THE OXFORDSHIRE DOWN. 67 



middle-aged men such a classification as the above should 

 have been thought satisfactory is in itself remarkable. A 

 sorry show indeed would it be, and hard upon the unfortu- 

 nate judges, were the massive Lincoln, the Cotswold, and the 

 Romney Marsh once more mixed up together as Long- 

 woolled sheep (not Leicesters) ; or Oxfords, Shropshires, and 

 Hampshire Downs contested with each other for prizes. 

 Happily this is no longer the case, and a disposition has been 

 shown to recognise any well-established and distinct breed. 



The Oxford Down is more clearly a half-bred or crossed 

 race than any of the preceding. It dates its origin to 1833 or 

 1834, an d was produced by a cross between the Cotswold 

 ram and Hampshire Down ewe, effected by Mr. Samuel 

 Druce, of Eynsham, Oxon. 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 : 

 " 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 ^ ne 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. 



