THE SOUTHDOWN SHEPHERD. 223 



cannot finish. To the buried carcase the fox returns 

 the next night before he kills again. 



His dog was a cross with a collie : the old sheep- 

 dogs were shaggier and darker. Most of the sheep- 

 dogs now used were crossed with the collie, either 

 with Scotch or French, and were very fast too fast in 

 some respects. He was careful not to send them 

 much after the flock, especially after feeding, when, in 

 his own words, the sheep had " best walk slow then, 

 like folk," like human beings, who are not to be 

 hastened after a meal. If he wished his dog to fetch 

 the flock, he pointed his arm in the direction he 

 wished the dog to go, and said, "Put her back.'* 

 Often it was to keep the sheep out of turnips or wheat, 

 there being no fences. But he made it a practice to 

 walk himself on the side where care was needed, so as 

 not to employ the dog unless necessary. 



There is something almost Australian in the wide 

 expanse of South Down sheepwalks, and in the 

 number of the flocks, to those who have been accus- 

 tomed to the small sheltered meadows of the vales, 

 where forty or fifty sheep are about the extent of the 

 stock on many farms. The land, too, is rented at 

 colonial prices, but a few shillings per acre, so 

 different from the heavy meadow rents. But, then, 

 the sheep-farmer has to occupy a certain proportion 

 of arable land as well as pasture, and here his heavy 

 losses mainly occur. 



There is nothing, in fact, in this country so care- 

 fully provided against as the possibility of an English 

 farmer becoming wealthy. Much downland is covered 

 with furze ; some seems to produce a grass too coarse, 



