Stljata, •New ^arb
BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE
SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND
THE GIFT OF
HENRY W. SAGE
1891
Cornell University Library
SF 375.5.G7G67
Shepherds of Britain; scenes from shepher
3 1924 016 410 494
The original of tiiis book is in
tine Cornell University Library.
There are no known copyright restrictions in
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SHEPHERDS OF BRITAIN
^izhm/'^
SHEPHERDS OF BRITAIN
SCENES FROM SHEPHERD LIFE
PAST AND PRESENT
FROM THE BEST AUTHORITIES
BY
ADELAIDE L. J. GOSSET
AULD KEP
LONDON
CONSTABLE AND COMPANY
LIMITED
191 I
"To keep sheep the best life." — Manningham Diary, 1592-93.
"A shepherd's life, properly understood, is the richest in the
world." — James Gardner, 1840- 1900.
" The shepherd's life has changed less with the change of years
than that of any other calling." — H. Somerset Bullock, 1909.
PREFACE
It Is now many hundred years since sheep-farming be-
came one of the first industries of Britain, and it is
therefore surprising that no book at all adequately
descriptive of the shepherds of this country and their
shepherding has yet been published. The reason for this
is perhaps the great scope of the subject, and the in-
numerable points of interest upon which such a book must
necessarily touch, if only to set down and note the changes
which even in this most conservative calling — the most
unchanging of all our industries — have to be recorded.
That the ways of shepherds and the charms of their life do
interest us, I have ample evidence. For since the announce-
ment was made of the preparation of this volume, I have
received more than two hundred letters on the subject
from correspondents in various parts of the country.
The scope of the book will appear from a glance at
the contents list. It comprises chapters on " Shepherds —
their Flocks and Dogs," "Sheep Marks and Tallies,"
" The Wool Harvest," " The Care of Wool," " Shepherds'
Garb," " Arts and Crafts," " Pastimes," and " Pastoral
Folk -Lore." Owing to the overwhelming abundance
and richness of the material, 1 have made no attempt to
do more than notice what are comparatively a few out
of the many different breeds of sheep, though I have
touched here and there upon some that for various
reasons seemed especially noteworthy. Nevertheless the
whole material has been arranged roughly according to
counties, beginning with the south, where the conditions
vii
vm
Shepherds of Britain
have been most generally modernised, and working
gradually northward to Orkney and Shetland, where
the shepherd has in many respects preserved his original
customs, some of which, that of " rueing," for instance,
probably date back to prehistoric times. In connexion
with this it has been suggested that the black-horned
sheep, with regard to which the reader will find many
interesting particulars in the text, was probably the most
important variety of sheep in prehistoric Britain. But
what 1 chiefly felt in the work for this book was, after
all, the deep-lying humanity of its subject, which reveals
in the shepherd of real life, as clearly as in the shepherd
of legend and history, the essentially regal qualities of
insight and of sympathy.
To the writers of the letters mentioned above, a few
my friends, but so many unknown to me, I desire to return
hearty thanks for their kindly help. I must thank, too,
those authors, artists, and publishers who have so generously
given me permission to draw upon their work. Among
many who have rendered important and substantial help,
for which I wish to express my gratitude, are Mr. C. J. B.
Macdonald of The Field ; The Ven. Archdeacon Thomas,
F.S.A. ; Mr. J. C. Bacon ; Miss A. Dryden ; Miss Sophia
Morrison ; The Rev. Thomas Mathewson ; Mr. Arthur
Finn ; Mr. W. B. Gardner ; The Rev. F. W. Galpin ; Mr.
Edward Lovett ; Mrs. Henry-Anderson ; Mr. Ruskin
Butterfield ; Miss Charlotte Burne ; Mr. Walter Money,
F.S.A. ; Dr. Chalmers Mitchell, F.R.S. ; The Editor of
The Scottish Farmer ; Mr. F. C. Paine ; Mr. D. Macpher-
s6n ; Dr. S. Tellet ; Mr. T. J. George ; Mr. J. R. Fare-
well ; Mr. Merrick Head ; Mr. A. Beckett ; Prof Skeat ;
and lastly, to Mr. Walter Skeat, M.A., for several articles,
and for much other kind and valuable assistance.
A. L. J. GOSSET.
CONTENTS
SHEPHERD AND FLOCK
PAGE
Sussex and Hampshire —
Shepherds of the Downs. By R. W. Blencowe . 3
From Sussex Archaeological Collections, vol. ii., 1849.
Nature and the Countryman. By Tickner Ed-
WARDES * . . . . . .5
From The West Sussex Gazette, 1907.*
Contentedness of Southdown Shepherds. By W.
H. Hudson* . . . . .11
From Nature in Downland, 1900. (Messrs. Longmans,
Green & Co.)*
Vastness of Southdown Sheep-Walks.
By Richard Jefferies 13
A Downland Sheep Fair. „ „ 14
From Nature near London, 1887. (Messrs. Chatto &
Windus.)*
Shepherds' Huts on the South Downs. By M. A.
,L0WER . . . . ' . -I?
From Contributions to Literature, 1854.
A Shepherd's Bush. By Wodehouse R. H. Gar-
land* . . . . .18
From Morning Post, 1910.*
John Dudeney. By W. H. Hudson* . 19
A Sussex Shepherdess. „ „ 20
A Picturesque Shepherd-Boy. „ „ 23
From Nature in Downland, 1900. (Messrs. Longmans,
Green & Co.)*
From Shepherd-Lad to Land-Holder. By J. Bate-
man* . . . • • • H
From The West Sussex Gazette, 1907.*
* By kind permission.
ix b
X shepherds of Britain
PAGE
A Hampshire Shepherd. By H. Rider Haggard* 26
From Rural England, 1902. (Messrs. Longmans, Green
& Co.)*
Dorsetshire —
Hardiness of the Portland Breed. By The
Author ..... 27
Devonshire —
Courage of the Exmoor Sheep. By J. H. Crab-
tree* . . . . . 28
From The Animal World, 1909.*
Cornwall —
Sheep of the "Towens " and Scilly. By William
Borlase, F.R.S. . . . . .28
From The Natural History of Cornwall, 1758.
Somersetshire —
Ben Bond, Idleton. By James Jennings, 1834 . 29
Wiltshire —
The Shepherd of the Plain. By Percy W. D
IzZARD* .....
34
From The Daily Mail, 1910.*
Lazy Shepherds of the Plain— and an Exception
By The Author . . . . • 3^
Wiltshire Shepherds, 17th Century . . -37
From The Book of Days. Edited by Robert Chambers,
1869.
Wiltshire Shepherd Customs. By Richard
Jefferies . . . . . .40
From IVild Life in a Southern County, i88o. (Messrs.
Smith, Elder & Co.)*
Characteristic Wiltshire Shepherds. By A. G.
Bradley . . . . . -43
From Round about Wiltshire, 1907. (Messrs. Methuen
& Co.)*
Berkshire —
Shepherding on the Berkshire Downs. By J. E.
Vincent . . . . . -46
From Highways and Byways in Berkshire, 1906. (Messrs.
Macmilkn & Co.)*
* By kind permission.
Contents xi
PAGE
A Sheep Fair at East Ilsley. By L. Salmon* . 46
From Untravelled Berkshire, 1909. (Messrs. Sampson
Low, Marston & Co.)*
Kent —
A Shepherd's Power of Abstraction. By Richard
Jefferies . . . . . -49
From Nature near London, 1887. (Messrs. Chatto &
Windus.)*
" Sheppey," The Isle of Sheep. By William Lam-
BARDE . . . . . .50
From Perambulations in Kent, 1576.
The Sheep of Romney Marsh . . -51
From Excursions in the County of Kent, 1822.
The "Lookers" of Romney Marsh. By Arthur
Finn, 1910 . . . . . -51
East Anglia —
The Norfolk Breed. By The Author . . 53
Lincolnshire —
Lincolnshire Longwools. By The Author . 55
The Midlands —
"Leicesters" and Others . . . -55
From Pictorial Half-Hours. Edited by Charles Knight,
1850.
Yorkshire —
Henry Clifford, "The Shepherd Lord" . . 56
From The Book of Days. Edited by Robert Chambers,
1869.*
Shepherds' Meeting-Time . . . -59
From The Globe, 1878.*
The Lake Country —
Sheep-Farming in Cumberland. By J. Britton
and E. W. Brayley . . . .60
From The Beauties of England and Wales, 1802.
The Herdwick. By A. G. Bradley . . 60
A Curious Usage in the Lake District. By
A. G. Bradley . . . . .61
From Highways and Byways in the Lake District, igoi.
(Messrs. Macmillan & Co.)*
* By kind permission.
xii Shepherds of Britain
PAGE
Another Account of the Herdwick . . 62
From The Morning Post, 1 909.*
Isle of Man—
The Two Breeds of the Island Sheep. By John
Feltham .... 62
From A Tour in the Lie of Man, 1798.
The " Laughtons " or " Loaghtans " . - ^3
From The Sheep, 1837.
Sheep and Shepherding in the Isle of Man. By
The Author . . . . • ^3
Old English Breeds of Sheep. By Walter Skeat,
M.A., 1910 . .... 67
Wales —
Shepherding in Ancient Wales . . ■ ^9
From Ancient Welsh Husbandry (A Commercial and Agri-
cultural Magazine).
Habits of Welsh Sheep. By Theophilus Jones 69
From A History of the County of Brecknock, 1805-1809.
Sheep Character in Carnarvonshire, By the Rev.
J. Evans . . . . . -71
From The Beauties of England and Wales, 181 2.
Sheep of the Snowdonian Range. Bv The Author 72
Ireland —
Shepherd and Flock in Erin. By Ralph Fleesh,
1909 ...... 73
Sheep in Ancient Ireland. By The Author . 76
Connexion between the Irish and Faroes' Breed.
By The Author . . . -77
Scotland —
My Highland Shepherd Friends. By Kate
Henry-Anderson, 1909 . . . .79
Hardships of Shepherd Life in the Highlands.
By Alexander Innes Shand . . .81
From Days of the Past, 1905. (Messrs. Constable &
Co., Ltd.)*
James Gardner, Shepherd and Famous Collie-Dog
Trainer . . . . . .84
An Appreciation by a Grateful Pupil, 1909.
* By kind permission.
Contents xiii
PAGE
James Gardner — Another Account. By the Rev.
Hugh Young, 1910 . . . -85
Sayings on Dogs, taken from the Conversation of
James Gardner . . . . .88
On Shepherds and Shepherding in Sklye. By
Alexander Smith . . . . .89
From A Summer in Skye, 1865.
The Blackface Breed. By D. Macpherson, 1909 91
Deer Expelled by Sheep . . . .92
From Hone's Table Book, 1827.
Scottish Shepherds of the Sixteenth Century.
By James Taylor, D.D. . . . -93
From The Pictorial History of Scotland, 1859.
The Milking of Ewes. By The Author . . 95
Shetland and Orkney Isles —
The Wild Sheep of Shetland. By Dr. S. Hibbert 97
From A Description of the Shetland Isles, 1822.
Shetland Sheep — Another Account. By Robert
CowiE, M.D. . . . . .98
From Shetland, Descriptive and Historical, 1871. (Messrs.
Lewis Smith & Son.)*
Shepherding in Shetland and Orkney. By the
Rev. T. Mathewson, 1909 . . . -99
Breeds of Sheep in Shetland and Orkney. By
James Johnston, 1909 .... loi
RARER PHASES OF SHEEP CULTURE AND
CHARACTER
Sheep Led by the Shepherd. By The Author . 105
Shepherdesses of the Seventeenth Century. By The
Author ...... 106
An Old-Time Lincolnshire Drover . . . 107
From Evening News, 1908.*
The Little Northamptonshire Drover . . 108
From The Gentleman^ s Magazine, 1797.
* By kind permission.
xiv Shepherds of Britain
PAGE
The Influence of Environment. By The Author 109
The " Fleecy Rachael " weeping for her Chil-
dren. By Alexander Smith . . .111
From A Summer in Skye, 1865.
Mutual Recognition by Sheep after Shearing.
By The Author . . . . .112
On Pasture Poisonous to Sheep. By The Author . 112
Dependance of Sheep on the Weather for Food
AND Drink. By Richard Jefferies . -114
From Wild Life in a Southern County, 1880. (Messrs.
Smith, Elder & Co.)*
The Snail-Eater. By H. L. F. Guermonprez* . 116
From The West Sussex Gazette, 19 10.*
The Bone-Eater. By The Author . . .118
The Blind Sheep . . . . .119
From Sunday, 1907. (Messrs. Wells, Gardner, Darton
& Co.)*
A "Moderate" Drinker. By The Author . 119
A Sheep Militant. By E. B. H.* . . 120
From Country Life, 1905.*
THE SHEPHERD AND HIS DOG
Sheep-Dogs, Past and Present. By Walter Baxen-
DALE, 1909 . . . . . .125
The Old English or Sussex Sheep-Dog. By The
Author . . . . . .127
The Meaning of "Collie." By The Author . 129
The Collie-Dog of the Highlands. By K. Henry-
Anderson, 1909 ..... 130
The Collie in the South of Scotland. By Sir
Archibald Geikie, K.C.B., LL.D., D.C.L. . 131
From Scottish Reminiscences, 1904. (Messrs. James
MacLehose & Sons.)*
The Powers of the Collie. By Charles St. John 133
From Wild Sports in the Highlands, 1846.
* By kind permission.
Contents xv
PACE
How Master and Dog co-operate. By Ralph
Fleesh, igoq . . . . ■ ^35
Hogg's "Faithful Sirrah and Hector." By James
Hogg ("The Ettrick Shepherd," b. 1772, d. 1835) . 140
From Anecdotes of Dogs (Jesse), 1846.
The Sheep-Dog of Ireland. By Ralph Fleesh, 1909 142
Sheep- Dogs (coill) in the Isle of Man. By The
Author ...... 143
The Shepherd's and Drover's Dogs compared . 145
From Pictorial Half-Hours, 1 8 5 1 .
The Drover's Dog. By Edward Jesse . -145
From Scenes and Occupations of a Country Life, 1853.
Training the Sheep-Dog in England. By H. Somer-
set Bullock, B.D., 1909* .... 147
Training the Collie Pup in Scotland. By Ralph
Fleesh, 1909 ..... 148
Sheep-Dog Trials in England, Wales, and Scot-
land. By Walter Baxendale, 1910 . . 149
A Light of other Days. By C. Brewster Mac-
pherson* . . . ■ -152
From The Field, 1909.*
AuLD Kep : "A Past-Master," and "One of the
Great Dogs of History." By Ralph Fleesh* . 154
From The Field, 1909.*
A Scottish Sheep-Dog Trial. Reported in Doric. By
Ralph Fleesh, 1909* .... 155
From People's Journal*
"Magnus" and "Ronald." By Max Philpot, 1909 * 160
(Messrs. W. M. Peace & Son, Orkney.)*
Shepherds' Dogs in Church. By The Author . 167
Shepherds' Dogs expelled from Church. By the
Ven. Archdeacon Thomas, F.S.A.* . .170
From Archaeologia Cambrensis*
Other Methods of Expulsion. By The Author . 173
* By kind permission.
xvi Shepherds of Britain
rAGE
Shepherds' Dogs and Sheep -Stealing. By James
Hogg ("The Ettrick Shepherd") . . .176
(As quoted by Jesse, 1846.)
SHEEP-MARKS AND TALLIES
On Sheep-Marking. By The Author . 181
Lamb-Branding in Skye. By Alexander Smith . 185
From A Summer in Skye, 1865.
Sheep-Marks. By the Rev. Thomas Mathewson, 1909 188
Ear-Marking IN Shetland. By Dr. Jakobsen, 1909 * 190
Tally-Stick Registers. By Edward Lovett * . 191
From Folk-Lore, 1909.*
Notches and Nicks. By The Author . 193
The Sheep-Counting Score. By Walter Skeat,
M.A., 1910 . . . . - -194
WOOL HARVEST
The Washpool. By Richard Jefferies . . 203
From Wild Life in « Southern County, 1880. (Messrs.
Smith, Elder & Co.) *
A Sussex Sheep-Shearing. By R. W. Blencowe . 206
From Sussex Archaeological Collections, 1849.
A Sheep-Shearing Song to the Tune of "Rosebuds
in June." By The Author . . . . 210
Sheep-Washing: An Old Institution now declining 211
From The Morning Post, 1909.*
Sheep Washing and Shearing. By John Times . 212
From Nooks and Corners of English Life, 1867.
Holkham : A Famous Sheep-Shearing Feast. Bv
A. M. Stirling ..... 214.
From Coke of Norfolk, 1908. (Mr. John Lane.)*
The Shearers' King and Queen. By William
Howitt . . . . ,216
From The Book of the Seasons, 183 i.
* By kind permission.
Contents xvii
PAGE
A Cumberland Cupping. By A. W. R. . . 218
From The Table Book of William Hone, 1826.
On "Rueing" rajjsus Clipping. By The Author . 219
THE CARE OF WOOL
THE LABOURS OF THE LOOM
Of Wool and Woollen Cloth. By the Very Rev.
Daniel Rock, D.D. .... 225
From Textile Fabrics Art Handbook, 1876. (The Board
of Education.)*
Woollen Manufacture in England, 15th Century . 228
From The Antiquary's Portfolio, 1825.
The Story of the Cotswold Wool Trade. By
Francis Duckworth, M.A.* . . . 229
From ne Cotswolds, 1908. (Messrs. Adam & Charles
Black.)*
Kendal "Cottons " ..... 232
From The Reliquary, 1861.
" Cornish Hair." By William Borlase, F.R.S. . 234
From The Natural History of Cornwall, 1758.
The Grey Cloths of Kent. By John Times . . 234
From Nooks and Corners of English Life, 1867.
"Kendal Green," "Coventry Blue," "Leominster
Ore," "Lincoln Green," and "Bristol Red."
By The Author . ■ . . . 235
The Great Fair of Stourbridge. By James E.
Thorold Rogers . . . . -237
From History of Agriculture, 1882. (The Delegates of
the Clarendon Press.)*
"Shepherd's Plaid." By J. R. Planch^ . . 238
From The History of British Costume, 1834.
Shetland Wool. By Robert Covi^ie, M.D. . . 238
From Shetland, Descriptive and Historical, 187 1. (Messrs.
Lewis Smith & Son.)*
* By kind permission.
xviii Shepherds of Britain
PAGE
Woollen Cloths of Ireland .... 241
From The Antiquary's Portfolio, 1825.
A Famous Coat-making Wager. By Walter Money,
F.S.A. . . ... 241
SHEPHERDS' GARB
Shepherds' Dress, Past and Present. By The
Author ...... 245
Smocks and their Wearers. By William Howitt 251
From A Country Book, 1 8 3 i .
SHEPHERDS' ARTS, IMPLEMENTS, AND
CRAFTS
The Pastoral Crook. By Richard Jefferies . 255
From Nature near London, 1887. (Messrs. Chatto &
Windus.)*
Shepherds' Crooks. By E. V. Lucas . . . 257
From Highways and Byways in Sussex, 1904. (Messrs.
Macmillan & Co.)*
Hook and Crook. By The Author . . 257
Of Shepherds' Shears. By The Author . 259
Shepherds' Slings. By Joseph Strutt . . 260
From The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England,
1801.
Wheatear Trapping by Shepherds. Bv Arthur
Beckett * . . . . . . 261
From The Spirit of the Downs, 1 909. (Messrs. Methuen
& Co.)*
Of "Earth-Stopping" by Shepherds. Bv H. Somerset
Bullock, 1910* ..... 264
Of the Shepherd's Bottle. By The Author . 264
Sheep-Bells, Ancient and Modern. By The Author 265
The Simple Sundial of the Southdown Shepherds.
By Edward Lovett * . . . . 272
Frotn Folk-Lore, 1909.
* By kind permission.
Contents xix
PAGE
An Ancient Rustic Pocket- Dial. By Thomas
QuiLLER Couch ..... 274
From The Reliquary, 1862.
A Shepherd's Pocket-Dial. By E. B.* . . 276
From Country Life, 1904.*
SHEPHERDS' PASTIMES
A Piping Lad. By Richard Jefferies . . 282
From Wild Life in « Southern County, 1880. (Messrs.
Smith, Elder & Co.)*
Shepherds' Pipes. By Rev. F. W. Galpin, 1909 . 282
Shepherds at Play ..... 285
From The Graphic and Historical Illustrator, 1834. Edited
by E. W. Bradley.
Shepherds of Skye and the Reel of Hoolican. By
Alexander Smith ..... 286
From A Summer in Skyc, 1865.
The Cotswold Games ..... 287
From The Book of Days. Edited by Robert Chambers,
1869.*
Sheep-Running on Exmoor. By Percy W. D. Izzard* 290
From The Daily Mail, 1910.*
Village Pastimes in the Seventeenth Century . 290
From The Book of Dap. Edited by Robert Chambers,
1869.*
The Old Berkshire Revels. By L. Salmon* . 291
From Untravelled Berkshire, 1909. (Messrs. Sampson
Low, Marston & Co.)*
Bedfordshire Shearing Revels . . 292
From Hone's Tear Book, 1832.
St. Blaise's Day in Yorkshire . . . 294
From The Book of Days. Edited by Robert Chambers,
1869.*
Old Customs at Shepherds' Festivals . . 296
From The Graphic and Historical Illustrator, 1834.
* By kind permission.
XX Shepherds of Britain
PAGE
Nine Men's Morris and Other Games. By The
Author ...... 297
Quoting from Traditional Games. By Alice Gomme, i 894.*
„ „ Notes and (Queries, 1878.*
„ Barnes' Glossary, 1864. (Messrs. Kegan
Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co.)*
„ „ ^orts and Pastimes. ByJosEPH Strutt, 1801.
The Game of Jack Straws. By William Howitt 301
From The Boy's Country Book, 1841.
PASTORAL FOLK-LORE
The Shepherd and his Lore. By Dr. Habberton
Lulham . .... 305
From Songs of the Downs and Dunes, 1908. (Messrs.
Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co.)*
The Phynodderee's Shepherding. By Sophia
Morrison, 1909 ..... 308
The Loaghtan Beg. By "Cushag" (J. Kermoda)*. 308
Remnants of Sacrificial Customs in England. By
William Henderson .... 309
From Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of Eng-
land, 1879. (Folk-Lore Society's Publications.)*
Sacrifice of Sheep and Lambs. By the Rev. J. E.
Vaux, F.S.A. . ... 310
From Church Folk-Lore, 1902. (Messrs. SlcefBngton
& Son.)*
Sacrificial Customs and other Superstitions in the
Isle of Man. By Sophia Morrison, 1910 . 311
Charms and Cure of Disease by Means of Sheep.
By The Author ..... 313
From F'lk-Lore, 1902, 1908.*
From Notes and Queries.*
A Shepherd Burial Custom. By The Author . 314
Weather Wisdom of the Sheep. By The Author 315
INDEX ....
* By kind permission.
321
ILLUSTRATIONS
Cover Illustration. By Dr. Habberton Lulham.
Lambs. By Dr. Habberton Lulham. Frontispiece in PI, otogravure
" Auld Kep." The property of Mr. James Scott of
Ancrum (Roxburghshire).* From The Field* Title Page
"When the Weald of Sussex was full of L'on Mines."
From Sussex Archaeological Collections^ vol. xlvi. S.A.S.* 2
Born to the Craft. Photograph by Dr. Habberton
Lulham ...... 9
Springtime in the Sussex Weald. Photograph by Dr.
Habberton Lulham .....
" Southdowns " : " Models of what Hill Sheep should be."
Photograph by Dr. Habberton Lulham
A Shepherd's Care. Photograph by Dr. Habberton Lulham
Mothering. Photograph by the Rev. A. H. Blake
Backstays. Photograph by Edward Lovett*
The property of Mr. Dermot"
M'Calmont. Photograph
Norfolk Ewes and Lambs.
A Ram of the Flock.
Loaghtan Ewe and Ram.
by Clarence Hailey &
Co., Newmarket.* Lent
by Mr. F. C. Paine *
From a Painting by W
Marsden. The property of Mr. J. C. Bacon*
Mr. J. C. Bacon and Loaghtan Sheep* .
* By kind permission.
xxi
15
39
52
54
65
67
xxii Shepherds of Britain
PAGE
St. Kilda Sheep. The property of Mr. D. Macpherson* 68
A Three-Horned Sheep. From The History of ^ad-
rupeds, 1 78 1 . . . . .78
Mr. James Gardner, Shepherd and Famous Collie Trainer* 84
Called to the Troughs. Photograph by C. Reid, Wishaw,
N.B. From Country Life* . . . .91
On the South Downs above Fulking. Photograph by
Dr. Habberton Lulham . . . .110
A Rainstorm. From a Painting by R. Westall, R.A.
Engraved by R. M. Meadows, 18 13 . . 115
"Mootie," a Shetland "Collie. Bred by Mr. A. J. Jamie-
son of Scalloway, Shetland (Owner)* . .125
" Bob," a Sussex Sheep-Dog. Photograph by Mr. Stewart
Acton (Owner)* ..... 128
"Frisk" (a short-haired "beardie") and Mr. Alexander
Millar of Burnfoot, Ayrshire (Owner).* Photograph
by A. Brown of Lanark* .... 139
" Ben " (a rough grey merle) and Mr. Thomas Gilholm
(Owner)* ...... 151
Mr. W. B. Gardner (Ralph Fleesh), Sheep-Dog Judge* . 157
Dog Tongs. From Penmynydd Church, Anglesey. By
permission of the Rev. Morris Griffith . . 171
Dog Tongs. From Llaneilian Church, Anglesey. By
permission of the Rev. J. J. Ellis . . .171
Dog Tongs. From Bangor Cathedral . . .171
Dog Tongs. From Clodock Church, Herefordshire. By
permission of the Ven. Archdeacon Thomas and the
YjAxior oi Archaeologia Cambrensis . . .172
Dog-Whip, Paten, and Wooden Collecting -Box in
Baslow Church, Derbyshire. Photograph by Mr.
J. C. Sands. Copyright, Mr. A. Coates, Baslow* . 173
" Old Scarleit," the Dog- Whippet. From a life-size
Painting in Peterborough Cathedral. From a Litho-
graph belonging to Mr. G. C. Caster of Peterborough* 175
* By kind permission.
Illustrations
xxin
The Badge of Ownership. Photograph by Dr. Habberton
Lulham ......
Ear-Marks. By the Rev. Morris Griffith*
Shetland Ear-Marks. By Dr. Jakobsen*
A Lamb Tally. By Edward Lovett*
Tally-Stick Registers. By Edward Lovett.* From
Folk-Lore* .....
Sheep-Washing in Sussex. From a Painting by J.
Aumonier, R.L* W. A. Mansell & Co., Photograph
Shearing Time. From a Painting by H. Singleton. En-
graved by Cardon, 1801 .
The Delicious Downs of Albion. Photograph by Dr
Habberton Lulham ....
"Shepherd's Plaid." From an Original Sketch, 1 851
A Shepherd of 1836. Wearing Buskins, and Sheepskin
Cloak strapped plaidwise across the Shoulder
Bob Pennicott in Short Smock, carrying " Bottle," Bell
and Crook. "Jack " in Attendance
Shepherd Smith of Washington, near Chichester, in
Smock and " Chummey "
The Wood-Carver. From a Painting by Alfred Parsons
A.R.A.* W. A. Mansell & Co., Photograph
A Pyecombe Hook ....
Shears represented on a Tombstone. From Half-Hours
with English Antiquities, 1 880
A "Music- Maker." Photograph by Dr. Habberton
Lulham .....
Figures of Sheep-Bells. By Sir Henry Dryden, Bart
From Drawings in a Letter preserved in the British
Museum* .....
Some Sheep-Bells in Possession of the Author
Sheep-Bells, Ancient and Modern
The Fortingal " Saint's Hand-Bell "
* By kind permission.
I«I
185
I go
• 191
1
192-193
205
210
225
239
245
249
250
256
257
259
266
267
270
271
271
xxiv Shepherds of Britain
PAGE
Turf Sundials. Photographs by Edward Lovett.* From
Folk-Lore* ... . 2']2-2'J2
A' Pocket-Dial. From The Reliquary, 1862 . . 275
Shepherd with Pipe and Dog. From A Book of Hours,
1410 ...... 281
A Lesson in Piping. By H. Warren . . . 283
Returning to the Fold. By H. W. B. Davis, R.A.*
W. A. Mansell & Co., Photograph . . . 296
Merrelles Board, Fourteenth Century. From Strutt's
Sports and Pastimes . . . 298
The Shepherd. Photograph by Dr. Habberton Lulham . 305
Fleeces of Sky and Land. Photograph by Dr. Habberton
Lulham . . . . . -317
* By kind permission.
SHEPHERD AND FLOCK
"'■Sussex . I rchaeoloe^cal Collections" vol. xlin.
By permission S.A. '
"at the time when the weald of SUSSEX WAS FULL OF MINES"
A Sussex iron fire-back, 15th or early i6th century, bearing figures of sheep.
" Very different in form and symmetry was the sheep of those days from
the beautiful animal which is now the pride and boast of Sussex."'
SUSSEX AND HAMPSHIRE
SHEPHERDS OF THE DOWNS
By R. W. Blencowe, 1849
At the time when, in the words of Camden, " the Weald
of Sussex was full of iron mines, and the beating of
hammers upon the iron filled the neighbourhood round
about with continual noise," another large portion of
the county, that of the South Downs, was, perhaps, one
of the most solitary, noiseless districts in England.
Princely Brighton was only a village of fishermen ;
Worthing a hamlet of another village, that of Broad-
water ; and within its boundaries there was but one town,
that of Lewes, which really belonged to it. Here and there
only, as is testified by maps of comparatively very recent
date, along its southern slopes, or in the bottom of its
valleys, was the land under tillage ; over all the rest were
spread vast flocks of sheep, which, with their attendant
shepherds, ranged over a thousand breezy hills.
Few people, probably, are aware of the immense
number of sheep which, under the twofold impulse of
foreign demand and that given to it by the great woollen
manufacture at horiie, were feared in England at an early
period of our history. A large exportation of English
sheep to Spain took place as early as 1273, in the reign
of Alonzo X., when they were first imported there.
According to a modern Spanish writer, Copmany, they
were again imported in 1394, in the reign of Henry III.
of Spain, as a part of the marriage portion of his wife,
3
4 Shepherds of Britain
Catherine Plantagenet, daughter of John of Gaunt ; and
Holinshed tells us, that " on the occasion of a treaty
of alliance between Edward IV. of England and Henry
IV. of Castille, license was given for certain Cotteswolde
sheep to be transported into the countrye of Spaine,
which have there so multiplyed and increased, that it
hath turned the commoditie of England much to the
profite of Spayne." " Above all," says an Italian writer
in the year 1500, "the English have an enormous number
of sheep, which yield them wool of the finest quality " ;
and we learn from an old record in the Exchequer, that
in the 28th year of Edward III., in 1354, there were
exported 31,651 sacks of wool and 3036 cwt. of fells.
"In 1 55 1 no fewer than sixty ships sailed from the port
of Southampton only, laden with wool for the Nether-
lands." But that which throws the strongest light upon
this point is a statute of the 29th Henry VIII., showing
to what an extent the pasturage of the flocks had super-
seded the tillage of the land. The following is an
extract : — " One cif the greatest occasions that moveth
and provoketh greedy and covetous people so as to
accumulate and keep in their own hands such great
portions of the land of this realme from the occupying
of poor husbandmen, and so to use it in pasture, and
not in tillage, is only the great profit that cometh of
sheep. ... So that some have 24,000, some 20,000,
some 10,000, some 5000, some more, some less, by
the which a good sheep for victual, that was accustomed
to be sold for 2s. and 4d., or 3s. at most, is now sold for
6s., 5s., or 4s., or for 3s., and a stone of clothing wool,
that in some shires was accustomed to be sold for i8d.
or 2od., is now sold for 4s. and 3s. and 3d. at the
least " ; and then it enacts that no tenant occupier shall
keep more than 2000 sheep exclusive of lambs under a
year old. This large conversion of pasture lands into
tillage accounts for the ridges and furrows which we
see so frequently in grass fields.
Very different in form and symmetry was the sheep
of those days from the beautiful animal which is now
Shepherd and Flock 5
the pride and boast of Sussex. The flocks were then
reared more for their fleeces than their flesh. The wool
trade, which had greatly advanced under the encourage-
ment given to it by Edward III., went on improving and
extending itself under many succeeding reigns, until it
became the great staple manufacture of England. In
Henry the VII. 's time it had established itself for the
coarser manufactures in Yorkshire, particularly at Wake-
field, Leeds, and Halifax ; and in the reign of Elizabeth
it was firmly fixed in the west of England, where all the
finer manufactures were, and indeed still are carried on.
Its influence on the social and political condition of the
people was very great : wealth flowed in, towns and villages
were created by it, prices rose, rents increased, labour
became more valuable, and gradually the middle, and
lower classes of the people took a higher place in the social
scale. When John Winchcomb, the clothier, commonly
known by the name of Jack of Newberry, sent forth a
hundred men, armed and clothed at his own expense,
to meet the Scots at Flodden Field, the feudal baronial
system had been shaken to its centre, and the loom was
one of the most powerful of the levers which overthrew it.
Independently of higher associations, there is a peculiar
interest attached to the shepherd and his flock, and indeed
to his faithful dog, arising from the general solitude of his
life, from the scenery, particularly on the South Downs,
in which he moves, and from the importance of his charge ;
and, under the influence of this feeling, it seemed desirable
to collect and preserve any old customs and habits con-
nected with his mode of life which have passed, or which
are about to pass, away.
NATURE AND THE COUNTRYMAN
By TiCKNER Edwardes, 1907
If the philosophers are rig'ht in attributing to environ-
ment such an enormous influence in the making or marring
of men, why, it has been often asked, should the average
6 Shepherds of Britain
agricultural labourer be such a stolid, undiscerning person ?
He lives and works, generally speaking, in the midst of
the most beautiful surroundings. The wonderful life of
field and woodland lies at his very door. All day long
he can feast eyes and ears, if he will, on things that most
of us would travel a dozen miles to hear and see. And
yet he seems to let all go by him and over him unheeded ;
his thoughts take no flight, apparently, beyond the narrow
horizon of his daily work, or the care of his allotment
garden ; and he finds pleasure seemingly in little else than
his meals and the evening hour at the inn.
But the truth is, under modern conditions at least, that
the effects of a natural environment are almost entirely
nullified unless the day's work contains certain elements
that go to nourish a quiescent and receptive state of being.
Arduous and incessant labour, even in the song-laden air of
green fields, produces at the end of a day much the same
sort of tired, introspective, unobservant man that it does
in the grey street -crevices of a city. The ordinary
work of a farm has so much exhausting bodily toil about
it, as well as ceaseless repetition and dull routine, that,
beyond a general interest in the weather as affecting his
physical comfort or discomfort, the average farm hand has
neither incentive nor inclination to look about him and
cultivate an intellectual pleasure in wild natural things.
There are, however, two classes of country-dwellers who
seem to represent the pure product of their environment ;
to be morally and physically made by, and for, the scenes
and influences that surround them from earliest childhood.
These, the woodlanders and the Southdown shepherds,
form a very striking contrast to their fellows who labour in
the fields. The gamekeepers must be set apart from the true
woodland-folk, because their work is a continuous fight
against natural conditions, and, as a general rule, they de-
velop a correspondingly artificial habit of mind. But the
wood-cutters, charcoal-burners, hurdle-makers, and the like
are almost invariably men who take the deepest interest in
the beautiful, strenuous life that surrounds them. It has
always been difiicult for one not of their class to get on
Shepherd and Flock 7
the right side of these solitary ruminating men ; and now
that the wandering stranger in the by-ways is no longer
a rarity, it is harder than ever to get on familiar terms
with them ; but so soon as their inveterate shyness and
taciturnity are charmed away, you are sure to find that
you have sprung a veritable gold-mine of quaint and
interesting information. One acquaintance formed in this
way and adroitly cultivated, will prove of more value to
the student of nature than all the books he could read in
a decade. Yet the leafy solitude of the woodlands does
not seem complete enough to give the tendencies of
nature's own environment fullest and freest play. In the
remotest places the worker is still in regular, if infrequent,
touch with his fellows ; and the labour is almost as hard
and unremitting as that of the open fields. In southern
England, at least, the ideal conditions are to be found,
perhaps, only in the life of the shepherd on the South
Downs. To realise something of the conditions of his
life, and what goes to the making of this gentle yet
sturdy-natured philosopher of the wilds, it is necessary to
be out and about on the Downs at all seasons, at all hours,
and in every state of weather. A casual acquaintance
with them is of little service. The chance wayfarer gets
in fine weather only the impression of a vast, silent, sunny
waste ; and in stormy times, of a desolation unkindly,
almost terrible — something to flee from, as from the
wrath to come. But though the shepherd's year contains
its full share of vicissitudes and hardships, especially in
winter and early spring, his life is in the main passed
amidst thoroughly tranquillising and exhilarating influences.
You cannot live long in the Sussex Down-country with-
out becoming aware of at least one unique quality about
these breezy highland solitudes. A warm day on the South
Downs is much the same joyous uplifting thing whether
the month be January or June. In the lowlands every
month writes its own unerring signature in the hedgerows
and fields. But here there are no leafless boughs in
winter, nor ruddy autumn foliage to mark the time of
year. When spring is running like liquid gold through
8 Shepherds of Britain
the grass of the valleys, on the Downs there is the same
green billowing stretch of hill and dale under the same
sunshine : the furze-brakes take on a little brighter sheen,
and the misty coombes a deeper blue in the shadows.
Summer comes, but with none of the broiling heat and
riotous carmagnole of colour. The sun is higher and the
shadows shorter ; the wild thyme purples the hill-side here
and there ; the swifts skim the upland unceasingly ; but
there is no inherent vital change. A sunny day on the
Downs has little difference in winter or summer but of
degree ; the seasons come and go ; yet there is always
the green grass and the sunshine, the singing larks, the
hovering sheep-bell music, and the wind that is never still.
Passing his whole day, and nearly every day of the
year, in this intrinsically favourable environment, it is
little wonder that the Southdown shepherd develops
attributes of mind and character not to be met with in
any other class of workers on the soil. But there is
another, and a still more potent, agency at work. Almost
any kind of strong-limbed humanity can be employed in
the common labour of a farm, but the sheep-tender must
be born to his craft. Heredity plays an all-important
part in the making of a good shepherd ; it is hardly too
sweeping an assertion to make if we say that there are no
bad shepherds on the whole of the five hundred square
miles' stretch of the South Downs.
Flock-masters are too wide-awake and wary a class to
employ any but a capable and experienced man in work
that stands at the very source of their prosperity. There
are boys who take to shepherding from other walks of life,
urged by a natural irresistible gift, and they do well at
it. But it is essentially a family calling. Most shepherds
have as long a pedigree behind them as the sheep them-
selves. The work is handed down from father to son,
generation after generation, and there is a sort of family
accumulation of skill and knowledge. The child is born
within sound of the bleating of the flock. As soon as he
is big enough he goes to help his father on the Downs, or
in the lambing-yard. Presently he is made under-shepherd.
Shepherd and Flock 9
puts on the yoke of responsibility inseparable from his kind,
and by and by, when exposure to the rains and the rough
north winds has at last conquered the sturdy physique of
By Habberton Lulltam.
BORN TO THE CRAFT
his sire, the old man goes to the chimney-corner, and
thence to his eternal pasturage ; while the young man takes
the ancient Pyecombe crook, which has been in his family
for unnumbered ages, and steps out for the green sunny
I o Shepherds of Britain
heights behind his travelhng flocks, a fully-fledged master-
shepherd- It is no uncommon thing to meet with men
who themselves have forty or fifty years of this exacting,
responsible, yet leisurely life behind them, and whose
fathers and grandfathers had each also served their full
half-centuries at the same Arcadian taslc.^
Solitude and an open-air life, combined with work
affording much leisure for independent thought and little
for idleness, would soon have a marked effect on any
temperament, and the Southdown shepherd comes of a
peculiarly susceptible race. But we are even now leaving
out of the calculation a factor which is, in any right
estimation of his chances, impossible to ignore. Most
of us have climbed a hill on a fine Sunday morning, and,
looking down on the city beneath us, have listened to the
clamour of the church bells, softened and confused by the
distance into one steady, pure, sweet note. There is
something indescribably soothing and mentally stimulat-
ing in this far-off sound of bells in the sunshine that no
ordered melody can bestow. Now, hardly any day in the
year goes by when a like restful Sunday morning spirit of
music is not abroad on the Sussex Downs. With the
song of the larks overhead blent into a single pure
cadence, and the incessant quiet tolling of the sheep-bells
below, the shepherd's whole life moves to music of some
kind or other. What, it may be asked, would happen to
any of us if, instead of the grime and dust of a city, we
could choose the clean, bright air of the countryside for
our workaday environment .'' And what sort of man
would the average Londoner become if he could ex-
change the deafening hubbub of Cheapside or Fleet Street
for Southdown bell-music, with its sweet, dim echo of
worship and rest ?
^ On a farm near Lewes, Sussex, the race of shephertis dates back to the time of
Cromwen. — [W;////^' 'j- No'c.']
shepherd and Flock 1 1
CONTENTEDNESS OF SOUTHDOWN
SHEPHERDS
By W. H. Hudson, 1900
One of the numerous, mostly minute, difFerences to be
detected between the Downland shepherd and other peas-
ants — difFerences due to the conditions of his life — refers
to his disposition. He has a singularly placid mind, and
is perfectly contented with his humble lot. In no other
place have I been in England, even in the remotest villages
and hamlets, where the rustics are not found to be more
or less infected with the modern curse or virus of restless-
ness and dissatisfaction with their life. I have, first and
last, conversed with a great many shepherds, from the lad
whose shepherding has just begun, to the patriarch who
has held a crook, and " twitched his mantle blue," in the
old Corydon way, on these hills for upwards of sixty years,
and in this respect have found them all very much of one
mind. It is as if living alone with nature on these heights,
breathing this pure atmosphere, the contagion had not
reached them, or else that their blood was proof against
such a malady.
One day I met a young shepherd in the highest part
of the South Downs, who was about twenty-three years
old, handsome, tall, well -formed, his face glowing with
health and spirits. I shared my luncheon with him, and
then sitting on the turf we talked for an hour about the
birds and other wild creatures which he knew best. He
told me that he was paid 12s. 6d. a week, and had no
prospect of a rise, as the farmers in that part had made a
firm stand against the high wages (in some cases amount-
ing to 1 8 s.) which were being paid in other parts. I was
tempted as an experiment to speak slightingly of the
shepherd's homely trade. It was all very well in summer,
I said, but what about the winter, when the hills were all
white with snow ; when the wind blew so strong that a
man could not walk against or face it ; when it was wet
all day, and when all nature was drowned in a dense fog,
and you cannot see a sheep twenty yards off .'' " We are
1 2 Shepherds of Britain
accustomed to all weathers," he replied ; " we do not mind
the wet and cold — we don't feel it." I persisted that he
earned too little, that shepherding was not good enough
for him. He said that his father had been a shepherd all
his life, and was now old and becoming infirm ; that he
(the son) lived in the same cottage, and at odd times
helped the old man with his flock, and was able to do a
good many little things for him which he could not very
well do for himself, and would not be able to pay a
stranger to do. That, I said, was all right and proper ;
but his father, being infirm, would not be able to follow
a flock many years longer on the hills, and when the
old man's shepherding days were over the son would be
free. Besides, I added, a young man wants a wife —
how could he marry on 12s. 6d. a week.-" There came a
pleasant far-away look in his eyes ; it could be seen that
they were (metaphorically) turned inwards, and were
occupied with the image of a particular, incomparable
" She." He smiled, and appeared to think that it was
not impossible to marry on 1 2s. 6d. a week 1
To all who love the Sussex Downs and their people, it
must be a source of regret that the old system of giving
the shepherd an interest in the flock was ever changed.
According to the old system he was paid a portion of his
wages in kind — so many lambs at lambing-time ; and
these, when grown, he was permitted to keep with the
flock. At shearing-time he was paid for the wool, and he
had the increase of his ewes to sell each year. He was
thus in a small way in partnership with his master, the
farmer, and regarded himself, and was regarded by others,
as something more than a mere hireling, like the shepherd
of to-day, who looks to receive a few pieces of silver at
each week's end, and will be no better and no worse off
whether the year be fat or lean.
One would imagine that the old system must have
worked well on the Downs, as it undoubtedly does in other
lands where I have known it, and I can only suppose that
its discontinuance was the result of that widening of the
line dividing employer from employed which has been so
shepherd and Flock 13
general. The farmer did not improve his position by the
change. I believe he lost more than he gained ; it was
simply that the old relations between master and servant
were out of date. He was a better educated man, less
simple in his life than his forefathers, and therefore at a
greater distance from his shepherd ; it would remove all
friction, and simplify things generally, to put the shepherd
on the same level with the field labourer and other servants ;
and this was done by giving him a shilling more a week
in exchange for the four or five or six lambs he had been
accustomed to receive every year.
VASTNESS OF SOUTHDOWN SHEEP-WALKS
By Richard Jefferies, 1887
The shepherd came down the hill carrying his greatcoat
slung at his back upon his crook, and balanced only by the
long handle projecting in front. His dog was a cross
with a collie : the old sheep-dogs were shaggier and
darker ; most of the sheep-dogs now used were crossed
with the collie, either with Scotch or French, and were
very fast — too fast in some respects. He was careful not
to send them much after the flock, especially after feeding,
when, in his own words, " the sheep had best walk slow
then, like folk " — like human beings, who are not to be
hastened after a meal. If he wished his dog to fetch the
flock, he pointed his arm in the direction he wished the
dog to go, and said, " Put her back." Often it was to
keep the sheep out of turnips or wheat, there being no
fences. But he made it a practice to walk himself on the
side where the care was needed, so as not to employ the
dog unless necessary.^
There is something almost Australian in the expanse of
Southdown sheep-walks, and in the number of the flocks,
to those who have been accustomed to the small sheltered
lEllis, in his Shepherd's Sure Guide {1749), remarks that a lame shepherd and a lazy
Ao" are the best attendants on a flock of sheep, because they do not over-drive, or worry
them. But he also adds that a nimble shepherd and a nimble dog are best in an open
country. — \_Authcir's Note^
14 Shepherds of Britain
meadows of the vales, where forty or fifty sheep are about
the extent of the stock on many farms. The land, too, is
rented at colonial prices, but a few shillings per acre — so
different from the heavy meadow rents. But, then, the
sheep-farmer has to occupy a certain proportion of arable
land as well as pasture, and here his heavy losses mainly
occur. There is nothing, in fact, in this country so care-
fully provided against as the possibility of an English
farmer becoming wealthy. Much Downland is covered
with furze, and some seems to produce a grass too coarse,
so that the rent is really proportional. A sheep to an acre
is roughly the allowance.
A Downland Sheep Fair
From all directions along the road the bleating flocks
concentrate at the right time upon the hill-side where the
sheep fair is held. You can go nowhere in the adjacent
town except uphill, and it needs no hand-post to the fair
to those who know a farmer when they see him, the stream
of folk tend thither so plainly. It rains, as the shepherd
said it would ; the houses keep off the drift somewhat in
the town, but when the shelter is left behind, the sward of
the hills seems among the clouds. The descending vapours
close in the view on every side. The actual field under-
foot, the actual site of the fair, is visible, but the sur-
rounding valleys and the Downs beyond them are hidden
with vast masses of grey mist. For a moment, perhaps, a
portion may lift as the breeze drives it along, and the bold,
sweeping curves of a distant hill appear ; but immediately
the rain falls again and the outline vanishes. The glance
can only penetrate a few hundred yards ; all beyond that
becomes indistinct, and some cattle standing higher up the
hill are vague and shadowy. Like a dew, the thin rain
deposits a layer of tiny globules on the coat ; the grass is
white with them ; hurdles, flakes, everything is as it were
the eighth of an inch deep in water. Thus on the hill-side,
surrounded by clouds, the fair seems isolated and afar off^.
A great cart-horse is being trotted out before the little
Shepherd and Flock 15
street ot booths to make him show his paces. They
flourish the first thing at hand — a pole with a red flag at
the end — and the huge frightened animal plunges hither
and thither in clumsy terror. You must look out for
yourself and keep an eye over your shoulder, except among
the sheep-pens. There are thousands of sheep, all standing
with their heads uphill. At the corner of each pen the
shepherd plants his crook upright ; some of them have
1 6 Shepherds of Britain
long brown handles, and these are of hazel with the bark
on ; others are ash, and one of willow. At the corners,
too, just outside, the dogs are chained, and in addition
there is a whole row of dogs fastened to the tent-pegs.
The majority of the dogs thus collected together from
many miles of the Downs are either collies, or show a very
decided trace of the collie.
One old shepherd, an ancient of the ancients, grey and
bent, has spent so many years among his sheep that he has
lost all notice and observation ; there is no " speculation "
in his eye for anything bur his sheep. In" his blue smock-
frock, with his brown umbrella, which he has had no time
or thought to open, he stands listening, all intent, to the
conversation of the gentlemen who are examining his pens.
He leads a young restless collie by a chain ; the links are
polished to a silvery brightness by continual motion ; the
collie cannot keep still — now he runs one side, now the
other, bumping the old man, who is unconscious of
everything but his sheep.
At the verge of the pens there stand four oxen with
their yokes, and the long slender guiding-rod of hazel
placed lightly across the necks of the two foremost.
They are quite motionless, except their eyes, and the
slender rod, so lightly laid across, will remain without
falling. After traversing the whole field, if you return
you will find them in exactly the same position. Some
black cattle are scattered about on the high ground in
the mist, which thickens beyond them and fills up the
immense hollow of the valley.
In the street of booths there are the roundabouts, the
swings, the rifle galleries — like shooting into the mouth of
a great trumpet — the shows, the cakes and brown nuts and
gingerbread, the ale barrels in a row, the rude forms and
trestle tables ; just the same, the very same we saw at our
first fair five-and-twenty years ago, and a hundred miles
away. It is just the same this year as last, like the ploughs
and hurdles and the sheep themselves. There is nothing
new to tempt the ploughboys' pennies — nothing fresh to
stare at.
shepherd and Flock 17
SHEPHERDS' HUTS ON THE SOUTH DOWNS
By M. A. Lower, 18-54.
Here are the very words of one who had himself
carried the shepherd's crook and worn the shepherd's
greatcoat for many years on these hills : — " The life of a
shepherd in my young days was not the same as it is
now. . . . You very seldom see a shepherd's hut on our
hills in these times, but formerly every shepherd had one.
Sometimes it was a sort of cave dug in the side of a bank
or link, and had large stones inside. It was commonly
lined with heath or straw. The part above ground was
covered with sods of turf or heath, or straw, or boughs of
hawth.^ In rough, sluckish^ weather the shepherd used to
turn into his hut and lie by the hour together, only look-
ing out once in a while to see that the sheep didn't stray
away too far. Here he was safe and dry, however the
storm might blow overhead, and he could sit and amuse
himself as he liked best. If he could read, so much the
better. It was in my hut, over in the next bottom to this,
that I first read about Moses and his shepherding life, and
about David's killing of the lion and the bear. Ah, how
glad I felt that we hadn't such wild beasties to frighten and
maybe kill our sheep and us. The worst we ever had to
fear were the foxes that sometimes killed a young lamb or
two. But there was otherwhile a crueller than that. If
a ewe happened to get overturned on a lonesome part of
the hill the ravens and carrion crows would come and
pick out her eyes before she was dead. This happened
to two or three of my ewes, and at last I got an old gun
and shot all the crows and ravens I could get nigh. Once
I shot an eagle, but that was the only eagle I ever saw.
Since the hills have been more broken up by the plough,
such birds are but seldom seen. There haven't been any
wild turkeys either for many a year. I have heard my
father say he killed two or three no great while before I
was born. They used to call them bustards."
^ Heath or gorse. Sussex. — [Autior's Note.]
^ Sluckish is not in Wright's Dialect Dictionary, but it appears to mean boggy or
miry ; cp. slock, a bog ; slough, etc. — lAut/ior's Note.]
C
1 8 Shepherds of Britain
A SHEPHERD'S BUSH
By WoDEHousE R. H. Garland, 1910
Though it is repeated daily by thousands of lips, by
travellers underground and above ground, by conductors, by
booking clerks and porters — familiar over the continents
of Europe, America, and Africa, and now in Far Eastern
Japan as the home of universal " Exposition " — how many
people comprehend the meaning of the term " Shepherd's
Bush " ? Still less, how many have found themselves
ensconced within any such friendly shelter ?
When this district was an open plain or heath affording
pasturage tor herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, doubtless
there grew — not perhaps
The hawthorn bush which stands beneath the shade.
For talking age and whispering lovers made,
or that which Milton had in his mind when he wrote in
V Allegro —
And every shepherd tells his tale
Under the hawthorn in the dale ; —
but a strong, sturdy tree with well-worn boll, from which
during time immemorial herds had kept watch and ward
over their fleecy charges. There are in many parts of the
country such shepherd's bushes still in existence, and as they
are invariably situated on rolling downs and commons in
out-of-the-way haunts of solitude, a short description may
not be out of place. Imagine, then, a stifle thorn-bush with
the sharp and slender leaf-stems starting about three feet
from the ground. Instead of the bush being left to grow In
the ordinary way, all the inner wood has been cut out until an
oval cup has been formed by the sprouting outer branches
growing densely together to a thickness of about eighteen
inches, while the trunk of the bush forms at its top a
platform within and a step without. On the top of this
platform are placed and replaced, as required, bundles of
clean wheaten straw, so that with a sack thrown over
the inside of the cup to shield him from the prickles the
shepherd and Flock 19
shepherd can stand up with his arms resting on the edges
of the bowl and look around him far and wide, watching
the movements of his flock, knowing, as he does from
long experience, that
Indeed a sheep doth very often stray
An' if the shepherd be awhile away.
When they are not thus occupied by their rightful tenants,
the idler and the true holiday-maker who can find for himself
one of these snug retreats, will desire nothing better than
to recline on the straw with a sack at his back, reading
and smoking throughout the livelong summer's day,
though for his own comfort and for the preservation of
an ancient landmark he must be careful not to set fire
to the straw or the consequences will be, to say the least,
uncomfortable. When such a bush is kept judiciously
clipped and trimmed it forms an effective, artistic, and
even beautiful piece of topiary work, especially in the
months of May and early June, when the hawthorn is in
full bloom.
JOHN DUDENEY
By W. H. Hudson, 1900
A shepherd of the South Downs, named John Dudeney,
afterwards a schoolmaster in Lewes, where I believe one
or two of his granddaughters still keep a school, was
included by M. A. Lower in his Worthies of Sussex, on
account of his passion for books and other virtues. And
it will be allowed by every one that a poor peasant youth,
who when shepherding on the hills acquired a knowledge
of astronomy and of other out-of-the-way subjects, and
taught himself to read the Bible in Hebrew, was deserving
of a place among the lesser celebrities of his county.
The following is from John Dudeney's own account
of his shepherding : — " I have sometimes been on the hills
in winter from morning till night, and have not seen a
single person during the whole day. In the snow I have
walked to and fro under the shelter of a steep bank, or
in a bottom or coombe, while my sheep have been by me,
20 Shepherds of Britain
scraping away the snow with their forefeet to get at the
grass, and I have taken my book out of my pocket, and
as I walked to and fro in the snow have read to pass away
the time. It is very cold on the Downs in such weather.
I remember once, whilst with my father, the snow froze
into ice on my eyelashes, and he breathed on my face to
thaw it ofF. The Downs are very pleasant in summer.
"At midsummer 1799 I removed to Kingston, near
Lewes, where I was under-shepherd for three years. My
flock was large (1400), and my master, the head shepherd,
being old and infirm, much of the labour devolved on
me. While here I had better wages, ;^6 a year. I also
had a part of the money obtained from wheatears, though
we did not catch them here in great numbers — a dozen or
two a day, seldom more. From what I have heard from
old shepherds, it cannot be doubted that they were caught
in much greater numbers a century ago than of late. I
have heard them speak of an immense number being taken
in one day by a shepherd of East Dean, near Beachy
Head. I think they said he took nearly a hundred dozen —
so many that he could not thread them on crow-quills in
the usual manner, but took ofF his round frock (smock)
and made a sack of it to pop them into, and his wife did
the same with her petticoat. This must have been when
there was a great flight. Their numbers now are so
decreased that some shepherds do not set up any coops,
as it does not pay for the trouble." ^
A Sussex Shepherdess
I have described the sweetest musical voice heard in
Sussex as that of a young girl in the Downs ; another
' I regret that space does not admit of a longer account of this interesting shepherd,
and that Stephen Blackmore must for the same reason be passed over with the following
brief notice. \n Sussex Archaological Collections^ vol. xxxvWx.^ 1892, is this note by C. T. P.,
which the Society kindly gave me permission to quote : — " The Society's Museum has
received a large and interesting addition to the collection of prehistoric exhibits in the
shape of some 700 Neolithic flint implements (Sussex) from the district of East Dean,
comprising celts, hammer-stones, scrapers, flakes, chisels, etc., presented by Mr. Stephen
Blackmore, a shepherd of East Dean, who, with a quick eye, much patience, and great
discrimination, had by degrees accumulated a large and varied collection." For further
particulars of this famous shepherd I refer my readers to The Spirit of the Do'wnsy by
Mr. Arthur Beckett (1909). — [Author's Note.'\
Shepherd and Flock 21
Downland girl's voice was one of the acutest carrying
voices I ever heard in my life. She vs^as a-shepherding
(a rare thing for a girl to do ^) on the very high downs
between Stanmer and Westmeston ; and for two or three
days during my rambles among the hills in that neighbour-
hood I constantly heard her oft-repeated calls and long
piercing cries sounding wonderfully loud and distinct even
at a distance of two miles or more away. It was like
the shrill echoing cries of some clear-voiced big bird —
some great forest fowl or eagle, or giant ibis, or rail, or
courlan, in some far land where great birds with glorious
voices had not all been extirpated. It was nice to hear,
but it surprised me that all this outcry, heard over an area
of seven or eight square miles, was necessary. At a distance
of a mile I watched her, and saw that she had no dog,
that her flock numbering nine hundred travelled a good
deal, being much distressed by thirst, as all the dew-ponds
in that part of the Downs were dry. When her far-sounding
cries failed to make them turn, she had to go after them,
and her activity and fleetness of foot were not less remark-
able than her ringing voice ; but I pitied her doing the
work of a man and a dog as well in that burning weather,
and towards evening on my way home I paid her a visit.
She was rather a lean, wiry-looking girl, just over fifteen
years old, with an eager, animated face, dark skin, and
blackish fuzzy hair and dark eyes. She was glad to talk
and explain it all, and had a high-pitched but singularly
agreeable voice, and spoke rapidly and well. The shepherd
had been called away and no shepherd-boy could be found
to take his place ; all the men were harvesting, and the
flock had been given into her charge. The shepherd had
left his dog, but he would not obey her ; she had taken
him out several days, leading him by a cord, but no sooner
did she release him than he would run home, and so she
had given up trying. I advised her to try again, and the
next day I spent some time watching her, the dog at her
1 John Dudeney remarked in 1849: — " My mother sometimes tended my father's
fiocic while he went to sheep-shearing. I have known other shepherds' wives do the
same ; but the custom, like many others, is discontinued. I have not seen a woman
\Aith a flock for many years." — [^ut/lor's Note.^
2 2 Shepherds of Britain
side, calling and crying her loudest, and flying over the
wild hill-side after the sheep ; but the dog cared not where
they went, and sullenly refused to obey her. Here is a
dog, thought I, with good old-fashioned conservative ideas
about the employment of women ; he is not going to help
them make themselves shepherdesses on the South Downs.
