THOMAS BATES AND THE DUCHESSES. 107 



ond on 2d Duke of Oxford. It is insisted, how- 

 ever, that the decisions gave universal dissatis- 

 faction. This was his last appearance in the 

 show-yard. He had bitterly opposed the whole 

 system of training cattle for show,* and was 

 wont to ridicule the claims of most of the 

 winners. 



Dispersion of the herd. On the 25th of July, 

 1849, at the age of seventy-four years, after a 

 half a century's work with Short-horns, Thomas 

 Bates passed to his rest, and was buried in 

 the little church-yard at Kirklevington. " The 

 Druid" tells us that "his heart was with horn 

 and hoof to the last. Those who strolled with 

 him in his pastures recalled how the cows and 

 even the young heifers would lick his hand and 

 seem to listen to every gentle word and keen 

 comment as if they penetrated its import; and 

 even when the last struggle was nigh and he 

 could wander among them no more he reclined 

 on some straw in the cow-house that his eye 

 might not lack its solace." 



Of the five nephews of Mr. Bates but one, 



* " Bates was disgusted at the amount of fulsome nonsense written 

 about the ' invincible Belleville (6T78), which won the champion prize, and 

 considered it his duty to warn foreigners against supposing- that the deci- 

 sions at the Royal Shows, given by judges who were indirectly interested 

 in the success of the prize animals, were any guarantee of their usefulness 

 as breeding stock, * * On one occasion he drove a friend over from 

 Kirklevington to see Belleville at Mr. J. Mason Hopper's, at Newham 

 Grange, a few miles off. They met Hopper on the road. Bates greeted him 

 with: ' I am bringing my friend to see your bull. I have told him that he 

 is very fat and very quiet.' Hopper, who was rather a rough diamond, re 

 plied . 4 If that's all you can tell him, gang back; ye need gae no farther. ' 

 -Thomas Bates and the Kirklevington Short-horns. 



