Robert Raheivell. 
15 
Edinburgh, to the Society for the Improvement of British 
Wool, established January 31, 1791, we gather that all the 
large breeds of English sheep were then of recent introduc- 
tion, within half a century before that date, and therefore only 
newly imported or newly developed breeds when Bakewell began 
his work of improvement. Young says of the Dishley sheep : 
“The breed is originally Lincolnshire, but Mr. Bakewell thinks, 
and very justly, that he has much improved it.” Cullev, who, 
like Young, knew Bakewell at home and watched the develop- 
ment of his flock, describes the improvement effected in “ a 
certain variety of the Lincolnshire,” and promptly explains that 
he means the variety “ first selected by Mr. Robert Bakewell, of 
Dishley, in Leicestershire, who, with singular discernment and 
great attention, has raised a breed of sheep unknown in any 
former period, and which surpass all other breeds in their pro- 
pensity to get fat, and in paying the most money for the 
quantity of food consumed.” He then describes the distinctive 
peculiarities of the breed, in its differences from other longwool 
breeds — the fine lively eyes, clean head, straight, broad, flat back, 
the barrel-like form of the body, fine small bones, thin pelt, and 
inclination to fatten early ; the mutton, fat, fine-grained, and of 
superior flavour ; wool averaging 8 lb. a fleece, and in length 
from 6 to 14 inches ; wethers killed to best profit at two years old, 
when they made from 20 lb. to 30 lb. a quarter ; if kept longer 
they get too fat for what he calls “genteel tables.” James Bolton’s 
three-year-old wether of this breed, killed at Alnwick, Oct. 20, 
1787, cut straight through the ribs without any slope, measured 
7§- inches of solid fat, and had a back like the fattest bacon, 
from head to tail. This shows the character of the breed several 
years before Bakewell died, and within how short a space ot 
years Bakewell’s will and judgment had prevailed to produce 
properties “ unknown in any former period.” No wonder the man 
was looked upon as a magician, possessing a secret which he 
would not impart to anyone. 
At the time when Gulley wrote, the weight of wool had 
been less an object than the quantity and quality of mutton ob- 
tained at the least expense of food. The next point, he sug- 
gests, for rural philosophy to obtain would be the increase in 
the value of the fleece. Bakewell, according to his custom, had 
just stuck to his main design. 
In another place Culley, writing on the old Teeswater 
breed, records the rapidity with which it was improving from 
the introduction of Dishley rams. The improvement was 
not only in the flesh and fattening properties, but also in the 
wool ; for whilst the fleeces were not so heavy as those of the 
