down, Buckley and Stone have the Bakewell interest equally in keeping, and a word to say on the Welsh and Spanish wool samples. On the root-table we read the name of "Gibbs." Arthur Young, that learned Thane of agricultural travel, is talking to Mr. Coke and Sir Joseph Banks, that connoisseur in kangaroos, who has four other baronets-Davy, Sebright, Wynn, and Bunbury—all well known in their lines, from the safety-lamp to the Newmarket mile-to keep him in countenance. Sam Whitbread is there, as a matter of course, or it would hardly be a Bedfordshire picture. The Suffolk Punch has a place, and so has the "Teeswater." The "Oakley Hereford bull," under the tree, would seem to be the reigning favourite; and Wetcar, the herdsman, is described as the man "who fed all the beautiful oxen sent from Creslow."

The present Woburn flock consists of four hundred Southdown ewes, which have been kept up by rams of Ellman, Webb, and Walsingham blood. Oxford Down wethers are kept on the outlying parts of the estate. At one time, the late Duke sent good Southdowns to the Smithfield Club, as well as Leicester Downs; but none have been fed for seventeen years. The once celebrated "Woburn White" pig has had to give way to the Berkshire, which has been crossed occasionally with the middle-weight Yorkshire; but pigs are not made the same point of as when, at least, five score were on daily rations of skim milk and Indian corn, and ate up to their weight.

The Hereford herd was commenced in 1801, when Duke John, whose taste lay chiefly in sculpture, succeeded his brother Francis. The Duchess had a fancy for Ayrshires, Alderneys, and Scotch sheep; and His Grace began with a few shorthorns, but soon exchanged them for "the mottle faces." The herd took two first prizes in Goswell Street with steers as well as the gold medal; and it has gone steadily on till it has gained a seventy years' title to the soil. There are generally about twenty-five cows, and a score of polled Suffolks have been added of late years and crossed with the Hereford bull. We found the old herdsman strong on the Hereford faith, and quite eloquent upon the Bright Eyes' tribe, with "their darker skins, deep red round the eyes, spotted faces, and heavy flesh." He esteemed the Keightleys, with their white sides, as better milkers and lighter-fleshed. A picture in the Abbey drew forth his warmest sympathies. "There's Bright Eyes in it, and her daughter; she be lying down; the shepherd's coming off the hill like, with a donkey-cart, and going to meet a boy with the sheep. John Ricketts, that's my name. I be there, too; he put me in, did the gentleman,

just behind the Cambridge bull. My picture's in two places in the Abbey." Most of the leading Hereford breeders have had a bull under orders for Woburn; but Ricketts shall speak for himself again: "Lord Berwick's Bluenose, he brought substance; and the heifer calves, especially, fell large. Mr. Monkhouse's Stripling had good, deep flesh, but he was a bit sharp in his hair. He did better for us, did Mr. Hewer's Victory, than his Sir George. Mr. Prince's Victory gave us curly coats and more room; but he was a room-full bull himself. His Napoleon the First," &c. And so he went on, did that little beef-and-hair philosopher through the ranks of the departed. Royal Oak, by Battersea, had just arrived from Mr. Baldwin's sale, and he had passed him as "a promising lad.”

The third crop of Victory calves were running with their dams in the park. Once upon a time they had only ten days at the teat; but now they have six or seven months of it, and their fine lusty frames, curly coats, and faces well smeared with milk, told of comfort and plenty in the land. In the Elm Walk, we found the Hereford-Suffolk stock; but the cross had brought them rather light-fleshed. Nearly all of them had kept the white face of the Hereford, and resolutely refused to do more than put out slugs or snails for horns. Shorthorn on Suffolk-which is now the universal plan-had answered better, and engrafted the horn; but the cherry red of Suffolk had refused to yield, and the flank, quarters, and belly had merely a dash of grey. Hereford on Ayrshire has also answered well.

We fairly lost, and never wished to find ourselves again that afternoon, in delicious wanderings without chart or compass, on a hack, over all that wild domain,-now plunging into glens deep in dock and fern, now cantering along grassy rides lined with evergreens and rhododendrons; now twisting out a line for ourselves down rich laurel banks, with cedars of Lebanon, and Liberian firs overhead.

"Kilve, thought I, is a favoured place,

And so is Liswyn farm;"

but always reserving the shore of Sutherland, give us an early autumn ride or ramble, through Penryn, Cortachy, the valley of the Hodder, and the woods and glades of Woburn.

H. H. D.

ILLUSTRATED NEWSPAPERS.

NEW mania in journalism. The newspaper has arrived at the illustrated phase. Comic literature has come out of the epidemic tolerably successfully; the magazines have got down to a dead level of bad drawing and worse engraving; and now comes the turn of the more serious publications—the newspapers. We shall soon see what they make of it. The growing taste for pictures, and the demand for art education, has recently brought into existence two illustrated papers, which are, in every respect, novelties in journalism. We allude to the Graphic, and the Illustrated Midland News.

