Breeds of Sheep best adapted to different Localities. 443 



Premiums offered hy the Keswick Mamifacturers for the best white-fleeced Sheep of 

 the genuine Herdwick Breed, bred and depastured in the Ward of AUerdale- 

 above-Derwent. 



For the best white-fleeced Tup : — 



John Bowntiati, Mire Side, Ennerdale best . 

 John Tyson, Gillerthwaite . . . 2nd best . 

 Robert Briggs, Wasdale Head . . 3rd best 

 Twenty-three competitors. 



For the best pen of five white-fleeced Ewes : 

 Thomas Pearson, How Hall . . . best . 

 Edward Nelson, Loweswater . . . 2nd best 

 John Jackson, Swinside End ... 3rd best 

 Three competitois. 



Being ninety-four competitors for prizes exclusively devoted to 

 one description of sheep, all of v^^horn dwell within, and have their 

 flocks within a very limited extent of country. 



The Herd wicks of the present day are characterized by being 

 polled, and have brownish or speckled black and white or mottled 

 faces ; some few have black faces, and also some have horns, but 

 neither of these are considered genuine ; they are also known 

 from the circumstance that, as they get older, they assume a white 

 or grey appearance about the nose and legs (in the shepherds' 

 phrase they grow raggy).* The ewes should always be polled; 

 on a few wethers and rams small smooth horns make their appear- 

 ance — a proof of intermixture of blood : the wool is fine, only 

 about the neck and fore-quarters often intermixed with kemps. 

 The wool on the body is open and very kempy, assuming in some 

 instances the appearance of hair, and is only used for the coarsest 

 purposes, such as horse-rugs, &c., and consequently obtains only 

 a low price, notwithstanding which Herdwick flock-proprietors 

 prefer this sort of fleece to one of better quality, as it is found 

 from experience that stock with coats as described withstand the 

 severe winter weather on the bleak mountains which they inhabit 

 much better than sheep with a better fleece. A singular anatomical 

 character is also found amongst many of them, viz. that of having 

 a rib more than any other breed, fourteen instead of thirteen. If 

 '' they keep their ground well," as it is locally termed, the ewes 

 are kept as long as they will breed, which is often until they are 

 ten or fifteen years of age, and some few have been known to 

 attain the age of twenty years. The wethers go off at four and a 

 half to five and a half years old, and are generally killed without 

 being placed on any better pasture, being found sufficiently fat off 

 the mountain : in fact, they have been tried on turnips, clover, and 

 other artificial food, without any commensurate advantage, and 

 sometimes with an evident loss of crop and deterioration in the 

 weight of the sheep. When fat, they weigh from 10 lbs. to 12 lbs. 



* Or rimy; that is, have an appearance something similar to hoar frost. The true 

 sort always assume this " rimy " aspect. 



