530 SHEEP MOUNTAIN AND MOORLAND 



The original unimproved Cheviot was a very close-coated, 

 short-woolled, and remarkably hardy sheep even more 

 hardy, it is recorded, than the Scotch Blackface. The ewes 

 of the present day are good milkers, if not starved, as they 

 frequently are in bad seasons, when the natural food on which 

 they subsist is late in springing. They are all the hardier 

 and better doers under stress of weather if they do not show 

 too much high breeding, and have a slight yellow tinge on 

 the hair of the head and legs, after the colouring of the old 

 Tanfaced breed of the country. Any redness about the 

 eyes and ears or whiteness on the muzzle is indication of 

 softness. 



Cast, draught, or cull ewes, at five years old, go from the 

 hills into the low country and better food, to be " milled " or 

 crossed with Wensleydale, Border Leicester, or Lincoln rams. 

 The produce is called "half-bred," or "Leicester-Cheviot," 

 and those half-breds kept for ewes produce by a Leicester or 

 Lincoln ram " three-part-bred " lambs. Half-breds, when fat 

 at twelve to thirteen months old, weigh 16 to 18 Ibs. per 

 quarter, and the flesh is leaner and of better quality than that 

 of the pure Leicester or Lincoln. 



In the early records of Cheviot sheep Varney's evidence 

 before the House of Lords in 1828 states that " Cheviot wool 

 is deteriorated very much in point of hair, and will not make 

 fine cloths now, as it once would. It is coarser and longer, a 

 state attributable to the Cheviot having a partial cross of the 

 Leicester." 



Sir John Sinclair refers to the Cheviot in 1792, before 

 the Leicester blood was introduced. "Their limbs are of 

 a length to fit them for travelling, and enable them to pass 

 over the bogs and snows which a shorter legged animal 

 could not penetrate. They have a shorter, closer fleece, more 

 portable over mountainous pastures than the Tweeddale and 

 Leicester breeds, which keeps them warmer in cold weather, 

 and prevents either rain or snow from incommoding them. 

 They procure their food by scraping the snow off the ground 

 with their feet. Their weight, when fat, is from 17 Ibs. to 

 20 Ibs. per quarter ; and, when fed on heath and kept to a 

 proper age, their meat is fully equal in flavour to any that 

 the Highlands can produce." 



Youatt, discussing the respective merits of the Cheviot 



