112 EVOLUTION OF BRITISH CATTLE 



improvement, in the established practice of the 

 kingdom at large, are those of selecting females 

 from the native stock of the country, and crossing 

 them with males of an alien breed." ^ It was by- 

 such crossings that a few breeders in the English 

 midlands came to possess some cattle that were 

 better than their neighbours'. 



Then came Robert Bakewell, the master of 

 them all, to show how those somewhat casually 

 obtained improvements might be conserved and 

 perpetuated. Results similar to those obtained 

 by the midland farmers may have been obtained 

 much earlier elsewhere — in Hereford by Lord 

 Scudamore, for instance, or in Lincolnshire — but 

 there is no evidence of Bakewell having had any 

 forerunner. 



The first part of the story may be told by 

 Youatt.^ " It was not, however, until about the 

 year 1 7 20 that any agriculturist seemed to possess 

 sufficient science and spirit to attempt the work 

 of improvement in good earnest. A blacksmith 

 and farrier, of Linton, in Derbyshire, on the very 

 borders of Leicestershire, who at the same time 

 rented a little farm, has the honour of standing 

 first on the list. His name was Wei by. He had 

 a valuable breed of cows which came from Drake- 

 low House, a seat of Sir Thomas Gresley, on the 



* Quoted from Marshall's "Rural Economy of the Midland 

 Counties," published, 1790, in " The Complete Farmer," 4th ed. 

 » "Cattle," p. 190. 



