HERDWICK SHEEP. gi 



will not enlarge upon the necessity of well-sprung ribs, broad 

 loins, good legs of mutton, &c., but leave my readers to picture 

 a hardy, up-standing, white-faced, hornless, and fine-woolled 

 sheep, capable of standing the severe winters of Cheviot, but, 

 nevertheless, one degree less hardy and less independent than 

 his rival, which, it appears, is once more, as in the history of 

 some nations, driving out his former conquerors. Upon this 

 point, however, it would be interesting to hear what the pro- 

 moters of Cheviot sheep have to say. 



HERDWICK SHEEP. 



Visitors to the English Lake country, even of the agricul- 

 tural sort, do not make sheep their first study, being more 

 likely to praise the mutton than the animals which yield it. 

 Dotted over the high grounds of Skiddaw, Langdale Pikes, and 

 Coniston Old Man, tenanting the beautiful grassy parks 

 around Grasmere and Ambleside, Kendal and Windermere, 

 may be seen a rather small but picturesque sheep. If the 

 visitor is fortunate enough to see this beautiful district in the 

 merry month of May, when the first blush of beauty has not 

 been worn from the delicate lacelike foliage, he may also notice 

 the little black-headed and black-legged lambs of the Herd- 

 wick breed keeping close to their well-woolled mothers. This 

 race has kindled a wonderful enthusiasm in its favour among 

 the dalesmen of its beautiful locality. The story goes that 

 " forty small sheep managed to save themselves from the 

 wreck of one of those Spanish galleons," which, after Admiral 

 Francis Drake and Hawkins had broken that famous line, 

 were driven by tempest along the rugged coasts of the West of 

 England down into the cruel rocks of the Scottish coast to 

 certain destruction. On the sandy Cumberland shore at 

 Drigg these forty sheep saved themselves and " were claimed 

 as jetsam and flotsam by the lord of the manor." Thus 

 Spain became once more connected with the history of the 

 sheep stock of our country. The episode is interesting and 



