142 



VIII.— SHEEP. 



IN considering the sheep in the early years of the century it is 

 necessary to remember the state of the county with regard to 

 the open moors, commons and fells. It was not till about 1830 a 

 clause was inserted in an Act of Parliament which " forbade rams 

 being turned on to commons after the 2oth of August in each year, 

 thus preventing injury to the sheep by the use of ' paltry ' rams." 

 The total prevention of rams on commons and waste lands was not 

 accomplished till 1908. 



There were three varieties of sheep in the county at the 

 beginning of the century, the commonest being the Blackfaced 

 Heath Sheep, followed, in point of numbers in the western hilly 

 districts, by the Herdwicks and the Silverdale, or Warton Crag, 

 on the limestone fells round Farlton in the south. In the early 

 years undoubtedly the Black-faced or Heath Sheep was by far 

 the commonest, and, according to George CuUey, in his Obser- 

 vations on Live Stock, 1794, this breed had " spiral horns, black 

 faces and black legs, a fierce, wild-looking eye, and short, firm carcase 

 (weighing from 12 to 16 lbs. a quarter), covered with long, open, 

 coarse, shagged wool ; the fleeces weigh from 3I to 4 lbs. each, and 

 sold in 1792 for 6d. per lb. This hardy wild-looking tribe are first 

 met with in the north-west of Yorkshire, and are in possession of all 

 that hUly or rather mountainous tract of country adjoining the Irish 

 Sea, from Lancashire to Fort William. Indeed, their introduction 

 into the Western Highlands of Scotland has only been of late years, 

 nor is there any doubt of their answering equally as weU in the moun- 

 tains of Argyleshire, as in those of Westmorland and Cumberland." 

 Hector Boethius, writing of the Vale of the Esk in 1460, says : " Until 

 the introduction of the Cheviots, the rough woolled black-faced sheep 

 were alone to be found." Naismyth, of Hamilton, describes the 

 common breed in Lammermuir as being the " black- faced muir 

 kind, having generally horns, and called the short sheep," but " it is 

 impossible to trace their origin, there being no tradition of the sheep 



