THE NEW LEICESTER BREED. 193 



Controversies have arisen regarding the parent stock from 

 which Bakewell produced his breed. He himself chose to 

 adopt a studied mystery on the subject. Some have imagined 

 that the basis of his breed was the Old Lincolnshire, some 

 the Tees water, some the Warwickshire, while others con- 

 tend that he crossed with the By eland, the South Down, the 

 Cham wood Forest, or some other of the Short-woolled breeds, 

 in order to communicate that fineness of bone, and peculiar 

 character of wool, distinctive of' his breed. But whatever 

 were the first experiments of Bakewell, the knowledge of 

 them perished with the individual ; and there is nothing in 

 the breed, as it was at length perfected, which can enable us 

 to explain the progressive steps by which its characters were 

 acquired. In one of his letters to Mr Chaplin, he admits that 

 he had at one time made use of Old Lincoln rams ; but he 

 states, at the same time, that he had not done so for many 

 years, and he ever afterwards expressed the utmost dislike 

 of this coarse and unthrifty breed, which was, indeed, the 

 most removed of any other from the model which his own 

 principles of breeding led him to adopt. Neither was the 

 Old Teeswater one which presented the characters required. 

 This, it has been seen, was a very large and coarse breed, 

 and not one, therefore, which Bakewell was likely to select 

 as the basis of a stock, of which he sought rather to diminish 

 than increase the size. Besides, the wool of the Old Tees- 

 water Breed was extremely long in the filaments, and differed 

 greatly in this respect from the shorter and finer fleece ac- 

 quired by the New Leicesters. All the presumption is, that 

 the basis of Bakewell' s breed was the Long-woolled Sheep 

 of the midland counties, from which he may be supposed to 

 have made such selection as suited his purposes. On his 

 obtaining his paternal farm, he would necessarily succeed to 

 a stock of sheep similar to that which existed on the neigh- 

 bouring farms, and it would only be in accordance with the 

 practice of ordinary caution, that he should endeavour to im- 

 prove this stock rather than at once adopt another of a dif- 



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