194 THE SHEEP. 



ferent race. It is commonly believed, that a little before 

 the improvements of Bakewell, one breeder, at least, in the 

 county of Leicester, had acquired the distinction of possessing 

 superior sheep, and disposed of rams for the purpose of breed- 

 ing. Whether Bakewell owed anything to the anterior im- 

 provements of others, is unknown. From what we know of 

 his character and habits, he himself would have been the last 

 to acknowledge his obligations to another breeder ; but he 

 used such precautions for concealing the sources from which 

 he derived the means of improving his animals, as may well 

 favour the suspicion that he was not wholly without obliga- 

 tions to the labours of his cotemporaries or predecessors. 

 With respect to the opinion that he crossed his stock with 

 the Short-woolled Sheep, it rests upon no actual knowledge 

 of the fact. It appears that he made numerous experiments 

 in the early period of his breeding ; and it is not impossible 

 that he may have made a partial cross by such animals as 

 seemed to suit his purposes, without reference to their origin. 

 A certain darkness of colour in the skin of the face of his 

 Sheep may seem to favour the opinion that he had made a 

 cross with some of the dark-faced Down or Forest breeds ; 

 but we do not know whether the Old Leicesters did not, like 

 the Southam Notts, and some others of the larger varieties, 

 possess something of this peculiarity. With regard to the 

 delicacy of form, and shortness of wool, of the New Leicester 

 Breed, it is not necessary to account for their existence by 

 resorting to the supposition of a mixture of blood with any of 

 the short-woolled races. Both characters were necessarily 

 communicated by the system of breeding which Bakewell 

 pursued. Not only did he regard the growth of wool as 

 a secondary effect, but he appears to have entertained the 

 opinion, that the production of a large quantity of wool was 

 inconsistent with the property of yielding much fat ; and this 

 opinion would necessarily conduct him to the choice of ani- 

 mals for breeding which produced a lighter fleece. Besides, 

 the Sheep of the midland counties did not always produce 



