Mr. Bates. 147 



record that she gave 14IDS. of butter (21 oz. to the lb.) 

 per week for six weeks after calving. 



" Belvedere" (1706), of the " Princess" tribe, was the 

 bull which Mr. Bates selected to " bring out the 

 Duchesses." He was small and plain, and with 

 rather rough shoulders, but as soft as a mole in his 

 touch. The Brothers Colling had a most faithful 

 disciple in the Kirklevington philosopher, as his cele- 

 brated show-bull " Duke of Northumberland" (1940) 

 was by " Belvedere," dam by " Belvedere ;" and was 

 thus bred on precisely the same principle as four of 

 their leading animals, " Comet" and " The Ox," 

 " Punch" and " Broken Horn" — rather an instructive 

 comment on the popular timidity which eschews 

 even an approach to in-breeding. Mr. Bates led the 

 shorthorn ranks of the Royal Agricultural Society 

 both at Oxford and Cambridge, and it was his lot to 

 breed the second one thousand guinea bull, and to 

 fashion the model of the moulds in which such cows 

 as "Second Grand Duchess," "Oxford 15th," and 

 " Duchess 77th," were duly cast and quickened. Still 

 no one contributed more towards shorthorn progress 

 than Mason of Chilton, who got rid of the open 

 shoulders and improved the fore-quarters generally. 

 His sale in 1829 was to breeders quite a season of re- 

 freshing after a long and dreary drought. Earl 

 Spencer took heart of grace, and bought a bull and 

 sixteen cows and heifers ; and Captain Barclay (who 

 began in 1822) laid a still more solid foundation with, 

 " Lot 20, ' Lady Sarah.' " Such a splendid lot of 

 cows as those at Chilton were seldom seen together, 

 and the one from which Earl Spencer bred most was 

 No. 25 (36 guineas), or Wiseton's dam. 



Whitaker of Burley held his first sale soon after. 

 He had always gone for milking tribes in his quiet 

 Yorkshire valley, and laid much stress upon the pur- 

 chase of " Magdalena," by "Comet" (155), the only 

 cow which was kept out of the Ketton sale catalogue. 



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