438 Saddle and Sirloin. 



It is a great sight to go into the Shrewsbury market 

 during the Ram Fair, and find Mr. Preece, that St. 

 George of the " Shrops," at work among his " grand 

 rams" and his " superb ewes." Above you, perched as 

 it were in a little eyrie, is the school which Butler and 

 Kennedy have made so famous, and where France, 

 Riddell, Cope, Bather, Druce, Gifford, Munro, Clark, 

 the Mosses, and Hallam, &c., are among the well- 

 remembered names of first-class classic renown. Mr. 

 Preece speaks in " headlong galloping anapaests" 

 below, as, with a variety of air sawings which remind 

 one of the yeomanry cavalry at sword exercise, he 

 knocks down his 200 rams in six hours. Each ram 

 goes up at five guineas, and on go the biddings by 

 half a guinea to ten guineas, and at a guinea beyond 

 that. Purchasers can't hang half a second, or down 



Pitchford, who had let his sire for 65 guineas ; and he did his new 

 owner good service, as he let 22 rams at 22/. "js. one season. 



According to the Shropshire men, the cross with Hampshire or 

 Southdown shows a tendency to run to gut, and the Hampshire black 

 comes out on the tail and behind the ears. The Southdown has always 

 added quality, and the Hampshire has strengthened the bone and frame 

 generally, and improved the wool. Oxford Downs did the same ; but 

 no Shrop man will allow that they improved the flesh. In some flocks 

 the crossing has been rather wild, and a touch of Lincoln is said to have 

 been introduced. The original speckle features are more due to the 

 sheep on the Longmynd hills, and the dark features and clean, snaky 

 heads, bare of wool on the cheeks and poll, seem to throw back to the 

 Cannock Chase sheep. 



The Clun Foresters may be cousins-german to them ; but they run 

 much more into the Welsh sort, of which there are two quite distinct 

 one with tups whose heads are not much bigger than a jack-hare, and 

 hornless ; and the other with horns, mane, and beard. The original 

 Clun Foresters are gradually disappearing before the Enclosure Com- 

 missioners, and many of them are not above 3lbs. a quarter in excess of 

 the Welsh. They are only brought off the Forest once a year to shear, 

 and then they don't reach 3lbs. Some are kept on the Forest till they 

 are six or seven years old. They are thick, round-rumped sheep, and 

 perfect stoics in enclosed fields, when compared with the Welsh, which 

 have the cunning of the monkey in breaking bounds. They have 

 generally a dark brown face and legs and small horns, with lots of 

 hardihood for the hill, and are capital nurses for early lambs by the 

 Shrop or Leicester, when they are bought for park-feeding. 



