Passing from this large importation to the time of the famous Robert Bakewell of Dishley (1726-1795), we find that he too went to Flanders for stock to improve his cart horses, but instead of returning with stallions he bought mares, which he mated with his stallions, these being of the old black breed peculiar--in those days--to Leicestershire. There is no doubt that the interest taken by this great breed improver in the Old English type of cart horse had an effect far more important than it did in the case of the Longhorn breed of cattle, seeing that this has long lost its popularity, whereas that of the Shire horse has been growing and widening from that day to this. Bakewell was the first English stockbreeder to let his stud animals for the season, and although his greatest success was achieved with the Dishley or “New Leicester” sheep, he also carried on the system with Longhorn bulls and his cart horses, which were described as “Bakewell’s Blacks.” That his horses had a reputation is proved by the fact that in 1785 he had the honour of exhibiting a black horse before King George III. at St. James’s Palace, but another horse named “K,” said by Marshall to have died in that same year, 1785, at the age of nineteen years, was described by the writer just quoted as a better animal than that inspected by His Majesty the King. From the description given he appears to have had a commanding forehand and to have carried his head so high that his ears stood perpendicularly over his fore feet, as Bakewell held that the head of a cart horse should. It can hardly be questioned that he was a believer in weight, seeing that his horses were “thick and short in body, on very short legs.” The highest price he is credited with getting for the hire of a stallion for a season is 150 guineas, while the service fee at home is said to have been five guineas, which looks a small amount compared with the 800 guineas obtained for the use of his ram “Two Pounder” for a season. What is of more importance to Shire horse breeders, however, is the fact that Robert Bakewell not only improved and popularized the Shire horse of his day, but he instituted the system of letting out sires for the season, which has been the means of placing good sires before farmers, thus enabling them to assist in the improvement which has made such strides since the formation of the Shire Horse Society in 1878. It is worth while to note that Bakewell’s horses were said to be “perfectly gentle, willing workers, and of great power.” He held that bad pullers were made so by bad management. He used two in front of a Rotherham plough, the quantity ploughed being “four acres a day.” Surely a splendid advertisement for the Shire as a plough horse. FLEMISH BLOOD