty of imperfect
education during boyhood, is by encouraging the use of evening
schools during youth and manhood; and here, too, the Prince
Consort gave his willing aid. Libraries in the lodging-houses for
the unmarried labourers exist at both the Shaw and Flemish
Homesteads. At the former, too, a schoolmaster comes during the
winter evenings and holds a class, when reading, writing, and
arithmetic are taught, the attendance being registered. At the
close of the season each of the young men writes a specimen
passage from dictation, or a short report from memory of some
lecture that has been delivered to them on one of the winter
evenings. Specimens of ability in figures and in penmanship are
thus collected, and the whole forms a very creditable illustration
of the ‘scholarship’ that has been acquired. These specimens
were annually submitted by Sir Charles Phipps to the Prince,
and a list of rewards, made contingent on attendance and atten-

tion, thus received their approval.
EDUCATION OF THE LABOURER. 233

The list for 1861 is here given. It will be observed that

the first prize in every instance is a Bible.

SHAW FARM EVENING CLASS, 1861.

A List or Prizes given To THE Mew anp Boys wo ATTENDED THE Suaw Farm Evenine
CLASS IN THE YEAR 1861, AS ALSO OF THE PRIZES PREVIOUSLY GIVEN TO THEM.

 

 

Names Occupation eerea Awarded in 1857 Awarded ay ore Avwarded Awarded
Joseph Eakland .| Carter . . .| Bible | ‘Gallery of Arts’ | 25s. . | 25s. . | 25s. . | 25s.
Samuel Cripps .| Carter . . .| Bible | Pictorial Book | 25s. . | 26s. . | 25s, . | 25s.
William Smith. .| Engineer . .|. . bi <a Bible | 25s. . | 25s. . | 25s.
George Cousins .|Boy. . . .|. .|Bible . . . «| 12s.) . . | 15s. . | 25s,
James Smith . .|Carter. . . ‘ Sys . | Bible | 20s. . | 15s.
Daniel Littlewood. | Carter . . . catye . . | « . | Bible | 20s.
John Eakland .| Stockman . . : ; ; Bible | 25s.
Henry Young . Carter Boy .|. . Ane & . | Bible | 12s. . | 15s,
James Franklin .| Shepherd Boy]. . : ; . | Bible | 12s. . | 15s.
Frederick Cripps .| Boy. . . .] . . ae Bible | 12s. . | 15s.
E.W. Smith « .| Boy. . 2 .]. a Mee . + |. « |. . | Bible
Joseph Smith .| Boy . y ¥la ee! 8 . . |. . | Bible
Charles Shurvall .| Carter . . . : as tee, 7G cow fon « f « 2 1Bible
William Brown .|Carter . . . ; eee » sf. . |. . | Bible
Thomas Falker .}Cowman ../. . as ioe fs & fs a) |Bible
Charles Belcher .} Cowman . .|. . Gre 2 oe fa «a a IBible
William Davis .|Cowman . . wath, Oo 2. A Aas, «1 . | Bible
Henry Woodley .| Carter Boy .| . jo go ag oe Bible
Thomas Wolford Shepherd Boy] . fap hits 0 coe | a Pe 4. | Bible
Henry Davis BOW es ty ae ae 8 ae aN axe see finer oe || BITS
Charles Spiers Grom... : abate 1g 5 Fel Sa AS ail Bible

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We do not pursue this subject further. It is reserved for
another pen to give—perhaps for another generation to receive—
the full record of the Prince Consort’s services to national
advancement through national education. Ours has been the

HH
234 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

humbler office of pointing out, as in the history of his farms,
so in that of his relations to his labourers and the labouring
class around him, how much we owe to him as our great
exemplar in the agricultural world. Both the owners and the
occupiers of land may benefit by his labours and experience on
the estates of Osborne and Balmoral, and on the farms round
Windsor; but His Royal Highness was ‘especially the friend
of the people—the poor man’s friend. Herein he well deserved
a place in that class, the most eminent of all, and the least

numerous—those who live in advance of their own time.’ *

* Lord Brougham’s inaugural address as President of the Social Science Congress, London, 1862.
AN AGRICULTURAL MEMOIR. 235

CHAPTER IV.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

LMOST immediately upon the arrival of H.R.H. the Prince
Albert in this country, he interested himself in our
agriculture. During the year 1840 he became a member
of the Smithfield Club, which had been established in 1798
for the purpose of encouraging the improvement of our live
stock, by offering prizes for the best fattened animals. His
Royal Highness visited the Annual Show of the Smithfield
Club in December of that year. It may illustrate his growing
interest in agricultural pursuits, if we shortly enumerate the

several steps in his career as an agriculturist, some of which

have been the subject of the previous pages.

His Royal Highness had at once become the tenant of
the Norfolk and the Flemish Farms, which, under General
Wemyss, had remained in the hands of the Queen on the
death of King William IV. From these farms accordingly the
stock was sent which Prince Albert showed at the Annual

Meetings of the Smithfield Club during the first years of his

membership.
HH
236 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

The Rangership of Windsor Park was early conferred
upon His Royal Highness; and in that capacity he was for
many years officially the director of the great work of agri-
cultural improvement which has been there carried on. A great
deal of shallow draining during the first few years was done under
Sir W. Fremantle ; but latterly, the superiority of deep draining
upon the clayey pastures was thoroughly proved; and great
improvements by top-dressing and depasturing, as well as by

land drainage, were effected.

In November 1841 His Royal Highness was elected an hono-
rary member of the Highland and Agricultural Society, the oldest
of all our National Agricultural Societies, which had, indeed,
been established nearly a century before, especially for the agri-
cultural and social improvement of the Highlands of Scotland.
The only other honorary member of this society is the Emperor
of the French, who was elected in 1855 on the occasion of the
great International Agricultural Show at Paris. The Prince
Consort never exhibited stock at any of the Highland Society’s
Shows, and, as it happened, never attended any of their meetings.
He had expressed a wish to be present in 1858, and the
period of the meeting was altered to suit his convenience, but

public affairs after all prevented him.

In 1843, His Royal Highness first became an exhibitor at
the Annual Show of the Smithfield Club—showing two West
Highland oxen, and a pen of three Suffolk-and-Bedfordshire pigs,
THE SMITHFIELD CLUB. 237

and receiving as his first agricultural distinction a ‘high com-
mendation’ for the pigs, which had been bred at the Norfolk
Farm. His Royal Highness was from this year a constant
annual exhibitor at these meetings, showing every year pigs bred
by himself at the Norfolk Farm, which were described on the
records of the Club as of the Bedfordshire-and-Suffolk, or Bed-
fordshire-and-Yorkshire breeds; and West Highland, Hereford,
and Short-horn oxen purchased for the farm and fattened there.
In 1849 he first showed Devons, also bought elsewhere and
fattened at the Norfolk Farm. In 1850, the Short-horn oxen
exhibited by him are first described in the catalogues as bred by
himself. In 1851, the pigs exhibited are described as of the
Windsor breed. And from 1859 all the stock, Herefords, Devons,
and Short-horns, were of the Prince’s own breeding on the Shaw,

Norfolk, and Flemish Farms respectively.

His Royal Highness visited the Show of the Smithfield
Club, in company with the Queen and Royal Family in 1844
and 1850, with H.R.H. the Prince of Wales and H.R.H. the
Prince Alfred in 1851, alone in 1859, and with the Queen in
1860. He had promised also to come and _ see ihe show in
December 1861; but a few days before the meeting, Mr. Gibbs,
the honorary secretary, received a letter from Sir Charles Phipps

intimating that serious illness prevented him.

At all the meetings of this association after his election

as a member, the Prince Consort was, as will be found stated
238 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

particularly in an appendix, a successful exhibitor of stock: no
other member of the club was more assiduous in thus patron-
ising the institution, or more successful in the competition which
he thus assisted to excite. In the earlier years of his member-
ship, when the plan was adopted of purchasing his stock from
the best breeders and feeding them for exhibition on the Home
Farms, his success was, of course, not a thing to be surprised at ;
but latterly, for many years, the stock exhibited had been bred
as well as fed upon the Prince Consort’s farms, and the prizes,
then entirely to his credit, which were won by the home-bred

cattle and pigs, remained as numerous as ever.

In December 1841, His Royal Highness became a Life
Governor of the Royal Agricultural Society of England — a
national society established in 1839, at the instance of Mr. Henry
Handley of Lincolnshire, the late Earl Spencer, the late Duke of
Richmond, and other noblemen and gentlemen. It was incor-
porated by Royal Charter in 1840, for purposes therein specified,
all, more or less, tending to the improvement of English agri-
culture. The Prince attended three of the annual meetings of
this society, was latterly a frequent exhibitor on these occasions,

and ultimately accepted the Presidency of the Association.

