“It is a proceeding regarded in England as a public event, and all the journals give an account of it with exact care, assembling from every county and even from foreign countries.  The sale begins about two o’clock.  A circle in formed with ropes in a small field near the mansion, where the rams are introduced, and an auctioneer announces the biddings, which are frequently very spirited.  The rams to be let are exposed around the field from the first of the morning, and a ticket at the head of each pen indicates the weight of the fleece of the animal it contains.  Every one takes his notes, chooses the animal he approves of, and can demand the last bidding when he pleases.  The evening after the letting, the numerous company assembles under a rustic shed, ornamented with leaves and agricultural devices.  There tables are laid, around which are placed two or three hundred guests, and then commences one of those antique repasts described by Homer or Rabelais.  The tables groan under the enormous pieces of beef, gigantic hams, etc., which have almost disappeared before the commencement of the sale.  From eight in the morning until two in the afternoon, tables laid out in the dining-room and hall are furnished, only to be refurnished immediately, the end being equal to the beginning.”

This description refers to the thirty-second letting.  Mr. Webb’s flock then consisted of seven hundred breeding ewes, a proportionate number of lambs, and about four hundred rams of different ages.  It was from these rams that the animals were selected which were sent into every country in the civilized world.  The average price of their lettings was nearly 24 pounds each, although some of the rams brought the sum of 180 pounds, or nearly nine hundred dollars!  What would some of the old-fashioned farmers of New England, of forty years ago, think of paying nearly a thousand dollars for the rent of a ram for a single year, or even one-tenth of that sum?  But this rentage was not a fancy price.  The farmer who paid it got back his money many times over in the course of a few years.  From this infusion of the Babraham blood into his flock, he realised an augmented production of mutton and wool annually per acre which he could count definitely by pounds.  The verdict of his balance-sheet proved the profit of the investment.  It would be impossible to measure the benefit which the whole world reaped from Mr. Webb’s labors in this department of usefulness.  An eminent authority has stated that “it would be difficult, if not impossible, to find a Southdown flock of any reputation, in any country in the world, not closely allied with the Babraham flock.”  It is a fact that illustrates the skill and care, as well as demonstrates the value of his system of improvement, that, after thirty-seven years as a breeder, the tribes he founded maintained to the last those distinguishing qualities which gave them such pre-eminence over all other sheep bearing the general name of the