54 BAKEWELL AND THE GE*AZIER'S ART 



even by interviews with the Shorthorns or new Leicesters 

 which were paraded through the county. The formation 

 of herds became a favourite pursuit of the wealthy. Flora 

 Maclvor might herself have lived to see the day when 

 country gentlemen were breeders of cattle without being 

 ' boorish two-legged steers like Killancureit.' 



Bakewell was a man whose energy and skill deserved 

 success. He was unpopular in his day because of his 

 secrecy ; he had no confidant except an old shepherd. So 

 lavish was his hospitality that before the end of his life he 

 had to give up his farm, and died in comparative poverty. 

 His irrigated water meadows, producing four crops a 

 season, his miniature canal, by which the produce of the 

 farm was conveyed to and fro, as well as his skill in stock- 

 breeding, prove him to have been a man far in advance 

 of his age as a scientific and practical farmer. 



