SHEEP IN SCOTLAND 41 



coloured sheep which spread over Scotland in the Middle 

 Ages and later, and were the wonder of the early travellers 

 in our country. Witness the exclamation of Don Pedro de 

 Ayala, Ambassador from Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain 

 to James IV of Scotland in the fifteenth century, regarding 

 the " immense flocks of sheep" which he found "especially 

 in the savage portions of Scotland" or the description by the 

 Scottish chronicler, Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, who in the 

 sixteenth century states that : 



there was great Peace and Rest a long Time ; wherethrough the King 

 [James V] had great Profit, for he had ten thousand sheep going in Ettrick 

 Forest. 



Already however there must have been a considerable 

 amount of crossing in the Scottish flocks, for numerous in- 

 dividuals appeared possessing supernumerary horns, the rams 

 carrying four and sometimes six, and even the ewes up to 

 three and four. This peculiarity especially struck the Italian 

 doctor, Cardan, who, induced to come to Scotland to offer 

 medical advice to Hamilton, Archbishop of St Andrews, 

 took the opportunity of making a tour of the country. Sheep 

 with four horns, he wrote in 1552, were frequent, but not 

 like those he had seen at Milan, for the Scottish sheep had 

 one pair curved and the other pair straight. 



More detailed is the account of Bishop Leslie of Rosse, 

 published in Rome in 1578 (Dalrymple's translation, 1596): 



Tuedale [Tweeddale] notwithstanding because of the gude Wol in 

 quhilke it abundes by all vthiris sulde nocht be slipit oner with silence. 

 In this cuntrie ar fund, evin as with thair nychtbouris, that sum of thame 

 are knawen to haue four or fyue hundir, vthiris agane aucht or nyne hundir, 

 and sum tyme thay ar knawen to haue a thousand scheip '. The scheip 

 indeed ar litle, and homes thay beir lyke rames ; bot the yewis twa, thrie 

 or four, and the Ramis at sum tymes sax: Thay beir verie schorte tailis, as 

 schorte as the tail of ane hine [hind]. In tendirnes of thair flesche thay 

 ar lyke the cattel that ar fed in the rest of the south cuntreyes of the 

 Realme, bot farr excelis thame that feid in the pastoure of the nerrest 

 cuntreyes. The cause is thocht to be this, that the knowis of thir cuntries 

 abundes in a certane schort and bare grase, quharin scheip properlie delytes. 



1 This sentence is a serious mistranslation of the original, which reads 

 " quorum alii quatuor aut quinque, alii octo aut decem nonunquam millia 

 ovium habere noscantur " some of whom are known to have sheep four 

 or five others eight, nay even on occasion ten thousand in number. 



