HILL AND HEATH BREEDS. 53 



CLTJN FOREST. 



The Chin Forest breed was long established in the forest of that 

 name, which represents a tract of some 12,000 acres of hills of 

 considerable height, with accompanying dales of good feeding. 

 Very much of the land has been enclosed for many years, and a 

 large portion of it has been brought under the plough. It is situated 

 in the south-west corner of Shropshire ; therefore the breed does 

 not rank as a Welsh one, although it has considerably influenced 

 the neighbouring breeds over the border. The Clun Forest joins 

 the Kerry Hills, but before the Enclosures Act, when the sheep 

 ran alongside one another, they grazed apart and rarely inter- 

 mixed. The Clun Forest breed was an offshoot from the Old 

 Ryeland, which had long existed on the richer land about Clun, 

 and acquired distinctive features ; it possessed good thriving 

 properties, and no mutton was held in such high estimation through- 

 out many years in the West End of London, where the best butchers 

 always announced they were purveyors of Clun mutton, which, at 

 that time, was small and excellently flavoured. 



The Clun played a great part in the making of the Kerry Hill 

 breed, but with more land locally coming under the plough, the 

 Shropshire was crossed on it very freely, and some of its 

 characteristics were altered. It is still a splendid sheep, and 

 it seems regrettable that those interested in it have not taken 

 steps to preserve it as a distinct breed, for few sheep have better 

 inherent features. However, some of these are preserved in the 

 Kerry Hill race ; and, with this breed near by, as representing 

 a type of the hills and adjoining arable land, and with such a 

 powerful high-class breed as the Shropshire dominating so much 

 country on the other sides, it may be difficult to find a place for 

 it in a native area which is not large. It is, however, a type of 

 sheep that ought not to be altogether lost to a country. It is 

 now fast merging into the Shropshire type, but the forest 

 characteristics are by no means ehminated. It cuts a less kempy 

 fleece than the Kerry. There is reason why, at some distant time, 

 should the Shropshire in some localities require a breeding back 

 to a more original stock, that some mild infusion of the Clun should 

 act beneficially. 



THE RADNOR. 



The Radnor breed was held by Low to have much in common 

 with the sheep of the higher Welsh mountains, which lost much of 

 its excessive natural wildness as it occupied lower ground, where 

 it increased in size, though it has not acquired the size of the Kerry 

 Hill. But few of the original Old Radnors remain ; crossing 



