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BAKEWELL 



IT may be doubted whether the idea that their 

 live stock might be improved ever took much 

 hold of British farmers' minds before the arrival 

 of the importations of cattle and other stock from 

 Holland. At any rate it was not the overmaster- 

 ing idea it has since become. For one thing, 

 they knew of nothing either very much better or 

 very much worse than their own, unless, perhaps, 

 on the common frontiers of two races, say the 

 English and the Celtic, or here and there in the 

 north, when the rievers returned from a raid far 

 over the border. It is true that in " Senes- 

 chaucie," written not later than the time of 

 Edward the First, it is laid down that the cow- 

 herd "must see that he has fine bulls and large 

 and of a good breed pastured with the cows." 1 

 It is also true that several English sovereigns 

 took steps to improve the breed of horses, and 

 that Henry the Eighth imposed a fine of forty 

 shillings on "lords, owners, and farmers of all 

 parks and grounds enclosed as is above rehearsed, 



1 Walter of Henley's " Husbandry," pub. 1890, p. 113. 



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