SHEEP 153 



assuming in some instances the appearance of hairs, and is only used 

 for the coarsest purposes, such as horse-rugs, etc., and consequently 

 obtains only a low price, notwithstanding which Herdwick flock 

 proprietors prefer this sort of fleece to one of better quality, as it is 

 found from experience that stock with coats as described withstand 

 the severe weather on the bleak mountains much better than sheep 

 with a better fleece. A singular anatomical character is also found 

 amongst many of them, viz., that of having a rib more than any other 

 breed, fourteen instead of thirteen." 



Jonathan Binns, in his notes on the Agriculture of Lancashire in 



1851, writes that the majority of Herdwicks are hornless, and that 

 he had been told the pure ones were all without horns. Wm. Dickinson, 

 of North Mosses, Whitehaven, had told this writer that he had once 

 purchased between 2000 and 3000 sheep of smaller bone even than 

 the Herdwicks and very like them in colour and marks, but with much 

 finer wool, from the Moghran mountains in the west of Galloway. 

 It was also stated that this breed of sheep had escaped from a Spanish 

 ship wrecked on the coast. Herdwicks were good milkers, Binns 

 continues, but seldom produce more than one lamb, and they are 

 '■ terrible lish." 



Wm. Dickinson, a large Cumberland farmer who won the prize 

 essay of £50 offered by the Royal Agricultural Society of England in 



1852, says : " One hundred years ago the sheep were nearly all of the 

 grey-faced or black-faced moor or mountain breed. At that period, 

 when nearly half the low-lying district and the whole of the hills 

 and mountains were open common, almost every farm had a frontage 

 to some common or other, or access to one by an ' out-gang,' or a 

 narrow strip of open land leading from the village to the common. 

 The Herdwick breed possesses more of the characters of an original 

 race than any other in the county. It stands lowest in the scale of 

 excellence, and shows no marks of kindred with any other race. The 

 majority are without horns, and their legs and faces are grey or mottled. 

 Where great care is exercised in selecting and breeding, the nose is 

 of a lighter grey and is then termed ' raggy ' or ' rimy ' from its 

 resemblance to hoar-frost. Formerly many of this breed had large 

 manes and beards, of very coarse grey hair ; the fleeces were much 

 mixed with greys and kemps. These defects are now removed, without 



