THE OLD WILTSHIRE BREED. 
PLATE X. 
1. RAM, bred by Mr Turner, near Hindon, Wiltshire. 
2. EWE, from the same Stock. 
The Old Wiltshire was a race of Sheep which extended over the greater part of the county of Wilts. They were the largest 
of the fine-woolled sheep of England. Their heads were clumsy, and the outline of the face remarkably arched. They had horns 
in the male and female: their legs and faces were white, their wool was very fine, weighing about two and a half pounds the 
fleece: their mutton was of tolerable quality, and the wethers, although they fattened slowly, arrived at a good size. 
This breed was long regarded as well adapted to the situations in which it was reared : its wool was in great request, and 
large numbers of the fattened Sheep were driven to the London markets. The breed may he said to be now nearly extinct in the 
pure state, scattered remnants of it only existing. It has been entirely superseded by the Southdown breed, which has either been 
directly substituted for it, or been made to cross it, until its distinctive characters have been lost. The vexation was very great 
of the older farmers of Wilts on marking the progress of the Southdowns, and the gradual disappearance of the race which they 
had been taught to regard as the best in the kingdom. Some of them declared that there would not he a pile of grass in the 
county if these little black-faced Southdowns were allowed to take the place of the fine tall Wiltshire. 
The figure of the Old Wiltshire affords an exemplification of almost every external character which the breeder wishes to 
avoid. The large coarse head, the flat sides, and the length and thickness of the limbs, are very remarkable; and by comparing 
these points with the conformation of the beautiful race which is now reared in the same district, we have an instructive lesson 
on the proper form of Sheep, and on the changes which the care of the breeder can effect. The Old Wiltshire, however, had become 
adapted, in a remarkable degree, to the conditions, both natural and artificial, under which it was reared. The animals lived in 
a country of chalky hills, inland, and not exposed to severities of temperature, hut unshaded from the sun’s rays: the herbage 
being scanty, they had to move to considerable distances to collect their food, and the practice, from time immemorial, had been esta¬ 
blished, of driving them great distances to and from the fold. To these circumstances was adapted an animal having a light fleece, 
with strong muscular limbs, and with the habitude of subsisting on scanty herbage. Its fleece was not only light, beyond that of 
any other Sheep in this country, but its belly was destitute of wool, a character which would not have existed but in the case of 
a warm dry soil, where the animal did not require a coat of wool between his belly and the humid earth. The animal, however, 
which had acquired these properties was eminently deficient in others which are sought for in the more improved state of the Sheep. 
Subsisting on scanty dry food, he had acquired the habitude of fattening slowly; and the Old Wiltshire, though greatly valued by 
the butchers, was one of the most difficult to be fattened of the larger Sheep of England. There cannot exist a doubt of the great 
benefit which accrues to individuals and the country by the substitution of the Southdowns for this coarse uncultivated race. It 
may be asked, Could not the Wiltshire Sheep have been improved, the faults of their form corrected, their size preserved, and the 
fineness of their fleece maintained ? Beyond a question all these purposes could have been effected by the care of breeders, directed 
for a sufficient period to the improvement of the animal. But these are labours which would have required a generation at least, 
and the interests of breeders were better served by taking that which was formed to their hands, than by waiting the slow improve¬ 
ment of a race so radically defective. 
The figures in the Plate represent the ancient Wiltshire Breed unmixed with any other blood, and afford, perhaps, the last 
record that will be presented to the public of a breed once so esteemed and celebrated. The individuals represented form part of 
a flock on an estate in the county of Wilts, bequeathed and held on the singular condition that the proprietor should maintain a 
flock of the pure Old Wiltshire Sheep. The former owner adopted this expedient for perpetuating the existence of his favourite 
breed. 
The Wiltshire Breed may be regarded as the type of some others which inhabited a portion of the midland chalk counties of 
England until a recent period. The Old Hampshire may be referred to this group. They were horned, had the faces and 
