126 



James I., on his accession in A.D. 1605, gave to Leominster a renewal 

 of the original Charter of Queen Mary, which contained these words : " Whereas 

 from that time (tlie date of the Charter, 1554) until now, tlie borough and town 

 aforesaid has in a wonderful manner been growing and flourishing, as well in 

 wealth as in population, and yet doth flourish : ire intending the better sale and 

 dispersion of thefine wool produced in that neighbourhood into different parts of 

 our kingdom, and being persuaded that the assemblye of buyers and sellers of 

 that commoditie thei-e may be a great encouragement of the woollen manufactura 

 in this kingdom, do grant to the bailiff, &c., to keep one other fair on the 

 feast of St. Bartholomew (Augst 24th), or on the morrow of that day." 



It would seem, therefore, that during the coiirse of the sixteenth century 

 the breed of the Kyeland sheep had spread from Archinfield through the 

 county, or at any rate had been introduced very generally, and with very 

 great success, into the neighbourhood of Leominster. 



The comparatively modern mansion, and the estate called "The Ryelands," 

 within a mile of Leominster, was in all probability named from the sheep which 

 flourished so well there, since the land itself has not the light character of 

 "the Ryelands "of Archinfield, and was not therefore specially adapted to the 

 growth of rye, which is the ordinary derivation of this name. If this assumption 

 is true, it gives very satisfactory testimony in favour of the Kyeland brted of 

 sheep being established there. 



"The wool of Leominster," says Mr. Fyler Townsend, "was at the 

 height of its fame in the reign of James I. (1603—1625"). Camden, in his 

 "Britannia," vol. I., p. 690, thus speaks of it: "The greatest name and fame 

 that it hath this day (1017) is of the wooll in the territories round about it. 

 'Lemster ore,' they call it, which, setting aside that of Apulia and Tarentum, 

 all Europe counteth to be the very best ;" and from henceforth it was a fruitful 

 source of allusion to the poets. 



Drayton, in his "Polyolbion" (1613), thus writes of it : 

 " Lemster, for her wool whose staple does excel, 

 And seems to overmatch the golden Phrygian fell. 

 Had this our Colchos been unto the Ancients known. 

 When Honour was herself, and in her glory shone. 

 He then that did command the infantry of Greece 

 Had only to our isle adventured for this fleece. 

 Where lives the man so dull, on Britain's farthest shore. 

 To whom did never sound the name of " Lemster ore ?" 

 That with the silkworms thread for fineness doth compare. 

 Wherein the winder shows his workmanship so rare. 

 As doth the fleece excel, and mocks her looser clew ; 

 As neatly buttoned up as Nature forth it drew : 

 Of such in high'st account, and reckon'd here as fine. 

 As there th' Apulian fleece or dainty Tarentine." 



Again in his battle of Agincourt where he blazons the several Shires, he says : 

 "A golden fleece fair Hereford doth wear." 



