THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION 115 



collected at his farm, were entertained without ceremony 

 in his kitchen. It was Bakewell who systematized 

 stock-breeding, though it was only with sheep that 

 he was permanently successful. He created the new 

 Leicester breed, and his rams went all over England 

 to improve the breed of English sheep. It was said 

 of him that he gave England two pounds of mutton 

 where it had one pound before. He treated all his 

 animals with kindness and kept them scrupulously 

 clean. Although he is most famous as a sheep-breeder, 

 he also bred cattle and horses and was a great advocate 

 of irrigation: on his own farm he made a canal ij miles 

 long for the purpose of flooding his meadows and 

 producing rich crops of grass. 



Many farmers have followed in the steps of Bakewell, 

 but of the men of that time the most famous was 

 Charles Colling (1751-1836). Bakewell had taught 

 Colling the importance of good stock, and Colling 

 applied Bakewell's ideas to cattle-breeding ; his great 

 success was made with his shorthorns. 



While Bakewell and Colling were typical yeomen, 

 Coke of Norfolk (1752-1842) represented a different 

 class. He was a man of property, and when, as 

 a young man of twenty-four, he succeeded to the 

 great estate of Holkham in Norfolk, he had ample 

 wealth at his command ; he was thus able to take 

 advantage of all the knowledge and experience of the 

 pioneers. Over the greater part of his estate there 

 was, when he came into possession, no wheat, nor roots, 

 clover or grasses : only a few poor sheep straggled over 

 the rough land. Two years later, in 1778, he com- 

 menced farming on his own account ; he is said to have 

 spent half a million pounds in reclaiming his land ; and 

 so successful was he that, whilst his tenant farmers 