A probably truer explanation of the animal's rebellious
behaviour was given by a young shepherd of my acquaint-
ance. The dog, he said, refused to do what he was told,
because the girl was not his master's daughter, nor of his
house. The sheep-dog's attachment to the family is always
very strong, and he will gladly work for any member of
it, but for no person outside. " My dog," he added,
" will work as willingly and as well for any one of my
sisters when I leave the flock to their care, as he will for
me ; but he will not stir a foot for any person, man or
woman, not of the family." He said, too, that this was
the common temper of the Sussex sheep-dog ; faithful
above all dogs to their own people, but suspicious of
strangers, and likely at any time to bite the stranger's
hand that caresses them.
I dare say he was right ; I have made the acquaintance
of some scores of these Downland dogs, and greatly
admired them, especially their brown eyes, which are
more eloquent and human in their expression than any
other dogs' eyes known to me ; yet it has frequendy
happened that, after I had established, as I imagined, a firm
friendship with one, he has suddenly snapped or growled
at me.
My account of that most extraordinary hullabaloo
among the hills made by the young shepherdess has served
to remind me of the subject I had set myself, and I
have not yet touched upon — the wonderful silence of the
Downs, and the effect of nature's more delicate music
heard in such an atmosphere. That clear repeated call of
the young shepherdess would have sounded quite different
from six to eight hundred feet below on the flat weald,
where it would have mixed with other sounds, and a denser
atmosphere and hedges and trees would have muffled and
Shepherd and Flock 23
made it seem tame and commonplace. On the great
smooth hills, because of their silence and their thinner,
purer atmosphere, it fell startlingly on the sense, and the
prolonged cries had a wild and lonely expression.
A Picturesque Shepherd-Boy
During a walk among the South Downs one day in
June, looking up from the valley I was in, I saw far up
near the top of the hill in front of me a shepherd-boy
standing motionless, his crook in his hand, his dog, held
by a cord or chain, at his side. Wishing to have a talk
with him, I began the ascent of the rather steep slope, and
he, divining my intention, waited for me. As I came
close to him he made a very pretty picture, standing
against the blue sky, knee-deep in the tall grass, just
beginning to flower, which covered that part of the Down.
Among the grass sainfoin grew abundantly, and the green
grass was sprinkled everywhere with the rose-red of its
blossoming spikes. Even a very few flowers of any other
colour would have taken something from the exquisite
charm of that chance green and rose-red arrangement.
But there were no other flowers. The young shepherd,
aged about fifteen, had one of those perfectly Saxon faces
which you see more in Sussex than anywhere else in
England — a large round face, rosy brown in colour, shy
blue eyes, and light brown hair, worn long. The expres-
sion, the shy yet pleased look- — pleased that the monotony
of his long solitary day should be broken by this chance
encounter with a stranger — ^was childlike and very pretty.
He wore loose-fitting grey clothes, and a round, grey peak-
less cap ; and for ornament he had fastened in the middle
of it, where there had perhaps once been a top-knot or
ball, a big woolly thistle flower. It was really curious to
note how that one big thorny flower-head with its purple
disc harmonized with everything about the boy and gave
him a strange distinction.
24 Shepherds of Britain
FROM SHEPHERD-LAD TO LAND-HOLDER
By J. Bateman, 1907
A well-known Sussex farmer relates some experi-
ences of farm -life and of shepherding. He begins by-
saying that he believes that the over-amount of schooling
in these days is the sole cause of the men leaving the
land. He got his first job of work at fourpence a day,
when about seven years old, as a shepherd-boy. Every
morning he had to stand by an old farmer and remember
the number of twenties as the sheep were counted, and
make no mistake. His master, counting two at a time,
said the words : — Onetherum, twotherum, cockerum,
qutherum, setherum, shatherum, wineberry, wigtail,
tarrydiddle, den (for twenty sheep). On one occa-
sion the boy got confused, and the tally came wrong,
which exasperated the old man. Holding a chain at full
length, he swung it round, saying, " Dannelly, boy, 'tis
aisy." The chain accidentally struck the lad on the nose,
and he carries the mark to this day. He is also marked
by the old reaping sickle. He watched the reaper sharpen
his sickle and hang it in the hedge. Taking his chance,
he secured the sickle, meaning to have a fine old time at
reaping ; on the first attempt he nearly severed his finger,
and it now shows a scar and curvature. Later, when he
grew to be a strong young man, and reaping had been
superseded by fagging, he often, he says, fagged an acre
of corn in a day. Our hero tells a tale of a mower. The
man had to mow a field of peas. He brought with him
in the morning a gallon jar of beer. The day grew hot,
and the jar was soon emptied. The shepherd-boy was
sent to get it refilled. This also disappeared. Next
morning the mower, on surveying his previous day's
work, found that it only measured a few feet each way.
"Well, boy," he said ruefully, " I shall have to work on
water to-day." The jar was filled with water, and the
work was finished that day. Once at shearing-time the
Shepherd and Flock 25
over-generous sheep-shearers gave him more than v/as
good for him of their cider allowance. The boy failed to
come home at bedtime. Alarm v/as felt, and the old
barn and surroundings vi'ere searched, and the pond near
was dragged, but without avail. In the morning, when
the shearers arrived, no little merriment was caused on
seeing him creep out from the folds of a pack of newly
shorn wool. It is a remarkable fact that the shepherd-
boy of those days now farms an area of considerably
2 6 Shepherds of Britain
over two thousand acres, the whole, or nearly the whole,
of the farm-land in a Sussex village.-'
A HAMPSHIRE SHEPHERD
By H. Rider Haggard, 1902
Upon this farm, as on the majority in this neighbour-
hood, sheep of the Hampshire Down breed are the
mainstay.
The shepherd, George Piper by name, was a person
worthy of remark. Then over seventy years of age, for
sixty of them he had been a shepherd, forty years of that
time being spent in the employ of a single master. Sunk
as he was in eld, it was easy for any one accustomed to
watch his class to see that in very many cases the services
of two men of the present generation would be of less
value than those of this shepherd, who knew his sheep and
was known of them.^
There he stood in the cold wind, upon the bleak
down crest, watching the fold much as a dog does, and
now and again passing the hurdles to do some little service
to his flock, every one of which he could distinguish from
the other. This, too, on a Sunday, the day on which it
is so difficult to keep the modern stockman to work, how-
ever necessary.
The view from the sheep-fold was very fine. On the
south, wide, open country, running to the dim line of the
old Danish encampment of Danebury Ring ; on the south-
west, the dense mass of Wherwell Woods, still tinged with
their autumn foliage.
^ He is now (1910) the oiuner of a farm in a neighbouring parish.
'-* The good old shepherds don't think much of some of the young ones, and call
them hurdle-pitchers. Shepherd Aylward of Lavant, when past work, would say, in
bad weather, " Now I wonder how my sheep are faring j that young one won't be look-
ing after them. I wish I could go and see to them." In the past he had never grudged
any time or trouble, day or night, spent for the welfare and happiness of his dear flock. —
[Author's Note.']
Shepherd and Flock 27
DORSETSHIRE
HARDINESS OF THE PORTLAND BREED
By The Author
Portland's " abrupt peninsula of rock," with its steep
sides and flat summit, was in old days a well-known sheep-
run, celebrated for its breed of sheep. Portland sheep
are now but few, and number about one hundred.
Some Southdown sheep are kept, and these probably
number from three to four hundred. Portland sheep
are very small — smaller than Southdowns. They have
long woolly tails, brown faces, knees, and feet ; their
horns are flattened, with slight indentations along them,
marked with wavy lines. They are a breed peculiar
to the island, where they thrive well, and are easy to
rear, and farmers are now endeavouring to increase
their stock. A number have been imported into the
Channel Islands, where they are highly valued. Their
chief characteristics are their hardiness, and the fact that
they make excellent mutton. The breed has been dying
out in Portland, probably because the more profitable
trade of stone-quarrying has in many cases superseded
grazing. The grazing is generally flat, but the sheep are
but roughly attended to ; they are, however, folded at
night. The English sheep-dog is used ; the Portland
sheep are said to resent the collie, and butt him. In
days gone by the Portland farmer was, as a rule, his own
shepherd, but girls also were employed for sheep-tending.
Then, as now, holdings were small, and there were no
large farms, but a considerable quantity of common and
open lands. The farmers kept to the same pure Portland
breed and the same flock.
zS Shepherds of Britain
DEVONSHIRE
COURAGE OF THE EXMOOR SHEEP
By J. H. Crabtree, 1909
I have noticed the courageous bearing of sheep on the
hills about Exmoor. Here the animals roam over miles
of uncultivated land, and for days see not a living soul.
If suddenly disturbed from some unexpected quarter they
do not take flight, but toss their heads and spring forward
side by side, as if forming a close marching line, or an
impregnable rampart. In the lambing seiason this innate
courage is exhibited most strongly. If stray dogs are near
the sheep-fields, the mothers will collect their little snow-
white lambs and shield them resolutely from impending
danger. The dogs may bark and snarl, but woe betide
the canine invader who ventures to within ten inches of a
ewe's horns.^ It is true that some sheep do not attain
to this defensive degree, but even these will shield their
progeny to the last and will not allow the lambs to be
worried. The sheep is an admirable creature.
CORNWALL
SHEEP OF THE "TO WENS" AND SCILLY
By William Borlase, F.R.S., 1758
In the neighbourhood of St. Columb and St. Kevern
the sheep are large, and bring a great price, but the
sweetest mutton is reckoned to be that of the smallest
' Hogg, in his Mountain Bard, has : " However excited and fierce a ewe may he, she
will never offer any resistance to mankind, being perfectly and meekly passive to them.''
But Ralph Fleesh, whose valuable opinion on this matter differs from Hogg's, writes :
■" The female never attacks a man unless by way of guarding her lambs. When her lamb
is only a day or two old, and she is approached by a stranger, her attitude is sometimes
strongly defiant. The male also, particularly when hand-fed, will attack a man at close
<5uarters." — \Aut/ior^s Notc.^
Shepherd and Flock 29
sheep, which usually feed on the commons where the sands
are scarce covered with the green sod, and the grass
exceedingly short ; such are the towens or sand-hillocks in
Piran-sand, Gwythien, Philac, and Senangreen near the
Land's End, and elsewhere in like situations. From these
sands come forth snails of the turbanated kind, but of
different species and all sizes, from the adult to the
smallest just from the egg. These spread themselves
over the plains early in the morning, and whilst they are
in quest of their own food among the dews yield a most
fattening nourishment to the sheep.-'
In the Isles of Scilly^ sheep thrive exceedingly,^
the grass on these commons being short and dry,
and full of the same little snail which gives so good a
relish to the Senan and Philac mutton in the west of
Cornwall. The sheep will fill themselves upon the ore-
weed,** as well as the bullocks. They have sea- wrack
among their ore-weed of a fine scarlet and other colours,
and good laver.^
SOMERSETSHIRE
BEN BOND, IDLETON
By James Jennings, 1834.
Agricultural and other labourers, whose exertions are
usually great, and sometimes from long continuance
extremely grievous, are apt to suppose that the chief
happiness of life consists in having nothing to do ; m z
^ Cp. "Southdowns and Snails," infra, p. ii5, where the eating of snails by
pasturing sheep is noted and explained.
2 Borlase's Islands of Scilly, 1756.
2 There are but few sheep in the Isles of SciUy now, and these are described as of
" rather a scraggy order." As there are no regular shepherds the sheep are spanned to
avoid incursion into neighbouring fields. As much of the land is now devoted to *' flower-
farming," it is a good thing that so many snails were consumed in 1756 ! — [Author's
Note.']
* Ore (Saxon), seaweed washed ashore. See Cooper's Glossary of Pro-vincialisms in
use in the County of Sussex, 1853. The proper spelling is " woar." — [Author's Note.]
5 Laver, a kind of seaweed from which the well-known Devonshire dish is prepared.
— [Author's Note.]
30 Shepherds of Britain
word, in being idle. Alas ! how mistakenly ignorant are
such persons of their own nature.
Ben Bond was one of those sons of idleness whom
ignorance and want of occupation in a secluded country
village too often produce. He was a comely lad, on the
confines of sixteen, employed by Farmer Tidball, a queru-
lous and suspicious old man, to look after a large flock of
sheep. The scene of his soliloquy may be thus described.
A green sunny bank, on which the body may agree-
ably repose, called the Sea Wall. On the sea side was an
extensive common called the IVath, and adjoining to it
was another called the Island; both were occasionally
overflowed by the tide. On the other side of the bank
were rich enclosed pastures, suitable for fattening the
finest cattle. Into these enclosures many of Ben Bond's
charge were frequently disposed to stray. The season
was June, the time midday, and there will be no ana-
chronism in stating that the western breezes came over the
sea a short distance from which our scene lay, at once cool,
grateful, refreshing, and playful. The rushing Parret,
with its ever-shifting sands, was also heard in the distance.
It should be stated, too, that Larence is the name usually
given in Somersetshire to that imaginary being which pre-
sides over the Idk.'^ Perhaps it may also be useful to
state here that the word Idleton, which does not occur in
our dictionaries, is assuredly more than a provincialism,
and should be in those definitive assistants.
During the latter part of the soliloquy Farmer Tidball
arrives behind the bank, and hearing poor Ben's discourse
with himself, interrupts his musings in the manner described
hereafter. Whether it be any recommendation- to this
soliloquy or not, the reader is assured that it is the history
of an occurrence in real life, and that it happened at the
^ As lazy as Laurence (St. Laurence, who suffered martyrdom about the middle of
the third century). Notes and Slueries gives the following : — "That famous and resolute
champion Laurence, who was roasted on a grid-iron." A tradition has been handed
down from age to age that at his execution he bore his torments without a writhe or
groan, which caused some of those standing by to remark, " How great must be his
faith ! " But his pagan executioner said, " It is not his faith, but his idleness ; he is too
lazy to turn himself." And hence arose the saying, "As lazy as Laurence."
[^Author's Note.']
shepherd and Flock 3 1
place mentioned. The writer knew Farmer Tidball
personally, and has often heard the story from his wife.
Soliloquy
" Larence ! why doos'n let I up? Oot let I up.''"
— " Naw, I be slSapid ; T cant let thee up eet."
" Now, Larence ! do let I up. There ! bimeby
maester '11 come, an a'll beat I athin a ninch ^ o' me life ;
do let I up ! " — " Naw, I wunt."
" Larence ! I bag o' ee, do ee, do ee let I up. D'ye
zee tha sheep be all a-breakin' droo tha badge inta tha
vive-an- twenty yacres, an Former Haggit '11 goo ta La
wi'n, an I shoU be a kill'd ! " — "Naw, I wunt — 'tis zaw
whit ; bezides, I hant a had my nap out."
" Larence ! I da za thee bist a bad un. Oot thee
hire what I da za .'' Come now an' let I scoose^ wi'.
Massy on me ! Larence, whys'n thee let I up } " — " Cd%
I wunt. What, mussn I ha an hour like uither vawk ta ate
my bird an cheese ? /do za I wunt ; and zaw 'tis niver-
tha-near^ to keep on''
" Maester twal'd I, nif I war a good bway, a'd gee I
iz awld wisket ; an' I'm shower, nif a da come an' vine I
here, an' tha sheep a brawk inta tha vive-an'-twenty yacres,
a'll vleng't awa vust ! Larence, do ee, do ee let me up !
Ool ee, do ee ! " — " Naw, I tell ee I wunt."
" There's one o' tha sheep 'pon iz back in tha gripe,*
an a can't turn auver ! I mis g'in ta tha groun an g'out
to'n, an' git'n out. There's another in tha ditch ! a'll be
a huddled ! ^ There's a gird'l ^ o' trouble wi' sheep !
Larence, cass'n thee let I goo ? I'll gee thee a ha'peny
nif oot let me." — " Naw, I cant let thee goo eet."
" Maester '11 be shower to come an' catch me ! Larence !
doose thee hire .? I da za, oot let me up. I zeed Forerm
1 Ninch = inch. Such instances of wrong division, where the « of the indefinite
article precedes a vowel, are common. ^ Scoose wi' = discourse or tallc with you.
'* Niver-tha-near, adv, to no purpose, uselessly j near here stands for nearer. —
\_Author's Note.'\
■* Gripe, z. a small drain or ditch, about a foot deep and six or eight inches wide.
* Buddled, part, suffocated in mud.
* Gird'l, s. contracted from great deal and implying the same; as gird'l o' work,
a great deal of work.
3 2 shepherds of Britain
Haggit zoon ater I upt, an' a zed, nif a voun one o' my
sheep in tha vive-an'-twenty yacres, a'd drash I za long
as a cood ston auver me, an' wi' a groun ash, too !
There! zum o'm be a gwon droo tha vive-an'-twenty
yacres inta tha drauve ; ^ tha'll zoon hirn ^ vur anow.
Tha'll be poun'd.^ Larence, I'll gee thee a penny nif
oot let me up." — " Naw, T wunt."
" Thic not-sheep * ha' got tha shab ! Dame tawl'd
I whun I upt ta-da ta mine tha shab-water ; ® I shoU pick
it in whun I da goo whim.^ I vorgoot it ! Maester war
desperd cross, an' I war glad ta git out o' tha langth o'
iz tongue. I da hate zitch cross vawk. Larence ! what,
oot niver let I up .'' There, zum o' tha sheep be agwon
down ta Ready Ham ; withers be gwon into leek-beds ;
an' zum o'm be in Hounlake ; dree or vour o'm be gwon
za vur as Slow-wa ; the ditches be, menny o'm, za ^ dry
'tis all now rangel common. There ! I'll gee thee dree
ha pence ta let I goo." — " Why, thee hass'n bin here an hour,
an vor what shood I let thee goo ? I da za, lie still ! "
"Larence! why doos'n let I up? There! zim ta I,
I da hire thic pirty maid, Fanny o' Primmer Hill, a chidin
bin I be a lyin' here while tha sheep be gwain droo thic
shord an' tuther shord ; * zum o'm, a-ma-be, be a drown'd.
Larence ! doose thee thenk I can bear tha betwitten o' thic
pirty maid ^ She tha Primrawse o' Primmer Hill ; tha
lily o' tha level ; tha gawl-cup ' o' tha mead ; tha zweetist
honeyzuckle in tha garden ; tha yaly vilet ; the rawse o'
rawses ; tha pirty pollyantice ; '" whun I zeed 'er last, she
zed, ' Ben, do ee mind tha sheep, an' tha yeos an' lams,
an' than zumbody ool mine you.' Wi' that she gid me
a beautiful spreg o' jessamy, jist a-pickt vrom tha poorch, —
tha smill far za zweet.
" Larence, I mus' " goo ! I ool goo. You mus let I
^ Drauve = a drove, or road to fields. '^ Hirn, 'v,n. to run.
•* "To poun," and not "to pound," is the verb in Somersetshire.
^ Not-sheep, s. sheep without horns,
^ Water to cure the shab or itch in sheep.
^ Whim, J. home. ^ Za = say.
^ Shord, s. a sherd, a gap in a hedge. Stop-sherd, a stop-gap.
** Gawl-cup, J. gold-cup.
^^ Pollyantice, s. polyanthus.
^^ Mus' goo = must go. This dropping of the final t is by no means uncommon.
Shepherd and Flock 33
up. I ont sta here na longer. Maester '11 be shower ta
come an' drash me. Thic awld cross fella wi' iz awld
waskit. There, Larence ! I'll gee tuther penny, an'
that's ivry vard'n I 'a got. Oot let I goo ? " — " Naw, T
mis ha a penny moorr
" Larence, do let I up ! Creeplin Philip '11 be shower
ta catch me ! Thic cockygee ! ^ I dwont like en at all ;
a's za rough an za zoUr. An Will Pophani too, ta
bewite me about tha maid ! A call'd 'er a rathe-ripe
Lady Buddick.^ I dwont mislike tha name at ^11, thawf
I dwont care vor'n a stra, nor a read mooate, nor tha
tite o' a pin ! What da tha cMl he } Why, the upright
man, c^s a da ston upright ; let'n ; and let'n wrassly ^ too.
I dwont like zitch hoss-plas,* nor singel-stick nuther, nor
cock-squailin',^ nor menny wither ma-games that Will
Popham da volly. I'd rather zit in tha poorch, wi' tha
jessamy ranglin roun it, and hire Fanny zeng. Oot let
me up, Larence } " — " Naw, I tell thee I ont athout a penny
moor.''
" Rawzy Pink, too, an Nanny Dubby axed I about
Fanny. What bisniss 'ad th^ ta up wi't .'' I dwont like
norn o'm. Girnin Jan, too, shawed iz teeth an put in iz
verdi. I wish theeaze vawk ood mine ther awn consarns
an let I an Fanny alooane.
" Larence ! doose thee mean to let I goo ? " — " Eese, nif
thee't gee me tuther penny." " Why, I hant a-got a vard'n
moor ; oot let me up ! " — " Not athout tha penny." " Now,
Larence ! de ee, bin I hant naw moor money. I a bin
here moor than an hoilr ; whaur tha yeos an lams an all
tha tuther my sheep be now I dwon' ^ know. Creeplin
Philip ' ool gee me a lirropin shower anow. There !
^ Cockygee, 5. cockagee, a rough, sour apple.
'^ Lady Buddick, a rich and early ripe apple. Rathe-ripe, adj. ripening early.
" The rathe-ripe wits prevent their own perfection." — Bishop Hall.
^ Wrassly = wrestle.
^ Hoss-plas, s.f. horse plays ; rough sports.
^ Cock-squailin', a barbarous sport, consisting in tying a cock to a stake, and throw-
ing a stick at him from a given distance, until the bird is killed. It was once common
at Shrovetide.
^ Here, instead of ^o«V, or divont^ for do not, we have dzuon' only, which, in colloquial
language, is very common in the west.
' Even remote districts in the country have their satirists, and wits and would-be
wits ; and Huntspill, the place alluded to in the soliloquy, was, about half a century ago,
D
34 Shepherds of Britain
I da thenk I hired zummet or zumbody auver tha
wall."
" Here, d^ n thee ! I'll gee tha tuther penny, an
■zummet bezides ! " exclaimed Farmer Tidball, leaping down
the bank, with a stout sliver of a crab-tree in his hand.
The sequel may be easily imagined !
WILTSHIRE
THE SHEPHERD OF THE PLAIN
By Percy W. D. Izzard, 1910
Take the year round, and Salisbury Plain sees far more
of soldiers and sheep than of any other living creatures.
The soldiers are of comparatively recent advent, and
come only in large numbers at certain times of the year ;
but the sheep are always there in great flocks, and they
have roamed the solitudes of the plain for countless
generations.
These remote and ample Downs are an ideal ground
for the practice both of warlike arts and pastoral pur-
suits, but it was to see a shepherd rather than a soldier
that I went upon the Plain on a sunny winter's day. From
an eminence one could see in the clear light almost the
entire extent of the great airy Downland, and flocks of
sheep on every side eating their way hither and thither
beneath the blue sky. These were flocks of the farms
that fringe the plain.
At one of the farms I found my shepherd, and he
was different from all other shepherds I know. One of
many brothers, he had to choose a calling, and he decided
much pestered with them. Scarcely a person of any note escaped a parish lib)cl, and
even servants were not excepted. For instance —
" Nanny Dubby, Sally Clinic,
Long Josias and Rawsy Pink,
. . Girnin Jan,
Creeplin Philip and the Upright Man."
CrecpUn P/ii/ip (that is " creeplin," because he walked lamely) was Farmer Tidball
himself j and his servant, V^iUiam Topham, was the upright man. Girnin Jan is
Grinning John.
shepherd and Flock 35
to be a flock-master. He loves his profession, and there
is little that he can be taught about sheep. He also loves
a bit of sport — shooting or hunting — and before he came
away from his native Devon he often rode to hounds.
He is comparatively a young man, of middle height
and sturdy build, with clean-shaven chin, crisp moustache,
and generally enlightened face. His cloth cap, riding-
breeches and gaiters complete the illusion that he is not a
shepherd ; but his success in his calling has gained him
fame beyond the Plain's borders. His whole appearance
suggests great strength and staying power, and those he
has. . . .
The ewe flock with some of the earlier lambs were out
on the Plain, 2000 strong and widely dispersed. That
explained my shepherd's costume, for he was compelled to
get about a great deal on horseback. In miniature his
methods are those of a large colonial sheep-farmer, and
about 5000 acres of the green Downs are rented for the
sheep. He would not have come up here to Salisbury
Plain if there had been no Exmoor sheep to look after.
It is the breed of his own country, and he knows and
understands it best of all. About the Plain other shep-
herds have charge of Hampshire Downs, Southdowns,
Scotch, and Cheviot sheep, and other methods prevail than
those of this strong-framed Devonian.
It is the last hour of this crystal winter's day, whose
embers glow red-gold across the western ridges. The
frost is returning, stiffening again the mud in the yard. A
storm-cock in the trees hard by is singing the world to
rest. The shepherd mounts his horse and rides forth upon
the plain, with his dog Bolt, a black shaggy fellow of the
old English type, in vigilant attendance. Up and down
he rides and up again, ever rising, man and horse diminish-
ing in size every moment, until a stop is made on a com-
manding summit, where they are silhouetted against the
rosy afterglow. There the shepherd can see his widely
scattered flock before him over the far-spread Downs.
Then he lifts up his great voice — " Yaa-hoo ! Yaa-
36 Shepherds of Britain
hoo ! " and once more, "Yaa-hoo!"^ The call carries
through the motionless air a mile and more into the silence
of the plain. " Bolt, get up for 'em," and off scuttles
that shaggy servant. But the sheep know the call and the
order of things. You can see those grey dots, however
far away, begin to converge slowly upon one centre. The
sheep are forming up their flock themselves, and Bolt's
duty is but to hasten them. Very soon the dog is little
more than a speck in the distance, racing round and round
the sheep until the latter begin to move forward in one
great body — a grey cloud coming hither over the darkling
green. Presently the voice of the flock is heard. Nearer,
louder, nearer still and louder, and at last the woolly com-
pany jostles with many deep " baaings " down the last
slope to the sheltering trees, horseman and dog following
slowly behind. Once in the hollow where the night is to
be spent, the matronly ewes soon settle. In the meantime,
in the deepening twilight, shepherd and dog have turned
homeward — the day's work done.
LAZY SHEPHERDS OF THE PLAIN— AND
AN EXCEPTION
By The Author
The shepherds of Salisbury Plain had the reputation of
being the laziest men in England. A gentleman saw one
of them lying down near his sheep, and after talking with
him for some time, said : "Well, my man, I do think you
are as lazy as you are described ; nevertheless here's a
shilling for you." To which the man replied : "Thank
ye kindly, sir, but will ye jist get off^ your horse and slip
it in my pocket."
In Hone's Every-Day Book, for July 1826, we find :
" The shepherds of Salisbury Plain are proverbially so
idle, that rather than rise, when asked the road across the
plain, they put up one of their legs towards the place, and
say, ' Tkeek woy ' (this way), ' Thuck woy ' (that way)."
^ " shouting as loud as if he was calling sheep on Exmoor." See Blackmore's
Lorna Docne. — [Author s Note.'\
Shepherd and Flock 37
Hannah More's exemplary Shepherd of Salisbury Plain
was a great exception to these lazy fellows. I give in full
the note to her little book referring to him. " David
Saunders was a poor shepherd of West Lavington. He
used to keep his Bible in the thatch of his hut on Salis-
bury Plain, by reading which, and by prayer, he seemed
to keep up a constant communion with God. When the
late Mr. Stedman, of Shrewsbury, went in 1771, to settle
on the curacy at Little Cheverell, the next village to
Lavington, the first person he met was this shepherd,
who told him, some time after, that, taking the stranger
to be the minister expected there, he repeated to himself
those words of St. Paul, Romans x. i 5 : ' How beautiful
upon the mountains are the feet of them that preach the
gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things.' "
Dr. Brewer tells us that David Saunders and his father
before him kept sheep on the Plain for a century, and that
David was noted for his homely wisdom and simple
Christian piety.
WILTSHIRE SHEPHERDS, 17TH Century
From 7ke Book of Days. Edited by R. Chambers, 1869
John Aubrey was a native of Wiltshire, and therefore
proud of its Downs, which, in his odd, quaint way, he tells
us, " are the most spacious plains in Europe, and the
greatest remains that I can hear of the smooth primitive
world when it lay under water. The turf is of soft sweet
grass, good for the sheep. About Wilton and Chalke,
the Downs are intermixt with boscages,^ that nothing can
be more pleasant, and in the summer-time do excel
Arcadia in verdant and rich turf." Then, pursuing the
image, he says : " The innocent lives of the shepherds here
do give us a resemblance of the Golden Age. Jacob and
Esau were shepherds ; and Amos, one of the royal family,
asserts the same of himself, for he was among the shepherds
1 Woodlands. According to Blount, " that food which wood and trees yield to
cattle." — Halliwell. — \AuthDr^s Note."]
38 Shepherds of Britain
of Tecua (Tekoa), following that employment. The
like labour, by God's own appointment, prepared Moses
for a sceptre, as Philo intimates in his Life, when he
tells us that a shepherd's art is suitable preparation to a
kingdom. The same he mentions in his Life of Joseph,
affirming that the care a shepherd has over his cattle very
much resembles that which a king has over his subjects.
The same St. Basil, in his homily De St. Mamene, Martyre,
has concerning David, who was taken from following the
ewes great with young ones to feed Israel. The Romans,
the worthiest and the greatest nation in the world, sprang
from shepherds. The augury of the twelve vultures
placed a sceptre in Romuius's hand, which held a crook
before, and as Ovid says :
His own small flock each senator did keep.
Lucretius mentions an extraordinary happiness, and as it
were divinity, in a- shepherd's life :
Thro' shepherds' care, and their divine retreats.
And to speak from the very bottom of my heart, not to
mention the integrity and innocence of shepherds, upon
which so many have insisted and copiously declaimed,
methinks he is much more happy in a wood, that at ease
contemplates the universe as his own, and in it the sun and
stars, the pleasing meadows, shaded groves, green banks,
stately trees, flowing springs, and the wanton windings of
a river, fit objects for quiet innocence, than he that with
fire and sword disturbs the world, and measures his pos-
sessions by the waste that lies about him."
Then the old Wiltshire man tells us how the Plains
abound with hares, fallow-deer, partridges, and bustards.
The fallow-deer and bustards have disappeared. In this
delightful part of the country is the Arcadia about Wilton
which " did no doubt conduce to the heightening of Sir
Philip Sydney's phansie. He lived much in these parts,
and the most masterly touches of his pastorals he wrote
here upon the spot, where they were conceived. 'Twas
about these purlieus that the Muses were wont to appear
Shepherd and Flock 39
to Sir Philip Sydney, and where he wrote down their
dictates in his table-book though on horseback," and some
old relations of Aubrey's remembered to have seen Sir
Philip do this.
Aubrey then proceeds to trace many of the shepherds'
customs of his district to the Romans, from whom the
Britons received their knowledge of agriculture. The
festivals at sheep-shearing he derives from the Palilia. In
By Ilabberto'i Ljdham.
A SHEPHERD S CARE
Aubrey's time, the Wiltshire sheep-masters gave no wages
to their shepherds, but they had the keeping of so many
sheep pro rata, " so that the shepherds' lambs do never
miscarry " ; and Plautus gives a hint of this custom
amongst the Romans at his time.'' In Scotland it is still
the custom to pay shepherds partly in this manner. The
Wiltshire antiquary goes so far as to say that the habit of
his time was that of the Roman, or Arcadian shepherds,
^ John Aubrey, in Old Manners and Customs (1678), says : " In our west country (and I
believe so in the north) they give no wages to the shepherd, but he has the keeping so
many sheep with his master's flock. Plautus hints at this in his Asinaria^ act iii.
scene i, eiiam Opilio." — [Author's Note^
40 Shepherds of Britain
as delineated by Drayton in his Polyolbion, i.e. a long white
cloak with a very deep cape, which comes half-way down
their backs, made of the locks of the sheep. There was a
sheep-crook, as we read of in Virgil and Theocritus ; their
sling, scrip, tar-box, a pipe or flute, and their dogs.^
WILTSHIRE SHEPHERD CUSTOMS
B}- Richard Jefferies, 1880
Some of the older shepherds still wear the ancient
blue smock-frock, crossed with white " facings," like
coarse lace ; but the rising generation use the greatcoat
of modern make, at which their forefathers would have
laughed as utterly useless in the rain-storms that blow
across the open hills. Among the elder men, too, may
be found a few of the huge umbrellas of a former age,
which when spread give as much shelter as a small tent.
It is curious that they so rarely use an umbrella in the
field, even when simply standing about ; but if they go
a short journey along the highway, then they take it with
them. The aged men sling these great umbrellas over
the shoulder with a piece of tar cord, just as a soldier
slings his musket, and so have both hands free — one to
stump along with a stout stick, and the other to carry a
flag basket. The stick is always too lengthy to walk with
as men use it in cities, carrying it by the knob or handle ;
it is a staffs rather than a stick, the upper end projecting
six or eight inches above the hand.
If any labourers deserve to be paid well, it is the
shepherds ; upon their knowledge and fidelity the prin-
cipal profit of a whole season depends on so many farms.
The shepherd has a distinct individuality, and is generally
a much more observant man in his own sphere than the
ordinary labourer. He knows every single field in the
whole parish, what kind of weather best suits its soil, and
can tell you without going within sight of a given farm
pretty much what condition it may be found in. Know-
^ Aubrey's Natural History of H'ilts,
Shepherd and Flock 4.1
ledge of this character may seem trivial to those whose
Copyright.
Rev. A. H. Blake.
MOTHERING
" It needs a man who has grown gentle and almost motherly to be a shep-
herd, there is so much mothering to be done." — H. Somerset Bullock.
"A hard-hearted shepherd is, of all problems, the most inexplicable and pain-
ful." — James Gardner.
days are passed indoors ; yet it is something to recollect
all the endless fields in several square miles of country.
4-2 Shepherds of Britain
As a student remembers for years the type and paper,
the breadth of the margin — can see, as it were, before his
eyes the bevel of the binding and hear again the rustle of
the stiff leaves of some tall volume which he found in a
forgotten corner of a library, and bent over with such
delight, heedless of dust and " silver-fish " and gathered
odour of years — so the shepherd recalls his books, the
fields ; for he, in the nature of things, has to linger over
them and study every letter : sheep are slow.
When the hedges are grubbed up, and the grass grows
where the hawthorn flowered, still the shepherd can point
out to you where the trees stood — here an oak and there
an ash. On the hills he has often Httle to do but ponder
deeply, sitting on the turf of the slope, while the sheep
graze in the hollow, waiting for hours as they eat their
way. Therefore, by degrees, a habit of observation grows
upon him — always in reference to his charge ; and if he
walks across the parish off duty he still cannot choose but
notice how the crops are coming on, and where there is
most "keep." The shepherd has been the last to aban-
don the old custom of long service. While the labourers
are restless, there may still be found not a few instances
of shepherds whose whole lives have been spent upon one
farm. Thus, from the habit of observation and the lapse
of years, they often become local authorities ; and when
a dispute of boundaries or water rights or right of way
arises, the question is frequently finally decided by the
evidence of such a man.
Every now and then a difficulty happens in reference
to the old green lanes and bridle-tracks which once crossed
the country in every direction, but get fewer in number
year by year. Sometimes it is desired to enclose a section
of such a track to round off an estate- — sometimes a path
has grown into a valuable thoroughfare through increase
of population ; and then the question comes. Who is to
repair it .'' There is little or no documentary evidence to
be found — nothing can be traced except through the
memories of men ; and so they come to the old shepherd,
who has been stationary all his life, and remembers the
Shepherd and Flock 43
condition of the lane fifty years since. He always liked
to drive his sheep along it — first, because it saved the
turnpike tolls ; secondly, because they could graze on the
short herbage and rest under the shade of the thick bushes.
Even in the helplessness of his old age he is not vs^ithout
his use at the very last, and his word settles the matter.
CHARACTERISTIC WILTSHIRE SHEPHERDS
By A. G. Bradley, 1907
A great deal of precious immemorial turf was ploughed
up on Salisbury Plain when wheat was high, to grow
sometimes but second-rate crops of three quarters to an
acre, and many a bitter regret has doubtless been since
felt for the destruction of sheep-pasture that takes nearly
half a century to regain its original quality. The military
quarter of the Plain beyond the Avon, from which the
sheep have been banished, and the down grass, for centuries
cropped close by them, which has been allowed to seed,
or casually picked at by cows and horses, presents a
deplorable sight, though of comparatively slight moment,
in view of the much worse disfigurement of the military
buildings, where such conditions prevail. But here, on
the north and west portion of the Plain, we are far away
from all such desecrations, and the sheep still keeps the
succulent turf, mixed with nutritious plants and flowers
of great variety, sweet and short as he has kept it, no
doubt, since his breed was first introduced into England.
It is thought that the great Wiltshire sheep fairs are
the oldest fixtures of the kind in England ; and they have
a double interest, from being. In some cases, held by
immemorial custom on lonely points like Tan Hill, marked
by a prehistoric camp. Thousands of sheep collect on
these occasions, travelling long journeys on foot, cropping
their slow way along the broad green trails on the high
down followed for centuries by Wiltshire shepherds,
whose rugged figures and simple equipments have not per-
haps changed much more in appearance than the bare hills
44 Shepherds of Britain
around them.^ I came across a fine figure of a Wiltshire
shepherd one morning, standing out against the sky on
the rampart of a British camp near Ogbourne, overlooking
half the county. He was a quite ideal picture, his crook
in his hand, his cloak beside him on the ground, and
lying upon it a shaggy grey sheep-dog, which eyed me
suspiciously, while the steady crunching all around of
what Thomson would have called his " fleecy care " was
the only audible sound upon the waste. He most
assuredly was not posing, for his condition, I found, was
one of despair. " I've had a turr'ble misfart'n, zur, this
marnin' " (he might have said " this marnin's marnin',"
for that is good old Wiltshire) ; "I larst my bacca
pouch." An unworthy distrust of human nature
prompted the thought that he was as other degenerate
mortals, and the picture for the moment lost some value.
But I had a pleasant surprise. " No, zur, thank 'ee kindly.
'Tain't the bacca, but the pouch ; ma zon guv it I my
larst birthday. It's a turr'ble misfart'n I should ha'
larst'n." He would neither accept of nor be comforted
from my supplies, and after he had dwelt on the changes
that had come over the country, in critical and pessimistic
fashion, 'and with no apparent thankfulness for the rise of
sixty per cent in wages, I left him still unconsoled. . . .
Silbury is as grim and naked as in that remote age when
the turf first clothed it. Together with its encircling
ditch, it covers an area of five acres, and is 1 70 feet high.
Though Charles II. and his brother James, it will be
1 Mr. Walter Money, F.S.A., in a letter to me (1910) writes : "The drovers of
the flocks from the great sheep fairs at Weyhill (Hants), Ilsley (Berks), Tan (St. Anne's)
Hill (Wilts), and other places, still to a large extent adopt the ancient British trackways
over the Downs, keeping well above the heads of the coombes or valleys, as did the Welsh
drivers of cattle in my remembrance, covering a distance of some 400 miles along the
crest of the hills, to avoid the tolls on the high road before the turnpike gates were
done away with. Many of these trackways meandering over the broad Sussex and
Hampshire Downs were used by the smugglers for carrying their contraband goods from
the south coast into the interior of the country, and their course can readily be traced."
Mr. Money, who is familiar with every part of the Berkshire, Wiltshire, and Hamp-
shire Downs, adds ; " I think it most probable that the innumerable earthwork enclosures
of various forms (where not thrown up as military defences) which stud these open tracts
of the Downs, were places wherein to fold sheep and other cattle in safety, and to
prevent their wandering by night far away from home, or into the territory of a hostile
or predatory tribe. With no other material at hand, an earthwork would naturally
suggest itself to the British herdsmen and shepherd." — [Autior's Note.]
Shepherd and Flock 45
remembered, did accomplish the feat, it is quite a stiff"
scramble to its summit, from whence you may look down
upon Avebury, but a mile away. This colossal effort
of prehistoric ages has no equal in Europe ; its purpose
still defies the wit of man, and controversy has raged
around it for generations. Whether it is the tomb of
some matchless chieftain, a monument to some potent
god, or merely a part of the great design and scheme of
Avebury, will never be revealed. The peasant decided
long ago that it w^s the tomb of King Sel, a monarch
with whom I claim no sort of acquaintance.
When I was last at Silbury a shepherd had just accom-
plished the feat of getting his flock of down sheep through
the gate, and as they raced along in a big bunch after
the manner of their kind, with bells tinkling, and tearing
eagerly at the fresh sample of pasture that grew in the
moat,-' he was taking a well-earned leisure on the bank,
his coat and crook and dog beside him, and in sociable
mood. "Yes, zur, it's a turr'ble big mound, vor zartin.
A nashun sight of volks come yer to look at'n ; I doan't
take much notice of her myself, but I've heerd my feyther
tell as they druv a hole into her innards onc't, an vound
zummat or awther."
And so they did, more than once. In 1723 some
workmen planting trees — of which there is now no trace
— on the summit, found a skeleton near the surface, which
Dr. Stukeley, whose imagination was stronger than his
balance in these matters, hailed at once as the great King
Sel, and the faith of the shepherd in his majesty waxed
more robust than ever. Primary burials, however, lay at
the bottom, not at the top of the tumuli, and the learned
doctor's theories fell to the ground before the cold light
of reason.
' A writer in Tit Bits says that " sheep nod their heads when they are feeding,
because they have no incisors or cutting teeth in the upper jaw. The grass is collected
and rolled together by means of their long tongue ; it is then firmly held between the
lower cutting teeth and a callous pad above, and finally by a sudden nodding motion of
the head the little roll of herbage is partly torn and cut off."
Barnes (i 569-1607) writes of —
"The sheep, little-kneed, with a quick-dipping nod."
\_Author's Notei]
46 Shepherds of Britain
BERKSHIRE
SHEPHERDING ON THE BERKSHIRE DOWNS
By J. E. Vincent, 1906
Substantially speaking, the Berkshire Downs are not
grazed at all, although it may be conjectured that, if
they were, the mutton would be passing excellent. Our
Berkshire sheep are not of the hill-climbing type, and
they are hardly ever allowed to graze at large. Except
along the roads, which they spoil abominably with their
cloven hoofs when they are driven from place to place,
they take practically no exercise. The system is to pack
them on good feed — grass, clover, turnips, or what you
will — practically as close as possible, until they have eaten
it bare, and then to pass them on to the next plot. Some
years ago, for example, I had a rank aftermath of about
an acre and a half, which as a favour to me a farmer
neighbour permitted his sheep to eat. He hurdled the
little area off into two equal plots, put 300 sheep into
one of them for one day and night, and to the next
for the same time, and behold, every vestige of the grass
had varnished. Had they all lain down simultaneously,
no ground to speak of would have been visible. That is
the way we feed sheep hereabouts, and one rarely sees
the Downs dotted with sheep singly or in groups. The
Berkshire sheep lives between hurdles, and seldom knows
freedom from the day when he or she is born in the sheltered
lambing-yard, to that on which the Saxon sheep is con-
verted into the French mutton. Hence comes it that the
coat of the Downs is never, or very rarely, that hard,
close, and velvet-like turf which one finds where sheep
have grazed at their will.
A SHEEP FAIR AT EAST ILSLEY
By L. Salmon, 1909
East Ilsley is a queer little village. At first sight it
really appears to consist almost entirely of public-houses.
Shepherd and Flock 47
The sheep fair of East Ilsley is one of the most important
and one of the most ancient in England. The charter for
its establishment was granted as long ago as the reign of
Henry III., and as the public-houses would not exist were
it not for the sheep fairs, so the sheep fairs could not
possibly get on without the public -houses. Over the
Downs and far away the shepherds have to travel and
drive their sheep, and as the fair begins early in the
morning, most of the sheep must be there the night
before, and the shepherds and the drovers have to sleep
somewhere. So they flock within the hospitable doors
of "The Star," "The Lamb," and "The White
Horse," and thus the necessity of the public-houses is
accounted for.
The chief fair takes place annually upon August ist.
You must be at East Ilsley by nine o'clock in the morning
if you wish to see it in full swing. All is bustle and
life. More than 20,000 sheep are enclosed in pens upon
each side of the street, stretching out, a woolly mass,
towards the fields behind. Their number lately has been
reduced by about one- half from what it formerly was.
Thousands of sheep are bleating ; hundreds of dogs are
barking loudly, some of them held by the shepherds who
are watching over the sheep — others are tied to the pens
whilst their owners go a little way off to gossip with
their friends, or to make a voyage of discovery through
the fair. The dogs are chiefly of the collie breed ; here
and there is conspicuous a great English sheep-dog, quieter
and more dignified than the somewhat fussy and somewhat
mongrel collie.
The passages in between the pens are filled with men
in every variety of costume, some of the most picturesque
description. Many of the drovers, with their knotted
red handkerchiefs and general get-up, remind one of the
London coster. Here you may see a man, one of the
dealers, in a velveteen jacket and a soft felt hat, looking
as though he were dressed for the stage ; there is another
in a long white coat reaching to his heels, with huge gold
spectacles and white hat, a cross between a bowler and a
48 Shepherds of Britain
tall hat cut down. Infinite variety ! But the smock-
frock — one longs to see it — is, alas, absent. Nevertheless,
the endless and picturesque modification which the English
costume, prosaic and ugly though one is apt to consider
it, seems capable of at a Berkshire sheep fair, is surprising.
One old shepherd, who carries the invariable heavy
walking-stick that appears to have taken the place of the
shepherd's crook, wears a dark blue smocked coat and
a slouch hat. His face bears the calm and beautiful
expression that is seen sometimes upon the faces of those
old shepherds whose whole life has been spent with Nature
alone, in the fields or upon the Downs, with no com-
panionship but that of their sheep and their dogs, when
they would wile away the time of their solitude sometimes
in carving wonderful designs upon walking-sticks. Now
and then in an old house you may see one of these sticks,
and an interesting piece of workmanship it is. This man's
whole bearing is a combination of quiet dignity and child-
like simplicity. When a " snapshot " photograph was
taken of him and his great shaggy bob-tailed dog, he came
up immediately afterwards, expecting to see his likeness ;
his face clouded over with disappointment when he was
told that a great deal had yet to be done before the picture
came into existence. Alas ! that picture never did come
into existence ; one of the manifold misfortunes attending
the fate of these precarious things overtook it, and — the
opportunity is gone for ever.
Presently an unusually loud bleating of sheep and
barking of dogs is heard. What can be happening ?
The fair is nearly over, and a flock of sheep is being
driven, or rather is refusing to be driven away. Sheep
are said to have an instinctive and curious objection to
going downhill on an unknown road. These particular
animals are exhibiting this trait to an amazing extent. A
rope has been fastened round the neck of one of them
and the victim is being dragged along, in the hope that,
sheep-like, the others will follow.^ Nothing of the kind.
^ An extreme instance of this tendency in sheep was quaintly exemplified at Kingston-
on-Thames one market day. A flock of sheep were being driven through Thames
Shepherd and Flock 49
The hope is altogether a vain one ; their conduct is most
unsheep-like. They rush and bound about in every
direction ; they even leap the hurdles and get mixed up
with the others. About twenty dogs are now yapping at
their heels, evidently thinking it all fine fun. One dog
seizes a shepherd by the leg, doubtless in his excitement
mistaking him for a sheep. The noise is deafening ; the
dust is sent flying in smothering clouds. Headlong rush
the sheep — in every direction but the one in which they
are intended to go, scattering the men, who are powerless
to stem the torrent of their mad flight. In the end the
sheep get their own way, and go down another road,
leading, however, by a circuitous route to the one by
which they were originally intended to go. The incident
seems to demonstrate very forcibly the powerlessness of
man, unarmed, to contend against any animal that chooses
to assert its strength.
KENT
A SHEPHERD'S POWER OF ABSTRACTION
By Richard Jefferies, 1887
Beside the path, but just off^ it so as to be no obstruc-
tion, an aged man stands watching his sheep. He has
stood so long that at last the restless sheep-dog has settled
down on the grass. He wears a white smock-frock, and
leans heavily on his long staff, which he holds with both
hands, propping his chest upon it. His face is set in a
frame of white — white hair, short whiskers, short white
beard. It is much wrinkled with years, but still has a
hale and hearty hue.
The sheep are only on their way from one part of
the farm to another, perhaps half a mile ; but they have
already been an hour, and will probably occupy another in
getting there. Some are feeding steadily ; some are in a
Street, when a sheep, seeing itself reflected in the glass of a shop window, rushed at the
reflection, broke the glass, and sprang through, followed by the rest of the flock, about
twenty in number. — [Author's Note^
E
5 o Shepherds of Britain
gateway, doing nothing, like their pastor ; if they were on
the loneliest slope of the downs he and they could not
be more unconcerned. Carriages go past and neither the
sheep nor the shepherd turn to look.
Suddenly there comes a hollow booming sound — a
roar, mellowed and subdued by distance, with a peculiar
beat upon the ear, as if a wave struck the nerve and
rebounded and struck again in an infinitesimal fraction of
time — such a sound as can only bellow from the mouth
of a cannon. Another and another. The big guns at
Woolwich are at work. The shepherd takes no heed —
neither he nor his sheep. His ears must acknowledge the
sound, but his mind pays no attention. He knows of
nothing but his sheep. You may brush by him along the
footpath, and it is doubtful if he sees you. But stay and
speak about the sheep, and instantly he looks you in the
face and answers with interest.^
SHEPPEY, "THE ISLE OF SHEEP"
By W. Lambarde, 1576
It would seem by the dedication of the name, that this
island was long since greatly esteemed either for the num-
ber of the sheep, or for the fineness of the fleece, although
ancient foreign writers ascribe not much to any part of all
England (and much less to this place) either for the one
respect or for the other : but whether the sheep of this
realm were in price before the coming of the Saxons or no,
they be now (God be thanked therefore) worthy of great
an estimation both for the exceeding fineness of the fleece
(which passeth all other in Europe at this day, and is to be
' As an illustration of how the whole interest of some of the old shepherds is
centred in their sheep, I quote Mr. David Cowen. " A shepherd told me that he had
his greatest pleasure in watching his flock, and his master (one of the chief flock-masters
in East Suffolk) said that he failed to understand the man who could not sit on a gate
for a couple of hours looking at a flock of Suffolk sheep." Prebendary Fraser of
Chichester adds : " When I was a deacon I used to visit the old people's wards in a
Hampshire workhouse. There was an ancient shepherd there quite worn out and
dazed, but he always roused up when the 23rd Psalm was read to him, or if one spoke
to him about Archbishop Trench, who, when rector of Itchen Stoke, used to come and
talk to himabout his sheep." — [Author's Note."]
shepherd and Flock 5 1
compared with the ancient dehcate wool of Tarentum, or
the Golden Fleece of Colchos itself) and for the abundant
store of flocks so increasing everywhere, that not only this
little isle which we have now in hand, but the whole realm
also might rightly be called Sheppey.^
THE SHEEP OF ROMNEY MARSH
"One of the most singular districts in the south of England."
From Excursions in the County of Kent, 1822
By my Christendom
So I were out of prison and kept sheep,
I should be merry as the day is long.
King John, iv. i.
The Marsh is about ten miles in length from east to
west ; and in breadth, from north to south, about four.
Sheep are much more commonly fed on the Marsh than
oxen ; the number of sheep, according to Boys, is exceed-
ing that of any district in the kingdom. The sheep take
their name from the spot where they feed, and are larger
than the Southdown, but by no means so large as those
of Lincolnshire. Their wool for length and fineness is
much esteemed.
THE "LOOKERS" OF ROMNEY MARSH
By Arthur Finn, 1910
Romney Marsh is probably one of the oldest and
most thickly populated sheep districts of England. The
shepherd here is usually called a looker^ his duties being
^ sheep are still numerous here. The Isle of Sheppey and the marshes in this part
of Kent are somewhat similar to Romney Marsh. In both districts there is a sad lack
of shade and shelter for the flocks. — [Author's Note?[
2 Various authorities define "looker" as follows; — Looker, a person who looks
after sheep and cattle in marshes and enclosed lands, peculiar to eastern Sussex j also in
Kent. — Glossary of the Provincialisms in use in the County of Sussex. By Cooper, 1853.
Looker, a looker or superintendent. Essex. — From The Reports of the Agricultural
Survey, 1793-1813.
Looker, a bailiff. Essex (Foulness). It is also used generally in Essex. A
shepherd. Kent (Romney Marsh). — Annals of Agriculture, 1784-1815.
Looker, a herdsman. Sussex. — Wright's Dictionary of Obsolete and Pro'vindal Sayings,
Looker, a shepherd or herdsman. South. — Halliwell. — [Author^s Note."]
5 2 shepherds of Britain
to look after the sheep all through the year. Originally
(even more so than now, when it is customary for some
stock-owners to keep their own individual men in charge
of a distinct business) the looker was paid is. 6d. per
Photograph by Edward Lovett.
BACKSTAYS
" The * lookers ' or shepherds of Romney Marsh wear these flat
wooden shoes over their ordinary ones when crossing the shingle
which extends for some miles near Dungeness. The local name for
this strange footgear is ' backstays.' "
acre a year, and might be employed by several different
flock-owners, and this is still the custom here. Before
shearing, the sheep are washed by being thrown into
what is called a " sheep-tun," that is, a shallow well with
a gangway for them to pass out by. The Marsh is inter-
Shepherd and Flock 53
sected by " ditches " filled with water. There is an old
saying here that " it requires no cleverness to be a grazier
provided a man could keep himself from falling into the
Marsh ditches." The town of Lydd in old times had
its own common flock. There was a town shepherd
appointed, who annually accounted to the Corporation
for the profits and losses on the feast of Saint Mary
Magdalene. Sheep of the Romney Marsh breed go all
over the world, notably to New Zealand, Australia, the
Argentine, and Falkland Isles ; Newfoundland is now
inquiring about them. Hardy enough to stand the bleak
climate of the Marsh, they will thrive almost anywhere.^
EAST ANGLIA
THE NORFOLK BREED
By The Author
The Norfolks were progenitors of the modern Sufiblk
sheep. Frederic Shoberl, in The Beauties of England and
Wales, writes of these sheep in 1813 : "The Norfolk, or,
as it might with greater propriety be denominated, the
Suffolk breed of sheep, since the most celebrated flocks are
found about Bury, is diffused over almost every part of
the county. This race is deservedly esteemed for the fine-
ness of the wool (which is the third in price in England),
for endurance of hard driving, and for being the best of
mothers. These excellences are, however, counterbalanced
by their voracity, a want of tendency to fatten, resulting
^ A Kent landowner, writing in 1910, says : "Romney Marsh keeps a lot of stocic
in the summer months, but the land will not support so many in the winter. The
lambs here are born in April, and by September are all out — ^ out to keep ' ; they are
sent either to the uplands of Kent or to Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire, Bucks, etc. They
are sometimes driven up and distributed on the way, but the more modern graziers send
by train, and the animals are then handed over to the farmers by an agent. This is
my plan, I send to another county about 3000 in the autumn. Some send sheep
away as well as lambs, and reduce the land in the winter to two sheep to the acre."
One who witnessed this migration of sheep many years ago describes it as a
wonderful sight, thousands of sheep being led along a country road near Tunbridge
Wells, raising clouds of dust j the air smelling of sheep. The migration of sheep is
mentioned in the ancient Berkeley Records, — [Author's Note."]
54 Shepherds of Britain
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Photograph by Clarence HaiUy &■ Co., h'ewynarket.
NORFOLK EWES AND LAMBS
The property of Mr. Dermot M'Calmont of Crocksford, Newmarket. Part
of the only flock of Norfolk sheep of any pretension in England, numbering
about a hundred.
Photograph by Clarence HaiUy &• Co., Neivmarket.
A RAM OF THE FLOCK
Shepherd and Flock 55
from an ill-formed carcase, and a restless and unquiet dis-
position. The Norfolks were eventually superseded by
Southdowns, introduced by Arthur Young, who gives the
number of sheep in Suffolk as 240,000."
In 1 9 10 the Norfolk is described as " a very highly
bred animal, somewhat wild in nature, disliking confine-
ment, particularly artistic in appearance, and the best
mothers of any known breed of sheep."
LINCOLNSHIRE
LINCOLNSHIRE LONGWOOLS
By The Author
The county of Lincolnshire enjoys the reputation of
having more sheep than any other county of England. In
fact, the sheep of Lincolnshire are believed to aggregate
more than a million in number. Mr. Rider Haggard
remarks in Rural England (1902) : " In Lincolnshire sheep
are everywhere, on the high land and the low." In some
parts of the county, however, notably the southern marshes,
fewer are kept every year ; the farmers devote all their
energies to potatoes and mustard. The Lincoln longwool
is pre-eminent as regards breed, single specimens having
been sold at auction for more than a thousand pounds.
THE MIDLANDS
" LEICESTERS " AND OTHERS
From Pictorial Half-Hours, 1850
In Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire,
Derbyshire, and throughout the Midland counties gener-
ally, the old long-woolled sheep, essentially the same in
character, were large, gaunt, clumsy animals. . . . The
farmers were content — nay, more, they scorned all ideas of
improvement as visionary. Science was not the handmaid
of practical farming, the land was not economised, and
5 6 Shepherds of Britain
time, money, and food were wasted upon animals which
ill repaid the farmer for his trouble and outlay. But the
dawn of a revolution was at hand. Chemistry, geology,
and physiology had reared up temples in the land, whence
radiated a light before which the clouds and mists of
ignorance began to be dispelled. The genius of agricul-
ture awoke from a long trance, and a new era commenced.
Old plans became obsolete, and as a new system developed
itself, so in a parallel ratio were improvements instituted in
the breeds of horned cattle and of sheep over the country
generally. . . . From that time the star of the old un-
improved races began to set.^
YORKSHIRE
HENRY CLIFFORD, " THE SHEPHERD LORD "
OF LONDESBOROUGH
From The Book of Dais. Edited by Robert Chambers, 1869
The life of Henry Clifford, commonly called the
Shepherd Lord, is a striking illustration of the casualties
which attended the long and disastrous contest between the
Houses of York and Lancaster. The De Cliffords were
zealous and powerful adherents of the Lancastrian interest.
In this cause Henry's grandfather had fallen at the battle
of Towton, that bloody engagement at which nearly
40,000 Englishmen perished by the hands of their fellow-
countrymen. But scarcely had the Yorkists gained this
victory, which placed their leader on the throne as
Edward IV., than search was made for the sons of the
fallen Lord Clifford. These were the two boys, of
whom Henry, the eldest, was only seven years old. But
^ The Leicester breed of sheep first came into notice in England in 1755. Robert
Bakewell (1726-1795), the agriculturist who introduced the famous Dishley or new
Leicester sheep, had a quaint arrangement when he showed his sheep on his farm,
which T. Britton thus describes in The Eemiies of England and fyales, 1807 : — "They
were exhibited singly in a small house adapted to that purpose, having two opposite doors,
one for admission, and the other for retreat j and the inferior were always introduced
first, that the imagination of the inspector might be raised by degrees to the utmost pitch
at the exhibition of the last and finest." — [Author's Note,"]
Shepherd and Flock 57
the very name of Clifford was. so hated and dreaded by
the Yorkists, that Edward, though acknowledged king,
could be satisfied with nothing less than the lives of these
two boys. The young Cliffords were immediately searched
for, but their mother's anxiety had been too prompt for
the eagerness of revenge. They could nowhere be found.
