£4. SHEEP. ClafsL 



over fight was not foon redified, for it appears that. 

 On the alliance that Edward the fourth made with 

 the king o'i Arragon^ he prefented the latter with fome 

 ewes and rams of the Cotef'dvold kind ; which is a 

 proof of their excellency, fmce they were thought 

 acceptable to a monarch, whofe dominions were fo 

 noted for the finenefs of their fleeces *. 



In the firil year of Richard the third, and in the 

 two fucceeding reigns, our woollen manufactures re-, 

 ceived fome improvem.ents -f ; but the grand rife of 

 all its profperity is to be dated from the reign of queen 

 Elizabeth^ when the tyranny of the duke oi Aha in 

 the Netherlands drove numbers of artificers for refuge 

 into this country, who were the founders of that 

 immenfe manufadure we carry on at prefent. We 

 have ftrong inducements to be more particular ori 

 the modern ftate of our woollen manufactures j but 

 we defift, from a fear of digreffing too far ; our en- 

 quiries muft be limited to points that have a more 

 immediate reference to the ftudy of Zoology. 



No country is better fupplied with materials, and 

 thofe adapted to every fpecies of the clothing bufi- 

 nefs, than Great-Bmtain; and though the fheep of 

 thefeiflands afford fleeces of different decrees of good- 

 nefs, yet there are not any but what may be ufed in 

 fome branch of it. Herefordfmre^ Devon/hire, an4 

 Cotefwold dowrJ ,zxt noted for producing fheep with 



* Rapin i. 6os. in the note. Stoiv^s Annales, 6(j&. 



f In that oi Richard, two-yard cloths were iirll made. In tha^ 

 o^ Henry the 8th, an Italian taught us the ufe of the diftafF. Ker- 

 fics were alio firfl in::de in Eui-iund about that time. 



remarkably 



