SHEEP 



165 



between the said parties hereto that at the determination of this demise the said 

 flock of (500) sheep shall be valued in the usual way (that is to say) by four 

 indifferent persons two to be chosen by the Tenant and two by the Landlord 

 or his Agent or their Umpire to be chosen by the Valuers before entering upon 

 the business And if the said stock of sheep shall in the judgment of the said 

 valuers or their Umpire be of different age or of an inferior quality or condition 

 than they were at the delivery of the same to the Tenant then the said Tenant 

 and his Bondsmen or one of them their or one of their heirs executors and adminis- 

 trators shall and will pay to the Landlord such sum of money as shall be fixed 

 by the said valuers or their Umpire but if the said sheep shall have been improved 

 in condition and quality then the Landlord shall pay to the Tenant such sum 

 of money as the said valuers or their Umpire shall name. Then follows the 

 Schedule (something to the following effect ; — ) 



A clause in an old lease of a Hill Side Farm is to the effect that 

 the tenant shall look after and take care of the goats belonging to 

 the farm, and will not abuse or suffer to be abused the same or suffer 

 the same or any one or more of them to be killed or destroyed without 

 the consent of the landlord or his agent so long as the same shall not 

 exceed twenty in number. 



H. S. Cowper, in his work on "Hawkshead: its history and 

 archaeology," says : " Herdwick is really the name of a sheep 

 farm not of the sheep, and is formed of ' herd ' a flock, and ' wick ' 

 as in bailiwick, a district, or here a ' run.' " More probably it is from 

 " herd," a " flock," and " wick," " quick," " alive," that is " a live 

 flock," the name being applied to those farms on which the flocks were 

 let with the land. This custom was peculiar to the Lake District of 

 Cumberland, Westmorland, and North Lonsdale, and the sheep which 

 were thus let being of a peculiar and distinct breed, gradually and 

 naturally assumed the name of the farms upon which they were bred, 

 and became universally known as " Herdwicks." 



The principal fairs for Herdwicks are Eskdale, Keswick, Amble- 

 side, Grasmere, Staveley, and Pooley Bridge. 