Looking at what the provinces had achieved in the way of newspapers, the projectors of the Illustrated Midland News declared that the time had arrived when the country might fairly compete with London in the production of an illustrated newspaper. As the metropolis of the Midlands, they selected Birmingham for their headquarters. In September, last year, the paper appeared. The first number reached nearly thirty thousand copies. In less than two months we find the editor writing almost pathetically of the difficulties attending the publication of an illustrated paper in the provinces :

"With plenty of money there is no difficulty whatever in producing a magnificent illustrated paper in London. Every appliance for the work is at your command. Artists, engravers, printers, are on the spot ready to receive and execute your orders. In the country all is new and strange. There is hardly an artist in the provinces who can draw upon the wood for newspaper illustrations; and we have met with no engraver who could cut the artist's work, supposing the block was prepared. Ninety-nine out of every hundred printers in the country know nothing of bringing up cuts.' To print an illustrated newspaper in Birmingham is to introduce a new industry into the provinces. In face of enormous difficulties we have started this new industry; we have added a new branch to provincial printing; we have added a fresh page to the history of provincial journalism; we have shown, once more, that with energy and perseverance the country can do all that London can do in journalism"

Not quite all. The writer gushed just a trifle in this part of his leader. He would admit the soft impeachment we are sure. But here are some details which are interesting :—

"We have had some curious instances of the general want of knowledge con

cerning pictorial papers. Our artist was present the other day at a festive gathering. The director was astonished that a picture of the event could not be published in the current issue of our paper, which would appear two days afterwards. Some of our readers would be exceedingly surprised could they watch the progress of a local illustration from its commencement until its publication in the Illustrated Paper. In the first place the artist must make his sketch; then he, or a draughtsman having special experience of the subject, re-draws the sketch upon a prepared block of wood. He must define every detail with care and exactness. When his work is finished the wood holds a high-class drawing, such as might cost you in an ordinary way from five to fifty guineas. It has then to be engraved. Supposing the picture is a large one, the block is divided and placed in the hands of several engravers. They cut the wood, with the sharpest of edge tools, into such a shape that the printer can take impressions from it. This process alone, for a block the full size of one of our pages, cannot be covered, in the most ordinary case, by an expense of less than twenty guineas. Twenty guineas for the mere engraving of a single picture! It is then far from ready to print. The practised machine-printer, with something of an artist's feelings for the lights and shadows of the drawing, next proceeds to prepare his block for the press. Special overlays and underlays, bearers for the lighter parts, strengthening coverings for the heavier shadows, have to be cut and carved and fitted. The whole process is one requiring the greatest care and judgment; and all this work is supplemented with the ordinary labours attending the publication of a newspaper. If any difficulty arises in the course of the work, there are no skilled hands in the next street to render assistance. A few weeks ago we felt these obstacles immensely. We feel them no longer. Our last impression is one that we can point to with honest satisfaction."

The editor wrote this in November. The Graphic had not then appeared. Within the last few weeks the provincial conductor has made further progress in his mechanical arrangements. Some of his illustrations have by no means been up to the high standard of excellence which is necessary to maintain the success of the early numbers. These, however, were the work of London artists and engravers of repute. Perhaps the engraver was overworked, or taxed too much in the way of rapid production. Determined to overcome every obstacle, the conductor of this difficult enterprise has at last began to produce his woodcuts at home. This has only been accomplished by taking London engravers down to Birmingham; but for the first time wood engraving, for an illustrated periodical, has been done in Birmingham. An interesting correspondence on the subject has appeared in the Birmingham Daily Post, in which it is proposed to form a class for engraving in connection with the School of Art. The conductor of the new paper has, therefore, done this for the provinces: he has produced an illustrated newspaper out of London, printed and published it, and he will shortly complete his scheme by having his illustrations engraved on his own premises in that extraordinary town of Birmingham which makes everything:

if it be grateful, it will make the fortunes of the proprietors of the Illustrated Midland News.

It is not a little singular that illustrated journalism should owe so much to countrymen. Mr. Ingram, the founder of the Illustrated London News, was a Lincolnshire man, and he projected the famous London paper at Nottingham. His partner, Mr. Cooke, (who is connected with the Graphic) was a native of Worcestershire. It is said that the London News paid from the first week. The idea occurred to Mr. Ingram through the great additional sale which any newspaper in London or the country obtained when accompanied by a picture. "If one illustration makes so much difference," said Mr. Ingram, "what an enormous sale a paper would have which should be full of pictures." Everybody knows what a happy thought that was. The Illustrated London News is famous, as it deserves to be, all over the world. Competitors from time to time have sprung up, with but partial success. Mr. Ingram was jealous of opposition. He bought the Illustrated Times, and this, together with the Penny Illustrated Paper, belongs to the same proprietary as the News. Mrs. Ingram, a most estimable lady (widow of the late proprietor, who was member for Boston), is the sole owner of the Illustrated London News. The first Christmas supplement of that paper was suggested by Mr. Ingram, and produced by the veteran journalist, Mark Lemon, whose pen (with that of the most graceful essayist of these modern days, Shirley Brooks) has adorned its pages ever since. The illustrated paper for the country did not profess rivalry with the London paper. It is half the price, and is modest in its aims, appealing to the country and "to Midlanders everywhere;" but the Graphic challenged illustrated literature generally. It raised its standard in the Strand; it openly declared that there never had been a really good illustrated paper; and it claimed the foremost place in picture papers. With regard to wood engravings, the Christmas number of the Graphic was certainly a triumph of art. There has not been anything in England superior to it. Since then, some of its current numbers have been nearly equal to the supplement. But the Graphic can hardly be called a newspaper. It is a critical and art review, a weekly magazine, a pictorial essayist; and it is, without doubt, a remarkable and fine work-highly creditable to English art and English enterprise. In America it has been the cause of a general press discussion. Harper's Weekly has reproduced nearly all the Graphic pictures. Pressmen in this country would at once believe that the Graphic had made an arrangement with Harper for the purchase of electrotypes from the Strand; but this