354 History of the English Landed Interest. 



Bevor's practice, who, as far as possible, filtered tlie liquor 

 through a compost of earth, decayed vegetable matter, and 

 marl,^ and thus retained much of its manurial value. 



Bakewell possessed a considerable amount of dry humour, 

 and delighted in telling people how once, at Loughborough 

 Fair, a sharp-featured grazier demanded of him the selling 

 price of a ram which he had just let for the season at the 

 usual sum of 25 guineas. Seeing that his intending customer 

 knew nothing of the bargain recently completed, and quite 

 as little about the value of the sheep, he asked in jest 25s., 

 upon which the wary dealer tried hard to beat him down 

 to 18s.^ If it be true that this great breeder once received 

 1,200 guineas-^ for the hire of one ram during a single season, 

 the meagreness of this offer is absurd in the extreme. 



Like most public-spirited pioneers of this century, Bakewell 

 had his reverses of fortune, and is said to have been bankrupt 

 in 1776.4 



THOMAS COKE. 



Not far distant from Rainham were situated the estates of 

 Coke, that district which, as Defoe describes, was from Holk- 

 ham as far as Houghton, a wild sheep-walk before the spirit of 

 improvement seized its inhabitants. Not an ear of wheat was 

 to be seen between the Park and Lynn. Rye cultivated with- 

 out manure struggled to exist amidst the hungry soil. At this 

 period its owner was earning for himself the reputation of " the 

 handsome Englishman at Rome." At Longford in Derby- 

 shire can be seen the portrait of a man dressed in a pink and 

 white masquerade dress holding a mask, while in the back- 

 ground is visible the statue of a reclining Cleopatra at the 

 moment that she is supposed to be applying the asp to her 

 arm. This represents the future agriculturist at the period 

 when Horace Walpole writes : " The young Mr. Coke is 

 returned from his travels in love with the Pretender's queen, 



* Eastern Tour, vol. i. pp. 110-115. 



^ Report to the Board of Agriculture, sub voc. " Leicestershire." 



' Chamber's Encyclopcedia, sub voc. " Bakewell." 



" Id., Ibid. 



