COLORS OF THE BATES HERDS. 137 



Wetherell selected two of his bulls at Kirkleavington, which Mr. 

 Bates said he would sell him. Mr. Bates inquired about the herd 

 into which he, Wetherell, proposed to send the bulls. The latter 

 asked, in reply, * of what consequence is that, so long as you get the 

 money for them? ' Mr. Bates rejoined, ''he would not sell any man a 

 bull unless he knew the herd to which he was going, for if the cross did 

 not answer, all the blame would be attributed to the bull' Mr. Weth- 

 erell, on leaving, could not refrain from expressing his opinion in 

 strong terms in regard to Mr. Bates for refusing to sell his cattle at 

 high prices, so long as he got paid for them."* There have been 

 few breeders, we fancy, so fastidious. When a good bargain is offered 

 for a beast they wish to sell, little regard is paid to its destiny. 



Much more might be here related of Mr. Bates and his Short-horn 

 career, as we find a great deal written by him, and of him, in sundry 

 English magazines and journals, some of which is copied into Mr. 

 Bell's history. Another pleasant, gossipy writer, " Druid," whose real 

 name was Dixon, now deceased, related much of him in his " Saddle 

 and Sirloin," a book containing various desultory information about 

 cattle and horse breeders in England within the last thirty years. 

 But they would add little to the substantial fund of information which 

 we have already given, or may yet give, touching the Short-horns and 

 their breeders ; and we have no space for repetition of what does not 

 immediately concern our history; nor do we wish to overload our 

 pages with matter tending to an undue exaltation of Mr. Bates and 

 his stock over other breeders and their stocks equally meritorious in 

 their exertions to improve the quality and blood of their herds. 



But, it is time we close with Mr. Bates. His character has been 

 sketched, faithfully, as we trust, as a man of unflinching integrity and 

 stern honesty of purpose , and if he sometimes indulged in undue 

 partialities towards his own, and unjust prejudices towards the stock 

 of rival breeders, in which the fallibility of his judgment was exposed, 

 we must remember that both he and his herds were also subjected to 

 the attacks/and criticisms of others, which may have tried his patience 

 and vexed tois temper. 



In a brief memoir of Mr. Bates, highly creditable to his character, 

 in the Farmers' Magazine for the year 1850, the writer thus closes: 

 " Active in mind, temperate in his habits, nay, I may say abstemious, 

 for he tasted no intoxicating liquors for some years before his death, 

 and living almost in the open air, he knew little of disease, and seldom, 



* Bell's History. It is not so stated, but we infer that the bulls were not taken. L. F. A. 



