48 ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS. 



the trappings of fashion. Then the general ques- 

 tion was, What will be in fashion two years 

 hence? And some people yet living must re- 

 collect what became the fashion : some of the 

 worst animals that ever were introduced under 

 the palliating name of Bakewell, high blood. 

 They had heads like snakes, eyes like hares, and 

 not one feature of a natural sheep. Mr. Bake- 

 well was a great politician, and by forming a 

 society of nearly twenty learned men from dif- 

 ferent counties, no other sheep ever had such a 

 weight of interest twisted, entwined, and wreath- 

 ed in their support. Under these circumstances, 

 for a lot of sheep of any other sort to be brought 

 forward to any public exhibition, were like an 

 individual standing against a crowd ; and as they 

 had possession of most of the best land in the 

 kingdom, it must be something very superior to 

 them to make any sort of stand against them. 

 Be that as it may, Dame Truth is no gossip, if 

 she is spoken with, it must be at home, for she 

 will go to none, and without the old gentle- 

 woman there is no certainty in breeding. I will 

 appeal to any one -who has been a tup man for 

 forty years, whether he has not been frequently 

 disappointed, and sometimes received least when 

 he expected most, and vice versa ; which proves 

 that without that something, which a Bakewell 



