THE OLDER LONG-WOOLLED BREEDS. 183 



habited the southern part of Devonshire from the Vale of 

 Honiton westward, and another was found more to the north 

 stretching to the river Parret in Somersetshire. The first 

 of these varieties, termed Southam Notts, had brown faces 

 and legs, crooked limbs, and flat sides. They carried a fleece 

 of long wool, moderately soft, weighing from 9 Ib. to 10 lb., 

 and at 30 months old the wethers weighed from 22 lb. to 

 25 lb. the quarter. The other variety was termed Bampton 

 Notts, from the village of that name on the confines of the 

 counties of Devon and Somerset. They had white faces, 

 bore a very weighty fleece of long wool, and weighed at two 

 years old from 30 lb. to 35 lb. the quarter. These breeds 

 have been largely crossed with the New Leicester, and may 

 be said to be now extinct in their pure state. The first mix- 

 ture of blood produced at once animals greatly superior to 

 the older race. The defect of these sheep was their clumsy 

 forms and thick hides, and consequent indisposition to fatten. 

 These faults have been entirely corrected by the crossing 

 that has taken place, although this was more tardily carried 

 into effect in Devonshire than in any other part of England : 

 and, on the basis of the older breeds, has been formed a very 

 fine race of sheep, diminished in bulk of body from the ori- 

 ginal Bamptons, but still amongst the largest sheep in the 

 kingdom. Thus a wether of mixed blood, killed in 1835, had 

 arrived at the prodigious weight of 70 lb. the quarter ; and one 

 lately living in the neighbourhood of Exeter weighed 430 lb. 

 live weight. The breeders of Devonshire take a just pride 

 in their newly-formed breed, but do not seem disposed to 

 reduce the size to the standard approved of by the Leicester 



breeders. 







XX. THE LONG-WOOLLED BREEDS OF IRELAND. 



Ireland, from the fertility of the soil, the humidity of the cli- 

 mate, and the mildness of the winters, is well suited for the 

 rearing of Sheep of the larger kind; and Sheep appear, in every 



