The Small House at Allington

Chapter 32

Pawkins's in Jermyn Street

The show of fat beasts in London took place this year on the

twentieth day of December, and I have always understood that a

certain bullock exhibited by Lord De Guest was declared by the

metropolitan butchers to have realised all the possible excellences

of breeding, feeding, and condition. No doubt the butchers of the

next half-century will have learned much better, and the Guestwick

beast, could it be embalmed and then produced, would excite only

ridicule at the agricultural ignorance of the present age; but Lord

De Guest took the praise that was offered to him, and found himself

in a seventh heaven of delight. He was never so happy as when

surrounded by butchers, graziers, and salesmen who were able to

appreciate the work of his life, and who regar