344 Rise and Progress of tlic Leicester Breed of Sheep. 
Walker, Mr. J. P. Stone, Mr. John Bennett, Mr. John Manning, 
Mr. Joseph Robinson, Mr. Nathaniel Stubbins, Mr. Nicholas 
Buckley, Mr. Bakewell, Mr. F. White, Mr. John Breedon, and 
Mr. James Knowles, composed the rank and file. The rules 
were made and kept with Draconic strictness. No member 
might sell ewes or lambs to breed from unless he sold his whole 
flock or dealt with members alone. Only 40 ewes could be 
taken in to tup, and those must be the property of one person. 
Not more than two dozen rams could be shown to any person or 
company at one time ; and even members could only show their 
rams to each other between the 1st and 8th of June, when the 
general show commenced. On July 8th they were bound to 
rigidly seal their pens for the space of two months. Certain 
flockmasters were not to pay less than 100 guineas in their first 
contract, and after that 30 guineas for wether getters. Not 
more than 30 rams might be let by one member in one year, 
and it was further enacted that there were to be no dealings with 
flockmasters who showed rams in the market ; and that the 
much dreaded members of the Lincolnshire Society should not 
have a ram unless four joined and paid 200 guineas for him. 
Mr. Bakewell was honoured with a private bye-law, which 
forbade him from letting a ram within 100 miles of Dishley at 
less than 50 guineas. Despite all these curious restrictions, in 
1796 (the year after Mr. Bakewell died), no less than 16 
English counties were in communion with the Club, as well as 
Messrs. Culley, Robertson, -and Thompson on the Border. 
Coke, " Bedford," " Egremont," and Collings, were also 
honoured names in their correspondence, and there was a sturdy 
rivalry between Philip Skipworth and the Lincolnshire men 
Avho should bid highest for rams. The latter county had its 
flockmaster's " House of Keys " at the Reindeer in Lincoln, 
and drew up its rules " for the benefit of the public." They 
were framed somewhat after the Leicestershire model ; and 
bound over the members not to show at a market, or let more 
than 100 rams, or serve ewes at less than 5 guineas each, unless 
60 were sent. 
The prices given for rams both then and early in the next 
century admit of some modification, and Mr. Stubbins's sale 
books, now yellowed and tattered with time, show that 500 
guineas meant 420 guineas and so on. The copy of a letter in 
one of them sheds still further light on the secretive tendencies 
of the flockmasters of that date. Sir R. St. George writes to 
Mr. Stubbins in 1797, respecting two score of ewes which were 
to travel 80 miles by road. He prescribes the day's journey and 
thus cautions the shepherd : "He must not wear a round frock 
or any kind of fustian coat, or he may be taken notice of, and if 
