168 THE SHEEP. 



well fitted for the manufacture of the finer woollen cloths, 

 requiring always a large admixture of the softer wools of 

 home or foreign growth. But the war with France having 

 at length excluded the manufacturers of England from most 

 of the foreign markets which supplied the raw material, the 

 woollen fabrics of the country were chiefly prepared from na- 

 tive wool. This circumstance gave a high relative value, not 

 only to the South Down wool, but to all the finer and shorter 

 kinds produced in the country, as that of the Norfolk, the 

 Wiltshire, the Dorset, the Ryeland, the Cheviot, and the 

 other varieties of Short-woolled Sheep which then abounded 

 in the country. But, when the memorable events of 1814 

 opened all the ancient marts of trade, wool of superior fine'? 

 ness was obtained, in the quantity required, from the counr 

 tries of Europe in which the Merino race was cultivated, and, 

 after a time, from the boundless wilds of the Australian colo- 

 nies. This produced an immediate change in the market- 

 price of all the finer wools formerly employed in the manu- 

 facture of woollen cloth, and at length caused them to be 

 applied to other purposes. In place of being used for the 

 manufacture of woollen cloth, they were extensively employed 

 for the lighter and looser fabrics classed under the name of 

 Worsteds. This difference in the destination of the shorter 

 wools, coupled with the diminution of the market-price, has 

 produced an important change in the cultivation of Sheep in 

 this country. It has led to an extension in the number of 

 the Long-woolled Sheep, and a decrease in the number of 

 those cultivated for the fineness of their wool ; and, in the 

 case of the latter, has caused attention to be directed rather 

 to the weight of the fleece, than to those properties which fit 

 it for the manufacture of cloth. All the lesser kinds of 

 Sheep, as the Ryeland, Morfe Common, and Dean Forest 

 breeds, producing a fine and delicate wool, are either extinct, 

 or have lost their distinctive characters by intermixture with 

 other races ; and, throughout entire tracts of country, which, 

 not more than twenty-five years ago, were occupied by Short- 



