THE SOUTHDOWN SHEPHERD. 225 



plunges hither and thither in clumsy terror. You 

 must look out for yourself and keep an eye over your 

 shoulder, except among the sheep-pens. 



There are thousands of sheep, all standing with 

 their heads uphill. At the corner of each pen the 

 shepherd plants his crook upright : some of them 

 have long brown handles, and these are of hazel with 

 the bark on ; others are ash, and one of willow. At 

 the corners, too, just outside, the dogs are chained, 

 and, in addition, there is a whole row of dogs fastened 

 to the tent pegs. The majority of the dogs thus 

 collected together from many miles of the Downs are 

 either collies, or show a very decided trace of the 

 collie. 



One old shepherd, an ancient of the ancients, grey 

 and bent, has spent so many years among his sheep 

 that he has lost all notice and observation there is 

 no " speculation in his eye " for anything but his 

 sheep. In his blue smock frock, with his brown 

 umbrella, which he has had no time or thought to 

 open, he stands listening, all intent, to the conver- 

 sation of the gentlemen who are examining his pens. 

 He leads a young restless collie by a chain ; the links 

 are polished to a silvery brightness by continual 

 motion ; the collie cannot keep still ; now he runs 

 one side, now the other, bumping the old man, who 

 is unconscious of everything but the sheep. 



At the verge of the pens there stand four oxen with 

 their yokes, and the long slender guiding rod of hazel 

 placed lightly across the necks of the two foremost. 

 They are quite motionless, except their eyes, and the 

 slender rod, so lightly laid across, will remain without 



Q 



