M,— AGRICULTURE 235 



selves. The monasteries were very large sheep farmers, and information 

 regarding the prices they obtained for their respective clips gives us 

 some idea of the distribution of different types of sheep in the thirteenth 

 and fourteenth centuries. Even at that time, Hereford and adjoining 

 counties produced very valuable wool, vsrhile the Midland counties and 

 Lincolnshire also received high prices. Scotland, the North of England, 

 and Wales, as now, evidently produced a good deal of wool of low market 

 value. Certain exceptions may possibly indicate isolated areas in which 

 sheep of an old local kind survived, or, on the other hand, the results of 

 the introduction of new types from abroad. 



From the fourteenth century onwards there was a regular succession 

 of writers on agriculture, and from them we obtain more definite ideas 

 of the sheep in different districts. For instance, Gervase Markham, 

 writing in the early part of the seventeenth century, observes : 



* If then you desire to have Shepe of a curious fine staple of Woole 

 from whence you may draw a thread as fine as silk, you shall see such 

 in Herefordshire about Lempster side and other special parts of 

 that country ; in that part of Worcestershire joining upon Shrop- 

 shire, and many like places ; yet these shepe are very little of bone, 

 black faced, and bear a very little burthen. The shepe upon Cotsall 

 hills are of better bone, shape and burthen, but their staple is coarser 

 and deeper. The shepe in that part of Worcestershire which joyneth 

 on Warwickshire and many parts of Warwickshire, all Leicestershire, 

 Buckinghamshire and part of Northamptonshire, and that part of 

 Nottinghamshire which is exempt from the forest of Sherwood, 

 beareth a large boned shepe, of the best shape and deepest staple ; 

 chiefly if they be Pasture shepe, yet in their woole coarser than that 

 of Cotsall. Lincolnshire, especially in the Salt Marshes, have the 

 largest shepe, but not the best Woole, for their legs and bellies are 

 long and naked, and their staple is coarser than any other. The 

 shepe in Yorkshire and so northward are of reasonable big bone, 

 but of a staple rough and hairy, and the Welsh shepe are of all the 

 worst, for they are both little and of coarse staple ; and indeed are 

 praised only in the dish for they are the sweetest mutton.' 



This extract not only gives some idea of the sheep kept in different parts 

 of the country, but Markham's last remark shows the unimportance in 

 his day of mutton compared with wool. 



At the present time wool is of such secondary importance in this country 

 that it is well to be reminded of the fact that until the eighteenth century 

 wool production was the main purpose for which sheep were kept. 



Folding of Sheep. 



Probably the next most important function which the sheep served was 

 that of fertilising the arable land in the days when very little farmyard 

 manure was produced and artificial manures were yet unthought of. 

 In the old village system the arable land was usually cultivated on a 



