The Sheep Stock of Gloucestershire. 
35 
No brown, nor sullyed black, the face or legs doth streak 
Like those of Moreland, Cank, or of the Cambrian Hills 
That lightly laden are ; but Cotswold wisely fills 
Her with the whitest kind : whose brows so woolly be 
As men in her fair sheep no emptiness should see. 
The staple deep and thick, through to the very graine 
Most strongly keepeth out the violentest rain— 
A body long and large, the buttocks equal broad 
As fit to undergoe the full and weightie load.” 
Previous to the year 1760 it is probable that the greater 
part of the Cotswold country was open down, used as sheep 
pasture. Marshall, writing in 1796, says that previous to 
enclosure the country was devoted to breeding flocks, the 
yearlings being sold to graziers, in Buckinghamshire. It is 
natural that, under such circumstances, wool production 
should have been the primary object of sheep-farming in the 
district. The improvement in arable husbandry, the intro- 
duction of the turnip and consequent development of winter 
feeding, and the extraordinary improvement of the Leicester 
sheep from the point of view of mutton, resulting from the 
efforts of Bakewell and his followers, had their effect xipon the 
Cotswold breed. Thus Marshall tells us (“ Rural Economy of 
Gloucestershire ”) that the Cotswold of the day was fuller 
behind and lighter forward than most breeds, but that the 
crossing with the new Leicester then being practised would 
fill up the fore quarter. 
Rudge, in his report to the Board of Agriculture in 1813, 
describes the Cotswold of his day as a large sheep, coarse in 
the wool, weighing from 22 to 30 lb. per quarter at two shear, 
i.e., three years, and capable of being fatted to 45 lb. per 
quarter, and cutting 9 to 10 lb. of wool. He adds, that the 
result of crossing the New Leicester with the Cotswold was to 
make the "wool shorter and finer, the carcase lighter and more 
compact, the bone finer, the neck smaller, and the best parts 
covered with flesh and fat. Another cross, prevalent at the 
time, was that of the Cotswold with the Southdown, breeders 
being guided in their adoption of one cross or the other accord- 
ing to whether their desire was to breed for wool or for mutton. 
To such an extent was crossing with the New Leicester 
practised, that pure-bred Cotswold flocks had become rare at 
this time. But, in spite of the advantages gained by this 
cross, it was found that the New Leicester blood tended to 
reduce the hardiness of the breed and to lower the yield of 
wool, as well as to injuriously affect the fecundity of the ewes. 
These considerations led to a return to the use of a pure-bred 
Cotswold ram. 
By degrees a uniform breed was established, and the 
practice of out crosses was discontinued. Mr. Elwes, in his 