Their mother was closely and peremptorily examined
about them. She said she had given direction to convey
them beyond the sea, to be bred up there ; and that being
thither sent she was ignorant whether they were living or
not. This was all that could be elicited from their cautious
mother. Certain it is that Richard, her younger son, was
taken to the Netherlands, where he shortly afterwards
died. But Henry, the elder, the heir to his father's
titles and estates, was either never taken out of England,
or, if he were, he speedily returned, and was placed by
his mother at Londesborough, in Yorkshire, with a trust-
worthy shepherd, the husband of a young woman who
had been under-nurse to the boy whom she was now to
adopt as her foster-son. Here in the lowly hut of this
humble shepherd was the heir of the lordly Cliffords
doomed to dwell — to be clothed, fed, and employed as
the shepherd's own son.
In" this condition he lived month after month, and
year after year, in such perfect disguise that it was not
till he had attained the fifteenth year of his age that a
rumour reached the court of his being still alive in
England. Happily the Lady Clifford had a friend at
Court, who forewarned her that the king had received
an intimation of her son's place of concealment. With
the assistance of her then husband. Sir Lancelot Threlkeld,
she instantly removed " the honest shepherd with his wife
and family into Cumberland," where he took a farm near
the Scottish Borders. Here, though his mother occasion-
ally held private communications with him, the young Lord
Clifford passed fifteen years more, disguised and occupied
as a common shepherd ; and had the mortification of
seeing . his castle and barony of Shipton in the hands
of his adversary, Sir William Stanley, and his barony of
5 8 Shepherds of Britain
Westmorland possessed by the Duke of Gloucester, the
king's brother.
On the restoration of the Lancastrian line by the
accession of Henry VII., Henry Clifford, now thirty-
one years old, was summoned to the House of Lords
and restored to his father's titles and estates. But
such had been his humble training that he could neither
read nor write. The only book open to him during his
shepherd's life was the book of Nature ; and this, either
by his foster-father's instruction, or by his own innate
intelligence, he had studied with diligence and effect.
He had gained a practical knowledge of the heavenly
bodies, and a deep-rooted love for Nature's grand and
beautiful scenery. Having regained his property and
position, he immediately began to repair his castles
and improve his education. He quickly learnt to read
and write his own name ; and, to facilitate his studies,
built Barden Tower, near Bolton Priory, that he might
place himself under the tuition of some learned monks
there, and apply himself to astronomy, and other favourite
sciences of the period.
Thus this strong-minded man, who up to the age
of thirty had received no education, became by his own
determination far more learned than noblemen of his day
usually were, and appears to have left behind him scientific
works of his own composition.
His training as a warrior had been equally defective.
Instead of being practised from boyhood to the use of
arms and the feats of chivalry as was common with the
youth of his own station, he had been trained to handle
the shepherd's crook, and tend and fold and shear his
sheep ; yet scarcely had he emerged from his obscurity and
quiet pastoral life when we find him become a brave and
skilful soldier — an able and victorious commander. At
the battle of Flodden he was one of the principal leaders,
and brought to the field a numerous retinue. He died
on the 23rd of April 1523, being then about seventy years
old.
Shepherd and Flock 59
SHEPHERDS' MEETING-TIME
From The Globe, 1878
On November 7th the autumn gathering of the moor-
land shepherds of the north of England took place in the
village of Saltersbrook, Yorkshire, and as an indication
of the value of such meetings to farmers, it may be stated
that no fewer than 1 2 1 strayed sheep were returned to
their rightful owners. In the spring the farmers turn out
immense flocks, sometimes numbering thousands, to nip
the tender but scant herbage which the moors furnish.
These sheep will wander about the whole of the summer,
and it is the shepherds' duty to see that they do not stray.
Occasionally animals will wander miles from the parent
flock, to be picked up and kept by other shepherds until
" meeting time " comes round, when they are enabled by
the marks stamped on their coats to return them. The
shepherds ha;ve not such an easy time of it as many would
imagine. They have frequently to walk very long dis-
tances. Sheep have an awkward habit of getting upon their
backs, and when once in this position they must lie there
and die unless somebody comes and turns them on to all-
fours.^ Then again whole flocks of sheep will find their
way into some deep ravine, out of which they are too
simple to pick their path. There, in the absence of grass
(for in many of these gullies nothing is to be found but
bracken and huge moss-covered boulders), they will stand
bleating until the shepherd opportunely arrives and drives
them out. The wages the men receive are very small,
averaging in Yorkshire about 17s. a week. In the summer
many of these shepherds sleep out night after night, pre-
ferring, when tired and a long distance from their homes,
to throw themselves down to rest among the heather. It
is from these shepherds that in the spring and autumn
months reports come as to the prospects of grouse shoot-
^ A sheep is said to be cast when it lies on its back. In some parts the term is
"awelted," in others "rigwelted," i.e. turned over as a "ridge" of earth by the plough-
share. In Orkney the word aval is used. O.N. af-velta. — \_Author^i iVoft,]
6o Shepherds of Britain
ing.-' " Meeting time " is the shepherd's carnival. Quiet
and steady enough generally, he then gives rein to his
bacchanalian proclivities, and under the mask of merriment
makes himself thoroughly miserable till he gets back to
the moors again.
THE LAKE COUNTRY
SHEEP-FARMING IN CUMBERLAND
By J. Britton and E. W. Brayley, 1802
Sheep-farming, which is prevalent in the mountainous
tracts and on the borders of large commons, seems to be
less understood here than in other parts of the kingdom.
To account for this is easy, and the reply of a simple
husbandman is sufficient for the purpose. " At Pen-
ruddock," say the persons who drew up the agricultural
report, " we observed some singularly rough-legged, ill-
formed sheep ; and on asking an old farmer whence the
breed was obtained, he replied : ' Lor', sir, they are sik
as God set upon the land ; we never change any.' " These
sheep-breeders are generally so attached to their own kind
that they seldom care to make those experiments which
the perfection of the science renders necessary.
THE HERDWICK
By A. G. Bradley, 1901
From Skiddaw to Black Combe, from Ennerdale to
Shap, the Herdwick sheep is the pivot on which all local
life, not wholly absorbed in the tourist business, turns. . . .
Nothing, strange to say, is more like the grey colouring
of the fleeces grown on these pure sweet fells than that you
sometimes see on sheep pastured amid the smoke of a great
city, and it is remarkable that the wool of the Herdwicks
^ The Highland shepherds say that the little sheep-tracks are invaluable for the
grouse, as the young birds can run on them and not be strangled by the long grasses. —
[Authr's Nole.]
Shephierd and Flock 6i
bred in Wales turns to pure white again. The lambs are
mostly piebald, black and white, with a humour of appear-
ance all their own, though their fleeces tone down after-
wards to the right shade. Farmers tell me, however, that
the tendency to black wool is always very strong with
Herdwicks. They are apt, moreover, to run to horns in
the ewes, which (from a breeding point of view) is incorrect.
A Curious Usage in the Lake District
1 90 1
The Gatesgarth Fells are no longer "stinted pasture"
or common land. The landlord has fenced the boundary,
a not uncommon proceeding nowadays, and of infinite
convenience to the farmer. For, though the mountain
sheep on commons like the Helvellyn and Matterdale
ranges acquire an hereditary instinct for keeping to their
own beats that is wholly marvellous, a certain amount of
straying is inevitable. This very custom of a common
grazing-ground, to which each valley farm has a recognised
but unrecorded right to send up so many sheep, has main-
tained, and indeed necessitated, a usage that is quite
unique in England — namely, that of the flock being the
landlord's property ; a fixture, in fact, of the farm, and
allowed for in the rent paid, if not, indeed, the principal
factor. The origin of this is that only sheep bred upon
the mountain know the range. A strange flock would
give such trouble for so long a time that an incoming
tenant would be almost compelled to purchase an outgoing
one. Hence the sheep, by a natural process, become part
of a property that without them is useless. They are
valued to the tenant and periodically appraised, the differ-
ence at his death or outgoing being due from the one party
to the other. The farmer therefore, under this system, is
in literal fact a shepherd working on the profit system with
his landlord, though the annual payment in the shape of a
rent is a fixed one. Gatesgarth, though now fenced in, is
held upon these lines, the father of the present occupant
having been a noted breeder and prizewinner.
62 Shepherds of Britain
ANOTHER ACCOUNT OF THE HERDWICK
From The Morning Post, 1 909
If we were asked to name the hardiest race of sheep
kept in this country, we should unhesitatingly give prefer-
ence to the Herdwick. This breed, a small-horned type
of longwool, lives amongst the crags of the beautiful Fell
district of Cumberland. It differs from every other type
of sheep reared in England, taking many years to mature,
and picking up a living where even the hill blackface race
of Scotland would starve. History credits it with descent
from sheep that escaped from a wrecked Spanish galleon
when Drake scattered the proud Armada; but doubt may
be thrown upon that supposition, which has been conjec-
turally used by chroniclers whose researches have led to no
definite conclusion. The same theory is held with regard
to the blackface sheep of Scotland.^ . . .
Although in its later years the Herdwick is a light-
coloured sheep, the lambs are born with black faces and
legs, the only bit of white apparent being round the tips
of the ears. At three years old the sheep has changed
from a dark colour to a steel-grey. The rams may or
may not be hornless. They are usually horned, but the
ewes are polled. . . .. The flocks are wintered on the low-
lands, but their home is on the bare rock-crowned hills.
ISLE OF MAN
THE TWO BREEDS OF THE ISLAND SHEEP
By John Feltham, 1798
The native stock is small and hardy, and would endure,
the roughest weather with little loss, and the meat tasted
fine. This is still the mountain breed. There is also a
peculiar breed, called laughton,'' of the colour of Spanish
snuff, and these are not so hardy, and more difficult to
^ The Manx folk have the same tradition respecting their loaghtan^ or "laughton,"
sheep. — \Authoi's iVofc.]
^ For spelling see page 64.
Shepherd and Flock 63
fatten. The natives like the cloth and stockings made of
the wool.
THE "LAUGHTONS" OR "LOAGHTANS"
From The Sheep, 1837
The sheep are small on the hills, seldom exceeding
eight to ten pounds the quarter, and producing fleeces of
short or middle wool weighing two and a half pounds.
They have much resemblance to the Welsh sheep, and
have most of their peculiarities and bad points. They are
narrow-chested and narrow-backed, long in the leg, and
deficient in shoulder. They are found both horned and
polled, mostly of a white colour ; but some of them are
grey, and others of a peculiar snuff or brown colour,
termed in the island " laugh ton " colour. This colour,
either covering the whole of the sheep or appearing in the
form of a patch on the neck, is considered as the peculiar
badge of the Isle of Man sheep. In the valleys a larger
sheep with longer wool, a proper long-wooUed sheep, is
found. The flesh of both breeds is said to be good, and
the wool of the hill sheep valued in the manufacture of
stockings and some of the worsted goods.
SHEEP AND SHEPHERDING IN THE
ISLE OF MAN
By The Author
Sheep used to keep their own places upon the moun-
tains without fence of any kind, but the land is now
enclosed. The Crown has also enclosed the commons,
which are let. Before " disforestation of the commons "
in i860, any one, by paying a nominal rent, might send
sheep to feed on the mountains. A good many of the
shepherds are Scotsmen. The Manx shepherds turn
their hand to any farm-work, and the farms and flocks
not being large several farmers act as their own shepherds,
assisted by a son or some other farm-hand. The sheep
64 Shepherds of Britain
when taken from the mountains have a way of returning
to their old haunts, as is the custom with sheep in Wales
and elsewhere. This is very tiresome when there are other
plans for them, or when they have changed owners. The
name for one of these places is oayll (a haunt, a place
frequented). The Manx shepherd often makes a pet of
some of his flock, and particular favourites may be seen
running to meet him as soon as he appears. On the
mountains are small yards made of stone without mortar,
and called paabs ; these are used for catching sheep in, and
would seem to be much the same as the " rude enclosures "
of Shetland, which are cdWed. punds } Both in Shetland and
in the Isle of Man it was the custom to hunt the sheep
with dogs.
There are three kinds of sheep in the island : — i.
The loaghtan, or "laughtan," as it is variously spelt
(loagh is pronounced like the Scotch loch), which is
the name popularly given to the brown flocks of the
old Manx breed, though, as elsewhere pointed out, it is
really the name of a colour, not of the breed itself. 2. A
white sheep with a yellow face.- 3. The keeir or black
sheep, a mouldy grey (^keeir in Manx means dark grey).
The loaghtan, or rather lughdoan, which is the correct
spelling according to Cregeen's Manx Dictionary, is, he
tells us, derived from lugh (mouse) and dhoan (brown),
these colours when mixed producing the shade which is
understood by loaghtan ; it cannot be from Ihosht dhoan
(burnt brown), though this better describes the colour.
The loaghtan is said by some to be a purely Manx breed
and only known to the islanders by the Manx name.
This, however, is not correct, for similar sheep are to be
found in Shetland, though not in Orkney, and a few also
in Scotland. When the pretty soft brown wool of the
loaghtans becomes weather-beaten it gets lighter at the
edges. There sometimes occurs in a loaghtan flock white
sheep with patches of brown, but when a flock of loagh-
^ See page 97.
^ Sacheverell, in Account of the Isle of Man^ published 1707, writes of some sheep on
the island " of a yellow or rather buff colour."
Shepherd and Flock
65
tans is named it is understood that brown sheep are meant.
They have two and in some cases four horns. The race
had become almost extinct in the Isle of Man in the earlier
part of the last century, their place being taken by larger
sheep brought over by Scotsmen who rented Manx
commons. A Manxman in Baldwin, Quirk by name,
who was of a conservative disposition, kept some of the
old stock. He was quite a character, and believed, as he
put it, " the oul' times were bes' for all." He ploughed
By IP Marsden
From a paintL}is %n possession of Mr y C Bacoit.
LOAGHTAN EWE AND RAM
with oxen, and would not have any new-fangled English
improvements about his farm, but held on with his poor
little loaghtans while his neighbours went in for the
larger English and Scotch breeds which paid them better.
Thus the loaghtans were being gradually displaced for
such breeds as the Shropshire and Leicester in the low-
lands, and by the Scotch mountain breed in the highlands.
Many years after. Colonel Anderson, who still lives in the
island, on passing through Baldwin, high up in the fast-
nesses of the Manx mountains, there saw these sheep.
He brought some to his place at Michael, and later on
F
66 Shepherds of Britain
other landowners also bought some of them. In these
days when picturesque, even if less useful, types are
gradually passing away, it is refreshing to hear of con-
servative Quirk and those who followed his example.
Mr. J. C. Bacon, of Santon, Isle of Man, writes : " I have
a brown flock of pure Manx mountain sheep. The word
loaghtan only refers to the brown colour, which is what
the Shetlanders call moorit or moor-coloured. It is, how-
ever, not really the name of the breed but of the colour.
Our Manx sheep are very small and finely shaped, a well-
defined and handsome variety of a breed which for want
of a better name I call the short-tailed sheep of Northern
Europe. They were no doubt at one time wild ; and on
the island of Soa, one of the St. Kilda group, are still
practically in a state of nature. The domestic short-
tailed sheep is found pure in Iceland, the Faroe Isles,
the Shetlands, Isle of Man, and a few in the Outer
Hebrides, where I saw one or two good specimens this
year. Probably there may still be some in the more
remote Scotch highlands and in Ireland. The breed runs
in peculiar colours — white, black, brown, grey, and fre-
quently in piebald mixtures of these colours. They have
a tendency to produce four horns, and sometimes have
even five or six. They are very hardy and picturesque,
make excellent mutton, and except in very cold climates
yield wool of exceptional quality. The Shetland shawl-
wool is, of course, renowned. One peculiar feature of
this breed is that the tail never reaches the hocks, and
another is, that if not shorn they cast their fleece in
summer. The Shetlanders, Faroes, and Icelanders never
clip these sheep, but simply pull the wool off when it
becomes loose. Black four-horned sheep found in some
English parks are invariably described as St. Kildas, and
some no doubt came originally from there. It is said,
however, that the only sheep there now are the Scottish
blackface, and the little brown, nearly wild flock just
mentioned as occurring on the Isle of Soa."
Shepherd and Flock
67
OLD ENGLISH BREEDS OF SHEEP
By Walter Skeat, 19 10
There seems to be little doubt that the Manx moun-
tain breed represents one of the most ancient of the old
English breeds of sheep. Remnants of a similar breed
occur in some parts of Scotland, the Shetlands, and
Hebrides, and sheep of a black colour were also very com-
mon in ancient Ireland. Giraldus Cambrensis (a.d. 1200)
MR. J. C. BACON AND HIS MANX " LOAGHTAN SHEEP
states that the dress of the Irish at that time was " generally
black, the sheep of the island being of that colour." In
other words, the common people wore garments made of
the natural black wool. And we know further that the
ancient Irish sheep, generally at least, were of the many-
horned variety. It is practically certain that they belonged
to the " black " many-horned breed here discussed, or at
least to some similar breed. In the illuminations of
Anglo-Saxon manuscripts the horned variety are oftener
represented than the polled sheep. Altogether it seems
fair to assume that this dark breed anciently existed in
England as well as in m.any other parts of the British
68
Shepherds of Britain
Isles, where it survives, or has survived till recently. I
was speaking one day to Mr. E. Magnusson (the well-
known Icelandic scholar), and mentioned the fact that
a many-horned sheep was formerly found in Ireland.
Mr. Magnusson replied : " That is a fact of great interest
to us Icelanders, because many-horned sheep sometimes
of a black colour are still to be found in Iceland, and
I did not know that they were to be found elsewhere."
And Mrs. Magnusson kindly hereupon showed me some
ST, KILDA SHEEP. THE PROPERTY OF MR.
MACPHERSOX.
" Many of the St. KiUla sheep are black and four-horned. The wool, which In its
rough state is called * clip,' is loaded with fat. After scouring, 24. lbs. will only
weigh 14 lbs., so much weight is lost."
black Icelandic wool which she had obtained for spinning,
an art which she still practises. Again, " There is no doubt,"
Dr. Chalmers Mitchell remarks, " that a blackfaced sheep
generally with dark brown wool was formerly common
in many parts of Great Britain, and these sheep had
usually four horns." The St. Kilda or Hebridean four-
horned sheep are the best-known examples, but others
turn up from time to time from different parts of the
country.
Mr. C. I. Elton, in his Origins of English History
Shepherd and Flock 69
(1890),^ has the following important passage: — "The
Celts in the Midland districts [long after Caesar's time]
may have lived in permanent villages, raising crops of
oats or some rougher kinds of grain for food, and weaving
for themselves garments of hair from their puny, many-
horned sheep. But the ruder tribes who subsisted entirely
by their cattle would naturally follow the herd, living
through the summer in booths on the higher pasture-
grounds, and only returning to the valleys to find shelter
from the winter storms. Professor Rolleston states that
no one with the evidence before him ' can doubt that the
goat, sheep, horse, and dog were imported as domesticated
animals into this country in the earliest Neolithic times.' ^
It has been questioned whether the sheep was known in
these islands before the Roman invasion, chiefly because it
is difficult to distinguish its remains from those of the goat.
But the latest discoveries are in favour of the theory that
the goat had been to a great extent superseded by the sheep
as early as the beginning of the British Age of Bronze."
WALES
SHEPHERDING IN ANCIENT WALES
From Ancient Welsh Husbandry
(A Commercial and Agricultural Magazine)
Sheep ought to be housed in the beginning of spring
when they are bringing forth lambs, and in winter they
should be turned to places under the influence of the sun ;
and thou art not to fold them too much on fallow land.
Shear them at Michaelmas, so that the marks of the scars
may disappear upon them against the winter, and do not
milk them later than August.
HABITS OF WELSH SHEEP
By Theophilus Jones, i8og
Here our sheep resemble their aboriginal masters in
their manners and mode of life. While they are de-
^ (Quoted by permission of Mr. Bernard Quaritch and author.
'^ British Barroius, p. 750.
70 Shepherds of Britain
pastured in fields and lowlands, and have boundaries
prescribed to them, they have a mischievous activity which
bafRes human ingenuity to correct. Place them on a
mountain where they are apparently free and may roam
whither they please, and they stick to a favourite spot as
if they were surrounded by a wall. After they have been
accustomed to graze upon a particular part of a mountain,
if they are not disturbed when at rest at nights, they are
prisoners by choice, and cannot be removed from thence
without difficulty. This is perfectly well understood by
the proprietors of sheep in this country, who sometimes
avail themselves of their knowledge in a very artful manner.
When there is a right of intercommoning, which is fre-
quently the case here, the shepherd who wishes to prevent
a new flock from depasturing on the same bank or hill with
those called the old settlers^ comes at the dusk or in the
middle of the night, rattles some stones which he carries
in his pocket, throws up his hat, or takes up clods and
throws them about him in all directions. This, one would
suppose, disturbs his own sheep as well as his neighbour's.
It is, indeed, particularly disagreeable and unpleasant to
both ; but the new settlers not being so much accustomed,
and of course not so attached to the spot, give up the
walk, and leave it in the sole possession of the old
occupiers.
There are also some other traits in their character
deserving of notice. When they are first driven to the
hills from the low grounds the old sheep, with that affection
which is, however, not peculiar to this animal, mount to
the highest eminence, and leave, or rather confine, the
yearlings and youngest to the lowest part of the hill,
showing them by their conduct, perhaps informing them
in their language, that they are not so capable of enduring
cold as those who have been accustomed to a more bleak
and elevated situation. It is very certain also that Provi-
dence has implanted in them for the preservation of
their species a presentiment of the approach of hard weather,
particularly of snow, sometimes so fatal to them. A day
or two before it falls they are observed to avoid the
Shepherd and Flock 71
ditches and other situations where drifts are likely to be
found, and sometimes, though seldom, they have been
known to quit the hills entirely, to overleap the enclosures,
and to come down into the vales a day before a storm
commenced.^
There is also a peculiarity (as it is said) in the sheep
bred in Glamorganshire, when sold and delivered into
Brecknockshire, which is very remarkable ; but, incredible
as it appears, it is attested by the universal voice of those
who are conversant with this species of traffic. They
assert positively that if a lot of sheep be brought from the
former county into the latter, the purchaser is obHged to
watch them for a considerable time more narrowly, and
with greater care, than any other part of his flocks. They
say that when the wind is from the south they smell it ;
and, as if recognising their native air, they instantly medi-
tate an escape. It is certain, whatever may be the cause,
that they may be descried sometimes standing upon the
highest eminence, turning up their noses and apparently
snuffing up the gale. Here they remain, as it were,
ruminating for some time ; and then, if no impediment
occurs, they scour with impetuosity along the waste, and
never stop until they have reached their former homes.
SHEEP CHARACTER IN CARNARVONSHIRE
By the Rev. J. Evans, 1812
The sheep are the ancient Alpine sort, unadulterated
or unimproved by any foreign mixture, and form a dis-
tinct and very curious breed. They are compared with
the Cotswold, Leicester, or even Ryeland breeds, very
diminutive animals, and far inferior in size to those of
the adjacent county of Anglesey. Some of them in
symmetry resemble the Merino breed of Spanish sheep.
Like the latter, they are migratory, though not to an equal
extent, travelling up to the mountains during the summer
months, and at the approach of winter descending to the
lowland pastures. . . .
' Infra, "Folk-Lore,"' p. 315.
7 2 Shepherds of Britain
From their ranging mode of life these sheep assume
a very different character and habitude to those of an
enclosed country. They roam wherever inclination leads,
confined by no fences ; and, frequently unattended by a
shepherd, are obliged to have recourse to their own
exertions against their formidable enemies the foxes, who
here assemble in troops, and the ravens and large birds
of prey, who from necessity in this grainless country be-
come carnivorous. The sheep themselves appear quite
different animals. Instead of assembling in large flocks
they form gregarious parties, generally consisting of ten
or twelve, of which number, while feeding, one stands at
a distance as sentinel to give notice of approaching danger.
If the guard perceive anything making towards the little
flock, he turns and faces the enemy, and permits him
to advance within about one hundred yards. If his
appearance be hostile and he continues to advance, the
guard then warns the party by a shrill whistling noise till
they have all taken the alarm, when he joins them in the
rear, and they all betake themselves to the more inaccessible
parts of the mountains.
SHEEP OF THE SNOWDONIAN RANGE
By The Author
The Rev. Morris Griffith, writing from Anglesey of
Welsh sheep, says : " It is a well-known fact that sheep
when removed from their accustomed feeding ground will
make an effort to get back to their haunts. Thousands
of sheep belonging to different farmers feed on the
Snowdonian Range, and in June they are brought down to
be shorn ; after that operation they are taken back, each
flock going straight to its accustomed place and remaining
there. Even though in their progress they have to pass
through other flocks, they never mix." Mr. W. B. Gardner
corroborates this, adding : " Sheep /bred on a farm and
kept till they are, say, five years old, no matter where
they are taken, never forget their old home ; this is true
shepherd and Flock 73
of all breeds. Drive them to the market, then take them
a distance of eighty or a hundred miles away from their
' native heath,' and the morning after arrival at their new
pasture they will be found huddled together at the points
nearest the hills and straths they have left, and wearing
looks of deep dejection. But for artificial and natural
barriers they would return in unbroken order to the
scenes of their youthful days. Also companies or ' cuts '
of sheep will return after shearing or dipping to their old
ground, and if they have to pass through other flocks the
process is similar to that witnessed at a junction where
people pursuing various journeys meets"
IRELAND
SHEPHERD AND FLOCK IN ERIN
By Ralph Fleesh, 1909
Sheep-farming, as a successful speculation in Ireland,
is largely dependent, as elsewhere, on the skill and devo-
tion of the shepherds, while they in turn rest the com-
petency of their craft upon the celerity and sagacity of the
collie. Here Irish flock-masters are extremely fortunate,
for the shepherds and sheep-dogs of Ireland are admittedly
a credit to the calling. In Ireland, too, the shepherd (who
not infrequently is of Scotch extraction) makes his master's
interests his own. In a real sense, he lives for his sheep,
and, instead of taking orders from his master, gives, under
the cover of suggestion, all instructions as to the home
management and classing of the sheep for the diff^erent
markets. A keen and constant student of his flock, he
knows the family history of each of its members, and this
knowledge is of inestimable value both as regards treat-
ment for disease and for pedigree purposes. The Irish
shepherd, like his Scotch and English brethren, seldom
indicates a desire for change, unless his bank-book gives
ground for the ambition of becoming a master himself.
74 Shepherds of Britain
Even then he hesitates, for the pleasure he derives from
the discharge of his present duties, which are all more or
less masterful, is unmarred by financial worries, and makes
him wonderfully contented. If any new departure in his
life be made, it will certainly be in the direction of sheep-
farming, since to cast aside the crook, say, for the plough,
or for a lordship over a fe^f cows, would mean a serious
step down, amounting almost to disgrace. Proud of his
calling, the supreme desire of the Irish shepherd is to live
till the end comes with his dogs and sheep.
The " pack " system of payment (^i.e. the ownership of
a number of sheep which graze on the farm) has almost
disappeared. Now the farmer simply pays the shepherd a
wage — one cow, sometimes two, being allowed. In the
west of Ireland the remuneration is unjustifiably low;
but in other parts I know of shepherds who are in receipt
of ^75 a year, plus a cow and a " follower," or calf. This
not only ensures a fair measure of domestic comfort, but
renders it possible for the shepherd to make some small
provision for the needs of old age.
Far removed in most cases from the busy populous
centres — indeed, a near neighbour is the exception rather
than the rule — the shepherd, his wife, and family, with
a resource that is truly wonderful, form a little community
of themselves, and keep alive parochial and civic interests
in a way that neither their situation nor numbers would
lead a casual observer to expect. The result is achieved
in this way : dogs, cows, " pet " sheep, hens, even the
swine, all have their appointed spheres in the little pastoral
kingdom among the hills. Thoreau's Walden — one of the
books of Nature's Bible— is but the glorified picture of a
shepherd's home.
The collie, as is his right, receives more attention than
any other of the company of subjects. For it cannot be
denied that he is the chief breadwinner, and that of all the
Irish shepherd's belongings he is the most indispensable.
Although Ireland is strongly assertive in her claims of
nationality — and these claims we are not to examine, far
less dispute — there is now nothing distinctly national about
shepherd and Flock 75
the breeds of sheep seen within her borders.-' Indeed, the
impression left after wandering over the face of pastoral
Ireland is that sheep-farming, as we rate the industry
to-day, is a comparatively modern development — if de-
velopment it can be called — of agricultural enterprise in
the country, and that originality in breed or system of
management is consequently not to be expected. With a
few exceptions, all seemed to be at an experimental stage,
although, doubtless, many native agriculturists, sharing
the proverbial patriotic fire of the Celt, would keenly
contest this finding. Still, it has been given a very sub-
ordinate place in the sheep-farming world. That there is
a social and consequently an economic reason for this, all
students of Irish history know. But the growth of industry
and corresponding increase of population (if not in Ireland,
then elsewhere not far distant) stimulated Irish farmers
to fresh and greater effort in the production of mutton
and wool, a similar impetus having been given to sheep-
farmers, and those with money invested in general agricul-
ture, in all parts of Great Britain.
The blackface sheep, whose origin is somewhat prob-
lematical, but whose favourite pastures for many ages have
been the hills and dales of Scotland, has crept into the
good graces of Irish agriculturists, and promises to become,
if it has not already done so, the chief of the fleecy
quadrupeds. Many explanations of this rather phenomenal
growth have been offered, but the most reliable, since it
is the one which commands the respect of economic science,
is that the preference for blackface mutton, particularly
in Scotland, was so pronounced that for a long time other
breeds were comparatively neglected. This preference,
though not so marked to-day as it was, has left a history
and created a taste, which factors have been mainly instru-
mental in giving sheep a place in the artistic world. This
charmed realm of " infinitudes " is now the chosen sphere
of blackface sheep-breeders. Border Leicesters are also
found in Ireland. Splendid types may be seen on a number
of farms. Then there are Lincoln longwools, Shropshires,
' See page 76, "Ancient Irish Four-Horned Breed."
76 shepherds of Britain
Hampshire Downs, and the Roscommon sheep, an animal
that suits certain districts better than any other breed. As
a rule flock-masters of Ireland ship their wool to Glasgow.
The manufacture of Irish tweeds, however, has become
a considerable industry, several experts having given it as
their opinion that the quality of goods produced would
ensure a much larger market were the machinery improved
and certain restrictions removed. Irishmen when speaking
in praise of their home-made tweed are wont to aver that
it is " unwearable," meaning, of course, that it never
wears out.
SHEEP IN ANCIENT IRELAND
By The Author
The ancient Irish four-horned breed mentioned by
P. W. Joyce in his Social History of Ancient Ireland^ (vol.
ii. p. 280) as having long been extinct, was probably for
the most part identical with the black breed actually re-
corded by Giraldus Cambrensis, though white sheep were
also known. To this Dr. Joyce adds that sheep were kept
everywhere, as they were of the utmost importance, partly
as food and partly for their wool ; and they are constantly
mentioned in the Brehon Laws as well as in general Irish
literature.
Pasturage was in common, the ground so reserved
being mountain land as a rule, and unfenced. The
arrangement under which in proportion to the size of
the farm the right to grazing was regulated, took a cow
as the legal limit :
I cow = 2 two-year-old heifers.
I two-year-old heifer = 2 one-year-old heifers.
I one-year-old heifer = 2 sheep.
I sheep = 2 geese.
The oldest form of the Irish sheep-house, into which
the sheep were driven at night, took, like the pig-house,
^ Messrs. Longmans, Green & Co. (by permission).
shepherd and Flock 77
the form of a round shed, which was placed within the
circular stockade or " rath " of the ancient Irish farmer
(Joyce, ii. 41). The milking of ewes was a common
practice in ancient Ireland, as has been the case also in
other parts of Britain (in England and Scotland) from the
earliest times. And the first day of spring, which began
on the 1st of February, was actually called " Oi-melc," or
Ewe-milking, " in the pagan times, the heathen name
giving place to St. Bridget's Feast Day." Lilting or milking
tunes were also commonly used. About the year 1430
the Libel of English Policie (p. 199) enumerates "Skinnes
of Otter, Squirell, and Irish Hare, of Sheepe, Lambs, and
Foxe," among the " chaffare " or merchandise of Ireland.
Connexion between the Irish and Faroes' Breed
Mr. Nelson Annandale, in The Faroes and Iceland,^ tells
us that the majority of the first settlers in the Faroes
came, not direct from Scandinavia, but from the British
Isles, where some of them had been in residence for two
generations. " The Suderoe folk often say that they are
of Irish, or rather ' Westman,' origin : and the ' men of the
West ' in old Norse history includes both the inhabitants
of Ireland and those of the outer Hebrides. They also
gave a name to Westmannhavn on the north-west coast
of Stromoe ... a place which their ships are said to have
frequently visited. A certain amount of evidence is given
for this view by the fact that a breed of sheep appears to
have existed in the Faroes, and especially on the little
islands near Suderoe, before the Norse settlement, and,
indeed, to have given a name to the group (/>r= sheep ;
ey = '\s\3.nd)? It is impossible that these sheep could have
originated in little islands separated by nearly two hundred
miles of sea from any other land ; it is unlikely that
they are so ancient as any former land connexion which
may have existed with this country, or that they could
have been introduced by other than human agency, though
1 Quoted by permission of the Delegates of the Clarendon Press.
^ A more probable sense is Fair Island. — \_Author's Note.']
7 8 Shepherds of Britain
they conceivably may have been brought by a drifting
wreck." The above would account for the evident con-
nexion between the surviving many-horned "black" sheep
of the Faroes and Iceland and the similar breeds of Ireland,
the Shetlands, and Hebrides, from which they must appar-
ently have come.
In the History of Qjuadrupeds (i 781) we find " Boethius
mentions a species of sheep in St. Kilda larger than the
biggest he-goat, with tail hanging to the ground, horns
longer and as thick as those of an ox."^ (Note that this
sheep differs from the four-horned
sheep described as short-tailed by
Mr. J. C. Bacon.) Also in the
same book is named the many-
horned breed common in Iceland and
other parts of the north, usually
with three horns, sometimes with
four, or even five.
"In Ireland as an aid to herd-
ing, bells were sometimes hung
round the necks of cows and sheep. Animals thus
furnished are said in the glossary to the Senchus Mar to
be ' privileged ' (Irish, uaisli ; singular uasal, lit. ' noble '),
which meant nothing more than that they were distin-
guished above the rest of the herd. There was a fine for
removing the bell. Such bells have continued in use till
this day, and in the National Museum may be seen many
specimens, some no doubt modern, but some very old."^
Mr. J. C. Bacon informs me that he has never known
sheep-bells used in the Isle of Man, and Mr. W. B.
Gardner tells me of the perhaps stranger fact that sheep-
bells are not used in Scotland.
^ See illustration.
2 Joyce, op cit.
shepherd and Flock 79
SCOTLAND
MY HIGHLAND SHEPHERD FRIENDS
By Kate Henry-Anderson, 1909
On the hills above a small Highland town famous in
history, there lived some years ago an old shepherd of
the class now so rare. He was eighty-four years of age,
hale and strong, with undimmed eyes and unclouded mind.
In all his long life he had never been ten miles from the
hamlet where he had a cottage, and had spent his days,
and many nights, on the moors that stretch beyond
Amulree. Here in the long summer light you might find
him with his two dogs, one a black-and-tan collie, the
other a grey-and-white shaggy West Highland sheep-
dog ; ^ wise beasts that did all but speak. He carried in
his " pouch," or shepherd's bag, an old, much-worn calf-
bound Bible, and his peaceful leisure was well filled to
him by the rhythm and grandeur of the Psalms of the
shepherd king who ages before watched his father's flocks.
The old man had been just such another youth, "ruddy,
and of a fair countenance" ; but glory, its perils and tempta-
tions, had passed him by, and left his soul free from the
world's dark stain. The secret, sweet influence of the
Pleiads, the glory of sun, moon, and stars, the miracles
of the seasons, and Nature's magical beauty, had wrought
in him a simple faith, a serenity of mind and heart that
were plainly written in his clear, gentle eyes and on his
noble brow, that heritage of the true Scotch peasant.
Fresh-coloured, tall and spare, with the muscular leanness
that betokens a hardy outdoor life, only the snow-white
hair and the many fine wrinkles of his face showed his
great age. He was a mine of tradition and folk-lore, and
weather-wise to an extent that set his forecast far above
the laird's barometer. I asked him once if he had never
wished for a wider life, a sight of the unknown world that
lay beyond the hamlet. " Na, na," he answered, with a
1 A variety of the collie, though called simply sheep-dog. — [Author's Note.']
8o Shepherds of Britain
gentle smile. " I hae ma sheep an' the hills, and the
Psalms o' David dinna fail me. I want naething
better. I'm never weary wi' them to read." More
than most men did he realise that the Lord was his
Shepherd. His soul has now gone to its eternal home,
and an old Highland custom has set on the grey
stone above the grave his humble calling after his
name, thus : " Alastair Mackenzie, Shepherd, who died
at , aged 92.
The Lord is my shepherd."
In the beautiful county of Inverness lives a shepherd,
who made once, and never again, an effort to live in a
great city. He is a sturdy man in the prime of life,
brown-bearded and grey-eyed, with the curious gentle
look which may be seen in the eyes of wild creatures.
We had missed him from the hills, and were told that
Donald had gone " awa tae Glesca." But the end of the
summer saw his return to the purple moorland. — He said,
" I was sae lonely an' ma hairt was sair. I was wae for
ma sheep an' the hills. I couldna bear tramp, trampin'
thae grey streets, wi ne'er a kent face tae greet me ; an' the
dirt an' the noise. I was clean demented. So I just
cam' awa back, an' I'll no gang ony mair til the toun."
One of the shepherds in Inverness-shire sixty years
ago was a bard, and composed and sang his own songs.
He would improvise for the delight of the village, and
has left a book of Gaelic songs with sol-fa tunes. I know
his old son Donald, who is eighty years of age. The
shepherd of the North used always to wear the " Tam-o'-
shanter or bonnet," and a huge plaid curiously folded.
In this he slept on the heather very warmly. They often
knitted their own hose, and I know one who did so for
forty years. Very weather-wise and full of old tales and
traditions are these men, and they love the Bible or " the
Book."
Another of my shepherd friends is Galium Macpher-
son. He comes from the far North in Argyllshire, near
Loch Shiel. He is of a very old family — " hundreds of
Shepherd and Flock 8 1
years old," he said — a fine man, full of Celtic feeling and
imagination, very handsome, with grey eyes and fresh
complexion — a true Highlander of my favourite type. I
understand the Scot peasantry and the Highland shep-
herds because I love them, and I find in them the
simplicity which is that of " the little child " of the Bible.
They have warm hearts of fire and tenderness compounded,
and you must be bred among them, meet them, chat
with them, and trust them, then the rich treasures of
their nature are yours. They are "leal," and never fail
you in joy or sorrow. I love to speak of them to those
who love to hear.
HARDSHIPS OF SHEPHERD LIFE IN THE
HIGHLANDS
By Alexander Innes Shand, 1905
Not a few of my most enjoyable days have been passed
in the company of keepers and simple-minded hill shep-
herds. They are intelligent, companionable, and instruc-
tively conversable when they come to know you well. I
have made friends with sundry Highland shepherds, and
have a great regard for them, and much sympathy with
their hard and solitary lives. . . . Take them all in all
they are an honest and self-respecting set of men. Many
a weary league from the kirk, their Sunday reading is
often the Bible and Pilgrim s Progress. The shepherd with
his trials and troubles is naturally short in the temper.
If he is misanthropic, it is because he so seldom sets eyes
on a fellow-creature ; but only take him in the right way,
and he is the most kindly of hosts and the most friendly
of companions. . . .
As a rule the shepherds hasten to be married ; but
imagine the lot of the celibate, with no company but his
collies. -His evensong as he goes home in the gloaming
is the scream of the eagle or the croak of the raven ; and
through the nights those dogs of his are baying the moon
or answering the challenge of the prowling fox.
G
8 2 shepherds of Britain
Weary and soaked to the skin, he has to do his own
cooking, and as he has neither leisure nor energy to shift
his clothes, no wonder rheumatism steals upon him early.
He knows the lie of the land well ; but many a time when
belated in darkness or mists, he has to sleep out in some
cleft of the rock, on a couch of damp heather shoots, with
a plaid for a coverlet. He is answerable for the sheep,
which are periodically mustered and numbered.
Reading the weather like a book, in late autumn he
sees the sign of a " breeding storm," and whistling to his
dogs he wanders forth to lead back the sheep from the
heights to the hollows. . . . The storm bursts and the
rain descends in torrents ; all the more reason for the
shepherd going forward, for he knows that on the
morrow there will have been drownings in the strath, and
that eagles and ravens will be battening on the " braxy."
He does what may be done before darkness settles down,
and then, if it is possible, he would get back to his fire-
less fireside. But each burn and rill is rising in spate,
and the stream from which he fills his water-butt is half-
breast high and raging furiously when he gropes his way
to the post that marks the ford and the stepping-stones.
Within gunshot of supper and the box-bed, he may have
to curl up in the moss-flow, with his whimpering dogs,
famished and shivering.
Yet this is a trifle to being abroad in the winter
blizzards, when the flock may be smothered in the snow-
drifts. The bitter wind pierces through the thickest
clothing, and he is likely enough to get lost in the
blinding snowflakes. A slip on the rocks may sprain
an ankle, or, treading carefully as he will, he may fall into
a treacherous snow-wreath. Once caught to the armpits,
there is slight chance of extraction. All these things con-
sidered, it is wonderful that the casualties come so seldom,
and that, save in exceptional cases and in the lambing
season, so few of the sheep are missing.
These sheep are extraordinarily hardy, and seldom
succumb to anything but suffocation. They wear warm
under-vests of close wool, with shaggy overcoats as im-
Shepherd and Flock 83
pervious as Irish frieze. They can exist for days on
starvation fare, and like the deer have an instinct for
scraping among the snow, where they are hkely to get at
the coarse but nutritious herbage. When the shepherd's
strength is taxed to the utmost is in such a storm as
is described on Exmoor in Lorna Doone, and in the
Highlands he has to go farther afield than Jan Rid, to
dig into drifts and save the survivors.-^
The shepherd has other enemies to fight than the snow
and rain floods. I do not believe foxes or eagles do
much harm to the old sheep, but they are terribly de-
structive in the lambing season, all the more since the
extension of the deer forests. The eagles have been
generally strictly preserved, which is gratifying from the
picturesque point of view ; but if a sheep is crippled or
ailing the eagle is always on the look-out, guided by the
ravens and hooded crows. For the eagle is the most
voracious of gluttons, and the best chance for the shepherd
to take his revenge is when he weathers on a bird gorged
to the beak with drowned mutton. Then the prince of
the air and the mountains may be knocked senseless with
the staff. It is not so very easy to circumvent the fleet
and wily fox, who does infinitely more harm. He has
his lair in the recesses of the half-impregnable cairn, and
laughs at the comparative lumbering of the swiftest
collies, and is only to be forced from his hold by varmint
terriers. Consequently none of his rare visitors is more
welcome to the shepherd than the professional fox-hunter
with his mixed pack. With the " tail " of his professional
dogs come keepers and gillies, each with his own canine
attendants, and then dens are stormed and there may be
merciless slaughter.
1 Pictorial Half-Hours (1851) has the following : — "In the wild mountain districts
of Scotland the shepherd has frequently appalling dangers to undergo from the terrible
storms that sometimes desolate those exposed regions. Hogg has given us accounts of
several most fearful ones j in one he was himself a participator, and bravely incurred no
small hazard in fulfilling his duty. Seventeen of his brother shepherds and an in-
numerable number of sheep perished on that single occasion." — [_AuthDr^i Note."]
84
Shepherds of Britain
MR. JAMES GARDNER
JAMES GARDNER, SHEPHERD AND FAMOUS
COLLIE-DOG TRAINER
An Appreciation by a Grateful Pupil, 1909
Mr. James Gardner belonged to one of the oldest
shepherd families in Scotland. He was born in the
Upper Ward of Lanarkshire, at a place called Todholes,
in the year 1840, and died at North Cobbinshaw, Mid-
lothian, in 1900. He was deeply devoted to his calUng,
and would have regarded as an insult any suggestion or
offer of social advancement which would have entailed his
leaving the shepherd world. A true mountaineer, he
retained a lofty independence, nor could he tolerate any
of the forms of cant and hypocrisy. He was in the best
sense a God-fearing man, but made no parade of religion.
It was said of him at his death by one who knew him
thoroughly : " A truer and more generous man than
Shepherd and Flock 85
James Gardner I have not known ; he was quite incapable
of a mean action." This very accurately summed up the
character of the man. In company he was the very soul
of good fellowship, his conversational powers being quite
unique. Education and social opportunities would have
made him a great orator ; the want of these gave him
place and power in a humbler and purer world. " Give
me," he would say with fine rustic eloquence, " the warmth
of my home and the devotion of my dogs, and I will ask
none of the vain and fleeting pleasures of the gay world."
When he died his dogs mourned his departure with all
the pathos of loving and broken-hearted children.
James Gardner married when he was in his eighteenth
year, his bride, Mary Black, being in her seventeenth.
They had four children, two sons and two daughters.
His death was the result of an accident which happened
when he was directing the demolition of an old building,
and his wife survived him only a year. Much of an
abstract nature has been written of the shepherd and his
calling, but an experience of Mr. and Mrs. James Gardner's
hospitality revealed in a memorable way all the sweetness
and charm of life amongst the hills. Their guests were
made to feel that warm hearts can convert small cots into
great palaces.
JAMES GARDNER— ANOTHER ACCOUNT
By the Rev. Hugh Young, 1910
It was in the spring of 1884 that I first became
acquainted with Mr. James Gardner, of North Cobbin-
shaw, and quickly formed a friendship, close and intimate,
which continued unbroken till his death. Daily inter-
course with him soon made apparent his fine and sterling
qualities as a man, and his unmatched skill and ability as
a shepherd. Among my first impressions of him which
remained and deepened as the years went on, were his
genial nature, his kindly heart, his fidelity to duty, his
intense interest in all things human, and his fine sympathy
86 Shepherds of Britain
with every living thing in Nature, and, above all, in the
flocks of sheep under his charge. He was possessed of a
rich fund of folk-lore, as well as a varied, accurate, and
extensive knowledge of all animals he came in contact
with. To me it was a sincere pleasure to hear him talk
by his own fireside of the people of his acquaintance, and
with the aid of a bright and vivid imagination describe in
glowing language the humorous incidents of his shepherd
life. Time and again was this done with unfailing interest,
for the fund of stories was inexhaustible, and his powers
of description brilliant. I remember well and gratefully
his kindly interest in myself when, coming to the district
as a clergyman, a stranger, he took me in, not only to his
home but to his heart, and not a little encouragement did
I receive from him when I observed that he seemed to
regard my work of a pastor as being carried on very
much on the lines of his own, although admittedly
in different spheres, and I had always the feeling that his
inward criticism of myself took the same direction ; his
ideal of a shepherd and his duties was high, and it was
the strenuous effort of his life to attain it. His fidelity to
and care over his flock were unapproachable, and his know-
ledge of sheep and shepherd duties could not be surpassed.
Often when discoursing to my people on the Great and
Good Shepherd have I had Mr. Gardner in my mind, and
have drawn from the admirable, I might say perfect,
manner in which he tended his flock my best points
and aptest illustrations.
But even still more remarkable than his wonderful
ability as a shepherd, was the extraordinary mastery he
had over his dogs, as seen in his skill in training and
managing them. It was extremely interesting to see him
working them on the hill-side, or indeed anywhere. Every
turn, every move seemed perfect ; the reasons for this
were probably the close intimacy and the friendly under-
standing that existed between the parties concerned, the
master and his servants, and also the fact that he never
struck his dogs ; he had always a dread of doing so, no
matter how much they were at fault, or how they had
shepherd and Flock 87
disobeyed. This lesson he had learnt, he told me shortly
before his death, when he was a young man. He said
that he was one day gathering a lot of sheep near the farm-
house of his employer. The dog he was then working
had offended him, and in a little anger he threw his crook,
not intending to strike, but unfortunately it did. Ever after
when he was working at the same place the dog seemed
to become paralysed and useless. This was a lesson, he
said, he never forgot, and from that day he would never
strike a dog. Many are the interesting stories that might
be told of Mr. Gardner and his dogs, to show the latter's
sagacity, intelligence, and ability in working, as well as
their master's command over them. One or two may
suffice.
On one occasion when he and I were walking leisurely
along the road leading through the farm. Rasp, one of
the best dogs he ever had, was working alone around a
little hill at a considerable distance. He happened to say
in conversation that if he only would say to her, " Ye've
left one," she would run away back at once for it. Pre-
sently she appeared. He very quietly repeated the words,
and away she went to get the supposed left sheep. "Ah,"
he said, " it will not do to deceive her ; I must call her
back at once." _He did so, and again in an instant she
appeared round the brow of the hill, looking up, and
apparently wondering what this unprecedented action
on the part of her master was about, and little dreaming
that it was all done to show off her own splendid qualities
and accomplishments. On another occasion, shortly before
his death, I was passing the farm ; where Mr. Gardner
was working with the sheep, in the heart of the " bughts,"
there was a small group of sheep standing by the barn
door, which he wanted quietly brought round to him.
He gave Turk, a big, strong, rather impetuous dog, the
proper word of command. Turk seemed to understand
exactly what was wanted, for in obeying he did little
more than paw the ground with his forefeet, and on this
slight movement the sheep went quietly trotting round to
the very spot where his master was working. I said that
88 Shepherds of Britain
was very beautiful. " Yes," he replied, " Turk has done
very weU. just now."
That Mr. Gardner was a sincere and deeply religious
man I have not the least doubt. When he could, he
attended regularly the services of our church, and a very
intelligent and devout worshipper he was. Living far
from the church, we had a custom for many a year of
having a short service in his own house every Sunday
evening. Often, when I went in for the purpose, have I
found him reading his Bible, as if to prepare his mind for
the sacred duties to follow. His end was sudden, but he
died at his post, thinking not so much of himself as of
the safety of others, and particularly of the welfare of his
flock, ever so dear to his heart, and which he tended
with so great a devotion.
SAYINGS ON DOGS, TAKEN FROM THE CON-
VERSATION OF JAMES GARDNER
In every case a great dog bears a deep resemblance to
his master.
I have never known a deceitful man to have a faithful dog.
In training, you have to guide instinct by a superior
and kindly wisdom, being always careful not to blunt the
genius of the pupil by over-direction.
When a dog bites a man, that man is sorely in need of
chastisement.
The higher type of collie is easily spoilt, the lower
type can scarcely be rendered useless even by the greatest
novice.
The shepherd who creates work to train his dog is
unworthy of his calling.
A dog without a " strong eye " has no claim on my
patience.
The leading, not the commanding faculty, is the
strongest quality of a great dog.
A shepherd's dogs should all be recognised as members
of the family. Such an arrangement makes life much
fuller and sweeter.
Shepherd and Flock 89
When my dog wakes from a dream, I know from his
look that I have been present in his dream.
Not one of the great dogs of history was ever thrashed
into obedience.
No insult would wound me deeper than a look of
distrust from one of my dogs.
Prove yourself worth dying for, and your dog, if need
be, will cheerfully make sacrifice.
The noblest lessons in truth, sacrifice, and duty I
have got from my dogs.
Base-minded men work for money ; my dogs work
because service is their pleasure.
The moral superiority of my dogs often makes me
feel ashamed ; they are so grateful for every touch of
kindness.
When I am taken away, my dogs will deeply mourn
my departure. Why should I not then mourn their
death.? for, bear in mind, they have done much more
for me than I have done for them.
ON SHEPHERDS AND SHEPHERDING
IN SKYE
By Alexander Smith, 1865
The pastoral life is more interesting than the agri-
cultural, inasmuch as it deals with a higher order of being ;
for I suppose — apart from considerations of profit — a
couchant ewe, with her young one at her side, or a ram,
" with wreathed horns superb," cropping the herbage, is
a more pleasing object to the aesthetic sense than a field
of mangold-wurzel, flourishing ever so gloriously. The
shepherd inhabits a mountain country, lives more com-
pletely in the open air, and is acquainted with all the
phenomena of storm and calm, the thunder-smoke coiling
in the wind, the hawk hanging stationary in the breathless
blue. He knows the faces of the hills, recognises the
voices of the torrents as if they were children of his own,
can unknit their intricate melody as he lies with his dog
go Shepherds of Britain
beside him on the warm slope at noon, separating tone
from tone, and giving this to rude crag and that to pebbly
bottom. From long intercourse every member of his
flock vi^ears to his eye its special individuality. Sheep-
farming is a picturesque occupation ; and I think a multi-
tude of sheep descending a hill-side, now outspreading in
bleating leisure, now huddling together in the haste of
fear — the dogs, urged more by sagacity than by the
shepherd's voice, flying along the edges, turning, guiding,
changing the shape of the mass — one of the prettiest sights
in the world.
At Mr. M'Ian's Farm. — The Shepherds at Dinner
The shepherds, the shepherds' dogs, and the domestic
servants, dined in the large kitchen. The kitchen was the
most picturesque apartment in the house. There was a
huge dresser near the small dusty window ; in a dark
corner stood a great cupboard in which crockery was
stowed away. The walls and rafters were black with peat-
smoke. Dogs were continually sleeping on the floor with
their heads resting on their outstretched paws ; and from
a frequent start and whine you knew that in dream they
were chasing a flock of sheep along the steep hiU-side,
their masters shouting out orders to them from the valley
beneath. The fleeces of sheep which had been found
dead on the mountains were nailed on the walls to dry.
Braxy hams ^ were suspended from the roof ; strings of
fish were hanging above the fireplace. The door was
almost continually open, for by the door light mainly
entered. Amid a savoury steam of broth and potatos,
the shepherds and domestic servants drew in long backless
forms to the table, and dined, innocent of knife and fork,
the dogs snapping and snarling among their legs ; and
when the meal was over the dogs licked the platters.
^ Cured flesh of sheep which died, but were not butchered. Braxy is also a disease
among sheep. — (Laugh i.AN Maclean Watt.)
Shepherd and Flock
91
The Principal Shepherd
John Kelly was M'lan's principal shepherd — a swarthy
fellow, of Irish descent I fancy, and of infinite wind,
endurance, and capacity of drinking whisky. He was a
solitary creature, irascible in the extreme ; he crossed and
recrossed the farm, I should think, some dozen times every
day, and was never seen at church or market without his
dog. With his dog only was John Kelly intimate and on
perfectly confidential terms. I often wondered what were
his thoughts as he wandered through the glens at early
morning and saw the fiery mists upstreaming from the
shoulders of Blaavin ; or when he sat on a sunny knoll at
noon, smoking a black wooden pipe, and watching his
dog bringing a flock of sheep down the opposite hill-side.
Whatever they were, John kept them strictly to himself.
C. Rtid, Wisha-w, N.B.
Copyright.
CALLED TO THE TROUGHS
THE BLACKFACE BREED
By D. Macpherson, 1909
In Scotland the sheep are mostly blackfaced, not
necessarily black in their wool. Black sheep are to be
9 2 shepherds of Britain
found In all breeds, but chiefly among the blackface breed.
It cannot be said that the sheep we call black are pure
black ; they generally have a tinge of brown, and In some
cases a mixture of grey. Many years ago I wore a suit
made of black wool ; this needed no dyeing. The practice
of the shepherd to carry feeding in his plaid or tartan in
the severe weather of spring, is becoming obsolete ; they
take milk with them to the hills for weakly Iambs. The
sheep In the fields are at feeding-times (for hand-feeding in
boxes) called to the troughs, and the shepherds have their
special calls, to which a ready response is made.
DEER EXPELLED BY SHEEP
From The Table Book of William Hone, 1827
A note to a poem, " The last Deer of Beann Doran,"
by John Hay Allan, relates that in former times the
barony of Glen Urcha was celebrated for the number and
superior race of its deer. When the chieftains relinquished
their ancient character and their ancient sports, and sheep
were introduced into the country, the want of protection
and the antipathy of the deer to the Intruding animals
gradually expelled the deer from the face of the country,
and obliged them to retire to the most remote recesses of
the mountains. Contracted In their haunts from " corrle "
to " corrle," the deer of Glen Urcha at length wholly
confined themselves to Beann Doran, a mountain near the
solitary wilds of Glen Lyon, and the vast and desolate
mosses which stretch from the Black Mount to Loch
Rannoch. In this retreat they continued for several years.
Their dwelling was In a lonely corrle at the back of the
hill, and they were never seen in the surrounding country
except in the deepest severity of winter, when, forced by
hunger and the snow, a straggler ventured down Into the
straths. But the hostility which had banished them from
their ancient range did not respect their last retreat. The
sheep continually encroached upon their bounds and con-
tracted their resources of subsistence. Deprived of the
protection of the laird, those which ventured from their
shepherd and Flock 93
haunt were cut off without mercy or -fair chase; while
want of range and the inroads of poachers continually
diminished their numbers, till at length the race became
extinct. . . .
The same cause which has extirpated the deer from
Glen Urcha has similarly acted in most parts of the High-
lands. Wherever the sheep appear their numbers begin
to decrease, and at length they become totally extinct.
The reason of this apparently singular consequence is the
closeness with which the sheep feed, and which, where they
abound, so consumes the pasturage as not to leave sufficient
for the deer ; still more is it owing to the unconquerable
antipathy which these animals have for the former. This
dislike is so great that they cannot endure the smell of
their wool, and never mix with them in the most remote
situations, or where there is the most ample pasturage for
both. They have no abhorrence of this kind for cattle,
but where large herds of these are kept will feed and lie
among the stirks and steers with the greatest familiarity.
SCOTTISH SHEPHERDS OF THE
SIXTEENTH CENTURY
By James Taylor, D.D., 1859
A graphic and very interesting description of the
manners and occupations of Scottish pastoral life at this
period is given by the author of the Complaint of Scotland}
The shepherds are represented as wearing hoods which
covered their heads and shoulders and conveniently
admitted the additional envelope of the plaid. They
amuse themselves with the buckhorn and corn-pipe, while
their flocks graze along the " banks and braes " and dry
hills. About breakfast-time they are joined by their wives
and daughters, who bring their food and prepare them a
seat, spreading the soft yellow moss of a lea ridge with
rushes, sedges, and meadow- wort, or queen of the meadow.
The food of which they partake consists principally of
1 Attributed to " Sir " James IngUs ; rare. Publislied 1548. — \Author's Note.']
94 Shepherds of Britain
various preparations of milk, all of them still well known
in Scotland. " They make good cheer of every sort of
milk, baith of cow milk and ewe milk, sweet milk and
sour milk, curds and whey, sour kitts,^ fresh butter and
salt butter, reyme,^ flotwhey,^ green cheese and kirn milk.*
They had na bread but rye cakes and fustean ^ scones,
made of flour." Every shepherd is represented as carrying
a spoon in the " lug (ear) of his bonnet " — an extremely
characteristic circumstance, for even down to a very recent
period not only shepherds, but reapers and peat-diggers,
frequently provided themselves with spoons, which they
carried about with them in the manner described. On
the conclusion of their simple meal the shepherds amused
each other by relating in turn tales or stories in prose and
verse, and their wives " sang sweet melodious sangs."
The entertainment at length terminated in a general dance
to the music of eight difl^erent kinds of instruments, after
which the shepherds collected their flocks and drove them
tumultuously to the folds. This simple representation is
accurately copied from nature, and Dr. Leyden says the
original might still be seen in his day in some of the wild
pastoral districts of Scotland. As the flocks of sheep, after
grazing some hours, are always disposed to rest in the
sunny days of summer, basking themselves on some dry
acclivity, a concourse of shepherds for a social meal en-
livened with songs and stories, and occasionally diversified
by a dance, was by no means an uncommon incident.®
^ Clouted cream. Kit is a small kind of wooden vessel, hooped and staved.
'^ Cream.
■* A common dish in the pastoral districts of Scotland, formed by boiling the whey,
after it is expressed from the cheese curds, with a little meal and milk, when a species of
very soft curd floats at the top.
■* Churn milk, fustean.
