Stint: the owner of a stint has the right to put as many animals – sheep, cattle, horses or pigs – on a common grazing as the stint represents. Stinted pastures are where the number of animals allowed to graze is limited (stinted) by agreement between the common graziers or by the owner of the soil.
Store sheep: animals that are not finished but are at an intermediate stage between being lambs and being ready for the butcher
Strike: in conjunction with fly- or blowfly; when greenbottle flies have laid their eggs on a sheep and it is either about to be eaten or is already being eaten by maggots
Sward: the grass covering a pasture
Teg: sheep in its second year; see shearling, nott and twinter
Terminal: accompanied by sire or cross is a sheep involved in the final part of the sheep pyramid, producing lambs for their meat
Top: wool that has been washed and combed to make all the fibres lie parallel ready for spinning into hanks
Tup or tip: see ram
Twinter: a Cumbrian word for a sheep that has seen two winters
Wall-eyed: having one eye of a different colour from the other, usually one blue and the other brown; from the Old Norse vagleygr, having a film over the eye
Wether: a castrated male sheep; usually in conjunction with ‘hogg’ or ‘shearling’ or ‘two-shear’, etc. to indicate its age
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
2 © Diana Steriopulos; 3 by kind permission of the Farmer’s Guardian; 4 © Adrian Legge; 9, 10 © Louise Fairburn; 13 Robert Bakewell (1725–95), painted by Boultbee (1745–1812) used with permission of Charnwood Museum; 14 Lithograph by C. Hullmandel after J. W. Giles (1842). All other photographs taken by the author.
While every effort has been made to contact copyright-holders of illustrations, the author and publishers would be grateful for information about any illustrations where they have been unable to trace them, and would be glad to make amendments in further editions.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
The work of three writers has been invaluable to me: Professor M. L. Ryder’s magisterial Sheep and Man is a marvellous modern encyclopaedia of a lifetime’s ovine knowledge; William Youatt’s Sheep, from 1840, is unbeatable for its insight, range and perspective; and I have relied heavily on Robert Trow-Smith’s highly readable two-volume history of British livestock husbandry. Trow-Smith’s prose is a delight to read, possessing the enviable gift of making a compelling narrative from a potentially dull subject. Apparently his editor dreaded receiving a manuscript from him because there was so little he could do to improve it.
The following is a selection readers might find helpful for further study:
Roy Baker, Alan Bull and Peter Lambley (eds.), A Natural History of the Catfield Estate, Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists’ Society, Norwich, 2008
John Bezzant, Shepherds and Their Dogs, Merlin Unwin Books, Ludlow, 2011
K. J. Bonser, The Drovers: Who They Were and How They Went, Macmillan, London, 1970
Peter Clery, Green Gold: A Thousand Years of English Land, Phillimore & Co., Chichester, 2012
George Culley, Observations on Live Stock, London, 1786
H. H. Dixon (The Druid), Saddle and Sirloin, Vinton & Co. Ltd, London, 1870
——, Field and Fern (Scottish Flocks and Herds), 2 vols., Vinton & Co., London, 1865
Lord Ernle, English Farming Past and Present, 6th edn, Heinemann, London, 1961
