80 RURAL ECONOMY IN YORKSHIRE IN 1641. 



if a weake or sicke ewe drawe towards lambinge, yow are to 

 watch her, and to helpe to drawe her lambe from her, and then 

 take a Uttle liey and putte under her britch, and tlien lette 

 the shepheard take lier and hippe her up in his cloake, and carry 

 her into some wanne howse wheare shee may not take colde ; 

 and then if the next day bee wanne, yow may venture to putte 

 her forth into some fresh close, after that she hath cleansed. If 

 a good ewe chance to loose her lambe, yow are to keepe her 

 lioppled for to suckle the weakest and youngest lambes on. 

 The ready way to make one ewe take another ewes lambe, is to 

 flea her o^^Tle lambe, and take the skinne of it and sewe on the 

 other lambes backe, and shee will take it presently, soe that 

 after two days yow may venture to take of the skinne againe. 

 Those that come aboute for lambe skinnes will seldome give 

 above lOd. a dozen, and few will aske above pemiies a piece, 

 unlesse they bee extraordinary greate ones : they vn\l some- 

 times finde fault with such lambe-skinnes as dye before they 

 bee licked, but they are altogether as good as the other, if they 

 but wash or swill them in the water, and so they will tell them. 

 If an ewe bee kittle on her yower, or unkinde to her lambe, 

 the best way is to lette her dance in a payre of hopples, and to 

 come three or fower times a day, and bringe with yow a dogge 

 to stande before her, and a small switch in your hande, and to 

 switch her soundly over the nose till such time as shee vfill 

 stande to lette the lambe sucke ; and in two or three dayes 

 shee "udll stande well enough ; but yow are to have an especiall 

 care that such lambes bee well suckled att night, and if the 

 night bee likely to bee stormy, to take the ewes and tliem and 

 putte them togeather in some howse ; for such dames will 

 hardly call on theire lambes to give them sucke in the night : 

 but tiien yow are [to] lye before them of the shortest and best 

 hey, as yow doe to your sicke ewes, but not to keepe them too 

 longe in the howse, for feare that yow dry tluMu of their milke. 

 If yow chance to have a younge lambe that bi-e alimoste deade 

 in the morninge by reason of the coMnesse of the night, or be- 

 caiise that the ewe hath not Ictten it sucke, yow are to bringe it 

 hoame, and to take a spoone and fill the belly of it well with 

 cowes milke made lukt;warme, and then to carry it and lye it on 

 some banke against the sunne, or before the fire, and it Avill 

 come to itself. Yow are neaver to csirry a lambe but by tlie 

 forelegges, nor to take it up to putte under the ewe but by the 

 skinne of the backe ; and in stovvinge of them yow are to 

 holdc tliem betwixt your legges, and to double tiie eare eaveii 

 and to cutte of the topjies as rownde as yow can without fork- 

 inge. In sucklinge of lambes yow are not to use them too 



