THE OLD NORFOLK BREED. 117 



of Sheep, susceptible of an essential change of characters, 

 cannot be doubted. While it might still have retained its 

 property of hardiness and robustness, the too great length of 

 the limbs, the flatness and lankness of the body, and, with 

 the change of external form, the too great wildness of tem- 

 per, might have been corrected, as in the case of every other 

 race of Sheep to which the care of the breeder has been 

 directed. But few breeders appear to have thought the Nor- 

 folk so deserving of preservation and improvement, as to have 

 deemed it necessary to apply to it those principles of breed- 

 ing which have been successfully applied to other races. 

 Very lately, indeed, the matter has occupied the attention of 

 the possessors of the few unmixed flocks which remain ; but, 

 unless these gentlemen are seconded by more extensive sup- 

 port than they have yet received, it is to be believed that this 

 ancient race will, at no distant time, be merged in others which 

 have acquired a higher value by the care of the breeder. 



The breed which of all others has the most trenched upon 

 the domains of the ancient Norfolk is the South Down. This 

 admirable breed has not only occupied districts formerly pos- 

 sessed by the Norfolk, but has been largely used to cross the 

 latter ; and experience has shewn, that these crosses are su- 

 perior in form, though not in weight, to those of the Leices- 

 ter. This is a conclusion which might have been drawn even 

 without the aid of experience. The Southdowns, which are 

 a short-woolled race, and indigenous to a calcareous country, 

 which is also the geological character of the country of the 

 Nor folks, have a greater affinity with the Norfolk s than the 

 long-woolled Leicesters and Lincolns, and are therefore bet- 

 ter suited to amalgamate with them. It has been seen, on 

 the other hand, that the long-woolled Sheep of the plains are 

 better fitted to unite with the Welsh, the Dartmoor, and Ex- 

 moor, than the fine-woolled Southdowns ; illustrating a prin- 

 ciple of breeding too often disregarded, of bringing together 

 animals which possess a certain community of characters. 



