LEICESTERS. 19 



has now been raised to a position of greater eminence by the 

 formation of an Agricultural Department of the State. The 

 master-mind from whom Culley and Charles Colling derived 

 their inspiration should not be lost sight of or allowed to be 

 forgotten, for if the torch and fire of genius are to be claimed 

 or accredited to any it is to the poineers of a new and great 

 movement like this. A monument to Bakewell, flanked with 

 effigies of the horses, cattle, and sheep which he ennobled, 

 and adorned with a fitting inscription, would be as dignified 

 in its silent teaching as that of a Stephenson, a Watt, or a 

 Cartwright ; and no place would be more suitable for its site 

 than the metropolis of the country which he so well and un- 

 consciously served. He was no seeker of or candidate for 

 future fame, but as a farmer he worked without ostentation, 

 until his influence spread itself over every civilised country of 

 the globe. 



Robert Bakewell, of Dishley, Loughborough, commenced 

 the improvement of his county breed of sheep in or about 

 1755. The merit of his work consisted in his practically 

 realising the fact that the properties of parents may be trans- 

 mitted to their offspring until fixity of type is the result ; also 

 in his innate power of discerning by an animal's external form 

 and " quality " that it possessed the properties he desired to 

 perpetuate. He was able to discriminate between size and 

 quality. He discerned the correlation between the kind of 

 symmetry which he desired to see and aptitude to fatten 

 that is utility of form and in this he evinced genius. 



The result of Bakewell's work was the formation of an im- 

 proved sheep somewhat less than the original type, but more 

 symmetrical, thicker, deeper, and possessed of greater fatten- 

 ing properties as well as earlier maturity. Unfortunately the 

 wool was neglected. His success as a sheep breeder is best 

 indicated by the appreciation in which his animals were held. 

 From a few shillings a head (it is stated that his first rams 

 offered for letting only made 175. 6d. each) the price rose to 

 100 gs., and in 1786 he made 1,000 gs. by the letting of his 



