THE OLD NORFOLK BREED. 
PLATE IX. 
EWE, Three Years Old, the property of Thomas Brown, Esq. of Norton, descended from the Flock of 
Mr Turner of Creak: the Lamb a cross by the pure Southdown. 
A remarkable variety of Sheep, usually termed the Old Norfolk Breed, occupies the higher lands of Norfolk, Suffolk, and 
Cambridge. These Sheep, once very numerous in the heathy districts of this part of England, are a wild and hardy race, well 
fitted foi a countiy of scanty herbage. Both sexes are armed with horns, which, in the male, are thick and spiral. Their 
limbs aie long and muscular ; their bodies are long, and their general form betokens activity and strength. They, accordingly, 
have been regarded as well fitted for distant journeys and for bearing the rough treatment of the fold. They hold their necks 
erect, and, in their carriage, more resemble the Chamois Antelope than any other of our races of Sheep. Their faces and legs 
aie coveied with shoit black hail . their wool weighs from two and a half to four pounds the fleece, is fine and silky, and possesses 
sufficient felting properties to fit it for being made into second or livery cloths. It formerly brought a high relative price in the 
market; but in consequence of the increased use of the finer wools of Spain and Saxony in the manufacture of superior cloths, 
the wool of this, as of the numerous other breeds which formerly produced short or clothing wools, has declined in value. 
These Sheep have much of the aspect of the Black-faced Heath Breed, but differ from that race in their longer body and 
limbs, and in the characters of the fleece; their wool not being harsh and wiry, as in the case of the Heath Breed, but soft, and 
suited for felting. The softness of their fleece gives them some affinity with the Southdowns; but they differ from that race 
in their robuster form, and in their bolder, wilder, and more restless habits. We must suppose that the characters of this 
breed have been acquired from peculiarities in the soil and climate of the district which it inhabits. This tract is calcareous, 
sandy, and naturally productive of heaths, with hard and wiry grasses. Being obliged to traverse extensive tracts to procure a 
sufficiency of food, the animals have become active and muscular; and the country they inhabit being somewhat elevated and 
exposed to dry easterly winds, they are furnished with a fleece sufficiently close to defend them from the chill breezes, without 
having that long coat of wool which is needed in situations more humid and mountainous. Inhabiting, too, a country in which 
chalk, and the detritus of chalk, exist, the wool has acquired that fineness which characterizes the other races acclimated in cal¬ 
careous districts. This breed must be referred to the same general type as the Black-faced Heath Breed, and we may believe 
chat the chaiacteis which distinguish it, are such as the Black-faced Heath Breed would itself, in the course of ages, assume in a 
lower country of chalk and heath. 
These Sheep were greatly esteemed in the districts which produced them, and were spread over a large tract of country. 
Their mutton was and still is held in high estimation: they were valued by the butchers for producing a large proportion of 
internal fat, and by the faimeis foi their adaptation to the husbandry of the fold. They were long the prevailing breed of Nor¬ 
folk and Suffolk; but as improvements extended, they became more confined to the higher grounds, and animals of more docile 
habits and superior fattening properties supplied their place in the cultivated country. Other causes, also, have contributed to 
lessen the numbers of this breed and limit its range. With the more improved races, these wilder sheep produce admirable 
first crosses, either for being killed as lambs, or when of an older age. The ewes prove excellent nurses, and give birth to 
a robust progeny; and no finer lambs are brought to the English markets than the first crosses between them and the Leicester 
01 Southdown lams. This ciicumstance produces a gradual intermixture with the blood of other varieties, and a pro¬ 
gressive diminution of the numbers of the pure race. To such a degree has this intermixture taken place, that the perfectly 
Pure Norfolk breed is now becoming rare, and if breeders have not inducement afforded them to preserve it, it will soon cease to be 
found. It is to be observed, that the greater number of Sheep now brought to the markets of London under the name of Nor- 
folks are crosses, or the offspring of crosses, especially with the Southdowns. 
The Old Norfolk is thus sharing the fate of the various Forest and other older breeds of this country, by giving place to 
races of superior value with respect to the power of arriving at earlier maturity of muscle and fat. A certain feeling of regret 
may perhaps exist, that a lace possessing many good properties should have been extinguished rather than improved. That the 
Old Norfolk was, like every other breed of Sheep, susceptible of an essential change of characters, cannot be doubted. While it 
might still have retained its property of hardiness and robustness, the too great length of the limbs, the flatness and lankness of 
the body, and, with the change of external form, the too great wildness of temper, might have been corrected, as in the case of 
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