Daniel Gates, Gates’s New Shepherd’s Guide for Cumberland, Westmoreland and Lancashire, Brash Bros., Cockermouth, 1879
A. L. J. Gosset, Shepherds of Britain, Constable & Co., London, 1911
Stephen Hall and Juliet Clutton-Brock, Two Hundred Years of British Farm Livestock, Natural History Museum, London, 1989
Edward Hart, The Hill Shepherd, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1977
Terry Hearing, The Dorset Horn: A Short History of the Dorset Horn and Polled Dorset Sheep Breeders’ Association, Dorset Horn and Polled Dorset Sheep Breeders’ Association, Dorchester, 1990
Elizabeth Henson, British Sheep Breeds, Shire Publications, Oxford, 1986
James Hogg, Domestic Manners and Private Life of Sir Walter Scott, Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, 1834
——, The Mountain Bard, Constable & Co., Edinburgh, 1807
Edward Jesse, Anecdotes of Dogs, Bell & Daldy, London, 1870
Norman Jones, Portland Sheep: A Breed with History, N. Jones, c.1990
Alistair Moffat, The Borders: A History of the Borders from Earliest Times, Deerpark Press, Selkirk, 2002
Sydney Moorhouse, The British Sheepdog, H. F. & G. Witherby, London, 1950
National Sheep Association, British Sheep, 9th edn, National Sheep Association, Malvern, 1998
Andrew O’Hagan, The End of British Farming, Profile Books, London, 2001
Anne Orde (ed.), Matthew and George Culley, Travel Journals and Letters 1765–1798, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2002
Henry Cecil Pawson, Robert Bakewell: Pioneer Livestock Breeder, Crosby Lockwood & Sons Ltd, London, 1957
Eileen Power, The Wool Trade in English Medieval History: Being the Ford Lectures [1939], Oxford University Press, London, 1941
F. Rainsford-Hannay, Dry Stone Walling, Faber & Faber, London, 1957
Ian Roberts, Richard Carlton and Alan Rushworth, Drove Roads of Northumberland, History Press, Stroud, 2010
Michael J. H. Robson, Sheep of the Borders, Michael J. H. Robson, Newcastleton, 1987
M. L. Ryder, Sheep and Man, Duckworth, London, 1983
J. B. Skinner et al. (eds.), British Sheep and Wool, British Wool Marketing Board, Bradford, 2010
Henry Tegner, Charm of the Cheviots, Frank Graham, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1970
J. F. H. Thomas, Sheep, Faber & Faber, London, 1945
Robert Trow-Smith, A History of British Livestock Husbandry to 1700, Routledge and Paul, London, 1957
——, A History of British Livestock Husbandry 1700–1900, Routledge and Paul, London, 1959
——, Life from the Land: The Growth of Farming in Western Europe, Longmans, London, 1967
——, Society and the Land, Cresset Press, London, 1953
Peter A. Tulloch, A Window on North Ronaldsay, Kirkwall Press, Kirkwall, 1974
Peter Wade-Martins, Black Faces: A History of East Anglian Sheep Breeds, Norfolk Museums Service/Geerings, Ashford, Kent, 1993
Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey through Yugoslavia, Macmillan & Co., London, 1942
Gordon Wilyman, Memoirs of a Welsh Half bred, Gordon Wilyman, 2004
William Youatt, Sheep: Their Breeds, Management and Diseases, Baldwin & Cradock, London, 1837
INDEX
A
Abbey Dore 28
Albert, Prince 76
Alderson, Alan 67
Alderson, Lawrence 155
Allom, Joseph 45
Alltgoch 191–3
Appletreewick 58, 66
Archdale, Nick 123–8
Argali sheep xvii, 93
Argentina 39
auction marts 129–33
Australia 39, 177, 180, 182
scrapie 148
sheepdogs 203–4
Austria 228
B
Bakewell, Robert 21, 45, 105, 109
New Leicesters 13, 23, 43, 44, 46–56, 79, 103
ballooning 228–9
Balnakeil 99–101
