■^ mSTOUY OF THE IjHKEP. 



1788, but attracted little attention, owing to the want of 

 rams. Lord Somerville went to Portugal in 1 80 1 , for the 

 purpose of selecting such animals as appeared valuable, 

 from uniting a good carcass with a superior fleece, and 

 he succeeded, notwithstanding the disturbed state of 

 the country, in obtaining specimens, which called forth 

 the praises of the shepherds, through whose travelling 

 flocks they passed. Public attention was attracted to 

 them on the commencement of his Majesty's sales in 

 1804; and their distribution over the country was ac- 

 complished in 1811, by the formation of the principal 

 landed proprietors and eminent breeders into a Merino 

 Society. 



The Merinos had much prejudice to encounter on 

 being first brought before the public in 1804; but they 

 soon rose in favour and value, and steadily progressed 

 till the Merino Society was established, when, strange 

 though it may appear, all these advantages were at 

 once destroyed. This paradox may, perhaps, be ex- 

 plained, by supposing that the institution of local com- 

 mittees, which immediately followed, allowed the ene- 

 mies of the change, in distant parts of the kingdom, 

 ample opportunity of striking at the scheme, now that 

 it was entrusted, in many instances, to persons ill quali- 

 fied for the task either of making converts, or retaining 

 the advantages already gained. 



The horns of the Merino are of large size, twisted spi- 

 rally and extended laterally, approaching closely in these 

 characters to the sheep of Mount Parnassus, a specimen 

 of which is delineated in the work by E. T. Bennett, 

 on the Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological 

 Society. The face has a chara(;tcristic velvety appear- 