In 1844, His Royal Highness became a subscriber to the
Royal Agricultural Improvement Society of Ireland, an institution
which had then been lately established, and whose objects are
sufficiently indicated by its title. He was an exhibitor at the
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 239

first annual show of that society after his connection with it,
and received a silver medal in the class of fat stock for a long-
horned cow then exhibited by him. He was also awarded a gold
medal at that meeting, in testimony of his attention to the

interests of the Society.

The Royal Dublin Society, a corporate body, having similar
objects in view, and supported partly by government grant and
partly by the annual subscriptions of its members, was also
patronised by the Prince. His Royal Highness was officially the
vice-patron of the Society, and exhibited cattle in the fat classes
of its show in 1845, receiving silver medals both for the best
Durham or Short-horned ox; and for the best of all the fat oxen
shown on that occasion. In 1846, the Prince again exhibited
at the meeting of this society, receiving silver medals for a fat

ox and fat heifer of the Short-horn breed.

In 1845, His Royal Highness became, with the Queen, the
purchaser of the Osborne Estate in the Isle of Wight, to which,
as well as to the Balmoral Estate, purchased in 1847, we have
referred in the first chapter of this book in illustration of His

Royal Highness’ character as a landowner.

In 1848, the first of those public addresses, by which his
character as a wise Prince, and benevolent and public-spirited
man, became known to the country, was delivered. It was in

behalf of the Society for Improving the Condition of the
240 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

Labouring Classes, and may thus be fitly placed upon the list of
events in his agricultural career. This speech will be found fully

reported in page 190.

About this time the Prince signified his interest in the
promotion of agricultural improvement and education, by be-
coming the Patron of the Royal Agricultural College, which
had been established at Cirencester, Gloucestershire, and for the

institution of which a Royal Charter had been granted on
March 27, 1845.

In July of the same year he visited the annual show-yard
of the Royal Agricultural Society of England at York — walking
round on the first day of the show, attended by the Earl of
Yarborough the president, and the members of the council. A
second visit to the show-yard was fixed on the second day of
the meeting, the Prince rising at six o'clock in order to have
a thorough and unimpeded examination of his stock. His Royal
Highness honoured the annual dinner with his presence as the
guest of the society in the evening. On that occasion His
Royal Highness formally claimed his place in the ranks of
English agriculturists, in an admirable speech, of which the
following is a report :—

‘ GENTLEMEN,—I have to thank you most sincerely for your
‘having drunk my health with so much cordiality. It has
‘been a great satisfaction to me to have been able this year

‘to pay you an old debt in appearing at this interesting and
‘useful meeting.
«

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THE ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 241

‘All I have seen to-day exhibits a bright picture of the
progress of British agriculture, and for much of this progress
the country is indebted to this Society.

‘ Agriculture, which once was the main pursuit of this as
of every other nation, holds even now, notwithstanding the
developement of commerce and manufactures, a fundamental
position in the realm; and although time has changed the
position which the owner of the land, with his feudal depen-
dents, held in the empire, the country gentleman with his
wife and children, the country clergyman, the tenant, and the
labourer, still form a great, and I hope united, family, in
which we gladly recognise the foundation of our social state.

‘Science and mechanical improvement have in these days
changed the mere practice of cultivating the soil into an
industrial pursuit, requiring capital, machinery, industry, and
skill, and perseverance in the struggle of competition. This
is another great change, but we must consider it a great
progress, as it demands higher efforts and a higher intelligence.

‘Conscious of these changes, we Agriculturists of England
assemble together in this annual meeting of the Royal Agri-
cultural Society in order to communicate to each other our
various experiences, to exhibit the progress that some may
have made in the applications of science, and others in the
adaptation of machinery, or in the successful rearing of animals.

‘Feeling, as I do, a great interest in these noble pursuits,
and their paramount importance, and having myself experienced
the pleasures and the little pangs attending them, I feel highly
gratified that it should have been confided to me to propose

it
242 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

‘to you the toast of the day, “Success to the Royal Agricultural
‘Society of England ;” and I trust you will heartily respond
+ tio Abs

The passage commencing ‘ We agriculturists of England,’ was
received with immense enthusiasm by the large concourse of
gentlemen to whom it was addressed, and the Prince was thus

cordially welcomed to their ranks.

In 1849, His Royal Highness became the tenant of the
Home and Shaw Farms, which had latterly been in the occupa-
tion of Mr. Cantrell, and of Mr. Watkins, formerly farm manager
to H.R.H. the Princess Augusta, at Frogmore. We believe that
to Major-General Wemyss, who acted for the Prince at the
Norfolk and Flemish Farms, is due great part of the merit of
advising the Prince to take these farms into his own hands and

to build new offices and the dairy buildings there.

The General died in 1851, before the whole process of im-
provement was completed; and Mr. Wilson the farm manager,
along with Mr. Menzies, whose name has been already mentioned,
finished the rearrangement of the farms. The former, instructed
by the Prince, then commenced the improvement of the herd of
Short horns; his first step of real importance being the hiring
of Booth’s bull, ‘Prince Atrrep, and the purchase of the two
Fawsley cows, to which reference has been already made. It

was at this time, too, that thorough autumn cultivation was
HOME IMPROVEMENTS. 243

adopted on these farms and those heavy top-dressings of the
pastures with bones and salt, and sometimes guano, were com-
menced, which have been already mentioned in our account of
the Shaw and Dairy Farms. General Wemyss’ name must be
mentioned here, as being the original agricultural adviser of the
Prince —a position of which he felt the honour. During his
last illness he frequently recurred to the improvements then in
operation, and especially to the two homesteads on the Shaw
and Dairy Farms then in progress, saying that his name would
be connected with their history, as being what he had advised
the Prince to do.

The personal interest taken by the Prince in these agri-
cultural improvements was well illustrated both here during
1852—4, when the Dairy Homestead was erected, and some
years later at the Flemish Farm, when the new Homestead

was erected there.

His Royal Highness had acquired considerable experience
in agricultural buildings upon the Osborne Hstate, and he
was also perfectly master of the practical details of farming
operations. He thus entered keenly into the arrangements
and details needed to make the plans for the new _ build-
ings convenient and suitable for the farm purposes; and it
was greatly owing to the valuable suggestions he made, and to
the care and practical intelligence he brought to bear on the

subject, that the buildings have proved so successful, both as
112
244 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

regards convenience and for the economy of the labour involved

in attending upon the stock.

In 1851 Mr. Turnbull received the Prince’s commands to
prepare plans for the new Homestead on the Dairy Farm, and
after considerable discussion the site was at length fixed, where
the buildings now stand, which is entirely above the highest
known flood-level; and the subsoil being gravel is the best
that can be adopted.

The Prince took great interest in arranging the plan and
also in watching the progress of the building operations, and
especially the adaptation of the various materials to their
proper purposes. He was quite alive to the importance of
having materials arranged to suit their purpose, so as to save
manual labour, including such details as having the bricks made

of the form required, so as to save labour and waste in cutting.

Similar interest was taken some years later in the new
Homestead on the Flemish Farm. The old buildings there were
for the most part wooden, and had long been in an extremely
dilapidated condition. They were still standing during the
earlier years of the Hereford herd, which has since been
gradually growing into distinction; and strangers, when visiting
the farm, were surprised to find such a fine herd so_ poorly
lodged. The Prince Consort had long felt the want of better
accommodation, and the increasing fame of the Hereford herd

made it at length imperative that a new Homestead should be
built.
HOME IMPROVEMENTS. 245

Major-General Hood submitted to the Prince a statement of
the extent of accommodation which the farm required, and
prepared a sketch which, though not ultimately adopted, em-
bodied the requirements of the farm, and assisted greatly to
enable the Prince’s decision upon the nature and extent of the

buildings to be erected.

General Hood, accompanied by Mr. Turnbull, visited several
of the best Homesteads in the country, for the purpose of
examining into their merits, and observing the different methods
adopted in the arrangements for the stock and machinery; and

in this manner also much valuable information was obtained.

The Prince was anxious that the stables, the covered yards
for stock, and cow-stalls and feeding-hoxes, should all be under
one roof, so that the whole might be seen at one view, and
so that the labour of attendance on them might be economised.
But it was feared that the horses might be too much exposed
when overheated by their work, and the stable was in conse-
quence divided by a wall from the covered yards. It may,
however, be questioned whether the Prince’s idea of having the
whole as it were in one large house was not the most proper
to be adopted, even for the horses for whose sake the plan

was altered.

At the time when Mr. Turnbull received the commands
of His Royal Highness to prepare the plans for this Homestead,
the Authorities of the Ordnance Department had adopted timber
246 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

buildings at the camp at Aldershot, and the Prince desired
that the propriety of erecting the proposed buildings with timber
might be well considered. A calculation of the comparative
expense of timber and brick buildings, however, proved that the
saving on the former would be very small, and the Prince at
once decided upon adopting the more substantial material of
brick. Being in the position of a tenant farmer in his occupation
of the Flemish Farm, His Royal Highness was anxious both that
the buildings should embrace every modern improvement that
might be suitable for the farm, and that by their convenience
of arrangement and plainness of finish, they should recommend
themselves to farmers as a model to be copied. He specially

directed that no ornamental work should be admitted.

