124 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 



guineas (a trifle over $900).* Much chagrin was afterwards mani- 

 fested by the Ceilings when they found that Bates was the purchaser, 

 and Mrs. C. declared to him that had they known it was his bid that 

 was made, the heifer would have been run up to twice or thrice the 

 amount before he could have taken her ! So it appears there was 

 some chicanery practiced in those early days of cattle sales. Bates, 

 however, triumphed on the result of his bargain, as in this heifer he 

 had secured, as it afterwards proved, his grand success and crowning 

 glory as a Short-horn breeder. He called the heifer Duchess ist, 

 (the first one of her tribe recorded in the Herd Book,) and in his 

 hands she became the founder, on the female side, of his Duchess 

 tribe, which he exclusively bred for thirty-nine years afterwards, and 

 which are continued in the hands of several owners in England and 

 America to the present day. 



Mr. Colling had been in possession of the tribe since he bought 

 the original Duchess (Stanwick) cow, in the year 1784, twenty-six 

 years previous to this transfer of Duchess ist to Mr. Bates, so that 

 the tribe on the side of their dams at the present time shows an 

 unbroken lineage of eighty-eight years. 



In 1821 Mr. Bates left Halton, and removed to a farm of 300 acres, 

 at Ridley Hall whether in Northumberland or Durham, we are not 

 informed which he had purchased (tenant right, we suppose) in 

 1818, and remained nine years, until 1830; but the place not alto- 

 gether suiting him, and being rather inconvenient of access, he 

 purchased Kirkleavington, an estate of about 1000 acres, in the valley 

 of the Tees, and removed there in that year. He had now, by vari- 

 ous manipulations and profitable trades in the disposition of his 

 farms and otherwise, together with a legacy from an aunt, become 

 possessed of about ^20,000 ($100,000), which afforded him ample 

 means with which to prosecute his cattle breeding and other labors, 

 and gave him leisure to take part in the political, as well as econom- 

 ical questions of the day, touching the agricultural interests of the 

 country. 



Kirkleavington is thus described : " It is pleasantly situated on 

 rising ground in the vale of Cleveland, and mostly on the new red 

 sandstone formation. It contains some excellent grass land. It had 

 been the seat of the Percys, and afterwards belonged to the Strath- 

 more family, and was many years occupied by the Maynards, well 



* The only bull of the pure Duchess blood in Ceiling's possession at the 1810 sale Duke 

 (226) was sold to Anthony Comptoii, Carham Hall, Northumberland, for 105 guineas. 



