396 THE SHEEP OP GREAT BRITAIN. 



in body, the rump much larger than in most sheep, the horns 

 thin and rather bending backwards, the eye quick and lively, the 

 face thin, the mouth small, the head standing up well, the neck 

 very proper, the scrag neither thin nor clumsy, the leg well let 

 down towards the shank ; and adds that they are " set full in the 

 shoulder, which gives flesh on the back, and is an indication of 

 flesh in every part," and also ** the ribs are not so high or round 

 in the upper part as in some improved sheep, which, when as 

 high as promoted by Mr. Bakewell, proves a fault, and 

 diminishes the weight." Youatt also has the following descrip- 

 tion of Dorset sheep : " Most of them, at least of the pure breed, 

 are entirely white ; the face is long and broad, and there is a 

 tuft of wool on the forehead ; the shoulders are low but broad, 

 the back straight, the chest deep, the loins broad, the legs 

 rather beyond a moderate length, and the bone small. They are, 

 as their form would indicate, a hardy and useful breed ; they are 

 good folding sheep, and the mutton is well- flavoured ; they 

 average, when three years old, from 161b. to 201b. a quarter." 



At Plush, near Cerne Abbas, on the farm of Mr. Miller, 

 a flock of the original breed existed until about six years 

 since, when it was dispersed, and none now remain. These 

 sheep were much smaller in size than the improved Dorset, but 

 neat, tolerably well shaped, and thickly wooUed. They bore 

 almost as strong a resemblance to the Portland breed as to the 

 modern Dorset, and were regarded by some as the connecting 

 link between the two, for the opinion was once very prevalent 

 that the Portland in reality was the original ancestral type to 

 which all Dorset horned sheep owe descent. If so, no greater 

 metamorphosis has been effected in any race, for the superior 

 animals turned out at the present day seem to possess few 

 affinities or points of resemblance even to the Plush flock, except 

 in fecundity and early lamb-bearing. If Dorset sheep had been 

 greatly improved at the period when Claridge and Parkinson 

 praised them, how vast has been the progress towards their 

 perfect development during the past half-century. They were 

 sufficiently good, when Southdowns came into competition with 

 them for the occupancy of the chalk soils of Dorset, to cause 

 the struggle between the two breeds to be a long and arduous 

 one. Both Stevenson, in his Agricultural Eeport, and Spooner, 



