Robert Bakewell. 
19 
This day measured a two years old barren ewe : — 
feet inches 
Height 1 11 
Girt .59 
Breast from the ground, the breadth of four fingers. 
N.B. — I would have measured her breast but for a fall of snow. 
Dishley ut sup. — H. S. 
An anonymous writer, perhaps borrowing from one of the 
authors whose names appear, observes very truly that the quiet 
disposition of the Dishley sheep was favourable to their matur- 
ing and fattening at less cost than other breeds. 
Vague, rambling stories about the crosses introduced by 
Bakewell into the composition of the New Leicester sheep very 
probably had their flimsy foundations in the sight of mixed 
breeds and crosses presented to strangers who went to Dishley 
and were taken into the fields to see the various agricultural 
improvements. Bakewell’s rule, we learn from several sources, 
was to introduce his animals to his visitors always in the yards 
and buildings, and not in the fields. But besides the animals 
shown there were others out at grass, some which were not 
worth showing — ordinary farm stock. Among these, no doubt, 
were animals under experiment, which sometimes were shown 
to privileged friends, not to any casual caller. One who went 
over the farm saw a miscellaneous lot, including three sheep 
(which must have been pointed out to him and their history 
told), all the produce of “ a Ryeland ewe,” by which the visitor 
who tells the story may mean, perhaps, three different ewes all 
of the Ryeland breed. One was by a Ryeland ram, one by a 
Spanish ram, and one by a Dishley ram ; and the difference was 
very great, the offspring of the Dishley sire being far superior to 
either of the others. This was probably an experiment, not with 
a view to a further infusion of strange blood into the Dishley 
breed, but to prove to the satisfaction of Mr. Bakewell himself 
the comparative merits of different crosses ; testing the worth of 
the Dishley sheep for crossing other breeds. 
Another experiment, seen by a friend of Bakewell’s, was 
tried with five or six pure Dishley ewes turned out into the 
highways at May Day for a summer’s range there without other 
food. The roads were narrow in those days, and the hedge-sides 
were bare ; yet the ewes, at the close of their term of probation, 
were in excellent condition — nearly fat. 
That experiment, probably, was intended by Bakewell to 
serve as one of the illustrations of a theory which he seems to 
have held from about the beginning of his experiments to per- 
haps the close of his life. Young mentions it in both his 1770 
