Farming of Cumberland. 



265 



merit of the Herdwick sheep solely, and are competed for gene- 

 rally by about a hundred exhibitors, whose flocks are limited to 

 only a small extent of country. 



There is another breed resembling the Herdwicks, but stronger 

 in bone and heavier in carcase, which the owners claim to be a 

 superior and distinct breed from the "little Herdwicks," as they 

 derisively call them. A person unaccustomed to sheep would be 

 unable to discern the difference by the eye, but the butcher's 

 scales award them a superiority of about 3 lbs. per quarter. 

 These have not acquired any local appellation. They inhabit 

 Skiddaw, Saddleback, the Caldbeck group, the Helvellyn range, 

 and the adjoining mountains.* They are foddered with hay on 

 the miountains in winter whenever the winds will admit, and they 

 well know the appearance of the hay-sheet and the shepherd's 

 call. Some shepherds are at the daily pains of taking a few 

 stones of hay on their shoulders, or on horseback, five or six 

 miles to their sheep-heaf, and thus induce the sheep to keep their 

 beaf in all weathers. It certainly requires a spirited and able- 

 bodied man to perform feats of this kind in windy and stormy 

 weather : but shepherding is too often made an excuse to avoid 

 work. If the mountains, now held in common, were all inclosed 

 or reduced to stinted pastures, much time might be saved in 

 shepherding ; and the sheep, by being regulated to proper 

 numbers, would acquire larger bone and be of better quality. 

 Much of the jealousy and bickerings, for which shepherds are 

 proverbial, would be avoided, and the continual overlaps of the 

 flocks and the houndings and disturbances by the shepherds put 

 an end to. And, more than all, each commoner would then 

 enjoy the right he is justly entitled to, and each party would 

 obtain the benefit of the pasturage from which their estates are 

 saddled with tithe-rent charges — neither of which are in all cases 

 possessed at present. 



Prizes for sheep are given at all the other agricultural shows 

 of the county, and much enthusiastic competition is thereby 

 created. 



For the purpose of recovering and restoring stray sheep, a 

 peculiar kind of bookj has been published, and re-issued occa- 

 sionally with the necessary alterations. This book contains 

 printed descriptions of the ear-marks and wool-marks used in 

 every flock belonging to the mountains. In aid of the letterpress 

 descriptions, wood-engravings of the right and left sides of a 



* Mr. Henry Hodgson of Ousby has established a breed of these, which he calls 

 Herdwicks, on the south-western side of Crossfell, and they seem to do as well as 

 the black-faces around them. 



t There are now two; one connected with the^Eastern division, and the other 

 with the western, and the counties adjoining them. 



T 2 



