Farming of Monmouthshire. 
289 
Now men's energies are expended in struggles for a right of 
mountain walk, for which indeed they are charged in valuation 
of rent by the landlords, and which consequently they do not 
wish to relinquish without an effort ; but in too many cases it 
is, after all, hardly worth the fighting for. 
As every man, according to the custom of the country, has a 
right to turn stock upon the mountain " without stint," it is 
obvious that the over-stocking following upon such an absurd 
rule as this utterly precludes the idea of keeping permanently 
improved breeds of cattle, ponies, or sheep. 
The most hardy class of sheep from North Wales are pur- 
chased for the express purpose of "keeping the walk." Horned 
wethers from Cardiganshire are best adapted for this work. 
When once settled upon a spot they will keep it as their base of 
operations, and then fight their way till, like the far-famed Lonks 
of Cumberland, they get the best grass in the parish, even if it 
grows in the churchyard. These sheep are bought at Brecon as 
yearlings, generally at prices varying from ten to eighteen shil- 
lings each. They are placed upon the mountain, and carefully 
kept to one spot by a shepherd, who is a being just as unlike 
one of the shepherds of classic story, who played his lute and was 
innocent, as it is possible to conceive. Early and late — late and 
early — he is there walking and watching, and woe be to any man 
or dog who disturbs him with his charge. The peaceful 
dwellers in the vale know little of the desperate struggles carried 
on, every spring or early summer-time, between unscrupulous 
men upon these wild wastes for the miserable right of walk. 
Suffice it to say, that there are those who have gone through the 
whole process of " settling the yearlings," as it is called, and 
the management of sheep upon a Monmouthshire walk, and who 
are thoroughly disgusted with the whole system. Further, they 
are convinced that it would be an incalculable benefit to the 
country, and to the teeming population of the iron-works, if 
every single acre of common and open mountain in the county 
were enclosed at once by Act of Parliament. It is, as a Scotch- 
man remarked but the other day, " a varra great pity that these 
lands lie waste, whilst so many of our young men are wandering 
awa to foreign parts, seeking wilds to reclaim." These lands are 
capable of sustaining the very best class of Cheviot sheep ; 
indeed, the climate and the grass suit them admirably. The 
Cheviot, however, being a fine heavy sheep, and of a bold wild 
disposition, is injured to a great extent by the dogging conse- 
quent to the present system. Should the mountains ever be 
enclosed a regular course of husbandry would speedily follow, for 
it is only necessary to have seen the piece of swedes, averaging 
twenty tons per acre, grown by the Tredegar Iron Company's 
