THOMAS BATES AND THE DUOHESSE8. 75 



always 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 carcass of beef. 



Bates had made up his mind that this Duch- 

 ess blood was the most valuable strain in the 

 entire breed and resolved to persevere in his 

 efforts at acquiring it.* At the Ketton disper- 

 sion in 1810 he bought Young Duchess, a grand- 

 daughter of Duchess by Daisy Bull, sired by 

 the 1,000-guinea bull Comet (155), at 183 guin- 

 eas. She was evidently not one of the best 

 individuals in that memorable sale. Indeed 

 she was pronounced "shabby"' by the whole 

 neighborhood about Halton, Mr. Bates Sr., 

 in particular, ridiculing his son's purchase. 

 Thomas relied upon her breeding and her qual- 

 ity, however, and bided his time. Under the 

 name of Duchess 1st she proved the ancestress 



*In a letter written to Mr. Bailey in 1810 Bates said: "A heifer of this 

 Duchess breed, being the first calf got by old Favorite, weighed when little 

 more than three years old within six pounds of 100 stone, fourteen pounds 

 to the stone, and was allowed to be a greater curiosity than the Ketton ox 

 of the same age when shown with him at Darlington in the spring of 1799. 

 The pedigree of Young Duchess as I received it from Mr. and Mrs. Colling 

 is thus: By Comet, dam by Favorite; grandam by Daisy (a son or Favor- 

 ite); great-grandam by Favorite; great-great-grandam by Hubback; great- 

 great-great-grandam by Mr. Brown's famous old bull of Aldbrough. And 

 what adds to the value of this pedigree is that the cow by Mr. Brown's old 

 bull was as good as any of the tribe since, without her of course being im- 

 proved by those bulls which have so much benefited the other tribes of 

 Short-horns. Mrs. Colling assured me that this tribe has always been the 

 best milking tribe. This Duchess tribe is the only instance now remaining 

 of the produce of Hubback being put to Favorite without some other bull 

 intervening, which circumstance, adde'd to their being a great milk-and- 

 outter tribe, gives them a pre-eminence over any other tribe of Short- 

 horna." 



