48 SHEEP : BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT 



of a century ago the younger Ellman was a venerable old 

 gentleman of benign appearance. His memory extended 

 back to the beginning of the century, and he was able to 

 narrate all the particulars of his father's work in bringing 

 out the Southdown race, in the time when George the Third 

 was young. I heard him speak of the old-fashioned and 

 unimproved Sussex Down, as of small size and bad shape, 

 long in neck, low at both ends, light in the shoulders, 

 narrow at the fore-end, and shaped " like a soda-water 

 bottle," small in front, and heavier in the middle, large in 

 the bone, but boasting a big leg of mutton. The fleece 

 was not so close and firm as now, and the almost proverbial 

 expression of " four-year-old Southdown mutton " was more 

 applicable than in our days. 



Mr. Ellman laid stress upon the great improvement effected 

 in the neck and forequarters by his father, and held that the 

 neck should be bold. It should rise high in the crest, and be 

 muscular and thick. The shoulders, he said, should be wide, 

 and this width should be maintained by well-sprung ribs, 

 great girth, grand loins, straight and ample quarters, and 

 good dock. The leg must be well filled inside and out, and 

 " as round as a cricket-ball." The fleece must be " board- 

 like " in its firmness, and show cracks down to the skin, as 

 the animal turns, presenting a firm and springy appearance. 

 Arthur Young saw the Glynde flock in 1776, and says, " Mr. 

 Ellman's flock of sheep, I must observe in this place, is un- 

 questionably the first in the country, the wool the finest, 

 and the carcase the best proportioned ; both these valuable 

 properties are united in the flock at Glynde. He has raised 

 the merit of the breed by his unremitting attention, and it 

 now stands unrivalled." The attention of the Farmer King 

 was early directed to the Glynde flock, and it is not im- 

 probable that the Royal patronage conferred upon the elder 

 Ellman was the original cause of the Southdown being taken 

 up by the reigning family, as well as by many of our nobility. 

 The Southdown has been spoken of as a "gentleman's" 



