THE DEVON LONGWOOLS. 313 



market, a distance of nearly sixty miles, are sold without their 

 fleeces in the months of May and June." Billingsley alludes 

 to the Taunton district in this statement, but another descrip- 

 tion is to be found in Vancouver's " General View of the Agri- 

 culture of Devon," published by the Board of Agriculture in 

 1808, which contains the following : " The sheep most approved 

 in the division of Tiverton are the Bampton-Notts, the wethers 

 of which breed, at twenty months old, will weigh 221b. p5r 

 quarter, and shear 6|lb. of wool to the fleece. The same sheep 

 well wintered and kept on for another twelve months will 

 average 281b. per quarter, and yield 81b. of unwashed wool to 

 the fleece. The present price of this wool is about Is. per 

 pound." 



Mr. Andernon concluded his letter with the very practical 

 reflection, " This breed, I should conceive, may be greatly 

 improved by crossing with the new Leicester " — an opinion with 

 which the breeders appear to have fully concurred some years 

 later, and which eventually was fully acted on. Towards 

 the latter part of the last and at the commencement of the 

 present century some considerable infusion of Dishley blood 

 had already been effected. Vancouver, in the Survey before 

 quoted, says : " The first cross of this breed with the new 

 Leicester is growing greatly in esteem, from its improving the 

 form and bringing the animal three months earlier to market ; 

 but however desirable this cross so far may be, more of that 

 blood is generally objected to on account of the extraordinary 

 nursing and care required to be paid to the young couples ; the 

 lambs being represented as very tender, and much oftener 

 perishing through the severity of the season than the genuine 

 offspring of the native sheep." 



Making allusion to the neighbourhood of Crediton, Vancouver 

 also observes : "A cross of Leicesters with about half Bampton 

 is conceived to agree with the soil and circumstances of the 

 country. This animal is unquestionably hardier than the new 

 Leicester ; but by the introduction of the latter blood the 

 Bampton comes sooner to market, and at twenty months will 

 weigh 241b. per quarter and 71b. of wool to the fleece." But 

 the circumstances of different localities it is presumed unfolded 

 variable experiences, then as now, in respect to the extent the 



