THE DORSET DQWN 609 



The Dorset Down, or West Country Down breed, 1 was 

 brought into prominence outside its county area by the 

 formation of a Dorset Down Sheep Society, at the meeting 

 of the Milborne Farmers' Club in November 1904, about 

 eighty years after the modern type of the breed was 

 established. The breed is also called the " Improved Hamp- 

 shire." It is " a middle type of Down sheep pre-eminently 

 suited to Dorsetshire," originally formed by breeding South- 

 down rams to Hampshire ewes, and using the rams from 

 the flocks thus formed to improve the original Down sheep 

 of the west, which it is claimed trace back for a very 

 long time before the Hampshire Down breed was established. 

 Two names are specially mentioned in connection with the 

 work of improvement, viz., (i) Thomas Homer Saunders, of 

 Watercombe, near Dorchester (followed in his work by his 

 son, Thomas Chapman Saunders) ; and (2) Humfrey, of 

 Chaddleworth, near Newbury. Humfrey selected rams from 

 the celebrated flock of Jonas Webb ; and Saunders, selecting 

 his rams from Northeast's flock, carried off nearly all the 

 prizes in the " short-woolled other than Southdown " classes 

 at the Royal shows of Chester in 1858 and Warwick in 

 1859. Since that time, when the " Western Country Downs " 

 acquired a high reputation, rams from these flocks have 

 been extensively used to refine many of the flocks of Hamp- 

 shire and Wiltshire. And Dorsetshire breeders have gone 

 to the leading flocks thus improved for requisite changes of 

 blood, " with the result [says the Flock Book] that the Dorset 

 Down breed now registered, although of finer bone and often 

 of lighter colour, are closely related to, and possess the 

 principal features of, the Hampshire Down type, modified 

 by local conditions." 



" A good type of Dorset Down should be free from all 

 coarseness, the chief points being a rather long, full, clean 

 face and under-jaw, with a bold, bright eye, and full muzzle ; 

 the ears should be fairly long, thin, pointed, whole-coloured, 

 and carried well above the level of the eyes ; the neck strong 

 and well set on. The animal should be fairly fine-boned, 

 and covered with a close, fine fleece going well down to the 



1 Indebtedness is acknowledged to the preface to vol. i. of the Dorset 

 Down Flock Book, and to a speech by Henry Duke reported in the 

 Dorset County Chronicle of 24th November 1904. 



2 Q 



