134 
Panics in Sheep, 
thence to Mollington, five miles north of Banbury. Proceeding 
southwards from Chipping Norton, it extended past Sarsden and 
Burford, across the Isis to Coleshill, near Faringclon, in Berkshire, and 
is believed to have gone still farther, to Wantage. We trace it all 
the way from Banbury to Woodstock (but I heard nothing of it east 
of the Cherwell Valley, although I have no proof that that part of 
Northamptonshire was not affected), and on to Standlake, on the 
Isis. W estwards we hear of it at Batsford, near Moreton-in-Marsh, 
and Northleach, in Gloucestershire. 
From Mollington, in North Oxon, southwards to Coleshill is not 
less than 36 miles. 
W e have been able to fix the time at which the panic took place 
with some approach to accuracy. It happened early in the night, at 
sometime probably between 7.30 and 9 p.m., varying a little in dif- 
ferent places, and usually taking place a little after 8 o’clock. 
Mr. James Bliss’s shepherd at Little Rollright thinks that as 
the sheep had not cleared up their last meal the panic seized them 
between 8 and 9 o’clock. Mr. Calvert writes that at Fairspeir 
House, Ascott-under-Wychwood, they broke out, as far as could be 
ascertained, at about a quarter to 9 o’clock. Mr. Stanbra, foreman 
on a farm at Cold Harbour, on the Heythrop estate, just as the 
sudden thick darkness (to be alluded to subsequently) came on, at 
about 8.45 p.m., met the ewes, or rather heard them coming ; he could 
not see them, but he spoke to them, and they seemed to come to 
him for safety. Mr. Hayley Gregson writes : — 
I have tried to ascertain the time of the fright, and found beyond a 
doubt that the whole thing happened at, I should say, the same moment, 
and some time between eight and nine o’clock — nearer, I should say, nine 
than eight. My Potter’s Hill shepherd’s wife heard the noise caused by 
sheep rushing through their fold a few minutes before nine (the ewes hap- 
pened to be folded close to tbe shepherd’s house), but did not tell her hus- 
band, who was in bed, until later. At 3 a.m. he got up, being unwell, and 
then saw or heard the sheep moving about outside the fold. He went to 
them, and found one ewe dead and stiff. Another point fixing the time was 
that the school treat was given in Leafield that night, and the children 
returning about nine found the Fairspeir flock of ewes out of their fold and 
huddled together by the gate they wished to go through. The children also 
at High Lodge heard the sheep on that farm about the same time moving 
about uneasily. 
Mr. T. E. Robertson, of the Estate Office, Coleshill, Highworth 
(at the southern extremity of the affected district, so far as we have 
traced it), puts the time down as between 8 and 10 o’clock. Mr. A. 
F. Douglas, Estate Office, Batsford, Moreton-in-Marsh, informs us 
that when the shepherd left the sheep, about 5 o’clock, all their racks 
and troughs were full of food, and this must have been finished 
before the scare took place, as there was no food spilt by the over- 
turning of the racks. P.C. Sirman, stationed at Shipton-under 
Wychwood, having inquired into supposed cases of sheep-worrying, 
informs us that, from the inquiries he made, he had no doubt most of 
the sheep got out early in the night. On the Wayhouse Farm, 
