230 THE BLACKFACED BKEED OF SHEEP. 



there being no traditions of the sheep here being of a different 

 kind, nor can they be called a distinct variety of the species." A 

 passage very similar to this occurs in a Report on the AgricidtuTe 

 of Peebles, written by the Eev. Mr Findlater in 1802. " There 

 seems to be," this writer says, " no clear tradition nor even 

 plausible conjecture as to when or whence sheep were first 

 introduced into this country, or whether the present breed are 

 indigenous or from another country. There is, indeed, aii 

 obscure tradition, that previous to the introduction or general 

 prevalence of sheep in the parish of Tweedsmuir, the farmers in 

 that parish paid their rents by grazing, for hire through summer, 

 the oxen then generally used by Lothian farmers for their 

 winter ploughing. The native Tweeddale breed, which has con- 

 tinued the same as far back as memory or tradition extends, are 

 all horned, with black faces and black legs and coarse w^ool." 

 While there is much uncertainty in connection with the origin 

 of the breed, it is beyond doubt that the system of sheep farming 

 began to grow in importance just at the time when blackfaced 

 stock began to grow into a prevalent type. Xapier, in his work 

 on Store Farming, which bears the date of 1822, adopts this view. 

 " The present system of sheep or store farming does not appear," 

 he writes, " to have taken place till about the end of the reign of 

 James VL," a statement which it may be pointed out agrees with 

 what Muirhead says in the Old Statistical Account. " Before this 

 time," Napier explains," the mountainous south country districts 

 are said to have been under a stock of black cattle and some 

 small straggling flocks of sheep, as was the case in the High- 

 lands till of late years." It is quite in accordance with this 

 opinion, that it is ascertained that nearly two centuries ago a 

 breed, which was known as the Linton sheep, had established 

 themselves pretty firmly in the south of Scotland. These sheep 

 were also called the Forest, the Tweeddale, or the Lammermuir 

 breed, according to the district in which they were found, — there 

 being, however, no difference among them except in name, — and 

 were most widely spoken of as the Linton breed, because of that 

 village in Peeblesshire being the principal market for them, and 

 a very important market it at one time was, as is indicated by 

 the fact mentioned by Mr Thomas Johnston, in his General 

 Revieio of the Agriculture of the County of Tioecddale, " that as 

 many as 9000 were sometimes sold in one day," in the beginning 

 of the eighteenth century. This then is the view that it seems 

 best to take. The origin of the breed is uncertain. Though the 

 quotations that have been made from old writers are all 

 interesting, their authority is not convincing. As to the 

 character of the breed, when it first came prominently 

 into notice, there is, on the other hand, no dubiety. Descrip- 

 tions of their appearance are numerous and minute, and on 

 the testimony of different chroniclers there is fortunately no 



