372 THE OX. 



He is said to have bred on the basis of cows derived from 

 the stock of Sir Thomas Gresley, but to have afterwards 

 resorted for bulls to Lancashire and Westmoreland. The 

 Canley Breed is described by contemporaries, as being the 

 best that had been then produced in England. 



The Canley Breed, however, after a time, gave place to 

 one yet more distinguished, the formation of which became 

 an era in the history of breeding in this country, and ulti- 

 mately exercised an important influence on a great propor- 

 tion of the Long-horns reared in the British Islands. Robert 

 Bake well of Dishley, in the county of Leicester, was born at 

 that place about the year 1725. His father and grandfather 

 had been considerable farmers upon the same estate ; and, 

 on his succeeding to the farm of Dishley, about the year 

 1755, he began to pursue with diligence those plans for the 

 improvement of the domestic animals, which had, doubtless, 

 occupied the thoughts of his earlier years. He cultivated 

 alike the Sheep, the Ox, the Horse, and the Hog, and ap- 

 pears to have early laid down a set of principles to which he 

 steadily adhered. He sought for the best animals of their 

 respective kinds, and, coupling these together, endeavoured 

 to develope, in the highest degree, those characters which he 

 deemed good. He appears to have disregarded, or made 

 light of, size in all the animals which he reared, and to have 

 looked mainly to those characters of form which indicate a 

 disposition to arrive at early maturity, and become readily 

 fat. He acted to the fullest extent upon the principle that 

 the properties of the parents are communicated to their de- 

 scendants. This led him to attach the highest importance 

 to what is termed blood, or breeding from individuals the 

 descendants of those of approved qualities. A maxim of his 

 was, that " like begets like'" a principle in nothing new, 

 but never, perhaps, acted upon in breeding to the like degree 

 before. He aimed at producing the large cylindrical body, 

 in all the animals destined to be fattened, and a smallness 

 of the head, neck, and extremities, or what is called fineness 



