THE NEW LEICESTER BREED. 199 



modern breeders are relieved from all necessity of this kind. 

 They can obtain individuals of the form required from dif- 

 feVent flocks of the same breed, and need never, by a con- 

 tinued adherence to the blood of one family, produce animals 

 too delicate in form, deficient in weight of wool, and in that 

 hardiness and soundness of constitution, which are even more 

 necessary than the perfectness of individual form, for the 

 safety and profit of the breeder. The sacrifice of the second- 

 ary properties which Bakewell did not hesitate to make, was 

 the result of circumstances which do not now exist ; and the 

 present feeling of breeders is to maintain a larger and more 

 robust form of the animals than seemed good to the earlier 

 improvers. Thus, the Cotswold Breed of Sheep, though far 

 inferior in form to the pure New Leicester, is maintaining a 

 successful rivalship with it over a large extent of country : 

 the lowland Gloucestershire, the Devonshire, and many of 

 the Lincolnshire agriculturists, are propagating a larger race 

 than is approved of by the Leicester breeders ; and even in 

 the north of England, where the Leicester Breed was early 

 established, a heavier race is preferred to the purest of the 

 Dishley stock. 



But whatever diversities of opinion may exist with respect 

 to the degree of breeding, as it may be called, which it is ad- 

 visable to communicate to the several varieties of Sheep now 

 comprehended under the common denomination of Leicester, 

 no doubt can be entertained of the great benefits conferred on 

 the breeders of the country by the formation and diffusion of 

 the beautiful breed of Bakewell. Its superiority over all the 

 older races of the long-woolled districts is attested by the 

 degree in which it supplanted them, and the eagerness with 

 which it was everywhere received. In less jthan fifty years 

 from the first establishment of the shows of Dishley, it had 

 either superseded all the older Long-woolled Sheep of the 

 country, or been so mingled with them in blood, as to have 

 effaced their former distinctions. Not only did it supplant 

 or become mixed with the older races of heavy Sheep, but, 



