62 Sheep-Farming 



upland, and these two terms were merged in the 

 present breed name, Cotswold. The "cotting" of 

 the sheep was a practice introduced from eastern 

 countries, and the occurrence of the word "sheep 

 cote" in biblical literature gives a further claim to 

 antiquity for the breed. The first specific allusion 

 to the breed by name is stated to have been dis- 

 covered by Rev. E. A. Fuller, an eminent anti- 

 quarian, who in the study of the medieval history 

 of the town of Cirencester, the center of the Cots- 

 wold district, found the record of a contract of about 

 the year 1319 in which one of the richest wool mer- 

 chants agreed to pay 11 J marks per sack for "Cotes- 

 wolde" wool grown on an estate in the center of the 

 Cotswold country. 



A later reference to this breed, yet one sustaining 

 their claim to rare antiquity, is the recorded account of 

 the present of twenty Cotswold ewes and four rams 

 from Edward IV to the King of Aragon of Spain in 

 1464. Stowe in his chronicles refers to the license 

 granted King John of Aragon "for certain Cotswold 

 sheep to be transported into the country of Spaine 

 where they have since mightily increased and multi- 

 plied to the Spanish profit." Markham, writing dur- 

 ing the reign of Elizabeth, refers to the Cotswold as a 

 big-boned, long-wooled sheep, and, after stating that 

 "Cotes wold" derives its name from the country and 

 the sheep cotes, makes the further comment : " Upon 

 these hills are fed large flocks of sheep, having long 



