THE LONG-HORNS. 



Here were evident materials for some skillful breeder to work upon ; 

 a connection of excellencies and defects by no means inseparable. That 

 which was good might be rendered more valuable, and the alloy- 

 might be easily thrown off. It was not, however, until about the 

 year 1720 that any agriculturist possessed sufficient science and 

 spirit to attempt improvement in good earnest. A blacksmith and 

 farrier, of Linton, in Derbyshire, on ihe very borders of Leicestershire, 

 who rented a little farm, has the honor of standing first on the list. 

 His name was Welby. He had a valuable breed of cows, which, 

 came from Drakelow house, a seat of Sir Thomas Gresley, on the 

 banks of the Trent, about a mile from Burton. He prided himself 

 much in them, and they deserved the care which he took in improving 

 them and keeping the breed pure ; but a disease, which defied all 

 remedial measures, carried off the greater part of them, thus half 

 ruining Welby, and putting a stop to his speculations. 



Soon after this Mr. Webster, of Canley, near Coventry, distinguiBhed 

 himself as a breeder. He too worked upon Sir Thomas Gresley's 

 stock, some of whose cows he brought with him when he first settled 

 at Canley. He procured bulk from Lancashu-e and Westmoreland, 

 and is said to have had the best «;tock of cattle then known. One of 

 his admirers says that *' he possessed the best stock, especially of 

 beace, that ever were, or ever will be bred in the kingdom." This is 

 high praise, and is evidence of the excellent quaUty of Mr. Webster's 

 breed. 



It is much to be regretted that we have such meagre accounts of 

 the proceedings of the early improvers of cattle. Little more is 

 known of Mr. Webster than that he established the Canley breed, 

 some portion of whose blood flowed in every • improved long-horn 

 beast. 



The bull, Bloxedge, (the Hubback of the long-horns,) indebted to 

 accident for the discovery of his value, was out of a three-year old 

 heifer of Mr. Webster's, by a Lancashire bull, belonging to a neigh- 

 bor. When a yearling, he was so unpromising that he was discarded 

 and sold to a person of the name of Bloxedge, (hence the name of 

 the beast,) but turning out a remarkably good stock-getter, Mr. 

 W^ebster re-purchased him, and used him for several seasons. 



Now appeared the chief improver of the long-horns, to whom 

 his cotemporaries and posterity have adjudged the merit of creating 

 as it were a new breed of cattle. It is a diso-race to the acfiiculture 

 of the times that Bakewell should have been suffered to pass away 

 without some authentic record of the principles that guided him, and 

 the means by which his objects were accomplished. 



The only memoir we have of Robert Bakewell is a fugitive paper 

 in the Gentleman's Magazine, from which every writer has borrowed. 

 Robert Bakewell was born at Dishley, in Leicestershire, about 1725. 

 Having remarked that domestic animals in general produced others 