These details are given in illustration of the good judgment
and the particular interest which the Prince Consort brought to
bear, as an agriculturist, upon questions connected with the

management and improvement of his farms.

‘We must, however, now resume our enumeration of the
events which followed one another in the course of his agri-
cultural career. Among them may be named his public
addresses in 1849, in behalf of the Servants’ Provident and
Benevolent Society, to which reference has been made elsewhere.
In this year, too, the Prince gave his hearty and very efficient
support to the establishment of an Annual Winter Cattle Show
for central England, by the establishment of the Midland Counties’
tw
ro
~l

AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND.

Association for that purpose. His Royal Highness, though unable
to attend the first meeting of the Society, sent down Major-
General Wemyss, with a donation of 50/. to its funds, and with
the assurance that his patronage was to be no mere formal
matter, but a real and earnest assistance to the Society, to
whose Exhibition he would annually send his stock for com-
petition. A list of his stock exhibited at these shows, and of
the success which they obtained, will be found in an Appendix.

In 1851 the annual meeting of the Royal Agricultural
Society of England was held under the walls of Windsor
Castle. The Prince personally bade them welcome, attending
the show yards as an exhibitor, and with Her Majesty as an

interested spectator.

His Royal Highness also attended the annual dinner held
under the presidency of His Grace the Duke of Richmond,

making the following speech in acknowledgment of a toast :—

‘My Lorp Duxr, My Lorps anp GENTLEMEN, —I am very
‘sensible of the honour which you have done me in proposing
‘my health, and I can assure you, gentlemen, that the kind
‘way in which you have responded to the toast will never be

‘forgotten by me.

‘Some years have already elapsed since I last dined with
‘you in this migratory pavilion; and I am glad that you
‘should have pitched it this duy under the Walls of Windsor
‘Castle, and that I should myself have an opportunity of bid-
‘ding you a hearty welcome in the Home Park.
248 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

‘Your encampment singularly contrasts with that which
‘the barons of England, the feudal lords of the land, with
‘their retainers, erected round Old Windsor Castle, on a similar
‘mead, though not exactly in the same locality. They came
then clad in steel, with lance and war-horse. You appear
in a more peaceful attire, and the animals you bring with
you to the meeting are the tokens of your successful cultiva-
tion of the arts of peace. King John came _ trembling
amongst his subjects, unwillingly compelled to sign that great
charter which has ever since been your birthright. Your
Sovereign came confiding among her loyal and loving people ;
she came to admire the results of their industry, and _ to
encourage them to persevere in their exertions.

n

.

a

“

wn

nn

”

‘And the gratification which the Queen has felt at the sight
of your splendid collection, must, I am sure, be participated
in by all who examine it. I am doubly pleased at this success,
not only because it is witnessed by many visitors from foreign

.

a

lands now within our shores, whom every Englishman must
wish to inspire with respect for the state of British agriculture,
‘but also because I feel, to a certain degree, personally res-

ponsible for having deprived you of one, generally most inter-
esting, feature of your show—-I mean the field fruits, and
the agricultural machines and implements. Though separated
‘from your collection, they are seen to great advantage in
another Royal park; and you will be glad to hear that whatever
the difficulty may be in deciding upon the superiority of the
‘works of industry and art sent to the Crystal Palace by the
different nations of the earth, the British agricultural imple-
ments are acknowledged by common consent to stand there

n

a

n

n

nw

os

ns

almost without a rival.
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 249

‘Let me now use the privilege which your President has
‘allowed me to enjoy, in proposing to you as a toast “ Pros-
‘perity to the Royal Agricultural Society.” To its exhibitions,
‘the means of comparison which they have afforded and the
‘emulation which they have stimulated, we owe to a_ great
‘extent the progress which British agriculture has made of
‘late. To this Society belongs the honour of being one of
‘the first to appreciate the value of such exhibitions, and to
‘have, from the beginning, liberally and fearlessly admitted all
‘competitors without restriction.

299

‘J drink, “ Prosperity to the Royal Agricultural Society.

During this year, the first great International Exhibition, so
magnificently successful in its crystal palace within Hyde Park,
and owing not merely its success but its existence to the wisdom
and public spirit of the Prince Consort, had received the agri-
cultural show of implements which usually formed part of the
English Agricultural Society’s annual exhibition ; and to this His
Royal Highness alluded in the speech reported above.

To the live stock department of the show, which alone
accordingly was held at Windsor, Prince Albert contributed a
Short-horn in the class of two-years’-old bulls, and two Suffolk

boars in the second and third of the pig classes.

Besides his patronage of National and Provincial agricultural
societies, the local County Associations, whose districts bordered
on Windsor were also supported by His Royal Highness, both as a
subscriber to their funds, and as an active member competing for

Kk
250 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

their prizes. In 1851 the Prince won the silver cup presented
by J. Palmer, Esq., to the Royal South Bucks Agricultural Society
for the cultivation of the best five acres of common turnips.
In 1853 he won a similar prize for Swedish turnips, given by
Sir J. Haste, Bart., to the Royal East Berks Agricultural Asso-
ciation. In 1854, similar prizes offered by the same Society
were again won by His Royal Highness: and in 1855, a silver
cup for the best five acres of swedes and for the best three acres
cf mangold wurzels, offered by the South Bucks Society, were

again carried off by the Prince Consort’s farms.

In 1855 His Royal Highness was an exhibitor at the great
International Cattle Show at Paris, carrying off the third prize
for short-horn bulls with Lorp Forpineroy (10437), bred by
Mr. Fawkes of Farnley Hall, Otley, Yorkshire; and one of the
prizes in the heifer class, with a short-horn heifer, Sally, by
Lorp Forrineton, bred by His Royal Highness. A Devon heifer,
Bessy, bred by Mr. Farthing, was also exhibited by the Prince;
and an Ayrshire heifer, Princess, bred by Mr. Brown of Biggar.
The Devon heifer carried off the first prize in her class, a gold
medal and 28/. A pen of the Prince Albert’s white Windsor
pigs, under ten months old, were also exhibited, and received
the second prize, in their class. Four pens of poultry, Brahma-
Pootra, Hamburgh, and Dorkings, were also shown; the first

named being successful.*

* It may be mentioned here that the prizes were left by him at the disposal of the French

won by the Prince Consort at the Paris show authorities, as a prize to be given on some
y Pp gi
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 25]

In 1856, His Royal Highness, whose herds of Short-horns,
Herefords, and Devons, were now in course of formation, again
became an exhibitor at the Royal Agricultural Society’s annual
show, which took place that year at Chelmsford. He took the
first prize (25/.) in the first class of Hereford bulls with ‘ Brecon,’
bred by Mr. W. Mayberry; and the second prize (10/.) in the
second class of Devon in-calf heifers with Lobelia, bred by Mr.
George Turner. His Royal Highness also took the first prize
(30/.) with the Clydesdale stallion, bred by Mr. Findlay of Easte
Hill, Glasgow. A pen of Windsor pigs exhibited by him on

the same occasion were commended.

In the following year (1857) the Emperor of the French
became the guest of Her Majesty the Queen, both at Windsor
Castle and at Osborne; and it may be given here as, however
slight, yet a real illustration of the useful influence excited by
the example of the Prince Consort, that the inspection by the
Emperor of the farms at Windsor and at Barton led to the
establishment of herds of Short-horn cattle and flocks of South-
down sheep for the improvement of the live stock of France. The
Emperor could appreciate the public spirit which prompted the
high agricultural example exhibited both at Osborne and at
Windsor; and seeing the utility of establishments of the kind,

future occasion of a similar kind. This prize— at Poissy (May 1862), and it was won by
‘the Prince Consort’s cup’— was accordingly Mr. M‘Combie, of Tillyfour, N.B., with a polled
offered at the last International Fat Cattle Show Aberdeenshire ox, the best animal in the yard.

KK 2
252 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

of a still more directly public character, he sought and obtained
Both
Mr. Toward of Osborne, and Mr. Wilson the farm manager at

the assistance of the Prince in carrying out his wishes.

Windsor, executed the Emperor’s commissions; and the latter
spent several thousand pounds in purchasing for His Majesty
some thirty or forty cows of the Short-horn breed, selected from
all the leading English herds, and a lot of Southdown sheep
from the flock of the Duke of Richmond.

In the same year, the Prince again exhibited at the English
Agricultural Society’s show at Salisbury, receiving a second prize
for a Devon heifer-calf and a high commendation for a Devon
cow, Verbena. His Royal Highness paid a visit to this meeting
—this being one of the three occasions on which His Royal

Highness honoured the Society’s exhibition with a visit.

