EARLY VIOTS 529 



and utility the two essentials in a mountain sheep for sale- 

 ring appearance. Border Leicester blood was erroneously 

 said to have been introduced by him, as the pedigrees of the 

 prominent sires bred to his Cheviot ewes could be traced all 

 the time, beginning in 1851 from "Old Pollie," the first of 

 the leading strain of Brydon's fashionable sheep. " Craig- 

 phadrig," who realised 194 in 1867, was a magnificent sheep ; 

 but his wool and that of his grandson " The Duke " were 

 like that of a Border Leicester, and, curiously enough, " The 

 Earl," son of the former and sire of the latter (both Highland 

 winners) had a good typical Cheviot coat. The appearance of 

 Border Leicester character no doubt lent colour to the belief 

 that a cross of that breed had been introduced, and the occur- 

 rence was probably due to reversion to a much earlier cross, as 

 Patrick Sellar, one of the first sheep farmers in Sutherland, 

 says in the Farmers' Magazine (1820), " The Cheviot breed has 

 been much improved within the last fifty years by crossing 

 with sheep recommended to the Border farmers by Bakewell. 

 In some cases (perhaps too many), it has got a little dash of 

 the Leicester blood in it." The Leicester of that day would 

 no doubt be a hardier animal than that of the present time, a 

 cross of which would now destroy the hardiness of any 

 mountain breed. The mistaken practices of intense in-and-in 

 breeding and overfeeding of mountain sheep were quite suffi- 

 cient of themselves to accomplish the wreck which entailed a 

 widespread and heavy loss on the Cheviot sheep-breeders of 

 the South of Scotland, and from which it is questioned if the 

 breed has ever completely recovered. Brydon began before 

 1860 the practice of housing the ram lambs during winter. 

 The old rams went into the house when they came from the 

 ewes. At first a good many of his best sheep had a yellow 

 tinge on the legs and faces, but latterly this peculiarity was 

 greatly reduced. 



The sheep bred from Brydon's rams grew long and lanky, 

 and the coats were open and watery ; and worst of all, the 

 ewes became very lean in winter, developed into bad milkers, 

 and in consequence deserted their, offspring, which, being 

 naturally soft, made a very short struggle for existence. With 

 all their bad qualities they were very prolific, as many as from 

 one-half to two-thirds of the ewes on good " hefts " (see p. 546) 

 producing twins, half of which had to be killed in bad seasons. 



2 L 



