THE BOEDER LEICESTER BREED OF SHEEP. 263 



from a distance purcliased rams from him, for which they paid 

 the extravagant sum, at that time, of two and three guineas 

 per head." Owing, however, to some cause — most likely to the 

 absence in Allom of that force of character and extraordinary 

 skill that were characteristic of his great successor — this effort, 

 as has been said, fell away without producing, so far as can now 

 be ascertained, any permanent results. But, as soon as Bake- 

 well took the matter in hand, the lines of reform were at once 

 well and surely laid. This eminent man, for as such he must 

 always be spoken of by sheep-breeders, was born in the year 

 1725, and being the son of " a considerable farmer," was trained 

 for an agricultural life. At Dishley, in the county of Leicester, 

 lie began his experiments in 1755. In regard to the way in 

 which he worked there has all alonj:!: been nmcli speculation ; 

 for the very good reason that any opinion formed on the subject 

 must be founded altogether on inference, and cannot be based 

 on actual knowledue, Bakewell having been to the last studi- 

 ously reticent as to his system, and this probably because he 

 had very little that he really could have told. First of all, there 

 has been much dispute as to the breed with which he began his 

 improvements. By sonie it is insisted that he started by 

 crossing the native sheep with Lincolns ; others hold that there 

 was a dash of liomney Marsh introduced ; and a third opinion 

 is, that it was exclusivelv with the old Leicesters that he 

 worked. In an angry correspondence which passed between 

 Bakewell himself and. Mr Chaplin of Tathwell, Lincolnshire, 

 published in Arthur Young's "Annals of Agriculture in 1788," 

 the cause being that Bakewell had ventured to inspect ^Ir Chap- 

 lin's stock in the absence of the owner, he makes the following 

 statement : — '• I have not used any Lincolnshire rams for twenty 

 years past. Why have you, at different times from the year 

 1773 to 1786, hired from this county?" To show his dislike, 

 however, to that breed of sheep, it is told of him that when 

 last in the county of Norfolk he ate a neck of mutton at an inn, 

 which allbrded him a bone that he considered a curiosity, and 

 therefore kept. It was fully twice the size of that of one of his 

 own sheep, which had 4 inches of fat on it. He made in(]uiries 

 of the butcher where the sheep came from, thinking it might be 

 a Lincoln, but it was clearly ascertained to be a true Norfolk. 

 Writing in the " Farmers' Magazine" in 180.">, the " Northund)er- 

 land Farmer" — whose statements are always worthy of being 

 considered — also speaks of there having been tups of this breed 

 at Dishley. " At that time," he says, " Bakewell was allowed 

 the pick of all the principal Hocks of ewes in his neighbourhood 

 at the rate of 20s. or 21s. per head; but when the price was 

 advanced upon him to 42s. he gave uj), as by that time lie had 

 possessed himself of the best ewes in that part of the kingdom. 



