182 THE SHEEP. 



the adjoining counties. These latter varieties were smaller 

 than the true Teeswater, but of figures equally ungainly. 

 They had coarse heads, thick hides, and long lank bodies ; 

 and, corresponding with the defects of their external form, 

 was their slowness in fattening and arriving at the required 

 maturity. A Earn of the Warwickshire variety is described 

 by Mr Marshall as having " a frame large and remarkably 

 loose, his bone heavy, his legs long and thick, terminating in 

 great splaw feet, his chine, as well as his rump, sharp as a 

 hatchet, his skin rattling on his ribs." The wool of these 

 sheep varied with the locality, but generally it was inferior 

 in weight, shorter in the staple, and more slender in the fila- 

 ments, than that of the genuine Teeswater. All these varie- 

 ties of sheep have disappeared, so that not a living example 

 of them is to be found ; and their place has been long taken 

 by the beautiful breed, to which reference has been so fre- 

 quently made, and of which more especial notice will be 

 taken in the sequel. 



In the western counties, from the southern division of 

 Staffordshire northward to the Solway Firth, the long-woolled 

 varieties were rare, and found only in a few places. They 

 were all of the coarsest kinds of sheep, and inferior in weight 

 of body to those of the eastern and midland counties. Some 

 of them lingered until a recent period in the lower parts of 

 Westmoreland and Cumberland, and some of them extended 

 across the Solway into the west of Scotland. They have 

 now all disappeared, or left only indistinct traces of their for- 

 mer existence in the flocks of a few careless Sheep-masters. 

 It is not known whether Scotland originally possessed a na- 

 tive race of Long-woolled Sheep ; but sheep of this kind were 

 early in the last century introduced into the south-eastern 

 border counties, and, about the time of the American war, 

 were largely mixed in blood with the improved New Leicester. 



Another district of Long-woolled Sheep is found in England 

 just beyond the tract of the lias and oolite limestone, in the 

 counties of Devon and Somerset. One variety of them in- 



