INBREEDING. 91 



naturalists term accidental varieties. Though 

 bred in the manner that has been mentioned, 

 he scarcely inherits a single point of the Long- 

 horned breed, his horns excepted. * * * * 

 His horns apart, he had every point of a Hold- 

 erness or a Teeswater bull. Could his horns 

 have been changed he would have passed in 

 Yorkshire as an ordinary bull of either of those 

 breeds. His two ends would have been thought 

 tolerably good but his middle very deficient. 

 He has raised the Longhorn breed to a degree 

 of perfection which without so extraordinary a 

 prodigy they might never have reached." This 

 bull was very prepotent: "It was remarked," 

 says Youatt, "that every cow and heifer of the 

 Shakespeare blood could be recognized at first 

 sight as a descendant of his." In the get of 

 Shakespeare the highest point of excellence 

 and reputation to which the Longhorn ever 

 reached was attained. To quote Youatt once 

 more: "What has become of Bakewell's im- 

 proved Longhorn breed? A veil of mystery 

 was thrown over most of his proceedings which 

 not even his friend Mr. Marshall was disposed 

 to raise. The principle on which he seemed to 

 act, breeding so completely in and in, was a 

 novel, a bold and a successful one. Some of 

 the cattle to which we have referred were very 

 extraordinary illustrations, not only of the 

 harmlessness but the manifest advantage of 



