174 



OUR DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



A Rare Species of the Shropshire Breed 



Photo J. T. Newman. Berkhampstead 



although, Hke them, they inhabit the plains and 

 hillsides of a great part of Europe and America. 

 There is a great difference, however, in the 

 character of those plains ; the moorland sheep 



. live on sandy soil, while the 



. V ^M English-bred sheep are the 

 ^ ^M product of a rich, loamy, 

 ^K^^l calcareous land. England is 

 ^^^H esjiecialh- fitted for the forma- 

 ^^^H tion of such a race, partly by 

 ^^^B reason of its soft and temper- 

 ^^^H ate climate, and partly because 

 Bum of its many beautiful and fer- 

 tile meadows and the rolling 

 " downs " of the south and 

 east ; and also, and above all, 

 b\- reason of the practical good 

 sense that characterizes the 

 Englishman in general and the 

 English breeder in particular. 

 The history of these sheep 

 does not date back very far. 

 It was not until the second 

 half of the eighteenth century 

 that their e.xcellent qualities came to be gener- 

 ally known, thanks to a breeder named Bake- 

 well, who died in 1799. Bakewell lived in 

 Leicestershire, where the soil and climate had 



:.-^r>.v.-?.twiBii«<«aMaim<^r!:^v>-i«rts3!^ 

 The Shower B.\th 



