THE COTSWOLD BREED. 
PLATE XYIII. 
EWE, Eight Years Old; Bred by Joseph Hewer, Esq., Easlington, Gloucestershire. 
The Cotswold Breed of Sheep derives its name from a tract of low calcareous hills in the eastern division of the county of 
Gloucester, forming a part of the great Oolite formation of England, which, commencing with the moorlands of Yorkshire, stretches 
diagonally across the island, and loses itself in the British Channel, near the Isle of Portland. The Gloucester portion of 
this tract is of moderate elevation, comparatively infertile, yet capable of cultivation, and yielding in the natural state a short 
sweet herbage. It was formerly a range of bleak wastes, employed in the pasturage of Sheep, and much of it was in the state of 
common ; but with the progress of the last century, the commons were appropriated, and cultivation was extended. It derives its 
name from Cote, a sheep-fold, and Would, a naked hill. It was early noted for the numbers of sheep which it maintained, and 
the fineness and abundance of their wool. “ In these woulds,” says the translator of Camden, “ they feed in great numbers 
flockes of sheep, long-necked and square of bulk and bone, by reason (as is commonly thought) of the weally and hilly situation 
of their pasturage, whose wool, being most fine and soft, is held in passing great account amongst all nations.” Other writers 
refer to the excellence and abundance of the wool of the Cotswold Wolds. Drayton contrasts the rich fleeces of Cotswold with 
the flocks of Sarum and Leominster, and gives the palm to Cotswold for its more abundant produce.* The faithful and labo¬ 
rious Stowe, in his Chronicles, states, that, in the year 1464, King Edward IV. “concluded an amnesty and league with King 
Henry of Castill, and John, King of Aragon, at the concluding whereof, hee granted licence for certain Coteswold Sheepe to be 
transported into the country of Spaine, which have there since mightily increased and multiplied to the Spanish profit, as it is 
said.” The worthy writer is not wholly satisfied that the Spaniards owed all their Sheep to England; for, adds he, “ true it is, 
that long ere this were Sheepe in Spaine, as may appear by a pattent of King Henry the Second, granting to the weavers of 
London, that if any cloth were found to be made of Spanish wool, mixed with English wool, the maior of London should see it 
brent.” Adam Speed, who wrote in 1629, describes the wool of the Cotswold Sheep as similar to that of the Ryeland. “ In 
Herefordshire, especially about Lempster, and on those famous hills called Coteswold Hills, sheep are fed that produce a sin¬ 
gular good wool, which, for fineness, comes very near to that of Spain, for from it a thread may be drawn as fine as silk.” The 
precise character of the Sheep which produced this wool is now unknown. They were probably similar to the large fine-woolled 
breeds of the adjoining counties of Wilts and Berks, a supposition which agrees with the locality of the districts, and with “ the long 
necks and square of bulk and bone” ascribed to the Cotswold Sheep by Camden, and explains the distinction of Drayton between 
the wealthy locks of Coteswold, and the less abundant ore of Lemster. Markham, indeed, a writer of the time of Queen Eli¬ 
zabeth, speaks of the Cotswold Sheep as having long wool, but this testimony cannot weigh against the direct authority of Speed 
in a later age; and we cannot be sure that the term long, as used by Markham, is any thing else than relative, as applied to the 
two kinds of wool. 
The Sheep, however, which now possess the same country, and have inhabited it beyond the memory of the living generation, 
are a Long-woolled race, and thus entirely distinct from the Sheep of the ancient forests, wolds, and downs, which produced the 
former fine wool of England. They are of the larger class of British Sheep, and all their characters denote them to be a breed 
of the plains and richer country. The period of their introduction is unknown, but it probably took place pretty late in the last 
century, with the appropriation of the commons, and the extension of tillage in a degree sufficient to supply artificial food to a 
larger kind of animal. A traditionary belief has always existed in the country, that the modern race is not the original one of 
the Cotswold Wolds ; but no intelligible account can be obtained from any one now living of the time or manner of its introduce 
tion. It was probably derived from the upper part of Oxfordshire, or from Warwickshire, the ancient breed of which it seems 
in some respects to have resembled ; and the change may have been chiefly produced by crossing. Mr Marshall and some in¬ 
telligent writers, indeed, have believed that the Cotswold Sheep have always been a Long-woolled breed, and have cited in support 
* “ T’ whom Sarum’s plaine gives place, though famous for its flocks ; 
Yet hardly doth she tythe our Cotswolde’s wealthy locks : 
Though Lemster him exceed in finenesse of her ore, 
Yet quite he puts her downe for his aboundant store.” 
Poly-Olbiox. 
s* 
