MEDIUM-TAILED BRITISH BREEDS ^7 



forest type. These, however, have long since been 

 replaced on the fells by a smaller and hardier breed, 

 to which George CuUey in the eighteenth century 

 gave the name of Herdwick (pi, v. fig. i). They 

 are included by Low among the so-called black- 

 faced heath-breeds. First raised in the neighbour- 

 hood of Muncaster, the Herd wicks gradually made 

 their way all over Cumberland, Westmoreland, and 

 Lancashire, being a hardy breed, quick in feeding, 

 and thus admirably adapted to this bleak district. 

 Their activity is unsurpassed, as they leap like 

 bucks, and ascend stone-walls in almost cat-like 

 fashion. So great is their hardihood, that they 

 have been known to survive and recover after a 

 three-weeks burial beneath a snow-drift. The face 

 and legs are dark, and the wool is of short staple 

 and inferior quality. As a rule, the rams carry 

 somewhat slender horns, but the ewes are polled. 

 The quality of Herdwick mutton is unsurpassed. 



The following account of Herdwicks is quoted 

 from the Morning Post of 1909 in Miss Gosset's 

 Shepherds of Britain : — 



"If we are asked to name the hardiest race of 

 sheep kept in this country, we should unhesitatingly 

 give preference to the Herdwick. This breed, a 

 small-horned type of long-wool, lives amongst the 

 crags of the beautiful Fell district of Cumberland. 

 It differs from every other type of sheep reared in 

 England, taking many years to mature, and picking 



