THE BLACK-FACED SHEEP. 83 



5,000 sheep, kept for the use of the Royal household, and 

 from that stock the whole of the Black-faced sheep are 

 descended." This is, in some respects, a circumstantial 

 account, but it lacks evidence of authenticity, as the name of 

 the monarch and the authority for the tradition are wanting. 

 Mr. David Archibald, in his valuable paper upon " The 

 Black-faced Breed of Sheep," contributed to the Highland 

 and Agricultural Society's Transactions (vol. xvi., 1884), indeed 

 fixes this tradition as relating to James IV. of Scotland, and 

 this he does on the authority of Hogg, the Ettrick shepherd. 

 Another hypothesis, which at one time was currently re- 

 ceived, was that the Black-faced sheep originated in a crosi 

 between goats and sheep. Many other views have been 

 expressed of a contradictory character, and after carefully 

 reviewing them all Mr. Archibald has come to the conclusion 

 " that the origin of the breed is uncertain," and we must, 

 therefore, take its existence as a fact, and leave the vexed 

 question as to whether England or Scotland, or some other 

 country, was the original home of the Black-faces as one which 

 cannot now be answered. It is, indeed, a matter of regre? 

 that the origin of a sheep which only appears to have bee* 

 established in the Highlands of Scotland for the comparative!} 

 short period of 120 years should be a subject of speculation 

 and uncertainty, but such seems to be the case. That they 

 forced their way through a considerable amount of opposition 

 is evident, for in 1790 Dr. James Anderson wrote that " the 

 coarse-woolled sheep (the Black-faces) have been debasing 

 the breed (meaning the old breed then extant) under the 

 name of improving it." Such complaints are not new to 

 anyone who has studied the introduction of all the new and 

 improved races, as has been already shown. We may, how- 

 ever, rest assured that the Black-faced breed possessed pro- 

 perties which fitted it for the exposed situations of Scotland, 

 and it maintains its position better at the present time than 

 it did only a few years ago. There appears to be no trace of 

 the white and fme-woolled sheep, with hairy tails, which at 