^ Fustean signifies soft, elastic. Hence "fustean scones" are cakes leavened or
puffed up. Scones are cakes made of wheat, rye, or barley meal. This term is never
applied to bread made of oats.
•^ Leyden 's Preliminary Dissertation to the Complaint of Scotland^ p. 128.
shepherd and Flock 95
THE MILKING OF EWES
By The Author
The mention of ewe milk in the preceding article is
of interest. Mr. H. M. Doughty, in Chronicles of
Theberton (1910)/ writes that "Ewes were milked for the
dairy, as is still done in Holland, and produced more for
the grass they consumed than cows."
Five ewes to a cow, make a proof by a score,
Shall double thy dairy, or trust me no more.
Thomas Tusser,
§00 Points of Good Husbandrie (1560).
William Bingley, writing in 18 16, says: "From the
milk of the Cheviot sheep great quantities of cheese are
made, which is sold at a low price. This, when three or
four years old, becomes very pungent, and is in consider-
able esteem for the table." And The Antiquary's Portfolio
(1825) has : " Formerly in many parts of England cheese
was made from the milk of the ewe, and the ewes, to the
injury of the lambs, were milked regularly, as described in
The Odyssey :
" He next betakes him to his evening cares,
And sitting down to milk his ewes prepares."
With regard to Ireland, it is a significant fact that the
ancient pagan Irish name for St. Bridget's Feast on February
1st, which was anciently reckoned as the first day of
spring, was Ewe-milk or the Ewe-milking. In Scotland
during the season that the ewes were milked the bught
door was always carefully shut at even, to keep out the
witches and fairies, who would otherwise dance in it all
night.^
In Jane Elliot's famous and touching song founded on
The Lament for Flodden, there are several verses which are
to the point here :
^ Messrs. Macmillan & Co.
* James Hogg, Mountain Bard.
96 Shepherds of Britain
I've heard them lilting
At the ewe-milking.
Lasses a' lilting
Before dawn of day ;
But now they are moaning
On ilka green loaning ;
The Flowers of the Forest
Are a' wede away.
At bughts in the morning
Nae blithe lads are scorning ;
Lasses are lonely
And dowie and wae ;
Nae daffing, nae gabbing,
But sighing and sabbing ;
Ilk ane lifts her leglin
And hies her away.
In har'st at the shearing
Nae youths now are jeering ;
Bandsters are runkled,
And lyart or grey ;
At fair or at preaching,
Nae wooing, nae fleeching :
The Flowers of the Forest
Are a' wede away.
We'll hear nae mair lilting
At the ewe-milking.
Women and bairns are
Heartless and wae ;
Sighing and moaning
On ilka green loaning,
The Flowers of the Forest
Are a' wede away.''
^ The Illustrated Book of Scottish Song gives the following note: — "The Flowers of
the Forest are the young men of the district of Selkirkshire and Peeblesshire, anciently
known as * the Forest.' The song is founded by the author on an older composition
deploring the loss of the Scotch at Flodden Field, of which all has been lost except two
or three lines.'' Jane Elliot of Minto was sister of Sir Gilbert Elliot, the author of the
beautiful pastoral song, " My sheep I neglected, I lost my sheep hook." — [Author^s iVo/e.]
Shepherd and Flock 97
SHETLAND AND ORKNEY ISLES
THE WILD SHEEP OF SHETLAND
By Dr. S. Hibbert, 1822
The tenants of the Scatholds ^ were the wild sheep of
the country, celebrated for their small size, and known by
naturaUsts under the name of the Ovis cauda brevi^ that
at the present day range among the mountains of modern
Scandinavia and Russia. In very {^w places are the Shet-
land sheep mixed with a Northumberland breed. . .'. In
summer they collect from the pastures that kind of food
which the natives still designate by the ancient Scandinavian
term of lubba? The sea also affords provision, which,
in the severer months of the year, prompts them, upon
the ebbing of the water, to flee to the shore, where they
remain feeding on marine plants until the flow of the
tide ; they then return to the hills. . . . The sheep are
allowed to run wild among the hills, herding and housing
being almost unknown in Shetland. There is an old law,
that was probably introduced by the Scotch settlers,
ordering that every scathold have a sufficient herd, and
that builing,^ punding,^ and herding be used in a lawful
■•^ " The whole interior of the country consists of the unimproved and generally
undivided common or scathold. These large tracts of country are made up of peat-moss,
lochs, or bare ground, which has been robbed of soil by 'scalping.' They are clothed,
where vegetation can exist, with heaths and coarse grasses, interspersed with carices and
rushes. In the damper and poorer spots moss is the only plant to be found." —
CowiE, 1871. — [Author' s Note.']
^ Coarse grass of any kind (y uncus s^uarrosus) ; Danish, lubben ^ Icelandic, lubbe =
coarse grass. — Edmondston's Glossary of Shetland and Orkney Words. — [Author^ s Note?^
^ To put in a quiet place for the night. Icelandic, bola^ to lie down. — Edmondston's
Glossary. — [Author's Note^
^ Though Edmondston in his Shetland Glossary gives pund (Anglo-Saxon, pynd-an,
to shut up, to enclose) he does not mention punding, but the latter word is in common
use in Shetland. Hibbert seems to use it in the sense of putting the sheep into punds or
crues before marking or rueing them j but the general use of the word Is applied to
stray sheep, which are put Into punds or enclosures or even office-houses, and are kept
there until relieved by their owners, who may have to pay fines to the persons who
punded them. — Rev. T. Mathewson.
In England we formerly used the word pinfold in the same way. A pinfold or
enclosure for cattle or strayed animals. And the obsolete form " pindar " was from
the same origin (1523, Fitzherb, Husb. § 148). "Then cometh the pynder and
taketh hym and putteth hym In the pynfolde." The pinder or pounder, i.e. Impounder,
was an ofHcer of the manor, whose duty it was to Impound stray beasts (1632, Title,
The Pinder of Wakefield: being the merry history of George A. Greene^ the lusty Pinder of
the North). — N.E.D. — [Author's Note-I
H
98 shepherds of Britain
way, before or a little after sunsetting, but the regulation
has not, for a long time, been enforced. On the contrary,
the sheep are almost to be regarded as in a state of nature,
since they range at large over the scatholds during the
whole of the year.
Whenever it is requisite to catch any sheep, they are
hunted down with dogs trained for the purpose, which
Wallace, the historian of Orkney, describes as a sport
" strange and delectable." The dog bounds after his
prey, the flock are immediately alarmed, the poor animal
is chased from hill to hill until he falls into the power of
his pursuer. . . . Disdaining the use of shears, the wool is
torn from the struggling animal's back in the most brutal
manner, and if the fleece has not begun to loosen natur-
ally, the operation is attended with most excruciating
pain.
SHETLAND SHEEP— ANOTHER ACCOUNT
By Robert Cowie, 1871
The ancient Norse inhabitants of these islands, at first
pirates, in course of time became shepherds, but they
never appeared to excel in agriculture. In Shetland the
inland landscapes are comparatively tame and monotonous,
the rock scenery is always interesting, and often truly
grand and magnificent. Look to the land, and you
behold hills beyond hills, the brown sward of each dappled
over with the small species of sheep peculiar to the country,
or the better -known Shetland pony, browsing on the
coarse grass or the more tender shoots of the young
heather. The sheep find both food and shelter for them-
selves as best they can all the year round. They are most
valuable, not only as food and articles of sale, but also as
affording the women raw material, out of which to pro-
duce their far-famed hosiery. . . . The native Shetland
sheep is of the same species as those which run wild in
Northern Russia and Scandinavia. Besides the short tail,
they are characterised by small size, fine wool, and short
horns. They run wild in the scatholds, are never housed,
shepherd and Flock 99
herded, or fed by hand, and those of different owners are
distinguished by characteristic sUts or holes in the ears.
When an individual sheep in the flock is wanted by its
owner, it is hunted down by a dog. In colour these
sheep are white, black, spotted black and white, grey, or
of a peculiar brownish shade, termed by the natives
muirid} . . . Birds of prey often prove destructive to the
young lambs. Their most formidable enemies are ravens
and hooded crows. Even the black-backed gull sometimes
attacks them. But the most blood-thirsty of all are
eagles, the extent of whose ravages is only limited by
their numbers, which fortunately are small.
In the winter, particularly when grass is more than
usually scanty, both sheep and ponies frequently feed on
seaweed ; they may be observed with wonderful sagacity
approaching the most accessible shore when the tide begins
to fall, and leaving it as high water sets in.
Before the fishing became an object of so much regard,
far greater attention was paid to the raising of sheep than
has ever been since. This is shown by the large propor-
tion of the old county acts which are devoted to the
regulation of the pastures.
SHEPHERDING IN SHETLAND AND ORKNEY
By the Rev. T. Mathewson, 1909
During the last century these islands have become
much more Scotch in their manners and customs. Shep-
herds from the south have come to settle, and consequently
their modes are of a southern rather than a northern
manner. Among the crofters there is no such thing as
shepherds and shepherding in the usual meaning of the
term ; the sheep roam at large, and are only looked after
in the lambing season, when they are being " rued," ^ or
driven off to be sold.^ When I was a boy the crofters
1 Muirid or murrit — moor-coloured. We note that Cowie talks of the brown sward
of the hills. — [Author's Note.']
2 Or plucked.
" Though the shepherding is somewhat casual, the shepherd loves his flock. Mr.
S. R. Tatham writes that "when fishing in Orkney he has the services of an old
loo shepherds of Britain
generally " bulled " the sheep some distance from their
houses, so that they might not feed upon the growing
corn, but of late years the crofts have got better dykes
and railings, and that is no longer necessary. The shep-
herds have been mostly from Scotland, and native ones
have been ievf. They follow the sheep ; indeed the regular
expression is to ca' (drive) the sheep. The collie is the _
dog generally used. By some instinctive power the sheep
seem to know when it is ebb tide, and rush from the hills,
or from wherever they are, and take their fill of the sea-
weed. When we were children we were told by our
elders that there was a worm in each of the sheep's fore-
feet, and that this worm warned them when it was an ebb.
I remember when a boy cutting out this worm after the
foot was boiled, but I have been told that others cut them
out before cooking them.
In Dr. Hibbert's day (early last century) "the skins
of the Shetland sheep were in requisition for the purpose
of affording the fishermen a sort of surtout that covers
his common dress." In my younger days the skin was
taken off whole from the animal, and used as a bag for
holding meal. It was called a buggie, and the act of
taking off the skin in this fashion was called buggie-
flaying. James Macdonald in his Place Names in Strath-
bogie says that " the root of the name of the river Bogie
which runs close by my rectory is ' bolg,' a sack or bag,
generally a leathern bag corresponding to what in Shet-
land is called a ' buggie,' that is a bag made from a sheep's
skin removed from the animal, from the neck downwards,
so that the skin is left almost entire." Sieves and weights
for sifting and holding corn were made from sheepskins
stretched on hoops, the holes of the former being bored
by a red-hot wire.
shepherd to row the boat, and that he usually disappears for an hour in the middle of the
day to visit his flock." On one occasion he aslced for a " day off," as he had to drive
the sheep to market, and on the following morning, as he seemed to be depressed, Mr.
Tatham asked him if he did not get fond of his sheep and feel parting with them on
such occasions. His answer was, " Surely, surely." — \^^iuthor^s Note.~\
shepherd and Flock loi
BREEDS OF SHEEP IN SHETLAND AND
ORKNEY
By James Johnston, 1909.
In 1908 the number of sheep in Orkney was 27,504 ;
in Shetland, 133,955.
Most of the sheep are clipped in the ordinary way in
these islands, but some of the native sheep are " rued " in
Shetland. This is done in July, when the wool is coming
ofF. In Orkney there are Cheviots, blackface, Leicesters,
and a few native sheep in North Ronaldshay, which pasture
in common along the seashore and eat the seaweed. In
Shetland there are native sheep, blackface, Cheviots,
Leicesters, and half-breeds. More than half are natives.
The wool of the latter is fine, and sells for is. lod. to
2S. 6d. a lb., and is used for making the famous shawls,
etc. The blackface are next in number.
RARER PHASES OF
SHEEP CULTURE AND CHARACTER
103
RARER PHASES OF SHEEP CULTURE
AND CHARACTER
SHEEP LED BY THE SHEPHERD
By The Author
This is by no means such a rare occurrence in England
as some think. Many of the Sussex shepherds tell me that
they lead their sheep, especially on the Downs. But much
depends on whether the dog is trained to the method
or not.
William Ellis, in his Shepherd's Sure Guide (1749),
quotes " a very ancient writer," whose account of shep-
herding in France bears on our subject and seems quaint
enough to be worth recording. " ' The shepherd,' says he,
' shall order and govern his flock with great gentleness, as
is most requisite for all herds ; who must rather be and
show themselves leaders and guides of their beasts than
lords. Guiding them to the field, he must always go
before them to hinder and keep them back from running
into fields where they might feed upon evil and hurtful
grass ; and especially such grounds as wherein water
useth to stand. . . . He shall,' says he, ' rather keep
a white dog than one of any other colour to follow his
sheep ; and he himself must also be apparel'd in white ;
because that the sheep are naturally so inclined to fear, as
that and if they see but a beast of any other colour, they
doubt presently, that it is the wolf which cometh to devour
them. This dog must have a collar of iron about his
neck, beset with good sharp points of nails, to the end
that he may the more cheerfully fight with the wolf. And
if it happen that his sheep be scattered, to call them in
i°S
io6 Shepherds of Britain
and bring them together again, whether it be for keeping
them out of harm, or to cause them to know his call ; he
must whoop and whistle after them, threatening them
with his sheep-crook or else setting the dog after them.
He must sometimes make them merry, cheering them
with songs, or else by his whistle and pipe, for the sheep
at the hearing thereof will feed the more hungerly, they
will not straggle so far abroad, but they will love him the
better.' Hence it is, I suppose, that some shepherds
divert themselves with dancing and playing the tabor and
pipe, as some do at this time in England, as they did in
France when this author wrote."
Michael Drayton (1563-1631) represents the shepherd
Melanthus leading his sheep and playing to them:
When th' evening doth approach I to my bagpipe take,
And to my grazing ilocks such music then I make
That they forbear to feed : then me a king you see,
I playing go before, my subjects follow me.
SHEPHERDESSES OF THE SEVENTEENTH
CENTURY
By The Author
As time goes on and shepherds become more scarce,
shall we not once again have recourse to shepherdesses .''
Surely among the gentler sex there may always be found
suitable guardians of our flocks.
Dorothy Osborne, in one of her delightful letters to
Sir William Temple,^ describes her doings at Chicksands
in Bedfordshire, and tells us of real live shepherdesses in
1653. " The heat of the day is spent in reading or work-
ing, and at about six or seven o'clock I walk out into a
common that lies hard by the house, where a great many
young wenches keep sheep and cows, and sit in the shade
singing of ballads. I go to them and compare their voices
and beauties to some ancient shepherdesses that I have
read of, and find a vast difference ; but trust me, I think
^ Letters from Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple^ by Judge Parry. — [Inserted by
permission,'\
Rarer Phases of Sheep Culture 107
these are as innocent as those could be. I talk to them and
find they want nothing to make them the happiest people
in the world but the knowledge that they are so."
Where was the knitting of earlier days ? Sir Philip
Sidney in his Arcadia did not allow his shepherdesses to
be idle while watching their flocks ; thus :
Where sat the young shepherdess knitting, whose voice
Comforted her hands to work, and her hands kept
Time to her voice's music.
And a few years later William Brown writes :
Yonder a shepherdess knits by the springs,
Her hands still keeping time to what she sings.
AN OLD-TIME LINCOLNSHIRE DROVER
From the Eveving News, 1908
"Old Bill Thacker " of Gedney, Lincolnshire, is now
nearing ninety years of age, and is probably the only
drover left of his class in the county. Scores and scores
of times, sixty and seventy years ago, Thacker has passed
through the eastern counties with large droves of cattle,
on his way to Norwich, London, and other markets.
The journey to London occupied four to five days, and
the drover, or " topsman," as he was known, having got
rid of his stock, would walk back into Lincolnshire and
pick up another drove, and return to London, Norwich,
or some other centre again. A thirty, forty, or even fifty
miles' walk was nothing.
It was no uncommon thing for a drover to have the
care of five thousand to six thousand sheep, or three
hundred or four hundred head of cattle, for ten or twelve
days. The great objection of the drovers in those days
was not to the roads — difficult to negotiate as they were
— but to the old toll-bars, which not only meant the
payment of large sums as toll, but also caused irritating
delays, the toll-collectors being described as not of the
most amiable type.
io8 Shepherds of Britain
THE LITTLE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
DROVER
From The Gentleman's Magazine, 1797
Having rambled to the junction of the two roads upon
Chalk Hill on the sultry morning of July 24, 1797, I
rested until a boy, trudging and singing at a great rate,
came up to me. " Come along the old road, sir," said he ;
" it is a mortal sight nearer, and I suppose you are think-
ing which to take." I found my companion a most
famous little chatterer, not much above three feet high,
and fifteen years of age. He told me he had been to
Smithfield with some sheep ; that he went every week, and
had thirty miles to walk before night. His frock (smock)
was compactly bound up and tied across his shoulders.
The straps of his shoes formed a studied cross below the
buckles, which he took care to tell me had cost him nine-
pence in London the Saturday before. Turnpike tickets
were stuck in his hatband, noticing the number of sheep
he had paid for ; and the lash of his whip was twisted
round the handle, which he converted into a walking-
stick.
I soon found, though so small a being, he was a char-
acter of no little consequence upon the road, and he told
me any returning chaise or tax-cart would give him a lift
for nothing. He was familiar with every one we passed.
He wanted no hints to make him loquacious, and thus
his busy mind unfolded itself : " Now, sir, do you know,
I have a very good master ; and he promises if I behave
well to make a man of me. When I went to live with
him I was a poor, ragged, half-starved parish boy, without
father or mother, or never had any as I know of. I have
now two better coats than this " (which, by the by, was all
one complete shred of darn and patch-work), " and I have
a spick-and-span new hat I never had on but Whit-Sunday
last, and I am to learn too " (proudly stretching himself and
brushing up his eyebrows), " my master says, to write ;
but he has told me so such a mortal while I fear he will
Rarer Phases of Sheep Culture 109
forget It." I asked him if he could read. " Aye, in the
Testament. I have almost finished the Gospel according
to St. John ; and I can repeat the Lord's Prayer and
Belief too " — the latter of which he ran over as quick as
possible, and asked me if he had missed a vs^ord. . . .
The na'ive simplicity with which he delivered himself made
him rise rapidly in my good opinion, and as we paced on,
he repaid every nod he received with manifold interest.
. . . On parting, as I was turning a corner which took
me out of sight, he shrilled out, " God bless you i "
THE INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT
By The Author
John Dyer in his poem The Fleece, written in 1761, in
reference to the Leicester breed of sheep, states that
they thrive best on a hilly pasture, consisting uniformly
of rich " saponaceous " loam, or marl mixed with clay
(not on gravelly soils). To this he adds that the marl,
being too cold for the sheep to sleep on in winter (its
effect being to cause the sheep to waste), it is necessary
for the shepherd
To sink a trench, and on the hedge-long bank
Sow frequent sand, with lime, and dark manure,
Which to the liquid element will yield
A porous way, a passage to the foe.
The old pastures are the best, as new herbage causes
coughing ; pasture with a southern aspect, not too shady,
must be selected, as bleak weather detracts from the
quality of the wool. Sheep can bear no extremes, whether
of cHmate or even of " salubrious food," which
As sure destroys as famine or the wolf.
The Welsh shepherd of to-day will tell you that his sheep
feeding on slopes facing south or west have wool of a much
finer texture than those feeding on slopes facing north or
east. Arthur Young, in his Tour in Ireland (1777), writes
I lO
Shepherds of Britain
of the fine turf producing fine wool, but the quantity did
not equal the quality. " To Kildare, crossing the Curragh,
so famous for its turf. It is a sheep-walk of above 4000
English acres, forming a more beautiful lawn than the
hand of art ever made. Nothing can exceed the extreme
By Habberton LiiUtatn.
ON THE SOUTH DOWNS ABOVE FULKING
" In large pastures shepherds should take care to drive their flocks to the north side, so that
they may feed opposite to the south." — Pliny.
softness of the turf, which is of a verdure that charms
the eye, and is highly set off by the gentle inequality of
surface. The soil is a fine dry loam, on a stony bottom ;
it is fed by many large flocks, turned out by the occupiers
of the adjacent farms, who alone have the right, and pay
great rents on that account. It is the only considerable
Rarer Phases of Sheep Cuhure in
common in the kingdom. Tiie sheep yield very little
wool, not more than 3 lb. per fleece, but of a very fine
quality."
THE "FLEECY RACHAEL " WEEPING FOR
HER CHILDREN
By Alexander Smith, 1865
The most affecting incident of shepherd life is the
weaning of the lambs — affecting, because it reveals passions
in the fleecy flocks, the manifestation of which we are
accustomed to consider ornamental in ourselves. From
all the hills, men and dogs drive the flocks down into a
fold, or " fank," as it is called here, consisting of several
chambers or compartments. Into these compartments the
sheep are huddled, and then the separation takes place.
The ewes are returned to the mountains, the lambs are
driven away to some spot where the pasture is rich and
where they are watched day and night. Midnight comes
with dews and stars ; the lambs are peacefully couched.
Suddenly they are restless, ill at ease, goaded by some
sore, unknown want, and seem disposed to scatter wildly
in every direction ; but the shepherds are wary, the dogs
swift and sure, and after a little while the perturbation is
allayed and they are quiet again. Walk up now to the
"fank." The full moon is riding between the hills,
filling the glens with lustres and floating mysterious glooms.
Listen ! You hear it on every side of you, till it dies away
in the silence of distance — the fleecy Rachael weeping for
her children! The turf walls of the "fank" are in
shadow, but something seems to be moving there. As
you approach, it disappears with a quick, short bleat and
a hurry of tiny hoofs. Wonderful mystery of instinct !
Affection, all the more pathetic that it is so wrapt in
darkness, hardly knowing its own meaning. For nights
and nights the creatures will be found haunting about
those turfen walls, seeking the young that have been
taken away.
112 Shepherds of Britain
MUTUAL RECOGNITION BY SHEEP AFTER
SHEARING
By The Author
In Gilbert White's Natural History of Selborne (1789)
we read : " After ewes and lambs are shorn, there is great
confusion and bleating, neither the dams nor the young
being able to distinguish one another as before. This
' embarrassment seems not so much to arise from the loss
of the fleece, which may occasion an alteration in their
appearance, as from the defect of that notus odor, dis-
criminating each individual personally, which also is
confounded by the strong scent of the pitch and tar
wherewith they are newly marked ; for the brute creation
recognise each other more from the smell than the sight,
and in matters of identity and diversity the appeal is
much more to their noses than to their eyes. After sheep
have been washed there is the same confusion, for the
reason given above." In the lambing season the shepherds
take advantage of the knowledge that ewes recognise
their lambs by scent. William Howitt, writing in 1835,
says : " The shepherd has sometimes to find foster-mothers
for poor orphans, which is done by clothing them in the
skins of the dead lambs of those ewes to which they
are consigned." This subtlety is still resorted to by
shepherds.
ON PASTURE POISONOUS TO SHEEP
By The Author
Mr. H. Rider Haggard tells us how " Leiston Abbey
Farm (in Suffolk) used to be farmed by old monks. Mr.
Geaton had laid down twenty-two acres of pasture, but
there was some poison on the farm which made it impos-
sible for him to keep sheep. It was a matter of tradition
that sheep had always died there, and this was his own
experience. In the previous season they had perished
even on mustard, to the number sometimes of three a
Rarer Phases of Sheep Culture 113
night. Once or twice in the course of my travels I have
come across farms which were said to be poisonous to
sheep ; but whether this is so, or they are but temporarily
infected with some germ or parasite, is more than I can
determine." ^ The original abbey, a mile distant, and
built about the year 1 182, was found to be " unwholesome
and was abandoned ; so it would appear that the neigh-
bourhood was not even then blest with health."
Shepherd Stacey, of Lavant, near Chichester, says some
pastures are poisonous to sheep at certain times of the
year. An insect called flounders infests the root of a
plant, and if the sheep eat the infected root they get fat
and die. If the sheep eat a certain herb they die from
liver rot, or liver-fluke, as it is called.
John Dyer, in The Fleece (1761), alludes to "penny-
grass and shearwort's poisonous leaf"; and in various
counties in England the country - folk call pennywort
" sheep-killing." In the Isle of Man ouw or marsh-
pennywort is well known to be poisonous to sheep. The
Atropa Belladonna is another of the enemies of the sheep,
and has been stated to produce spasms known to shep-
herds as the leaping ill.
In Bateman's Great Landowners (1878) is the follow-
ing : " Among Lord Dusany's Irish property is one field
of a ie,"^ acres which is remarkable for its fatal effects on
all live stock. Horses, if grazed on it, lose their hoofs ;
stock fed on the hay, if hay be made from it, lose their
hoofs, and if the diet be continued they die ; if corn or
potatos be grown on it, the human animal who eats them
loses his nails."
Arthur Young, in his Tour in Ireland {i']']6-i'] ']<)),
records some poisonous pasture in County Sligo, near
" Ballasadore." " The mountains nearest to the sea are
chiefly stocked with sheep, and further in, with young
cattle near the bog. Upon a part of these mountains, of
three miles in extent, whatever sheep feed are immedi-
ately killed by the staggers, and horses are similarly
affected. There is a good deal of limestone in the
1 Rural England [iijoz]. Messrs. Longmans, Green & Co. — [By permission.']
I
114 Shepherds of Britain
neighbourhood, and the land is dry, and [in appearance
and in fact] good ; it fattens bullocks. Its effect on sheep
is attributed to the mines of lead, of which mineral this
part of the country is supposed to be full. When they
are first affected, if brought down to a salt marsh, they
recover immediately."
DEPENDANCE OF SHEEP ON THE WEATHER
FOR FOOD AND DRINK
By Richard Jefferies, 1880
Once now and then in the cycle of years there comes
a summer which to the hills is almost like a fever to the
blood, wasting and drying up with its heat the green
things upon which animal life depends, so that drought
and famine go hand in hand. The days go by and grow
to weeks, the weeks lengthen to months, and still no rain.
. . . The shepherds say the mists carry away the rain ;
certainly it does not come.
Under the beautiful sky and the glorious sun there
rises up a pitiful cry the livelong day ; it is the quavering
bleat of the sheep as their strength slowly ebbs out of
them for the lack of food. Green crops and roots fail,
the aftermath in the meadows beneath will not grow, week
after week " keep " becomes scarcer and more expensive,
and there is, in fact, a famine. Of all animals a starved
sheep is the most wretched to contemplate, not only
because of the angularity of outline, and the cavernous
depressions where fat and flesh should be, but because the
associations of many generations have given the sheep a
peculiar claim upon humanity. They hang entirely on
human help. They watch for the shepherd as though he
were their father — and when he comes he can do no good,
so that there is no more painful spectacle than a fold
during a drought upon the hills.
Once upon a time, passing on foot for a distance
of some twenty-five miles across these hills and grassy
uplands, I could not help comparing the scene to what
Rarer Phases of Sheep Culture 115
travellers tell us of desert lands and foreign famines.
The whole of that long summer's day, as I hastened
southwards, eager for the beach and the scent of the sea.
From a painting by R. Westall, R.A. Engraved by R. M. Meadows, 1813,
A RAINSTORM
" Happy Britain, that experiences drought so seldom ! "
I passed flocks of dying sheep — in the hollows by the
way their skeletons were here and there to be seen, the
gaunt ribs protruding upwards in the horrible manner
that the ribs of dead creatures do. Crowds of flies buzzed
in the air. Upon the hurdles perched the crow, bold with
1 1 6 Shepherds of Britain
over-feasting, and hardly turning to look at me, waiting
there till the next lamb should fall and the spirit of the
beast go downward. Happy England, that experiences
these things so seldom, and even then so locally that
barely one in ten hears of or sees them.^
THE SNAIL-EATER
By H. L. F. GUERMONPREZ, I9IO
It is a popular idea that the excellent flavour of our
Southdown mutton is in great measure due to the diet of
snails which is said to be indulged in by the melodious
bellwether-led flocks browsing on that wonderful stretch
of breezy pasture, the South Downs. I am afraid that, like
most popular ideas, this has very little foundation in
absolute fact, for though snails are undoubtedly at times
very abundant on the herbage of our Downs, most of the
same species of snails are equally, if not more, plentiful in
similar situations in many other parts of Britain. There
is only one Downland snail that is at all peculiar to our
district; this is the "Carthusian snail " {Helix carthusiana),
which is practically confined to the South Downland from
the Sussex border of Hampshire, through Susstex, and on
to Dover in Kent. Some have been found in the Isle of
Wight, probably strays, and there is a colony in Norfolk
and Suffolk. But this snail is by no means abundant,
even on our Downs, and to attribute the excellence of
the mutton to it would be a great stretch of imagination.
The five other species which may be considered peculiarly
" sheep snails " are the "zoned" or "banded snail " (^Helix
virgatd), " heath " (//. ericetorum), " wrinkled " (i7.
caperata), " Kentish " (//. cantiana), and the " acute "
(//. acuta). All of these are to be found in many
^ In Chronicles of Thebertony by H. M. Doughty (1910, Messrs. MacmiUan & Co.),
we read : " Before turnips and mangolds were known in England, farmers cut down
boughs for sheep and cattle." The lack of trees on the Downs is thus an additional
evil in time of drought. The author adds : " In winter, when hay ran short, times
were hard for the beasts."
" If snow do continue, sheep hardly that fare
Crave mistle and ivy for them for to spare." — [Author's Note.^
Rarer Phases of Sheep Culture 117
parts of Britain, and in wet weather, more especially
when they climb the leaves and culms,^ they are no
doubt consumed by the grass-cropping multitude ; but
whether this is done by predilection or of necessity, I
cannot say. It would certainly appear almost an im-
possibility for the sheep to avoid eating some, for at
certain seasons their number is prodigious, nearly every
blade of grass bearing its contingent. In parts of Cornwall
the species Helix acuta is very abundant, and here the
shepherds say that the sheep seek for the snail,^ browsing
on those parts very often at the edge of the cliff, where
this snail is more numerous. This may, however, be just
as well accounted for by the grass here being longer, as
being less accessible, or otherwise more desirable, though
it is certainly true that the number of snails there is
greater. But if the sheep's instinct works by analogy,
their feelings should be an avoidance of a snail diet, for it
is by eating a marsh snail, the "dwarf" Limnaea (^Limnaea
truncatuld), that the liver - fluke trematode {T)istoma
hepatica), a parasitic worm, enters into the organisation
of the sheep, and sets up the dreaded " rot." . . . Of
course, sheep may be good enough naturalists to dis-
tinguish between the species, but this Limnaea and Helix
acuta are really, broadly speaking, much alike, both being
high-spired. While the dangerous species occurs in damp
low ground, or even on the seashore, at the foot of
cliffs, the safe one is a dry, high-ground dweller, so the
instinct of feeding high and on the edge may be an avoid-
ance one, the poor sheep only falling a victim to the
scourge when thoughtless man drives the flock into
low, damp meadows, and thus forces them to consume
their destroyer. It is stated that over three million
animals perished in this country during the winter of
1879- 1880 from this complaint. The most common
species of " sheep snails " on our Downs is Helix virgata,
the " zoned " snail, and this is at times so plentiful that one
can well understand the popular idea that it has "rained
^ Stems of grasses.
^ Cp. "Sheep in Cornwall," supra, p. 29; and also A. Beckett, The Spirit of tie
Doivns, p. 13.
1 1 8 Shepherds of Britain
snails." The " zoned " snail is about half an inch in
diameter, usually whitish-brown, with a black band follow-
ing the spiral periphery. The " heath " is rather larger
and with many bands ; the " wrinkled," smaller and more
rugged ; the " Kentish," uniform white cream colour, as
is also the " Carthusian," which is somewhat smaller ; the
" acute," very distinct in its cigar, high-spired shape.
THE BONE-EATER
By The Author
Shepherd Smith ^ of Chichester, whose home was at
Washington, a hamlet close to the Sussex Downs, tells me
of a Southdown sheep that was called the Bone-Eater.
When he took his flock to graze at Kingley Vale, this
sheep used to wander to a part where stoats and weasels
made havoc among the rabbits, and the ground was
strewed with bones. She was always to be found here
feeding on the bones, on which she throve splendidly.
Smith had a thorough-bred collie (bred at Goodwood)
which was each day sent to fetch the Bone-Eater and
bring her back to the flock. There is a tradition that in
the year 895 some Danish " kings," killed in a battle
fought near Chichester, were buried in Kingley Vale, a
possible reason why this beautiful, though at times gloomy
vale might seem especially to suit the fancy of the Bone-
Eater.
A Cumberland shepherd says that sheep sometimes
kill rabbits and eat them. An informant, writing from
Appleby in 1909, describes how he saw three sheep round
a young rabbit, which they were tossing over and over
with their horns and stamping around in sheep fashion.
The poor little thing was squeaking, but too frightened to
attempt to escape. He drove the sheep off; and the
rabbit, unhurt, was soon able to scamper away to mother-
land.
^ For portrait of Shepherd Smith, see p. 250.
Rarer Phases of Sheep Culture 119
The Blind Sheep
An anonymous writer in Sunday (1907) tells the follow-
ing story : — "A flock of sheep, which had just been bought,
were being driven to their new home, when the shepherd
noticed that one of them was always falling behind the
rest and standing still. Every time that it did so, it
gave a peculiar plaintive bleat. To his surprise, another
of the sheep ran back to walk beside it, until they came
up to the rest of the flock. When safely enclosed in their
park the shepherd examined the loiterer, and found the
poor thing to be quite blind ; so that was why its com-
panion came to its assistance when it was bewildered from
not seeing where to go." I can record a somewhat similar
exhibition of sympathy. On August 1 7, 1 909, a number
of lambs were passing my house at 5 a.m. Even the
early morning was exceptionally hot, and there was a sad
chorus of bleats, an especially piteous one coming from a
lamb in the rear. Another lamb was seen to leave its
more sturdy companions and run, as it seemed, to give
the weary traveller a caress and possibly a word of
sympathy, after which it returned to its former place
in the flock.
A "Moderate" Drinker
The son of a Sussex shepherd, William Aylward, with
regard to another notable Southdown sheep, remarked :
" When my father was shepherd, a season when lambs
were especially plentiful, one was given to James Pelham
who kept the Oak Inn at Lavant, near Chichester. The
animal was made a great pet of, being allowed to go where
it pleased, and was often to be found in the cellar drinking
the beer that dropped from the casks. One day Pelham,
by way of experiment, turned on some extra strong beer
and called the lamb to the cellar. It took a little and
appeared to like it immensely, but knew when it had
enough, and nothing would induce it to take any more.
Upon this Pelham exclaimed, ' You be more sensible than
1 2 o Shepherds, of Britain
many a human.' When about three years old the lamb
had to be got rid of, as it grew troublesome (as is often
the result of undue petting) and used to butt the cus-
tomers."
Aylward has a store of anecdotes and interesting details
respecting sheep. He tells me that Southdowns are as a
rule kept within hurdles and other low boundaries without
difficulty. But now and again a "jumper " is to be found
among them. His father had a way of preventing such a
sheep from getting out of bounds, thus : — The ear-mark
is often a hole punched in the ear ; through this he passed
a strong thread and sewed the ear into position to the wool
of the neck. When a sheep jumps he puts his ears
forward, and the jumper, on finding that his ears were
fixed, relinquished the attempt.
A SHEEP MILITANT
By E. B. H., 1905
In December 1900 the headquarters and wing of the
2nd Battalion Durham Light Infantry were changing
stations from Mandalay, Burma, to Wellington, Madras.
They were at sea on the R.I. M.S. Canning, and Christmas
Day was spent on board. A day or two previously sports
had been held, when the officers of the ship gave a sheep
as special prize for the tug-of-war. The poor fellow was
destined for the Christmas dinner of the E Company,
who won the event. They, however, decided to make a
pet of him, and kept him as such to accompany them to
Wellington, Calicut, where he remained two years, and
went to England with the battalion. When the Assay e
arrived at Southampton, " Billy " (as he was generally
known, though officially styled Robert Canning, and
assigned the regimental number of 9999 by his "comrades")
was not allowed by the authorities to land with the battalion,
so he remained in the horse-box in which he had travelled
home, and was most kindly treated by the officers of the
ship. Billy went to Bombay and back in this troopship
Rarer Phases of Sheep Culture 121
no less than three times, and was eventually allowed to
rejoin his regiment at Aldershot. He became a familiar
object in the 3rd Brigade of the 2nd Division, and was a
most enthusiastic " soldier," accompanying the battalion
on every occasion when allowed to do so. Many stories
are told of his sagacity. He was never tied up in barracks,
but free to go where he pleased. When marching with
troops he always insisted on placing himself at their head,
about five yards in front of the leading section of fours.
I do not remember that he ever attempted to go to church
parade ; probably when he saw the red tunics he realised
that it was Sunday. He used to eat almost anything, and
enjoyed bananas, rice, bread, hay, corn, and other luxuries ;
but paper was a favourite diet of his. Alas ! poor Billy
died at Aldershot in January 1905, after eating a quantity
of gilt and coloured papers that had been used for the
Christmas decorations.
THE SHEPHERD AND HIS DOG
123
" MOOTIE," A SHETLAND COLLIE
(Second Prize Winner, 1909)
Property of Mr. A. J. Jamieson of Scalloivay, Shetland
THE SHEPHERD AND HIS DOG
SHEEP-DOGS, PAST AND PRESENT
By Walter Baxendale, 1909
The shepherd's dog in one form or another is to be
found in every country where sheep, goats, or even cattle
are grazed, and the history of various varieties as they are
now known is lost in obscurity. BufFon, who wrote with
such authority on all pertaining to the friend of man, was
of opinion that the original dog was a sheep-dog, "an
animal sagacious enough to assist the shepherd to watch
his flocks and herds, strong enough to protect them from
ravenous animals, and ferocious enough to keep the thief
and robber at a distance." The enormous dogs of Thibet
and the Pyrenean sheep-dog (the biggest non-sporting dogs
known) have little in common with the collie, rough or
smooth-coated, and the old English sheep-dog, so well
known in thiis country, though there is not much doubt
125
126 shepherds of Britain
about all being used for the same purpose ; while the herd
dogs of the Himalayas and other strong, ferocious animals
may be classified among the dogs which act as guardians
of their masters' flocks and herds. It is rather strange,
by the way, that only once in the Bible, and that in the
Old Testament, is any mention made of shepherds' dogs
of any kind ; but in the 30th chapter of Job, verse i,
a reference is made to such dogs as follows : " whose
fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs
of my flocks." Shakespeare, however, makes no allusion
at all to shepherds' dogs, though they must have been used
in his time, for in pictures of the period are represented dogs
bearing some resemblance to one or other of the varieties
still used by shepherds and drovers. That all the varieties
of the collie, including the bearded dog, the rough and
smooth coated, the merle, and even the latest breed to be
recognised by the Kennel Club and granted separate
registration, the Shetland sheep-dog, are descended from
the same stock cannot be doubted ; and one would have
liked to have seen the class for sheep-dogs provided at
Birmingham in i860, the first time the breed was recog-
nised as a show variety. All strains competed together,
and one result was that from that day to this Birmingham
has been looked on as a sheep-dog stronghold. One can
always depend on seeing the best specimens of the variety
shown there at the National Exhibition still held every
winter in the hardware capital. A " pure Scotch bitch,"
whatever that may be, was awarded the leading prize at
that first show, but the bulk of the entries were described
as English sheep.- dogs. There was no snapshot photo-
graphy in those days, or one might compare old champions
with those of the present day ; but it is certain that while
the show collie and old English .have been made more
handsome, the best workers and the most clever dogs are
little nondescript collies or shaggy bobtailed sheep-dogs
that one sees at the working trials, or at such a fair as
that at Findon on the South Downs, where the whole of
the season's lambs are driven from outlying farms to be
sold by auction. Shepherds would be badly off^ but for
The Shepherd and His Dog 127
their hardy canine companions, who know what is expected
of them without being reminded of their duty. To see
a lamb more bold than the remainder of the flock, going
too far to the right or left in search of pasture, is quite
sufficient hint to them that they must be up and doing.
The wanderer must be brought back to the flock, while
if a little hurry is necessary when the sheep are being
driven through a gate, it is the dog that is called on to
impress on the stupid sheep that time must be made up
by the flock being pressed and sent through the gateway
a little quicker. There are several clubs formed for the
purpose of encouraging the breeding of collies and old
English sheep-dogs on the right lines, and classes are
provided for the various strains at all representative shows
though, broadly speaking, only the following are recog-
nised : collies, rough and smooth coated, bearded, and
merle ; sheep-dogs, old English and Shetland. The last-
named is a diminutive collie, used in the Shetland
Islands ; but the best of both English and Scottish breeders
refuse to recognise the variety as a collie, and not until
1909 did the Kennel Club grant separate registration.^
THE OLD ENGLISH OR SUSSEX SHEEP-DOG
By The Author
" That amazing creature, the English sheep-dog."
The Southdown shepherds seem to prefer these dogs
to the collie. They are " not so highly intelligent, but
feel the heat less," and are less "meek." A Portland
landowner describes his sheep-dogs as "shaggy, with a
great deal of woolly hair over the face and eyes, as in the
face of a poodle ; bluish-grey and white in colour, with
' Michael Drayton, in The Shepherd's Sirena, has :
" And we here have got us dogs.
Best of all the Western breed."
It would be interesting to know to what breeds Drayton and Bingley (see next page)
allude. — [Author's Note.]
12 8 Shepherds of Britain
stumpy tails, and very intelligent." These dogs are noted
for showing a devotion to their master and his family, to
the exclusion of all others, as Mr. W. H. Hudson has
recorded. And William Aylward tells me that when his
father was over seventy years of age and shepherding at
Lavant, he had to bring some sheep into Chichester.
They got very out of hand, the old man -was tired, and
his Sussex dog, being muzzled, " got fogged," and refused
to help him. Although the muzzling order was in full
force, he was in such straits that, fearing that he would
" BOB, A SUSSEX SHEEP-DOG
"Bob" belonged to Shepherd Dick Flint on Mr. Brown's farm,
Blatchington, Sussex
lose some of his sheep, he took the muzzle off, upon
which the dog at once gathered the flock together, and
all went well until a policeman appeared on the scene.
The shepherd was fined iis. William Bingley, writing
in the year 1816, describes "the shepherd's dog" as an
animal of rude and inelegant appearance, which " has its
ears erect, and the tail covered beneath with long hair." ^
A friend writing from Scotland says : " You have a
beautiful old breed of sheep-dog in Sussex. I have seen
them in the north, where they are always called ' Sussex
sheep-dogs.' "
^ Sec footnote on preceding page.
The Shepherd and His Dog 129
William Aylward tells me the following about his
father's dog : " Shepherd Aylward was very proud of his
old Sussex sheep-dog, and there was great rivalry between
him and another shepherd, who declared that none could
beat his own dog in shepherding.
' ' It was ' sheep-washing ' at Lavant. The sheep refused
to go over the bridge across the stream which led to the
pen. At first both dogs failed to manage them, for they
evaded the bridge in every possible way. ' Ah ! ' said the
Scotsman, ' your dog is not so clever after all.' But,
Aylward said, ' I have not told Nimble to mount up
yet.' Nimble had this order given him, and at once
jumped on. to the backs of the flock, running over the
compact mass of woollens and snapping at their ears. In
five minutes the three hundred sheep were over the bridge
and penned ready for their wash. The Scotsman had to
acknowledge his dog beaten. He was more accustomed
to the use of a collie, which dogs do not manage their
shepherding in this fashion, so he had not trained his
dog to ' mount up.' "
THE MEANING OF " COLLIE "
By The Author
It is a matter of much dispute whether " collie " means
" black dog " or a dog who tends the " collies " or black-
faced sheep. The New English Dictionary gives collie as
of doubtful meaning. But the Scottish use of collie for
a blackface sheep is proved by a quotation in this very
Dictionary, where we find, 1793, Complete Farmer (ed. 4),
s.v. " Colley sheep," the explanation : " such sheep as have
black faces and legs." To give yet other examples, The
Dialect Dictionary says that " colley sheep," though not now
used for a black sheep, was so used in the eighteenth century,
and adds that " colley fleece " is the regular expression for
the wool of a black sheep. Lastly, the modern usage in
some parts of Scotland shows the word as applied to the
sheep to be still very much alive, as the next extract
K
130 shepherds of Britain
will prove. The word itself means black, for in 1609,
C. Butler, Fern. Mon. (1634), 122, we read of "the great
Titmouse, which of his ' colly ' head and breast some call
a cole-mouse." In all such cases " colly " or " collie " is
certainly the same as " coally " or "coaly," i.e. black.
On the contrary, in Brocket's Glossary of New English
Words (1825), we have " coaly, coley, a cur dog," and we
find that shepherd dogs in the north of England are
called " coally dogs." Everywhere in Great Britain,
according to the D. Dictionary, the word " coUey " or
" coly " is used for soot, smut, coal-dust, for the black-
plumaged water-ouzel, and for the old black lamp, in
all of which the name is obviously given from the black
colour.
Chaucer's expression, " Ran Colic our dog," has also,
I believe, never been satisfactorily cleared up.
THE COLLIE-DOG OF THE HIGHLANDS
By K. Henry-Anderson, 1909
Collie dogs take their name from the blackface sheep.^
It is not generally known that these sheep were originally
called " collies " or " colleys." I was talking to a
shepherd, Hafish Macpherson of Loch Shiel, Ross-shire,
about this a i&^ days ago, and he said, " Aye, that's
recht, the sheep were the collies'' Macpherson's fore-
bears have been shepherds in these parts for four hundred
years, so that he is an authority in the matter. He
seemed to be quite surprised that I should ask about it,
or that any one should question the fact. Three other
shepherds tell me that this is correct. The blackface
sheep are the collies, and the dogs that tend them are in
full called collie dogs, but the name of the dog has been
abbreviated to collie. Quite recently in Inverness-shire I
heard a girl on a farm calling to a dog " Collie dog, collie
dog."
^ This statement is, of course, based on the evidence which here follows, collected
by Mrs. K. Henry-Anderson herself.
The Shepherd and His Dog 131
I saw some Shetland sheep in Kingussie the other day,
of a delicate light brown, with cigar-coloured legs and
faces — lovely little creatures. There, too, was a Shetland
collie dog, fifteen inches high, light brown, with cream
under - hair, which produced a kind of brindled effect ;
he was such a small dog, and so beautiful. Then there is
also another very tiny dog, coloured black and tan, smaller
than a Pomeranian. A shepherd, passing me when the
tiny little "beast" had come for a walk with me, stopped
and said : " Begging your pardon, mem, but isna that an
awfa' wee beast o' a collie ? I'm thinking it wadna be
muckle use for a flock o' sheep." All I could say was
that perhaps as the sheep too were so small, Barney (whose
intelligence is out of all proportion to his size) might be
able to " work " a little.
Beast is commonly used in Scotland for almost all
animals, and frequently as a term of endearment ; hence
such phrases as "wee beast," " bonnie beast," or "puir
beastie." It seems to have come down from the Stuart
period, as bestiok is French for all kinds of wild creatures,
birds, etc., and in Scotland " bestial " is still used in a
collective sense.
THE COLLIE IN THE SOUTH OF SCOTLAND
By Sir Archibald Geikie, LL.D., D.C.L., 1904
The shepherds in the pastoral uplands of the south of
Scotland are a strong, active, and intelligent race. I have
spent many a happy day among them, living in their
little shielings on the friendliest footing with them, their
families, and their dogs. The household at Talla Linn
Foot in Peeblesshire was a typical sample of one of these
families. Wattie Dalgleish, the shepherd there when first
I went into the district, was becoming an elderly man, no
longer able for the stiff climbs and long walks that were
needed to look after the whole of his wide charge. His
young and vigorous son was able to relieve him of the
more distant ground, which was shared with another
132 Shepherds of Britain
man, not of the family, who slept in one of the out-
houses. Wattie's active wife and daughter looked well
after the domestic concerns of the household. His laugh
had the clear hearty ring of a frank, honest, and kindly
nature. He delighted to recount his experiences of field
and fell, and his Doric was pure and racy.
Walter Dalgleish had a collie which, like himself, was
getting somewhat aged, and no longer fit for the severer
work of the hills. The dog would accompany him in the
short rounds, and return early in the afternoon to the
cottage. Some hours later I would come back from my
rambles, and as I descended the steep slope opposite and
came within old Tweed's sight and hearing, he would
signify his recognition of me by a loud barking, which I
could always distinguish from other canine performances,
for it showed neither surprise nor anger, but had an
element of kindly welcome in it. As I drew nearer, the
barking underwent a curious change into an intermittent
howl of delight, and as I came up to the enclosure the
dear old creature would burst into a sort of loud guffaw.
He was the only dog I ever knew that had what one might
fairly call a true, honest laugh. And how his tail would
wag, as if it would surely be twisted off, while he marched
in front of me to announce in his own way that the guest
of the family had come back. There were so many dogs
in the household that one could study the idiosyncrasies
of canine nature on a basis of some breadth. It struck me
that perhaps there might be more truth than one had been
inclined to suppose in Butler's facetious remark :
'Tis some philosophers
Have well observ'd, beasts that converse
With man take after him.
Certainly there did appear to be in that shepherd's
shieling a curious similarity of disposition between the
dogs and their respective masters. My old friend Tweed
was a kind of four-footed duplicate of the honest Wattie,
even down to the hearty laugh. On the other hand, the
stranger shepherd had a collie that closely reproduced his
The Shepherd and His Dog 133
own characteristics. The man was sullen and taciturn,
did not mingle with the family but sat apart, and retired
soon to his own quarter. The dog usually lay below his
master's chair, refused to fraternise with other dogs,
receiving them with a snarl or growl when they came too
near, and marching off with the shepherd when he retired
for the night. 1 tried hard to be on cordial terms with
the man and the dog, but was equally unsuccessful in both
directions.
THE POWERS OF THE COLLIE
By Charles St. John, 1846
The shepherds' dogs in the mountainous districts often
show the most wonderful instinct in assisting their masters,
who without their aid would have but little command
over a large flock of wild blackfaced sheep. It is a
most interesting sight to see a clever dog turn a large
flock of these sheep in whichever direction his master
wishes, taking advantage of the ground, and making a
wide sweep to get beyond them, and then rushing barking
from flank to flank of the flock, and bringing them all
up in close array to the desired spot. When, too, the
shepherd wishes to catch a particular sheep out of the
flock, I have seen him point it out to the dog, who would
instantly distinguish it from the rest and follow it up
till he caught it. Often I have seen the sheep rush into
the middle of the flock, but the dog, though he must
necessarily have lost sight of it amongst the rest, would
immediately single it out again, and never leave the
pursuit till he had the sheep prostrate but unhurt under
his feet. I have been with a shepherd when he has con-
signed a certain part of his flock to a dog to be driven
home, the man accompanying me farther on to the hill.
On our return we invariably found that he had either
given up his charge to the shepherd's wife or some other
responsible person, or had driven them unassisted into the
fold, lying down himself at the narrow entrance to keep
134 Shepherds of Britain
them from getting out till his master came home. At other
times I have seen a dog keeping watch on the hill on a
flock of sheep, allowing them to feed all day, but always
keeping sight of them, and bringing them home at a
proper hour in the evening. In fact, it is difficult to say
what a shepherd's dog would not do to assist his master,
who would be quite helpless without him in a Highland
district.
Generally speaking, these Highland sheep-dogs do
not show much aptness in learning to do anything not
connected in some way or other with sheep or cattle. They
seem to have been brought into the world for this express
purpose, and for no other. They watch their master's
small crop of oats or potatos with great fidelity and keen-
ness, keeping off all intruders in the shape of sheep, cattle, or
horses. A shepherd once, to prove the quickness of his dog,
who was lying before the fire in the house where we were
talking, said to me in the middle of a sentence concerning
something else : " I'm thinking, sir, the cow is in the
potatos." Though he purposely laid no stress on these
words, and said them in a quiet unconcerned tone of voice,
the dog, who appeared to be asleep, immediately jumped
up, and leaping though the open window, scrambled up
the turf roof of the house, from which he could see the
potato-field. He then (not seeing the cow there) ran
and looked into the byre where she was, and finding that
all was right, came back to the house. After a short time
the shepherd said the same words again, and the dog
repeated his look-out ; but on the false alarm being a
third time given, the dog got up, and wagging his tail,
looked his master in the face with so comical an expression
of interrogation that we could not help laughing aloud
at him, on which, with a slight growl, he laid himself
down in his warm corner with an offended air, and as if
determined not to be made a fool of again.
The Shepherd and His Dog 135
HOW MASTER AND DOG CO-OPERATE
By Ralph Fleesh, 1910
There are some great, lonely characters who, by their
very eccentricities, attract and amuse the public ; but
most biographers find it impossible to rest an enduring
literary monument on a single life — they must have the
broader base of associated friendships. Of the shepherd,
above all others, this law of experience holds true, for any
effort, no matter how sympathetic and accomplished the
artist, to bring him without his collie into the limits of
heroism must prove vain and disappointing. Somehow,
the two have become a unit, and, as such, are charged
with deep, human, nay, romantic interests. When separated
their power and charm wane, and ultimately disappear.
How the two co-operate and really become one is seen
and appreciated when a whole " hirsel " ^ has to be
gathered from mountain and glen for shearing or other
purposes. Were twenty picked athletes sent out in the
early morning to accomplish the work of collecting and
" bughting," the chances are they would not reach the
fold till the shades of night were falling, and they might
fail altogether. The sheep would play all manner of
pranks with them, for, though a timid, guileless creature,
the fleecy quadruped can, when opportunity offers, show
a strategical resource that is simply wonderful. Sheep
soon learn how to outwit man — they seldom challenge
the prowess of a thoroughly trained collie. It thus
becomes clear what Hogg, for instance, points out, that
but for the. collie sheep-farming would be an almost im-
possible industry. And all the wages the faithful fellow
asks are three home-grown meals a day, a straw bed, and
a little kindness ! All great dogs, like all great men,
work not because they have to, but because they want to.
Action is their chief medium of happiness.
There are times when the shepherd is wholly dependent
upon the saving instincts of his dog. When the snow
' A flock or " lot " of sheep.
136 shepherds of Britain
has fallen quietly and heavily, and at midnight the wind
caverns are opened and the fierce battalions of drift tear
down the glens and up the hill-sides, like a foe that asks
and gives no quarter, the shepherd must needs buckle on
his plaided armour and take the field. Once out, and in
the midst of the storm, the shepherd can hear or see
nothing save the dull booming of muffled agony that rises
from the troubled bosom of the night. He now leans
upon the proved sagacity of his dogs.
Having reached the place of shelter where " drifting
up " is less to be feared, and where, consequently, he
wants to locate his flock, he speaks to his most ex-
perienced collie, who at once goes off at great speed in
quest of his charge. The shepherd waits patiently, for
complete confidence in the fidelity of his canine companion
is one of the strong traits of his character. The whole
world of men may deceive him — his dog, never.
At last he hears something like the low, soft sound of
a waterfall, at which his young dogs drop at his feet, then
rise abruptly like bundles of latent nerve touched with
the soul of energy.
" Come away, man," the shepherd whispers ; and
instantly there emerges from the stifling gloom the old
gallant with his flock.
Another sphere in which the collie figures prominently
is during the lonely drives across trackless moors to the
market centres, a week sometimes being spent on the
journey. At night he holds vigil with his master ; and
should the latter seek an hour's repose, his anxious colleague
will continue to move from point to point, with all the
caution and care of a sleepless sentinel. When the
morning breaks and the plaintive bleat of the lambs
mingles with the optimistic strains of the lark, the whaup ^
in the distance trolling his own peculiar lay, master and
servant meet, and on open heath breakfast together, after
which they rise and move on towards their appointed
goal.
The collie does not know the meaning of fear or
^ The larger curlew. — [yiut/tor^s Note.^
The Shepherd and His Dog 137
hardship. I was witness of the following : — A blind
sheep fell into a loch and swam out a considerable
distance. Fortunately, the shepherd was just returning
from the " hill," and having been apprised of the accident
he hurried with his three collies to the rescue. He simply
whispered a syllable to one of his dogs, who at once took
to the water. Out she went — tried to bring the sheep
ashore one way, then tried it another. The shepherd
stood motionless ; his two young dogs impatiently whined
at his feet. At last somebody cried, " Auld Rasp " (mean-
ing the dog) "is gaun tae be drooned." "Yes," replied
the stern-featured, stalwart mountaineer, " she will die or
save her charge." After the finest display of sagacity
under most trying circumstances I ever beheld, she brought
the sheep to the bank, she herself being so exhausted that
her master had to lift her out of the water, carry her
home, and administer restoratives. " Rasp," the heroine
of this scene, belonged to Mr. James Gardner, of North
Cobbinshaw, Midlothian, and deservedly ranks as one of
the great dogs of history.
Many stories are told of " Old Rasp," for to her
memory all who knew her are ever ready to pay tribute.
On one occasion a pig, which had been brought home
the previous day, escaped. The sun was setting when
Mr. Gardner returned from the moors. Finding " the
guidwife " much excited over the abrupt departure of
the little stranger, he allayed her fears by assuring her
that "Auld Rasp will soon bring back the wee prodigal."
So off Rasp went in quest of what proved one of the
most stubborn of the members of the bucolic family she
ever encountered. Having been absent about twenty-
five minutes she at last appeared with a few sheep in front
of her. But in the centre of the sheep was the pig,
experience having taught her that the little rebel could
not be driven alone. Ever afterwards she visited the sty
daily to make sure that the occupant was being kept in
his proper sphere.
On one occasion Mr. James Gardner was taken ill
while bringing home a flock of sheep. A friend having
138 Shepherds of Britain
secured the sheep in a park had him driven home ; but
" Wharry," another of his famous dogs, was kept that she
might assist in conducting the sheep home the following
day, a distance of between five and six miles. It was a
wild stormy night in the month of February. " Wharry "
was so anxious about the safety and progress of her charge
that she made a determined effort to get free, and suc-
ceeded. About midnight she was found with the sheep
all gathered up to the gate of the park, and there she lay
patiently waiting for her master. The following morning
when the gate was opened she started for home with the
flock, like something endowed with human intelligence.
When she had arrived, and had received the greetings
and " Well done " from her master, she lay down on the
hearth, and seemed the most pleased and satisfied of
toilers.
To the sagacity of the thoroughly trained collie there
is indeed no limit. It has been our privilege to be closely
associated with the greatest sheep-dog trainer Scotland
ever produced, and we have heard him repeatedly say of
his favourite dogs that their intelligence was always more
than equal to any emergency. " When riding in South
America," says Darwin, "it is a common thing to meet a
large flock of sheep guarded by one or two dogs, at a distance
of some miles from any man or house." This is not at
all extraordinary. We know a dog, the property of a
shepherd already referred to, which took charge every morn-
ing of a certain " cut " of sheep and had them directed
through gates and over hedges to a lowland pasture some
three miles away. He needed no bidding or exhorting ;
he had learned the art of dignifying service.
Our " born " shepherds — the true sons of the calling —
do not forget their old canine colleagues. Travelling In
the sheep districts of Scotland, an old corpulent collie, long
retired from the stern duties of the " hill," lying on the
green sward in front of the shepherd's cot, is quite a
common sight. If the day is warm you may find the
shepherd's child sleeping in his bosom. The mother has
no hesitation in leaving the infant so watched and pro-
The Shepherd and His Dog 139
tected ; for the old retainer, having been the first object
of the child's curiosity and love, gallantly responds with
Photograph by A. Brown & Co., Lajiar/t,
"frisk" (a short-haired "beardie"), "the champion of the
west," and mr. alexander millar of burnfoot, ayr-
SHIRE (owner) ,
an instinctive gratitude by assuming responsibility for the
safety of his youthful charge when the pressure of circum-
140 Shepherds of Britain
stance demands. And when the old and faithful friend
comes to die, deep and sincere is the lamentation of the
whole family. We have seen a shepherd with the
dauntless courage of a lion kneel by the side of his
dead companion, and bewail his loss like a grief-stricken
boy.
