APPENDIX, No. 11. 21 



Thefe fadls, which cannot be controverted *, ought to 

 make a deep impreffion on the mind of every real well- 

 wiflier of his country ; — and the firft queftion that occurs 

 is this, — Is the breed of fneep that formerly produced fuch 

 valuable vi^ool fo entirely loft as that it cannot at all be 

 found, or is it ftill in our power to recover it, and by what 

 means ? For, fince it is certain that the foil and climate oi 

 this ifland did once produce the fineft wool, it feems unne- 

 cefTary to fpend time in proving that it might be once more 

 made to yield it, could the fame breed of fheep be recover- 

 ed, or another of equal value be obtained. 



After the moft diligent enquiry I have been able to make, 

 it feems to me highly probable that this fine breed of fheep 

 is totally and irrecoverably loft in EnglancL The adulte- 

 rated remains of it ftill exifts indeed in the county of Here- 

 ford, on the border of Wales ; but there, it has been fo 

 much debafed by intermixing with other breeds, as to pro- 

 duce wool of a ftaple, which, though ftill fine, is far infe- 

 rior to that of Spain, which it formerly fo greatly excelled. 



/// ^cotland^ it is probable we fliall be obliged to come to 

 the fame conclufion. For more than a century paft, the 

 coarfe-wool'd fheep have been imperceptibly debafing this 

 breed, under the name of improving it, fo that I am incli- 

 ned to believe, that on the main-land of Scotland, the true 

 unmixed breed is now irrecoverably loft. 



In the time of Hector Boethius, this breed of flieep, we 

 know, was common. In Annandale, Niddifdale, and Gal- 

 loway, flieep of this kind then univerfally prevailed ; and 

 though in the greateft part of thefe diftri^s the pure breed 

 be now entirely loft, ftill fome degenerate remains of it are 

 found in feme of ihe moft remote parts of Galloway. In 

 thofe days the fame breed of flieep fprend over a large di- 

 ftridl in the north-eaft parts of Scotland alfo, extending from 

 the vale of Efk, on the borders of the county of Angus, to 



the 



* For thf prccf of this fes Appeadix, No. IV. 



