

DOMESTIC SHEEP. 295 



yere, King Edward IV. gave a license to pass over certain Cotswold shepe into Spain, by reason where,,!' 

 it has come to pass at this day, that the staple of the wools of Spain, except at Baydcs (Bruges), in 

 Flanders, is so great, that our staple is not comparable to it." 



The old chronicler is, however, in error, when he attributes any change in the breed of Spanish 

 sheep to the animals thus imported. They were long wools and long-woolled sheep that were sent to 

 Spain, not designed to mingle with and improve the wool, or the breed of the migrating sheep of Spain, 

 but to form a lighter serge-like fabric. The greater part, or the. whole of the wool that was exported 

 from Great Britain at that time, and for centuries before, was long wool ; and (lie ( 'otswold sheep were 

 then, as now, long-woolled. 



In one of Draytou's singular and beautiful poems, published in the time of Henry VIII., lie 

 represents " Cotswold " as " King of the Shepherds," and thus speaks of him : 



" T whom Sarum's plaine gives place, though famous for its flocks, 

 Yet hardly doth she tythe our Cotswold's wealthy locks ; 

 The Leinster him exceed in fineness of her ore, 

 Yet quite he puts her down for his abundant store." 



Thus, the poet states that the Leinster, or Leorninster ore (wool as precious as ore) was at that time 

 finer than the Cotswold, but that the latter surpassed the former in the quantity yielded by the latter. 

 This quantity is ascribable to the length of the wool. Thus, Markhain, a writer on agriculture in the 

 time of Queen Elizabeth, says that the Cotswold sheep were, as they continued in every period of their 

 early history, " a long-woolled and large-boned breed." 



Very few flocks of pure Cotswplda now exist, and these are rapidly diminishing. They are taller 

 and longer than the improved breed, comparatively flat-sided, deficient in the fore-quarter, but full in 

 the hind-quarter; not fattening so early, but yielding a longer and heavier fleece. There can be no 

 doubt that the Cotswolds have been materially improved by an infusion of the Leicester blood, and in 

 the same way as the other long-woolled breeds. 



It was about the middle of the last century that Mr. Bakewell, of Dishley, near Loughborough, 

 in Leicestershire, first applied himself to the improvement of the then existing breed of sheep in that 

 county. He perceived that smaller animals increased in weight more rapidly than very large 

 ones ; and that they consumed so much less food, that the same quantity of herbage applied to 

 feeding a larger number of small sheep would produce more meat than when applied to feeding the 

 smaller number of large sheep, which alone it would support. He also saw that sheep carrying a 

 heavy fleece of wool possessed less propensity to fatten than those which carried one of a more 

 moderate weight. 



Acting on these observations, he selected from the different flocks in his neighbourhood, without 

 regard to sixe, the sheep which appeared to him to have the greatest propensity to fatten, and whose 

 shape possessed the peculiarities likely to produce the largest proportion of valuable meat, ami tin- 

 smallest quantity of bone and offal. In doing this, it is probable he was led to prefer the smaller 

 sheep, still more than he had been by the considerations already stated, because it was found that 

 perfection of shape more frequently accompanies a moderate-sized animal than a very large one. He 

 was also of opinion that the first object to bo attended to in breeding sheep was the value of the 

 carcase, and that the fleece ought always to be a secondary consideration. The reason for this is 

 obvious : the addition of two or three pounds of wool to the weight of a sheep's fleece is a diflerenee 

 of great amount; but if, to procure this increase, a sacrifice is made of the propensity to fatten, the 

 farmer may lose by it ten or twelve pounds of mutton. 



The South-down sheep has the head small and hornless; the face speckled or gray, and neither 

 too long nor too short; the lips thin, and the space between the eyes and the nse narrow; the 

 under jaw or chap, fine and thin ; the ears tolerably wide and well covered with wool, and the fore- 

 head also ; the eye full and bright, but not prominent; the neck of a medium length; the lnvasl 

 wide ; the shoulders should be on a level with the back, the hips wide, and the belly as straight as 

 the back; the legs should lie neither too long nor too short; the belly should be defended with wool, 

 and the wool coining down before and behind to the knee and to the hock ; the wool short, close, 

 curled, and fine, and free from spiry, projecting fibres. 



This race pastures on the long range of chalky hills extending from the sea-coast of the Isle 



