MEDIUM-TAILED BRITISH BREEDS 85 



valuable property, but it is not of itself suffi- 

 cient to render them deserving of extended culti- 

 vation." 



The small breeds of sheep which inhabited the 

 great forest-tracts of pre-Elizabethan England have 

 been to a great extent improved out of existence, 

 although some remain in a more or less pure con- 

 dition on Dartmoor and Exmoor, as well as on 

 elevated districts in Staffordshire, Leicestershire, 

 Cheshire, and Shropshire. All these sheep were 

 sadly deficient in form, according to modern ideas 

 of ovine symmetry ; but they had the redeeming 

 quality of producing a short and fine wool well 

 suited for the manufacture of cloth. In colour their 

 faces and legs were generally black, grey, or dun, 

 although white was not unknown ; horns were 

 usually developed, but these might be absent in the 

 ewes or in both sexes. Wild and restless in their 

 habits, these sheep, in common with the other pri- 

 mitive breeds, yielded excellent mutton. 



In the old breed of Cannock Chase both sexes 

 were polled ; and the same condition obtained in that 

 of Delamere Forest, Cheshire, where the sheep had 

 some resemblance to small Southdowns. 



The Dartmoor sheep differ from the other forest 

 breeds in bearing long, soft wool like that of Welsh 

 sheep, and have white legs and faces, with horns in 

 the rams alone. They are bred on the upland 

 heather, and fattened in the low country, where they 



