THE SOUTHDOWN 



539 



of price. These he mated with much wisdom, improving the 

 Southdown into the very best known type of mutton sheep, — sym- 

 metrical, an easy feeder, and unsurpassed in quality of flesh and 

 dressing out at killing. Southdowns of his breeding possessed more 

 size than did those of Ellman. He began letting out rams in 1823, 

 and about 1846 was placing out two hundred annually. For years 

 his ram sales and letting-out sales were important events. He was 

 a most successful exhibitor, and in 1855 won a special gold medal 

 for his Southdown exhibit at the International Exposition at Paris, 



Fig. 242. Three of the Southdown stock rams on the Babraham estate, near 

 Cambridge, England. From a photograph taken in 1914 by the author 



France. The Webb flock was dispersed in 1 862, but Mr. C. Adeane, 

 the owner of Babraham, is one of England's best-known breeders 

 and exhibitors of Southdowns. For years Mr. F. N. Webb, a 

 grandson of Jonas, was manager of Babraham for Mr. Adeane. 



The breeding of the Southdown by the English nobility has 

 long been noteworthy. In the time of Ellman, George the Third 

 became interested in this breed, which ever since has been 

 maintained on the royal estates. The late Edward VII, as well 

 as his son King George, maintained for years a fine flock. Lord 

 Walsingham was long a prominent breeder ; while the estate of 

 the Duke of Richmond for over a century bred Southdowns, as 

 have the Duke of Hamilton, Duke of Marlborough, Viscount 

 Hampden, and numerous others. 



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