298 



THE SHEEP OP GREAT BRITAIN. 



Cotswolds, indicates tlieir eastern origin. The word is used in 

 several places in the Old Testament : 1 Samuel, xxiv. 3, " David 

 comes to the sheep cotes by the way, where was a cave ; " 2 

 Samuel, vii. 8, " I took them from the sheep cote, from following 

 the sheep." King Hezekiah had " stalls for all manner of 

 beasts, and cotes for sheep." According to Groding, cloth- 

 making was carried on at G-loucester during the Saxon 

 heptarchy, for he relates that, when royalty visited G-loucester, 

 the cottagers presented the king and the nobles with clothing of 

 their own manufacture. Atkyns, in his history of Gloucester- 

 shire, states that Cirencester had two markets in the week — one 

 for corn, &c., on Monday, which has been continued to this time, 

 and one on Friday, chiefly for wool, for which commodity it is 

 the greatest market in England. Both wool and sheep were 

 exported, and this to such an extent that in 1425 an Act of 

 Henry VI. was passed to prevent this; and it was therein 

 provided that no sheep shall be exported without the king's 

 licence. Later on, in 1468, King Edward IV. presented John, 

 King of Aragon, with twenty Cotswold ewes and four rams; 

 and a few years earlier the King of Portugal applied to Henry 

 VI. for permission to export sixty sacks of Cotteswold wool, in 

 order that he might manufacture certain cloths of gold at 

 Florence for his private use. 



There is, we think, little doubt that the original Cotswold 

 aheep were, if not the earliest, at any rate one of the earliest, 

 breeds of sheep in this country, and that they attained a position 

 unrivalled for the production of wool. In the reign of Elizabeth 

 they are described as long wooUed and strong boned ; and the poet 

 Drayton speaks of their wool-bearing qualities when he says : 



T'whom Sarum's plain gives place, though famous for his flocks, 

 Yet hardly does she tythe our Cotteswold's wealthy locks. 



As we have said, these sheep in early days were valuable 

 principally for their wool. They were large-framed, coarse, 

 slow-feeding sheep ; very hardy, and accustomed to travel in 

 search of the short sweet herbage which invariably prevails on 

 limestone hills. At first the wool was used for the manu- 

 facture of cloth, which in earlier days was very coarse. Fulling 

 miUs were established at Cirencester and in the neighbourhood- 



