118 Sheep-Farming 



back as 1830. Mr. Twyman claims to be the pio- 

 neer in this movement. Be this as it may, he may 

 safely assert that he was the first to call public at- 

 tention to his mode of crossing. As far back as 

 November 27, 1837, this worthy and enterprising 

 gentleman wrote the Mark Lane Express. 'It is 

 seven years since I introduced an upland Cotswold 

 ram among a few Hampshire Down ewes, the produce 

 of which, living with the Downs, soon convinced me of 

 their superiority.' " Contemporaries of Mr. Twyman 

 were Mr. Samuel Dreuce of Eynsham, Mr. W. Gillett 

 of Southleigh, Mr. Blake of Stanton Harcourt, Mr. 

 Hitchman of Little Milton, and Mr. Joseph Water- 

 peny. Mr. Dreuce, in an article in the Royal Agricul- 

 tural Society Journal of 1853, page 212, observed : 

 "It is now twenty years since I began crossing be- 

 tween the Southdown and Cotswold sheep, and with 

 the ordinary skill of sheep-farming, I find no difficulty 

 in keeping the form and the size of the animal as it 

 should be." The writer before referred to, Mr. 

 Howard, was one of the oldest living breeders of 

 Oxfordshire Downs, he, having been a prize winner 

 at Smithfield as early as 1849. 



Formation of Oxford Down as a breed. — An early 

 authority gives the following account of the progress 

 made in the formation of this breed at that time : 

 "The produce of good and well-selected cross-bred 

 ewes and rams are now more uniform in color and 

 size than sheep bred from Down mothers and Cots- 



