LEICESTER SHEEP AND CATTLE 187 



as well as suited to hills and mountains, native races died away, 

 like Red Indians before the civilised intruders. But gradually 

 supporters rallied round other varieties. Bakewell's weapons were 

 turned against himself. Native sheep of other districts, improved 

 on his principles, began to hold their own, and, though on historical 

 grounds precedence will always be given to the New Leicesters and 

 the South Downs (improved by John Ellman of Glynde, 1753-1832), 

 it may be questioned whether they have not been rivalled and sur- 

 passed by other breeds in the qualities for which they were once 

 pre-eminent. 



In cattle-breeding Bakewell was less successful. It was his 

 material not his system which failed. He endeavoured to found 

 his typical race on the Lancashires or Craven Longhorns, which were 

 the favourite cattle in Leicestershire, and, in his opinion, the best 

 breed in England. He based his improvements on the labours of 

 two of his predecessors. Sir Thomas Gresley of Drakelow, near 

 Burton-on-Trent, began about 1720 the formation of a herd of 

 Longhorns. On this Drakelow blood Webster of Canley, near 

 Coventry, worked, and to his breed all the improved Longhorns 

 traced their descent. Bakewell founded his experiments on a 

 Westmoreland bull and two heifers from the Canley herd. To 

 them he applied the same principles which he followed in sheep- 

 breeding, and with great success. As graziers' stock, the breed 

 was greatly improved. But as milkers, the new Longhorns were 

 deteriorated by their increased propensity to fatness. In a county 

 like Leicestershire, which depended not only on feeding stock but 

 on dairy produce, 1 this poverty of milking quality was a fatal objec- 

 tion. Even in his Longhorns Bakewell did not long retain the 

 lead. It soon passed away from him to Fowler of Rollright, in 

 Oxfordshire. But the breed itself was beaten by one which 

 possessed superior natural qualities. Almost throughout England 

 the Durham Shorthorns, founded on the Holderness and Tees- 

 water cattle, jumped into the first place, as the best rent-payers, 

 both as milkers and meat-producers. The Ketton herd of Charles 

 Colling became to cattle-breeders what Bakewell's Dishley flock of 



1 Mrs. Paulet of Wymondham, in the Melton district of Leicestershire, ia 

 said to have been the first maker of Stilton cheeses. She supplied them to 

 Cooper Thornhill, who kept the Bell Inn at Stilton (Hunts) on the great 

 north road from London to Edinburgh, and they became famous among his 

 customers, and throughout England. The manufacture of Stilton cheeses 

 became an industry of the district. Mrs. Paulot was still living in 1780. 



