Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/110

 rams were rendered useless by over-fattening. The result was that he resolved to exhibit for the future only young rams. He had great success with his Shearling rams exhibited at the French International Exhibition in 1855, for which he received a gold medal of the first class. The Emperor of the French congratulated him on his success, and admired the beauty of the rams he exhibited. Webb presented him with the choicest specimen, receiving some time afterwards in return ‘a candelabrum of massive silver with appropriate devices.’

In the course of the last two years of Webb's life the Babraham flocks were all dispersed, 969 sheep being sold by auction in June 1862 for 10,926l. He, however, bred cattle with success to the last. His herd of shorthorns, begun in 1838, and recruited by purchase from the celebrated herds of Lord Spencer and Lord Ducie, was mentioned by Mons. Tréhonnais in 1859 as the most important shorthorn herd then existing, and one which had perhaps only been surpassed in beauty and perfection by those of Booth and Towneley. At the Royal Agricultural Society's show held at Battersea in 1862, immediately after the dispersion of his flock of Southdowns, Webb's shorthorn bull calf ‘First Fruit’ gained the gold medal as ‘the best male animal in the shorthorn class’ (for a portrait of this bull see Farmers' Magazine, December 1862.)

Webb died at Cambridge on 10 Nov. 1862 (his birthday) quite suddenly, his end being accelerated by the death only five days before of his wife, to whom he was devotedly attached. He was buried at Babraham on the 14th. He was one of nine children, left nine children himself, and his eldest son, Henry Webb of Streetly, has also had nine children. ‘His honour and scrupulous good faith,’ says the famous French agriculturist M. Tréhonnais, ‘his generosity and uniform affability gained him the respect of everybody.’ Elihu Burritt, in his ‘Walk from London to John-o'Groats,’ gives an interesting description of Webb's life and work. A full-length statue of Webb, erected by public subscription, stands in the corn exchange at Cambridge.

[Farmers' Mag. 2nd ser. xi. 195–7 (March 1845), 3rd ser. xxii. 5–9, 464–6 (July–December 1862), containing a notice which also appeared in the Mark Lane Express, 17 Nov. 1862; Illustrated London News, 1862 (portrait and memoir); Journal of the Royal Agricultural Soc. of England (1846) 1st ser. vii. 60, (1847) viii. 8, (1856) xvii. 37, (1858) xix. 381–2; Ann. Register, 1862, p. 793; Journal of Agriculture, 1863, pp. 202–3, 447–8; Robiou de la Tréhonnais's Revue Agricole de l'Angleterre, 1859, i. 104–10, a biographical sketch with a portrait; Comte Gerard de Gourcy's Second Voyage Agricole en Angleterre, 1847, p. 25, Quatrième Voyage, 1859.]  WEBB, MATTHEW (1848–1883), known as ‘Captain Webb,’ the Channel swimmer, was born on 18 Jan. 1848 at Dawley, Shropshire, where his father and grandfather, alike named Matthew, had both practised as country doctors. His father (b. 1813; d. at Ironbridge, 15 Dec. 1876), who had qualified as M.R.C.S. in 1835, subsequently moved to Madeley and then to Ironbridge, where the swimmer's brother, Mr. Thomas Law Webb, is still in practice. Matthew was one of a family of twelve children, eight of whom were sons. He learned to swim in the Severn before he was eight, and saved the life of a younger brother who was endeavouring to swim across the river for the first time. The perusal of Kingston's ‘Old Jack’ inspired him with a strong desire to go to sea, and having been trained for two years on board the Conway in the Mersey, during which period he saved a comrade from drowning, he was in 1862 bound apprentice to Rathbone Brothers of Liverpool, and engaged in the East India and China trade until his indentures expired in 1866. He then shipped as second mate under various owners, and in 1874 was awarded the first Stanhope gold medal upon the occasion of the centenary dinner of the Royal Humane Society, for jumping overboard the Cunard steamship Russia on 22 April 1873 while a stiff breeze was blowing and the ship cutting through the water at the rate of 14½ knots, in an endeavour to save a seaman who had fallen from the rigging (Swimming Notes and Record, 1884; Royal Humane Society Annual Report, 1874). Soon after this he backed himself to remain in the sea longer than a Newfoundland dog, and after Webb had remained in the water about an hour and a half it was found that ‘the poor brute was nearly drowned.’

In January 1875 Webb joined the Emerald of Liverpool, and acted as captain for six months; but in June of this year he determined to relinquish the mercantile marine. In the following month he established a record among salt-water swimmers by a ‘public swim’ from Blackwall Pier to Gravesend, a distance of some twenty miles, in 43/4 hours (3 July); this was eclipsed on 25 July 1899 by M. A. Holbein.

At the beginning of August 1875 public interest was greatly aroused by the announcement that Webb intended to attempt the