HOGG'S "FAITHFUL SIRRAH AND HECTOR"
By James Hogg ("The Ettrick Shepherd"), 1772-1835
About seven hundred lambs, which were once under
my care at weaning time, broke up at midnight and
scampered ofF in three divisions across the hills in spite
of all that I and an assistant lad could do to keep them
together. " Sirrah, my man," said I, in great affliction,
" they are awa." The night was so dark that I could not
see Sirrah, but the faithful animal heard my words —
words such as of all others were sure to set him most on
the alert — and without much ado he silently set off in
search of the recreant flock.
Meanwhile I and my companion did not fail to do all
in our power to recover our lost charge. We spent the
whole night in scouring the hills for miles around, but of
neither the lambs nor Sirrah could we obtain the slightest
trace. It was the most extraordinary circumstance that
had occurred in my pastoral life. We had nothing for it
(day having dawned) but to return to our master, and
inform him that we had lost his whole flock of lambs, and
knew not what had become of them. , On our way home,
however, we discovered a body of lambs, at the bottom of
a deep ravine called Flesh Cleuch, and the indefatigable
Sirrah standing in front of them, looking all around for
some relief, but still true to his charge. The sun was
then up, and when we first came in view of them we con-
cluded that it was one of the divisions which Sirrah had
been unable to manage until he came to that commanding
situation ; but what was our astonishment when we dis-
covered by degrees that not one lamb of the whole flock
was wanting ! How he had got all the divisions collected
The Shepherd and His Dog 141
in the dark is beyond my comprehension. The charge
was left entirely to himself from midnight until the rising
of the sun ; and if all the shepherds in the forest had been
there to have assisted him they could not have effected it
with greater propriety. All that I can further say Is,
that I never felt so grateful to any creature below the
sun as I did to my honest Sirrah that morning.
Hector, the Son of Sirrah
He was the son and immediate successor of the faithful
old Sirrah ; and though not nearly so valuable a dog as
his father, he was a far more interesting one. He had
three times more humour and whim about him ; and
though exceedingly docile, his bravest acts were mostly
tinctured with a grain of stupidity, which showed his
reasoning faculty to be laughably obtuse.
I shall mention a striking instance of it. I was once
at the farm of Shorthope, on Ettrick Head, receiving some
lambs that I had bought and was going to take to market
with some more the next day. Owing to some accidental
delay I did not get final delivery of the lambs until it was
growing late ; and being obliged to be at my own house
that night, I was not a little dismayed lest I should scatter
and lose my lambs if darkness overtook me. Darkness
did overtake me by the time I got half-way, and no
ordinary darkness for an August evening. The lambs
having been weaned that day, and being of the wild black-
faced breed, became exceedingly unruly, and for a long
while I lost hopes of mastering them. Hector managed the
point, and we got them safely home ; but both he and his
master were ahke forfouchten. It had become so dark
that we were obliged to fold them with candles ; and, after
closing them safely up, I went home with my father and
the rest to supper. When Hector's supper was set down,
behold he was awanting ! and as I knew we had him at the
fold, which was within call of the house, I went out and
called and whistled on him for a good while, but he did
not make his appearance. I was distressed about this ; for,
142 Shepherds of Britain
having to take away the lambs next morning, I knew
I could not drive them a mile without my dog if it had
been to save the whole drove.
The next morning, as soon as it was day, I arose
and inquired if Hector had come home. No ; he had
not been seen. I knew not what to do ; but my father
proposed that we should take out the lambs and herd
them, and let them get some meat to fit them for the
road, and that I should ride with all speed to Shorthope
to see if my dog had gone back there. Accordingly we
went together to the fold to turn out the lambs, and
there was poor Hector, sitting trembling in the very
middle of the fold door, on the inside of the flake that
closed it, with his eyes still steadfastly fixed on the lambs.
He had been so hardly set with them after it grew dark,
that he durst not for his life leave them, although hungry,
fatigued, and cold, for the night had turned out a deluge
of rain. He had never so much as Iain down, for only
the small spot that he sat on was dry, and there had
he kept watch the whole night. Almost any other collie
would have discerned that the lambs were safe enough
in the fold, but honest Hector had not been able to see
through this. He had even refused to take my word
for it, for he would not quit his watch, though he heard
me calling both at night and morning.
THE SHEEP-DOG OF IRELAND
By Ralph Fleesh, 1910
In appearance the Irish sheep-dog strongly resembles the
old Scotch Border collie — the " bobtail," though seen in
some parts, is not common ; — -strong in instinct, and trained
to perfection, this most human of all animals is capable of
great feats. He will run out a mile, or even a greater dis-
tance if necessary, for a lot or "cut" of sheep; bring them
cautiously up to his master's feet ; then he will assist at
shedding or penning, as the case may be, with a will and
wisdom that gives him a superior status in the animal
The Shepherd and His Dog 143
world. Shepherding in Ireland, as in other countries,
without a sheep-dog would border on the impossible ;
like sheep -farming without the shepherd, it would be
as the tragedy of Hamlet without the Prince.
SHEEP-DOGS {Coill) IN THE ISLE OF MAN
By The Author
Shepherd Caley of Ramsey tells us that the old Manx
sheep-dog was a " holding," not a driving dog. It kept
to heel, and when a particular sheep was wanted, the
shepherd would point to it and say in Manx, " There,
Spring, go and hold that rough fellow," and the dog would
seize the sheep behind the neck, throw it down, and
hold it with his paws, never hurting it. These dogs are
now extinct in the island ; they did not work the sheep
as the collie does. They are described as smooth-haired,
of various colours, very big and strong. Dr. Tellet of
Ramsey writes : "I recollect having seen one of these
dogs about sixty years ago, which belonged to an old
man who lived near Ramsey. It was smooth-haired, and
my impression is that it was about the size of a Scotch
deerhound, coloured black, grey and tan — the tan so inti-
mately mixed with the grey in parts as to produce a rust
colour. I see the colour in the dogs we have now, a
number of which are descendants of crosses between the
dog in question and the Scotch collie. The collie is said
to have been brought to the island by the Scotch shepherds
who came over to take charge of the larger sheep farms.
The first I saw on the island I remember distinctly ; it
was black and white with very silky hair. A Mr. Metcalf
had the credit of introducing the old English sheep-dog
also at this date. The collies were not generally used
until about i860. I have heard my father say that the
Manx dog was only a holding dog. A f&w days ago
I was talking to an old shepherd, who described the way
it threw the sheep down." Miss Sophia Morrison of
Peel writes : " Some years ago a Manx shepherd told me
144 Shepherds of Britain
some wonderful tales of an old sheep-dog. This shepherd
used to go to the mountains with his father to look after
the sheep, and his father had only to point his finger at
any one sheep in the flock and say, ' Grein yn nane shoh,
Coly' ('Seize that one, Coly '), or 'Greim mee shen' ('Seize
that for me '), and the dog at once put his paws on the sheep
pointed out to him in the midst of the flock, and held it
till the old man came up." Another person remembers
sheep-dogs not in the least like the sheep-dogs of to-day ;
they were larger, smooth -haired, and were known as
" houl'ers, because they were good to houF on." These
dogs upset the sheep on to their backs and kept them
down until the shepherd came to them. This old
shepherd did not think that these were native sheep-dogs,
but that they had had special training to make them
"houl'ers." An authority in the island remarks "that
if there had been a breed peculiar to the Isle of Man, some
of the historians who wrote about the native pony, sheep,
and cat would have mentioned it. They were probably
introduced by the Norsemen, and existed in other places
in the United Kingdom at the same time, i.e. about fifty
or sixty years ago, and were only sheep-dogs by special
training."
Ralph Fleesh tells us that the dog applies his mouth
to the wool as well as his paws to the neck, but the skin
of the sheep is never injured; adding, "To upset a sheep
is a mistake, since the process involves a shock that some-
times leaves bad results. I knew a ' beardie ' collie named
' Roy ' — one of the heroes of his day — who could hold up
any sheep without upsetting it. He was a powerfully
built dog, and so by seizing the wool of the sheep's neck,
and meeting by quick movements every efFort of his
charge, his strength and weight being a sufficient barrier,
complete victory was easily and promptly achieved."
There are local • shepherds' dogs in various districts in
England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, as well as in the
Isle of Man, but these local breeds cannot be regarded as
distinct, since they lack uniformity of type.
The Shepherd and His Dog 145
THE SHEPHERD'S AND DROVER'S DOGS
COMPARED
From Pictorial Half-Hours, 1851
Closely allied to the shepherd's dog is the cur, or
drover's dog. This useful animal is larger than the
shepherd's dog, the hair is generally shorter, and the tail,
even when not cut purposely, often appears as if it had
been so. Bewick, who was well acquainted both with the
drover's and the shepherd's dog, speaking of the former,
says : " Many are whelped with short tails, which seem as
if they had been cut, and these are called in the north
'self-tailed dogs.'" The same writer is disposed to con-
sider this breed as a true or permanent kind, and he informs
us that great attention is paid to it. It seems to us,
however, that the drover's dog is in reality a cross between
the shepherd's dog and some other race, perhaps the
terrier. It often partakes largely of the character of the
shepherd's dog, but is taller in the limbs. These dogs are
singularly quick and prompt in their actions, and, as all
who have watched them in the crowded, noisy, tumultuous
assemblage of men and beasts in Smithfield must have
observed, they are both courageous and intelligent. To
their masters, who often ill-treat them (the drover has not
always the kind heart of the shepherd), they are faithful
and attached.
THE DROVER'S DOG
By Edward Jesse, 1853
There is reason to suppose that tamed dogs of whatever
species which were first employed for any useful purpose
were employed as sheep or shepherd's dogs, because we
are taught by history to conclude that men were shepherds
before they were hunters ; ^ and because the great use of a
dog in the operations of a shepherd is suggested by his
^ The author seems to be mistaken j it could hardly be maintained seriously that
the pastoral life preceded that of the hunter. — \_Autho/s iVo/f.]
L
146 Shepherds of Britain
sagacity and obedience and the instinctive fear of him
which has been implanted in sheep, a fear that never
diminishes by experience, but operates equally upon sheep
of all ages.
The terror of sheep at the bark of a dog is so great
that when they have learned to associate it with a loud
whistle, as they do when they have travelled in a drove,
they will be terrified as much by the sound of a loud
whistle as by the loudest barking of a dog, and run
together when they are driven by a man who whistles
like a drover, in the same way as when they are collected
by a dog.
I was interested the other day in watching a flock
of sheep, attended by a drover and his dog, as they were
passing along a turnpike road. The man went into an
ale-house by the roadside, leaving his dog to look after
the sheep. They spread themselves over the road and
footpath, some lying down and others feeding, while the
dog, faithful to his trust, watched them carefully. When
any carriage passed along the road, or a person was seen
on the footpath, the dog gently drove the sheep on one
side to make a passage, and then resumed his station near
the ale-house door.
Those indeed who have travelled much at the time
of the great fair of Weyhill must have observed the sagacity
of the drovers' dogs on the approach of a carriage. A
passage is made for it through the most numerous flocks
of sheep in the readiest and most expert manner, without
any signal from the drover. The fatigue that these dogs
must undergo is very great. One sees them sidle up to
their master atter each exertion, and look at him, as if
asking for his approbation of what they had done.
When I occupied a small farm in Surrey I was in the
habit of joining with a friend in the purchase of two
hundred Cheviot sheep. The first year we had them the
shepherd who drove them from the north was asked how
he had got on. " Why, very badly," said the man ; " for
I had a young dog, and he did not manage well in keeping
the sheep from running up lanes and out-of-the-way
The Shepherd and His Dog 147
places." The next year we had the same number of
sheep brought up, and by the same man. In answer to
our question about his journey, he informed us that he had
got on very well, for his dog had recollected all the turn-
ings of the road which the sheep had passed the previous
year, and had kept them straight the whole of the way.
TRAINING THE SHEEP-DOG IN ENGLAND
By H. Somerset Bullock, 1909
In the Sheep Pool, towards which the flock are thread-
ing their way, the last lingering lights of the sunset are
faintly mirrored, until the clouds curtain the fading gold
and pink in the western sky, and one can see the wings
of darkness fold over the weald. The bleating of a sheep
and the short, sharp bark of the dog — and then the night
silence. It was just one such evening that I walked home
with my friend the shepherd — a tongue-tied man, you
would say, until you knew him. But you must remember
that time ploughs slowly along for him and leaves much
leisure for thought. The shepherd's life has changed less
with the change of years than that of any other calling. It
needs a man who has grown gentle and almost motherly
to be a shepherd — there is so much mothering to be done.
Scarcely less interesting than the shepherd himself is
his dog. In answer to my questions as to the training
necessary, my friend told me several facts that were new to
me.
" When he is a pup," he said, " we teach him to obey
his master's call at once. It must be done with kind-
ness, or the dog won't love you as he must if he is to
serve you well."
" But how is it you manage to prevent his biting the
sheep ? "
" Well, he has to learn slowly. It's natural for him
to want to gather any animals together if he sees them
wandering apart, and an untrained puppy will do it of his
own accord. But, as you say, he would worry the sheep.
148 shepherds of Britain
I taught Bob by making him lie down, no matter whether
he happened to be close beside me or several hundred
yards off. At the word he would do it, so that I could
always stop him from chivying when I liked. If he'd been
very bad at it I should have tried with turkeys ; they
would soon teach him not to snap. If not, we have to
muzzle him."
" Does he understand quickly the object of keeping
the sheep in a flock.? "
" Watch him now," returned the shepherd. He gave
a sharp, clear whistle, and the dog, which up to that
moment had been leading the sheep, immediately came to
heel. The sheep hesitated, looked doubtfully ahead, and
stopped short. Again a whistle, and the dog " rounded "
the flock, beating up the stragglers. Yet a third whistle,
and he again took the lead, the sheep following him.
" Have you taught the sheep to follow ? "
" No," he laughed; " all sheep will follow their leader,
even if he happen to be a dog."
" How much will you take for him ? " I nodded
towards Bob.
"Don't ask me, sir," he almost pleaded; "there's
another chap sold his for twenty pounds to a gentleman
the other day, and he's been sorry ever since. No, sir;
Bob sticks to me, and though you oflf^ered me thirty pounds
I'd stick to Bob."
TRAINING THE COLLIE PUP IN SCOTLAND
By Ralph Fleesh, 19 10
He is reared in the kitchen of the shepherd's home.
When about two months old the shepherd, after the
labours of the day, takes him in hand, the meaning of
language having already been taught him, as a rule,
by the shepherd's children. The little fellow, though
rebellious at first, soon gives fine point to the law of
obedience by responding to every whisper and signal of
his master. He is made to " clap down," and lie firm
The Shepherd and His Dog 149
with his head close to the ■ floor between his fore-paws.
(Of all the attitudes of the collie when in action this is the
prettiest.^) Then his master calls him up, makes him
move to another point, and " drops " him again. When
the tiny canine pupil promptly honours all the commands,
he is congratulated by the whole household and made the
hero of a little banquet. Once thoroughly trained in this
fashion, the shepherd has little or no difficulty with him
in the open. A puppy " of the right kind " clings to his
first master, provided, of course, that master is worthy.
The greatest dog trainer I have known had periodical
visits from all his pupils after they had been returned
to their owners. Ofttimes have I heard him say, when
some poor fellow after a long journey would bound into
the kitchen, embracing all the members of the family in
turn, " Puir chap, I wish you could stay." This shepherd's
favourite maxim was, " Make a dog love you, and he will
never fail or forsake you."
SHEEP-DOG TRIALS IN ENGLAND, WALES,
AND SCOTLAND
By Walter Baxendale, 1910
Many improvements in the management of sheep-
dog trials have been introduced since the institution of
these very interesting competitions by Mr. Lloyd Price
of Rhiwlas, near Bala, in 1873, ^^^ ^^^ actual tests have
remained almost the same ; whether the meeting is at
Tring in the south, or in Caithness, the highly trained
sheep-dog is expected to collect his little flock, drive
the sheep through various obstacles, and finally pen his
charges. During the past ten years the trials have
become wonderfully popular ; and though Lord Leconfield
did notpersevere with the meeting he established in con-
nexion with his tenants' agricultural show at Petworth
in 1908, yet other southern fixtures at Tring, and also in
^ Even when he is motionless physically, the mind of the dog is expressed by his
eye in commanding sheep.
150 Shepherds of Britain
connexion with the perambulatory show of the Bedford-
shire County Agricultural Society, have flourished, and the
trials are certainly among the popular features of either
show. For real enthusiasm, however, you must go to
the north, or to one of the several good meetings held
in Wales during the season, though at the last-named
the southerner is puzzled to hear the shepherds yelling
directions to their dogs in a mixed jargon of Welsh
and English. Courses for trials vary ; but the ground
should not be too level — it is far better for the purpose
if undulating, while the task of the dogs is made more
difficult, and they are called on to exercise greater care in
the driving and collecting of their flock if there is a little
stream or burn to be crossed. Gaps can be made in
hedges, or rows of hurdles arranged so that an opening
is left for the sheep to be driven through, while at
most of the first-rate meetings an obstacle known as the
Maltese cross is introduced before the pen is reached. It
is at this puzzle that the shepherd is generally allowed to
leave the spot from which he has directed the work and
assist his dog at closer quarters, for no obstacle requires
more careful negotiation, and many a trial has been won
or lost at the cross. Hurdles are arranged in the shape
of a Maltese cross, the dog having to drive the flock
through the two strands or rows, and then up to the
pen, before his task is completed. The almost perfect
understanding existing between man and dog is the most
remarkable feature of a sheep-dog trial, and no sporting
dog of any kind answers so well to the call of his handler
as the little unkempt working collie. He may have no
beauty to recommend him, some of the best workers
being mongrels, though such men as Barcroft of Bury and
Akrigg of Sedbergh, who have gained scores of honours
in competitions all over the country, have succeeded in
establishing a certain strain. " Handsome is as handsome
does," however, and watching the work of the dogs one
marvels at their intelligence and admires the patience of
their handlers. The sheep may be released six hundred yards
or even more away, but at the words, " Go to 'em, Jess,"
The Shepherd and His Dog 151
the dog — if well trained — makes a bee-line to where they
are grazing, and, ranging almost like a setter, she gets a
good distance behind her sheep before beginning to drive
them. " Closer in, lass," calls the handler, or he whistles
in a key which is understood by the dog to mean the
same thing, and then the task begins. The sheep may
be inclined to " split," but Jess is prepared for that, and
"BEN" (a rough grey MERLE) AND MR. THOMAS GILHOLM (OWNER)
" Ben was the winner in a number of ' Trials.' When eight months old he won
third prize out of twenty entries, and after that was never out of the prize list, winning
many firsts. For steadiness and style he could not be beaten."
reaching them she gets them together again, and on being
motioned by the handler, changes her position so that the
sheep can be driven once more. She seems to understand
that the flock must not be too closely pressed, and one
by one the obstacles are safely negotiated and the pen
is reached.
This is a crucial test, and it is always amusing to
notice the antics indulged in by the sheep. They walk
round and round the pen as if looking for the entrance,
though quite disregarding it till, frightened by the shouts
/
152 Shepherds of Britain
of the shepherd and the knowledge that there is a dc/g
not far away, one sheep gets her head in the pen. Tie
shepherd becomes excited and calls for Jess to be steady ;
if she is one of Barcroft's famous strain she crawls on ier
belly and literally creeps to her sheep. By this time the ewe
has made up her mind to go into the pen, and if she can be
kept there the other members of the flock are sure to follow.
The task is at last completed, the timekeeper notes hew
long Jess has taken, and reports to the judge, who, adding
points for the style in trying circumstances, compares
her performance with that of her closest competitors.
Another dog is called for, and the trials then proceed.
It may be added that at many of the best meetings the
shepherd directs the early stages of the work of his dog
from a circle marked out by flags, in the middle of which
is a stake, and to that stake is fastened a cord which must
be held by the shepherd till he is given the signal to go
and assist his dog. That is generally when the Maltese
cross is reached.
A LIGHT OF OTHER DAYS
By C. Brewster Macpherson, 1909
A wanderer on the Highland Border, I found myself
recently within reach of an important sheep-dog trial
meeting. Arrived there, I was soon deeply interested in
the marvellous work of some of the best dogs from the
Border. As I changed my position for a better view, my
attention was caught by a solitary sheep-dog bitch, a matted
tangle of an uncared-for thing. She lay apart by herself.
Occasionally she rose, and pushing her way through im-
peding legs, gravely contemplated, with critical eye, the
various operations which were being carried out in the
shedding, penning, etc., but made no attempt at assist-
ance, except when sheep which had been through the
course were being taken by the last competitor to a field
at the side, into which they were turned. On several of
these occasions, for no especial reason that I could see,
The Shepherd and His Dog 153
she would join in herding them in a very business-like
manner, and then return to her original position. Knowing
the rule which requires all competing dogs to be on the
lead, I thought she must be some drover's bitch, some
hanger-on of the auction mart who had come to see
if dogs were as good now as they were in her day. I
forgot all about the trials, and found myself continually
watching her instead. I tried to scrape an acquaintance,
asked her who she was and where she was from ; but while
receiving my advances with courtesy, she gave me clearly to
understand she did not desire an intimate acquaintance.
Thinking she looked bored, I sought a bit of meat for
her in the tent. After regarding my face earnestly for
some time, she took it, but her manner conveyed a
world of rebuke, and feeling I had done quite the wrong
thing and advanced myself no whit in her estimation, I
retired abashed by her cold demeanour. The card is run
through, a loud voice proclaims that an entry which had
been overlooked in error will be allowed to run, and a
broad-shouldered, good-natured -looking Borderer steps
over the ropes — but where is his dog .''
A chirrup ! the tangled mat is alive, her lethargy
gone ; trembling with suppressed excitement, at his side
she stands, the wisdom of ages in her beautiful eyes, which
are fixed intently on her master's face. And then followed
the most masterly exhibition which the writer, who has
judged at many such trials, ever witnessed. And though
she only obtained the second place of honour, she con-
fided to me, in a farewell interview, that she had never
worked better, and did not see how the thing could be
done better, with which opinion I most cordially agreed.
An attempt to buy this light of other days was quenched
by, " Na, it's no that a'thegither, but ye see they a'
come aifter her pups an' I mak a gey bit oot o' her
yon way."
154 Shepherds of Britain
AULD KEP: "A PAST-MASTER," AND "ONE
OF THE GREAT DOGS OF HISTORY"
(A Pure-Bred Border Collie)
THE PROPERTY OF MR. JAMES SCOTT
By Ralph Fleesh, 1909
Auld Kep — for this is now his familiar name — the
winner for the second time of the International Cup, is an
average-sized dog of the type of the old Border collie.
He is finely coupled, and in action shows to great ad-
vantage at the sheep-dog trials. When he leaves his
master to take command, there is an ease and confidence
revealed that instantly stop the flow of speculations. The
sheep seem at once to recognise his kindly powers, and,
instead of rebelling, comply with his every request.
Having an extremely strong eye, he at close quarters
throws a mesmeric influence over both sheep and spec-
tators. Now well accustomed to the trial course, he keeps
perfectly cool, carefully scans the ground before beginning,
and then lends an attentive ear to his master, and to his
master only, no matter the excitement and noise beyond.
When scarcely a year old he came to Mr. Scott's hands,
having then a deal to learn. He has won considerably
over ^200 in prize money, besides cups and medals.
To-day all authorities recognise him as the greatest sheep-
dog living. That true working blood courses through
his veins, is shown by the fact that his sons and daughters
filled the entire prize list at the late sheep-dog trials at
Perth on September 18. He is now eight years old.^
^ For a portrait of Auld Kep, see title-page. It is inserted by the icind permission of
Mr. James Scott of Ancrum, and of the Editor of The Field.
The Shepherd and His Dog 155
A SCOTTISH SHEEP-DOG TRIAL. REPORTED
IN "DORIC"
A veteran's view
By Ralph Fleesh, 1909
Dear Mister Editor — By the mysterious decrees o'
Providence it is my lot to be wedded to Peggy — a woman
o' great geefts an' extraordinar' ambeeshun. Alexander
the Great, Ceecero, an' — no to gang sae far back — the Airl
o' Chatham, were, I am tauld, a' seemilarly circumstanced.
Indeed, if I can read history richt, men who, like mysel',
have become great in the world's affairs, owe a deep debt
o' gratitude to their wives. We may occupy thrones,
but, mind you. Mister Editor, weemin put us there. The
cheery, delightfu' craeturs may hae led us] a wee bit
astray at first, but I dinna believe in the heathen practice
o' openin' auld sairs.
Weel, Peggy said to me last Thursday, that seein' I
was an authority on dowg-workin' I should gang (in her
company) to the great Internaitional Sheep-dowg Trials at
the Fair Ceety o' Perth on the Seturday. She made the
proposal in such a coaxin' kin' o' a wey, bringin' me in
min' o' ither days, that I at once agreed. " Noo," she
said, " ye maun hae a suit o' claes befeettin' the occasion,
an' which, at the same time, will be prophetic o' yer
destined station in the world o' fashion " ; so Peggy an'
me plunged into kist efter kist, at last findin' what we
were seekin' — a rig-oot o' velveteens adorned wi' blue
braid, the purchase for an auspeeshus occasion fifty-five
'ear syne. Peggy resolved to put on her blue Frainsh
mareena, in order to efi^ect a proper an' becomin'
match.
Off we went on Seturday mornin', Peggy steepilatin'
that we would breakfast in an hotel at Perth, jist for the
look o' the thing, an' that we michf be able to tell oor
neebors when we cam' hame a' aboot the denties and
ongauns o' high life. A' the wey north, herds and
farmers cam' poorin' in at ilka station, until Peggy declared
156 shepherds of Britain
she was convinced the train would stick. But no; it
pufFed and bowff'd away in a praiseworthy, though no
very musical mainner, arrivin' forty meenits late, in a
highly exhausted condeeshun.
Havin' had breakfast — an', my word, Peggy made
the waiters staun' aboot — we took a brake oot to the trial
field. The man wha drove us was very polite, addressin'
Peggy as madam, an' me as sir, the result being a
monetary loss to me ; for, says Peggy, efter he had lifted
her off in his airms, at the entrance gate, gi'e the puir
chap a sixpence extra to buy sweeties for the bairns, for,
by the complexion o' his coat, I guess he has a fine swarm
o' them. I promptly obeyed.
When we got inside we were fairly amazed. The
crood was tremendous, everybody seemin' mair happy
an' excited than anither. Motor car efter motor car
cam' rollin' in until I commenced to wonder whether
there had ever been such a graun' an' glorious show afore.
A tup sale, honestly, Mister Editor, is a puir thing in
compairison.
Makin' oor first roon', wha did we meet but Jamie
Scott wi' Auld Kep, the greatest dowg leevin' (accordin'
to " Ralph Fleesh "), an' twae o' Auld Kep's progeny.
Peggy was awfu' pleased to meet Jamie an' hae a look at
the Internaitional champion. " Mexty me, Samil," she
exclaimed, "he's jist the very brither " (referrin' to Kep)
" o' oor auld Toss, an' I'se warrant he's nae better."
At this Jamie smiled sae sweetly that Peggy declared
efter we left that she wasna surprised in the least at the
Heelant lassies fa'in' in love wi' him.
Rememberin' that Peggy had seen mair birthdays
than she cared to admit, an' that she wud be the better o'
a sait, I conducted her past the ropes, straucht into the
preevileged enclosure where the cream o' the nobeelity
were sittin'. Although a wee bit excited, we mairched
boldly alang, keepin' oor een open for vacant places.
There no' bein' a spare inch, we were jist aboot to retire,
sairly disappointed, when a man wi' a white waistcoat rose
— his size needin' accommodation for twae — took off his
The Shepherd and His Dog 157
hat — nae doot as a mark o' respect, but, at the same time,
to show off his fine heid o' hair — an', says he, in a maist
MR. W. B. GARDNER, SHEEP-DOG JUDGE
" That's ' Ralph Fleesh.' " " Preserve me ! " she exclaimed,
" is that the man ? What a lot it maun hae ta'en to bring
him up ! "
eloquent fashion, jist as if Peggy an' me were a pubHc
audience, "Allow me, lady and gentleman, to accommodate
you." We at yince responded, I raisin' my hat, though
158 shepherds of Britain
no wi' near as fine a flourish as the exheebitor o' the
white waistcoat. Yince firmly fixed, an' wonnerfu' com-
fortable, I says to Peggy, " Dae ye ken wha that obleegin'
chiel is ? " " No," she said; " but he micht be onything
frae a theatrical to a horse-cowper." " Weel," I replied,
" that's ' Ralph Fleesh.' " " Preserve me ! " she exclaimed,
" is that the man ? What a lot it maun hae ta'en to
bring him up ! "
But " Ralph," who is not contemptuous o' tactics, put
himsel' to no end o' trouble to win the favours o' Peggy.
He brocht up the chairman an' the secretary o' the Inter-
naitional Trials Society — twae as fine-lookin' men as I
ever clapped een on — an' introduced them to Peggy an'
me. Then he went an' got the Coorse Director, the man
wha kens a' thing — a stern, meelitary-lookin' gentleman
wi' a regilar field-mairshal voice — an' Tam Gilholm — a
perfect jewel o' a man, wi' a parteeklar nice hame-spun
suit o' claes — an' likewise introduced them. Needless to
say, this attention greatly pleased Peggy ; nor did I,
Mister Editor — if the truth must be spoken— feel bored
wi' his civeelities.
Three solemn-lookin' mortals sat on a sait in front o'
us, whose awsome appearance at yince aroused the curiosity
o' Peggy ; for, " Noo, wha can they be, an' what crime
will they hae committed?" she queried. " Wheesht,
lassie," says I ; " thae men hae the poo'er o' kings — tha'se
the jidges!" "Help us!" retorted Peggy; "they're
mair like culprits waitin' the approach o' the hangman."
Clever, far-seein' woman though Peggy is, she failed to
grasp the full signeeficance o' their heavy responsibeelities.
Had she less o' a masterfu' mind hersel' — for hers is
capable o' governin' nations, let alane me — she would
appreciate the leemits an' deefficulties o' ordinary mortals
wi' a truer sense an' a keener sympathy. Cromwell could
never, for instance, be expected to understaun' the worries
an' leemits o' his valet. The same wi' Peggy an' dowg-
trial jidges — she's sae far abune them, intellectually, that
what should be peety, on her pairt is apt to become
scorn.
The Shepherd and His Dog 159
The trials were noo in full swing, yae herd efter
anither tryin' his luck — for there is a guid deal o' luck
in't — wi' his speerited an' faithfu' companion. Much, of
coorse, depends upon the skill o' the dowg, but -the
temper o' the sheep is also an important factor. Peggy
quickly noted this, an', as was her richt, went ower an' told
the jidges their plain an' bounden duty in the maitter.
They a' raised their hingin' heids, like men wha had been
dookin' for aiples, an' looked queer at Peggy, which
made her speer whether they were sufferin' frae heidaches.
" Oh no," the spokesman said ; " but if ye staun' lang
there we'll be shair to experience that affliction " ; where-
upon Peggy withdrew, for, as she said, it was quite
obveeus her presence was extremely tryin' to their nervous
system.
The fine workin' o' the dowgs I'll no try to describe,
for, railly, there were some rins sae bewitchin' an' perfect
that my pen wud falter far ahint the reality. The hale
affair was a noble an' matchless pictir' o' sublime, etherial
motion. Peggy, wha is awfu' poetic at times, said it was
sae sweet that she was frequently lulled into dreamland ;
but aye when her een were jist aboot to close, a shout frae
the chap wi' the field-mairshal voice brocht her back to
her senses. "Samil," she said, efter an unusual roar
that cowpit an auld man aff an end sait, " if you an' that
chiel were Jainerals in the Territorials the Germans micht
weel trimil."
Although the trials lasted the hale day we didna
weary, for there wasna a dull meenit. When the results
were announced there was deefinin' applause, for everybody
seemed delighted that Auld Kep had again carried off the
cup. But there were twae omissions in the prize list
that painfully surprised Peggy an' me. Hoo Tammy
Broon, Tollishill, wi' Lad, an' Tammy Armstrong,
Pinnacle, wi' Moss, were keeped oot fairly passed oor
comprehension. Peggy was of the opeenion, an' is of the
opeenion still, that the jidges, fateegid an' worn oot wi'
the labours o' the day, fell soun' asleep when they were
rinnin'. She says she actually heard them snore, which.
i6o Shepherds of Britain
I think, must be a wrang impression, for the field-
mairshal chiel was never far frae their lug.
Whatever the explanation. Mister Editor, Peggy an'
me were very very sorry for Lad an' Moss, seein' they
had worked sae cleverly. But jidgin' dowgs is jist like
jidgin' sheep — it's a kin' o' a lottery, aboot which the
less said the better.
Peggy, however, was sae vexed aboot the deceeshun
that she threatened to become obstreeperous ; but, thanks
to Mr. Clark, the chairman, his fine speech at the close
brocht her back to a calm an' reasonable frame o' mind.
Seizin' the opportunity — for I'm a great domestic strategist
— I took Peggy's airm an' said in the auld sweet wey,
" Come awa' hame, my darlin'," an' sae, Mr. Editor, we
left. — Believe me, yours in hame-spun sincerity,
Samuel Wheepleton.
Shelter-neuk, Plaidyplinks,
zjth September 1909.
"MAGNUS" AND "RONALD"
By Max Philpot, 1909
" Heard ye the news, Davie ? "
" What news I "
" Aboot the Internaitional next week."
" Weel, what new terror is threatened us noo? "
" The great Suffolk dowg's booked ; an' so is the Irish
champion ; an' I had an inklin' frae Maister Whinny, the
secretary, the other day, that the dowg that carried off
the j^ioo and Colonial Cup in New Zealand twa month
syne is on the water bound for the Internaitional at Perth
on Wednesday."
" Indeed, Samil, indeed ! Nae doot it '11 be a stiff
struggle, but I'm no to tak fricht at the tootlin' o' far
trumpets. Auld Ventir (Venture) has met the best o' his
time, an', puir auld chap, though, like masel', no sae glossy
and swak as he yince was, he'll lower the tails o' a few o'
them yet."
The Shepherd and His Dog i6i
So talked Samuel Tweedie and David Garlow, two
well-known Pentland shepherds, the latter being the trainer
and master of Venture, the famous collie whose premier
record at National and International Trials had never been
broken.
While the two mountaineers thus sat and conversed,
Venture lay asleep on the hearth, now and again giving
troubled expression to the reflex action of spent emotions,
Mary (Mrs. Garlow) taking great care, during her pre-
paration of tea, not to disturb the old giant's repose.
" He's dreamin'," said Davie ; " for after a hard day's
work the peace o' the body is seldom followed by a perfect
peace o' the mind."
That David Garlow had perfect confidence in the
prowess of Venture there could be no ground for doubt ;
but that he anticipated a more than ordinary challenge at
the great International Trials the following Wednesday
was also beyond dispute. As the day drew near a few
of Davie's most intimate friends observed symptoms of
anxiety in his manner, the utter absence of which had long
been the most noted feature of his character. Doubtless,
the threat by Mr. Blacklock Garston, the well-known dog
fancier (who, by a vote of the members of the Inter-
national Society, had been removed from the Executive
Committee, because of his having dared t6 criticise publicly
the awards, and the nature of the work and course at the
previous trials), that he would lower the pride of the
south-country men by producing a dog which would set
a higher standard of work than had yet been seen— this,
together with sundry premonitions, had opened up to
Davie's vision wide fields of possibility in which he some-
times saw the threat of eclipse.
" But," he would say to himself, " this is a' idle
imagination on my part, as I'm convinced it was only
brag and bluster on the part o' Maister Garston. Of
coorse ! Maister Garston may be a very smart fellow, an'
I believe he is, but wi' a' his smartness he couldna keep
a dowg a secret that's capable o' takin' the cup frae auld
Ventir.'
M
1 62 shepherds of Britain
For a time this dose of self-encouragement seemed to
allay all Davie's fears ; still, the mind would soon recall
the ghosts of his own creation, and again submit its victim
to a process of mild torture. Davie was surprised at
himself. So are all men who allow the spirit of specula-
tion to cross its appointed limits and enter the territory
of faith. For when our faith is shattered our strength is
gone.
The mental billows of this tempestuous sea brought
Davie to the trials — for Wednesday had come at last —
in a state of under-confidence, which fitted him for the
commission of more blunders than fall to the lot of
accredited fools. Venture, sharing the timidity of his
master, looked nervous and shy, such being the dual
penalty incurred by a breach of those mysterious but un-
failing laws upon which success depends. They staggered
before a storm which had never blown.
The mist, yielding to the rays of the rising sun,
gradually unveiled the stern features of the towering hiUs
that hold watch, like unchanging sentinels, over the Fair
City of the North. Down the glens, at an early hour,
came bronzed shepherds, their wives, sons, and daughters,
all en route for the trial course, which lay just outside
the city. At the outskirts of the town family met
family ; and some of the looks exchanged there for the
first time found fruition at the matrimonial altar in after
days.
The indulgence of the prophetic having much to do
with the perfecting of our pleasure, there was a perfect
Babel of prediction as the rude hill-men journeyed along.
Each had his favourite ; and the man, or men, who would
question the infallibility of one of the " crack hauns,"
whose reputation had got far beyond the realm of dis-
cussion, were regarded as envious in temperament, and
lacking in the finer instincts of appreciation and justice.
Indeed, by way of giving an admonitory and educa-
tional turn to the day's outing, " hazels " were sometimes
applied to the cranium of a free-spoken and irreverent
critic.
The Shepherd and His Dog 163
" Davie and Ventir will haud the cup," a plaided
septuagenarian, hailing from the Pentlands, opined.
" Wait till ye see him at his oot-bye run, and then at
his shed. If the auld chap " (meaning Venture) " is in
form at a', naething will come near him."
" But what of this great SufFolIc dowg, and the yin
frae New Zealand ? I'm fearin' Davie an' Ventir,"
argued a less confident brother, " will have the stifFest
job they ever had."
" Mon Robin, mon Robin, I'm wae to hear ye. Is't
possible to hae seen auld Ventir tak the coorse scores o'
times, an' still hae doots ? For shame, Robin, for shame,
mon ! But a week syne " — and a flame lit up the old
man's eye — " I saw him on the open hill shed twae lambs
off their mother and haud them apairt like a seven-wired
fence. Ay, auld Ventir will keep the cup."
What reply, if any, Robin intended to make it is im-
possible to say, for, just as the last word of a favourite
prophecy fell from the old man's lips, a familiar hand
was laid upon his shoulder, thus arresting the flow of
conversation.
Turning with an agility that was highly inconsistent
with his years, and recognising Mr. Blacklock Garston,
whom he had known as a boy, the firm-set features of the
veteran relaxed, and a film of feeling lent softness to his
eye as he exclaimed :
" Mon, Maister Garston — for I'm quite certain I'm no
mista'en, ye're sae awfu' like yer mother aboot the een an'
yer faither aboot the broo — I'm richt prood to see ye.
Peggy an' a wheen mair frae the Glen are comin' on ahint
there, nae doot discussin' the price o' stirks an' the next
likely mairrage — but I ken their yae great desire is to
shake hauns wi' yersel', Maister Garston. Excuse ma
feelin's " — the worthy shepherd being slightly overcome —
" but, mon, ye lean on yer stick jist like yer faither when
he used tae rin auld Whaff, the best dowg I ever saw.
Ay, mon, yer faither was the truest and jolliest frien' I
ever had."
That Mr. Garston was pleased to meet the old friends
1 64 Shepherds of Britain
of his boyhood his whole manner clearly showed. The
wave of emotion caused by the sympathetic swelling of
two hearts brought together after a long separation — this
having spent itself, Mr. Garston addressed himself to his
friend by asking who, in his opinion, would carry ofF
the cup.
" Auld Ventir, Maister Garston, nane but auld Ventir."
"A great dog, doubtless, but be prepared for sur-
prises."
" What ! ye dinna mean to say that that vow ye made
aboot lowerin' the pride o' the sooth men is to be brocht
into practice the day ? "
Again laying his hand on the old shepherd's shoulder,
and looking into his eager face, Mr. Garston said :
" Andrew, something, the nearest to old WhafF you
ever saw, will take the course to-day. Believe me, the
cup goes north to-night."
" Never, Maister Garston, never I "
" We will not argue the matter, Andrew ; time and
talent will tell. As I must rush to keep an appointment,
kindly arrange with Peggy and all the Glen friends to join
me at lunch in the field-tent at one o'clock."
When he had left, Andrew looked at his companion
and said, " He means it." Then taking off his hat and
driving his fingers through his thick grey locks, as if to
stimulate the brain to a fresh and greater exertion, but
failing to produce anything of a more encouraging char-
acter, the Knight of the Crook rested his chin on his breast,
and slowly articulated : " He ondootedly means it."
Having meditated for a few moments, he raised his
head, looked dreamily at his surroundings, and then, as if
about to witness the enactment of a sad fate, moved towards
the park in which the trials had to be held.
At the entrance gate all was bustle and excitement.
The shepherds exchanged greetings ; the dogs held close
to the heels of their masters, a youthful first-year com-
petitor now and again taking liberties on the green sward
seldom indulged in by his seniors. Spectators crowded
in, many asking the while whether the New Zealand and
The Shepherd and His Dog 165
Suffolk dogs had arrived, and in which direction lay the
best points of vantage. Ladies fair — blessed (and un-
blessed) strangers to the tearing toil of the restless world
— were there, accompanied by their male protectors and
cicerones, whose only acquaintance with the shepherd and
his calling was through the medium of literature. Philo-
sophy, science, art, and the empire's industries were
represented on the field that day. For once age and
devotion had that priority which their nature suggest —
the successors of the watchers on the plains of Bethlehem
stood first.
The little knots of critics and admirers located with all
the exactness of a topographical map the outstanding
favourites. David Garlow and Venture commanded by
far the largest crowd. Then came the New Zealand and
Suffolk champions^ — their audiences being more select than
numerous.
At a distance stood a small, square, kindly-faced man,
with a dog that looked a reflex of himself. Nobody
seemed to know him ; and his manner, likewise the
manner of his dog, indicated a retiring shyness. Possibly
he had just dropped in to witness the contest.
The judges, three skilled men and true, took their
places : the Director of the Course called up No. i , and so
the quill was upon the page of history.
No. 8 having been announced, David Garlow and
Venture stepped up to the starting-post amid thunders of
applause. The great veteran led away beautifully, but
there was hesitation in his command, which feature marked
his whole performance. He was always holding up for
the emergency that never came. Still at the close of his
run it was felt that the cup was his. True, he had done
better ; David knew it and censured himself ; but no dog
could hope to equal his second best. Enthusiastically, the
crowd sought to crown Davie before his regal rights had
been established.
The New Zealand and Suffolk dogs ran and made
brilliant appearances, but still the cup lay with Davie.
" Ah, Mr. Garston," said his friend Andrew, " ye're no
1 66 Shepherds of Britain
to manage efter a'. The glory o' the sooth is safe in the
hauns o' Davie an' Ventir."
" Have patience, Andrew, have patience. You know,
miracles never come early in the day," laughingly replied
the genial fancier.
"No. 17," shouted the Course Director. Slowly
there emerged from the crowd the small, square, kindly-
faced man, accompanied by his little, mild-featured collie.
" Who's this .'' " several asked.
" Magnus Drever, frae Orkney, wi' Ronald," a strip-
ling, who had been consulting the catalogue, replied.
" Weel, Magnus, my man, ye've come a lang road for
little 00," a voice remarked.
"Say for the cup, Andrew ; say for the cup, and you
will be no false prophet," quietly retorted Mr. Blacklock
Garston.
" Maister Garston, I wunner to hear " Andrew's
lips suddenly became sealed ; then they parted, giving
spacious emphasis to the world of wonders that now
opened before him.
Ronald had compassed the course and taken command
of his sheep in faultless style. Moving up to his master
with his charge, Ronald revealed an art so perfect and
bewitching that spectators felt too deeply to applaud.
Praise loudly uttered is sometimes profanity.
With a peculiarly subdued air of confidence, Magnus
stepped out to meet and co-operate with his dog for the
purpose of effecting a shed. By two lightning moves
Ronald drew up the two marked sheep and held them like
a wall of iron.
" But what of the pen ? " a prophet of misfortune
whispered.
Already Magnus had opened the gate, and, unlike his
rivals, stood there, allowing Ronald to take the full burden
of penning. Not a few of the experts felt that his confid-
ence had actually become dangerous.
Ronald knew his powers, and bravely applied them.
In a minute and a half he had his lot inside, his master
never having moved. Even now Magnus stood holding
The Shepherd and His Dog 167
the gate wide open. Like a giant Ronald held the mouth
of the pen.
" Let go the single sheep," cried one of the judges.
Nobly Ronald buckled to this, the final test. Not an
inch of ground would he surrender ; in twenty seconds he
was master ; the sheep had to obey. Responding to a
whisper from his master, Ronald crept up to his charge,
making it back towards Magnus until the gentle little
Orcadian, who still occupied his original position at the
pen, laid his hand upon it.
Pent-up feelings could no longer be restrained.
Cheer after cheer rent the air, the more impatient youths
rushing into the enclosure to congratulate the victor.
Even the judges forgot the impartial propriety of their
office and joined in the applause.
Offering his hand to Mr. Garston, Andrew said in a
husky voice that told of both pain and pleasure :
" It's away, Mr. Garston, it's away. Ye were richt —
aye, ye were richt. Ronald is jist yer faither's auld WhafF
come to life again."
That night, in a humble turf-roofed cot in Stronsay
(Orkney) a little tidy white-haired old woman received
and read a telegram, then knelt down and prayed. She
was Magnus Drever's widowed mother.
SHEPHERDS' DOGS IN CHURCH
By The Author
Shepherds' dogs in kirk is no rare sight in Scotland.
We do not hear of whip and tongs being in requisition for
the maintenance of order as in some parts of the country,
but to judge from what we find in Notes and Queries
(1876),^ as given below, the behaviour of our northern
canine friends on these occasions is not always perfect.
" An Edinburgh minister was performing service one
Sunday in a remote country kirk, where dogs formed no
inconsiderable part of the congregation. It is the custom
^ By permission of Editor.
1 68 Shepherds of Britain
of the Scotch Kirk for the assembled worshippers to stand
while the blessing is pronounced. When the minister,
however, rose for that purpose at the end of the service,
he perceived, to his surprise, that his hearers all remained
seated. He looked around for some little time with an
expectant eye, but no one moved. At last the clerk, with
the view of relieving the honest gentleman's embarrass-
ment, turned up his head from his desk below, and bawled
out, 'Say awa', sir, it's joost to cheat the dowgs ! ' It
had been found that the dogs, imagining the service to be
concluded when the congregation stood up at this crisis,
always prepared for their own departure, and disturbed
the solemnity of the occasion by various canine noises and
shufflings ; they had, therefore, to be circumvented by the
people keeping their seats while the benediction was
given."
Another correspondent adds : " I have a vivid recol-
lection of an anecdote which my father used to relate,
nearly if not quite half a century ago, with regard
to dogs being taken to public worship in Scotland. In
a rural kirk where this was the practice, the shepherds'
dogs were permitted to occupy the gallery over their
masters' heads, where they remained during service
time, and, it is fair to suppose, conducted themselves
in an inoffensive manner ; but on one occasion, pre-
sumably that of a larger assembly than usual, a strange
dog was introduced among them. This was a signal for
a general commotion upstairs, which terminated by the
sudden bolting of the intruder over the front of the
gallery into the body of the church, and as speedily out of
it by the door, pursued by the same route in his headlong
exit by the whole dog congregation. This amusing anec-
dote acquires peculiar interest from having been originally
related by the celebrated Edward Irving ; and the occur-
rence, if I am not mistaken, took place under his own
eyes, and probably in consequence of his popularity."
Another anecdote is related by C. F. S. Warren :
" In 1839 a relation of mine was fishing on the Whitadder
when a small building attracted his attention, and he
The Shepherd and His Dog 169
asked a shepherd, ' Pray, is that a kirk ? it looks very
small'; to which the shepherd answered, ' Aye, aye; but
it's no sae sma' ; there's aboon thirty collies there ilka
Sabbath.' "
The Rev. J. E. Vaux, in Church Folklore {i()02),^ gives
the following account of shepherds and their dogs in a
chapel in Ireland : —
" About twenty years ago I was in Connemara salmon-
fishing. The first Sunday the landlord of the hotel where
I was staying kindly ofi^ered me a seat in his car to convey
me to a chapel on the bog, three or four miles off, for the
midday Mass. 1 gladly accepted the lift. The chapel
was of the most primitive kind. The floor was but of
beaten clay. When I entered, the altar-rail was closely
packed with worshippers, who, I presume, were all shep-
herds. There was only one pew, which belonged to the
' quality,' i.e. the landlord and his family. I preferred to
kneel alongside my attendant ' ghillie ' (to use a Scotch
term) who was there. There were a dozen dogs at least
in the chapel, several of them sitting behind their masters,
who were kneeling at the altar-rails. One of these sheep-
dogs attracted my attention. He sat most quietly through
the earlier portion of the service. As soon as the creed
had been recited, and the celebrant turned round to
deliver the sermon, the dog looked up as much as to say,
' Oh ! sermon time, all right,' and having, dog fashion,
walked round three times, curled himself up for a com-
fortable sleep. The sermon, which did not last more than
ten minutes, being over, the dog woke up, and sat on his
tail behind his shepherd master until the service was over.
There was something so deliciously human about this, that
I have never forgotten it. I have described the incident
exactly as it happened, without the slightest exaggeration."
^ By permission of Messrs. Skeffington & Son.
lyo Shepherds of Britain
SHEPHERDS' DOGS EXPELLED FROM
CHURCH
By the Venerable Archdeacon Thomas, F.S.A.
Some of the stories told by the late Dean Ramsay,
in his Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character, of
the sagacity of collie dogs, must, to judge from certain
mementos, have had their amusing as well as ridiculous
counterparts in the Principality, only they have lacked the
pen of the witty dean to chronicle them. Following
their masters through the labours of the week, they did
not see why they should not share their Sabbath observ-
ances ; but they had their own notions of the proper
length of such indulgences, and they had their own ways
of making their opinions known. Neither were they
altogether ir^^ from the clannish pride and partisanship of
their owners ; indeed, it was no uncommon thing for them
to start up in vigorous assertion of their offended dig-
nity, and that at moments and in places highly inoppor-
tune ; and many a stout heart that would have collared
his offending fellow-man, kept at a prudent distance from
the uninviting teeth of the too faithful companion. Still
certain unpleasant duties had to be performed, and a
timely invention came to the aid of the disconcerted
churchwarden. The illustration given (Fig. 4) shows
very well the form of the instrument both at rest and in
motion, and its character has become familiar to us in
another use, under the name of "lazy tongs." Some of
the joints, including the handle, have been lost from the
present specimen ; but the handle was not unlike the
forceps or catching end, which was in some cases (as at
GyfFylliog) lined with nail-heads or small knobs to make
the grip more secure as well as more cautionary. When no
convenient pew could shelter the offender, and no amount
of snarling could any longer ward off the certain, not to say
ignominious, expulsion of the culprit, the dog-tongs had
only to be quietly taken off the seat on which they lay so
innocently, and the handles brought quickly together,
Copyright^ Rev. Morris Gri^th. pic;. I
IRON DOG-TONGS USED TO DRAG PUGNACIOUS SHEPHERDS'
DOGS FROM PENMYNYDD CHURCH, ANGLESEY
The wooden handles are new ; the fangs either almost worn out
or have been purposely mutilated ; length when extended, 4 feet
6 inches.
Copyright, Rni. 7. y. Ellis. p,,- ^
WOODEN DOG-TONGS IN LLANEILIAN CHURCH, ANGLESEY
FIG. 3
DOG-TONGS IN BANGOR CATHEDRAL
171
172
Shepherds of Britain
when out shot the jointed folds and arms, and in an
instant seized the helpless wretch around the neck or
leg, and without danger or ceremony extruded him from
the place. The usefulness of such an instrument must
have been very great when dogs were more in the habit of
attending church than they happily now are, and when it
was even necessary to appoint an officer to see to their
proper conduct, or, if necessary, their summary exclusion.
There was one occasion on which the presence of a dog
FIG. ^
DOG-TONGS, CLOSED AND OPEN
was held to be specially ominous, for Pennant tells us that
" Among the Highlanders, during the marriage ceremony,
great care was taken that dogs should not pass between
the couple to be married " (Brand's Popular Antiquities,
ii. p. 170). Whether such a custom prevailed also in
the Principality does not appear, neither are we told the
reason of the precaution ; but may it not have been inter-
preted as an omen that there would be more love for the
old dog than for the new wife .''
The tongs here illustrated are from Clodock Church,
The Shepherd and His Dog 173
in Herefordshire, and were exhibited by the Rev. C. L.
Eagles in the Temporary Museum at Abergavenny, in
1876. A similar pair, but more perfect, from Llanynys
Church, Denbighshire, was exhibited by the Rev. John
Davies, vicar, at the Wrexham Meeting in 1874. Another,
as already mentioned, existed in GyffylUog Church in the
same county.^
Copyright, A. Coates.
PLATE I
DOG-WHIP, PATEN, AND WOODEN COLLECTING-BOX
IN BASLOW CHURCH, DERBYSHIRE
OTHER METHODS OF EXPULSION
By The Author
Another way of expelling such canine intruders was
by whipping. In old days it was the custom in various
parishes in England, in the Isle of Man, and in Wales to
appoint a dog-whipper, to keep the shepherds' dogs out of
churches. It is interesting to note that in Thomas Wright's
'Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial English (1857) he has
^ Archdeacon Thomas, in a letter to the author, adds : "I myself have seen dogs
accompany the shepherds to church in 1851, in the old parish church of Llandrin-
dod, but they behaved very well, and there was no need to use the tongs with them.
Besides those tongs mentioned in the paper at Gyffylliog and Llanynys, there are also
others at Nantglyn (these are three adjoining parishes in the Vale of Clwyd), and a
pair preserved in Bangor Cathedral, but I forget whence they came \ and another pair at
Clynnog Fawr, made of iron, and dated 18 15. The arms of some of these tongs
extend out six or seven feet."
174 Shepherds of Britain
"Dognoper = a beadle" (Yorks), also " Dog-whipper =
a beadle " (North). Mr. Arthur Finn tells me of
an entry in the churchwardens' book of Lydd, Kent,
dated 1520: "I first paid to Robert Foule for keeping
the dogs oute of the church and for the last year gotte
throng, XX d." And Archdeacon Thomas sends me the
following from the vestry books of the parish of Llan-
drindod : —
£ 5. d.
181 1. Wm. Thomas, the Dog Whipper .080
1818. For a lash to whip the dogs ...004
18 19. Eleanor Thomas, Dog Whipper, ^ yr. 040
(She succeeded her husband.)
Whipping the dogs out of church is said to have been
the custom at Baslow, Derbyshire, until the beginning
of the last century. And a dog-whipper was regularly
appointed and used this whip : " The throng of the whip
is about three feet long, and is fastened to a short ash stick,
round the handle of which is a band of twisted leather."
(See Plate I.) Plate 11. is from a life-size portrait of " Old
Scarleit " which hangs in the nave of Peterborough
Cathedral. His dog-whip is seen thrust through his belt.
" His office by theis tokens you may know."
At Broseley, in Shropshire, a similar official is said to
have been familiarly called the " Whipper-in and the
Scouter-out," and Halliwell (i860) has: "Dognoper =
the parish beadle " (Yorkshire).
Notes and Queries (1875) supplies information on
whipping dogs out of church from the following church
registers : —
Trysull, Staffordshire (17th April 1725) ; Claverley, Shropshire
(25th August 1659) ; Chislet, Kent ; Peter's Church, Hereford-
shire ; Louth (from 1550 at intervals till 1705); St. Mary's,
Reading (1571) ; Smarden, Kent ( 1576) ; Battle Church (1633) :
Yolgrave Church (1609, 1617); Ogbourne St. George, near
Marlborough (1632, 1633, 1639); East Witton, Yorkshire;
Goosnargh, Lancashire (loth April, 1704); St. Mary-le-Bow,
Durham (6th April 1722) ; Kirton-in-Lindsey, 1817.
The Shepherd and His Dog 175
The late Rev. J. Eastwood, in his History of Ecclesfield, Co.
York (1862), speaks of the dog-whipper as being still known
under the name of " the dog-noper."
Mr. R. Butterworth, one of the churchwardens of Ecclesfield
'^jjf i^^ssin.s-'i^M-
Yov SEE oil) ycAiii.Errs- ficTvio: stand w hie
BVT Al' .YOVR FEETF. -HERE DOTH FJIS BODY LYE
■HIS GRAyESTONK DO'H HIS AGE AND DIjOT TIME SHOV'
HIS OFFICE BY TIEIS TOKENS YOV MAY KNOW
SECOND TO NONE FOR STHENGTl ANO STVEDYH IIMM
A SCAaEBABE MIGHTY 'VOICE WIH VISAGE GRM
HEE HAD INTEBD TWO QVEETSES WIBIN TilS PLACE
AND TIIS TOVPNES HOVSE HOLDERS IN B1SID.'ES SEAC3:
TWICE OVER; BVT AT LENGH HIS OWN TVTCN Cj\W£ ^ ,
^^^UAT HE FOR OTHERS DID EOR HIM THE SAW E ■'
WAS DONE-, NO DO\'BT HIS aOVLE DO'H LIVE FOR AYB ,
W HEAVEN; THO HERE HIS BODY CLAD IN CL5Y '-«&
gJ. ■
PLATE II
(Yorks, 1 9 10), who was contemporary with the Rev. J. Eastwood,
remembers these dog-nopers being talked of. " Nope " in northern
dialect means a knock on the head. In 1785, in W. Button's
Bran New Wark^ p. 157, we find : "In some churches the sides-
men gang about with staves and give every sleeper a good nope."
176 Shepherds of Britain
SHEPHERDS' DOGS AND SHEEP-STEALING
By James Hogg ("The Ettrick Shepherd"), 1772-1835
The stories related of the dogs of sheep-stealers are
fairly beyond all credibility. I cannot mention names,
for the sake of families that still remain in the country ;
but there have been sundry men executed,^ who belonged
to this district of the kingdom, for that heinous crime, in
my own days ; and others have absconded, just in time to
save their necks. There was not one of these to whom I
allude who did not acknowledge his dog to be the greatest
aggressor. One young man in particular, who was, I
believe, overtaken by justice for his first offence, stated,
that after he had folded the sheep by moonlight, and
selected his number from the flock of a former master, he
took them out, and set away with them towards Edinburgh.
But before he had got them quite off the farm, his con-
science smote him, as he said (but more likely a dread of
that which soon followed), and he quitted the sheep,
letting them go again to the hill. He called his dog off
them, and mounting his pony he rode away. At that
time, he said, his dog was capering and playing around
him, as if glad of having got free of a troublesome
business ; and he regarded him no more, till, after having
rode about three miles, he thought again and again that
he heard something coming up behind him. Halting, at
length, to ascertain what it was, in a few minutes there
comes his dog with the stolen animals, driving them at a
furious rate to keep up with his master. The sheep were
all smoking, and hanging out their tongues, and their
guide was as fully as warm as they. The young man
was now exceedingly troubled, for the sheep having been
brought so far from home, he dreaded there would be a
pursuit, and he could not get them home again before day.
