THE RYELAND BREED. 
PLATE XIII. 
RAM and EV^E from the Stock of the late Mr Tomkins of Kingspion, Herefordshire,—now the 
property of Misses Tomkins. 
In the tract of country lying westward of the Severn, and bounded by the mountains of Wales, there has in every known 
period existed a race of Sheep of small size, destitute of horns, and noted for the softness and fineness of their wool. The part of 
England where this breed was long the most diffused and cultivated was the county of Hereford, a tract of the old red sandstone 
formation, stretching from the confines of Wales to near the Severn. But the breed extended into Monmouthshire on the south, 
into Shropshire on the north, and into Gloucestershire and Warwickshire on the east, occupying many forests, commons, and 
wastes. The variety reared in the county of Hereford was generally termed the Hereford Breed. Sometimes it was character¬ 
ized by the names of the places in which it was found in the greatest numbers or perfection. It was sometimes termed the Archen- 
field Breed, and sometimes the Ross Breed, from the south-eastern district of the county lying between the Forest of Dean and the 
Malvern Hills. But it became at length more generally known by the name of the Ryeland Breed, from certain sandy tracts 
formerly devoted to the production of rye, situated southward of the river Wye. 
We have no historical record of the derivation of this breed from any other country, and may therefore assume that it had 
been indigenous beyond all memorial to the districts which it inhabited. It may not unreasonably be inferred to be a variety of 
that widely-diffused race of soft-woolled Sheep which formerly extended from the mountains and islands of Scotland to the moun¬ 
tains of Wales, and which was probably in possession of the earliest Celtic inhabitants of the British islands. From its diminutive 
size, its patience of scanty food, and the lightness of its fleece, we may conclude that it was the native of countries of a low degree 
of fertility, probably of districts of forest, which, until cleared of their wood, are always unproductive with respect to the nutritive 
grasses. The county of Hereford, it is to be observed, though now rendered rich and beautiful by art, was formerly covered with 
woods, and interspersed with extensive commons and chases, which long remained waste and barren. We are not therefore to con¬ 
clude, that, because the country is now fertilized, it was not formerly suited to the maintenance of a race of small Sheep. The 
nature of the wool of this breed, too, which was noted beyond any other for its fineness, caused the breed to be preserved unmixed, 
and with nearly its pristine characters, long after the county of Hereford had become capable of supporting larger animals. 
The wool of the Ryeland breed was long regarded as the finest that the British islands produced. The ancient city of Leomin¬ 
ster, being surrounded by a country producing this kind of wool, and being the market-town to which it was brought for sale, 
gave name to the wool of the country, which was termed Lemster Wool, or Lemster Ore. Drayton, who wrote in the reign 
of Henry VIII., when comparing the wool of the Cotteswold Hills with the lighter fleeces of Lemster, bears testimony to the supe¬ 
rior fineness of the latter. Camden, describing the town of Leominster, “ which,” says he, “ was also called Leon Minster, and 
Lyon s Monastery, of a Lyon that appeared to a religious man in a vision,” says, “ The greatest name and fame is of the wool in 
the territories round about it (Lemster Ore they call it), which, setting aside that of Apulia and Tarentum, all Europe counteth to 
be the verie best.” 
A method of treating the Sheep of this part of England, calculated to preserve and increase the fineness of the wool, 
existed until a recent period. The animals were kept during the night in large houses termed Cots, capable of con¬ 
taining from 100 to 500 sheep. This practice was probably adopted in early times, for the purpose of protecting the ani¬ 
mals from the wolves which greatly abounded in the forests of the western counties. It may be supposed to have been 
continued afterwards by habit; but experience would show that it was eminently calculated to preserve and increase that fineness 
of the wool for which the breed was distinguished. The animals in these cots were sparingly fed with pease-straw and other dry 
forage, a system eminently favourable to the production of a short and delicate fleece. 
Ihe modern Ryelands, where they yet exist, retain the diminutive size of their progenitors. Their form is compact, and their 
mutton is juicy and delicate. They are gentle and well formed; and they are patient in a remarkable degree of scanty fare. Both 
sexes are destitute of horns. The colour of the whole fleece is white, and the wool extends forward to the face, forming a tuft on the 
foiehead. This wool is yet the finest produced in England. It is not, however, equal in this respect to that of the Spanish Merino, 
nor so well suited, by its felting properties, for the purposes of the clothier, on which account, since the extensive introduction of 
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