348 lii.^e and Progress cf the Leicester Breed of Shepp. 
the Tees to the Tweedside. One or both of the brothers had 
been pupils of ISIr. Bakewell. They were in partnership to the 
end of tlreir lives, but took up different lines ; George under- 
taking- the management of the ilock, while Matthew was more 
devoted to agriculture, irrigation, and essays. In process of 
time, jNIr. Robert Thompson, who had also studied under Mr. 
Bakewell, established a Dishley flock first at Lilburn, and then 
at Chillingham Barns. The late Mr, Grey of Dilston confirms 
Mr. Wilson's pamphlet as to this point, and adds that there were 
two distinct Dishley families upon these Border farms. We 
meet with no notice of these two tribes of " bluecaps " and 
" red legs " in any Bakewell records, but they have often been 
described to us by Mr. Grey. The blue-headed Leicesters, 
which are now quite out of favour on the Border, were generally 
rather tender when lambed, and soft-woolled on the scalp, which 
made them very sensitive to fly galls. They were handsomer 
and of greater length than the "red legs," very good feeders but 
rather delicate, and light in their wool. Mr. Robertson of 
Ladykirk, and Mr Thompson of Bogend, his tenant, bought 
" blue caps " from Mr. Stone, which came, three or four in a cart, 
from Leicestershire, and were met halfway. The " red legs " were 
nearer the ground, very compact, with less fat and more fibre, 
and were generally hardier and had a more closely planted fleece. 
The C'ulleys and Robert Thompson, and the Kelso and 
Northumberland men, came to the Ladykirk lettings, as well as 
McDougall's of Cessford. At Chillingham Barns the fleeces 
were hung up and ticketed for the early show, which gradually 
merged into the September one. A few small men had 
Cotswolds and Lincolns, but a great upstanding sheep was not 
then the fashion on or over the Border. Mr. Grey, who joined 
the ranks of the flockmasters soon after the beginning of the 
century, had his " large Gs " from Messrs. Culley and Mr. 
Thompson, but he liked the thick, short-legged Buckleys better, 
and stuck to the sort for wether breeding. About 1815-20, 
Lord Polwarth's agent bought some of his " large G " gimmers, 
and also went for rams to Mr. Jobson of Chillingham ?>ew 
Town. Luke Scott of Easington Grange, near Belford, was a 
great character in those days. He clung to his little flock of 
twenty Bakewells with desperate tenacity, even when his farm was 
gone and he had to board them out. After Mr. Robert Thompson's 
retirement, he would use no rams but his own, and when a very 
favourite ewe broke bounds and was tupped by " a neighbour's 
mongrel " (as he called it), he slaughtered her without mercy. 
Such were the pioneers of the Leicester blood, and we may 
now inquire into the result of their labours. As a pure breed, 
and more especially as a cross to give early maturity, size, antl 
fleece, it lias no rival from the Shetland Isles to Penzance. The 
