60 CATTLE SHORTHORNS 



Little is known of the breed, except from the uncertain 

 authority of tradition, down to the early part of the 

 eighteenth century, though it is only right to infer that long 

 before this time great care, and even skill, had been bestowed 

 upon it. The earliest records show that purity of breed was 

 fully appreciated, and this important fact could not have 

 been universal without previous experience and attention, 

 although the fashionable types of the breed have been re- 

 cently formed. Low says in the Domesticated Animals of 

 the British Isles (1845): 



"Up to the period of the American War (1812-5) tne 

 Teeswater breed had not gained greatly in public estimation 

 beyond the district to which it had early extended. Great 

 size seems to have been chiefly aimed at by the breeders ; 

 and the animals, though valued on this account, were of 

 forms comparatively coarse, great consumers of food, and 

 deficient in many of those points which are now regarded as 

 essential in a well-formed ox" 



The first volume of Coates' Shorthorn Herd Book was 

 not published till 1822, yet, for well-nigh half a century before 

 that date, pedigree records, of a more or less imperfect kind, 

 had been kept of a few of the best bulls. " Very few pedigrees 

 can now be traced by names on the female side beyond the 

 year 1780, and but comparatively few beyond 1800" (Sanders). 



Charles and Robert Colling, 1 of Ketton Hall and 

 Barmpton, near Darlington, who have been called, rather 

 misleadingly, " the founders of the Shorthorn breed of cattle," 

 soon after 1780 did much to improve the quality and to 

 extend the fame of this hitherto local breed by what may be 

 termed Bakewell 2 of Dishley's method of breeding, which 

 might be briefly defined as a persistent system of " in-and- 

 in breeding" with specially selected and carefully mated 

 animals of good blood. The brothers, though admittedly 

 excellent judges and managers of stock, yet owe, in a great 

 measure, their success and the name they have handed down 

 to posterity to their methods of bringing their animals to the 

 notice of the public. Two famous beasts the " Durham 

 Ox," born I796, 3 with a live-weight of ij tons, and the 



1 Charles, the greater though the younger brother, 1750-1836; Robert, 

 1749-1820. 



2 Robert Bakewell, born 1725, died 1795. 



3 A son of "Favourite" by a common black-and-white cow bought 



