400 THE SHEEP OP GREAT BRITAIN. 



Christmas and the following month is esteemed a great luxury, 



and accordingly commands a high price At Weyhill, 



one of the largest sheep fairs in the kingdom, they fonn a very 

 large proportion of the sheep offered for sale. It is the ewes in 

 lamb that are thus driven in the month of October a distance 

 frequently of fifty or sixty miles, which journey, occupying 

 upwards of a week, they generally bear remarkably well.'* 

 Formerly it was not uncommon for lambs to be yeaned on the 

 journey, and a horse and cart accompanied the flock to convey 

 such lambs as happened to be dropped. The breed must indeed 

 be hardy to stand such usage, to which it is not now required to 

 be subjected, as the journey from Western Dorset to the 

 neighbourhood of Weyhill, and the other Wilts and Hants 

 autumn fairs, can be accomplished by rail, if they have to be 

 sent at all, which is frequently not the case. The railway 

 system has brought about a complete revolution in causing the 

 great mart for early lambing Dorset ewes to be transferred from 

 Weyhill to Dorchester Powndbury Fair, held on the 29th 

 September, at which from twelve to sixteen thousand from the 

 principal horn flocks of the county pass under the baton of Mr. 

 T. Ensor. This enterprising auctioneer offers a number of prizes 

 for the best ewes, the competition being in three classes, 

 according to the size of the flocks. The ewes frequently have 

 lambs at their sides even at this early period, and realise from 

 45s. to 75s, per head. 



Mr. H. Mayo, writing as late as 1871, after observing that the 

 ewes will take the ram two or three months before any other 

 breed of sheep, adds : " When the lambs are yeaned in October 

 and November, and both they and their mothers receive good 

 feeding, the former will generally be found ready for the butcher 

 in about ten or eleven weeks ; nor does it take long to make the 

 ewes ripe afterwards, and they will average from 201b. to 251b. per 

 quarter. To obtain early lambs for fattening we generally make 

 use of a Sussex ram, as the lambs are considered a little better 

 quality with the cross. We lamb our usual flock about Christmas, 

 and shear about the middle of June, when the lambs yield from 

 2ilb. to 31b. of wool, and the ewes from 51b. to 61b." *Mr. Paul], 

 a large farmer of Piddletown, in asserting about ten years since 

 that the Dorsets were prolific wool-bearers, and that horn wool 



