342 Rise and Progress of the Leicester Breed of Sheep. 
sleeplessness, and scrutclilng at the tail-liead, which was sup- 
posed to go on for three or four consecutive days and nights. 
The memoirs of this old Leicestershire worthy have never 
been published, but his sayings, such as — " Money wears but 
three lives ;" " Consume half the corn you grow Avith beasts, or 
lay out half its price in cake ;" "Rise with the lark, and to bed 
with the lamb ;" are still preserved with his essays in a MS. 
book at Dishley. The essays are short, but take a wide range — 
from Punctuality to Salt and Saliva. He dwells much on the 
necessity of having no water iu the fields where the ewes are 
lambing, " on swimming home turnips, freight free to the 
grating," and on using leaves for manure. With him good 
cattle and sheep were a theme which never grew stale, and he 
insisted much on the necessity of " a barrel or an egg form." 
Ridgy backs and big bellies were his aversion, fulfilling as 
they did his favourite metaphor of a horse's collar put on the 
wrong side upwards. Against large bone, and carcases full 
of offal, and "head and pluck, a load for a man," he also waged 
vigorous war. There is a story that he improved his sheep 
from a black ewe on Leicester Forest, and some Cheviot men 
cherish a tradition that he bought from their forefathers ; but on 
the origin of his flock he is perfectly silent. He does not 
even allude to what Pitt, in his ' Leicestershire Survey,' which 
was made before 1790, considered to be evidence of the purest 
blood, viz., the cloven back, and " the loose bit of flesh behind 
the shoulder, corresponding to the flank of a bullock." 
Still the sheep lore in these papers is very rich and dis- 
cursive. We are told more than once that the scrag or "collar" 
of a ram should be " thick and bowed like a swan, so that the 
drops from his nose may fall on his breast ;" that he should have 
" an eye like a hawk, and a heel like a lark " the head long, and 
thin between the eyes, and the ears tliin and free from wool." 
To ewe-headed rams Mr. Bakewcll gave no quarter. He thought 
them invariably light in their lean flesh, and delicate in consti- 
tution. According to his creed " nothing but first-rate loins, 
thighs, and scrags can support in-and-in-breedin<?-." Hence he 
never wearied of citing the maxim of an old farmer, who went 
to see a brindled cow, and placing his hand on the loin, spoke, 
like an oracle, as follows — "strong loin, strong constitution." 
" The hogshead or truly circular firkin shape " with " short, 
light-boned legs, not much exceeding six inches in length," was 
his Improved Leicester sheep mould, "on the plain principle, 
that the value lies in the barrel and not in the legs." As 
regards size he put on record that Mr. Stubbins had a ram 2 ft. 
7-^ in. in height. One of his best Dishleys was 2^ in. less, but 
measured 5 ft. 10 in. round the heart, 1 ft. 9^ in, across the 
