BAKEWELL iii 



who shall willingly suffer any of the said mares 

 to be covered or kept with any Stoned Horse 

 under the stature of fourteen handfuls." ^ And 

 advice like the following is found in some seven- 

 teenth and eighteenth century writings : The 

 cattle "in Somerset-shire and Glocester-shire, 

 are generally of a blood red colour, in all shapes 

 like unto those in Lincoln-shire, and fittest for 

 their uses. Now to mix a race of these and the 

 black ones together is not good, for their shapes, 

 and colours are so contrary, that their issues are 

 very uncomely : therefore I would wish all men 

 to make their breeds, either simply from one and 

 the same kind, or else to mix York-shire with 

 Stafford-shire, with Lanca-shire or Darby-shire, 

 with one of the black races, and so likewise 

 Lincoln-shire with Somerset-shire or Somerset- 

 shire with Glocester-shire."'' Yet it does not 

 appear that there ever was any clear idea of 

 improving the cattle of the country till the seven- 

 teenth and the eighteenth centuries ; and the first 

 sign of it lay in the Dutch importations, or rather 

 not so much in the importations themselves, for 

 the original importers may have intended to keep 

 the imported stock pure, as in the phenomenally 

 rapid swamping of the native cattle by continued 

 crossing with imported stock. ** The means of 



* Ridgeway's "Origin and Influence of the Thoroughbred 

 Horse," 1905, p. 360. 



2 Markham's " Cheap and Good Husbandry," 1683, p. 70. 



