end Exiension of tbe Merino Breed of Sheep. 393 



The lives of these three authors, Polydore Virgil, Stow, and Drayton, occupy the 

 whole period when our wool and cloths were most coveted ; and so far are they 

 from having been sensible of any degeneracy in our sheep or wool, that two of 

 them, expressly describing those objects, speak of them in strains of the highest 

 panegyric. 



On the whole I think it reasonable to conclude, 1st. That, from the year 1300, 

 the breeds of English sheep, and consequently their fleeces, have uniformly con- 

 tinued to be much the same as they now are ; all widely different from the Merino ; 

 and 2dly. That if sheep were ever exported, or intended to be exported, to Spain 

 or other countries, it must have been, so far as their fleeces were concerned, for 

 the express purpose of establishing there a comparatively coarse, and perhaps a 

 long-wooled race.* 



It appears, therefore, that the notion of the English origin of the Merino breed 

 of sheep, however it may have served to flatter the national pride, falls to the ground 

 as soon as it is coolly and deliberately investigated. 



Another origin is suggested by a writer in the folio French Encyclopedic, who 

 boldly asserts, that this race was formed about the time of the Emperor Claudius 

 from importations of African rams by Columella, uncle of the celebrated agricul- 

 tural writer of that name. According to the Encyclopedic, Marcus Columella, 

 who derived " his chief pleasure from a country life, was struck with the brilliant 

 " whiteness of fleeces which he had seen on certain wild rams that the merchants 

 " of Africa had imported for the public games. Immediately he determined 

 " to try if he could not tame these animal?, and establish the breed in the neigh- 

 " bourhood of Cadiz. He succeeded ; and carrying his experiments still 

 " farther, coupled African rams with common ewes. The produce of this cross, 

 " with the delicacy of the mother, had the whiteness and quality of wool of the 

 " father." t 



• In all these discussions, T have said nothing of the carcase, which, in our breeds, for full a 

 thousand years, has always made some part of the value of the sheep, and in wiiich, I presume, 

 they have always been at least equjl to those of foreign countries. Mr. Ellman, and the disciples 

 of Mr. Bakewell, might still think their sheep worthy of being coveted by the Spaniards, though 

 they did not produce a single ounce of wool. 



f Encyclopedle, article Laine. 



VOL. v. 3 E 



