5G0 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ December 14, 1882. 
POULTRY AND PIGEON CHRONICLE. 
THE LEICESTER BREED OF SHEEP. 
( Continued from page 53S .) 
It was the custom formerly, as it is now in various places, for 
the sheep-breeder to set aside the most promising of his ewe and 
ram lambs for the purpose of breeding, and this with the occa¬ 
sional exchange of animals of the same blood with other known 
breeders (an exchange which when guided by discretion) had up 
to Bakewell’s time constituted the only source of improvement 
or preservation deemed requisite. But Mr. Bakewell introduced 
the novel plan which, although at first sight may appear selfish, 
yet perhaps has tended more to the improvement of stock than 
any other system yet invented. After he had established his own 
flock, and had fully tried and proved its superior qualifications, 
instead of selling his rams he offered to let them at a certain 
price. The advantages of this plan are self-evident; it enables 
the breeder who wishes to improve to do so at a moderate price. 
This plan at present is not discontinued by ram-breeders, but is 
kept within very moderate bounds as to numbers, but not so as 
to price, for in case the breeder possesses a few extraordinary 
animals he obtains a high price for the letting, and still retains 
them in his own possession and for use in his own flock. He also 
sells a larger number, thereby obtaining a large income from them 
in each year, and still preserves the best of his standing flock for 
future maintenance of the breed. 
It is curious to note that with all the peculiar restrictions by 
which the members of the Dishley Club, or as called by some 
Bakewell’s Club, in 1796 (the year after Mr. Bakewell died), no 
less than sixteen English counties were in communion with the 
Club, including the border counties. After the Dishley Club dis¬ 
appeared a club was started in Lincolnshire; the flockmasters 
connected with it met at Lincoln and drew up the rules (“ for the 
benefit of the public ”) ostensibly. They were framed somewhat 
after the Lincolnshire model, and bound over the members not 
to show at a market, or let more than a hundred rams, or serve 
ewes at less than five guineas each unless sixty were sent. When 
Mr. Bakewell’s flock was sold it went into the hands of Mr. 
Smith of Dishley, and passed from him to Mr. Honeybourne. It 
was, however, finally dispersed amongst Messrs. Stubbins and 
others, with whom we notice the name of Mr. Barford of Foxcote, 
to whom we shall specially refer further on ; also to Mr. Phillip 
Skipworth the elder, whose purchase of ewes laid the foundation 
of the celebrated Aylesbury flock, the property of the late Mr. 
Torr of Shorthorn renown. 
We cannot pass over without special remarks another era in 
the history of the Leicester breed, in which Sir Tatton Sykes 
made his first purchase of ewes, comprising half a score at ten 
guineas each, of Mr. Sandy. The Baronet loved a small thrifty 
sheep, but he did not look for a very lengthy style of fleece, 
preferring a closer shorter coat than was usually grown by the 
Leicester sheep. He liked also to feel for the cloven back in a 
ram as the best index of good firm flesh. Only grass, Turnips, 
and hay were used in maintaining the flock, as cake, corn, and 
peas found no place in his fold stores. In his earlier days at Mr. 
R. Colling’s sale he gave as much as 156 guineas for a shearling 
ram “Ajax.” When the Cotgrave flock was dispersed in 1841 he 
went up to a hundred guineas for a three-shear ram considered 
the “ pillar of the flock.” For some years before his death the 
worthy Baronet would allow no rams to be used which were not 
of his own breeding. His letting of rams of the Hedmere flock 
in September, 1862, was his fifty-ninth and his last, but the prices 
made were not high. He never would prepare anything for show, 
hence they did obtain show prices ; but the Hedmere flock has 
gone well to the fore since his death, both in the hands of Lord 
Berners and Mr. Borton, at the Royal Agricultural and the York¬ 
shire, as well as the Christmas shows. 
