CHAP I 



CHEVIOT SHEEP. 469 



THE CHEVIOT. This breed of sheep (fig. 103) was originally a 

 native of the Borders. When the British Wool Society was founded 

 in 1791 Sir John Sinclair visited different parts of the country in order 

 to find out what classes of sheep were most valuable for the production 

 of wool, and he found on the Border ranges a breed of sheep to which he 

 gave the name of Cheviots, because the best specimens of the breed 

 were found on the Cheviot Hills. The early improver of this breed 

 was a Mr. Robson, of Belford, who crossed them with the Lincolns, and 

 in that way improved both the weight and quality of the fleece, but 

 that was many }-ears before Sir John Sinclair saw them and gave them 

 their name of Cheviots. They were then called " the long white- 

 faced sheep of the Border" in contradistinction to the " short sheep, ' 



Fig. 103. Cheviot Ram, "The Gentleman." 



as the black-faced sheep were named, and even at the present day old 

 shepherds talk of the " long sheep " and the " short sheep " by which 

 they mean the Cheviots and Black-faces respectively. To Sir John 

 Sinclair is due the credit of introducing the Cheviots into the North 

 of Scotland, where a superior class of them is still kept in the counties 

 of Sutherland and Caithness. About the beginning of the nineteenth 

 century when wool was of more account than mutton, the Cheviots 

 were more widely distributed than they are now, and a good many 

 flocks of Black-faces on the higher grazings were sold off in order that 

 their places might be filled with Cheviots. But the long series of very 

 severe winters which commenced in 1860 completely decimated the 

 stocks of Cheviots on the higher and more exposed grounds which 

 were naturally fitted only for the hardy mountain breed, and since then 

 the Black-faces have more than regained their former popularity while 

 the Cheviots have been in comparatively few hands. 



The points of the Cheviot are very similar to those of the Black-face 