The Prince Consort continued annually to exhibit at the

annual meetings of the Royal Agricultural Society * from this time.

* It is proper to remark here that the corre-
sponding society for the promotion of horticul-
ture in like manner received most efficient
assistance and support from the Prince Consort.
Dr. Lindley thus speaks in the ‘Gardener's
Chronicle ' of the relation in which His Royal
Highness stood to the Royal Horticultural So-
ciety.

‘To horticulture the illustrious Prince was the
same zealous friend that he was to all that con-
stitutes the grace of civilised life. The part
which His Royal Highness has taken for some
years in the progress of the Royal Horticultural

Society is well known. It is no secret that the

revival of the Society was essentially his work,
and that the acquisition of the new garden at
South Kensington, a matter of vital importance,
would never have been effected in the absence of
his powerful support. What is not so well
known is the large personal share that he took
With Prince Albert the

Presidency was far from being a name and

in its formation.
nothing more. He was frequently present at
the meetings of councils and committees,
guiding their deliberations, taking part in their
discussions, and giving them the benefit of his
acute understanding and admirable business

habits. Nor was the attention of His Royal
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 253

The successive meetings at Chester, Warwick, Canterbury, and Leeds
were witness to his interest in these annual contests, and generally
also to his success. He was unusually successful at the last meeting
(at Leeds), to which he sent breeding stock, receiving there two
commendations for Herefords, a first, second, and third prize in
the Devon classes, and a first and third prize in the horse classes.
That he took great personal interest in the fortunes of the
stock thus bred by himself, and exhibited in competition with his
brother farmers, was illustrated by one of his last acts as
tenant of the Shaw Farm — the directions which he gave to Mr.
Tait to place the official card of award over the stalls occupied
by the prize horses which had been sent to the Leeds Show.
It was shown later still by the instructions given to Mr.
Lythall, of Birmingham, Secretary of the Midland Counties’
Association, holding its Annual Show of fat stock in Bingley
Hall, to telegraph to Windsor Castle on the evening of

the day when the prizes were awarded, in order that it might

Highness confined to general subjects; on the determined on until it had received his approba-
contrary, the Prince felt that the progress of tion. So late as the sixth of the present month
great things is essentially controlled by minute (December 1861) His Royal Highness had pro-
and almost inappreciable arrangements, and to posed to take the chair at a meeting of the council
those he would devote his thoughts with that of the Royal Horticultural Society, and was only
patient and sagacious industry which was among _ prevented coming from Windsor for the purpose
the distinguishing features of his character. by the approach of that fatal disorder which in a

‘It is no exaggeration to say that the garden few hours deprived our gracious Sovereign of an
at South Kensington was itself the conception of affectionate consort and enlightened adviser, and
this great Prince, for, although aided by the ourselves of one of the wisest Princes that have
counsels of such men as Fowke, Sidney Smirke, watched over the interests of the British

and Nesfield, not a line was drawn nor a point Empire.’
254 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS:

be known at the Royal dinner-table whether the stock sent
from the Prince Consort’s farms had been successful. That
telegram announced the award to his stock of the first and second
prizes in the class of Devon steers, and of two first prizes for fat
pigs of the Windsor breed. A week later some of his stock was
exhibited at the Baker Street Bazaar, where the Smithfield Club

held their Annual Show, and proved again successful.

The illness from which the Prince was then suffering had by
that time become known; and though no anxiety yet existed on
his acccount, great regret was felt that His Royal Highness
should have been prevented from carrying out his expressed

intention of visiting this show.

It was during this the last year of his life, that His Royal
Highness had graciously: signified his acceptance of the office of
President of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, of which
he had been so long an active member. On June 5, 1861, the Earl
Powis, then President, announced, to the great satisfaction of the
agricultural public, that he was to be succeeded in his office by the
Prince, during the year which was to culminate with the Great
International Show to be held in Battersea Park, and when the
second Great Exhibition was to be held at Kensington.

His Royal Highness presided at the first monthly meeting
of the council of the Society during the year of his presidency,

namely on July 31, 1861; and he again presided at the monthly
PRESIDENCY OF THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 255

meeting of the council held on November 6 after the autumnal
recess. On both occasions his kind and courteous demeanour,
and his nice and ready appreciation of the points under discussion,
proved his admirable fitness for the Presidency which he had
accepted. His sound judgment on matters where island pre-
judices might have led the Society astray, was most usefully
exercised. In particular, the arrangements to be made for the
international character of the ensuing show at Battersea, owed
much of their completeness to his guidance. It had been sug-
gested that this department of the show was an application of
the Society's funds to a purpose for which they had not been
entrusted —in fact, for the benefit not of the English agricul-
tural public, but of the foreigner. His Royal Highness at once
combated this assertion, on the ground that an outlay of the
kind required would not only benefit ourselves, but would be

amply repaid to the Society by the contributions of spectators.

The year of the Prince Consort’s presidency, and especially
the council meeting at which he presided for the last time, was
also signalised by the abandonment of a somewhat exclusive rule,
which had till then forbidden the presence of public reporters at
the weekly meetings of the council for the discussion of agricul-
tural subjects — thus throwing open to general public discussion,
and bringing into immediate usefulness, matters of fact and of
opinion which would otherwise be either lost or locked up alto-
gether, or left unpublished until the annual period of the Society’s

official publication.
256 THE PRINCE CONSORT’S FARMS :

An unusually large attendance of the members of the Society
took place on Wednesday, December 11, when the half-yearly
general meeting of the Society was appointed to be held, and
when the Prince Consort would for the first time have met the
general body of members in his official capacity. The Earl of
Powis, the previous president of the Society, took the chair on
that occasion, and expressed the great regret of the meeting at
the absence of His Royal Highness, and at the indisposition,
for this was all it was supposed to be, which had for the time
disabled him.

The week had hardly closed, before all London was startled
by the midnight boom of the Great Bell of St. Paul’s which told

of his decease.

The history of that most useful and distinguished Agricul-
tural Career which then so abruptly and prematurely ended, is

thus brought to its conclusion.

The writer who has been permitted to prepare it must not,
however, lay down his pen without placing on record here his
obligations to those gentlemen who have kindly given him
their sanction and assistance. He offers his cordial thanks to

Mr. Brebner, Mr. Tait, and Mr. Graham, the Prince Consort's
AN AGRICULTURAL MEMOIR. 257

farm managers, for the information which has enabled him to

describe the Windsor and the Bagshot Farms.

His best acknowledgements are due to Mr. Menzies, the
deputy-surveyor of Windsor Park, for information on the history
of the Park and Forest; and for the disinterested cordiality
with which this assistance has been rendered to a stranger thus

appropriating the fruits of much of his own field of literary labour.

He offers his cordial thanks to Mr. Toward over the
Osborne estate, and to Dr. Robertson, commissioner over the
Balmoral property, who have, as already acknowledged, so kindly
given him their friendly assistance,—also to Mr. Mann of
Osborne, and Mr. Turnbull of Windsor Castle, for the plans of

cottages and farm-buildings which have been given in these pages.

His best thanks are also due to Major-Gen. F. H. Seymour,
deputy-ranger of Windsor Park, to whom he owes the infor-
mation that has been given of the Prince’s relations to the
various benevolent associations around Windsor —to Major-
General the Hon. A. Nelson Hood, who directs the Prince
Consort’s Norfolk and Flemish Farms—and to Colonel the
Hon. Sir Charles B. Phipps, K.C.B.—who have kindly permitted

and facilitated his inquiries.

LL
I,

LIST OF CONIFEROUS TREES AT OSBORNE AND BARTON.

1862.

HE following list, with its references to the character of individual species, was

referred to at page 19, and has been kindly drawn up by Mr. Toward of

Osborne for publication here :—

Abies alba glauca.

”

”

excelsa, Common Norway Spruce.

» Finedonensis, Finedon Hall Spruce.
Canadensis, Hemlock Spruce.
Douglasii, Douglas Fir 7
Kempferi, Golden or Chinese Larch.

Menziesii, Menzies’ Spruce

Pattoni, Patton’s Giant Californian Fir

Smithiana, or Morinda, Indian Spruce

Araucaria Brasiliensis

”

imbricata, Chili Pine, or Monkey Puzzle .

Arthrotaxis — The Jointed Yew.

cupressoides, or imbricata.

Biota Orientalis, Chinese Arbor Vite .

és Sieboldii, Siebold’s
93 aurea, Golden Arbor Vite
»  variegata, Variegated golden
pendula, Weeping Arbgr Vite .

monstrosa, Monstrous Arbor Vitee

Cedrus Atlantica, Mount Atlas Cedar .

A

c—

A noble tree, attains 200 to 300 feet in height.

A tall growing tree, timber of excellent
quality.

