466 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 64 



I would like to take as an example at random, pulling out one 

 thread of English history, the course of sheep farming from Saxon 

 times until the latter end of the Middle Ages. England was once a 

 country of deep forest in the vales, with scrub on the chalk hills and 

 wolds. Neolithic man could tackle the scrub with his tools of stone 

 and bone, but not the forest. The Roman, better equipped, drove his 

 roads through everything, making islands in the sea of forest. The 

 Saxon came from forested lands, and working in his own ecological 

 fashion soon reduced the forest to islands in a sea of cultivated or 

 cleared land. The Saxon was a swineherd who undoubtedly valued 

 the pig's snout in life as its hams after slaughter. Large numbers of 

 herded swine must have been effective implements in scarifying the 

 forest floor, disturbing or eradicating the pristine flora, influencing 

 the physicochemical state of the ground and preventing regeneration, 

 so that forest with undercover would decline and open woodland with 

 fewer and fewer standards would be left. The food-gathering, soil- 

 working pig may be looked upon as a pioneer when present in suf- 

 ficient numbers, creating conditions in which a sward of grass could 

 form in an increasingly parklike terrain. At this stage the sheep 

 could take over, living on the sward, maintaining it and quite surely 

 preventing the regeneration of woodland. The cattle grazing among 

 the sheep also helped in the establishment of permanent grassland and 

 were creating the possibility of fairly rapid conversion into arable 

 land when pressure of population demanded extension. 



Historical research has revealed that England and parts of southern 

 Scotland were already important wool-producing coimtry in Saxon 

 times. That was the main economic function of the sheep, to pro- 

 duce wool; mutton was welcome but incidental. Some of the wool 

 was used at home but it was an important item of export which al- 

 lowed importation of Continental luxuries and even goods from the 

 Levant. The great early development of medieval sheep farming did 

 but build on the existing Saxon foundation. England was the prin- 

 cipal European producer of fine wool. Italy, and later the Low Coun- 

 tries, were the large manufacturers of fine textiles. This interde- 

 pendence must have helped in the unification of the medieval world. 

 When England eventually produced her own fine cloth and cut down 

 her export trade in wool, she inevitably crystallized more sharply. 

 Italian bankers and merchants were prominent in the early trade and 

 the Church was a pioneer agent in the spread of sheep farming to new 

 areas. The Cistercian order particularly was responsible for extension 

 into the north and west, where flocks of several thousands were kept 

 by each foundation, such as Fountains and Rievaulx. Lords of the 

 manor and peasants were all in this golden age of English sheep 

 farming. The late Eileen Power gave a vivid impression in her Ox- 

 ford series of lectures entitled The Early English Wool Trade. Reck- 



