158 WESTMORLAND AGRICULTURE, 1800— 1900 



one under each arm and another in each hand and walked any distance 

 with the four. Many of the ewes were spotted with black wool, in 

 about an equal proportion in size and number to the spots on a 

 leopard." The report of Finley Dun on the live stock at the same 

 show is also unfavourable to the breed ; he says : " The black-spotted 

 goat-like Herdwicks are still susceptible of considerable improvement." 

 A reason for these unfavourable reports may, in a measure, be accounted 

 for by a remark of the judges : they say " pure bred Fell Sheep never 

 look well in July, their natural clipping time, but are in their bloom 

 in September and October." 



Pure Herdwick lambs are beautifully white, with black legs 

 and faces and white ears — though often there are black spots on 

 their bodies, which afterwards die out — but on being clipped these 

 again show up on the surface of the body. Crossing Herdwick ewes 

 with either Scotch or Rough Fell rams always produces horns in 

 the gimmer lambs, as well as the tup lambs. 



It was said, about the middle of the century, that there were 

 two kinds of Herdwick, the difference being one of size — the larger 

 species pasturing on the Skiddaw, Saddleback, Helvellyn and the 

 Westmorland Fells to the east, the smaller species occupying the fells 

 to the west and south of the district they are peculiar to, the former 

 sheep weighing about 3 lbs. a quarter more than the latter, the increased 

 size being attributed to the sheep being " foddert " with hay in winter, 

 carried to them on the fell on the galloways' backs in sheets. 



Diagram of thorax of Herdwick. 



A peculiar feature in the anatomy of the Herdwick is that in 

 some cases fourteen ribs are found instead of thirteen — the number 



