MEN OF SCIENCE IN LEICESTER AND LEICESTERSHIRE 85 
he went to London, and there he was a very successful practitioner in 
astrology—not without some mixture of medicine and politics. He 
wrote his autobiography. He occupies more than eight columns in the 
Dictionary of National Biography. 
The next name is that of the Rev. William LupLam (1717-1788), 
mathematician. He was the son of Richard Ludlam, M.B. Cambridge, 
who practised in Leicester. He went from Leicester Grammar School 
to Cambridge and became a Fellow of St. John’s College. In 1749 he 
was Vicar of Norton-by-Galby, Leicestershire. In 1768 he had the living 
of Cockfield in Suffolk. He then gave up his fellowship and came to 
live with his brother Thomas, who was Confrater of the Wyggeston 
Hospital in Leicester. In 1772 he married, but he lived on in Leicester 
till his death in 1788. During these last twenty years of his life he wrote 
most of his works. His Rudiments of Mathematics (1785) ‘ became a 
standard Cambridge text-book, it passed through several editions and was 
still in vogue in 1815.’ Six other mathematical publications are named 
in the Dictionary of National Biography. An essay of his on Newton’s 
Second Law of Motion, for which he proposed to substitute something 
of his own, was rejected by the Royal Society. The Society accepted 
papers by him on mechanics and on astronomy. 
Robert BAKEWELL (1725-1795), the son of a farmer, was born at Dishley. 
He succeeded his father in the farm and became one of the most successful 
and perhaps the most renowned of scientific agriculturists. His fame 
rested on his great success in improving the breed of sheep. He developed 
a breed known as ‘ Leicesters,’ with long lustrous wool. This was of 
importance not only to the manufacturers of hosiery in Leicestershire ; 
the ‘ Leicesters ’ were prized in other counties, and were for many years 
known in France as ‘ Dishleys.’ Bakewell also improved the breed of 
cattle. He was successful in irrigating grassland and in all details of 
farm management. 
“Many of the present humane notions regarding animals were antici- 
pated by Bakewell, his stock being treated with marked kindness, his 
sheep being kept “‘ clean as race-horses, and sometimes put into body 
clothes,”’ and even his bulls were remarkable for obedience and docility ” 
(Quotation in the D.N.B. from Throsby’s Views in Leicestershire). 
Joseph PaceT (1700-1789) and ‘Thomas PaGeT (1732-1814), of Ibstock, 
were friends of Bakewell of Dishley. ‘They worked on the same lines, 
being pioneers of land drainage and of cattle and sheep breeding. Later 
Pagets were eminent in Leicester as surgeons and as bankers. One of 
the family, John Paget (1808-1892 see D.N.B.), having married a Hun- 
garian lady, introduced scientific agriculture in Hungary. He wrote 
a book on Hungary and Transylvania. 
Richard PuLTENEY (1730-1801), physician and botanist, was born at 
Loughborough. His father, Samuel Pulteney, was a tailor who had 
some landed property, which passed to his son Richard. Richard Pulteney, 
after being apprenticed to an apothecary, went to Leicester and was for 
some years in practice there, with little success. He had, however, begun 
