THE OXFORDSHIRE DOWN. 7 



effect of his sire sheep upon the Hampshire breed at that time 

 and in subsequent years. " These rams," he stated, " I sold 

 not only into Hampshire Down flocks generally, but into 

 those six or eight of our first ram breeders, whose names are 

 to be seen at this day upon my books.*' This clearly shows 

 that Mr. Twynam was an acknowledged breeder of these 

 sheep at the time in which Mr. Druce, of Eynsham, was 

 experimenting upon the crossing of Cotswold and Hamp- 

 shire sheep with a similar object. It was owing to the 

 indefatigable labours of his grand-daughter, Miss Twynam, 

 of Winchester, who wrote me several letters on the subject, 

 that due recognition was somewhat tardily accorded to 

 her grandfather's memory. It is curious to note that Mr. 

 Druce speaks of them as a cross between the Cotswold and 

 Southdown in a letter to Mr. Pusey, but this is evidently 

 only an indication of the want of clearness at that time 

 in distinguishing between Southdowns and west country or 

 Hampshire Down sheep. In a later communication to Mr. 

 W. C. Spooner, Mr. Druce is more precise when he says: 

 41 The foundation of this sheep was begun about the year 

 1833, by using a well-made, neat Cotswold ram with Hamp- 

 shire Down ewes." In 1833 the Hampshire sheep itself was 

 scarcely what it is now, for that was seven years before the 

 time when Mr. Humphrey thought of going to Babraham to 

 purchase Southdowns for the improvement of his Hampshire 

 flock. The Hampshire Down parent of the Oxfords we may 

 picture as a somewhat loosely-made, big-headed, sour sheep, 

 such as the Hampshire sheep were in the early days before 

 they had tacked on the affix " Improved," and when Mr. 

 Clare Read tells us they were "swarming at Illesley Fair" 

 not, however, exactly in the form in which we see them 

 to-day. The stream was tapped higher up, so that probably 

 neither the Hampshire nor Cotswold parent of the Oxford- 

 shire Down were exactly as these breeds now appear. Mr. 

 Druce, in 1853, called his Oxfords " half-breds," and Mr. 