This fir is said to attain 300 feet in height,
200 without branches, and is perfectly
hardy.

A superb and graceful tree, quite hardy.

Handsome, but rather tender.

Planted extensively in the woods by the

sides of the drives.

¢ These are all highly ornamental. The name
Arbor Vite (Tree of Life) is deduced
from its China and Japan appellations.
In Japan it is called ‘ Heba’ (Tree of

 

Life), and in China ‘Hak’ (Everlasting
Life), on account of the plants being
of a beautiful green at all seasons of

the year.
More rapid in growth than common cedar,

and quite hardy.
262 APPENDIX.

Ced. Deodara, Indian Cedar

ee In exposed situations they suffer by the
“4 is viridis, Green Deodar .

wind and sea breeze.
5 v robusta, Robust Deodar

», Libani, Cedar of Lebanon.
Cephalotaxus Fortunii, Fortune’s Cephalotaxus.
Chamecyparis spheroidea, White Cedar.
Cryptomeria Japonica, Japan Cedar.
3 nana.
49 Lobbii.
Cunninghamia sinensis, Chinese Cunninghamia.
Cupressus excelsa, Tall Guatemala Cypress.
5 funebris, Weeping, or Funereal, Cypress.
Ss Goveniana, Gowen’s Californian Cypress.

3 Knightiana, Mr. Knight’s Cypress.

»  Lawsoniana, Lawson’s Cypress

»  Lusitanica, Cedar of Goa. : ‘ . ¢ Very ornamental and perfectly hardy.

sf M‘Nabiana, M‘Nab’s Cypress

»  _macrocarpa, or Lambertiana ; ‘ One of the finest species. It attains a great
size, is beautiful bright green, and will
grow in almost any kind of soil, and in
exposed situations.

»  Nutkaensis, Nootka Sound Cypress. . Avery handsome species.

» sempervirens, Upright Cypress.
5 5 horizontalis.
5 torulosa, Twisted, or Bhotan, Cypress.
Fitz-Roya Patagonica.
Juniperus communis, Common Juniper.
Suecica, Swedish Juniper.
43 Bermudiana, Pencil Cedar.

45 excelsa, Tall Juniper.

Oxycedrus, Prickly Juniper.

7

i recurva, Weeping Indian Juniper.

35 religiosa, Incense Juniper.

iy Sabina, Common Savin.

3 squamata, Scaly-leaved Nepal Juniper.

53 thurifera, Spanish Juniper.

Virginiana, Red Cedar.
ae » glauca.

Chinensis, Chinese Juniper.
LIST OF CONIFEROUS TREES

Juniperus spherica, Globular-fruited Juniper.

35 55 glauca.

3 Schottii.

” venusta.

+ Japonica variegata.

Libocedrus Chilensis, Chilian Arbor Vite.

5 Doniana, Don’s Arbor Vite.

Picea bracteata, Leafy-bracted Silver Fir.

”

”

Cephalonica, Mount Enos Fir
nobilis, Noble Silver Fir .

pectinata, Common Silver Fir.

Nordmanniana, Nordmann’s Silver Fir

religiosa, Sacred Silver Fir.
amabilis, Lovely Silver Fir
grandis, Great Silver Fir.

Pinsapo, Pinsapo Silver Fir

Webbiana, Captain Webb’s Indian Silver Fir

Pinus Austriaca, Black Austrian Pine

”

Benthamiana, Bentham’s Pine .

excelsa, Lofty Bhotan Pine
Cembra, Swiss Stone Pine.
cembroides, Mexican Cembra-like Pine.
Gerardiana, Captain Gerard’s Pine.
insignis, Remarkable Pine.
Jeffreyi, Jeffrey's Pine
Lambertiana, Lambert’s Pine
Laricio, Corsican Pine

Llaveana, Llave’s Pine.
Loudoniana, Loudon’s Pine
lophosperma, Crested Seeded Pine.

macrocarpa, Dr. Coulter’s Pine .

Montezume

AT OSBORNE AND BARTON. 263

A fine tree — timber hard and durable.
A noble tree, grows 200 feet high, forming

vast forests in Northern California.

Beautiful tree, common on the Crimean

mountains.
A magnificent tree of Northern California.

Very handsome, with dense branches,
timber full of resin.

Suffers from late frost in spring ; cones of a
rich purple colour.

Timber strong, stiff, and resinous, stands
the sea breeze and exposed situations.

A noble tree, grows to 200 feet, Northern
California.

Timber white, soft, and remarkably compact.

Very handsome, and of rapid growth.
Very distinct, and quite hardy.
A gigantic tree from Northern California.

A lofty tree of rapid growth.
A noble tree, excellent in quality.
A large tree with spreading branches, from

California.

A Mexican tree.
264 APPENDIX,

Pinus Monte Allegri, Monte Allegro Pine.
»» muricata, Bishop Pine.
» patula, Spreading-leaved Mexican Pine
», ponderosa, Heavy-wooded Pine
» Pallasiana, Taurian Pine.
» Pinaster, Cluster Pine

»  Pinea, Italian Stone Pine .

», Pyrenaica, Pyrenean Pine.
»» radiata, Radiated-coned Pine’ . 3 F
» Yigida, Stiff-leaved Pine.

», Sabiniana, Sabine’s Pine

» Strobus, Weymouth Pine.
» sylvestris, Scotch Fir Pine.
tuberculata, Tuberculated-coned Pine.
»  Veitchi, Buonaparte Pine.
», verrucosa, Warted-scaled Mexican Pine.
Podocarpus Andina, Andes Podocarpus.
3 variegata.
Salisburia adiantifolia, Maiden-Hair Tree.
Saxe-Gothea conspicua, Prince Albert's Yew.
Sciadoptys verticillata, Umbrella Pine.
Sequoia sempervirens, Red Wood, or Bastard Cedar.
Taxodium distichum, Deciduous Cypress.
3 sempervirens.
Taxus adpressa, Flattened, or Creeping, Yew.
»,  baccata, Common Yew.
fructu-luteo, Yellow-berried Yew.

” ”

»  fastigiata, Irish Yew.

Thujopsis dolabrata, Hatchet-leaved Arbor Vite.

i ” variegata.

Thuja gigantea, Gigantic Arbor Vite.
»,  Occidentalis, American Arbor Vite.
” ”
»  Pplicata, Nootka Sound Arbor Vita.
Torreya myristica, Californian Nutmeg.
» nucifera, Nut-bearing.
Welliigtonia gigantea, Mammoth Pine.

Widdringtonia juniperoides.

variegata, American Variegated Arbor Vite.

A fine graceful tree.

Timber heavy and excellent.

Grows freely exposed to the sea breeze.

A very ornamental round-headed low tree,
with leaves of a deep shining green.

Well adapted to plant by the sea coast.

A beautiful and large growing tree from
Upper California.
TREES AT OSBORNE AND BARTON. 265

Besides Conifere, there are many other kinds of hardy evergreen trees and
shrubs. Many of the choicest sorts grow and flourish in an extraordinary degree,
owing, no doubt, to the extreme mildness of the climate. The grounds are par-
ticularly rich in the different species and varieties of the Holly, the Arbutus, and the
Evergreen Oak. There are likewise many of the more rare and lately introduced kinds

of shrubs and trees from Japan.

The Common and Portugal Laurel attain a very large size, also the Laurustinus
and Sweet Bay Laurel. There are many fine specimens of the latter, 25 to 30 feet in
height, dense, and thickly clothed to the ground. There are likewise several very
fine standards with straight clean stems, and large handsome heads. Camellia,
Myrtle, and Magnolia, grow, flourish, and flower in the open air. The Orange succeeds

in favoured situations on the wall, with slight protection from severe frost.

MM
266

APPENDIX.

Il.

LIST OF ANIMALS EXHIBITED, AND OF PRIZES WON, BY H.R.H. THE
PRINCE CONSORT, AT THE MEETINGS OF AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES.

1843.
THE SMITHFIELD CLUB.
Two Scotch oxen.
One pen of ‘Suffolk-and-Bedfordshire’ pigs—
(highly commended).

 

1844.
THE SMITHFIELD CLUB.
One polled Angus ox, bred by Mr. Hugh Watson
of Keillor—(highly commended).
One pen of ‘ Suffolk-and-Bedfordshire ' pigs—the
prize (5/.).
ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF IRELAND.
Fat cow—the prize (silver medal).
Also in acknowledgement of the Prince’s
attention to the interests of the Society and

its show—(gold medal).

 

1845.
THE SMITHFIELD CLUB.
Short-horn ox, bred by Lord Huntingfield—third
prize (10/.).
Two West Highland oxen—(one of them com-
mended).
Two pens of ‘ Suffolk-and-Bedfordshire ’ pigs.
ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY.
Fat ox—the prize (silver medal).

Fat ox—the prize (silver medal).

