THOMAS BATES AND THE DUCHESSES 69 



(1790-1831), working with great/enthusiasm. In his after- 

 career every important detail was made the subject of rigid 

 experiments. Bates possessed many friends, but he was not 

 without enemies, made in some instances by his, at that time, 

 unparalleled world-wide reputation as a breeder of fashionable 

 Shorthorns, but also on account of the assertive, " arrogant " 

 way in which he detailed the merits and sounded the praises 

 of his animals, and backed his own methods and beliefs as if 

 they were infallible. The circumstances were all the more 

 irritating to his rivals because there was such a strong 

 foundation of truth underlying much of what he said. The 

 position arose, in a great measure, on account of his infatua- 

 tion about the Duchess strain, and its asserted monopoly of 

 the purity of Shorthorn blood. An unconcealed keenness for 

 success, even to the discomfort of his neighbours, is not a rare 

 quality among successful prize-winners, and with some 

 modern members of the class it resolves itself at times into a 

 question of money. This could not be said of Bates, as the 

 statement of Cadwallader John Bates is freely admitted, 

 that " the national improvement of Shorthorns as paying 

 farm stock, and not the conversion of his own particular herd 

 into the most money possible, was the unswerving aim of 

 Bates' later life " ; and further, it may be said in palliation of 

 his manner, that "a considerable sportive element was 

 mingled in his caustic criticisms of man and beast," and 

 " that his eye had the light of decided genius." 



His opinion of his merits as a judge may be gathered 

 from his assertion that "a hundred men may be found to 

 make a Prime Minister to one fit to judge of the real merits 

 of a Shorthorn." 



His name is most familiarly associated with the Duchess 

 tribe, for which was claimed all the qualities, including that 

 of milk production, which the Shorthorn breed possessed. 



The original Bates " Duchess " by " Daisy Bull " ( 1 86), bought 

 in calf to " Favourite" for 100 guineas, from Chas. Colling in 

 1804, was "a deep, rich milker, making as high as 14 Ibs. of 

 butter per week, and when fed off at seventeen years of age 

 she is said to have made an excellent carcase of beef." 



She was grand-dam to " Duchess ist," the nominal origin of 

 the family under Bates " the highest priced and most widely 

 sought after tribe known in Shorthorn history." It was only 



