HEATH SHEEP. J 



SHEEP. 



^HEATH SHEEP. 



on grass in summer, and the lambs rapidly 

 feed for the butcher. 



THE BERKSHIRE SHEEP. 

 About the centre of Berkshire, its old breed 

 was wont to be found, with their Eoman 

 noses, black faces, long tails, and black and 

 mottled legs. Some of them were polled, but 

 most of them were horned. Their strength, 

 activity, and height were considerable ; whilst 

 they folded well, and, when fattened, assumed 

 large proportions ; but to bring them to this 

 condition usually took a long time. Mr. 

 Herbert says, that " they were nest in weight 

 to the old Leicester breeds, but higher than 

 them on the legs. The wethers, when mode- 

 rately fat, weighed from ten to thirteen 

 stones ; and when fattened for prize show, they 

 weighed from sixteen to twenty-two stones." 

 This breed was first improved by a cross with 

 the Wiitshires, and subsequently with the 

 Southdowns, which are now the prevailing 

 breed in the county. The blood of the old 

 race may be said to have become so deeply 

 amalgamated vv'ith the Southdowns, that they 

 have lost their original character. 



THE BLACK-FACED, OR HEATH SHEEP. 



This peculiar breed of sheep inhabits the 

 lofty, but barren and heathy hills which, com- 

 mencing in Derbyshire in the south, run 

 thence into Scotland, through Lancashire, 

 Yorkshire, Cumberland, and "Westmoreland. 

 It is questionable whether they are the 

 aboriginal breedof these districts; but whether 

 they are or not, they have extended themselves 

 into the mountains of the Highlands, and even 

 penetrated to the Orkneys and Zetland, where 

 they have taken the place of the original and 

 more inferior breeds of these parts. They are 

 celebrated for the excellence of their mutton, 

 but their wool does not rank so high. There 

 is no doubt, however, that a breed of sheep 

 producing wool of a superior kind to that now 

 yielded by the black-faced sheep, was at one 

 period common in Scotland.' Hector Boe- 

 thius, who wrote about the year 1460, speaks 

 of the fineness of the wool produced in various 

 parts of this county. Remarking on the 

 sheep which inhabited the vale of Esk, where, 

 until the introduction of the Clieviots, the 

 rough-wooUed, black-faced sheep alone were 

 712 



found, he says, as given by HoUinshed — 

 ""Whose sheep have such white, fine, and 

 excellent wool, as the like of it is hardly to be 

 found again in the whole island." Sebastian 

 Munster, in his Cosmograpliia Universalis, 

 published ninety years afterwards, says — " The 

 sheep pasture in each country (England and 

 Scotland) is such, that nowhere is there better 

 or finer wool." Dr. Anderson proves, that 

 three or four centuries ago, a fine-woolled 

 breed of sheep was common in Scotland. In 

 Galloway, Annandale, and JS'iddesdale, it was 

 found in the greatest numbers; but it re- 

 mained longest in some of the mountainous 

 districts of Aberdeenshire. liot a century 

 ago it existed in Eifeshire ; and if any of it 

 now remains, it is perhaps in the islands of 

 Shetland. 



Eeturning to the black-faced sheep, how- 

 ever, we find it observed by Mr. Torr, that it 

 is a breed which possesses characters that 

 distinguish it from every other species in the 

 British Isles. It belongs to the smaller races 

 of sheep in regard to the weight to which it 

 attains ; but is not only larger, but more 

 robust than the Zetland, the "Welsh, and the 

 ancient soft-woolled sheep, which it displaced. 

 It resembles the "Wallachian, which has an 

 affinity with the Persian ; and, like it, a conjec- 

 ture might be ventured that it came originally 

 from the East. Its peculiarity is its extreme 

 hardiness, as it will subsist where many other 

 races would literally starve. It is left to shift 

 for itself amongst the heather and furze ; and, 

 when unmolested, wanders almost wild among 

 the hills, picking up such herbage as it finds 

 suitable or agreeable to its palate. Thus it is 

 reared at very little expense, until it is trans- 

 ferred to richer pasture, or till turnips are 

 given it, with the view of its being fattened 

 for the butcher. 



The face and neck of these sheep are usually 

 black, though sometimes they approach to 

 grey ; and, a little before shearing-time, become 

 brown. Elegant and graceful horns grow from 

 each side of their heads, and usually bend 

 backwards and downwards. The specimens 

 on the heads of some four-year-old wethers, 

 have been pronounced really beautiful. The 

 head is broad, and the back straight and broad ; 

 the chest deep, and the legs straight and 

 fleshy. The wool is long and pendulous, and 