 

1846.
THE SMITHFIELD CLUB.
Hereford ox, bred by Mr. T. Roberts, near

Leominster—second prize (201.).

Hereford steer, bred by Mr. T. Roberts—first
prize (15/.).

West Highland ox, bred by Mr. Campbell —
(commended).

Fat cow, cross-breed—(silver medal).

Two pens of ‘ Bedfordshire’ pigs—second prize
(51).

ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY.

Fat ox—(silver medal).
Fat heifer - (silver medal).

1847.
THE SMITHFIELD CLUB.

Hereford ox, bred by Mr. J. Stephen, Hay—(com-
mended).

Hereford steer, bred by Mr. T. Roberts—(com-
mended).

West Highland ox—the prize (10/.).

Polled Scotch heifer, bred by Mr. G. Baxter,
Aberdeen.

Short-horn cow, bred by Earl Brownlow—(com-
mended).

Pen of young ‘ Bedfordshire-and- Yorkshire ’ pigs.
ANIMALS EXHIBITED AND PRIZES WON BY THE PRINCE CONSORT.

Pen of older pigs—first prize (10J. and silver
medal to H.R.H. as breeder).
Pen of old ‘ Bedfordshire-and-Yorkshire ’ pigs.

1848.
THE SMITHFIELD CLUB.

Hereford ox, bred by Mr. P. Davis, of Milton,
Hereford—first prize (301.).

Hereford steer, bred by Mr. T. Roberts.

West Highland ox.

Short-horn heifer, bred by H.R.H.

Short-horn ox, bred by Mr. Colvin, of Waltham
Abbey.

Pen of cross-bred sheep.

Pen of ‘ Bedfordshire-and-Yorkshire ’ pigs.

Pen of older ‘ Bedfordshire-and-Yorkshire ’ pigs
—second prize (5/.).

Pen of old ‘ Bedfordshire-and-Yorkshire’ pigs
—(highly commended).

 

1849.
THE SMITHFIELD CLUB.

Hereford steer, bred by Mr. Vaughan, of Chol-
stry—third prize (5/.).

Devon steer, bred by Mr. Quartly.

Short-horn cow, bred by Mr. Garne, Northleach.

Pen of ‘Suffolk’ pigs—third prize (51.).

Pen of older ‘ Suffolk’ pigs—second prize (51.).

Suffolk pig—as ‘ extra stock.’

MIDLAND COUNTIES’ ASSOCIATION.

Hereford steer, bred by Mr. Powell, Hereford.
Devon ox, bred by Mr. Quartly—first prize (10/.).
West Highland ox.

Short-horn cow, bred by Mr. Garne.

Pen of eleven-months’ old pigs.

 

267

1850.
THE SMITHFIELD CLUB.

Short-horn ox, bred by H.R.H.

Hereford ox, bred by Mr. G. Warwick, of
Preston, Hereford.

West Highland ox.

Short-horn cow, bred by Mr. Garne—third prize
(52.).

Short-horn ox, bred by Mr. Lees, of Coleshill.

Pen of ‘ Yorkshire’ pigs—second prize (5/.).

MIDLAND COUNTIES’ ASSOCIATION.

Hereford ox, bred by Mr. T. Shirreff, Ludlow —
second prize (5/.).

Short-horn ox, bred by Mr. Lees—first prize
(102.).

West Highland ox—(highly commended).

Pen of South Down sheep.

Pen of nine-months’ old fat pigs.

1851.

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY AT
WINDSOR.

Young short-horn bull, bred by H.R.H.

‘Suffolk’ boar, bred by Mr. Colvin, of Waltham
Abbey.

‘ Suffolk’ sow, bred by H.R.H.

THE SMITHFIELD CLUB.

Hereford ox, bred by Mr. Stedman, Ludlow—
third prize (5/.).

Hereford steer, bred by Mr. T. Shirreff, Ludlow—
third prize (5/.).

Hereford steer, bred by Mr. T. Shirreff—second
prize (151.).

Hereford ox, bred by Mr. E. Jones, Knighton.

West Highland ox.

Mou 2
268

Pen of West country Down sheep, bred by Mr.
J. Paine, of Houghton.

Pen of ‘ Bedfordshire-and-Suffolk ’ pigs.

Pen of older ‘ Bedfordshire-and-Suffolk’ pigs—
second prize (51.).

MIDLAND COUNTIES’ ASSOCIATION.
Hereford ox, bred by Mr. Stedman, of Bedstone,
—first prize (10J.), together with gold medal,
and extra prize of 15i.
Short-horn ox, bred by Mr. Colvin.
West Highland ox.

Scotch fowls—(silver medal).

ROYAL SOUTH BUCKS’ SOCIETY.
For five acres of turnips—(silver cup).

1852.

THE SMITHFIELD CLUB.

Devon steer, bred by Mr. T. Mogridge—(highly
commended).

Hereford steer, bred by Mr. T. Roberts—first
prize (25/.).

Hereford ox, bred by Mr. T. Shirreff.

Short-horn ox, bred by Mr. Colvin.

Short-horn cow, bred by Mr. W. Hollis, sen,
Reading.

Polled Angus ox.

Pen of South Down wethers, bred by H.R.H.

Pen of West country Down wethers.

Pen of ‘ Suffolk ’ pigs.

Pen of older ‘ Suffolk’ pigs, bred by H.R.H.
—second prize (5/.).

MIDLAND COUNTIES ASSOCIATION.

Hereford ox, bred by Mr. T. Shirreff.
Hereford steer, bred by Mr. T. Roberts —(highly

commended ).

 

APPENDIX.

Short-horn ox, bred by Mr. Field, near Romford
—(commended).

West Highland ox.

Pen of South Down wethers, bred by H.R.H.

 

1853.
THE SMITHFIELD CLUB.

Devon steer, bred by Mr. T. Mogridge.

Devon ox, bred by Mr. J. Bird, of Taunton.

Hereford steer, bred by Mr. T. Shirreff.

Hereford ox, bred by Mr. T. Wayman, of Pur-
slow Hall.

Pen of ‘ Suffolk’ pigs—third prize (5/.).

Pen of older ‘ Suffolk’ pigs, bred by H.R.H.—first
prize (10/.), silver medal as breeder, and gold
medal as best pigs in the yard.

MIDLAND COUNTIES’ ASSOCIATION.

Hereford ox, bred by Mr. T. Wayman.
Pen of fat ‘ Suffolk’ pigs, bred by H.R.H.—first

prize (10/.) and silver medal as breeder.

ROYAL EAST BUCKS’ SOCIETY.
For crop of Swedes—(silver cup).

1854.

THE SMITHFIELD CLUB.

Devon steer, bred by Mr. T. Mogridge—first
prize (25/.).

Devon heifer, bred by Mr. G. Farthing—second
prize (5/.).

Devon heifer, bred by Mr. R. Mogridge.

Pen of ‘ Windsor’ pigs, bred from the stock of
H.R.H., and Mr. Ambler.

Pen of older ‘ Windsor ’ pigs.

Pen of older ‘ Windsor’ pigs, shown as extra
stock—(silver medal).
ANIMALS EXHIBITED AND PRIZES

MIDLAND COUNTIES’ ASSOCIATION.

Hereford steer, bred by Mr. Boulton, of Dilwyn
—first prize (10/.).

Devon steer, bred by Mr. G. Turner, Exeter
—first prize (10/.).

Devon heifer, bred by Mr. Farthing—first prize
(102.).

Pen of breeding pigs—first prize (10/.).

Pen of older fat pigs.

Pen of eleven-months’ old fat pigs—first prize
(102.).

Pen of twenty-one months’ old fat pigs.

ROYAL EAST BERKS SOCIETY.

For green crops (two silver cups).

1855.
THE PARIS INTERNATIONAL SHOW.

Short-horn bull, Lorp Forprneron, 10437, bred
by Mr. Fawkes—third prize (20/.).

Short-horn heifer, Sally—third prize, and bronze
medal (16/.).

Devon heifer, bred by Mr. Farthing—tirst prize
(282.) and gold medal.

Ayrshire heifer, bred by Mr. Brown, of Biggar.

Windsor boar—second prize (7/.) and silver medal.

Three pens of poultry—(3J.) and bronze medal.

THE SMITHFIELD CLUB.

Devon steer, bred by Mr. Turner—second prize
(102.).

Devon ox, bred by Mr. R. Mogridge—third prize
(102.).

Devon cow, bred by Lord Portman—first prize
(202.).

Hereford ox, bred by Mr. J. Stephen of Hay—
second prize (10/.).

Short-horn ox, bred by Mr. S. Marjoribanks.

 

WON BY THE PRINCE CONSORT. 269

Short-horn heifer, bred by H.R.H.

Short-horn cow, bred by Captain Dilke, R.N.

West Highland ox.

Galloway heifer.

