36 SHEEP. Class I. 



ing business, than Great Britain ; and though 

 the sheep of these islands afford fleeces of dif- 

 ferent degrees of goodness, yet there are none 

 but what may be used in some branch of it. 

 Herefordshire, Devonshire, and Cot eswo Id downs ■ 

 are noted for producing sheep with remarkably 

 fine fleeces ; the Lincolnshire and Warwickshire 

 kind, which are very large, exceed any for the 

 quantity and goodness of their wool. The for- 

 mer county yields the largest sheep in these 

 islands, where it is no uncommon thing to give 

 fifty guineas for a ram, and a guinea for the ad- 

 mission of a ewe to one of the valuable males ; 

 or twenty guineas for the use of it for a certain 

 number of ewes during one season.* Suffolk 

 also breeds a very valuable kind. The fleeces 

 of the northern parts of this kingdom are inferior 

 in fineness to those of the south ; but still are of 

 great value in different branches of our manu- 

 factures. The Yorkshire hills furnish the looms 

 of that county with large quantities of wool ; 



* Four hundred guineas were repeatedly given to the late Mr. 

 Bakeicell of Dishley, for the use of an improved Leicestershire 

 ram. 



The excellent South doicn sheep which have of late years spread 

 themselves over most parts of the kingdom, were at the period 

 of the first edition of the British Zoology, either little known, or 

 disregarded. The present rage for the Merino breed promises to 

 ameliorate the wool at the expence of the carcase. Ed. 