Bamburgh Sheep 106
Banks, Sir Joseph 181
Bedford, Duke of 136
Beltex Sheep 146, 233, 234
Berkshire Nott Sheep 136–7
Best, Henry 34
Bighorn sheep xvii
Black Death 32–3
Blackface/Blackie see Scotch Blackface Sheep
blood sacrifice 224–6
Bluefaced Leicester Sheep 23, 104, 111–15, 121, 128
and Hardy Welsh Mountain 114, 127
and Swaledale 60, 63–4, 112, 114–15, 121
Bog Asphodel 945
Bolton Abbey 65
Border Collies 201, 202, 204, 205
Border Leicester Sheep 23, 104–11, 128
and Cheviots 98, 100, 109, 122
and Scottish Greyface 128–9
and Texels 128
and Welsh Halfbred 122, 123–4, 125, 127
Borders 70–3, 74–5, 76, 89–90
Brackenthwaite Hows 219–20
Bradford 35
Bradford Count 37
Brahan Seer 91, 101
breast wire 159
breeding xxi, 79–80, 98–9, 136
Bluefaced Leicesters 113–14
Border Leicesters 107, 110–11
Cheviots 76–7, 98–9
cross-breeding xvi–xvii, xxi, 39, 59–61, 76–7, 112
line breeding 49–50, 107, 110
New Leicester 45–6, 49–54
North Ronaldsay 8–9
Swaledales 66–7
see also sheep pyramid
British Wool Marketing Board (BWMB) 35–6
Brown, Jim 103
Brydon, Walter 70–1
BSE 148, 149
Buchanan-Jardine, Sir Jock 18–19
Buxton, Geoffrey 153
C
Caithness 95, 97–8
Calabrian Mountain Dog 203
Calke Abbey 13–14, 15
Campaign for Wool 40
Campbell, Hamish 101
Campbell, Roy 1
Cape Wrath 96–7, 99
Cardy Sheep 188
Castlemilk Moorit Sheep 18–19
Catherine the Great 49
Celtic sheep 3, 11–18
Celts 25, 71
Charlecote 21
Charlemagne 27
Charles, Prince 11, 40, 174, 236
Charollais Sheep 64
cheese xxi, 71–2, 240
Chesterton, G. K. xiii
Chevease 235–6
Cheviot Sheep 6, 69–73, 78–82, 89–90, 92
and Bluefaced Leicesters 114
and Border Leicesters 106–7, 109, 122
Chevease 235–6
in Highlands 95–102
lambing 82
Lomond Halfbred 129
meat 76
milk 238
Shetland-Cheviot 129
wool 73–6
Christianity 224–5, 231
Cistercians 28, 72
CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) 149
clearances 70, 94, 95–7
Cobbett, William 48–9
Cohen, Nick 229
Coke, Thomas 47–8, 136, 142–4, 182
Coleridge, Nicholas 236
collies 200–2, 204, 205
Colman, Russell 153
Columella 26, 202
Cooper, Thomas Sidney xix Copeland, Samuel 155–6
Coquet, River 78
Corn Laws 105
Corriedale Sheep 39, 185
Cotswold Sheep xxi, 23–4
cotton grass 98
counting sheep 208–10
Craig, Archibald 74
Crewe, Sir George Harpur 14
crimp 37–8
cross-breeding xvi–xvii, xxi, 39, 59–61, 76–7, 112
see also sheep pyramid
Culley, George 50, 93, 105–9
Culley, Matthew 105–9
Cuvier’s Law of Correlation 79, 80
D
Dalesbred Sheep 115
Darling How 163–8
Dartmoor Sheep 23
Darwin, Charles 50–51, 79–80
de La Rochefoucauld, François 56
Defoe, Daniel 178
Denmark 228
Derby, Private 67–8
Devon and Cornwall Longwool Sheep 23
Devonshire, Dukes of 65, 67–8
dipping 118
Dishley Grange 45, 46, 49
Dishley Leicester Sheep see New Leicester Sheep
dogs see sheepdogs
Dorset Down Sheep 138
Dorset Horn Sheep 176–86
Dorset Sheep 12, 82, 138, 239
Down breeds xvii, 134, 135, 137–9
see also Shropshire Down
Sheep; Southdown Sheep;
Suffolk Sheep
draft ewes 63
draw-moss 98
Drayton, Michael 28–9
drovers 197–8
Duleep Singh, Prince Frederick 153
E
East Friesland Sheep 239–40
Easycare Sheep 235
Edmistoun, John 76, 106–7
Edward III 31, 35
Edward the Elder 27
Egwina 27
Elizabeth I 28
Elliot, Andrew 100, 235–6
Elliot, Mark 117–19
Elliot, Tim 81–2, 202
Ellman, John 48, 134–7, 143
enclosure 105–6, 166
environmentalism 241, 243–8 Eprihorum vaginatum 98
European Union Protected Designated Origin status 18
Evans, Huw 191, 192–3
Exmoor Horn Sheep 15
F
