Robert Rahewell. 
23 
The small sheep that have no cross of the Durham hind, which you have 
had the address to impose upon the world, without size, without length, 
and without wool, I have always held to be unprofitable animals ; 
and the answering passage in Mr. Bakewell’s, saying — 
And now I take the liberty of asking you to explain what you mean by 
“ sheep without size, without length, and without wool,” which you say I 
have “ had the address to impose upon the world ” ; 
and continuing, in one long, gasping sentence, to inform Mr. 
Chaplin that he, Mr. Bakewell, was fully persuaded that ten 
rams without a Durham or any other cross had been in that 
same season let “ for 1,000 guineas more than the same number 
of the true Old Lincolnshire breed, of the long staple,” &c. The 
same sentence goes on through several more lengthy clauses, of 
which the extracted cream is the assertion that some of the 
highest-priced of those rams had gone into the counties ol 
Lincoln and Nottingham, to breeders who had used Dishley 
sheep for twenty years, and had already offered, for future 
seasons, higher prices than they had yet paid, and might surely 
be supposed to be capable of knowing the value of the sheep 
which Mr. Chaplin had “ always held to be unprofitable animals.” 
Here Mr. Bakewell has fairly run himself down to a full stop, 
after which, in two short sentences, he asks whether, unless to 
their own interest, they would persevere, and observes that his 
own address must be extraordinary to impose upon such men 
against their interests and long experience. 
The ram-lettings, which Mr. Bakewell is said to have been 
the first to establish as a recognised trade, began in a small 
way. In 17 CO rams were hired for a few shillings for the 
season ; ten years later prices varied up to 25 guineas ; and 
within a few years Mr. Bakewell’s aggregate was declared to be 
3,000 guineas for rams hired from him in one season. His 
celebrated ram, Two Pounder, was let one season for 800 
guineas in cash, with reservation of his use to Mr. Bakewell for 
one-third of the total number of ewes specified in the contract, 
which was reckoned as making the payment equivalent to a 
rent of 1,200 guineas. The enormous prices obtained by other 
breeders belong rather to the history of the breed than to a 
memoir of its founder. 
The shows of the Dishley sheep in the hands of Mr. 
Bakewell and his followers and supporters began annually 
on June 8 (Marshall states), and lasted nominally until 
Michaelmas, or until all the rams offered were let; but on 
October 10 the private shows closed with a public sale and 
letting. For a few weeks after those shows began each breeder 
