MEDIUM-TAILED BRITISH BREEDS 115 



and New Zealand, where large flocks are kept. 

 Writing in 191 1, the High Commissioner for New 

 Zealand reported that the Romney breed of sheep 

 were making good headway in that dominion, espe- 

 cially in the North Island. In 1905 there were 

 78 flocks entered in the Flock Book, and in 19 10 

 the number had increased to 200. There were 

 then 706,743 stud sheep and flock-rams in the 

 country, and of these 237,210 were Romneys. 



Omitting mention of certain other strains of 

 long-woolled sheep which were formerly met with 

 locally between Staffordshire and the Solway Firth, 

 and some of which lingered longest in the Lake 

 District, reference may be made to others reared in 

 the Lias and Oolite districts of Devonshire and 

 Somersetshire. One breed of these, the so-called 

 Southam Notts, were found in the southern 

 districts of Devonshire to the westward of the Vale 

 of Honiton, and were characterised by their brown 

 faces and legs, lank sides, and crooked limbs. The 

 second breed, the Bampton Notts, so called from a 

 village of that name on the borders of Devon and 

 Somerset, were white-faced and white-legged sheep 

 of considerably larger size and carrying heavier 

 fleeces. All these sheep were of clumsy make, had 

 thick skins, and showed no disposition to fatten 

 readily ; but by crossing with the Leicester these 

 faults have been more or less completely eliminated, 

 and the white-faced modern Devonshire is a 



