THE COTSWOLD 629 



Spaniards having originally procured their breed of fine-wooled 

 sheep from the Cots wold hills has no foundation." Marshall also 

 states that the breed is light in front, but fuller behind, and that 

 as Leicester rams are getting "a firm footing," they will fill up 

 the fore quarter. 



In 1842 Low wrote that Cotswold sheep inhabited the district 

 beyond the memory of the living generation. However, he be- 

 lieved that this breed was developed from a large type common 

 in Warwick and Oxford counties adjoining, which it in some 

 respects resembled. It is improbable that the Cotswold has a 

 long ancestry on the hills of Gloucester, for a big breed of this 

 type would not naturally thrive on hills comparatively poor in 

 production. Yet the region in which this sheep developed became 

 a noted wool-producing section, dating back to days of Roman 

 conquest in the second century. Gervase Markham, writing in 

 the sixteenth century, referred to Cotswold sheep as having long 

 wool and large bones. It is generally conceded that the breed of 

 to-day is much improved over the old type, this improvement 

 having been largely secured by using Leicester rams on Cotswold 

 ewes. So indiscriminately were they used between 1780 and 1820 

 that we are told not a Cotswold flock was spared. The Leicester 

 blood reduced the size and constitution but improved the symme- 

 try, producing better bodies, finer wool, more quality, and earlier- 

 maturing sheep. During the last century the families of Smith 

 of Bibury, Hewer of North Leach, Lane, and Game by judicious 

 selection and some in-and-in breeding materially improved the 

 breed. On the dispersion of the Hewer flock various breeders 

 purchased and established flocks which are numbered among the 

 important ones of to-day in England. 



The introduction of Cotswold sheep to the United States prob- 

 ably first occurred in 1832, when Christopher Dunn, who lived 

 near Albany, New York, imported a ram. In 1834 Isaac Maynard 

 of Coshocton County, Ohio, brought the first Cotswolds to that 

 state, but within three years most of these had died. 



In 1836 J. C. Haviland of Dutchess County, New York, began 

 breeding Cotswolds, and continued his flock many years. In 1837 

 they were first brought to Kentucky, where they were very popular 

 and seemed well suited to the conditions. In 1840 W. H. Sotham 



