- I will conelude with assuring any one, 
who may be induced by these remarks 
to read. more accurately the mementos 
of departed genius that occasioned them, 
that if he has a true taste for poetry, he 
‘will find much, very much, in Fenton, 
to gratify it. ~ Re Cee 
——— 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
On an ERRONEOUS NOTION respecting the. 
ORIGIN Of SPANISH MARINO SHEEP; 
and on the FLORIN GRASS. 
( N a reference to my General Trea- 
tise on Cattle, pages 292, 423, and 
42°, I apprehend Mr. Rankio will be 
Carbtad of the total want of grounds 
for that report which has of late been 
circulated in the public prints, namely, 
that the Spanish fine-woolled sheep, now 
in such deservedly high request among us, 
originated in this country, and were im- 
ported by the Spaniards from our Cot- 
teswold or Gloucestershire hills. 
Mr. Rankin quotes, from John Stowe’s 
Chronicle, the information that in 1464, 
king Edward permitted the a of 
certain Cotteswolde sheep to Spain; 
which the chronicler assigns. as the 
reason for the Spanish staple of wool at 
Bruges, in Flanders, greatly exceeding 
ourown. Dr, Campbell, in his Political 
Survey, I have no doubt, grounded his 
opinion, lately revived, on the paragraph 
in Stowe which Mr. Rankin has quoted 5 
but I have really forgotten whether the 
doctor has given his authority. 
Few historical facts stand bettér au- 
theriticated, than the existence of co- 
vered, erythrezan, or fine-woolled sheep ; 
and the use of fine wool, in Spain and 
Italy, during the time of the ancient Ro- 
mans; on which the curious reader will 
find ample satisfaction ia the pages of 
Columella. The keeping of travelling 
flocks of Merino, or Marmo sheep, also 
bears much earber date than the reign 
_ of our Edward, in the fifteenth century, 
as will appear by consulting the Spanish 
‘economical writers. ‘That: the Marino 
sheep (Marino, as originally reaching 
Spain by sea), are of Grecian, or rather 
Asiatic origin, will be easily credited on 
the authority of the ancient writers ; and 
that this country first imported them 
from Spain some centuries since, is both 
credible in itself, and attested Ly foreign 
if not our. native historians, ‘The sheep 
in question are, like the southern horse, 
obviously the production of warmer 
climes, ‘and radically unlike the species 
ef northern Butane 
Ju the memoirs of the ci-devant Royal 
234 | Origin of Spanish Marino Sheep. 
[April hy 
Society of Agriculture at Rouen in 
Normandy, it is stated, that in the fif- 
teenth century, our Edward IV. obtained 
a considerable flock of fine-woolled sheep 
from Spain, of the king of Castile, which 
was the original fouadation of the excel- 
lence of our clothing-wool: that. pros 
perly qualified persons were appointed 
to superintend the distribution and ma- 
nagement of the Spanish sheep: that 
two ewes anda ram were sent to every 
parish in which the pasture was judeed 
suitable to such stock; the care of them 
being entrusted to,the most respectable 
yeomen, on whom particular privileges 
were, In consequence, conferred: writ- 
ten instructions for the management of 
these sheep, were also delivered to the 
shepherds; who were taught to select the 
finest native ewes for the Spanish cross, 
in order to the general improvement of. 
our wool. Henry VIE. and queen 
Elizabeth are said also, on the same 
authority, to have paid great attention to 
this important object, in common with 
another—that of improving the breed of 
horses. Thus we-see, after all this bus- 
tle of presumed novelty in the Spanish 
cross, we have been Jong since fure- 
stalled, nihil sub sole novum ; and’George 
ITl. has been patriotically treading in 
the footsteps of his predecessor, Edward 
IV.; whilst so many of our old shepherds 
have been afraid to venture upon @ 
measure successfully and generally put 
in practice by their great, great, T know 
not how many times great, grandsires! 
What, my good notable, cautious, eco- 
nomical old friend! dare you not pace 
in that beaten track. whence have pro- 
ceeded your South Downs, your old Cot- 
teswolds, and Rylands; and ali that now 
native Enelish fine wool, and fine mut- 
ton, to which you are so ‘attached 2 
It is not at all a singular or strange 
coincidence, that Edward should at the 
same time import Spanish sheep, and 
accommodate, his good friends of that 
country with a few English. Mark— 
Stowe’s Chronicle speaks only of a licence. 
to export ‘ certein Cotteswolde sheep,” 
implying _ probably a small number, 
whereas the import from Spain appears 
to have been considerable, might have 
been practised before the fifteenth cen- 
tury, and in all probability really was 
Jong afterwards. g 
I have been thus far speaking of facts: 
now for a conjecture ; ; an uncertain how- 
ever, and speculative commodity, in 
which I do not generally affect to deal. 
The king of Castile having accommag- 
‘dated 
