improvements which are now universally
established and admitted in this country
where the growth of meat—less than the
dairy, as in Holland and Switzerland—is the
principal object. He tried to produce a large
cylindrical body, small head, small neck, small
extremities, and small bone. He said that all
was useless that was not beef; and sought,
by choosing and pairing the best specimens,
to make the shoulders comparatively small,
and the hind quarters large, which is exactly
the reverse of animals allowed to breed freely,
and to gallop at liberty over wide pastures.
Even the cattle of Australia bred from pure
specimens, after running wild for a few
generations, begin to lose the fine sirloins of
their English ancestors, growing tough and
stringy for the spit in proportion as they
become active.

In sheep, Mr. Bakewell declared that his
object was mutton, not wool; and, disregarding
mere size which is a vulgar test of
merit, he chose animals which had that
external form which is a sign of producing
the most muscle and fat, and the least bone;
and, by careful selection and breeding, he
stamped a form on the Leicester sheep which
it retains to this day.

The South Downs, doubtless an indigenous
breed, feed on the bare pasture of the
southern coast, produce a fine quality of
meat, and a close short wool. It was the
turnip that rendered feeding the South
Down while young possible. The great
improvement began with John Ellman of
Glynde, near Lewes, in the year seventeen
hundred and eighty. He preserved the form
of the original breed, but corrected the too
great height of the fore-quarters, widened
the chest, made the back broader, the ribs
more curved, and the trunk more symmetrical
and compact. The ancestors of the present
race were rarely killed until the third or
fourth year. They are now sent to execution
at two years, and sometimes even at fifteen
months old. They have since spread far;
superseding the breeds of Berkshire,
Hampshire, Wiltshire, crossing and altering the
Shropshire, extending into Dorsetshire,
Surrey, Norfolk, Devonshire, Herefordshire,
Wales, and even toward Westmoreland and
Cumberland, and have improved all the
breeds of blackfaced heath sheep.

The crowning events in the history of beef
and mutton bring us back to agricultural
shows; which were established by James Duke
of Bedford at Woburn, and by Mr. Coke,
afterwards Earl of Leicester, at Holkham. At
these "sheepshearings" the great houses were
thrown open to agriculturists of all countries
and counties. Stock were displayed,
implements were tried, prizes were distributed,
and gentlemen of rank and fortune,
of all opinions and politics, threw themselves
with enthusiasm into agricultural discussions,
and enjoyed the excitement of hospitality,
competition, and applause. For instance,
in seventeen hundred and ninety-nine, we
find in the Gentleman's Magazine, in an
account of a Woburn sheepshearing, held on
the twenty-first of June, names since become
classical in connection with pure breeds:
Coke of Norfolk; Quartley, from Devonshire;
Parsons, from Somersetshire; Ellman,
from Sussex; worthy successors in the cattle-
breeding art, of Bakewell, the brothers
Collings, Tompkins, Lord Somerville, and several
others. "From one hundred to a
hundred and ninety sat down to dinner
for five days successively. Premiums for
cattle, sheep, and ploughing were distributed
and his Grace let above seventy South Down
and new Leicestershire rams for one thousand
pounds. The conversation was entirely
agricultural, and the question was discussed
whether the new Leicester or the South
Down were the better breed of sheep."

THE TURKS' CELLAR

I enter the old town of Vienna from
Leopolstadt by the Ferdinand bridge; and,
walking for a few minutes parallel with the
river, come into a hollow called the Tiefer
Grund; passing next under a broad arch
which itself supports a street spanning the
gulley, I find on the left hand a rising-ground
which must be climbed in order to reach a
certain open space of a triangular form,
walled in by lofty houses called "Die
Freiung," the Deliverance. In it there is an
an old wine-house, the Turks' Cellar, and there
belongs to this spot one of the legends of
Vienna.

In the Autumn of the year sixteen hundred
and twenty-seven, when the city was so
closely invested by the Turks, that the
people were half famished, there stood in
the place now called "Freiung," or
thereabouts, the military bakery for that portion
of the garrison which had its quarters in the
neighbourhood. The bakery had to supply not
only the soldiers; but bread was made in it to
be doled out to destitute civilians by the
municipal authorities; and, as the number of
the destitute was great, the bakers there
employed had little rest. Once in the dead of the
night while some of the apprentices were
getting their dough ready for the early morning
batch, they were alarmed by a hollow
ghostly sound as of spirits knocking in
the earth. The blows were regular and
quite distinct, and without cessation until
cockcrow. The next night these awful
sounds were heard again, and seemed to
become louder and more urgent as the day drew
near; but, with the first scent of morning air,
they suddenly ceased. The apprentices gave
information to the town authorities; a
military watch was set, and the cause of the
strange noises in the earth was very soon
discovered. The enemy was under ground; the
Turks, from their camp on the Leopoldsberg,
were carrying a mine under the city; and, not