THOMAS BATES AND THE DUCHESSES. 99 



saw. As a proof that they have improved under my care 1 may 

 mention that the Duke of Northumberland's dam consumes one- 

 third less food than my first Duchess, purchased in 1804, and that 

 her milk yields one-third more butter for each quart of milk, 

 while there is also a greater growth of carcass and an increased 

 aptitude to fatten. 



"It is now above sixty years since I became impressed with 

 the importance of selecting the very best animals to breed from. 

 For twenty-five years afterward I lost no opportunity of ascer- 

 taining the merits of the various tribes of Short-horns. It was 

 only then that this could be done. There is scarce a vestige now 

 remaining of the many excellent cattle then in existence. Since 

 I became possessed of the tribe I have never used any bulls that 

 had not Duchess blood except Belvedere (1706), and he was the 

 last bull of a long race of well-descended Short-horns without 

 perceiving immediately the error. 



"As the post hour draws near I must conclude in order to en- 

 able you to print this letter in the same paper with the portraits 

 of ' The Duke ' and his dam. I do not expect any artist can do 

 them justice. They must be seen, and the more they are exam- 

 ined the more their excellence will appear to a true connoisseur, 

 but there are few good judges a hundred men may be found to make a 

 Prime Minister to one fit to judge of the real merits of Short-horns." 



Importance of tabulated pedigrees. If Mr. 

 Bates had submitted for publication along with 

 this eulogy of the Duchess family the subjoined 

 tabulation of the Duke of Northumberland's 

 pedigree the propriety of substituting an ac- 

 count of the merits of the Princess for that of 

 the Duchess line might have been suggested. 



Blot out the Princess blood and the dashes of 

 Tied Rose and Marske from this pedigree and 

 there remains but a "thin red line" to preach a 

 Duchess sermon from. "The best bull of his 

 time/' the best bull the keen-witted laird of Kirk- 

 levington ever bred, the bull for which almost 

 any sum could have been had, was indeed a credit 



