616 SHEEP HORNLESS DARK-FACED SHORT-WOOLS 



among many other prizes gained the sheep championship of 

 the Scottish National Fat Stock Club Exhibition in Edin- 

 burgh in 1898, with a pen of Suffolk wethers, and the reserve 

 numbers in 1899 and 1900, with pens of Suffolk half-bred 

 wethers. .?;?: 



The Oxford Down breed was originated about 1830, by 

 the crossing of Cotswold rams with improved Hampshire 

 ewes, and in a few cases with Southdown ewes. The aim, 

 said Fusey, was to secure " the superior quality, and therefore 

 higher price per pound, of the mutton as compared with long- 

 woolled sheep, and the superior weight of wool and of mutton 

 as compared with short-woolled sheep." The accredited 

 originators of the idea lived near Witney, and seem to have 

 acted independently. They were Samuel Druce, of Eynsham ; 

 John Gillett, of Brize Norton ; William Gillett, of Southleigh ; 

 and Nathaniel Blake, of Stanton Harcourt. They were 

 speedily joined if they were not preceded by J. T. Twynam, 

 of Whitchurch Farm, Hampshire, and by John Hitchman, of 

 Little Milton. The breed was first named " Down-Cotswolds," 

 changed about 1857 to "Oxfordshire Downs," and shortened 

 in recent years to Oxford Downs. Clare Sewell Read 

 referred to them in the R. A. S. E. Journal for 1854, "as 

 the glory of the country the most profitable sheep to 

 the producer, the butcher, and the consumer." It is the 

 largest Down, although Hants tegs (being dropped sooner, 

 and being consequently older) weigh more at the London 

 Christmas fat stock shows. The breed has been since the 

 early fifties of last century a frequent winner of prizes in 

 competition with other breeds at the Royal, the Smithfield, 

 and other leading shows. Their honours include the Smith- 

 field fifty-guinea cup for the best pen of sheep in the shows 

 of 1872, 1875, and 1887. 



The most famous ram which stamped his characteristics 

 on the breed, as " Hubback " did among Shorthorns, was 

 " Freeland," bred by A. F. Milton Druce. He was hired for 

 the season by John Tredwell, Upper Winchendon, Aylesbury, 

 and the following year sent to the States, " where he won the 

 championship of the sheep classes at the Philadelphia 

 Centennial Exhibition." America early showed its apprecia- 

 tion of the breed, as an association for the publication of an 



