THE BORDER LEICESTER. 2J 



6 175. each, the highest price given being 16 los. In 

 1890 the average for Lord Polwarth's rams was 53 195. 40!. 



The differences between the Leicester and the Border 

 Leicester are to be chiefly seen in the head, which in the 

 Border Leicester is white, and boldly carried, the nose 

 slightly aquiline, the muzzle full, the nostrils wide, and the 

 ears erect. The head is clean and free from wool, as is 

 pretty well shown by the fact that they suffer from flies 

 settling on their polls in summer. The English Leicester, 

 unless trimmed and shaved for show, usually carries a tuft 

 of wool on his head, which protects it from flies, and he is 

 also woolled in the shanks. The English Leicester has a 

 bluish-white face; whereas the Border Leicester's face is 

 clear white. In carcase the Border Leicester is the larger 

 and longer, and the belly is not quite so full in outline, being 

 carried rather more lightly. As to carcase points, these are 

 so similar in all sheep that they may in the present case be 

 omitted, especially as they have been given in detail in des- 

 cribing Leicester sheep. 



The idea which has been expressed that Border Leicesters 

 were produced by crossing Cheviots and Leicesters is not 

 accepted by their breeders, and Mr. Archibald, who has been 

 already quoted, scouts it as untrue. The well-known history 

 of such flocks as the Mertoun, Mongoswalls, Mellendean, 

 Bonnington, Mersington, and The Rock, are sufficient 

 guarantee that Dishley was the original home of both 

 English and Border Leicesters, and that the brothers 

 Culley brought out the Border Leicesters by repeated 

 crossings of Dishley rams upon Teeswater ewes. In North- 

 umberland, which is the native county of the breed, 

 they found patrons in the Bosanquets, at The Rock, in 

 the Greys, of Millfield, and, later, in the Messrs. Dinning, 

 the late Mr. John Atkinson, of By well Hall (Peepy), and 

 Andrew Wood, on the banks of the Tyne. 



From Stamford Bridge in Yorkshire, through the counties 

 of Durham, Northumberland, and into Lothian, the Border 