Fairburn, Louise 22–3, 34, 42
Farm Animal Welfare Council 228
fat sheep 46–7
Fauna Orcadensis (Low) 10
felting 38–9
Finland 228
Flock Book status 119
flocking 79
flushing 13
fly-strike 40–42
folding 140
Fooks, Francis 184, 185, 186
foot-and-mouth epidemic 18, 66, 221–4
Frazer, Sir James 170
Friesland Sheep 239–40
fulling 38–9
G
George III 126, 181
George IV 75–6
gimmers 8, 86
Gossett, Adelaide 14
grassland 33
H
halal slaughter 226–31
Hampshire Down Sheep 138
Hardisty, Harry 205–7, 210–14, 216, 217–18, 248
auctions 131, 133
Darling How 163–8
rudding 171
Hardy Welsh Mountain Sheep 122, 127
Harpur, Sir Henry 13–14
head greet 94–5
heafing instinct 86
Hebridean Sheep 3, 12, 16, 94
Heller, Joseph 232
Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor 28
Henson, Joe 19, 154–5
Herdwick Sheep xvi, xix, 13, 79, 121–2, 157–63, 175
Darling How 163–70
meat 174–5
Nook Farm 171–3
rudding 170–1
wool 74, 173–4
Herdwick Sheep at Windermere (Longmire) xix
heterosis 59–60
Highlands 91–103
clearances 70, 94, 95–7
Hill Radnor Sheep 238
Hindhope 81–2, 202
hirsels 77
Hirta 3
Hodden Grey cloth 174
Hogg, James 70–71, 73, 88, 89–90, 194, 196
hoggs 62
hooves 79
Hope, Hilty 195, 196
horns 16, 147
Cheviots 78–9
Dorset Horns 185
Herdwicks 159–60
Suffolks 146–7
House of Lords 31–2
house-lamb 183
Hughes, John 190
Humphrey, William 138
Huntaway 203
hybrid vigour 59–60
I
Iceland 228
Illyrian 203
in-and-in breeding 49–50, 107, 110
Islam 224, 225–31
Isle of Man
Loghtan 17–18
sheepdogs 201, 203
J
Jackson, Stanley 171–3
Jacob Sheep 1–3, 13, 19–21, 79
Jones, Aneurin 192
Jones, Norman and Michelle 15
Judaism 224, 226, 229, 230
K
kelp 5–6
Kelpie 203–4
Kelso 110
Kelso Abbey 72
Kendall, Peter
242
Kent, Nathaniel 140–41
Ker, Charles 76
Khalid, Rizvan 227
Komondor 203
kosher slaughter 226, 229, 230
L
Lairg 100
lambing 82–9, 111, 235
Llanwenog 190
North Ronaldsay 7–9
Portlands 12–13
Wiltshire Horn 237
Leicester, Earl of 153
Leicester Longwool Sheep 23, 46, 103
see also New Leicester Sheep
Lemster Ore 28–9, 38
Lincoln Longwool Sheep xxi, 22–4, 39, 42, 44
and Cheviot 76
and Texel 234
wool 24, 34, 37, 47
line breeding 49–50, 107, 110
Lisle, Edward 177
Llanwenog Sheep 186–93
Locke–James 74–5
Lockhart, J. G. 76
Loghtan Sheep 17–19
Lomond Halfbred Sheep 129
long-tailed sheep 3, 11–18
Longmire, William Taylor xix, 162
Longwool breeds xvii, xxi, 23, 103, 104
see also Leicester Longwool
Sheep; Lincoln Longwool
Sheep
Louis XVI 180
Low, Professor 10, 145
Low, David 115–16
luck money 133
lug marks 80–81
lustre 38
Lydekker, R. 161
M
McCalmont, Dermot 153
mad cow disease 148, 149
Marshall, William 55, 141
Masham Sheep 115
Mason, Matt 58, 65–6
meat xx–xxi, 44–5, 232–3
Bakewell 46, 47–8, 56
Border Leicesters 107–8
Cheviots 76
Herdwicks 174–5
house-lamb 183
North Ronaldsay 11
Texel and Beltex 233–4
Melrose Abbey 72
Mendel, Gregor xxi
Mercian Regiment 67–8
Merino Sheep 38, 39, 179–82
and Dorset Horn 177, 179
and Lomond Halfbred 129
milk xxi, 71–2, 238–41
milling 38–9
Mitchell, Robinson 129–30
Moel Famau 126
Moors for the Future Partnership 244–7
Morfe Sheep 189
Morris, Francis 123, 125
Mouflon sheep xvii, 19
Muggs 106
Mule sheep 60, 63–4, 112, 115, 122
multiple births 7–9, 12–13
Mure, William 108
N
Nan (dog) 214–16
Narthecium ossifragum 94–5
National Trust 172–3
Natural England 244
natural selection 50–51, 80
New Leicester Sheep 13, 29, 44, 46–8, 49–56, 103–4, 135
and Charollais 64
and Dorset 179
and East Friesland 239–40
Counting Sheep Page 27