248 SMALL-POX IN SHEER 



serpentine course from east to west. Standing on the Wan's 

 dyke at Tanhill, and circumscribing a circle with a radius of 

 six miles, an area is embraced of about 70,000 acres of land, 

 resting on the chalk formation, with considerable tracts of 

 the upper greensand, and the soils are proverbially healthy 

 for sheep. Over this district there is, in many parts, one 

 sheep to the acre, and the total amount of stock was com- 

 puted, in July, to be about 50,000 sheep. 



The system of management consists in folding the sheep 

 on fallow land or green crop, according to the season, extent, 

 and quality of the down, to which the sheep are driven every 

 morning from April to November. Each farm has therefore 

 a certain amount of arable ground in the vale and a strip of 

 down on the hill. These strips of down are often connected 

 with the arable land by a mere right of way or small strip of 

 down, and the downs are limited for each farm by some faint 

 undulation or mark, which we often failed to recognise, and 

 which shepherd and farmer alone can define. Practically 

 the downs are quite unenclosed, though legally we under- 

 stand that the land apportioned to each farmer is looked 

 upon as fenced, so as to protect him from intrusion, and is 

 considered enclosed ground. Our readers may imagine in 

 what sense this may be accepted, when we tell them that we 

 have ridden and driven for miles on the downs, straight 

 through all the infected farms, without deviating right or 

 left, and without passing ditch, hedge, stone wall, or gate. 



Standing on an elevated spot, the flocks are seen in every 

 part moving side by side, one after the other, crossing each 

 other's track, and affording ample opportunities for com- 

 munion amongst the shepherds. 



The district is traversed in all directions by driftways, 

 so that drovers can pasture their sheep on the downs for days, 

 and go from Bristol to London with the payment of a single 



