SHEEP AND CATTLE OF ANDALUSIA. 9 



about 250 in number: the majority were black and short 

 woolled. The wool is worked up into common cloth of 

 its original colour. It is worth 3 reals vellon — about 

 l\d. per lb. The white sheep were of a totally different 

 breed, with long white fleeces, more resembling hair than 

 wool. We also saw two men on horseback, and several 

 on foot, with a herd of cattle. The horsemen were the 

 proprietors, who had been mustering. There were 

 about 300 in the herd, chiefly young, and all dry. The 

 cows had little appearance of milk, and the breed was 

 altogether very bad. This, as I was given to under- 

 stand, was a fair sample of the sheep and cattle of the 

 province. It is not lawful to enclose corn fields, nor 

 indeed are any enclosures lawful, except for vine3^ards or 

 gardens. As soon as the grain is off* the fields they are 

 common property, and every one who chooses is entitled 

 to send cattle or sheep upon them: — a law which, 

 perhaps more than any other, strikes at the root of 

 agricultural prosperity, and keeps the agriculture of 

 Andalusia in its present barbarous condition. 



Mondai/, Srd October. — Mr. James Gordon having 

 invited Dr. Wilson and myself to visit a vineyard be- 

 longing to him about four miles from Xeres, we accord- 

 ingly started at about one o'clock ; Mr. Gordon riding 

 a black 5ar5, or jennet, which he valued at d^^lOO, and 

 which he said had cost him £70, We passed out of the 

 town by this direction, as well as by every other, through 

 hills of dung, which had been allowed to accumulate, 

 and appeared to be considered as not worth taking far- 

 ther. The road lay between immense hedges of the 

 cactus or prickly pear, and aloe, planted on the top of 

 high banks, and making a fence which would prove a 

 considerable impediment to the march of an army. Mr. 



b3 



