26 
Robert Bcikewell. 
Westmoreland bull. Arthur Young, writing in 1771 of his 
tour in 1770, says he then saw Twopenny, a very big bull, most 
truly made, on the barrel principle, circular, but broad across 
the back. Mr. Bakewell would not take 200 guineas for him. 
He had several cows for which he would not take 30 guineas 
each. The fee for Twopenny (at home) was five guineas, but 
his sons were let out for the season at rents varying from five to 
thirty guineas. In describing his visit to Mr. Bakewell in 1785, 
Young noticed in the cattle considerable “ improvement,” which 
in these days would be questioned. It consisted in the enormous 
development of masses of fat over the hip-bones and at the end of 
the hind quarters. Whereas Mr. Bakewell had been formerly 
contented to grow beasts heavy in the hind quarters, he had not 
until recently attempted to produce those excrescences of fat. 
Now, he had produced a remarkable disposition to fatten on 
those parts ; “ and I measured ” — -Young proceeds — “ the hip- 
bones of one buried in a mound of fat 14 inches in diameter,” 
with other protuberances to match, “ yet she has a calf every 
year.” 
A bull named D., doubly grandson of Twopenny, and other- 
wise closely in-bred, was allowed to be a still better bull than 
Twopenny, and he became the sire of the celebrated Shakspeare, 
bred by Mr. Fowler, of Rollright, from a daughter of Twopenny, 
thus further complicating the much-entangled relationships. 
Shakspeare was the bull described by Marshall (whom Youatt 
quotes) as a striking specimen of natural varieties. Although 
so closely in-bred from the original purchases of Mr. Bakewell, “ he 
scarcely,” Marshall observes, “ inherits a single point of the 
Longhorn, his horns excepted.” In the description which 
follows, Marshall mentions “ some remarkable wreaths of fat 
formed round the setting on of the tail ; a circumstance which 
in a picture would be called a deformity, but as a point is in the 
highest estimation.” Thus Marshall agrees with Young in 
regarding this gross extravagance of the development of fat as 
desirable. The difficulty had been, up to BakewelFs day, to 
breed animals disposed to fatten readily. The reaction from 
Bakewell’s too ample results of his efforts to overcome that 
difficulty had not then begun. 
An anonymous journalist, writing his impressions of Dishley 
soon after Mr. Paget’s sale in 1793, says: “The famous white 
bull is a noble animal, but I found there were many who pre- 
ferred that sold at Mr. Paget’s sale.” This man’s style is more 
that of a town newspaper reporter than of one expert in the 
matter of live stock. The description as “ white,” therefore, 
may be taken for what it is worth from such a source. Possibly 