Resolving, at all events, to keep his hands clear of them,
he corrected his dog in great wrath, left the sheep once
more, and, taking the collie with him, rode off a second
' Under an Act long since repealed. — \_Author's Note."]
The Shepherd and His Dog 177
time. He had not ridden above a mile, till he perceived
that his assistant had again given him the slip ; and sus-
pecting for what purpose, he was terribly alarmed as well
as chagrined ; for daylight now approached, and he durst
not make a noise calling his dog, for fear of alarming the
neighbourhood, in a place where they were well known.
He resolved, therefore, to abandon the animal to himself,
and take a road across the country, which he was sure the
other did not know, and could not follow. He took the
road, but, being on horseback, he could not get across
the enclosed fields. He at length came to a gate, which
he shut behind him, and went about half a mile farther,
by a zigzag course, to a farm-house, where both his sister
and sweetheart lived ; and at that place he remained until
after breakfast time. The people of this house were all
examined on the trial, and no one had either seen the sheep
or heard them mentioned, save one man, who came up to
the aggressor as he was standing at the stable door, and
told him that his dog had the sheep safe enough down at
the Crooked Yett, and he need not hurry himself. He
answered that the sheep were not his — they were young
Mr. Thomson's, who had left them to his charge, and he
was in search of a man to drive them, which made him
come off his road. After this discovery, it was impossible
for the poor fellow to get quit of them ; so he went down
and took possession of the stolen drove once more, carried
them on, and disposed of them ; and, finally, the transac-
tion cost him his life. The dog, for the last four or five
miles that he brought the sheep, could have had no other
guide to the road his master had gone but the smell of his
pony's feet.
It is also well known that there was a notorious sheep-
stealer in the county of Midlothian, who, had it not been
for the skins and heads, would never have been condemned,
as he could, with the greatest ease, have proved an alibi
every time suspicions were entertained against him. He
always went by one road, calling on his acquaintances,
and taking care to appear to everybody by whom he was
178 shepherds of Britain
known, while his dog went another way with the stolen
sheep ; and then, on the two felons meeting again, they
had nothing more to do than turn the sheep into an
associate's enclosure, in whose house the dog was well fed
and entertained, and would have soon taken all the fat
sheep on the Lothian edges to that house. . . . On the
disappearance of her master she lay about the hills and
places where he had frequented, but she never attempted
to steal a drove by herself, nor the smallest thing for her
own hand. She was kept some time by a relation of her
master's, but never acting heartily in his service, soon
came to an untimely end.
SHEEP-MARKS AND TALLIES
179
By Habberton Ljilhani.
THE BADGE OF OWNERSHIP
SHEEP -MARKS AND TALLIES
Every shepherd tells his tale^
Under the hawthorne in the dale.
Milton, V Allegro.
ON SHEEP-MARKING
By The Author
The following from Curious Church Customs, by William
Andrews (1896), is of special interest, as it gives a
^ Counts his sheep.
1 8 2 Shepherds of Britain
record of ear- marking in England in the seventeenth
century : —
"In April 1864, when clearing out a large, roughly
made, lidless chest, beneath the tower of the parish church
of Luccombe, Somerset, wherein the sexton kept his tools,
a considerable store of decaying papers came to light
beneath a mildewed parish pall. It is well known to
ecclesiologists that up to comparatively recent times a
variety of notices, that would now considerably startle
demure congregations, were given out in parish churches.
. . . But as far as our acquaintance with old parochial
documents extends, the Luccombe chest is the only one
that has yielded absolute evidence of announcements being
made in church in the seventeenth century about strayed
cattle. By no means the least interesting of the curious
medley of fragments so strangely preserved in this Somerset
village was one of which the following is a copy : —
The Gierke shal give notice on Trinitie Sondaye after
divine service is ended publickly in the Chuche that one score
and three straye sheepe hav bin vounde in David Pugsley his
bartone with a clippette in the ye lefte eare. Also that a redde
cowe hath bene pinned by the pyndere of East Luckham.
The writing is good, too good probably for the village
constable, and is most likely that of the rector or curate.
The sheep had doubtless strayed ofF the closely adjacent
Exmoor. The ' Zomerzet ' v for / may be noticed
in ' vounde ' for ' found.' This paper is not dated, but
there can be no doubt that it is of the reign of Charles I."
From a curious Shepherd's Guide (the date of which is
not given), under the heading of Matterdale (chap, xii.),
Southey, in his Commonplace Book (i 849-1 851), quotes
some interesting particulars as to the former methods
employed in the marking of sheep in the English Lake
Country. As this book is not in the British Museum,
it may be worth while to give a full account of it.
The subject of the book is given as follo'ws : — " The
Shepherd's Guide, or a delineation of the wool and
ear marks on the different stocks of sheep in Patterdale,
Grasmere, Hawkshead, Langdale, Loughrigg, Wythburn,
Sheep-Marks and Tallies 183
Legberthwaite, St. John's, Wanthwaite and Burns, Borrow-
dale, Newlands, Threlkeld, Matterdale, Watermillock,
Eskdale, and Wastdalehead." ^
The original preface says : — " The success this work
has met with is sufficient to show the extensive benefit
which is likely to result from it. It has not been presented
to any sheep-breeder who has not considered it of the
greatest importance. My object is to lay down a plan
by which every man may have it in his power to know
the owner of a strayed sheep, and to restore it to him,
and at the Same time, that it may act as an antidote
against the fraudulent practice too often followed — in a
word, to restore to every man his own.
" I considered that the best mode of representing the
wool and ear marks would be to have printed delineations
of the animals, on which the respective marks might be
laid down, and to which the printed description would
serve as an index. Accordingly the book consists of four-
teen chapters of prints, filling eighty-four pages, with three
couple of sheep in each, each couple being numbered."
As above intimated, Southey selects the chapter on
Matterdale, from which he quotes the following detailed
descriptions of the marks employed, with which he couples
the name of the farmer to whom the sheep in question
belonged. Thus we have : —
" No. 12. William Calvert, Esq., Wallthwaite.
Bitted far ear, old sheep. M on the nearside ; hogs,
full Gripping across each buttock, and no letter.
No. 17. John Sutton.
Cropped, and muck - forked on the far ear ; under
fold bitted on the near ; a red stroke over the fillets of
the near side, the form of a grindstone handle.
No. 23. John Brownrigg, Matterdale End.
Cropped far ear, bitted near ; a red stroke on the top
of the shoulder ; J. B. on the near side.
The ear-marks are what are most depended on, because
^ The names of the book's two authors are given as William Mounsey and William
Kirkpatrick, and the book is described as being on the plan " originally devised by Joseph
Walker." It was octavo in size, and printed (without date) by William W. Stephen at
Penrith,
184 shepherds of Britain
they cannot so easily be got rid of. The ear is either
cropt, under or upper halved, under key-bitted or upper-
holed, muck-forked, or clicking-forked, marked with a
three-square hole, etc. ; and these marks are varied, by
being either on the cropt or otherwise entire ear. The
other marks have all their technical names."
Southey adds : " The copy before me is one which
my brother T. has borrowed from a neighbour. It is
neatly bound in red sheep ; and has pasted in it a printed
paper with these words, ' Newland's Public Book.' The
sheep are coloured according to the description, and a
blank in the engraving left for the ears of one of the
couple."
In old days ear-marking was the custom in the Isle of
Man and was called " cowrey keyrragh " or " bein er y
chleaysh." Now it is usual for the sheep to have initials
painted on their fleeces, or when the wool is dark, as with
the laughtans, to brand the horns. Their noses were
never branded with a hot iron. The following in respect
to unmarked sheep in the island is interesting : —
Saint Columba's Eve, gth yune^
According to the " Ordinances " of the Isle of Man, anno 15 10.
" The fForester or his deputy ought to go forth on St. Collum Eve
through the fForest, and ride to the highest hill-top in the Isle of
Man, and there blow his horn thrice ; this done, to range and
view the fForest, and on the third day to go forth and take such
company with him as he shall like, to see what sheep he findeth
unshorn. If he finde any, he ought to take them with his dogge,
if the said sheep be not milk sheep, to shear them and to take the
fleece to himself, and to put a private mark upon said sheep, to
use all he finds vi^ithin the precincts of the fforest so at the time,
to the intent that if any of the said sheep be found the next year
by the same fForester, he to certify the comptroller and receiver of
the same, that they may be recorded in the Court Rolls and so
priced and sold to the Lord's best profit, etc."
An old Manx man says that the forester's mark in his
young days was to cut a tiny strip of skin almost off the
tail underneath, and to twist it tightly into something like
^ The fiay was altered to 21st of June by statute of 1748, chap. vi.
Sheep-Marks and Tallies 185
a tag. The office of forester was abolished by the Isle of
Man Disafforesting Act of i860, sec. 16.
With regard to Wales, the Rev. Morris Griffith,
writing from Anglesey, says :— "The branding of lambs
with a hot iron on the nose ceased here and in Carnarvon-
shire twenty years ago. The custom which prevails in
the Snowdonian range, where thousands of sheep graze, is
to make a tar-mark on the lambs when they are taken
from the mountains in the spring, and to mark their ears
when they are collected for shearing purposes in June.
Every farm has its own tar- and ear-mark, so that they may
be able to identify their sheep. Thus, for ear-mark —
Left ear. Right ear.
The tips of both ears are cut off, and the knife is drawn
lightly under the left ear for the other mark. The above
is the specimen of the marks of a farm in Anglesey. The
burning of initials on their horns is a common custom, but
all sheep have not horns ; Welsh sheep, as a rule, have
very short ones. After shearing, an iron brand is steeped
in hot pitch and initials stamped on their bodies, different
farms stamping different parts."
In Ireland ear- marking still obtains, although the
tendency (in the case of blackfaces) is to brand the horns.
Then, on being clipped, the initials of owner or place are
described in tar on some part of each sheep. The growth
of more tender feelings towards the animal world is
operating against ear-marking.
LAMB-BRANDING IN SKYE
By Alexander Smith, 1865
Morning broke forth gloriously — not a speck of
vapour on the Cuchullins ; the long stretch of Strathaird
wonderfully distinct ; the loch bright in sunlight. . . .
1 86 Shepherds of Britain
We went up the glen, and as we drew near the " fank "
we saw a number of men standing about, their plaids
thrown on the turfen walls, with sheep-dogs couched
thereupon ; a thick column of peat-smoke rising up smelt
easily at the distance of half a mile ; no sheep were visible,
but the air was filled with bleatings — undulating with the
clear plaintive trebles of innumerable ewes and the hoarser
baa of tups. When we arrived, we found the narrow
chambers and compartments at one end of the " fank "
crowded with lambs, so closely wedged together that they
could hardly move, and between these chambers and com-
partments temporary barriers erected, so that no animal
could pass from one to the other. The shepherds must
have had severe work of it that morning. It was as yet
only eleven o'clock, and since early dawn they and their
dogs had coursed over an area of t^VL miles, sweeping
every hill-face, visiting every glen, and driving down riUs
of sheep towards the central spot. Having got the animals
down, the business of assortment began. The most perfect
ewes — destined to be the mothers of the next brood of
lambs on the farm — were placed in one chamber ; the
second best, whose fate it was to be sold at Inverness,
were placed in a congeries of compartments, the one
opening into the other ; the inferior qualities — shots as
they are technically called — occupied a place by them-
selves : these were also to be sold at Inverness, but at
lower prices than the others. The fank is a large square
enclosure. The compartments into which the bleating
flocks were huddled occupied about one -half of the
walled- in space, the remainder being perfectly vacant.
One of the compartments opened into this space, but a
temporary barrier prevented all egress. Just at the mouth
of this barrier we could see the white ashes and the dull
orange glow of the peat-fire, in which some half-dozen
branding-irons were heating. When everything was pre-
pared, two or three men entered into this open space.
One took his seat on a large smooth stone by the side of
the peat-fire, a second vaulted into the struggling mass
of heads and fleeces, a third opened the barrier slightly,
Sheep-Marks and Tallies 187
lugged out a struggling lamb by the horns, and consigned
it to the care of the man seated on the smooth stone.
This worthy got the animal dexterously between his legs
so that it was unable to struggle, laid its head down on his
thigh, seized from the orange glow of the smouldering
peat-fire one of the red-hot heating-irons, and with a hiss
and a slight curl of smoke drew it in a diagonal direction
across its nose. Before the animal was sufficiently branded
the iron had to be applied twice or thrice. It was then
released, and trotted bleating into the open space,
perhaps making a curious bound on the way as if in
bravado, or shaking its head hurriedly as if snuff had been
thrown into its eyes. All day the branding goes on.
The peat-fire is replenished when needed ; another man
takes his seat on the smooth stone ; by two o'clock a
string of women bring the dinner from the house, and all
the while young M'lan sits on the turfen wall, notebook
in hand, setting down the number of the lambs and their
respective qualities. Every farmer has his own peculiar
brand, and by it he can identify a member of his stock if
it should go astray. The brand is to the farmer what
a trade mark is to a manufacturer. These brands are
familiar to the drovers, even as the brands of wine and
cigars are familiar to the connoisseurs in those articles.
The operation looks a cruel one, but it is not perfectly
clear that the sheep suffer much under it. While under
the iron they are quite quiet — they neither bleat nor
struggle — and when they get off they make no sign of
discomfort save the high bound or the restless shake of
the head already mentioned (if indeed these are signs of
discomfort, a conclusion which no sheep farmer will in
any way allow). In a minute or so they are cropping
herbage in the open space of the "fank," or if the day is
warm, lying in the cool shadows of the walls as composedly
as if nothing had happened. Leaning against the " fank "
walls, we looked on for about an hour, by which time a
couple of hundred lambs had been branded.'
^ Lamb-branding as described by Alexander Smith seems to be a tiling of the past.
— [Autior's Note.]
1 88 Shepherds of Britain
SHEEP-MARKS
By the Rev. Thomas Mathewson, 1909
These marks were made upon the animal's ears. Each
family knew their sheep by the mark, which descended to
the youngest son. I have in my possession the only
existing copy, as far as I am aware, of the sheep-marks,
with the names of the persons to whom they belonged, of
the parish of Northmavine, Shetland, more than a hundred
years ago. Dr. Hibbert, writing in 1822, says : "There
is a code of sheep laws, preserved in Debes's Description of
Ferae, which is dated Opslo, a.d. 1040, being addressed
from Hagen, Duke of Norway, and son of King Magnus,
to the Bishop of Feroe and Mr. Sefvort, Provincial Judge
of Shetland, named here Hetland. From the tenor of this
sheep ordinance it evidently relates to an enclosed state of
the country. The laws corrected the grievances that
arose from unmarked, stray, and wild sheep, from a
clandestine marking of lambs, from trespasses upon fields
or enclosures, from keeping a superfluous number of
sheep-dogs, and from sheep being injured or destroyed by
dogs not properly trained to their office." ^ In a previous
chapter Dr. Hibbert writes : " As the seizure of sheep
took place by means of dogs, it was necessary for the pre-
servation of individual property that no capture should be
private. Every proprietor in claiming his share of a pro-
miscuous flock had a particular mark of his own that was
formed by various kinds of incisions, which were inflicted
on one or both of the animal's ears ; these received such
names as a shear, a slit, a hole, a bit out of the right or
left ear, before, behind, or from the top. In this way an
infinite variety of private marks was devised, but none of
these could be lawfully used without the sanction of the
bailiff of a district or civil officer, whose duty it was to
insert in a public register a descriptive account of all the
tokens which any individual wished to adopt for the
recognition of the particular share which he had in a joint
^ Description of the Shetlafid Islands^ pp. 471-2.
Sheep-Marks and Tallies 189
flock of sheep. It was, therefore, a proper regulation
that the marking of sheep should be a public act, and that
no property could be thus claimed but in the sight of a
whole district. The period appointed for marking lambs
was when all the proprietors of a flock were assembled for
the purpose of ' rueing,' or tearing off with the hand the
wool from sheep after it had naturally begun to loosen ;
this was about the middle of May, or near midsummer.
" Thus there was a law that no one should mark lambs
or rue sheep where there are different owners in the flock
but in the sight of sufficient witnesses, under the pain of
ten pounds scots for the first offence, and of double the
amount for the second, and for the third fault of being
reputed and punished as thieves. The time of marking
and rueing is still publicly proclaimed, and on the day
fixed all the men of a district turn out and drive their
common flock, without any preparation of washing, into
rude enclosures, named punds or crues. If the punding
be delayed too long the sheep become so wild that they
are hunted down and taken by dogs ; but when at last
they are secured within the crues the civil officers (who
were in former days the bailiff and ranselmen of a district)
appear as arbiters of all disputes." ^
Mr. ShirrefF, writing in 1814, has given a curious
specimen of the register of a sheep-mark as taken from
the parish records of Orkney, where a custom nearly
similar to the Shetland practice prevailed : " I, John
Gillies, baron-bailie of the parish of Orphir, hereby grant
warrant to Edward Wishart, In Mill of Claistran, to
assume and use the sheep-mark following, as the same is
recorded in the register of sheep-marks on the 4th day of
July 1770 years in the name of John Flett in Skelbister,
viz. The crop of the right lug and a bit behind, a rip in
the left lug and a bit before, and the tail off." ^
^ Description of the Shetland Islands (1822), pp. 438-9.
^ Agricultural Survey of Orkney, by John Shirreff, p. 132.
EAR-MARKING IN SHETLAND
By Dr. Jakobsen, 1909
Old Shetland Name given to
Mark.
Middled or grind
Fidder
Hingin' widder (hingin'
fidder)
Crook .
Description.
Square bit cut out of top
of lug. Lit. = " gate."
An incision.
Opposite of fidder.
An angular piece cut out.
What we should call a
« bite."
Triangular bit, generally
at top.
Bit
Shule
Strae-draw
Stoo
Rit i de stoo .
Getskerdand a hole
Gongbit . . . /) ^ Two "bits" on opposite
sides.i
^ I am much indebted to Dr. Jakobsen for these names. A full list will appear in
his learned and valuable Slietlaiid Norn Dictionary. Parts I. and II. are already pub-
lished. — [Author's Note.]
190
Narrow cut down along-
side of lug.
Top off.
Top off and slit down.
O \ A hole in connexion with
a hole.
Sheep-Marks and Tallies 191
TALLY-STICK REGISTERS
By Edward Lovett, 1909
on
This method of recording numbers by notches
tally^-sticks is still practised by a few shepherds of the old
school, and I have obtained specimens of flock tallies as
well as lamb tallies. These are cut either on squared
lengths of wood about half an inch wide and eight or nine
A LAMB TALLY FROM WORCESTERSHIRE
23 red notches (doubles), 46 lambs.
Fig. z. (Reverse Side.)
II plain (singles), 12 black (triplets), 47 lambs.
The total, 93, is marked on the ends,
inches long, or on natural round sticks of about the same
size, and with the bark left on. In the lamb tallies used
for recording the number of lambs born in the season an
ordinary notch denotes doubles or twins, a short notch or
dot a single, and perhaps an extra long notch trebles. (In
1 (F. — L.) F. tail/e, a notch, cut ; L. talea, a slip of wood. The finalji in tall-y is
due to the frequent use of F. taille, pt.p., to signify "notched." — [Author's Note.]
192 shepherds of Britain
Worcestershire the doubles are similarly marked by
ordinary notches, but the singles and trebles by black and
red coloured notches. See Figs, i and 2.) By this
simple method a shepherd can quickly record and " tot
up " the number of his lambs.^
The flock tallies are used when the lambs are old
enough to leave the ewes, and the time has come for
dividing up the flock. In dividing, the animals are
separated by twenties, or by the " score " (^i.e. by the
scratch or notch). After five " scores " have been made
the fifth notch is continued either over the edge of a
squared tally or further round a natural bark-stick-tally
than the other notches, so that the hundreds on the tally
can be read off simply and easily. Any odd animals are
marked by smaller notches at the end of the row, so that,
for a new flock of say 613 sheep, the completed tally
would show six sets of five notches each, followed by
thirteen smaller notches, thus : —
Fig. 3.
Fig. 4 shows an actual flock tally recording 506 sheep.
One of the old shepherds made a very remarkable tally for
me, saying that his grandfather used one like it. It con-
sists of a piece of natural wood with the bark on, about
one inch in diameter and six inches long. This is
hollowed out, and the ends stopped with two bits of cork.
In this wooden bottle are placed small pebbles, each one
representing a score of sheep, and the old sheep are
notched upon the bark in the same way as on the ordinary
tally. In this tally a flock of 613 sheep would be recorded
by thirty small pebbles and thirteen notches. In the same
locality — Burpham, near Arundel — tallies are still used for
other purposes than those described above. For example,
when a man buys lambs for feeding up, he will have a
' Curiously enough, they can guess about how many to expect, so the stick is evenly
filled, for I am told that threes and ones invariably equal the twos in a flock. — E.
LOVETT.
Sheep-Marks and Tallies 193
record of the original number in stock, and will have a
tally record of the deaths.
NOTCHES AND NICKS
By The Author
Old Sussex shepherds tell me that when they were
boys they used to play cricket on the Downs, and register
the scores by cutting notches on sticks. This method
was once general, and accounts for the survival of the
word "notch" in the sense of a "run." In accounts of
modern cricket matches we may constantly read that So-
and-so " scored so many notches to his credit." Dr. E.
Cobden Brewer, in his Dictionary of Phrase and Fable}
remarks that " tallies " used to be called " nick-sticks."
Hence to make a record of anything is to nick it down.
" In the nick of time," just at the right moment.
The allusion is to tallies marked with nicks or notches.
Shakespeare has, " 'Tis now the prick of noon," - in allu-
sion to the custom of pricking tallies with a pin, as they
do at Cambridge University still. If a man enters chapel
just before the doors close, he would be just in time to
get nicked, or pricked, and would be " in the nick of time."
Halliwell gives the following : —
" Nick-stick. — A tally, or stick notched for reckoning
(northern).
" Nicky. — A faggot of wood (west).
" Nick. — Used in the proverbial expression " to knock a nick
in the post," i.e. to make a record of any remarkable event. This
is evidently an ancient method of recording. Similarly -we. have
'in the nick of time,' /..?. just as the notch was being cut ; in the
nick exactly (northern)."
^ Cassell & Co. ^ Romeo and yul'let^ ii. 4.
O
1 94 Shepherds of Britain
THE SHEEP-COUNTING SCORE
By Walter Skeat, 1910
An old farmer in the county of Sussex, rather
more than half a century ago, observed that a drover,
from whom he wished to purchase some sheep, made use
of an unusual set of numbers (which began with een,
doit^ tree, and ran up to twenty) by which to reckon
them. Feeling a very natural curiosity in this discovery,
he determined, if possible, to ascertain their origin. The
numbers were written down, and compared with the
numerical systems in various dialects, when it at once
became obvious that, although several of them could not
be identified at all, the remainder were clearly connected
in some way with the numerals of modern Welsh, from
which latter they might at first sight appear to have been
derived. In 1878, however, a paper was read on the
subject by Mr. Alexander Ellis, who published in the
Transactions of the Philological Society (in 1878, p. 316)
a collection of more than fifty such sets of numerals, an
analysis of which shows that these numerals came from
many parts of England, and that instead of appearing
most persistently in the counties bordering upon Wales,
they appear with greater persistency in counties very far
removed from the Welsh borders — in Surrey and Sussex,
Essex and Lincolnshire, for instance. Out of the entire
list, in fact, seven sets came from the northern counties,
and the rest from the counties just mentioned. It was,
moreover, clear (according to the view taken by Mr. Ellis
himself) that the oldest of these sets of numerals might
in 1878 be traced back upwards of two hundred years ;
and that although in modern times these numerals have
come to be used by schoolboys in playing games, by
nurses and mothers for amusing their babies, and by old
' The "t" at the end of " doit " ( = " two ") is purely adventitious, and has most
likely come from doubling the "t" at the beginning of the word for "three." Thus
" een, doi, tree " would become "een, doi, ttree," the " t " being subsequently taclced on
to the end of " doi " from the beginning of " tree " in something of the same way that
the "n" in "nadder" by wrong division got tacked on to the end of the indefinite
article.
Sheep-Marks and Tallies 195
women for counting the loops in their knitting, and so
forth, their special association even in this degenerate stage
was with the counting of sheep.
From the foregoing considerations therefore, and from
their advanced state of corruption, it seemed not unreason-
able to conclude that these old sheep-counting numbers
are less liicely to have been borrowed from Modern Welsh
than to have come down to us through long ages from
the time of the ancient Britons, who were left behind
either as serfs, or perhaps here and there in small semi-
dependent communities in various parts of the country,
when the great majority of their fellows were driven into
the mountains of Wales, of Cumberland (whose very name
is taken from that of the ancient race), and of Cornwall.
As Professor Skeat, in a letter to the author of this book,
categorically puts it : " The Britons, whose traces we find
in Yorkshire and elsewhere, are now restricted in language
to Wales." Indeed, modern research seems to be coming
more and more to the conclusion that the number of ancient
Britons who were not expelled or forced to flee by the
invaders must have been much greater than was at one
time assumed. It is to be recollected, moreover, that the
vast majority of the ancient Britons who remained in
England must have come under Saxon masters, and must
therefore have inevitably taken the lowest place in the
social scale then existing. Their lot must have been little
better than that of the " hewers of wood " and " drawers
of water " of whom we read in the Bible, and they would
tend to become the keepers of the sheep. After the
Norman Conquest their former taskmasters, the Saxons,
were driven to these same occupations, which they must
have shared with such of the Britons as still remained.
There is a trace of this stage (when the Saxons in their
turn became shepherds and drovers) in the preservation
of the Saxon terms, which survive to the present day in
the phraseology of those professions. It must have been
in this way that the Saxon shepherds acquired the sheep-
counting terms from their British fellow-sufferers, viz.
through sharing their hard lot.
196 Shepherds of Britain
And though the matter may be incapable of direct and
conclusive proof, still having in view the distribution of
these ancient methods of numeration in England, almost
all being far removed from the Welsh border, it appears
fair to assume that we have in these old sheep-counting
scores the corrupted, broken remnants of the ancient British
" score." And we may further say that this assumption
appears the safer, since it would alone explain adequately
the extreme state of corruption and decay into which these
" scores " have fallen. For we do actually find in them
just such changes as would be produced by a thousand
years of possible popular interpolation, misinterpretation,
and confusion. If these scores had been derived in
comparatively recent times from a Modern Welsh source
or sources, the disintegration would hardly have been likely
to have proceeded so far as has undeniably been the case.
I will now take as an example one of the new sets of the
score, which still " holds " with some of the old shepherds
of Lincolnshire :
No
. of sheep.
No. of Sheep.
I.
Yan.
II.
Yan-a-dik.
2.
Tan.
12.
Tan-a-dik.
3-
Tethera.
13-
Tethera-dik.
4-
Pethera.
14.
Pethera-dik.
5-
Pimp.
15-
Bumpit.
6.
Sethera.
16.
Yan-a-bumpit.
7-
Lethera.
17-
Tan-a-bumpit.
8.
Hovera.
18.
Tethera-bumpit.
9-
Covera.
19.
Pethera-bumpit.
0.
Dik.
20.
Figgit [sic, .fjiggit)
Here it is probable that the forms tethera-dik and
pethera-dik for thirteen and fourteen should really be
written telher-a-dik and pether-a-dik, as in the case of eleven
and twelve (yan-a-dik and tan-a-dik). The words for
thirteen and fourteen appear to have been in fact wrongly
divided, and it was no doubt in some such way as this
that we come to find forms like tethera and pethera,
instead of tether and pether, for three and four, the a
representing Welsh and British ar. And the same remark
would apply to eighteen and nineteen as well. Un-
Sheep-Marks and Tallies 197
fortunately there is no surviving record of any of the
ancient British forms, and so we are reduced to comparing
the forms of the " score " numerals with Modern Welsh,
and with Old Welsh, which is only of the thirteenth
century, and is technically called Middle Welsh. In the
case of this particular list we should then have :
English Sheep-scores. Middle and Modern Welsh Numerals.
4. Pether. M.W. petuar, W. pedwar.
5. Pimp. M.W. pimp, W. pump.
10. Dik. M.W. dec, W. deg.
15. Bumpit. M.W. pymthec, W. pymtheg.
In all the cases the correspondence of the modern " score "
to the older forms is plain, and we should also have what is
much stronger than the mere verbal correspondence between
individual numerals in English and Modern Welsh — viz.
an unmistakably close correspondence in the formation of
the system. Thus we have :
English Sheep-scores. Welsh Numerals.
11. Yan-a-dik. un-ar-ddeg.
12. Tan-a-dik. deu-ddeg.
13. Tethera-dik [i.e. tether-a-dik). tri-ar-ddeg.
14. Pethera-dik [i.e. pether-a-dik). pedwar-ar-ddeg.
And so forth.
When to these general and specific correspondences we
add the close resemblance of fifteen, bumpit (English sheep-
" scores "), with M.W. and Welsh pymthec and pymtheg
(^pumtheg), or even the much slighter resemblance of twenty,
figgit (sic, ? jiggii), of the English sheep-score to the Welsh
igain or ugain and M.W. uncent, it will be clear that the
correspondence is more than a case of merely borrowing
words. It was the system that was borrowed, and the
English sheep-counting score and the M.W. and Welsh
score are quite clearly in this respect of identical origin.
Indeed, the M.W. and Welsh score of reckoning from
sixteen to twenty inclusive, by recommencing the scores at
fifteen and adding one, two, three, and four as units, is all
but unique in the languages of the world, and this too is
found in the score of the English shepherds.-'
^ A remarkable exception to this is recorded by the celebrated traveller and
198 Shepherds of Britain
Translated into English, the numbers of both these
forms of the score, from ten upwards, would run as
follows :
10.
Ten.
16.
One-and-fifteen.
II.
One-and-ten.
17-
Two-and-fifteen.
12.
Two-and-ten.
18.
Three-and-fifteen.
13-
Three-and-ten.
19.
Four-and-fifteen.
14.
Four-and-ten.
20.
Twenty.
15-
Fifteen.
This is about as strong an instance as could perhaps
be found of reckoning by " pentads " or fives, though it is
possible to find a parallel for it in the JalofF system of
numeration, once described by Mungo Park. The JaloiFs,
who were negroes, on reaching fifteen, counted up to
twenty by means of numbers which may be translated :
15. Ten-and-hand ;
16. Ten-and-hand-one ;
17. Ten-and-hand-two ;
18. Ten-and-hand-three ;
and so on. " Hand " in this case is, of course, used as
a numeral, the equivalent of five, from the fact that the
five fingers were employed by the JalofFs in counting, as
indeed they have been at some stage or other in almost
every part of the world.
physician of Henry
VIII.'s
time, Andrew
Borde, who
in
1542 gives the Cornish
numerals as follows ;
I. Ouyn.
12.
Dowcc,
i.e. two-ten.
2. Dow.
•3-
Tredeec,
„ three-ten.
3. Tray.
•4-
Peswar-deec,
„ four-ten.
4. Peswar.
15-
Pymp-deec,
„ five-ten.
5. Pimp.
16.
Whe-deec,
„ six-ten.
6. Whe.
17-
Syth-deec,
„ seven-ten.
7. Syth.
18.
Eth-deec,
„ eight-ten.
8. Eth.
19-
Naw-deec,
„ nine-ten.
9. Naw.
20.
Igous,
„ twenty.
10. Dec.
21.
Ouyn-war-igous,
„ one-and-twenty.
II. Unec, i.e. one-ten.
Etc.
Andrew Borde adds : " No Cornish man doth number above thirty, and is named * deec-
war-negous ' [i.e. ten-and-twenty], and when they have told thirty they do begin again,
one, two, three, and so forth, and when they have recounted to 100, they say * leans,'
and if they number to 1000 they say 'myle,'*'
It is very remarkable that this Cornish system of counting up to twenty, after
reaching fifteen, does not follow the Welsh, but the English method. On the other hand
the usual "Welsh" method of counting from sixteen to twenty is also found in Corn-
wall.
Sheep-Marks and Tallies 199
The peculiarity in this case, as in that of the old
British and Welsh score, lies in the recommencement of the
counting after fifteen is reached. The much more usual
method is to reckon a complete series of teens from ten to
twenty, made by adding units to ten. Our English system is
different again, since our teens do not begin to run regularly
in the ascending scale till thirteen is reached, the irregular
forms of eleven and twelve pointing to some check in the
course of development. We now come to the question of
the relation in which the forms that cannot be identified
with the M.W. or Welsh numbers stand to those that can
be thus derived, and here we cannot do better than quote
a letter from Professor Skeat, written to the Rev. W. W.
Hunt of Shermanbury Rectory, which appeared in The
West Sussex Gazelle ; it is now reproduced by the kind
permission and courtesy of Mr. Hunt (the editor of the
Gazelle"), and of Professor Skeat himself. This letter,
written on June 21, 1907, ran as follows :
" The original Celtic numerals were frequently for-
gotten, and their places supplied by words that were more
or less founded on rhyme. And sometimes the Celtic
words were supplemented by English ones. Owing to
the corrupt forms that thus resulted, many of the formulae
are of slight philological interest or value. That the
original counting was in Celtic, chiefly appears from some
forms that still remain. Thus the Welsh pump, five, ex-
plains the Eskdale pimp, and the Knaresborough pip, and
others. The Welsh deg, ten, explains the forms dix, dec,
dick, dik. But yan (whence yain, yaena, yah) is only a
dialectal form of the English one. And tain, taena, lean
are merely altered forms of two, whilst the rest of the
word is made to rhyme : e.g. yain, tain, yaena, taena ; yan,
lean ; yah, tiah ; and so on. The Welsh pedwar, four,
has become first peddero (also pelhera and pether) and
afterwards meddera, melhera, mether. Especially clear is the
form for fifteen, when the Welsh pymtheg, with its variant
hymtheg (in which the y is pronounced like the English u
in pump),, has given us such forms as bumfitt, bumper, and
probably bobtail. How much these forms can degenerate
200 Shepherds of Britain
is well shown by the Welsh ugain (pronounced something
like iggain), which became Jigget and Jigger, and even
^ggei and ecack."
In conclusion, it is perhaps worth while to remark that
the introduction of rhyme points to a more or less con-
scious effort on the part of the English shepherds, who
learnt these forms of the " score " from their British
associates, to memorize words by no means too easy to
remember without the aid of rhyme and rhythm. It is
certainly to mnemonic requirements that the extension of
this rhyming principle among schoolboys and children is
due, the result being the production of such forms as
Eena, deena, deina, duss (or dust), and any number of
similar examples in the counting-out games of children.
It was also noticed by Mr. Alexander Ellis (whose article,
written in 1878, is still the standard authority on the
subject) that in some of these counting-out rhymes of
children another ancient and very interesting principle is
illustrated, viz. that of reckoning the numbers by four at
a time, in accordance with the old-world practice of count
ing by fours, which has left some trace even upon our own
Modern English numerals, as for instance upon " eight,"
which, as its original termination in Old English shows, is
grammatically a dual form.
WOOL HARVEST
201
WOOL HARVEST
When the white pinks begin to appear,
Then is the time your sheep to shear.
Old Rhyme.
Sheep-Washing and Shearing
In June wash thy sheep, where the water doth run:
And keep them from dust, but not keep them from sun.
Then shear them and spare not, at two days anende.
The sooner, the better their bodies amend.
HuSBANDRIE FuRNITURE
A skittle or skreen to rid soil from the corn.
And shearing shears ready for sheep to be shorn.
A sheep mark, a tar kettle, little or mitch.
Two pottles 1 of tar to a pottle of pitch.
Thomas Tusser.
From soo Points of Good Husbandrie (1557).
THE WASHPOOL
By Richard Jefferies, 1880
The pool is approached by a broad track — it cannot
be called road — trampled into innumerable small holes by
the feet of flocks of sheep, driven down here from the
hills for the periodical washing. At that time the roads are
full of sheep day after day, all tending in the same direc-
tion ; and the little wayside inns, and those of the village
which closely adjoins the washpool, find a sudden increase
of custom from the shepherds. There is no written law
^ A measure of two quarts.
203
204 Shepherds of Britain
regulating the washing, but custom has now fixed it as
firmly as an Act of Parliament : each shepherd knows his
day and takes his turn, and no one attempts to interfere
with the monopoly of the men who throw the sheep in.
The right of wash here is upheld as sternly as if it were a
bulwark of the constitution.
Sometimes a landowner or a farmer, anxious to make
improvements, tries to enclose the approach or to utilise
the water in fertilising meadows, or in one way or another
to introduce an innovation. He thinks, perhaps, that
education, the spread of modern ideas, and the fact that
labourers travel nowadays, have weakened the influences
of tradition. He finds himself entirely mistaken ; the
men assemble and throw down the fence, or fill up the
new channel that has been dug ; and, the general
sympathy of the parish being with them, and the
interest of the sheep-farmers behind them to back them
up, they always carry the day, and the old custom rules
supreme.
The sheep greatly dislike water. The difficulty is to
get them in ; after the dip they get out fast enough.
Only if driven by a strange dog, and unable to escape on
account of a wall or enclosure, will they ever rush into a
pond. If a sheep gets into a brook and cannot get out —
his narrow feet sink deep into the mud — should he not
be speedily relieved he will die, even though his head be
above water, from chill and fright. Cattle, on the other
hand, love to stand in water on a warm day.
In rubbing together and struggling with the shepherds
and their assistants a good deal of wool is torn from the
sheep and floats down the current. This is caught by a
net stretched across below, and finally comes into the posses-
sion of one or two old women of the village, who seem to
have a prescriptive right to it, on payment of a small toll
for beer -money. These women are on the look-out
during the year for such stray scraps of wool as they can
pick up from the bushes beside the roads and lanes much
travelled by sheep— also from the tall thistles and briars,
where they have got through a gap. This wool is more
2o6 shepherds of Britain
or less stained by the weather and by particles of dust,
but it answers the purpose, which is the manufacture of
mops. The old-fashioned mop is still a necessary adjunct
of the farm-house, and especially the dairy, which has to
be constantly "swilled" out and mopped clean. With
the ancient spinning-wheel they work up the wool thus
gathered ; and so, even at this late day, in odd nooks and
corners, the wheel may now and then be found. . . . Near
the edge of the hill, just above the washpool, stands the
village church. Old and grey as it is, yet the usage of
the pool by the shepherds dates from still earlier days.
A SUSSEX SHEEP-SHEARING
By R. W. Blencowe, 1849
Solitary as the shepherds' life generally was, there was
one month in the year, and that the most beautiful of all
the months, that of June — the sheep-shearing month —
when they met together in considerable numbers to shear
the various flocks. Their work was hard ; but there was
much that was enjoyable in it, for it was a season of social
merriment, which contrasted strongly with the usual
solitary tenor of their lives. The shearing used to be
performed by companies, consisting generally of above
thirty men, and most of them formerly were shepherds.^
Each company received its distinctive name from some
place within the sphere of its labours. One was called,
for instance, the Brookside, another the Portslade Com-
pany ; each of them had a captain and a lieutenant placed
over it, and these men, selected by the party for their
trustworthy character, their superior intelligence, and their
skill in the shearing art, exhibited a pleasant specimen of
a good elective government. Nor were the outward
^ A modern shepherd considers this statement to be incorrect. The company may
have consisted of some old farm-hands, woodmen, hurdle-makers, " broom squires "
(broom-malcers), and such-like. Shearing-time is a slack time with woodmen. Accord-
ing to Mr. Fleet, writing in 1880, tailors, shoemakers, and even a stonemason were to
be found among such a brotherhood. Shepherds are, as a rule, shepherds only all their
lives. — [Autior's Note.']
Wool Harvest 207
symbols of authority wanting, for the captain was dis-
tinguished by his gold-laced and the lieutenant by his
silver -laced hat ; but this distinction has now passed
away. We are indebted to the Rev. John Broadwood for
the following, and for other " old English songs," still
sung by the peasantry of the weald of Surrey and Sussex,
who collected them, after having heard them sung every
Christmas from his childhood by the country-people when
they went about wassailing to the neighbouring houses at
that season. With the true feeling of an archaeologist he
had the airs set to music exactly as they are now sung,
with a view, to use his own words, to rescue them from
oblivion, and to afford a specimen of old English melody.
They were harmonized by Mr. Dusart, organist to the
chapel-of-ease at Worthing. The stanzas, as now published,
are in some degree varied from those of Mr. Broadwood,
those of an old shepherd having been adopted where the
variation seemed to be an improvement.
There is a springy, joyous spirit in this old Sussex
song, which was sung at sheep-shearings and again at
Christmas :
Here the rosebuds in June and the violets are blowing,
The small birds they warble from every green bough ;
Here's the pink and the lily,
And the daffadowndilly.
To adorn and perfume the sweet meadows in June.
'Tis all before the plough the fat oxen go slow ;
But the lads and the lasses to the sheep-shearing go.
Our shepherds rejoice in their fine heavy fleece,
And frisky young lambs, which their flocks do increase ;
Each lad takes his lass
All on the green grass.
Where the pink and the lily.
And the daffadowndilly, etc.
Here stands our brown jug, and 'tis filled with good ale.
Our table, our table, shall increase and not fail ;
We'll joke and we'll sing,
And dance in a ring.
Where the pink and the lily.
And the daffadowndilly, etc.
2o8 shepherds of Britain
When the sheep-shearing's over and harvest draws nigh,
We'll prepare for the fields, our strength for to try ;
We'll reap and we'll mow.
We'll plough and we'll sow ;
Oh ! the pink and the lily,
And the daifadowndilly, etc.
As soon as the company was formed, all the men
repaired to the cottage of the captain, where a feast,
which was called the " white ram," was provided for
them, and on this occasion the whole plan of the cam-
paign was discussed and arranged.
They generally got to their place of shearing about
seven, and, having breakfasted, began their work. Once
in the forenoon and twice in the afternoon their custom
was to " light up," as they termed it ; they ceased to
work for a few minutes, drank their beer, sharpened
their shears, and set to work again. Their dinner-hour
was one, but this was not the great meal of the day, their
supper being the time of real enjoyment ; and when this
was over they would remain for several hours in the
house, smoking their pipes and singing their sheep-shear-
ing songs, in which they were joined by the servants of
the farm ; and sometimes the master and mistress of the
house would favour them with their presence. The
following was a favourite song, and though the rhymes
are anything but perfect, and here and there the metre
halts, there is a rude spirit in it which will justify its
being preserved :
Come, all my jolly boys, and we'll together go
Abroad with our masters, to shear the lamb and ewe ; i
All in the merry month of June, of all times of the year.
It always comes in season the ewes and lambs to shear ;
And there we must work hard, boys, until our backs do ache.
And our master he will bring us beer whenever we do lack.
Our master he comes round to see our work is doing well.
And he cries, " Shear them close, men, for there is but little wool."
" O yes, good master," we reply, " we'll do well as we can."
When our captain calls, " Shear close, boys ! " to each and every
man ;
^ Pronounced yeo, or yo. — [Aut/ior^s Note.']
Wool Harvest 209
And at some places still we have this story all day long,
" Close them, boys, and shear them well ! " and this is all their
song.
And then our noble captain doth unto our master say,
" Come, let us have our bucket of your good ale, I pray."
He turns unto our captain, and makes him this reply,
" You shall have the best of beer, I promise, presently."
Then out with the bucket pretty Betsey she doth come.
And master says, " Maid, mind and see that every man has
This is some of our pastime while we the sheep do shear.
And though we are such merry boys, we work hard, I declare ;
And when 'tis night, and we have done, our master is more free.
And stores us well with good strong beer and pipes and tobaccee.
So we do sit and drink, we smoke, and sing, and roar,
Till we become more merry than e'er we were before.
When all our work is done, and all our sheep are shorn.
Then home to our captain, to drink the ale that's strong.
'Tis a barrel, then, of hum cap, which we call the black ram ;
And we do sit and swagger, and swear that we are men ;
And yet before 'tis night, I'll stand you half a crown.
That if you ha'n't a special care, the ram will knock you down.
When the supper was finished, and the profits shared,
they all shook hands and parted, bidding each other good-
bye till another year, and each man found his way home
as best he might ; on the whole, however, there was no
great degree of excess. . . .
The social mirth has of late years very much abated,
for since it has ceased to be the custom to shear the lambs
as well as the ewes the number of men in each company
has much lessened, and now the shearers frequently bring
their own provisions with them and board themselves,
perhaps never entering the master's house at all. Whether
it be a change for the better or the worse, let others who
are best acquainted with the present system decide ; but
so it is.
To Mr. John Dudeney, of Lewes, the descendant
of a long line of shepherds, I am indebted for all the
information I have received on the subject of this paper.
2IO
Shepherds of Britain
From a painting by H, Sing/rfon.
SHEARING TIME
Engraved by Cardon, 1801.
The old shepherd who "shears his jolly fleece" at home.
A SHEEP-SHEARING SONG
To THE Tune of "Rosebuds in June"
By The Author
The song of " Rosebuds in June " is remembered by-
Sussex shepherds. I find the following parallel to it in
Wool Harvest 211
A Collection of Songs, Moral, Sentimental, Instructive, and
Amusing, selected and revised by Rev. James Plumtre,
M.A., vol. i., published in 1806.
THE SHEEP-SHEARING
By Charles Johnson. From The Comedy of Country. Lasses.
When the rose is in bud, and the violets blow.
When the birds sing us love-songs on every bough.
When cowslips, and daisies, and daffodils spread,
And adorn and perfume the gay flowery mead,
When without the plow
Fat oxen low,
The lads and the lasses a-sheep-shearing go.
The cleanly milk pail
Is filled with brown ale ;
Our table's the grass
Where we laugh and we sing.
And we dance in a ring,
And every lad has his lass.
The shepherd shears his jolly fleece.
How much richer than that which they say was in Greece.
Tis our cloth and our food.
And our politic blood,
Tis the seat which our nobles all sit on :
Tis a mine above ground.
Where our treasure is found ;
Tis the gold and the silver of Britain.
SHEEP- W ASHING : AN OLD INSTITUTION
NOW DECLINING
From The Morning Post, 1909
Sheep-washing is one of those ancient practices which
usage has sanctioned. It is not so common as it used
to bCj partly because of the labour involved. In the
halcyon days of pastoral farming it was a poor year in
which the sheep-farmer could not gather his rent from
the backs of his flock. It behoved him to put his " clip "
in the market in the best possible condition, and so
212 Shepherds of Britain
make the highest price. But when the great foreign and
colonial flock-masters began to reckon their flocks by tens
of thousands the price of wool fell, and " sheep-washing "
has since been gradually declining. Most farmers like
a fairly deep pool in a brook in which to wash their
sheep. On many farms this cannot conveniently be
found, and recourse is had to the homely tub, the swim-
bath, or a pond. The yolk^ of the fleece is the only
soap employed ; the object of the " tubbing " being to
remove the dirt which accumulates in the coat during
the winter, and to wash out most of the grease which
gathers in every well-conditioned skin. The fleece can
then be marketed in a much finer condition than when
unwashed. The difference in price between a washed and
an unwashed clip is about thirty per cent.
SHEEP WASHING AND SHEARING
By John Times, 1867
Though it is hard and heavy work to wash and shear
sheep, in the thirteenth century it was done by women,
who are called " shepsters " in The Vision of Piers
Plowman (about 1350). The sheep were washed in
the mill-pond. Shearers were usually entitled to the
wambelocks, or loose locks of wool under the belly of the
sheep ; or, as at Weston in Oxfordshire, a penny instead of
the locks. The finest part of the fleece is the wool about
the sheep's throat, called in Scotland the haslock, or
hawselock : ^
A tartan plaid, spun of good hawselock woo',
Scarlet and green he sets, the borders blew.
Ramsay, The Gentle Shepherd.
Up in the north they call a sheep-shearing the clipping-
time ; and to come in clipping - time is to come as
opportunely as at sheep -shearing, when there is always
mirth and good cheer. In the middle of the seventeenth
^ The greasy matter in wool.
^ i.e. neck-loclc ("hals" or " hawse" — neck). — [Author* i Notes^
Wool Harvest 213
century clippers always expected a joint of roasted mutton.
In The Winter s Tale the clown ponders :
" Let me see ; what am I to buy for our sheep-shearing
feast ? Three pound of sugar, five pound of currants,
rice, — what will this sister of mine do with rice ? But my
father hath made her mistress of the feast, an' she lays
it on. ... I must have saffron to colour the warden
pies ; mace ; dates ^ — none, that's out of my note ;
nutmegs, seven ; a race or two of ginger ^ — but that I
may beg ; four pounds of prunes, and as many of raisins
o' the sun."
The old customs of clipping-time were observed by
Sir Moyle Finch, at Walton near Wetherby, in the time
of Charles II., and are thus described by Henry Best : ^
" He hath usually four several keepings shorn altogether
in the Hall-garth. . . . He hath had 49 clippers all at
once, and their wage is to each man izd. a day, and
when they have done, beer and bread and cheese ; the
traylers^ have 6d. a day. His tenants, the graingers,*
are tied to come themselves, and wind the wool. They
have a fat wether and a fat lamb killed, and a dinner
provided for their pains. There will be usually three
score or four score poor folks gathering up the locks ; to
oversee whom, standeth the steward and two or three of
his friends or servants, with each of them a rod in his
hand ; there are two to carry away the wool, and weigh
the roll as soon as it is wound up, and another that setteth
^ Ginger in the root. ^ Farm Books (Surtees), 97 (1641).
^ Trailer. According to Wrigiit's Dialect Dictionary^ a "trail "is (i) a sledge without
wheels, made to go down a steep hill with a load ; if it had ordinary wheels a horse
would be overpowered with the load. A trail is often attached behind a cart coming
downhill from a stone quarry, to act as a braice and draw its own load as well.
(2) A cart with flat top and low wheels, A " trail-cart " (Gall.) is a box-cart with
shafts but no wheels, mounted on a great brush of branch and twigs which stick out
behind, and score the ground with ruts and scratches.
From all this it is probable that the " traylers " were those who drove the wool-
sledges, or low-wheeled wool-carts. \
* Grainger or granger, the keeper of a barn or granary j explained by the Neiv English
Dictionary^ where this very quotation is given, as one who is in charge of a grange,
a farm-bailifF j also, as here, a tenant farmer. The granger in ecclesiastical parlance
was the caretaker of the garners and barns of a religious house.
Halliwell tells us that sheep-wash was a festival in the north. See Brandos
Popular Antiquities, ed. 1841, xi. 20.
"A seed-cake at fastens, and a lusty cheese-cake at our sheep-wash."
The T1V0 Lancashire Lovers (1640). — \_Author^s Notes^
214 shepherds of Britain
it down ever as it is weighed. There is 6d. allowed to
a piper for playing to the clippers all the day ; the shep-
herds have each his ' bell-wether's fleece '■ — the ' bellys '
allowed to the shepherd by the old Saxon laws."
Sheep-shearing was thus celebrated in ancient times
with feasting and rustic pastimes ; at present, excepting a
supper at the conclusion of the sheep-shearing, we have
i&w remains of the older custom. Nevertheless, it is
interesting to revert to these pictures of pastoral life and
rusticity, more especially as we find them embellished
by the charms of poetry, and enlivened by a simplicity
of manners which, to whatever period it may belong, is
always entertaining, if not productive of better fruit.
HOLKHAM : A FAMOUS SHEEP-SHEARING
FEAST
By A. M. Stirling, 1908
Not until 1778, two years after Coke^ had first collected
the farmers together to discuss matters agricultural, did
this local gathering at Holkham in Norfolk assume a
definite character. . . . First, the farmers brought with
them their relations and friends. These in turn brought
others from a yet greater distance. Next, agriculturists
from more remote parts of the kingdom wrote to ask if
they might attend. Swiftly and steadily grew the fame of
" Coke's Clippings," as they were called locally ; till
scientists of note turned their attention to them, and men
of celebrity from other countries came to England in order
to be present at them ; till, year by year, they assumed
greater proportions, so that they became representative of
every nationality, British and foreign ; of every phase of
intellect, scientific and simple ; of every rank from crowned
heads to petty farmers.
It was Lafayette's greatest regret that he had never
witnessed a Holkham sheep - shearing. In 1 8 1 8 the
^ Thomas William Coke, born 1752 ; created ist Earl of Leicester, 1837 j died 1842.
— [Author's Note.']
Wool Harvest 215
Emperor of Russia sent a special message to say how
he wished he could be present. Among the most famous
names on the page of contemporary American history are
men who journeyed from the other hemisphere expressly to
take part in so unique a gathering. And meanwhile the
rule which had characterised the meetings in their early
simplicity was never departed from ; all united thus in a
common interest, met on common ground ; the suggestions
of the simplest farmers were treated with the same respect
as the conclusions of the most noted scientists ; the same
pains were taken in explaining to the former as to the
latter the intricacies of a new system, or merits of a new
implement ; the same courtesy and hospitality were ex-
perienced by the most, as the least distinguished guest.
. . . Never until 1821 were politics tolerated at a
Holkham sheep-shearing ; and then it was subsequently
recognised to have been an evil omen, for that sheep-
shearing proved to be the final one. Thus the " Clippings,"
which were always dated from 1778, extended over a
period of forty-three years, until that ominous year of
1 8 2 1 ; and during that time, it is said not a single year
passed without some discovery being made, either of
avoidance or adoption, and some practical benefit accruing
to the human race. . . .
In 1 8 1 2, Dr. Parr was present, and relates how, previous
to the public gathering, he watched Coke personally work-
ing amongst his shepherds, and inspiring the men with his
own remarkable energy. This confirms the account given
some years before by Arthur Young, who stated how
" Mr. Coke readily assists, not only his own tenants, but
other neighbouring farmers. . . . He puts on his shep-
herd's smock and superintends the pens, to the sure im-
provement of the flock, for his judgment is superior and
admitted. I have seen him and the late Duke of Bedford,
thus accoutred, work all day, and not quit the business
till the darkness forced them home to dinner." ^
^ " The Duke of Bedford afterwards emulated Coke's example, and established on
his Woburn estate an agricultural meeting on the same pattern as that first instituted at
Holkham."
The reputation of the Woburn estate still stands high. Mrs. Humphry Ward,
2 1 6 Shepherds of Britain
Richard Rush, while staying at Holkham for this
gathering (1821), took down notes, as he says, of a " few
of the things which struck me as an American and a
stranger, in my visit of a week to this celebrated estate.
. . . The occasion on which we were assembled," he
explains, " was called the sheep-shearing ; it was the 43rd
anniversary of this attractive festival. The sheep-shearing
conveys in itself but a limited idea of what is witnessed at
Holkham. The operations embrace everything connected
with agriculture in the broadest sense ; such as an inspec-
tion of all the farms which make up the Holkham estate,
with the modes of tillage practised on each for all varieties
of crops ; an exhibition of cattle, with the modes of feed-
ing and keeping them. Ploughing matches, haymaking,
a display of agricultural implements, and modes of using
them ; the visiting of various outbuildings, stables, and so
on, best adapted to good farming ; and the rearing and
care of horses and stock, with much more than I am able
to specify. Sheep-shearing there was, indeed, but it was
only one item in this full round of practical agriculture ;
the whole lasted three days, occupying the morning of
each, until dinner-time. The shearing of the sheep was
the closing operation of the third day." ^ . . . Come
what will in the future, the Holkham sheep-shearings will
live in English rural annals. Long will tradition speak
of them as uniting improvements in agriculture to an
abundant, cordial and joyous hospitality.
THE SHEARERS' KING AND QUEEN
By William Howitt, June 1 83 I
Sheep-shearing, begun last month, is generally com-
pleted this. It is one of the most picturesque operations
of rural life, and from ancient times it has been regarded
as a season of gladness and festivity. The simple and
writing in 1901, speaks of "This great estate of Woburn, so well and so generously
managed by the Dulce of Bedford." — ^Autliors Note.']
^ The Court of London, by Richard Rush, ed. by his son, Benjamin Rush, 1873.
Wool Harvest 217
unvitiated sense of mankind taught them, in the earlier
ages of society, that the bounty ' of Nature was to be
gathered in with thankfulness and in a spirit like that of
the Great Giver, a spirit of blessing and benevolence.
Therefore did they join with the brightness and beauty of
the summer sunshine of thdir grateful souls, and collect
with mirth and feasting the harvests of the field, of the
forest, and of the flock. Such was the custom of this
country in the old-fashioned days. It was a time of
merry-making ; the maidens, in their best attire, waited
on the shearers to receive and roll up the fleeces. A feast
was made, and king and queen elected ; or, according to
Drayton's Polyolbion, the king was pre -elected by a
fortunate circumstance.
The shepherd king,
Whose flock hath chanced that year the earliest lamb to bring,
In his gay baldric sits at his low, grassy board,
With flawns, curds, clouted cream, and country dainties stored ;
And while the bagpipes play, each lusty, jocund swain
Quaffs syllabubs in cans, to all upon the plain ;
And to their country girls, whose nosegays they do wear,
Some roundelays do sing, the rest the burden bear.i
Like most of our old festivities, however, this has of
late years declined ; yet two instances, in which it has
been attempted to keep it alive on a noble scale, worthy
of a country so renowned for its flocks and fleeces, will
occur to the reader — those of Holkham and Woburn f
and in the wilds of Scotland, and the more rural parts of
England, the ancient glory of sheep - shearing has not
entirely departed. And indeed its picturesqueness can
never depart, however the jollity may. The sheep-
^ Michael Drayton alludes to the custom of decorating certain sheep with a chaplet :
" when every ewe two lambs that yeaned hath that year
About her new-shorn neck a chaplet then doth wear."
And also :
" My writhen-headed ram, with posies crowned in pride,
Fast to his crooked horns with ribbons neatly ty'd."
In Extremesh (1811), by Richard Fowkes, is the following entry to June 21 :
" Longest day — Shearing our sheep. Such dainties at village sheep-shearing, till gaping
boys and men have seen the bottom of the brown jug and copious horn, and a garland
of flowers on the ram's neck to grace this rural day." — [Author's Note.']
2 See "A Famous Sheep-Shearing," pp. 214-216.
2i8 shepherds of Britain
washing, however, which precedes the shearing, has more
of rural beauty about it.
A CUMBERLAND CLIPPING
By A. W. R.
From The Table Book of William Hone (1827).
Letters in a recent number of The Table Book recalled
to my mind four of the happiest years of my life spent in
Cumberland amongst the beautiful lakes and mountains
in the neighbourhood of Keswick, where I became
acquainted with a custom which I shall attempt to de-
scribe. A {&w days previous to the " clipping " or shearing
of the sheep they are washed at a " beck," or small river,
not far from the mountain on which they are kept. The
clippings that I have witnessed have generally been in
St. John's Vale. Several farmers wash their sheep at the
same place, and by that means greatly assist each other.
The scene is most amusing. Imagine to yourself several
hundred sheep scattered about in various directions, some
of them enclosed in pens by the water-side ; four or five
men in the water rolling those about that are thrown
in to them ; the dames and pretty maidens supplying the
"mountain dew" very plentifully to the people assembled,
particularly those that have got themselves well ducked ;
the boys pushing each other into the river, splashing the
men, and raising tremendous shouts. Add to this a fine
day in June and a beautiful landscape, composed of moun-
tains, woods, cultivated lands, and a small meandering
stream ; the farmers and their wives, children, and
servants, with hearty faces, and as merry as summer and
good cheer can make them ; and I am sure, sir, that you,
who are a lover of Nature in all her forms, could not wish
a more delightful scene.
