Report on the Exhibition of Live Stock at Warwick. 341 
truly beautiful in their form and quality, and at once proclaimed 
their close alliance to Mr. Sanday's prize rams. 
The Southdown. — This sheep is now fully recognised as a 
first-class animal, combining beauty of form, quality of wool and 
flesh, with elegance of movement. As such, they are much 
sought after for grazing our English parks, and adorning the 
seats of the aristocracy and country gentlemen. Again, for the 
"home farm" they are just the thing, combining, as they do, 
park-like beauty of appearance and delicious flesh for the squire 
or connoisseur. No breeders are so tenacious on points of colour, 
bone, elegance of shape, beauty of features, and quality of wool, 
as the Southdown breeders. The colour of his face must be a 
peculiar brown, neither top light nor too dark, either being 
objectionable ; the wool must be close and fine, but in tolerable 
quantity, and, to use a provincial expression in the county of 
Sussex, it should be "as hard as a board;" the head must be 
well covered with wool, particularly between the ears, and carry 
a nice " fore-top " on the forehead. The most striking fault in 
many Southdown flocks is a very ill-formed shoulder, light fore- 
quarter, light in the brisket, and narrow between the fore-legs. 
No man has done so much towards remedying this defect as Mr. 
Jonas Webb, his flock being particularly good in this respect. 
The brown leg and foot is another peculiarity of the breed, as 
also the deeply let down " haunch of mutton," not forgetting the 
dark rich gravy that " cures the gout." The setting on of the 
neck, when nicely blended with the shoulder, gives these sheep a 
remarkable elegance of carriage. Thus it is that these animals 
are so prepossessing in appearance. The general contour of the 
best animals is very beautiful, but of the unimproved (and there 
are many) we may say that they still inherit the forms of their 
grandsires of many generations back, of which Loudon, in his 
Encyclopaedia, on the ' Varieties of British Sheep,' p. 1051, says, 
in 1830 :— 
" The Southdown sheep are without horns, they have dark or black grey 
laces and legs, fine bones, long small necks, arc low before, high on the 
shoulder, and light in the fore-quarter ; the sides are good, and the loin toler- 
ably broad, backbone too high, the thigh full, and twist good. The lleece is 
very short and fine, weighing from 2J to 3 lbs. The average weight of 2-years- 
old wethers is about 18 lbs. per quarter, the mutton fine in the grain, and of 
an excellent flavour. Thej^ prevail in Sussex on very dry chalky downs, pro- 
ducing sliort fine herbage. These sheep are being improved by EUman of 
Glynd, and other intelligent breeders." 
Thanks to such breeders as EUman, Grantham, "Webb, Rigden, 
the Duke of Richmond, Overman, Sainsbury, &c., for redeeming 
this breed of sheep from its original characteristic of an open 
