THE OLD LINCOLN BREED. 173 



The claims of the modern breed in the end prevailed, and 

 the remarkable old race of the fens was by degrees displaced, 

 or mixed largely in blood with the new variety. The breeders 

 of Lincolnshire doubtless consulted their immediate interests, 

 in availing themselves of the improved stock of Bakewell, to 

 give at once those qualities to their own in which it was defi- 

 cient ; but at the same time, great regret may now be enter- 

 tained, that the native breed had not rather been improved 

 by an application of the principle of selection, than destroyed 

 in its distinctive characters by indiscriminate crossing. The 

 wool of the true Old Lincoln breed was altogether peculiar, 

 and such as no country in Europe produced. That of the 



thought they could see your rams. I told them I was informed on my way to 

 and at Wrangle, that they might. We set forward together, and called at the 

 inn at Wrangle, which I came from the day before, and there passed what you 

 are pleased to term, my ' meanly sneaking into your pastures on the 24th.' 

 We asked a young man if you had any rams there ; he informed us you had. 

 ' Where are they ? ' 'In the close next the house.' ' May we see them ?' 'Yes.' 

 4 Who would shew them ?' 'I will.' From which we supposed he had fre- 

 quently shewn them to others. We then alighted and went into the close ; he 

 opened the pen-gate, and we assisted him in driving them in, about fourteen 

 in number. The age or breed of any of them I do not know. From thence 

 we went to the person who has the care of your rams, about a mile and a-half 

 nearer Skegness, and asked if we could see them ; he refused us, saying he had 

 received orders by a letter from you not to shew them to any one. He was then 

 asked if they had not been shewn before. He answered they had. ' When did 

 he receive the order not to shew them ?' 'On Saturday night last.' Had we 

 known this before, we should not have been guilty of what you term ' such un- 

 warrantable conduct.' I have long made it a rule not to find fault with another 

 person's stock. Why should you be so severe upon mine ? And I now take 

 the liberty of requesting you to explain what you mean ' by sheep without size, 

 without length, and without wool,' which you say I have had the address to 

 impose upon the world ; and of informing you that I am fully persuaded there 

 are ten rams without a cross of the Durham, or any other kind, let for a thou- 

 sand guineas more this season than the same number of the ' true Old Lincoln- 

 shire breed, of the long staple,' some of these at the highest prices, into the 

 counties of Lincoln and Nottingham ; and to breeders, many of whom have 

 used the Dishley sort of sheep for upwards of twenty years, and who have agreed 

 for some, and offer higher prices for others, for future seasons, than they have 

 yet given, and may surely be supposed capable of knowing the value of what 

 ' you have always held to be unprofitable animals.' Did they not find their 

 interest in so doing, would they persevere ? The address must be extraordi- 

 nary, indeed, that could impose upon them against their interest and so 

 experience," 



