3921.] 



The Herdwick Sheep. 



501 



THE HERDWICK SHEEP. 

 A. EwiNG Keid, M.C, N.D.A., N.D.D. 



The Herdwick sheep is a breed of sheep little known beyond 

 its native hills — the Fells of Cumberland, Westmorland and 

 North Lancashire. The unique characteristics which eminently 

 fit the breed for the poor high pastures are not those to com- 

 jnend it in the fatter lands and more populous places. The 

 writer has never seen Herdwick sheep noj- heard of their existing 

 outside the counties of Cumberland, Westmorland and Lanca- 

 shire, and in these counties they exist only on the Fells or hills 



The first volume of the Herdwick Sheep Breeders' Association 

 published in 1920 registers flocks of breeding ewes to the number 

 of 13,600, and there are many flocks not in the Herd Book. 

 Though numerically comparing unfavourably with the other and 

 better known breeds of sheep, they are nevertlieless of gi'eat 

 importance. In the writer's opinion they are the only breed of 

 five stock capable of existing on and exploiting agriculturally that 

 huge stretch of high-lying poor land which constitutes the 

 picturesque mountains of the English Lake District. 



The exceptional hardiness of the breed is evidenced by their 

 habitat, some of the runs or heafs reaching more than 3,000 feet 

 above sea level, e.g., Helvellyn, Skiddaw, Saddleback. The sheep 

 possess original characteristics and apparently have no affinity 

 to any other British breed, though it has been suggested that 

 they may have been the progenitors of the Black Faced Sheep. 

 Attempts to cross them with other breeds to improve their wool 

 or weight have without exception failed, their hardiness always 

 being impaired. 



The name Herdwick {Herd, a number of animals under 

 charge of a man; and wick, a district or here a run) signifies a 

 tract of land under charge of a herd or shepherd employed by 

 the owner or Lord of the Manor. 



The following extract is from a charter of lands at Furness 

 Abbey, dated 1537, and brings out the meaning of the word 

 Herdwick: "Pastures and Agistament and brusying occupied 

 to those of the said late Monastery for the sustentacyon of the 

 catell and . . . devyded into sundry herd wycks and shepe 

 cots " Also, referring to lands in same district in 1564 : " Those 

 parcells following, that is to say the Herdwick called Waterside 

 Parke — the Herdwick called Lawson Parke, ifcc." 



The name of the breed is derived therefore from the peculiar 

 custom associated with feudal grazing rights ^nnd still seeii in 