Devon ox, bred by Lord Portman.

Pen of young Windsor pigs—second prize (5/.).

Pen of older Windsor pigs—first prize (10/.) and
medal.

Pen of older Windsor pigs.

Pen of sixteen months’ old Windsor pigs.

MIDLAND COUNTIES’ ASSOCIATION.

Hereford ox, bred by Mr. Powell.

Short-horn ox, bred by H.R.H.—second prize
(51.).

Devon ox, bred by Mr. Corner, of Torweston—
first prize (10/.).

Devon steer, bred by Mr. W. Lyddon, of King’s
Brompton—second prize (5/.).

Devon steer, bred by Mr. G. Turner.

Devon cow, bred by Mr. Farthing—second prize
(51.).

Devon cow, bred by Mr. T. Miller—first prize
(102.).

Polled Angus ox.

Pen of fat pigs, thirteen months old.

Pen of fat pigs, seventeen months old.

Pen of fat pigs, three years and forty wecks old.

Pen of Windsor pigs—(highly commended).

ROYAL SOUTH BUCKS SOCIETY.

Best five acres of turnips—(silver cup).

Best three acres of mangold wurzel—(silver cup).

 

1856.
ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY AT
CHELMSFORD.

Hereford bull, Brecon, bred by Mr. W. Mayberry.
Hereford heifer, Hedgehog, bred by Earl Radnor.
270

Hereford heifer, Vienna, bred by Earl Radnor.

Devon bull, Zouave, bred by Mr. G. Turner
—first prize (251).

Devon heifer, Lobelia, bred by Mr. G. Turner
—second prize (10/.).

Devon heifer, Rose, bred by Earl of Aylesford.

Devon yearling heifer, Gentianella, bred by Mr.
G. Turner.

Pen of Windsor pigs— (commended).

Clydesdale stallion, bred by Mr. Findlay — first
prize (30/.).

Two Clydesdale fillies, bred by Mr. W. Menzies,

Kincardine.

THE SMITHFIELD CLUB.

Devon steer, bred by Mr. Quartly—second prize
(102.).

Devon ox, bred by Mr. G. Turner —(highly com-
mended).

Devon cow, bred by Mr. W. Farthing — second
prize (100.).

Hereford steer, bred by Mr. E. Price, Pembridge.

Short-horn ox, bred by H.R.H.

Short-horn heifer, bred by H.R.H.—second prize
(52.).

Pen of Windsor pigs— (highly commended).

Pen of older Windsor pigs.

Pen of Berkshire pigs.

MIDLAND COUNTIES’ ASSOCIATION.

Hereford steer, bred by Mr. E. Price — (highly
commended).

Hereford ox, bred by Mr. E. Price—(commended).

Devon ox, bred by Mr. G. Turner — first prize
(102.).

Devon ox, bred by Mr. W. Lyddon.

Devon steer, bred by Mr. G. Turner —(com-
mended),

Devon steer, bred by Mr. J. Quartly — second
prize (51.).

 

 

APPENDIX.

Pen of fat pigs — first prize (10/.).

Three other pens of fat pigs.

Pen of breeding pigs — first prize (101.).

Samples of globe mangold wurzel—(commended).

Samples of Gibbs’ purple top Swedish turnips.

 

1857.
ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY AT
SALISBURY.
Hereford bull calf, Winpsor, bred by H.R.H.
Devon cow, Verbena, bred by Mr. G. Turner
— (highly commended).
Devon bull calf, Prince Artuur, bred by H.R.H.
— second prize (5/.).
Devon bull calf, Granp Duke, bred by H.R.H.

THE SMITHFIELD CLUB.

Devon steer, bred by Mr. G. Turner — second
prize (102.).

Devon ox, bred by Mr. W. Farthing.

Devon heifer, bred by Mr. J. Hole— first prize
(152.).

Hereford ox, bred by Mr. E. Price — second prize
(102.).

Hereford ox, bred by Mr. E. Price.

Devon steer, bred by Mr. J. Tapp, of South Mol-
ton, shown as extra stock — (silver medal).

Five pens of Windsor pigs.

MIDLAND COUNTIES’ ASSOCIATION.

Hereford steer, bred by Mr. E. Price —(com-
mended).

Devon steer, bred by Mr. R. Mogridge — second
prize (5/.).

Devon heifer, bred by Mr. J. Hole, of Dunster—
first prize (10/.).

Four pens of Windsor pigs—first prize (102.),
silver medal, and commended.

Sample of long mangold wurzel.
ANIMALS EXHIBITED AND PRIZES

1858.
ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY AT CHESTER.

Devon bull, Zouave, bred by H.R.H.—first prize
(152).

Devon yearling bull, Prince Artuur, bred by
H.R.H. — (highly commended).

Devon bull calf, Cotoner, bred by H.R.H. —
second prize (5/.).

Clydesdale stallion.

Clydesdale filly —(commended).

THE SMITHFIELD CLUB.

Devon steer, bred by Mr. R. Mogridge — first
prize (252.).

Devon ox, bred by Mr. G. Turner — first prize
(251.).

Hereford steer, bred by Mr. W. Mayberry.

Hereford ox, bred by Mr. E. Price—(commended).

Four pens of Windsor pigs—one of them receiving

second prize (5/.).

MIDLAND COUNTIES’ ASSOCIATION.

Hereford ox, bred by Mr. Price.

Hereford steer, bred by Mr. T. Edwards— second
prize (5/.).

Devon ox, bred by Mr. G. Turner.

Devon ox, bred by Mr. R. Corner — second prize
(51).

Devon ox, bred by Mr. G. Turner — first prize
(102.) ; and extra prize of 201.

Four pens of Windsor pigs.

1859.

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY AT
WARWICK.

Hereford bull, Winpsor, bred by H.R.H.—(com-

 

mended).

WON BY THE PRINCE CONSORT. 271

Hereford bull calf, Maxmrus, bred by H.R.H.
— first prize (10/.).

Hereford yearling heifer, Medea, bred by H.R.H.

Hereford yearling heifer, Venus, bred by H.R.H.

Devon bull, Prince Arruur, bred by H.R.H.

Devon yearling bull, CoroneL, bred by H.R.H.
— second prize (15/.).

Devon bull calf, Saracen, bred by H.R.H.

Devon heifer, Gardenia, bred by H.R.H.

Devon heifer, Lobelia, bred by H.R.H. — second
prize (102).

Alderney bull, bred by Sir J. Cathcart — (com-
mended).

Windsor boar — first prize (101.).

Pen of three Windsor sows — first prize (102.).

Sow, bred by Mr. Pain, of Salisbury.

Clydesdale filly — second prize (10/.).

THE SMITHFIELD CLUB.

Devon steer, bred by Mr. P. Halse, of Molton.

Devon steer, bred by H.R.H.—second prize
(102.).

Hereford ox, bred by Mr. T. Edwards, Leominster.

Short-horn heifer, bred by H.R.H.

Hereford ox (extra stock), bred by Mr. T.
Edwards.

Four pens of Windsor pigs, one of which received
the first prize (10., silver medal to breeder,
and gold medal for the best pigs in the yard).

MIDLAND COUNTIES’ ASSOCIATION.
Hereford ox, bred by Mr. T. Edwards.
Short-horn heifer, bred by H.R.H.

Devon ox, bred by Mr. R. Corner.

Devon ox, bred by H.R.H.

Devon ox, bred by Mr. R. Mogridge — first prize
(201.).

Three pens of Windsor pigs—(one of which was
commended).

Sample of Standish’s purple-top swedes.
272

1860.

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY AT
CANTERBURY.

Short-horn bull, Counsrtior, bred by H.R.H.
Short-horn bull calf, Sir Cuarues, bred by H.R.H.
Hereford bull, Maximus, bred by H.R.H.
Hereford heifer calf, Clio, bred by H.R.H.
Hereford heifer calf, Helena, bred by H.R.H.
Devon bull, Murat, bred by H.R.H.

Devon heifer, Lobelia, bred by H.R.H.

Two pens of Windsor pigs.

Two Clydesdale stallions, bred by H.R.H.

THE SMITHFIELD CLUB.

Devon ox, bred by H.R.H.

Devon heifer, Lobelia, bred by H.R.H.—(highly
commended).

Hereford ox, bred by H.R.H.

Four pens of Windsor pigs—one of which re-

ceived the first prize (10/. and silver medal).

MIDLAND COUNTIES’ ASSOCIATION.

Devon steer, bred by H.R.H.—first prize (100.
and silver medal).

Devon heifer, bred by H.R.H.—first prize (10/.
and silver medal).

Three pens of Windsor pigs.

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL IMPROVEMENT
SOCIETY AT CORK.

Silver medal, as the breeder of the prize boar.

1861.

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY AT LEEDS.

Short-horn bull, CounsE.tor, bred by H.R.H.
Hereford bull calf, Vicror, bred by H.R.H.