I will now proceed to the " clipping " itself. Early
in the forenoon of the appointed day the friends and
relatives of the farmer assemble at his house (for they
Wool Harvest 219
always assist each other)/ and after having regaled them-
selves with hung-beef, curds, and home-brewed ale, they
proceed briskly to business. The men seat themselves on
their stools with shears in their hands, and the younger
part of the company supply them with sheep from the
fold, which, after having been sheared, have the private
mark of the farmer stamped upon them with pitch. In
the meantime the lasses are fluttering about, playing
numerous tricks, for which, by the by, they get paid with
interest by kisses ; and the housewife may be seen busy
In preparing the supper, which generally comprises all
that the season affords. After the "clipping" is over,
and the sheep driven on to the fells [mountains], they
adjourn in a body to the house ; and then begins a scene
of rustic merriment, which those who have not witnessed
it can have no conception of. The evening is spent in
drinking home-brewed ale and singing.^ Their songs
generally bear some allusion to the subject in question,
and are always rural.
" RUEING " VERSUS CLIPPING
By The Author
We may infer that shearing was not unknown to the
Romans during their occupation of Britain, because shears
similar to those used at the present time for sheep-shearing
have been found in England in Roman graves. There
^ Wife, make us a dinner ; spare flesh, neither corn ;
Make wafers and cake3, for our sheep must be shorn.
At sheep-shearing neighbours none other thing crave
But good cheer and welcome like neighbours to have.
Thomas Tusser (1557).
In the Lake Country it is still the custom for good cheer and welcome to be the friendly
" clippers' " only payment. — [_Author^s Note^
2 The Master's Good Health is sung in Suffolk at harvest suppers, and at sheep-
shearing feasts in Cumberland :
*' Here's a health unto our master, the founder of the feast,
I wish with all my heart and soul in heaven he may find rest.
I hope all things may prosper that ever he takes in hand,
For we are all his servants, and all at his command.
Drink, boys, drink, and see you do not spill j
For if you do, you must drink two j it is your master's will."
[Author's Note^
2 20 Shepherds of Britain
seems to be a dispute as to whether in earlier days the
practice of plucking the wool was a cruel method, although
in Young's Tour in Ireland (i 776-1 779) we read that
" Lord Altamont mentioned, as descriptive of Mayo
husbandry, Acts of Parliament to prevent their pulling
the wool off their sheep by hand, burning their corn, and
ploughing by the tail." ^ Dr. Cowie, writing in 1 871,
says : " The wool is removed from the Shetland sheep not
by clipping, but by the more primitive mode of ' rueing,'
or tearing it out with the hand. The alleged reason for
this barbarous process, which gives much pain to the poor
animal, is that it ensures the fineness of the next crop of
wool." Shetlanders of the present time do not consider
" rueing " to be cruel. They affirm that unskilled shearers
often inflict more pain by carelessness in the use of the
shears than does the person that plucks the wool off.
The Shetlander is tender-hearted, and, as a rule, would
not take the wool until it is ready to fall off, and the
particular breed of sheep that is " rued " casts its coat in
the summer if it is not taken from it. Thus it seems
that the method in the past was only cruel when practised
on this breed of sheep at the wrong time of year, or on
breeds that do not shed their wool and should be shorn
(either of which case would be quite exceptional).
In Iceland and the Faroe Islands the sheep are plucked,
or, as the Shetlanders would say, " rued." The report of
the British consul for 1908 states that in the Faroes the
plucking takes place in June, when the wool is loose, and
that there are about 100,000 sheep there, which live in a
half-wild state. In An Historical and Descriptive Account
of Iceland, Greenland, and Faroe Islands, published in 1 840,
the writer, referring to Olafsen on the sheep of Iceland,
says : " The harvest being over, the farmers employ them-
selves in collecting the sheep that during the summer
have been wandering wild on the mountains, bringing
1 Young, writing in 1776 of Farnham, near Cavan, Ireland, has : " Here they very
commonly plough and harrow with the horses drawing by the tail, it is done every
season, they insist that, talie a horse tired in traces, and put him to work by the tail,
he win draw better : quite fresh again. Indignant Reader, this is no jest of mine, but
stubborn, barbarous truth. It is so all over Cavan." I quote this to show with what
extreme cruelty " plucking " the wool was classed. — \Author''i Note^
Wool Harvest 221
them home and killing those needed for the winter. The
Icelanders do not shear this animal as in other countries,
but either pull the wool off when it begins to get loose or
allow it to fall spontaneously. The reason for this, accord-
ing to Olafsen, is, that in cutting the wool they would
also remove the long coarse hair, which is considered the
principal protection from the rain, and would thus be
obliged to keep them shut up during the cold season."
I am told that on a rare sheep in Shetland there are those
long hairs,^ which are of a reddish colour, and that by
plucking the wool these hairs are allowed to remain and
form a protection against the cold.^
^ Hibbert says : "The wool is short and very fine." There is very little difference
since his day. Probably the reason why some have said that the Shetland sheep have
hair has arisen from the fact that, when the fleece is taken off, the outer hair of the
next crop is coarser than the rest, but it falls off during the year, so that nothing is
taken off but the purest and finest of wool, which has become famous. — Rev. T.
Mathewson.
2 The word shear is thus defined by Halliwell, " to gnaw, or eat off, to tear with
the teeth," and he has " roo = rough " (Devon).
THE LABOURS OF THE LOOM
223
By Habberton Liilhani.
THE DELICIOUS DOWNS OF ALBION
The food of wool
Is grass or herbage soft that ever blooms
In temperate air, in the delicious downs
Of Albion.
John Dyer, The Fleece (1761).
THE CARE OF WOOL
THE LABOURS OF THE LOOM
The care of sheep, the labours of the loom,
And arts of trade, I sing.
John Dyer, The Fleece (1761).
OF WOOL AND WOOLLEN CLOTH
By the Very Rev. Daniel Rock, D.D., 1876.
Sheep in a primitive period were bred for raiment perhaps
as much as for food. At first the locks of wool torn
away from the animal's back by brambles were gathered.
Afterwards shearing was thought of, and followed in some
countries ; while in others the wool was not cut off, but
plucked by the hand away from the living creature. Ob-
tained by either method the fleeces were spun generally
225 Q
2 26 Shepherds of Britain
by women from the distaff. This very ancient daily
work was followed by women among our Anglo-Saxon
ancestors of all ranks of life, from the king's daughter
downwards. . . .
A curious instance of the use of woollen stuff not woven
but plaited, among the older stock of the Britons, was very
lately brought to light while cutting through an early
Celtic grave-hill or barrow in Yorkshire. The dead body
had been wrapped, as was shown by the few unrotted
shreds still cleaving to its bones, in a woollen shroud of
coarse and loose fabric wrought by the plaiting process
without a loom. As time passed on it brought the loom,
fashioned after its simplest form, to the far west, and its
use became general throughout the British Islands. The
art of dyeing soon followed, and so beautiful were the
tints which our Britons knew how to give to their wools
that strangers wondered at and were jealous of their
splendour. With regard to the bulk of the people, we
learn from Dion Cassius (born a.d. 155) that the garments
worn by them were of a texture wrought in a square
pattern of several colours. And speaking of Boadicea,
the same writer tells us that she usually had on under
her cloak a motley tunic chequered all over with many
colours. This garment we are fairly warranted in deem-
ing to have been of native stuff, woven of worsted after a
pattern in tints and design like one or other of the present
Scotch plaids.
Our coarser native textiles in wool or in thread, or in
both woven together, formed a stuff called " burel." St.
Paul's in 1295 had a light blue chasuble, and Exeter
Cathedral in 1277 a long pall of this texture. Burel
and, in short, all the coarser kinds of work were wrought
by men, sometimes in monasteries. The old Benedictine
rule obliged the monks to give a certain number of hours
every week-day to hand-work, either at home or in the
field.
The weaving in this country of woollen cloth, as a
staple branch of trade, is very old. Of the monks at Bath
Abbey we are told by a late writer "that the shuttle
The Labours of the Loom 227
and the loom employed their attention (about the middle
of the fourteenth century), and under their active auspices
the weaving of woollen cloth (which made its appearance
in England about the year 1330, and received the sanction
of an Act of Parliament in 1337) was introduced, estab-
lished, and brought to such perfection at Bath as rendered
the city one of the most considerable in the west of England
for this manufacture." Worcester cloth was so good that,
by a chapter of the Benedictine Order held in 1422 at
Westminster Abbey, it was forbidden to be worn by the
monks and declared smart enough for military men.
Norwich also wove stuffs that were in demand for costly
household furniture ; and Sir John Cobham, in 1394,
bequeathed "a bed of Norwich stuff embroidered with
butterflies." In one of the chapels at Durham Priory
there were four blue cushions of Norwich work. Worsted,
a town in Norfolk, by a new method of its own for the
carding of the wool with combs of iron well heated, and
then twisting the thread harder than usual in the spinning,
enabled our weavers to produce a woollen stuff of a
peculiar quality, to which the name itself of worsted was
immediately given. To such a high repute did the new
web grow that church vestments and domestic furniture of
the choicest sorts were made out of it. Exeter Cathedral
among its chasubles had several " de nigro worsted " in
cloth of gold. Vestments made of worsted, variously
spelt " worsett " and " woryst," are enumerated in the
fabric rolls of York Minster. Elizabeth de Bohun, in
1356, bequeathed to her daughter, the Countess of
Arundel, " a bed of red worsted embroidered " ; and
Joane, Lady Bergavenny, leaves to John of Ormond " a
bed cloth of gold with leopards, with those cushions and
tapettes of my best red worsted."
Irish cloth, white and red, in the reign of King John,
was much used in England, and in the household expenses
of Swinford, Bishop of Hereford in 1290, an item occurs
of Irish cloth for lining.
English weavers knew also how to work artificially
designed and well-figured webs. In the wardrobe accounts
2 2 8 Shepherds of Britain
of Edward II. is this item : " To a mercer of London for
a green hanging of wool wove with figures of kings and
earls upon it, for the king's service in his hall on solemn
feasts at London." Such " salles," as they were called in
France, and " hallings," a name they went under here,
were much valued abroad and in common use at home.
Under the head of " Salles d'Angleterre " among the
articles of costly furniture belonging to Charles V. of
France in 1364, one set of hangings is thus entered :
" Une salle d'Angleterre vermeille brodee d'azur, et est la
bordeure a vignettes et le dedens de lyons, d'aigles et de
lyepars." Here in England, Richard, Earl of Arundel, in
1392, willed to his dear wife "the hangings of the hall
which was lately made in London, of blue tapestry with
red roses, with the arms of my sons," etc. ; and Lady
Bergavenny, after bequeathing her " bullying of black, red,
and green " to one friend, left to another her best stained
" hall."
Flemish textiles, at least of the less ambitious kinds,
such as napery and woollens, were much esteemed centuries
ago ; and our countryman, Matthew of Westminster,
says of Flanders that, made from the material which we
sent her, the wool, she sent us back precious garments.
So important was the supply of wool to the Flemings in
the fourteenth century, that the check given to it by the
wars between England and France at that time led to a
special treaty between Edward III. and the burghers of
the Flemish communes under the guidance of Jacob van
Artevelde.
WOOLLEN MANUFACTURE IN ENGLAND
(15TH Century)
From The Antiquary's Portfolio^ 1825
That the English in the fifteenth century had great
abundance of excellent wool and were comfortably clothed,
is certain from the testimony of Sir John Fortescue, who
in proving that the English, who lived under a limited
The Labours of the Loom 229
monarchy, were much happier than their rivals the French,
who lived under a despotic government, gives the follow-
ing as an example : — "The French weryn no wollyn, but
if it be a pore cote, under their uttermost garment, made
of grete canvas, and call it a frok, their hosyn be of like
canvas, and passin not their knee ; wherefor they be
gartered, and their thighs bare. Their wifs and children
goen bare fote. But the English wear fine wooled cloth
in all their apparel. They have also abundance of bed-
covering in their houses, and all other woollen stuffe." It
is probable, however, that Sir John speaks only of yeomen,
substantial farmers, and artificers ; for it appears, from an
Act made in 1414 for regulating the wages and clothing
of servants employed in husbandry, that their dress and
furniture could hardly answer the above description.
THE STORY OF THE COTSWOLD WOOL
TRADE
By Francis Duckworth, 1908
In one sense the wool trade is the key to the whole of
English history in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth
centuries. It determined the relations of this country
with Continental Powers, particularly with Flanders, and
it provided sinews for the Hundred Years' War. With
regard to the Cotswolds in particular, it explains the
presence of noble churches and admirable private houses.
The history of the wool trade may be divided into two
stages. In the first of these the whole of our wool was
exported to Flanders, and since we alone produced wool,
and wool was a necessity, we could impose any export
duty we pleased. The second stage, or period, begins
with the development of weaving in this country. More
and more wool is kept in the country, until at the last
export ceases altogether towards the beginning of the
seventeenth century, all wool being made into cloth on
English looms. The first period is practically co-extensive
with the whole of the fourteenth and most of the fifteenth
230 Shepherds of Britain
century. This is the period in which Chipping Campden
and Northleach were built, and Cirencester began to
regain something of its old importance. Their beautiful
churches they owed to the piety of their richer citizens,
chiefly wool merchants. This is the golden age of
Cotswold, when commercial and municipal activities were
so intertwined in action and co-extensive in province, that
for a merchant to spend his money on enriching and
beautifying his township was the rule rather than the
exception.
As regards the agricultural conditions of this period,
it may be noticed that the Black Death, so terrible a blow
to other industries, greatly advanced sheep-farming, for
seeing that sheep do not require much labour farmers gave
up the plough and took to keeping sheep, till men ceased
to care for anything else. " Where are our ships.? What
are our swords become ? Our enemies bid us for a ship
set a sheep," exclaims The Libell of English Policie. There
t^as other evidence that the increase in the prosperity of
sheep-farming was not all gain. The population soon
began to recover from the decimation by plague, but the
demand for labour grew smaller as more and more
ploughed land was turned into pasture. " Your sheep
may be now said to devour men and to unpeople not only
villages but towns." ^ However that may be, the labour
so liberated diverted itself into the weaving industry,
which was growing at a greater pace even than the sheep-
farming.
On the whole, the period from 1650 to 1750 was fairly
^ In Bastard's Chrestoleros (1598) is :
" sheep have eat up our meadows and our downs,
Our corn, our wood, whole villages and towns.
Yea, they have eat up many wealthy men.
Besides our widows and orphan children.
Besides our statutes and our iron laws,
Which they have swallowed down into their maws.
Till now I thought the proverb did but jest
Which said a black sheep was a biting beast."
Mr. Carew Hazlett makes the following comment on the above : — "Bastard merely
echoes the popular panic which prevailed respecting the multiplication of sheep, and its
disastrous consequences to us. In Lambeth Library is a prose tract of twelve leaves
only, called, Certayiie Causes gathered togetlicr, tuherein is she-wed the decay of England,
onely by the great multitude of shepe." — [Author^ s Note.^
The Labours of the Loom 231
prosperous. Much wealth was produced, even if it was
not fairly distributed. Why, then, does this period leave
so few traces of itself ; and why do those who write of
the Cotswolds slip so hurriedly by it.f" Because it was
an unlovely age. Three things had dried up that source
of beauty which flowed so abundantly in the Middle Ages ;
these were : the nationalisation, of commerce, Puritanism,
and the break-up of the manorial system. The new com-
merce meant a cessation of that " family " relation which
existed between employer and workman ; it affected quite
deeply the corporate life of the villages and blighted their
fine spirit of independence, so that no more money was
spent in erecting and beautifying public buildings or
adorning those which already existed. Puritanism helped
on the gloomy work by freezing human tears and laughter,
by frowning upon all who delighted in strangeness and
beauty and life for its own sake, which expressed itself in
the domestic architecture and the folk-songs and dances
and games of the countryside. The repression of a healthy,
natural activity works harm.
In 1592 Queen Ehzabeth visited Sudeley Castle.
Nowadays should a sovereign visit any country place
there would be an address presented by the local authori-
ties, the volunteers would turn out, and a small girl
would present a bouquet of flowers, and at night perhaps
there would be a display of fireworks. But that was
not enough in the sixteenth century. The place had to
embody its welcome, its loyalty, and its pride in some
concrete form. Accordingly, at the gates of Sudeley
Elizabeth was confronted by a shepherd, who spoke as
follows : —
" Vouchsafe to hear a simple shepherd ; shepherds and
simplicity cannot part. Your Highness is come into
Cotswold, an uneven country, but people that carry their
thoughts level with their fortunes, low spirits but true
hearts, using plain dealings, once counted a great jewel,
but now beggary. These hills afford nothing but cottages,
and nothing can we present to your Highness but shep-
herds. . . . This lock of wool, Cotswold's best fruit, and
232 Shepherds of Britain
my poor gift, I offer to your Highness, in which nothing
is to be esteemed but the whiteness, virginity's colour,
nor to be expected but duty, shepherd's religion."
There is little grazing in Cotswold now, and the
famous breed described by Drayton makes better mutton
than wool.
No brown nor sullied black the face or legs doth streak,
Like those of Moreland, Cank, or of the Cambrian hills
That Hghtly laden are ; but Cotswold wisely fills
Hers with the whitest kind ; whose brows so woolly be
As men in her fair sheep no emptiness should see.
The pastoral life will never come back to Cotswold ; never
again shall we hear " the happy Tityrus piping underneath
his beechen bowers."
KENDAL " COTTONS "1
(14TH-17TH Centuries)
From The Reliquary, 1861
The second edition of Cornelius Nicholson's Annals
of Kendal (first published 1832) is now issued. One
of the most interesting chapters in the book is that
of the " manufactures," including, of course, the woollen
manufactures, of which Kendal can boast being the
first place in the kingdom in which that business was
first established. The founder of the trade here was
John Kempe, a weaver from Flanders, who came over
" for the purpose of practising his craft and instruct-
ing such as might desire to learn of him," and brought
with him " men and servants and apprentices to the
said trade." This was in 133 1, in July of which year
the king, Edward III., granted letters of protection to
him, and offered the same " to others of the same craft
and to dyers and fullers."^ Kempe settled in Kendal,
^ Not cotton goods, but woollen, called cottons, from coatings.
^ In the Antiquary's Portfolio (1825) we find : "In spite of the brutal disgust of his
absurd subjects, that resolute prince, bringing many Flemish and other foreign artists
to settle in the island, opened a sluice to a torrent of prosperous wealth, which in
the space of more than four centuries has continued to fertilize our land." — [Author's
Note.']
The Labours of the Loom 233
and it is curious to Jearn that some of his descendants,
bearing the same name, still reside in the locality. The
trade in Kendal cottons "soon grew into repute," and
became " famous everywhere." The' woollen manufactures
of Kendal appear to have been in highest repute, above
those of other towns, about the time of Camden and
Speed, in the beginning of the seventeenth century. The
former writer observes : "This is a place famed for excellent
clothing, and for its remarkable industry. The in-
habitants carry forward an extensive trade for woollen
goods, known in all parts of England." And Speed says :
"This town is of great trade and resort, and for the
diligent and industrious practice of making cloth, so excels
the rest, that in regard thereof it carrieth a supereminent
name above them, and hath great vent and traffic for her
woollen cloths through all parts of England." As this
was the time when Shakespeare lived, the colour Kendal
Green had also achieved its popularity.
The goods were formerly carried periodically on pack-
horses bv the makers themselves, or sent to London to
be vended by the warehousemen among their customers
who visited the metropolis from different parts of the
kingdom. After the rise of the British colonies, North
America and the West Indies, the greater part of the
" Kendal cottons " were sold to merchants trading to those
countries, for the clothing of the negroes and poorer
planters. As the colonies increased, and slaves along
with them, who were employed in the culture of tobacco
in Virginia, the demand for the coarse manufacture con-
tinued to increase, till the intervention of the American
War caused a total suspension of the export trade. Upon
the cessation of hostilities it again revived ; but our
manufacturers, not able to keep pace in the improve-
ments in machinery with those in Yorkshire, the latter
interfered, and were gradually gaining advantage of Kendal,
till the increase of American duties put a stop to the
exportation.
2 34 Shepherds of Britain
CORNISH "HAIR"
By William Borlase, F.R.S., 1758
The sheep of Cornwall in ancient times were remark-
ably small, and their fleeces so coarse that their wool bare
no better title than that of Cornish " hair," and under
that name the cloth made of the wool was allowed to be
exported without being subject to the customary duty
paid for woollen cloth. When cultivation began to take
place, and the cattle to improve in size and goodness, the
Cornish had the same privilege confirmed to them by
grant from Edward the Black Prince, in consideration of
their paying four shillings for every hundredweight of
white tin coined ; the same privilege of exporting cloth of
Cornish manufacture duty free was confirmed to them by
the 2ist of Elizabeth. At present the eastern parts of
the county, finding themselves under necessity (from the
scarcity of tin) of applying themselves to tillage and
pasture, from the rivers Alan and Fawy^ eastward, have
as large and fine woolled sheep as any in England, and the
common people wash, card, and spin their own wool, and
bring their yarn to market.
THE GREY CLOTHS OF KENT
By John Times, 1867
The art of making woollen cloth, which was known to
the Britons, was by this time brought to perfection in
England, especially in the south. " While Bradford was
still the little centre of a wild hill tract in pastoral York-
shire, the 'grey cloths of Kent' kept many a loom at
work in the homesteads of Tenterden, Biddenden, and
Cranbrook, and all the other little mediaeval towns that
dot the weald with their carved barge-boards and richly
moulded beams." ^ The distaff and the spindle, which
appear to have been anciently the type, and symbol, and
' Sic. ? " Fowey." — [Author's Note.']
^ Saturday Rei'tezv, No. 182.
The Labours of the Loom 235
the insignia of the softer sex in nearly every age and
country, were in the Saxon times still more conspicuous
as the distinguishing badge of the female sex. Among
our ancestors the "spear-half" and the "spindle-half"
expressed the male and female line. The spear and the
spindle are to this day found in their graves.^
"KENDAL GREEN," "COVENTRY BLUE,"
"LEOMINSTER ORE," "LINCOLN GREEN,"
AND "BRISTOL RED"
By The Author
It is interesting to note that the poets of the fifteenth,
sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries allude to the various
wool manufactures. We have already quoted Cornelius
Nicholson, who, in his Annals of Kendal, remarks on
Kendal green being popular in Shakespeare's time :
Three misgotten knaves, in Kendal green, came at my back.
Henry IV., First Part, Act ii. Sc. iv.
Coventry blue was a material specially famous in
Elizabeth's reign, and Coventry at one time dyed the
best blue in England. " I have heard it said that the
chief trade of Coventry was heretofore in making blew
threde." Michael Drayton describes the dress of a
shepherd and
His breech of Cointree blue.
And in a song from Martin Peerson's Private Music,
published 1620, the shepherdess sings :
Is not this my shepherd swain
Sprightly clad in lovely blue ?
Was this of wool or cotton } Anyhow, there must have
been a great demand for blue cloth in the past, for in
Planch^'s History of British Costumes is : " Howe, the con-
tinuator of Stomas Annals, informs us that many years
prior to the reign of Queen Mary (and therefore as early
^ See " Shears on Sepulchral Slabs," page 259.
236 Shepherds of Britain
as the time of Henry VIII. at least) all the apprentices of
London wore blue cloaks in summer, and in winter gowns
of the same colour ; blue coats or gowns being a badge of
servitude about this period." At a later period Coventry
blue was also held in high reputation in America and on
the Continent. At one time the village of Wonersh, in
Surrey, was noted for the manufacture of blue woollen
cloth, " intended for exportation to the Canary Isles."
Leominster was once a great wool centre, and Michael
Drayton has :
At Lemster, for her wool whose staple doth excel,
And seems to over-match the golden Phrygian fell.
Again :
Where lives the man so dull, In Britain's furthest shore.
To whom did never sound the name of Lemster ore.
That with the silkworm's web for smallness doth compare ?
Again :
Her skin as soft as Lemster ore.
Herrick thus alludes to Leominster wool :
Spongy and swelling, and far more
Soft than finest Lemster ore.
Lincoln formerly dyed the best green in England.
" The fine cloth made there was excellent, both in colour
and in texture" (familiar to us from the Robin Hood
ballads). Michael Drayton, in his Ninth Eclogue, dressed
his shepherdess into a Lincoln green frock :
She's in a frock of Lincoln green.
The colour maid's delight.
In company with " Lincoln green " yet another famous
colour, "Bristol red," was referred to in the fifteenth
century by Skelton, the Poet Laureate of Henry VII.,
as being worn by the poorer classes, typified in this par-
ticular context by Eleanor Rumming.^
1 MS. Harl. Lib. 7333.
The Labours of the Loom 237
THE GREAT FAIR OF STOURBRIDGE
(14TH Century and After)
By James E. Thorold Rogers, 1882
Of these fairs, the most important for the whole east
and south of England were : the great fair at Stour-
bridge, held under the authority and for the profit of the
Corporation and city of Cambridge ; the cattle fair at
Abingdon ; and a fair at Winchester, chiefly held for the
sale of produce and cloth. But the Stourbridge fair was
by far the most considerable, and was commenced and
concluded with great solemnity. It was proclaimed on
the 4th of September, opened on the 1 8th, and continued
for three weeks. It is said, that the origin of the fair was
in the casual establishment of a mart for the sale of
Kendal cloth. . . . The temporary buildings erected for
the purposes of the fair were, by custom, commenced on
the 24th of August ; the builders were allowed to
destroy the corn grown on the spot if it were not cleared
before that time ; and on the other hand, the owner of the
soil was empowered to destroy the booths on Michaelmas
day if they were not removed before that time.
The space occupied by the fair, which was about half a
mile square, was divided out into streets,-' in each of which
some special trade was carried on, some of the principal
being those of ironmongery, cloth, wool, leather, and
books ; as well as, in the course of time, every conceivable
commodity that could be made and sold. The port of
Lynn, and the rivers Ouse and Cam, were the means by
which water carriage was made available for goods. . . .
The concourse must have been a singular medley.
Besides the people who poured forth from the great towns
— from London, Norwich, Colchester, Oxford, places in
the beginning of the fourteenth century of great compara-
tive importance . . . there were, beyond doubt, the repre-
^ Actually called "rows.'' Traces of these old rows still exist on the very spot
where the fair was once held. Thus " Garlic Row," now the name of a small mean
street, has got its name from the "row" where garlic was sold in the Stourbridge Fair.
— [Author's Note^
238 shepherds of Britain
sentatives of many nations collected together to this great
mart of mediaeval commerce. . . .
Blakeney, and Colchester, and Lynn, and perhaps
Norwich, were filled with foreign vessels, and busy with
the transit of various produce, and eastern England grew
rich under this confluence of trade. . . .
To this great fair . . . came the wool-packs which
then formed the riches of England, and were the envy of
outer nations.
"SHEPHERD'S PLAID"
By J. R. Planche, 1834.
Mr. Logan informs us that woollen cloths " were first
woven one colour, or an intermixture of the natural black
and white, so often seen in Scotland to the present day."
And we may add that it will be recognised by our readers
as the stuff lately rendered fashionable for trousers, under
the name of " Shepherd's plaid." The introduction of
several colours dates from the earliest period of its manu-
facture ; and it is asserted, both in Ireland and in Scot-
land, that the rank of the wearer was indicated by the
number of colours in his dress, which were limited by law
to seven for a king or chief, and four for the inferior
nobility, while, as we have already quoted from Heron,
it was " made of one or two colours " (that is to say
plain, or merely chequered with another colour) " for the
poor.
SHETLAND WOOL
By Robert Cowie, M.D., 1871
The great merit of Shetland wool is its fineness, for
it is too soft to be very durable ; it is capable of being
spun into threads more delicate than those that form
' A friend of mine, writing from Kingussie, Scotland (1909), says : " My landlord,
who is an old ' wool miller,' weaves the shepherd's plaid. It is of black and white
check — four threads black, four white, or, if a larger check is wanted, eight black and
eight white, but always in fours. I often see shepherds in bonnet and plaid." — ^AutAor
Note.']
The Labours of the Loom 239
the finest lace, and with such, worsted stockings have
been made which could be drawn through a lady's finger
ring ! The worsted is generally preserved in its natural
colour, but it is sometimes dyed.^ In former times various
"shepherd's plaid" (1851)
native dyes were used for this purpose. They are still
employed, especially in the more remote districts, but
they have, to a great extent, been superseded by lindigo
and cochineal, imported from the south. The variegated
^ The old Norn names by which the various colours of the wool of the Shetland
sheep were known are still remembered, — [_^utkor's Note.^
240 Shepherds of Britain
and fantastic hues which characterise such articles as the
Fair Isle hosiery, and the more commonplace hearth-rugs,
are obtained by means of these native dyes, most of which
are lichens. The Lichen tartareus yields a reddish purple,
the L. omphaloides a blackish purple, the L. saxatilis
(called old man) a yellowish or reddish brown, and the L.
parietinus (termed by the Shetlanders " scriota ") an orange
dye. Yellow is obtained from a collection of plants of
that colour, and black from peat-moss impregnated with
bog iron ore. . . .
It would appear that the rearing of sheep in Shetland
was attended with far greater success in ancient times
than within the last two or three generations. Larger
quantities of wool were devoted to the preparation of a
kind of coarse cloth termed " wadmel," ^ the manufacture
of which was for ages one of the chief industries of the
country. It was in this fabric that the Shetland Udallers
were in the habit of paying their " scat " ^ or land-tax
to the ancient kings of Denmark. The native dyes
a,bove mentioned are said to have been extensively used
in colouring " wadmel." Its manufacture still existed in
the beginning of the last century, but was rapidly on the
decline. At the present day a considerable quantity of
" claith," or flannel cloth, is made on hand-looms. The
" Shetland tweeds " of the southern markets are very soft
and elastic, and much prized by sportsmen for shooting
suits. Since the islands came into such close commercial
intercourse with the Scotch ports, cotton underclothing
has to a great extent superseded the old woollen home-
spun garments, and the health of the Shetlanders is said
to have declined accordingly. The skins of the Shetland
sheep are either dried with the wool adhering, and used
as mats, or tanned with a native plant, the Tormentilla
^ Also " wadmol."
2 Tribute or tax. Hence the expression scot-free, t.e, free of tax. {Scat, Danish.)
The following record of tithe-paying, from Edmondston's Zetland (1S09), is interesting :
"Observe, that in the year of our Lord 1328, the 25th day of July, did Giafaldr
Ivarson of Hialtland pay to the Reverend Lord Audfin, the Lord Bishop of Bergen,
and Swein Sigurdson, Comptroller of the King's household, the tenths due to the Pope,
viz. 22 cv7t. of wool, less 16 pounds, according to the standard of Hialtland, being
36 span Hialtland weight of wool." — Translated from the original Danish, in the
Biblktheca Britamica. Antiquarian Society. — [Author's Note."]
The Labours of the Loom 241
officinalis, and made into waterproof clothes for the men
at the fishing-grounds, or for the women when engaged in
their more severe labours in the hills and fields.
WOOLLEN CLOTHS OF IRELAND
From The Antiquary's Portfolio, 1825
The very necessary art of making woollen cloth
(introduced, or at least highly improved in England by
colonies of Flemings) seems to have flourished more in
the eleventh and twelfth centuries than in those im-
mediately succeeding. This may be reasonably accounted
for by the civil wars which desolated the island and
ruined every species of commerce and manufacture under
Stephen, John, and Henry IIL And here, in justice to
our Sister Island, we must not omit to bring forward the
testimony of an Italian poet and traveller, Fazio degli
Uberti, who, in his Ditta Mondi, thus records the serges
or " says " of Ireland at the beginning of the fourteenth
century :
Similimente passamo in Irlanda,
La qual fra noi e digna di fama
Per le nobile saie che ci manda.
Which is imitated as follows :
To Ireland then our sails we raise ;
Ireland, which merits well our praise,
By sending us its noble says.
The Dictionary della Crusca speaks of Irish " says " ; and
Madox and Rymer are not silent concerning the friezes
and other woollen manufactures of Ireland in the time of
Henry III. and Richard II. These circumstances give to
the Irish the priority of a steady woollen manufacture.-'
A FAMOUS COAT-MAKING WAGER
By Walter Money, F.S.A.
A picture painted by Luke Clint, and drawn on stone
by J. W. Giles, has for its subject the winning of a wager
^ Transactiom of the Royal Irish Academy,
R
242 Shepherds of Britain
for looo guineas by the making of a coat from freshly
shorn wool between sunrise and sunset, in 1811. The
contemporary account is as follows :
" To Robert Throckmorton Esq'''=- Buckland House
Farringdon.
" This print representing the beginning progress and
completion of an extraordinary undertaking to prove the
possibility of wool being manufactured into cloth and
made into a coat between sunrise and sunset, which was
successfully accomplished on Tuesday 25th June 181 1.
Is respectfully dedicated by his obliged and humble
servant John Williams, Land Steward to the late Sir John
Throckmorton.
" On the day above stated at 5 o'clock in the morning
Sir John Throckmorton a Berkshire baronet presented
2 Southdown sheep to Mr. Coxeter of Greenham Mills '
near Newbury Berkshire. The sheep were immediately
shorn, the wool sorted and spun, the yarn spool'd, warp'd,
loom'd, and wove. The cloth burr'd, mill'd, row'd, dy'd,
dry'd, sheared and pressed. The cloth having thus been
made in 1 1 hours was put into the hands of the tailor's
at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, who completed the coat
at 20 minutes past six. Mr. Coxeter then presented the
coat to Sir John Throckmorton who appeared with it
the same evening at the Pelican Inn, Speenhamland.
The cloth was a hunting kersey of the admired dark
Wellington colour. The sheep were roasted whole
and distributed to the public with 120 gallons of strong
beer. It was supposed that upwards of 5000 people
were assembled to witness this singular unprecedented
performance which was completed in the space of 1 3 hours
and 20 minutes. Sir John and about 40 gentlemen sat
down to a dinner provided by Mr. Coxeter and spent the
evening with the utmost satisfaction at the success of their
undertaking."
SHEPHERDS' GARB
243
A SHEPHERD OF 1836
With " bottle," wearing buskins, and sheepskin cloak strapped
plaidwise across the shoulder.
SHEPHERDS' GARB
SHEPHERDS' DRESS, PAST AND PRESENT
By The Author
In the most ancient period the shepherds of Britain
wore X sheepskin cloak, which was fastened, as among the
ancient Germans, with a long thorn. In the time of the
Anglo-Saxons a tunic was worn, which has survived down
to the present under various forms, as the shepherd's
smock or " hamp," a term which still lingers on in some
out-of-the-way parts of the country. The Rev. J. C.
Atkinson, in Forly Tears in a Moorland Parish^ (1892),
writes : " There was a time when the hamp was the English
peasant's only garment ; at all events, mainly or generally
so. For it might sometimes be worn over some under-
clothing, but that was not the rule. The hamp was a
garment of the smock-frock type, gathered in somewhat
about the middle, and coming some little way below the
knee. The mention in Piers Plowman ^ of the ' hatere ' ^
1 Messrs. Macmillan & Co. (by permission).
2 Written, it is supposed, about the year 1350.
^ Hatere = 0.E. dress, clothing, attire.
245
246 Shepherds of Britain
worn by the labouring man in his day, serves to give a
fairly vivid idea of the attire of the working man of the
fourteenth century, and that attire was the ' hamp ' of
our northern parts ; for the word seems to be clearly
Old Danish in form and origin." ^
F. W. Fairholt gives us the following interesting
picture of the costume of a shepherd on holiday occasions
in the fourteenth century. It is taken from A Tale of
King Edward and the Shepherd, which was published in
Hartshorne's Metrical Tales}
On morow, when he should to court goo.
In russet clothing he tyret hym tho,^
In kyrtil and in curtpye,*
And a blak furred hode
That wel fast to his cheke stode.
The typet myght not wrye.'
The mytans clutt forgate the nozt,
The slyng even ys not out of his thozt,
Wherewith he wrouzt maystre.^
In The Antiquary's Portfolio the dress of the labourers
and " common people " in the fifteenth century is
described as simple and well contrived, " consisting of
shoes, hose made of cloth, breeches, a jacket, and coat
buttoned and fastened about the body by a belt. They
covered their heads with bonnets of cloth. As they could
not afford to follow the caprices of fashion, the dress
of both sexes continued nearly the same for several
ages.'
Again, in Richard Hill's Commonplace Book (MS.),
a poem of eleven verses (written late fifteenth century or
before 1504, though the poems, being a collection, may
themselves have a much earlier origin), we meet with the
following description of a shepherd's dress : —
^ " Hamp " = Dan. " hampe," a peasant's frock. — English Dialect Dictionary^ Wright.
- Published 1829; printed chiefly from original sources,
^ He dressed him then.
* Orig. "surstbye" {sic) : probably "courtpye," a short outer garment or mantle.
^ His hood was so well secured that the tippet could not go awry.
^ His mittens, and the sling, in the use of which he was famous, he also carried
with him.
' See picture of shepherd with pipe, page 281.
shepherds' Garb 247
Verse I
The shepherd upon a hill he sat,
He had on him his tabard ^ and his hat,
His tar-box, his pipe, and his flagat.
His name was called Jolly, Jolly, Wat !
It is remarkable that a few lines later, in the same
poem, we meet with the lines :
He put his hand under his hood.
He saw a star as red as blood.
This passage may perhaps indicate better than any
other the transition period when " hats " superseded the
ancient traditional hood. Yet, again, we have Michael
Drayton's fine description of a shepherd's dress in the
sixteenth century :
The shepherd wore a sheep-grey cloak,
Which was of the finest lock
That could be cut with sheer.^
His mittens ^ were of buazon's * skin.
His cockers * were of cordiwin,"
His hood ^ of miniver.
His aul and lingel * in a thong,
His tar-box on his broad belt hung.
His breech of Coin tree blue.^
Note sheep-grey, not sheep-white, perhaps as signifying
the prevailing tint at that time. In fact, poets often
wrote of homespun grey. See " Merry Dick " by Dibdin
(1771-1841) and "The Happy Shepherd" (anon.), in
Plumptre's Songs, published 1806.
" In 1 5 7 1 felt hats were not made in England, as a statute
was then enacted which ordered an English woollen cap
^ A fourteenth-century garment j " a species of mantle which covered the front of
the body and the back, but was open at the sides from the shoulders downwards."
Strutt describes it as a light vestment or sleeveless coat. — \^Author*s Note.']
2 Shears. ■* Gloves. ^ Badger. ^ High boots. ^ Spanish leather.
^ still the hood in sixteenth century ; this is long after the introduction of hats.
^ shoemakers' thread.
^ Coventry blue.
Compare Fletcher's Faithful S/iepherdess (1590) :
Every shepherd boy
Puts on his lusty green, with gaudy hood,
And hanging scrip of finest cordevan.
[Author's iVote.]
248 Shepherds of Britain
to be worn In preference, by every person above the age
of seven, on pain of forfeiting three shillings and four-
pence, lords, gentlewomen, etc., excepted." ^ William
Hone in his Tear Book tells us that in the reign of
Edward IV. a law was made respecting " apparel " and
reads thus : " No servant of husbandrie, or common
labourer, shall weare in their clothing any cloth whereof
the broad yard shall pass the price of two shillings ; nor
shall suffer their wives to weare kerchiefs whose price
exceedeth twenty pence." And in Elizabeth's reign :
" All persons above the age of seven years shall wear
upon Sabbaths and holidays, upon their heads, a cap of
wool, knit, thicked, and dressed in England, upon forfeit,
for every day not wearing, 3s. and 4d."
Aubrey remembered that " before the Civil War many
of them made straw hats, which was then left off; and
the shepherdesses of late years do begin to work point,
whereas before they did only knit stockings."
Again, in respect to the seventeenth century, we
read in Chambers's Book of Days : "Since 1671 " (when
Aubrey wrote) " shepherds are grown so luxurious as to
neglect their ancient warm and useful fashion, and go
(J la mode. . . ."
The smock so much worn by shepherds was sometimes
of flax and sometimes of hemp, which latter plant grew
in Northern Europe, whence first came, no doubt, the
garment of the type of the " hempen homespuns " of
which Shakespeare speaks in A Midsummer Nighfs
Dream : " what hempen homespuns have we swaggering
here ? " Frederic Shoberl in 1813^ alludes to the Suffolk
hemp as " superior in strength and quality to that of
Russia. The cloths woven from it are of various degrees
of fineness and breadth, from lod. a yard half ell wide to
4s. to 4s. 6d. ell wide. Low-priced hemps are a general
wear for servants, husbandmen, and labouring manu-
facturers, those from i8d. to 2s. a yard for farmers and
tradesmen. The tract in which hemp is chiefly found
extends from Eye to Beccles, and is about 10 miles in
^ Antiquary's Portfolio. '^ T/ie Beauties of England and fVales.
shepherds' Garb 249
breadth. It is cultivated both by farmers and cottagers,
though it is very rare to see more than 5 or 6 acres
in the hands of one person."
Coming to the present times, a few old men still
bob pennicott. in short smock (still worn in lin-
colnshire), carrying " bottle," bell, and crook.
"jack" in attendance
wear the smock' in Shropshire, usually made of "hempen
homespun." A really old specimen of these smocks in
perfect condition is said to be worth about ;^io, an
imperfect one from perhaps ^^3. They were worn with
250 Shepherds of Britain
the top-hat on Sundays, and the pattern on the front
varied according to the part of the country that the
smock came from, the Shropshire pattern having a silk
thread at the top, above the " honeycomb " pattern, " as
SHEPHERD SMITH OF WASHINGTON, NEAR CHICHESTER,
IN SMOCK AND "CHUMMEy"
long as the Shropshire people's noses " (for they are
celebrated for their long noses in Shropshire) !
Mrs. Wild, aged eighty-three, who lives on the
Goodwood estate, and whose brother was a shepherd on
the Downs for over seventy years, tells me that the
Shepherds' Garb 251
shepherds wore blue smocks when she was young (but
drab and grey are said to have been most usual in Sussex),
cloth cloaks in cold weather, and for wet weather cloaks
made of unbleached calico, brushed over with a prepara-
tion of boiled oil and lamp-black — this rendered them
waterproof and "gave a colour." The men often cut
them out themselves, and their wives made them up,
adding large outside pockets. High leggings reaching
well above the knee were to match. A shepherd would
often "waterproof" enough unbleached calico to make a
cloak and leggings for himself and one or two neighbouring
shepherds. The process required care ; if the mixture
was applied too thickly it cracked in the sunshine. The
warm winter cloaks were generally discarded military
cloaks. Their straw hats were made by both men and
women, the straw being first put into boxes containing
brimstone to bleach it — each straw split into four, then
plaited and stitched into shape to suit the fancies of
the wearer. Their soft felt winter hats they still call
" chummeys."
SMOCKS AND THEIR WEARERS
By William Howitt, 1831
In the counties round London, eastward, and west-
ward through Berkshire, Hampshire, Wiltshire, etc., the
English peasant, shepherd, and drover is the white-smocked
man of the London prints. In Hertfordshire, and in that
direction, he sports his olive-green smock. In the Mid-
land counties, especially Leicestershire, Derby, Nottingham,
Warwick, and Staffordshire, he dons a blue smock called
the Newark frock, which is finely gathered in a square
piece of puckerment on the back and breast, on the
shoulders, and at the wrists ; is adorned also in those
parts with flourishes of white thread, and as invariably has
a little white heart stitched in at the bottom of the slit
at the neck. A man would not think himself a man if
he had not one of these smocks, which are the first things
252 Shepherds of Britain
that he sees at a market or a fair, hung aloft at the end
of the slop-vendor's stall, on a crossed pole, and waving
about like a scarecrow in the wind. Under this he gener-
ally wears a coarse blue jacket, a red or yellow shag-
waistcoat, stout blue worsted stockings, tall laced ankle
boots, and corduroy breeches or trousers. A red handker-
chief round his neck is his delight, with two good long
ends dangling in front. In many other parts of the country
he wears no smock at all, but a corduroy or fustian jacket,
with capacious pockets, and buttons of a giant size.^
^ Mr. J. K. Fowler tells us in Recollections of a Country Life (1894 j Messrs. Long-
mans, Green & Co.) that when a smock is worn at meal-times, as it stretches across
the knees, a sort of bag is formed, and at the termination of the meal the crumbs and
small portions of cheese, etc., collected there are caught up in the hand and forthwith
thrown into the mouth. Old Sussex shepherds corroborate this. — [Author's Note.']
SHEPHERDS' ARTS, IMPLEMENTS,
AND CRAFTS
253
SHEPHERDS' ARTS, IMPLEMENTS,
AND CRAFTS
THE PASTORAL CROOK
By Richard Jefferies, 1887
The shepherd was very ready and pleased to show his
crook, which, however, was not so symmetrical in shape
as those which are represented upon canvas. Nor was
the handle straight ; it was a rough stick — the first,
evidently, that had come to hand. As there were no
hedges or copses near his walks, he had to be content
with this bent wand till he could get a better. The iron
crook itself, he said, was made by a blacksmith in a village
below. A good crook was often made from the barrel
of an old single-barrel gun, such as in their decadence
are turned over to the birdkeepers. About a foot of the
barrel being sawn oiF at the muzzle end, there was a tube
at once to fit the staff into, while the crook was formed
by hammering the tough metal into a curve upon the
anvil. So the gun — the very symbol of destruction —
was beaten into the pastoral crook, the implement and
emblem of peace. These crooks of village workman-
ship are now subject to competition from the numbers
offered for sale at the shops at the market towns, where
scores of them are hung up on show, all exactly alike,
made to pattern, as if stamped out by machinery. Each
village-made crook has an individuality, that of the black-
smith — somewhat crude, perhaps, but distinctive — the
hand shown in the iron.
255
Shepherds' Arts, Implements, & Crafts 257
SHEPHERDS' CROOKS
By E. V, Lucas, 1904
Pyecombe, in Sussex, has lost its ancient fame as the
home of the best shepherds' crooks, but the Pyecombe
crook for many years was unapproached. The industry
has left Sussex ; crooks are now made in the north of
England, and sold over shop counters. I say "industry "
wrongly, for what was truly an industry for a Pyecombe
blacksmith is a mere detail in an iron factory, since the
prECOMBE HOOK
number of shepherds does not increase, and one crook
will serve a lifetime and more. An old shepherd at
Pyecombe, talking confidentially on the subject of crooks,
complained that the new weapon as sold at Lewes, although
nominally on the Pyecombe pattern, is "a numb thing."
The chief reason he gave was that the maker was out
of touch with the man who was to use it. His own crook
(like that of Richard JefFeries' shepherd friend) had been
fashioned from the barrel of an old muzzle-loader. The
present generation, he said, is forgetting how to make
everything ; why, he had neighbours, smart young fellows
too, who could not even make their own clothes !
HOOK AND CROOK
By The Author
The Pyeco'mbe hook or " crook " is not known in the
Sheffield district. In fact, the demand for crooks is but
small. The manufacturers say that the shepherds prefer
258 shepherds of Britain
those made by local blacksmiths, who can best carry out
their "whims." Orders for them also are frequently
executed by the smiths attached to good-class ironmongers.
This, at least, is the case in the eastern counties, in
Warwickshire, and in Dorsetshire. Some of the village
blacksmiths in Sussex still make crooks to order. At
West Dean the demand is for about three in the course
of a year. These simple implements take a skilled smith
about two hours to fashion ; but every shepherd has his
own fancies as to exact shape, and in Sussex they always
decide on " the Pyecombe." In Chichester two of the
ironmongers make them, and each sells about six a year.
These, also, are hand-made, and of the same favourite
shape, which the Southdown shepherds prefer for their
small sheep. Now and again an ingenious shepherd would
amuse himself by carving the handle of his crook, and
Michael Drayton (in his Pastorals, Tenth Eclogue) tells
us of one of these carved handles :
When on an old tree, under which ere now
He many a merry roundelay had sung,
Upon a leafless canker-eaten bough
His well-tun'd bagpipe carelessly he hung :
And by the same, his sheep-hook, once of price,
That had been carved with many a rare device.
The Carving of Crooks
Shepherds' crooks were exhibited in London in 1901
in the Rooms of the Society of Antiquaries at Burlington
House, and thus described in the catalogue : ^
" Three shepherds' crooks, varying in length, the
longest quite plain ; the medium one has the name of
' Seaforth ' stamped on the crook. The shortest of the
three is elaborately carved ; rose leaves and tendrils, the
leaf and flower of the thistle, and three snakes, one of
them with its tail commencing from the end of the stick,
and finishing in the head at the base of the crook ; the
rough appearance of the thistle is simulated, and a garter
motto bearing the inscription, ' Tir nan Beann,' surrounds
' See Intermtknal Folk-Lore Congrea, page 434. (By permission of Folk-Lore Society.)
Shepherds' Arts, Implements, & Crafts 259
a naked arm holding a sword. Surmounting this is an
antlered stag's head as crest. The inscription should
be ' Tir nam Beann,' i.e., in Gaelic, 'The land of the
mountains,' or ' The land of Bens.' It is not the motto
of any clan, but simply a Highland and Celtic sentiment.
The stag's head and antlers is the crest of the clan
M'Kenzie, Seaforth being the name of the chief of the
clan. Their motto, however, is Caberfeidh, or ' Deer's
Antlers,' and it has been suggested by a Highland gentle-
man that, as this motto is absent, the carving on the crook
is simply a fanciful and artistic device. Highland laddies
carve crooks and sticks in the winter for the annual summer
market." ^
Two hundred years ago shepherds used to have
a hollow piece of iron or horn at the other end of their
crooks, by which they took up stones or bits of turf to
throw at their flocks, as noted in the page on slinging.
OF SHEPHERDS' SHEARS
By The Author
In Half-Hours with English Antiquities (1880) Mr.
Llewellynn Jewitt, F.S.A., remarked as follows : — " One of
the commonest devices upon early sepulchral slabs is the
shears. This device has given rise to much controversy,
and to considerable difference of opinion ; some authorities
maintaining that it denotes the deceased to have been a
^ shepherds in Berkshire used to carve sticks or staffs j see page 256.
26o shepherds of Britain
wool-stapler or clothier, others that he was a merchant of
the staple, and others that it symbolised a female. It is
sometimes found in connexion with a sword, or with a
key, or two keys ; but usually alone at the side of the
shaft of the cross. At AyclifFe is a double slab. One
half has a cross with a sword on one side of the shaft,
and on the other a pair of pincers and a T-square. The
other has on one side of the shaft a pair of shears, and on
the other a key. There are also three crosses patee on
different parts of the slab. The shears are usually of the
old shape still retained in our sheep-shears of the present
day, occasionally varied in details ; but instances occur, as at
Bakewell, where the ends of the blades are broad instead
of pointed."
It is possible that, by collecting a sufficient number of
examples, this point might be elucidated. Meanwhile all
that can be said is that these emblems given above are
clearly symbolical. And as a sword, even if combined
with the shears, must be a man's emblem, and the pincers
and T'Square are the emblems of a carpenter's trade, it is
possible that the shears or shears and key may be the em-
blems of a woman. With regard to the possibility of the
shears being a woman's emblem, it is important to recall
that women were once employed as sheep-shearers, as we
learn from Piers Plowman, and were called " shepsters,"
and that this practice continued in parts of Scotland to
within living memory. At the present day, however, the
practice seems nearly obsolete, for an authority on these
matters, writing a is^ days ago from Carstairs, says : " I
have only known one female shearer in Scotland, a
shepherd's daughter, and a regular ' tomboy.' "
SHEPHERDS' SLINGS
By Joseph Strutt, i8oi
The art of slinging, or casting of stones with a sling,
is of high antiquity, and probably antecedent to that of
archery, though not so generally known, nor so generally
Shepherds' Arts, Implements, & Crafts 261
practised. ... It was an instrument much used by the
shepherds in ancient times, to protect their flocks from the
attacks of ferocious animals ; if so, we shall not wonder
that David, who kept his father's sheep, was so expert in
the management of this weapon. ... I remember in my
youth to have seen several persons expert in slinging of
stones, which they performed with thongs of leather, or,
wanting those, with garters ; and sometimes they used a
stick of ash or hazel, a yard or better in length, and about
an inch in diameter ; it was split at the top so as to make
an opening wide enough to receive the stone, which was
confined by the reaction of the stick on both sides, but
not strong enough to resist the impulse of the slinger.^ It
required much practice to handle this instrument with any
degree of certainty, for if the stone in the act of throwing
quitted the sling either sooner or later than it ought to do,
the desired effect was sure to fail. Those who could use
it properly cast stones to a considerable distance, and with
much precision. In the present day the use of these
engines seems to be totally discontinued. Barclay, in his
Eclogues (sixteenth century), has made a shepherd boast of
his skill at archery, to which he adds :
I can dance the raye,^ I can both pipe and sing,
If I were merry ; I can both hurle and sling.
WHEATEAR^ TRAPPING BY SHEPHERDS
By Arthur Beckett, 1909
Sauntering one summer afternoon along a low slope of
the South Downs, my attention was attracted by a flutter-
^ F. W. Fairholt remarks that "the sling appears to have been a leathern bag fixed
to the end of a staff and wielded with both hands. They were much used by shepherds."
This, however, was not the only method of slinging formerly employed in England, for
Evelyn (1620-1706) notes that for slings the shepherds had in his time a hollow
iron or piece of horn, not unlike a shoeing horn, fastened to the other end of the crosier,
by which they took up stones and kept their flocks in order. — \Author''s Note."]
^ Strutt remarks as follows of the ray: "The ray (or raye, as it is written by
Chaucer) appears to have been a rustic dance, and probably the same as that now called
the hay, where they lay hold of hands and dance round in a ring. A dance of this kind
occurs several times in the Bodleian MS., date a.d. 1344." — \^Author's Note,']
^ Saxico/a cenanthe.
262 Shepherds of Britain
ing under an upturned clod of turf. I stepped to the
spot and saw a wheatear entangled in a trap by a horse-
hair noose around its neck. The little thing was terribly
alarmed at my presence, but pulling a penknife from my
pocket, I freed it with a touch of the blade, and in a flash
it had flown out of sight. Then, in accordance with the
custom, I settled my account with the proprietor of the
trap by placing some pence under the upturned sod of
turf.
The South Down country is the summer home of the
timid wheatear, a beautiful bird, with black wings and
grey and white body plumage. Its sweet low note of
"far-far" and " titreu-titreu " marks it as the softest
singer among the merry and more musical songsters of the
Downs. It is an excellent mimic, and the note of the
male bird, particularly, is pretty. . . . For hundreds of
years the wheatear has been highly esteemed as a table
delicacy, earning from gourmets the title of the " English
ortolan," the flavour of which it is said much to resemble.
. . The trade in wheatears was formerly a staple in-
dustry among the shepherds of the South Downs. . . .
The manner of trapping the bird was peculiar. A series
of T-shaped shallow trenches, each about a foot long, was
dug on the slope of a hill. The turf from each excavation
was removed, and a horsehair spring set at the inner
end. The sod was then replaced on the top of the trap,
grass downwards, a small opening being left at the lower
extremity of the T, by which the bird might enter. The
wheatear owed its capture in these traps to its excessive
timidity. Its habit is to skim the ground in flight, and at
the least alarm, such as the shadow cast by a cloud, it seeks
shelter in the nearest hole or cranny. The shepherd's
knowledge of this characteristic enabled him to invent
the peculiar form of trap to which I have referred, and in
the month of July, when the birds are most plentiful on
the South Downs, and the shadows of the clouds chase one
another across the uplands, a shepherd would often take
birds from the snares three or four times a day. Later in
the year — during the months of August and September — a
Shepherds' Arts, Implements, & Crafts 263
single shepherd has been known, by means of these traps
or " eoops," as they were commonly called, to capture
between eighty and ninety dozen wheatears in a day ; and
when the birds have assembled previous to migration certain
parts of the Downs have been honeycombed with traps.
Pennant states that when the trade in these birds was
at its best, one thousand eight hundred and forty dozen
wheatears were annually ensnared by the shepherds in
the Eastbourne district alone. In 1842 sixty dozen were
sent to London in one day by the Eastbourne coach. . . .
Dudeney sold his wheatears at 2s. 6d. or 3s. a dozen,
though the standard price given by poulterers was is. 6d.
In 1665 the Rev. Giles Moore, a Sussex diarist, records
that he bought two dozen at Lewes for is. But, as is
usually the case, there is no doubt that the prices were
governed by the laws of demand and supply. . . .
A favourite method of cooking wheatears was to
wrap each bird in vine-leaves and roast it. . . . Some-
times those who bought wheatears from the shepherds
would visit the Downs and take the birds themselves
from the springs, leaving their market price in the traps
to be collected by the shepherds later in the day. Reading
recently in The Favourite Village, by James Hurdis, an
almost forgotten Sussex poet, I came across the following
references to this custom :
When the fevered cloud of August day
Flits through the blue expanse,
The timorous wheatear, fearful of the shade,
Trips to the hostile shelter of the clod,
And where she sought protection finds a snare.
Seized by the springe
She flutters for lost liberty in vain,
A costly morsel, destined for the board
Of well-fed luxury, if no kind friend.
No gentle passenger the noose dissolve.
And give her to her free-born wing again.
To the feathery captive give release,
The pence of ransom placing in its stead.^
1 An old shepherd tells me that 3d. was the proper sum. The birds were sometimes
stolen from the traps, but not often, — \_Author^s Note.'\
264 Shepherds of Britain
And so, remembering Hurdis, I paid the " pence of
ransom " for the privilege of releasing the wheatear from
the captivity of the T-trap in which I found it fluttering
that summer afternoon on a lower slope of the South
Downs. ^
OF "EARTH-STOPPING" BY SHEPHERDS
By H. Somerset Bullock, igio
Earth-Stopping is the stopping of the fox-earths on
nights previous to the day of a meet in the neighbourhood.
Shepherds employed in this work generally receive los. for
every fox which is killed without "getting to ground " in
the district under their charge. I recently chatted with a
shepherd Ayho told me that he had been an earth-stopper for
thirty years, as his father was before him. He remembers,
when his father used to return with the usual earth-stop-
ping money, that it was the invariable rule for all of his nine
children to have new smocks or new boots. For his part,
when he took the job he made a compact with his wife
that she should have all the gold he received to save for
a rainy day, so long as he retained the odd shillings for
spending. They have now a nest-egg of some ;^50.
OF THE SHEPHERD'S BOTTLE
By The Author
A bottle full of country whig
By the shepherd's side did lig.^
Robert Grkene,
The Shepherd and his Wife (1590).
The little kegs or wooden barrels in which the
shepherds used to carry their "cold thin drink" are still
remembered as " bottles." The contents were generally
innocent enough. It might be herb beer made from the
small dandelion, the burnet, tops of nettles, ginger, sugar,
' At the chief poulterers in Chichester they know nothing of wheatears — " never
heard of them "j at another shop they had a vague recollection of them in the past.
[Author's Note.'] 3 lj^^
Shepherds' Arts, Implements, & Crafts 265
and yeast ; or home-brewed beer of hops, sugar, and ginger ;
some added a little malt. Others preferred to drink
cider. Many of the old poets write of " whig," which was
whey or buttermilk. In The Ancient 'Drama it is thus
described : " from the whey of milk ; after the cheese curd
has been separated from the whey by an acid mixture it is
called whig, and drunk by the poor classes as beer."
The farmers kept these little barrels in various sizes.
They were slung on to the " aims " (or hames) of the horses'
collars. When a large supply of drink was needed at
harvest or shearing time, a shepherd tells me that at such
times he has seen as many as a couple of dozen fastened
with plaited horsehair to the tail-ladder of a waggon. His
wife was horrified to hear that I paid 4s. for my old
shepherd's bottle, a quaint little blue (once green) iron-
bound barrel, for she had but a few years ago seen three
burnt, as out of date and useless. Halliwell thus defines
bottle : " a small portable cask used for carrying liquor
to the fields (West.). Bag and Bottle, i?o^z« Hood, 11. 54."
OF SHEEP-BELLS, ANCIENT AND MODERN
By The Author
The bells still worn to a diminishing extent by cattle
and sheep are representative of an extremely early custom.
