THE KOMSEY .MARSH BREED. !7-"> 



and producing, for the most part, short wool, fitted for pre- 

 paration by the card, arid the manufacture of cloths ; and, 

 2. The larger Sheep, naturalized in the plains, marshes, and 

 richer country, producing wool which is long in the filaments, 

 and adapted to the manufacture of stuffs termed worsted. 

 With the progress of cultivation, and the increased means of 

 supplying artificial food, the Long-woolled breeds have been 

 continually gaining in numbers upon the Short-woolled. They 

 may be divided into those which inhabit the fens and marshes, 

 and those which are found in the inland and drier country. 

 Of the former class, greatly the most numerous and remark- 

 able was the Old Lincolnshire Breed already described, of 

 which the remnants only now exist in the unmixed state. 

 Another variety of the same class inhabited a limited tract 

 of low ground termed Romney Marsh, situated on the south- 

 ern coast of Kent, at the western entrance to the Straits of 

 Dover. 



Romney Marsh is a plain of alluvial land nearly on the 

 level of the sea, protected from the tides by dykes in the 

 manner of the marshy flats of Holland. It extends from 

 Hythe to the river Rother, about fourteen miles ; and, at its 

 broadest part, from Dengeness to Appledore, ten miles. It 

 is divided into four districts namely, Romney Marsh Pro- 

 per, which is the largest and most westerly division ; Wai- 

 land Marsh, the next adjoining to the westward ; Denge 

 Marsh, with South-Brooks on the south, and Gtiildford Marsh, 

 the greater part of which is in the county of Sussex, on the 

 west. This tract was known to the Anglo-Saxons \>y the 

 name of Merseware or Mersewarum, and the inhabitants 

 were designated by a term signifying marsh-men or fen-men. 

 It was early fenced from the overflowings of the sea, and the 

 conservation of the dykes and drainage was provided for by 

 local laws and observances, which, so long ago as the reign 

 of Henry III., were denominated ancient and approved cus- 

 toms. The land consists in part of infertile sand, gravel, or 

 peat, but essentially of a deep rich alluvial clay, bearing the' 



