Agricultural Improvements. 129 



the flocks at once become hornless, or, as they call them, 

 poll-sheep ; and have moreover black faces with a 

 white tuft of wool on their foreheads, and speckled 

 and spotted legs. And this diversity holds good re- 

 spectively on each side, from the valley of Bramber 

 and Beeding to the eastward and westward all the 

 whole length of the Downs, If you talk with the 

 shepherds on this subject, they tell you that the case 

 has been so from time immemorial; d^n^ smile at your 

 simplicity if you ask them whether the situation of 

 these two different breeds might not be reversed. How- 

 ever, an intelligent friend of mine near Chichester is de- 

 termined to try the experiment ; and has this autumn, 

 at the hazard of being laughed aty introduced a parcel 

 of black-faced hornless rams amongst his horned 

 western ewes. The black-faced poll-sheep have the 

 shortest legs and the finest wool.' 



This extract supplies the date of the first faint at- 

 tempt that was made to bring the Southdown sheep 

 westwards. The remaining quarter of that century 

 probably sufficed to establish them throughout the 

 Sussex hills ; and it is reasonable to suppose that they 

 had spread into the parts of Hampshire bordering 

 upon Sussex, before they were known in the vicinity 

 of Basingstoke. Their first introduction into the 

 latter country may be fixed with tolerable certainty 

 to the year 1801. 



In that year Mr. Terry's father bought, at Lewes, 

 300 Southdown ewes, the finest that he could obtain ; 

 for, as he truly observed, it was not worth while to go 

 so far to buy rubbish. He bought also more than 

 a proportionate number of rams, because he desired 

 to try a cross with the old Hampshire sort, as well as 



K 



