240 NORTH LANCASHIRE 



a speckled face, massive curling horns, and a dense 

 shaggy fleece of the thickest carpet wool, almost hair, 

 which occupies the hill country and the moorlands from 

 Craven to the southern border of Lancashire. There 

 the Lonk merges into or is replaced by the Penistone 

 sheep and the Gritstone sheep of the Peak country, 

 both of which seem to belong to the same general 

 stock, though they now differ in the face colour, the 

 horns, and other points. The Lonks are supposed to 

 have the finest wool, and to any one accustomed to the 

 soft fleeces of the aristocratic lowland breeds it is 

 amazing to hear that stuff of such incredible coarseness 

 sells as well as, if not better, than the finer article. 

 The Lonk is perhaps the biggest of the hill breeds, 

 hardy and prolific, needing no better keep than the 

 roughest grass and heather, and capable of finding food 

 in anything but the deepest snow. A Lonk ram in 

 full fleece is a very impressive animal, higher on the 

 leg and bigger generally than the Blackfaces he most 

 closely resembles. Rams are sold to some extent for 

 crossing with other hill breeds, to which they give size 

 and substance. In this district the wethers and off- 

 going ewes are sold in October to be fattened on the 

 lowlands, and a little earlier the ewe lambs are also 

 sent down to be wintered on grass land that has been 

 cut for hay, only the breeding ewes being kept at home. 

 About 73. 6d. a head is paid for the wintering, pay- 

 ment only being made for those which come back 

 again in April. A certain amount of crossing is also 

 done in the district, the country ewes Lonk or Swale- 

 dale being crossed with a Wensleydale ram. Wensley- 

 dales, which come from no great distance, are curly-coated 

 sheep of a Leicester type, but big, active, and hardy, 

 which get lambs on the hill ewes that soon outgrow their 

 mothers, and can be sold off the grass to the butcher. 



