HEKDWICK SHEEP.] 



SHEEP, 



[herdwick sheep. 



ill-made, and coarse-wooUed race, formerly 

 spread over all our midland counties. Lin- 

 colnslure also bad a breed of sheep celebrated 

 for its fine long wool; but tbis breed, de- 

 fective in form, and yielding mutton of inferior 

 quality, is now greatly improved. 



There is one question which suggests i^zQli 

 and which we cannot omit to notice. As fai 

 as records serve us, it would seem that a long 

 woolled and a short-woolled (now middle- 

 woolled) race of sheep have tenanted our island 

 from the earliest times. To what causes, then, 

 are we to attribute this original difference? 

 Are the two races descended from different 

 primitive sources, or have food and soil grad- 

 ually produced the differences which have 

 been so long maintained ? No one, we think, 

 will hesitate to say the latter; impossible as 

 it may be to follow step by step the progress 

 of the change, or to determine the modus 

 operandi of the causes contributing to effect 

 ifc. It is, however, very remarkable, that it is 

 only in animals which have been so long do- 

 mesticated that we cannot tell their primeval 

 origin, and which there is reason to think are 

 factitious beings (that is, the produce of dif- 

 ferent, but still closely-allied species com- 

 mingling together), that these extreme varia- 

 tions as to size, figure, and length and quality 

 of fur, are most decidedly observable. "We see 

 these varieties in the dog — from the silky, 

 long-haired spaniel of Spanish race, to the 

 close-haired old setter of the same country; 

 from the woolly Erench poodle, to the mutin ; 

 from the rough English water-dog, to the 

 mastiff: so, in the sheep, we find a short-fleeced 

 breed, with tbe filaments of the wool peculiarly 

 fine, and uameroualy serrated ; a still longer- 

 fleeced breed, again subdivided into many 

 minor varieties, and having the wool fine, and 

 more or less capable of felting — or, in other 

 words, more or less numerously serrated ; and 

 a long-woolled race of old standing, in which 

 the wool, but thinly serrated, is inferior in 

 felting properties, but of great value to the 

 woolcomber. But further, as the misfciire of 

 a long and silky-haired breed of dogs with one 

 of close hair does not improve the coat, the 

 young resembling, some the male, some the 

 female, but not equalling them in their excel- 

 lences; so the crossing of long-woollcd and 

 short-woolled sheep leads to no good results} 



snd, as it is with dogs, the improvement of 

 each breed depends on a judicious and careful 

 selection of the best and purest of that breed, 

 by which the properties distinguishing it may be 

 developed to their maximum in their progeny. 

 In England, the sheep is now only valuable 

 for the sake of its woo\ and flesh; but in 

 various parts of both Europe and Asia, the 

 milk of the ewe has been used from the earliest 

 times, either pure or curdled, as an article of 

 diet. Formerly, in many parts of England, 

 cheese was made from the milk of the ewe ; 

 and the ewes, to the injury of the lambs, were 

 milked regularly, as described in the Odyssey, 

 and, at a later era, by Virgil : — 

 " He next betakes him to liis evening cares, 

 And sitting down, to milk his ewes prepares ; 

 Of half their udders eases first the dams, 

 Then to the mothers' teats submits the lambs. 

 Half the white stream to hardening cheese he press'd. 

 And high in wicker baskets heap'd ; the rest, 

 Reserved in bowls, supphedthe mighty feast." 

 To the process of shearing we need scarcely 

 .allude; all are familiar with the manner in 

 which the removal of the fleece is effected ; and 

 it would seem that, in the earliest patriarchal 

 ages, the same process was in use. Among 

 the Eomans, however (and the practice has 

 been but lately discontinued in the Orkney 

 Islands, and is, perhaps, still prevalent in Ice- 

 laud), the wool was torn off" the animals; and, 

 as Pliny states, they were kept for three days 

 previously without food, in order that the 

 wool might be the more easily detached, their 

 bodies being exhausted. In his time, however, 

 the practice of shearing had begun to super- 

 sede this cruel and unjustifiable method. It 

 gave, however, origin to the word vellus 

 (fleece), from veUo (to pull away) ; and the 

 hill termed Velleia was tbe ancient spot on 

 which this cruelty was perpetrated. 



With us, the season of sheep-shearing is a 

 season of rejoicing; and the manner in which 

 tbe important work is conducted, and the 

 dexterity of tbe shearers, are, to those not 

 accustomed to rural life, replete with interest 

 and amusement. It is, indeed, a pleasing 

 spectacle to see a large flock of snow-white 

 sheep collected together, and, in turn, losing 

 their soft fleece, rolled into an unbroken and 

 well-arranged whole, beneath the shears of the 

 shearer. The picture is poetical, and has been 

 the subject of many pleasing representations. 



