Among the Herdwicks. 99 



portion of Lancashire, may be said to monopolise the 

 Herdwicks ; and Eskdale, Wasdale, Buttermere, 

 Ennerdale, and Loweswater meet in peaceful rivalry 

 at the Fell Dales Association. Shap and Ulverston 

 knew them well 



" Secure they graze, 

 Around the stones of Dunmail-raise, " 



where the last king of Rocky Cumberland set up his 

 mountain throne ; and they wander over the slopes of 

 Skiddaw and Saddleback, and the south-west side of 

 Cross Fell. The scattered and primitive "statesmen" 

 who hold the slopes of Helvellyn and Loughrig, or 

 till the small farms near Grasmere and Langdale 

 Pike, consider them as worthy rivals to the Lonks, 

 and steadily disdain a cross. Once upon a time there 

 was such a difference between the sheep bred "Above 

 and Below Derwent," that they had separate classes 

 on the Fell Dales day. Gradually, however, the Above 

 Derwent men, by taking pains and not sparing their 

 hay in winter, went up to their rivals' heads, and in 

 the county tongue they " have now got to be maister." 

 There are occasionally as many as forty Fell Dales 

 exhibitors, and some of the largest will bring a 

 hundred sheep with them, " of one mark or another" 

 and show them for prizes or sweepstakes. 



Of their origin we have no very clear account, but 

 there is a local belief that the progenitors of the race 

 escaped from a Spanish ship, which was wrecked 

 near Morecambe Bay. At all events they picked 

 their country well, and have established their name 

 so surely from a perfectly wonderful endurance of 

 short commons, that some of the flocks numbered 

 between seven and nine hundred ewes. Blackfaces 

 have been tried, but the ewes more especially failed, 

 in consequence of the climate and the scanty nature 

 of the grass ; and there is the same tale to tell of 

 the Cheviots. In fact, it has been found impossible 

 to farm against the Herdwicks, which have been im- 



H 2 