Since that time the breed has been still further advanced ; some 
of the evils which crept in with the earlier improvements, such as 
weakness of constitution, sterility, and inferiority of wool have 
been to a greater or less extent amended, and at the present day 
the breed remains the most perfect of any of the long-wools as 
respects the carcass, and, in the opinion of its advocates, though 
disputed by others, the best adapted and most profitable for fertile 
pastures. While there is no long-woolled breed but what has 
obtained some improvement from a cross with it, the Leicester as 
regards its peculiar qualities has derived no advantage from a 
cross with others: but its unrivalled qualifications can only be 
retained by preserving the breed pure and untainted. The late 
Mr. Sanday, to whom we have previously referred, was one of the 
celebrities of the same period, for at five shows he won all the 
first prizes, and according to the Steward’s report of the Royal 
Agricultural Society’s meeting at Worcester, where he showed 
for the last time, he however won fifteen first prizes, seventeen 
seconds, and three thirds for rams ; eleven firsts, ten seconds for 
shearing ewes ; besides eighteen high commendations in fourteen 
years. His sales in 1862-63 produced £5378 12 s. 6d., including 
an average of £19 12s. for 173 rams ; the highest price was 140 
guineas obtained for a three-shear, being the gold medallist at 
the Battersea International Meeting of the Royal Agricultural 
Society of England in 1862. 
At the period we have last referred to the sheep-breeders in the 
counties of Devon and Cornwall had for years been good custo¬ 
mers to the Leicester breeders, and have reared first-class animals 
on their own account. Mr. George Turner of Barton, Devon, had 
for a series of years been a successful breeder and exhibitor of 
pure Leicester sheep both at the Royal and the Bath and West of 
England Shows. The importance of this breed of sheep is forcibly 
illustrated by the improvement of sheep stock in Ireland. What 
the native sheep were like before the introduction of the pure 
Leicester is told with great fidelity by Mr. George Culley when 
he visited that country many years ago. None of the original 
breed that we can hear of is left, and those who may wish to see 
what the Leicester cross has done have only to view the eighty 
to one hundred thousand sheep which are annually shown at 
Ballinasloe Fair, than which probably no other fair in the United 
Kingdom can produce such a level array. The top lots, two-year- 
old ewes and wethers, are really wonderful sheep, and yet they 
have not tasted a pound of cake or any artificial food. Still, a 
pure Leicester flock is not suited for Ireland, as the climate is too 
wet for them, and they become delicate in constitution ; in cross¬ 
ing, however, the Dishley stock “ nicked ” exactly with “ the 
original natives.” 
We must give a few words upon the last of the old-fashioned 
Leicester breeders, Mr. Valentine Barford of Foxcote in North¬ 
amptonshire, whom we had the pleasure of meeting and seeing 
his sheep at the Royal Society’s meeting at Northampton in 1847 
if we recollect rightly. He was a man of sturdy self-reliance, 
and possessed a flock which was generally believed to be the only 
one in the kingdom which could present an “unbroken pedigree 
from the time and stock of Bakewell,” and reared upon a farm 
which he and his father before him had held under the Dukes of 
Grafton for more than a hundred years. One of the principles of 
rearing and feeding of sheep by Mr. Barford was to select animals 
from his own flock only, and never to use any artificial food. 
They were, however, distinguished by great symmetry, were 
always healthy but small ; nor was their fecundity impaired, 
although they were “ bred in-and-in,” as it is commonly termed. 
Before concluding the subject we must allude to the “ Barmshires,” 
or, as some call them, Border Leicesters, which are peculiar to the 
border counties of Roxburghshire, Berwickshire, and Northumber¬ 
land. These sheep, and the high estimation in which they are 
held, is best shown by the large sums yielded by the rams at their 
annual lettings ; for although they are not pure Leicesters they 
have considerably more of this blood than of any other, and are 
well adapted for crossing with the long-woolled breeds of ordinary 
stock in Lincolnshire, Durham, and other counties ; and it is said 
that when the Border Leicester rams are mated with the various 
stocks of long-woolled ewes that the produce is more hardy, and 
give excellent quality and heavy weights at an earlier age than 
the pure breed on either side. Thus we must admit that the 
original pure Leicester, as reared by Mr. Bakewell, proved a great 
acquisition to the sheep stock of the kingdom. 
