SHEEP AND GOAT KIND. 259 



prohibited from being worn in England. In the 

 times of Queen Elizabeth this manufacture re- 

 ceived every encouragement ; and many of the 

 inhabitants of the Netherlands being then forced, 

 by the tyranny of Spain, to take refuge in this 

 country, they improved us in those arts in which 

 we at present excel the rest of the world. Every 

 art, however, has its rise, its meridian, and its 

 decline; and it is supposed by many, that the 

 woollen manufacture has for some time been 

 decaying amongst us. The cloth now made is 

 thought to be much worse than that of some years 

 past ; being neither so firm nor so fine, neither so 

 much courted abroad nor so serviceable at home. 



No country, however, produces such sheep as 

 England, either with larger fleeces, or better 

 adapted for the business of clothing. Those of 

 Spain, indeed, are finer, and we generally require 

 some of their wool to work up with our own ; 

 but the weight of a Spanish fleece is no way com- 

 parable to one of Lincoln or Warwickshire ; and 

 in those counties it is no uncommon thing to give 

 a hundred guineas for a ram. 



The sheep without horns are counted the best 

 sort, because a great part of the animal's nourish- 

 ment is supposed to go up into the horns.* Sheep, 

 like other ruminant animals, want the upper fore- 

 teeth, but have eight in the lower jaw ; two of 

 these drop, and are replaced at two years old, 

 four of them are replaced at three years old, 

 and all at four. The new teeth are easily known 



* Lislc's Husbandry, voL ii. p. 155. 



