BATH AND WEST OF ENGLAND ASSOCIATION. 
547 
Mr. Raynbird sent as great a brute as was ever consigned early in 
life to a dog-butcher. 
Southdowns for* show without Lord Walsingham’s name being 
associated with the exhibition is an oddity, after the success which 
has attended his lordship’s continuous efforts for several years. Mr. 
Rigden and Mr. Heasman here had it nearly all their own way. 
The Southdowns were, however, a long list. There were thirty- 
four entries of shearling rams, and sixteen of any other age. Mr. 
Rigden, Mr. Heasman, and Sir W. Throckmorton, Bart., took two 
pr izes each in these classes. Mr. Rigden’s two-shear ram is excel¬ 
lent for form and substance, and the ewes of both Mr. Heasman and 
Sir W. Throckmorton were remarkably beautiful for symmetry and 
fine white wool. The Highly Commended pen sent by Mr. R. 
Neville-Grenville, M.P., were also excellent, and but little, if any, 
inferior to the prize sheep. 
The Hampshire Downs were sure to be in strong force. A more 
valuable collection of sheep we never saw together, no matter what 
may have been the breed. The first prize ram had a back which 
was not surpassed for its touch in the yard. The weight of this 
sheep, too, although he was not excessively fat, was great. This is 
one of the valuable traits of these sheep ; they contain so much 
lean. Some of them are still coarse in appearance, but this view 
applies more to their big heads and their large hairy legs than any¬ 
thing else. Mr. W. E. Fitt had a fit of weakness when he sent 
No. 249, for he had the appearance of one of the German Noah’s 
Ark toys magnified a few hundred times; and some one who 
rejoices in the name of Mr. Frederick Sigismund Schwann, sent an 
animal similar in outline, but which had a stomach twice as large 
or doubly distended with wind. The ewes were a capital class, and 
the large entry and character of ram-lambs, twenty in number, 
some of which had their mother by their side, did credit to this 
breed, which is rapidly coming to the front, now that we can get a 
superabundance of wool from foreign countries. These animals 
grow meat, and they will increase in popularity when some of the 
present fine and fashionable flocks are neither seen at royal shows 
nor thought anything of in their own district or county. 
The Shropshires have found their way all this distance south, 
but only in small numbers. Lord Chesham, however, had a pen of 
ewes which, for smartness of appearance and uniformity of cha¬ 
racter, their legs and face being black, we have seldom seen sur¬ 
passed. His lordship’s 1st prize ram was also of the same character, 
but neither the ewes nor the ram would be considered large enough 
for the old-established Shropshire breeders. However, taking them 
as they are, they are very beautiful sheep. Mr. Horton sent two, 
and Mr. Wood, of Romsey, Hants, sent four rams and a pen of 
ewes—three of the rams, however, were bred in Shropshire. This 
breeder has taken a liking to this breed, and it does not appear that 
his fancy has been at all misplaced, while his success shows that 
the supposed suitability of these sheep for almost any soil or 
climate has some sound foundation. 
XLII, 
38 