 

APPENDIX.

Hereford bull calf, Agax, bred by H.R.H.—
(commended).

Hereford yearling heifer, Dido, bred by H.R.H.—
(commended).

Hereford yearling heifer, Hebe, bred by H.R.H.

Devon bull, Coronet, bred by H.R.H.—third
prize (5/.).

Devon bull calf, Crown Prince, bred by H.R.H.
—second prize (5/.).

Devon cow, Ilex, bred by H.R.H.—first prize
(201.).

Windsor boar, bred by H.R.H.

Windsor sow, bred by H.R.H.

Clydesdale mare—third prize (5/.).

Two Clydesdale fillies—first prize (15/.).

THE SMITHFIELD CLUB.

Devon ox, bred by H.R.H.—third prize (5/.).

Devon cow, Ilex, bred by H.R.H.—(highly com-
mended).

Hereford steer, bred by H.R.H.—third prize (10/.).

Short-horn cow, bred by H.R.H—third prize (5/.).

Devon ox, bred by H.R.H., extra stock

Four pens of Windsor pigs—(one of which was

commended).

MIDLAND COUNTIES’ ASSOCIATION.

Hereford steer, bred by H.R.H.—(commended).

Short-horn cow, bred by H.R.H.

Devon steer, bred by H.R.H.—first prize (10/.),
silver medal, and extra prize of 201.

Devon steer, bred by H.R.H.—second rrize (5/.).

Devon cow, bred by H.R.H.

Three pens of Windsor pigs—one of which received
first prize (10/., silver medal for breeder, and
silver cup for the best pen of fat pigs in the
yard), and another received first prize in its

class (10/., and silver medal to the breeder).
 

ANIMALS EXHIBITED AND PRIZES’ WON BY THE PRINCE CONSORT.

273

The list thus enumerated includes prizes to the amount of nearly 1,000/. in money,

five gold medals, six silver cups, twenty-one silver medals, two bronze medals,

thirteen high commendations, and twenty-one simple commendations.

We add the following list of stock bred by His Royal Highness, and sent to the

Agricultural Shows from the Prince Consort’s farms in 1862 :—

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY AT
BATTERSEA.

Short-horn bull calf, Royat Prince, bred by
H.R.H.

Short-horn in-calf heifer, Gertrude, bred by
H.R.H.

Two short-horn yearling heifers, Lady Constance
and Norma, bred by H.R.H.

Short-horn heifer calf, Rosetta, bred by H.R.H.

Hereford bull, Maximus, bred by H.R.H.—first
prize (801.).

Hereford yearling bull, Garratpr, bred by

Hereford yearling bull, Agax, bred by H.R.H.

Hereford bull calf, Nestor, bred by H.R.H.

Hereford cow, Victoria, bred by H.R.H.

Hereford in-calf heifer, Hebe, bred by H.R.H.

Hereford yearling heifer, Ada, bred by H.R.H.
—first prize (15/.).

Hereford yearly heifer, Princess Alice, bred by
H.R.H.

Hereford heifer calf, Princess Beatrice, bred by

Devon bull, CotoneL, bred by H.R.H.—(highly
commended),

Devon yearling bull, Crown Prince, bred by
H.R.H.—first prize (25/.).

Devon bull calf, Prince Aurrep, bred by H.R.H.
— first prize (15/.).

Two Devon yearling heifers, Fuchsia and Honey-
suckle, bred by H.R.H.

 

Clydesdale stallion, Sir Cuares, bred by H.R.H.

Windsor boar, bred by H.R.H.

Windsor breeding sow, bred by H.R.H.

Pen of Windsor breeding sows, bred by H.R.H.
—(highly commended).

THE SMITHFIELD CLUB.

Devon steer, bred by H.R.H.— third prize (10/.).

Hereford steer, bred by H.R.H.—first prize (301.
and silver medal).

Hereford ox, bred by H.R.H.

Hereford cow, bred by H.R.H.

‘Shropshire heifer, bred by H.R.H.

Pen of nine months’ old Windsor pigs — second
prize (101.).

Pen of fourteen months’ old Windsor pigs — second
prize (10/.).

Windsor pig, shown as extra stock.

MIDLAND COUNTIES’ ASSOCIATION.

Hereford steer, bred by H.R.H.— third prize (5/.).

Hereford steer, bred by H.R.H.

Short-horn heifer, bred by H.R.H.

Devon steer, bred by H.R.H.— second prize (10/.).

Devon steer, bred by H.R.H.

Pen of fat pigs, under ten months old, second
prize (102.).

Two pens of fat pigs, under fifteen months old —
first prize (10/.).

Pen of breeding pigs, under six months old.

NN
A

Abergeldie cottages, 217

Accounts, Farm, 37, 178-188

Agricultural College, 240

— Society of England, 238

— — Presidency of, 254

— — — Ireland, 238

— — — Local, 249

Alverstone cottages, 214

— Homestead, 39

Annuities for labourers, 196,
224

Arboriculture, 19, 67, 70, 169

B
Bagshot Farms, 159, 168
Balmoral Castle, 43
— cottages, 215
Barton Homestead, 24, 25, 27
Benefit Societies, 218
Berkshire pigs, 99, 111
Box-feeding, 79

Breaking up pastures, 40
Brickfield cottages, 212

Cc

Chalk as manure, 41

Chelmsford Agricultural Meet-
ing, 251

Cheviot sheep, 111

Clydesdale horses, 30, 112, 176

Coppice wood, 19

Cottage building, 20, 205

Covered yards, 79, 141

Cow-house, 96

 

INDEX.

Cultivation of Bagshot, 174,
176

— — Balmoral, 53

— — Barton Farm, 33

— — Flemish Farm, 133

— — Norfolk Farm, 152

— — Shaw Farm, 115

D

Dairy details, 106.

Dairy Homestead, 92, 243
Dairy, The old, 104

Devon herd, 153

Domestic Servants, 194
Dorset sheep, 31

Drainage of Home Farm, 114
— — Osborne, 14

— — Windsor Park, 64
Dublin Society, Royal, 239

E

Education of the people, 199,
231

Emperor of the French, 251

Evening school, 100, 232

F

Farm accounts, 37, 180-188

— buildings, 24, 39, 51, 59, 84,
92, 138, 141, 148, 157, 170

— — Theory of, 76

Filter for sewage, 17

Flemish Farm, 83, 122

— Homestead, 136, 138

 

G

Game, 50, 168

Gardens of the Royal Chil-
dren, 22

Golden Lane schools, 202

Grass-land improvement, 123

H

Hemel feeding, 78
Hereford herd, 144
Highland prejudices, 54
— Society, 236

Home Farm, 91

— — report of, 115

1

Implements of the farms, 26,
110, 118, 1389, 152
Invergelder Homestead, 51

L

Labourers’ Friend Society, 190

Labourers, Relation to, 36, 72,
189

— Rewards for, 225, 230

Labour of farms, 35, 118, 177

Land Drainage, 14, 64,114, 130

Landlord, Relations as, 50

Leeds Agricultural Meeting,253

Live Stock of Farms, 31,59, 99,
111, 118, 144, 149, 153, 177

Local Agricultural Societies,
249

Long Walk, The, 65

Lupine, Cultivation of the, 175
276

M
Manure-house, 98
— Application of, 33, 113,
165, 167, 172
Master and servant, 72
Midland Association, 247
Model cottage of 1851, 205-211

N

Norfolk Farm, 81, 151
— Homestead, 150, 156

Oo

Osborne, Climate of, 14, 265
Osborne House, 7

P

Paris International Show, 250

Pigs, 99, 111, 149

Presidency of the Royal Agri-
cultural Society, 254

Prince Consort's Farms, 58

Progress of agriculture, 1

 

INDEX.

R

Rangership of Windsor, 236
Rapley Farm, 173

Rewards to labourers, 225
Rotation of cropping, 161
Royal Dairy, 105

Royal Estates, 7

8

Salisbury Agricultural Meeting,
252

Schools, 50, 119, 283

— Golden Lane, 202

Servants’ Provident Society,
193

Sewage manure, 16-18

Shaw Farm, 73

— Homestead, 85

Shed feeding of sheep, 87

Shorthorn herd, 99

Smithfield Club, 235

Stall feeding, 79

Steam cultivation, 28, 129, 134

LONDON
PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO.

NEW-STREET SQUARE

+3

. Topdressings

 

T

Tanks for liquid manure, 17

Tile Works, 41

Tillage and land drainage, 125

of grass-lands,
128

Town manure, 40

WwW

Whippingham Church, 21

Windsor, Address at the Agri-
cultural meeting at, 247

Windsor cottages, 221

Windsor Park, History of,
63

— Pigs, 99, 111

— Royal Society, 218

Y

York, Address at the Agricul-
tural meeting at, 240