26-6-1993

Dear Bill,

Yet another short note on our annual holiday. This time we are overlooking the sea in North West Spain. I use the rest to catch up on hobby correspondence  I was very interested in your last letter relating your son’s interest which generated yours. With me I wanted a rabbit when I was nine, but Dad had banties as a boy and suggested Barred Rock Bantams. I still have the same strain with only two injections of fresh blood in 43 years. My grandfather had Houdans for one 60 years and use to exchange breeding cockerels each year with two other fanciers on a round robin bases A-B-C-A. The last year they did it all the men were old so with the combined ages of 248 years. They were fanatics of the breed.

I was encouraged by a very experienced fancier in the village who was 65 years older than me but treated me as an adopted grandson and I repaid him well by helping him with his birds until he was 90, six weeks before he died. He begged me to carry on with his Partridge Wyandotte bantams (exhibition females) which I have done ever since. I have worked hard at them and improved them. He also inspired me into make silver pencilled Wyandotte bantam, which I did 26 years ago and took me 12 years to get like partridge. Now they are identical in quality and some of the best bantams around. So it just goes to show catch them young.

I hope things are keeping well with you and look forward to a letter sometime.

Best wishes.

Sincerely yours,

P.S. I wont talk about cricket, we don’t play it any more.