We know from ancient Irish literature that bells for sheep
and cattle were employed in Ireland in very early times, and
were very similar to what are called " saints hand-bells." ^
But as the late Sir Henry Dryden pointed out, there
is a remarkable difference between the usual- form of the
early hand-bells and that of bells employed for sheep and
cattle. " In the former the mouth part is as wide or
wider than the top part or shoulder ; but in the latter the
mouth is narrower than the shoulder. It may, indeed,
generally be assumed that the latter shape is later than the
former," though this is of course a different thing from
saying that all forms of sheep-bell are of more recent date
^ Mr, Anderson names 50 or 60 of these " saints " or " sanctiis " hand-bells in Ireland,
6 or 7 in Wales, 2 in England, several in France, and i In Switzerland. For a Scottish
example see page 271. — \Autkor^i Note-I
266
Shepherds of Britain
than hand-bells, a fact which may very well not be the
case, and can certainly not be proved. It must be
remembered that the earliest cattle-bells were made of
wood, and were probably more often of an almost square
shape than round, or else rather of the nature of the
wooden clappers which may still be seen on the
Continent.
About thirty years ago Sir Henry Dryden, in a still
By Habbtrton Lulha:
' MUSIC-MAKER
extant letter to the late Sir A. W. Franks, remarked :
" The bell which I bought was made for me in Wilts. It
is about the largest size made for sheep, and made in
exactly the same way as the old bells. I have written a
few notes about these riveted bells for Ellacombe's forth-
coming book on bells. This is the only way that a smith
can make a bell." Sir Henry adds : " This method is still
followed for most sheep- and cattle-bells. It appears to
have been the usual mode of making hand-bells in the
fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, and perhaps
Shepherds' Arts, Implements, & Crafts 267
in the eighteenth century, after hand-bells had ceased to
be used in the services of the English Church.
" Old bells are of this shape : —
The new ones are : —
A
New Sheet
.J\J\-
Hence the different form when made up. I believe they
were made down to 1650 or 1700 for alarm-bells and
other domestic uses. I have six, got about this country,
all about io| inches high. All these bells were brazed by
means of a flux, and were thus made continuous." ^
With, regard to these riveted bells the Rev. H. T.
' The Rev. J. J. Raven, D.D., F.S.A., in The Bells of England (1906), p. 20, has ;
" This type of riveted bell remained on through many generations, and may be seen now
on the Wiltshire Downs as a sheep-bell."
268 Shepherds of Britain
EUacombe remarks : " My own opinion is that all these
little bells, having the appearance of bronze, were formed
in the same way that sheep-bells are made to this day.
There is a family at Market Lavington, Wilts, by name
of Potter, who have made th'em for generations, and so
sonorous are their bells that on a still night they may be
heard on Salisbury Plain, at a distance of four miles.
Sheet iron is bent into the form, and riveted together.
The intended bell is then bound round with narrow
strips of thin brass ; some borax is added as a flux, and
the whole being enveloped in loam or clay, is submitted to
the heat of a furnace, by which the brass is melted and
gets intermixed with the heated iron, so rendering it
sonorous. Otherwise they were plated with brass, the
iron being first dipped in tin, as plated articles of brass
are now produced." ^
In Sussex, sheep-bells were made of smelted or welded
charcoal iron of ancient local manufacture. A South Down
shepherd puts bells on to a certain number of his flock,
and these are allotted their respective places on the Downs,
so that he can tell where to find them. One of these
shepherds tells me that when driving his sheep he notes
the position into which the various members of his flock
invariably fall. The same impetuous ones are always to
be found far ahead of the rest, on the alert for dainty
herbage or any possible mischief. Others keep midway,
and some near him. The largest of the welded iron bells,
called " clucks " (the most sonorous bells), he puts on to
the noted go-a-heads, and if he happens to have any of
the small round "musical" ones of bell-metal which
cannot be heard at any great distance, he reserves these for
the " lazy ones." Some say that it is impossible to live
near a farm or sheepwalk where bells are used ; but when
they are taken off at shearing-time, and perhaps put
aside for a while, the shepherd "misses the music" and
wonders who could object to it. In Rambles in Sussex
Mr. F. G. Brabant remarks : " The tinkling of the bell
round the neck of the bell-wethers is a musical sound
^ Belh of the Church {Messrs. W. Pollard & Co., by permission).
Shepherds' Arts, Implements, & Crafts 2 6g
which accompanies the Down rambler along the whole
range." The sound of the bells of a flock are especially
a help to the shepherd after dark, in a fog, or in case of
any attempt at sheep-stealing. A thief fears the noise of
the bells of a disturbed flock, as the shepherd will be then
on the alert to find out the cause. The old shepherds
name the various parts as follows : the wooden neck-
piece is the "yoke," the bone or wooden wedge passing
through the leather thongs is the "lockyer,"^ and the
small pieces of leather added to make the bell hang level
are the " reeders " ; the clapper is called the "clipper."
The Chichester ironmongers are rarely asked for sheep-
bells now, but old ones are brought to be repaired. When
once a flock-owner has a stock of bells they last for many
years, and are used for generations of sheep. A local
farmer remarked that they are now too poor to buy them
for their sheep.
Some Specimens of Bells. — See page 2']o.
Fig. I is a large sheep-bell of Sussex welded iron,
brazed or lacquered. Height, 5 inches ; circumference at
middle 1 3 inches, at base 1 2^ ; side, 4^^ across top and
3 at base.
Fig. 2 is a Sussex sheep-bell of welded charcoal iron ; a
" cluck " said to be of the date of Queen Anne. Height,
4 inches ; width at top 5 inches, at base 3J. An old
shepherd showed me how, when swung, the sound pro-
duced resembles " cluck, cluck " ; he knows nothing of
the little round bells, having never seen them. The
"clucks" can be heard at a great distance on the Downs.
On hearing them the shepherds say, " Here come the old
cluckers."
Fig. 3 is of the same shape as Fig. i, but not lacquered,
and of a very different tone. I bought it at an old
curiosity shop in Chichester, where antiques of metal are
a speciality ; the owner, who picks up reliable information
from his customers and keeps the records in a book, states
that it is supposed to be of the reign of George I.
^ The locker, or " lockyer," is sometimes of leather also ; see Fig, 6.
270
shepherds of Britain
4 is of bell-metal, cast ; inside are the letters
These have been said to stand for Richard Wells
Fig
R. W.
of Somerset, a well-known bell-maker of a hundred years
ago. But is it not more probable that they should stand
for Richard Woodman, who had ironworks at Warbleton
in Sussex, in which county it was bought ? Mr. T. W.
George, of Northampton, remarks in a letter of May 20,
1 9 10, addressed to the writer, that Reading appears to
Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Fig. 3. Fig. 4. Fig. 5.
SHEEP-BELLS IN POSSESSION OF THE AUTHOR
have been the place of bell-founders who made bells of
the globular form, upon which occur the initials G. W.
and R. W., and that Richard White was the name of a
bell-founder in Reading in 1520.
Fig. 5 is modern, bought at Chichester in 1909, is
of bell-metal, cast, " musical." These bells are sold by
weight, IS. per lb., this one weighing .j lb.
Fig. 6 is from Winchelsea and of the same shape as i and
3, showing peculiar fastenings of leather lockyers ; height,
4I inches ; the property of Mr. W. Ruskin Butterfield, the
curator and librarian of Hastings Museum and Library.
Shepherds' Arts, Implements, & Crafts 271
Sheep-bells are still made in Birmingham in fairly
I^'C- 6. Fig. 7. Fig. 8. Fig. 9.
large quantities, chiefly for the South American and South
Fig. 10.
African markets (see Figs. 7,8, and 9). These are mostly
272 Shepherds of Britain
of bell-metal. In their manufacture the loop is cast
first ; after casting, the bells are roughly dressed, then
barrelled, dipped, and turned on the edge or lip ; lastly,
the iron clapper is fixed in position. Sizes vary from 2^
to 4^ inches in diameter.
Fig. 10 represents the "sanctus" hand-bell of Fortingal,
West Perthshire, which is here given for the purpose
of comparison with sheep-bells. It is of great antiquity,
probably dating back to the foundation of St. Cedd's
Church (seventh century). Its " tongue " has gone, but
it is otherwise in a fair state of preservation.
PlaT£ I.
THE SIMPLE SUNDIAL OF THE SOUTH-
DOWN SHEPHERDS
By Edward Lovett, 1909
An even more interesting survival than the sheep-
tally occurs amongst the shepherds of the South Downs. A
turf sundial is still to be found in use in a few places from
which the cheap watch has not yet driven it. A shepherd,
after feeding his flock on roots where they have been
" folded " for the night, will take them on to the grassy
Downs, returning with them when it is time for the night
Shepherds' Arts, Implements, & Crafts 273
folding. In order to do this he must know at what hour
to begin his return journey, for he may have a long
distance to go. If without a watch, and with no clocks
within hearing, he resorts to one of the turf dials shown
in Plate I. If the sun fails him, and his dial consequently
does not work, he has to calculate by dead reckoning.
In some cases the old shepherds can make very good
estimates of the time without either watch, sundial, or
visible sun. The form of sundial photographed in Plate I.
is made as follows: — Having selected a fairly smooth bit of
turf, the shepherd marks a rough circle about eighteen inches
Plate II
in diameter with a pointed stick, leaving the stick perpen-
dicularly in the ground in the centre. Due south of this
he fixes another stick, about twelve inches long, on the
periphery of the circle. The south direction is either
ascertained at midday by means of another man's watch,
or, more frequently, by landmark bearings known to the
shepherd. Having done this, he fixes another stick due
west, which is, of course, merely a matter of measure-
ment. He then fixes in the intervening quadrant of the
circle five sticks for the hours one to five inclusive, so
completing a sundial with seven gnomons on its circum-
ference. At three o'clock on an October afternoon, which
is about the time shown in the photograph, it may be
2 74 Shepherds of Britain
about time to return to the fold, and the shadow of the
third stick from the midday gnomon will then fall on the
central stick, and the shepherd will know that it is time to
start.
Another form of turf dial is photographed in Plate II.
and is much more similar to the ordinary garden sundial.
The central stick is the gnomon, and a stick notched for
the hours is laid across the ends of the two other sticks
pointing due north and due east. I have also seen hour-
sticks placed at regular intervals from north to east for
the shadow of the central gnomon to fall upon them.^
The only reference I have been able to find to the
former use of these turf dials by shepherds occurs in
Shakespeare's King Henry VI., Third Part, Act ii. Sc. v.
Perhaps this well-known passage refers to a more elaborate
turf copy of the ordinary dial than those above described :
. . . methinks it were a happy life,
To be no better than a homely swain ;
To sit upon a hill, as I do now,
To carve out dials quaintly, point by point.
Thereby to see the minutes how they run.
How many make the hour full complete ;
How many hours bring about the day ;
How many days will finish up the year ;
How many years a mortal man may live.
Henry VI., Third Part, Act ii. Sc. v.
AN ANCIENT RUSTIC POCKET-DIAL
By Thomas Quiller Couch, 1862
I have, in my little collection of local curiosities, an
old pocket ring-dial, obtained from a labourer in the
parish of Pelynt, Cornwall, and a specimen, probably, of
^ William Aylward of Chichester, who tended sheep on the Downs near this city
when a boy, and whose father was a shepherd for many years, invented a turf dial, which
for its simplicity beats all others. One now figures on our lawn, and is quite useful.
He thus describes his method on the Downs : " On a sunny day with a south wind we
could hear the cathedral clock strike, and if the sun was shining we used to fix a short
stick upright in the ground and cut a ridge in the turf where the shadow fell, and so on
at each hour ; and on other days, when the striking of the clock could not be heard, but
the sun shining, the dial was ready for use." These shepherds used also to judge the time
of day by the position of the sun in respect to the tall cathedral spire. [vfafAor's NaK.'X
Shepherds' Arts, Implements, & Crafts 275
an instrument once in ordinary use. Its occurrence is, I
believe, rare, but I have met with another, though a
defective one, in the possession of a peasant. It is a brass
ring, like a miniature dog's collar, and having — in a
groove in its circumference — a narrower ring, with a small
boss, pierced so as to admit a ray of light. This narrow
ring is made movable, to allow for the varying declination
A POCKET-DIAL
of the sun ; and accordingly, on either side of it, i.e. on
the broad ring, is cut in ascending and descending series
the initials of the months from June to the December
solstice. On the concavity of the great ring, opposite
the boss, is engraved a scale of the hours and half-hours.
It bears also the inscription :
Set me right, and use me well,
And i ye time to you wil tell.
In conformity with this direction, we will, for instance,
move the boss on the sliding ring to D (December), and
276 shepherds of Britain
suspend it by the string directly opposite to the sun, when
the ray of light, passing through the aperture, will
impinge on the concave surface opposite, and tell, with
tolerable accuracy, the hour. Shakespeare is the only
writer I recollect who alludes to such a form of horologe
as having been in common use ; and I regard my
curiosity the more as I believe it illustrates a well-known
passage of our great poet. I am fain to think that it
was just such another which gave occasion to the fool
in the Forest of Arden to " moral on the time " in words
" so deep-contemplative " :
And then he drew a dial from his poke.
And, looking on it with lack-lustre eye.
Says very wisely, " It is ten o'clock."
The date of the play of yls Tou Like It is generally
referred to the year 1 600 ; and as pocket-watches
were not introduced into England until about the year
1577, it is very unlikely that the fool would have been
possessed of so novel and costly a convenience.-'
A SHEPHERD'S POCKET-DIAL
By E. B.
The present owner of a curious " timepiece" writes :
" A friend presented me with a rude instrument which —
as the Maid of Orleans found her sword — he picked ' out
of a deal of old iron.' It is a brass circle of about two
inches in diameter. On the outer side are engraved letters
indicating the days and the months with graduated
divisions, and on the inner side the hours of the day.
The brass circle itself is held in position by a ring, but
there is an inner slide, in which there is a small orifice,
^ Three previous lines should have been quoted as well, thus :
" I met a fool ;
Who laid him down and bask'd him in the sun,
And rail'd on Lady Fortune in good terms . . .
And then he drew a dial from his poke."
This shows us that the sun was out, and the use of a pocket sundial therefore quite
possible. — \Author^ s Note^
Shepherds' Arts, Implements, & Crafts 277
this slide being moved so that the whole stands opposite
the division of the month where the day falls of which we
desire to know the time ; the circle is held up opposite
the sun, the inner circle is, of course, then in the shade,
but the sunbeam shining through the little orifice forms a
point of light upon the hour marked on the inner side.
We have tried this dial and found it gave the hour with
great exactness. It seems probable that this was the kind
of dial alluded to in Shakespeare's Js You Like It. ' And
then he drew a dial from his poke. ..." You should
ask me what time o' day ; there's no clock in the
forest," said Orlando.' It was not very likely the fool
would have a pocket clock. What, then, was the dial he
took from his poke .'' " ^
1 Mr. E. Fillingham King, M.A., in his book Ten T/wmand Wonderful Things, has :
"In 1584 watches began to come from Germany, and the watchmaker soon became a
trader of importance. . . . Country people, like Touchstone, sometimes carried pocket
dials, in the shape of brass rings, with a slide and aperture, to be regulated to the
season." — \_Author^s Note^
SHEPHERDS' PASTIMES
279
SHEPHERD WITH PIPE AND DOG
(From A Book of Hours, 1410)
Tho saugh I stonden hem behinde,
A-fer fro hem, al by hemselve,
Many thousand tymes twelve,
That maden loude menstralcyes
In corneniuse, and shalmyes,
And many other maner pype,
That craftely begunne pype
Bothe in doucet and in rede,
That ben at festes with the brede ;
And many floute and lilting-horne,
And pypes made of grene corne.
As han thise litel herde-gromes.
That kepen best^s in the bromes.
Chaucer, The House of Fame, Book iii.
SHEPHERDS' PASTIMES
In wrestling nimble, and in running swift ;
In shooting steady, and in swimming strong ;
Well made to strike, to leap, to throw, to lift,
And all the sports that shepherds are among.
Spenser (1590).
281
282 Shepherds of Britain
I can dance the raye, I ca^ both pipe and sing.
If I were merry ; I can both hurle and sling ;
I run, I wrestle, I can well throw the bar,
No shepherd throweth the axeltree so far ;
If I were merry, I could well leap and spring ;
I were a man mete to serve a prince or Icing.
Barclay's Eclogues (l6th century).
A PIPING LAD
By Richard Jefferies, 1880
A SHEPHERD lad will sit under the trees, and as you
pass along the track comes the mellow note of his wooden
whistle, from which poor instrument he draws a sweet
sound. There is no tune— no recognisable melody ; he
plays from his heart and to himself. In a room, doubt-
less, it would seem harsh and discordant ; but there, the
player unseen, his simple notes harmonize with the open
plain, the looming hills, the ruddy sunset, as if striving
to express the feelings these call forth.. ^
SHEPHERDS' PIPES
By Rev. F. W. Galfin
In connexion with this subject it is interesting to
record the different kinds of pipes which have been used
in this country by shepherds and other " herde-gromes that
kepen bestes in the bromes," to quote the quaint words
of Chaucer.
The true pastoral pipe was a reed-pipe, not necessarily
made of reed, but sounded by means of a reed or vibrating
tongue. These pipes are of two distinct types, and the
earlier of theni seems to have been the double-reed pipe.
To construct this, a small oaten straw was taken when
green and one end pressed together with the fingers ; this
was then placed between the lips, and the two sides, thus
forced together, vibrated on each other under the pressure
of the breath. Owing to the slender form of the straw it
Shepherds' Pastimes 283
was sometimes called an oaten " quill," a term also used
by the old weavers for a narrow hollow reed.
The double-reed principle, which was known from
remote ages in the East, appears in the reed-pipes of the
Greeks and Romans. The Western spread of Arabian
influence gave a further impetus to its popularity, and the
calamus or calamellus became the chalemie, schalmey, or
shawm of the Middle Ages. The tube or body of the
By H. Warren.
A LESSON IN PIPING
shawm was made of wood and pierced with seven finger-
holes. A similar instrument is still used with the bagpipe
by shepherds in Italy and other parts of Southern Europe.
(^See illustration, p. 2 8 1 .) The shawm has now been replaced
by the hautboy, but in both instruments the little pressed
straw of primitive times is represented by the double-reed
pipe with which they are played. Country children still
make these " pypes of greene corne " under the vulgar
name of " squeakers," but rarely take the trouble 'to cut
the necessary ventages or finger-holes for a musical scale.^
^ M. Drayton represents Melanthus playing to his sheep, and William Ellis's
284 shepherds of Britain
The second type is the single -reed pipe, a principle
which in ancient times obtained a great popularity in Egypt,
where it is still seen in the arghool and zummarah of the
country-folk. In this case a dry straw or hollow river-
reed was selected ; at one end, just below the natural
knot, a narrow tongue or slip was cut out of the surface
of the tube. When this closed end was placed in the
mouth, the pressure of the breath caused the tongue to
vibrate against the tube and a droning sound was pro-
duced. Although it was known in Western Europe
throughout mediaeval times, the single - reed principle
remained undeveloped except in this country, where as
the hornpipe (Chaucer's " cornpype ") it was to be found
in the pastoral districts.
In Scotland the instrument was called the stockhorn,
and in Wales it appeared as the pib-corn ; but in all
cases it had much the same form, namely, that of a
hollow tube of wood or natural bone pierced with holes
for the fingers and with a curved horn attached to the
lower end as a bell, whilst into the other end a single reed
of straw was inserted and covered by a cap of horn open
at the top ; this was placed over the mouth and a strong
breath set the reed in vibration. Such a form of shep-
herd's pipe was still in use in Scotland and also in Wales
in the last century, and it is supposed to have given the
name to the dance called the hornpipe, for which it pro-
vided the music.
The full development of the single reed is seen in the
modern clarinet, which first appeared in the early part
of the eighteenth century. In the bagpipe, which was
formerly as popular in rural England as it is now in Scot-
land, we find a combination of these two principles, the
melody pipe or chanter having a double reed, and the
drones being furnished with single reeds.
shepherd (1749) "makes his sheep merry snd cheers them with songs or else with
whistle and pipe," pages 105-106.
John Dyer, in The Fleece (1751), refers to the recent use of pipe and tabor :
"... they bound along, with laughing air,
To the shrill pipe, and deep remurmuring cords
Of the ancient harp, or tabor's hollow sound."
[.iuthor'! A'crc]
Shepherds' Pastimes 285
In addition to the reed-pipes there is another large
class called flute or whistle pi-pes, of which the well-known
panpipes are both a typical and primitive example. Un-
doubtedly panpipes were used by pastoral people from the
earliest times, but the real whistle-pipe or recorder, as it
was afterwards called in England, was not so popular with
the shepherd of this country as the reed-pipes, being
rather associated, certainly from the days of Chaucer's
squire downwards, with persons of quality and estate.
The little whistle -pipe with three holes, used with the
tabor or small drum, was also heard far more often on the
village green and in the May- day revels than on the
lonely hills and upland pastures.
Though hardly a pipe, a mention of the long straight or
curved horn still in use in the mountainous districts on the
Continent, and employed in bygone days in this country
also, must conclude this cursory note. Formed originally
from the branch of a tree, cut in half, hollowed out, and
then bound together again with strips of bark, it was
blown by the herdsmen to call the cattle. Sometimes
from its great length it required a forked prop. The sounds
were produced by the vibration of the lips in a cup-shaped
mouthpiece similar to that of the trumpet or horn. A
shorter instrument, slightly curved and pierced with
finger-holes, was popular amongst the herdsmen of the
Middle Ages ; in the fourteenth century it was called the
cornet, but it has now disappeared in England.^
SHEPHERDS AT PLAY
From The Graphic and Historical Illustrator, 1834.
" Master," queries Moth, in Love's Labour's Lost,
" will you win your love with a French brawl ? " On
this passage Mr. Douce remarks that the ancient Eng-
lish dance denominated a brawl was an importation from
France, with which balls were usually opened, the per-
• Hone, in The ^-very-Day Book (1827), mentions spiral May-horns made of the rind
of the sycamore tree as played upon by boys and girls at the weddings of the South-
down shepherds. Some say willow baric was also used for these horns. — [Author s Note.']
2 86 Shepherds of Britain
formers first "uniting hands in a circle" ; and then, accord-
ing to an authority in the " language Frangois" printed at
Angers in 1579, the leading couple placing themselves in
the centre of the ring, " the gentleman saluted all the
ladies in turn, and his fair partner each gentleman," the
figure continuing until every pair had followed the example
set them. . . .
Kiss in the ring yet holds a place among the pastimes
of the lower classes in " Merrie England " ; ^ and though
there is but little probability that the brawl will ever
regain its ancient honours in the " Modern Athens," it
indisputably once formed the most popular disport of
Caledonia, and remnants of the practice are still to be
found among the heather. Mr. Douce copies from the
Orchesographie of Thoinot Arbeau, published in 1588,
the music of a Scottish brawl ; but we learn from the
Complaynt of Scotland, printed at St. Andrews forty years
previous to the above date, that even at that early period
the brawl had become so completely naturalised that it
was the ordinary pastoral amusement. The author of the
Complaynt, speaking of a joyous rural assemblage, says:
" They began to dance in ane ring, evyrie aid scheiphird
led his vyfe be the hand, and evyrie yong scheiphird led
hyr quhome he luffit best." He then proceeds to describe
the figure as commencing with " twa bekkis " (nods) and
" vith a kysse.''
SHEPHERDS OF SKYE AND THE REEL
OF HOOLIGAN
By Alexander Smith, 1865
(At Mr. M'lan's Farm)
When Peter came with his violin the kitchen was
cleared after nightfall ; the forms were taken away,
candles stuck into the battered tin sconces, the dogs
unceremoniously kicked out, and a somewhat ample ball-
1 To within the last thirty years kiss in the ring was a favourite pastime on Kew
Green, but is no longer allowed. — [Author's Note.']
Shepherds' Pastimes 287
room was the result. Then in came the girls, with black
shoes and white stockings, newly washed faces, and nicely
smoothed hair ; and with them came the shepherds and
men-servants, more carefully attired than usual. Peter
took his seat near the fire ; M'lan gave the signal by
clapping his hands ; up went the inspiriting notes of the
fiddle, and away went the dancers, man and maid facing
each other, the girl's feet twinkling beneath her petticoat,
not like two mice, but rather like a dozen, her kilted
partner pounding the flag-floor unmercifully ; then man
and maid changed step, and followed each other through
loops and chains ; then they faced each other again, the
man whooping, the girl's hair coming down with her
exertions ; then suddenly the fiddle changed time, and
with a cry the dancers rushed at each other, each pair
getting linked arm in arm, and away the whole floor
dashed into the whirlwind of the reel of Hoolican. It
was dancing with a will — lyrical, impassioned ; the
strength of a dozen fiddlers dwelt in Peter's elbow ;
M'lan clapped his hands and shouted, and the stranger
was forced to mount the dresser to get out of the way of
the whirling kilt and tempestuous petticoat.
THE COTSWOLD GAMES
From The Book of Days. Edited by Robert Chambers, 1869
The range of hills overlooking the fertile and beautiful
vale of Evesham is celebrated by Drayton in his curious
topographical poem, the Polyolbion, as the yearly meet-
ing - place of the country - folks around to exhibit the
best-bred cattle and pass a day in jovial festivity. He
pictures these rustics dancing hand in hand to the music
of the bagpipe and tabor, around a flagstaff^ erected on the
highest hill, the flag inscribed '■'Heigh for Cotswold ! '' ^
while others feasted on the grass, presided over by the
winner of the prize —
^ Cotswold was celebrated for its sheepwalks and " Cotswould lions " [i.e. sheep). —
[Author's Note.'\
2 88 Shepherds of Britain
The shepherd's king,
Whose flock hath chanced that year the earliest lamb to bring.
Drayton's description pleasantly, but yet painfully, re-
minds us of the halcyon period in the history of England
procured by the pacific policy of Elizabeth and James I.,
and which apparently would have been indefinitely pro-
longed, with a great progress in wealth and all the arts
of peace, but for the collision between Puritanism and
the will of an injudicious sovereign, which brought about
the Civil War. The rural population were during James's
reign at ease and happy, and their exuberant good spirits
found vent in festive assemblages, of which this Cots-
wold meeting was but an example. But the spirit of
austerity was abroad, making continual encroachments on
the genial feelings of the people ; and, rather oddly, it
was as a counter -check to that spirit that the Cotswold
meeting attained its full character as a festive assemblage.
There lived at that time at Burton-on-the-Heath, in
Warwickshire, one Robert Dover, an attorney, who enter-
tained rather strong views of the menacing character of
Puritanism. He deemed it a public enemy, and was eager
to put it down. Seizing on the idea of the Cotswold
meeting, he resolved to enlarge and systematize it into
a regular gathering of all ranks of people in the province,
with leaping and wrestling as before for the men, and
dancing for the maids, and in addition coursing and horse-
racing for the upper classes. With a formal permission
from King James he made all the proper arrangements,
and established the Cotswold games in a style which
secured general applause, never failing each year to appear
upon the ground himself, well mounted and accoutred,
as what would now be called a master of the ceremonies.
Things went on thus for the best part of forty years,
till (to quote the language of Anthony Wood) " the
rascally rebellion was begun by the Presbyterians, which
gave a stop to their proceedings, and spoiled all that was
generous and ingenious elsewhere. . . ." Drayton is very
complimentary to Dover :
shepherds' Pastimes 289
We'll have thy statue in some rock cut out,
With brave inscriptions garnished about,
And under written : "Lo ! this is the man
Dover, the first these noble sports began."
Lads of the hills, and lasses of the vale,
In many a song and many a merry tale.
Shall mention thee ; and having leave to play,
Unto thy name shall make a holiday.
The Cotswold shepherds, as their flocks they keep,
To put off lazy drowsiness and sleep.
Shall sit to tell, and hear the story told.
That night shall come ere they their flocks can fold.
The sports took place at Whitsuntide, and consisted
of horse - racing (for which small honorary prizes were
given), hunting, and coursing (the best dog being rewarded
with a silver collar) ; dancing by the maidens ; wrestling,
leaping, tumbling, cudgel-play, quarter-staff, casting the
hammer, etc., by the men. Tents were erected for the
gentry, who came in numbers from all quarters, and here
refreshments were supplied in abundance ; while tables
stood in the open air, or cloths were spread on the ground
for the commonalty.
None ever hungry from these games came home.
Or e'er make plaint of viands or of room ;
He all the rank at night so brave dismisses
With ribands of his favour and with blisses.
Horses and men were abundantly decorated with
yellow ribands (Dover's colour), and he was duly honoured
by all as king of their sports for a series of years. They
ceased during the Cromwellian era, but were revived at
the Restoration, and the memory of their founder is still
preserved in the name Dover's Hill, applied to an
eminence of the Cotswold range about a mile from the
village of Campden.
Shakespeare, whose slightest allusion to any subject
gives it an undying interest, has immortalised these sports.
Justice Shallow, in his enumeration of the four bravest
roisterers of his early days, names " Will Squele,a Cotswold
man " ; and the mishap of Master Page's fallow greyhound,
who was "out-run on Cotsale," occupies some share of
290 Shepherds of Britain
the dialogue in the opening scene of the Merry Wives of
Windsor.
SHEEP-RUNNING ON EXMOOR
By Percy W. D. Izzard, 19 10
A shepherd told me how, when a youth, sheep provided
him with sport before ever he thought of being associated
with flocks for his living. It was when he played the old-
time game of sheep-running on Exmoor. It was the custom
to take a seven- or eight-year-old wether, shear and grease
his tail, and let him loose on one of the hills. Five
minutes later about a score of young men would set to
catch him, with the object of winning the wether or his
value if they could hold him by the tail for one minute.
This was anything but an easy matter, for the animal was
always kept in and fed up for the occasion, and would
run for miles up hill and down dale like a wild stag, with
his breathless pursuers behind him. " I went in three
times and won each time," said the shepherd ; " although
once the old sheep ran near eighteen miles with me follow-
ing for about two and a half hours. His value was
reckoned at thirty shillings, and I always took the money
in case the sheep died afterwards." ^
VILLAGE PASTIMES (17TH Century)
From The Book of Days. Edited by Robert Chambers, 1869
It is curious to find that shepherds and other villagers
in Aubrey's time took part in welcoming any distinguished
visitors to their country by rustic music and pastoral
singing. We read of the minister of Bishops Cannings,
an ingenious man and an excellent musician, making
several of his parishioners good musicians, both vocal and
instrumental, and they sang psalms in concert with the
' Folk-Lore, 1886, tells us that " In Oxfordshire a fat lamb was chased by girls with
tied hands. She who caught the lamb with her teeth was declared ' lady of the lamb.'
Next day lamb partly boiled, partly roasted, partly baked, was served to the lady and her
companions." — \_Autlior\ Note."]
Shepherds' Pastimes 291
organ in the parish church. When King James I. visited
Sir Edward Baynton at Bromham, the minister entertained
his Majesty at The Bush in Cotefield, with bucolics of his
own making and composing, of four parts, which were
sung by his parishioners, who wore frocks and whips like
carters. Whilst his Majesty was much diverted, the eight
bells rang merrily, and the organ was played. The
minister afterwards entertained the king with a football
match of his own parishioners, who, Aubrey tells us, would
in those days have challenged all England for music, foot-
ball, and ringing. For the above loyal reception King
James made the minister of Bishops Cannings one of his
chaplains in ordinary. When Anne, Queen of James I.,
returned fi-om Bath, the worthy minister received her at
Shepherd-shard with a pastoral performed by himself and
his parishioners in shepherds' weeds. A copy of this song
was printed, with an emblematic frontispiece of goats,
pipes, sheep-hooks, cornucopiae, and so forth. The song
was set for four voices, and so pleased the Queen that she
liberally rewarded the singers.
THE OLD BERKSHIRE REVELS
" In which shepherds took a prominent part."
By L. Salmon, 1909
A century ago, in many parts of England these fairs
used to be held with sports and pastimes. They had
nothing to do with common "statute feasts," being much
more ancient. . . . Perhaps the chief feature and the
most exciting of the revels was the backswording. . . .
Each village had its champion. The game was played
with thick sticks, having a basket upon one end to protect
the hand. A wooden stage or platform was erected and
enclosed by a rope. The lookers-on stood round, those
at the back mounted up in carts and waggons to raise
them above those in front. Any one wishing to take part
in the game threw his hat into the ring as a challenge.
When a head was won there were loud cheers and
292 shepherds of Britain
shouts of " Here's another old gamester." An " old
gamester " was one who had won a final prize ; a " young
gamester " one who had, as yet, broken no heads. A head
was counted to be broken when the skin of one of the
players had been broken somewhere above the eyebrow
and the blood had run down an inch, or when one of the
opponents was tired out. . . .
The prize for this " mazing lot of clouting " when
all was over was a curious one, more enduring, certainly,
than the laurel wreath of the Olympic games, but still of
the nature of a crown. It was a tall silver-laced hat.
This prize of a hat was, indeed, the prize for all the
games at the village revels. They were occasionally given
by the squire of the parish, who would sometimes present,
as well as the beaver hat, an additional prize of a hogs-
head of beer ; but this extra prize was only an occasional
one. The hats were generally considered sufficient reward.
They were as much prized and sought after as any Greek
laurels. Should there happen to be a man at the revels
who seemed to carry an air of importance in his looks and
you asked who he was, by your very question you would
proclaim yourself unknown to the countryside. There
would be pride in the answer, showing that the man did
not so value himself for nothing. He and his ancestors
had won so many hats that his cottage looked like a
haberdasher's shop. What was the origin of this strange
prize, and what has become of all these treasured hats.''
One wonders.^
BEDFORDSHIRE SHEARING REVELS
From Hone's Year Book, 1832
Anciently at Potton, in Bedfordshire, the wool trade
was carried on to a considerable extent.- At that period
• Mr. Blcncowe, in 1849, tells vis of companies of sheep-shearers in Sussex who were
governed by a captain who wore a gold-laced hat, assisted by a lieutenant with a silver-
laced one. This may account for some of them. See pages 206, 207. {Author's Nate.']
2 Bedfordshire was famous for its sheep. William Ellis, in his Suic Guide (1749)
says ; " In our part of Hertfordshire we have a notion that the west-country sheep and
the Bedfordshire sheep are the two best in England." — [-iiitlor's Note.']
shepherds' Pastimes 293
it was customary to introduce at " sheep-shearing " merry-
makings, which were then maintained with a spirit
honourable to those engaged in them. A personation of
St. Blaise,^ the reputed patron of the woolcombers, was
attended by various characters in gay attire, who per-
formed a rural masque ; and there was a kind of morris
dance, with other ceremonies.
O wassel days ! O customs meet and well !
The "good bishop" was represented by a stripling,
dressed in snowy habiliments of wool seated on " a milk-
white steed," with a lamb in his lap, the horse, its rider,
and the little " lambkin " profusely decorated with flowers
and ribbons of all the colours of the rainbow, the latter
gaieties being, carefully treasured up, and cheerfully pre-
sented for the occasion by all who took an interest in its
due observance. Imperfect memory cannot supply a
minute account of the appearance of the other "worthies "
forming this " shearing show " or " revel " as it was
termed ; but that their costumes were as diversified and
sightly as in 'the one described above, is as certain as
that they were beheld with admiration by the country-
folk, for on the festive day
The neighbouring hamlets hastened there.
And all the childhood came.
The little town presented an animated appearance for the
time being. The " display " has unluckily been long since
discontinued. It was, perhaps, the most rural of the
many celebrations in honour of the saint once common in
manufacturing towns.
^ At Boxgrove, Sussex, " the cathedral of village churches " is dedicated to St, Blaise,
and on the modern lamp standards may be seen sharp-pointed crowns formed of wool-
combs. In the procession of trades to Kingsland in 1685, "the shearmen and cloth-
workers had a Bishop Blaise with a mitre of wool, and full-made shirt serving for lawn
sleeves.'*
William Hone, in his E'uery-Day Book (1827), remarks that St. Blaise seems to have
neglected the woolcombers. " Since the introduction of machinery by Arkwright and
others very little cloth is manufactured by hand. The woolcomber's greasy and oily
wooden horse, the hobby of his livelihood, with the long teeth and pair of cards, are
rarely seen. When scribblers, carders, billies, and spinning-jennies came into use the
wheel no longer turned at the cottage door ; but a revolution among the working-classes
gave occasion for soldiers to protect the mills. . . . Time, however, has ended this
strife with wool, and begun another with cotton." — [Author's Note.']
2 94 Shepherds of Britain
ST. BLAISE'S DAY IN YORKSHIRE
From The Book of Days. Edited by Robert Chambers, 1869
St. Blaise is generally represented as Bishop of Sebaste
in Armenia, and as having suffered martyrdom in the
persecution of Licinius in 316. The fact of iron combs
having been used in tearing the flesh of the martyr appears
the sole reason for his having been adopted by the vs'ool-
combers as their patron saint. The large flourishing
communities engaged in this business in Bradford and
other English towns are accustomed to hold a septennial
jubilee on the 3rd of February in honour of Jason of the
Golden Fleece and St. Blaise ; and not many years ago
this fete was conducted with considerable state and cere-
mony. First went the masters on horseback, each bearing
a white sliver,^ then the masters' sons on horseback, and
their colours ; after which came the apprentices on horse-
back in their uniforms. Persons representing the king and
queen, the royal family, and their guards and attendants,
followed. Jason with his golden fleece and proper attendants
next appeared, then came Bishop Blaise in full canonicals,
followed by shepherds and shepherdesses, woolcombers,
dyers, and other appropriate figures, some wearing wool
wigs. At the celebration in 1825, before the procession
started, it was addressed by Richard Fawcett, Esq., in
the following lines suitable to the occasion :
Hail to the day whose kind auspicious rays
Deigned first to smile on famous Bishop Blaise !
To the great author of our combing trade,
This day 's devoted and due honour 's paid ;
To him whose fame through Britain's Isle resounds,
To him whose goodness to the poor abounds,
Long shall his name in British annals shine.
And grateful ages offer at his shrine.
By this our trade are thousands daily fed,
By it supplied with means to earn their bread.
In various forms our trade its work imparts,
In different methods and by different arts ;
^ A lock of combed wool.
Shepherds' Pastimes 295
Preserves from starving indigents distressed,
As combers, spinners, weavers, and the rest.
We boast no gems or costly garments vain,
Borrowed from India or the coast of Spain ;
Our native soil with wool our trade supplies.
While foreign countries envy us the prize.
No foreign broil our common good annoys.
Our country's product all our art employs ;
Our fleecy flocks abound in every vale,
Our bleating lambs proclaim the joyful tale.
So let not Spain with us attempt to vie.
Nor India's wealth pretend to soar so high ;
Nor Jason pride him in his Colchian spoil,
By hardships gained and enterprising toil.
Since Britons all with ease attain the prize,
And every hill resounds with golden cries.
To celebrate our founder's great renown.
Our shepherd and our shepherdess we crown ;
For England's commerce, and for George's sway.
Each loyal subject give a loud Huzza.
Huzza ! ^
A significant remark is dropped by the local historian
of these fine doings, that they were most apt to be entered
upon when trade was flourishing.
OLD CUSTOMS AT SHEPHERDS' FESTIVALS
From The Graphic and Historical Illustrator, 1834.
Great festivals were annually celebrated at the Foun-
tain of Arethusa, in Syracuse, in honour of the goddess
Diana, who was fabled to preside over its waters ; and
the Fontinalia of the Romans were religious observances
dedicated to the nymphs of wells and fountains, in which
rites the throwing of flowers upon streams and decorating
the wells with crowns of flowers formed the chief cere-
monies. In our own island this custom has not yet fallen
into complete desuetude. Shaw, in his History of the
Province of Morray, observes that heathenish customs were
much practised amongst the people there ; and as an
instance he cites that " they performed pilgrimages to wells,
^ Leeds Mercury, February 5, 1825.
I!
OO
Shepherds' Pastimes 297
and built chapels in honour of their fountains." The prac-
tice of throwing flowers upon the Severn and other rivers
of Wales, alluded to by Milton in his Comus and by
Dyer in his poem of The Fleece^ is unquestionably a
remnant of this ancient usage. Speaking of the goddess
Sabrina, Milton says :
The shepherds, at their festivals,
Carol her goodness loud in rustic lays.
And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream,
Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils.
NINE MEN'S MORRIS AND OTHER GAMES
By The Author
Mrs. Gomme, in her valuable Traditional GanDes
(1894), observes that "The following are the accounts
of this game given by the commentators on Shakespeare,
in that part of Warwickshire where Shakespeare was.
The shepherds and other boys dig up the turf with their
knives to represent a sort of imperfect chess-board. It
consists of a square sometirnes only a foot in diameter,
sometimes three or four yards ; within this is another
square, and so on. . . . One party or player has wooden
pegs, the other stones, which they move in such a manner
as to take up each other's men, as they are called ; the
area of the inner square is called the pound, into which
the men are taken and are impounded. . . . These
figures are always cut upon the grass, green turf, or leys,
or upon the grass at the end of ploughed fields, and in
the rainy seasons never fail to be choked with mud."
Mrs. Gomme adds that Dr. Hyde thinks the morris,
or merrels, was known since the time of the Norman
Conquest ; of course, the form of the word proves Norman
origin.
The rpioSiov, with its central " fold " or " mound,"
and the ■n-eTreta, or board of Palamedes, were probably the
originals of merrels and draughts. Ovid, Tristia, ii.
477-481, and Ars Amat. iii. 157-365, alludes to the
298
Shepherds of Britain
men being moved in direct lines, set in a row, and
retreating. He says in the former :
Parva sedet ternis instructa tabella lapillis,
In qua vicisse est, continuasse suos.
But here there are only three counters on each side. In
Ireland it was, and perhaps still is, called " top castle,"
and played with as many men.^
" The ancient game of ' nine men's morris ' is yet
played by the boys of Dorset. The boys of a cottage
near Dorchester had a while ago carved a ' merrel ' pound
on a block of stone by the house. Some years ago a
clergyman of one of the northern counties wrote that in
pulling down the wall in his church, built in the thirteenth
century, the workmen came to a block of stone with
' marrels pound ' cut on it." ^
Joseph Strutt (1836) gives the following account of
nine men's morris : — " Nine men's morris is a game of
some antiquity. Cotgrave (1632) describes it as a boyish
game, and says it was played here commonly with stones,
but in France with pawns, or men, made on purpose, and
they were termed merelles. It was certainly much used
by the shepherds formerly, and continues to be used by
them and other rustics to the present hour. But it is very
far from being confined to the practice of boys and girls.
The form of the merelle-table with the lines upon it, as it
appeared in the fourteenth century, is here represented.
' See Notei and Queries, 1878 (Mackenzie E. C. Walcott).
^ Barnes's Glossary (1864).
Shepherds' Pastimes 299
" These Jines have not been varied. The black spots at
every angle and intersection of the lines are the places for
the men to be laid upon. The men are different in form
or colour for distinction' sake ; and from the moving these
men backwards or forwards, as though they were dancing
a morris, I suppose the pastime received the appellation
of nine men's morris ; but why it should have been called
fivepenny morris I do not know. The manner of playing
is briefly this : — Two persons, having each of them nine
pieces, or men, lay them down alternately, one by one,
upon the spots ; and the business of either party is to
prevent his antagonist from placing three of his pieces
so as to form a row of three without the intervention of
an opponent piece. If a row is formed, he that made it
is at liberty to take up one of his competitor's pieces
from any part he thinks most to his advantage ; excepting
he has made a row, which must not be touched if he have
another place upon the board that is not a component
part of that row. When all the pieces are laid down,
they are played backwards and forwards, in any direction
that the lines run, but can only move from one spot to
another at one time. He that takes off all his antagonist's
pieces is the conqueror. The rustics, when they have not
materials at hand to make a table, cut out the lines in the
same form upon the ground, and make a small hole for
every dot. They then collect, as above mentioned, stones
of different forms or colours for the pieces, and play the
game by depositing them in the holes in the same manner
that they are set over the dots upon the table. Hence
Shakespeare, describing the effects of a wet and stormy
season, says :
The folds stand empty in the drowned field,
And crows are fatted with the murrain flock,
The nine men's morris is filled up with mud.
Midsummer Night's Dream."
Many of the old people in Chichester know of the
game, but say that it is not often played now. I have
come across two boards ; one is in the stables at Hunter's
Race Farm at Lavant, cut on the lid of an old oat-bin.
300 Shepherds of Britain
Farmer Norrel states that it has been cut in his time, and
that he has another in his house. It varies slightly from
that which Strutt pictures. The squares are three, five,
and seven inches respectively ; the cross-lines are at the
middle of the squares only, and not at the corners. The
other is in the cloisters at Chichester, cut on one of the
stone window-seats near the south door of the Cathedral.
Mrs. Wild, who lived for eighty years in a cottage on
the Goodwood estate, remembers seeing the shepherds cut
boards in the turf on the downs ; and her nephew, who is
twenty years younger, tells me that when a boy he used
to watch the carters playing in stable-yards while their
horses fed. They cut the squares and lines on the stone
paving. Seeing Strutt's picture, he at once recognised it
as " morrils," and describes the game as " like chess ; two
could play half the day and neither win." A Sussex
shepherd has promised to make me a board ; he calls the
men sheep, and as they are pounded the name seems
suitable enough. A friend, writing from Scotland, says
that she remembers playing a similar game there years
ago ; it was called " dam-brod " (i.e. literally " draught-
board ").
Is it not probable that ninepins was a game invented
by shepherds ? In Mr. Nelson Annandale's book, The
Faroes and Iceland (1905), we read about the Parish game
of sheep-dogs and of ninepins. " Boys are playing at a
game called ' sheep-dogs ' on the hill-side. One of them
stands above and rolls down a small hoop, made by fitting
several rams' horns into one another ; another boy stands
below, provided with a piece of drift-wood or a small plank
borrowed from the carpenter, and strives to hit the hoop
uphill ; the others chase it when he misses, and bring it
back to the bowler. . . . Sheep's horns are used for a
variety of purposes . . . they are also set up like ninepins
in another game of the same nationality."^
Mr. Edward Lovett (an authority on these matters)
thinks the above suggestion a good one, adding : " and
now might not the ninepin be a symbol of the human
1 By permission of the Delegates of the Clarendon Press.
shepherds' Pastimes 301
being ? " Certainly Mr. and Mrs. Noah of thie child's
ark are very like ninepins. Michael Drayton has :
Then whistle in my fist, my fellow swains to call,
Down go our hooks and scrips, and we to ninepins fall ;
At dustpoint, or at quoits, else are we at it hard,
All false and cheating games we shepherds are debar'd.
Dustpoint was a boys' game, in which points or
tagged laces were placed in a heap and thrown at with a
stone.
THE GAME OF JACK-STRAWS
By William Howitt, 1841
Jack-straws was a great game with us, and if there be
any lads that do not happen to know what they are, I will
briefly explain them here, because any lad can, at any time,
make them for himself. The Jack-straws are a number
of straws cut to about three inches long each, or what is
better and far more enduring, as many splinters of deal
of the same length, and about the thickness of straws, or
rather thinner, because they are solid. A lad with his
knife may, in a very short time, split off from a thin bit
of deal fifty or sixty of these, as well as three or four of
twice the length, rounded, and at one end gradually
brought to a point, something in the manner of a wooden
skewer, only thinner. Three or four or more children
may play at Jack-straws, thus : — Let one of the company
take up all the Jack-straws in a neat little sheaf in his
hand, and holding them about nine or ten inches above the
table, let them suddenly fall perpendicularly upon it.
They will fall in a tangled heap, and the fun is for each
one in turn to remove a Jack-straw from the heap without
moving the rest in the slightest degree. Of course, it is
easy enough at first, because a few or more of them will be
quite apart and disconnected from the heap ; but as you
proceed the difficulty increases every moment, and a good
deal of skill is required to remove some of the Jack-straws,
which can only be done by putting the point of the skewer
302 shepherds of Britain
or pointer under one, and lifting it ofF from the rest by a
clever jerk, which, no doubt, gave the original name of
jerk-straws, now corrupted to Jack-straws, to the game.
It seems a sport invented by the shepherds to while
away the time as they lay on the Downs in summer days.
He wins who at the end of the game, which is the entire
removal of the heap, has the greatest number of Jack-
straws. Any Jack-straws removed by a jerk which shakes
some of the others must be thrown back upon the heap
again. There are some different modes of playing, but
this we have found the most fair and the most agreeable.
Some, instead of taking away each of the straws in turn,
permit each in his turn to abstract as many as he can with-
out shaking the rest ; but this gives a good player who gets
the first turn a very decided chance of winning, and often
keeps the other players waiting a long time. However,
all these laws of the game are subject to the fancy and
agreement of those who play, and sometimes one, and
sometimes the other, may be tried for variety. A king,
a queen, a bishop, and other characters may also be made
by dipping the two ends of a Jack-straw into sealing-wax
for the king, one end for the queen, and one end into ink
for the bishop, which may count four, three, two, or any
number agreed upon.-^
^ These are now sold In the shops, and are called " Spillikins," but are both in
themselves, and in the rules for playing, inferior to what are here described.- — W.
HowiTT.
(Spillikins or spelicans, n name of Dutch origin, from O. Dutch spdhken^ i.e. a
spillikin^ a small pin or peg.) — \_AutJiors Note^
PASTORAL FOLK-LORE
303
J5y Habberton Liilham.
THE SHEPHERD
Alone he bides, a tall old man, and leans
With knotty hands clasping his long ash crook.
Habberton Lulham.
PASTORAL FOLK-LORE
THE SHEPHERD AND HIS LORE
By Habberton Lulham, 1908
Alone he bides, a tall old man, and leans
With knotty hands clasping his long ash crook ;
His ancient cloak, patched, worn, and weather-stained,
Hangs to his leathern leggings ; at his feet
His two dogs lie, and down the hill below,
In a long sickle line, the feeding sheep
Call in a hundred tones and sound their bells —
Hark to the mellow music ! Sit by him,
305 X
3o6 Shepherds of Britain
And silent though he be from many a year
Of hill-side solitudes, yet as the pine
On yonder crest speaks when the strong wind stirs
Its heart, the breath of sympathy will break
His silentness ; and wiser than he knows.
He hides a world of curious lore behind
Those weather-beaten eyes. Lead him to tell
His tales of dogs and sheep ; of heavy ewes
Frighted by furze-owls or up-springing hares.
And bringing forth strange, beaked, and furry iambs ;
Of how his dogs bark, cowering to the sky ;
And sheep rush panic-stricken when they hear
The witch-hounds in full cry stream overhead.
Hunting some flying soul back to its doom.
And hints has he of arcane mysteries ;
He knows of false dawns, and the hour of flight ;
That cold, dead hour that comes ere night be done.
When dying hearts beat feeblest, and the soul
Most often slips its bars and wings away,
Fanning the air about Earth's sleeping face ;
That is the mystic wind that moves his sheep
To wander a little ; that awakes the larks
To one short flight, and faint, half-hearted song ;
And makes his sleeping dogs uncurl, look forth,
Whimper, and stretch their limbs, and turn and turn
About ere they can rest again ; he tells
How then the upper eastern sky grows light
A space, as if those homing wings broke through
Its leaden grey, or dawn were drawing nigh —
Then, sleep and darkness settle back once more.
And he can tell how down the midnight coombe's
Green, winding hollows, still the little folk
Go dancing 'neath the moon, and round their rings
Sit in applauding circles while their queen,
Light-poised upon a mushroom's milky crest,
Lilts the old fairy laws and spells once more,
Then speeds their quivering wings upon her quests :
And far above them, dark against the sky —
My shepherd tells — late wanderers oft have seen
Pastoral Folk-Lore 307
A ghostly Roman sentinel peer down
From grassy battlements, while in the dene's
Deep, leafy shadows, watching him, the shades
Of British hill-men lurk. But while his tales
Find their slow, plodding words, a smouldering sun
Sinks through the clouds and purple mist behind
The western hills, whereon its last red arc
Glows for a moment like the watchman's fire
Before some ancient camp. He calls his dogs
And sends them forth ; eager they fly to bring
The wandering sheep together ; as he waves
Them on, his crook's head catches the red light.
And shines as when within that Pyecombe forge,
A hundred years ago, his grandsire watched
A cunning hand beat out its long-thought curves.
I will go too, and help him pitch the fold
Down by the hazel-holt, and strew the lines
Of golden swedes. By darkening lanes we wend
Behind the pattering feet and tinkling bells.
It is the hour now of that wondrous blue,
Deep, rich, and luminous, old painters used
To drape about their stately dreams of God ;
That lovely hour between the day and dark.
When all the sky, like some vast jewel, shows
A purple jewel, pure, and ocean-deep,
Set o'er this universe in heaven's floor,
Where through, a little while, the light intense
Filters in soft sufi\ision to our eyes.
And now the shepherd's lanthorn shines about
His folded flocks, its mellow, orange ray
Making a lovelier, richer blue above
And all around the little ring of light.
Oh, sweet, rare moments fading out so fast !
3o8 Shepherds of Britain
THE PHYNODDEREE'S 1 SHEPHERDING
By Sophia Morrison, 1909
It was told me by Edward Quayle (aged between sixty
and seventy), who lives in the south of the Isle of Man,
that " Once upon a time there was a phynodderee living
in Colby Glen, who used to do work for a farmer that
lived at Ballacrink. Well, one evening it was coming on
to snow, and the farmer said to his boys that they had
best go and gather the sheep into the fold. The boys
went, but found that the phynodderee had got all the sheep
in for them, and he had a ' hare ' ^ in among them. The
boys heard him saying: — ' Hiaght mollaght er yn casht veg
loaghtan ' (My seven curses on the yearling loaghtan) ;
' she was harder to get in the fold than all the rest ; I had
to chase her three times round Barrule before I got her
driven in.' And when the boys went to the fold in the
morning they found the little brown ' hare ' lying dead on
the ground."
THE LOAGHTAN BEG
By "CusHAG," 1908
" Oh, is it a sheep or a witch ? " quoth he ;
"Is it only a loaghtan beg .''
Or am I awake or asleep," quoth he,
" Or am I the hairy Phynodderee
That started to catch the meg ? ^
" I chased her over Barrule," quoth he,
" And along the side of Clagh Owre ;
And three times round Snaefell, like fire, went she
With a screech at the hairy Phynodderee
That turned the night's milk sour.
^ The popular idea of him is that he is a hairy goblin or spirit. He is said to
frequent lonely spots, and is useful to man, or otherwise, as the caprice of the moment
leads him.
2 A little brown Manx sheep.
^ A hanil-reared lamb.
Pastoral Folk-Lore 309
" I have raced the mountain lambs," quoth he,
" And seen them run Hke deer ;
But I never seen wan like yondher," quoth he,
" That could run like the hairy Phynodderee ;
She'll not be no right wan, I fear.
" I've seen many sheep in my day," quoth he,
" From the Calf to the Point of Ayre ;
But never a wan like that," quoth he,
" Which nearly done the Phynodderee " —
" Man yeg ! you have brought me a hare ! "
REMNANTS OF SACRIFICIAL CUSTOMS IN
ENGLAND
By William Henderson, 1879
The Durham butchers mark the sign of the cross on
the shoulder of a sheep or lamb after taking off the skin,^
probably because in the peace-offerings of old it was the
priest's portion. In Hunt's Romances and Drolls of the
West of England (1865) we read: "There can be no
doubt that a belief prevailed until a very recent period
amongst the small farmers in the districts remote from the
towns in Cornwall that a living sacrifice appeased the wrath
of God. This sacrifice must be by fire, and I have heard
it argued that the Bible gave them warranty for this belief."
He cites a well-authenticated instance of such a sacrifice in
1800, and adds: "While correcting these sheets, I am
informed of two recent instances of this superstition. One
of them was the sacrifice of a calf by a farmer near
Portreath for the purpose of removing a disease which had
long followed his horses and his cows. The other was the
burning of a living lamb to save, as the farmer said, ' his
flocks from a spell which had been cast on 'em.' "
^ This is still the custom among some of the trade in Durham ; others make a maric
nice a leaf of bracken. They cannot give any reason for the marli being made. " It is
taught them when learning to kill." In some cases in Sussex a butcher who buys from
different flocks, but of the same breed of sheep, will mark the carcases differently, so as
to be able to distinguish which is which, if necessary, as they may vary in quality.
— \Author's iVoft.]
3 1 o Shepherds of Britain
SACRIFICE OF SHEEP AND LAMBS
By the Rev. J. E. Vaux, F.S.A., 1902
The Rev. A. T. Fryer, who was brought up in that
county (Devonshire), tells us of a distinctly heathen sacri-
fice, only modernised, which is still kept up in the parish
of King's Teignton, not far from Teignmouth, every
Whitsuntide, an account of which is to be found in
White's Devonshire. It appears that on Whit-Monday
a lamb is drawn about the parish in a cart decorated with
garlands of lilac, laburnum, and other flowers, and persons
are requested to give something towards the expenses of
the ceremonial. On Tuesday the lamb is killed and
roasted whole in the middle of the village. It is said that
it was formerly roasted in the bed of a stream which flows
through the village, the water of which had been turned
into a new channel temporarily, in order that the bed of
the stream might be cleansed. The lamb, when cooked,
is sold in slices to the poor at a cheap rate. The precise
origin of the custom is forgotten, but a tradition, evidently
to be traced back to heathen days, is to this effect : — The
village, at some remote period, suffered from a dearth of
water, and the inhabitants were advised by their priests to
pray to the gods for water, whereupon water sprang up
spontaneously in a meadow about a third of a mile above
the village, in an estate now called Reydon, amply sufficient
to supply the wants of the place, and at present adequate,
even in a dry summer, to work their mills. A lamb, it is
said, has ever since that time been sacrificed as a votive
offering at Whitsuntide in the manner before mentioned.
The said water appears like a large pond, from which in
rainy weather may be seen jets of water springing some
inches above the surface in many parts. The place has
been visited by members of different scientific bodies, and
whether it is really a spring is still a vexed question. The
general opinion appears to be that the real spring is on
Haldon Hill, and that after flowing down to Lindridge it
loses itself in the fissures of the lime-rock which abounds
Pastoral Folk-Lore 311
in the neighbourhood through which it flows ; when it
meets with some impediment, it bursts up through the soft
meadow ground at Reydon, where it has ever had the name
of "Fair Water."
Another Devonshire sacrificial custom, evidently
having its origin in pagan times, is recorded by an old
Holne curate. He says that at Holne, on Dartmoor, the
young men, before daybreak on May Day, assemble and
seize a ram lamb on the moor. This they fasten to a
certain granite pillar, kill it, and roast it whole. At mid-
day they scramble to get slices of it, to secure good luck
for the ensuing year. The day ends with dancing,
wrestling, and so forth.
SACRIFICIAL CUSTOMS AND OTHER SUPER-
STITIONS IN THE ISLE OF MAN
By Sophia Morrison, 1910
Mr. A. W. Moore, in Folk-Lore of the Isle of Man
(1891), gives an account of an oural losht (burnt-offering)
in the parish of Jurby in 1880, remarking that even within
the last five years there have been several sacrifices, but it
is difficult to obtain particulars.
" On May Day eve the people of the Isle of Man
have from time immemorial burned all the gorse bushes in
the island, conceiving that they thereby burned all the
witches and fairies which they believe take refuge there
after sunset. The island presented the scene of a universal
conflagration, and to a stranger, unacquainted with our
customs, it must appear very strange." ^
It is thus clear that the Manx people placed very great
reliance on the influence of fire in protecting them from
the power of evil. This influence was also made use of
— or would seem to have been made use of — by sacrificing
animals as propitiatory offerings to the powers above
mentioned. Such a method would naturally be supposed
to have belonged to past ages only, if there was not
^Mtma's Herald Ne-wipapcr, May 5, 1837.
312 shepherds of Britain
evidence that lambs have been burnt on May Day eve or
May Day son oural (for a sacrifice) within living memory.
Such sacrifices seem to have been distinct in their purpose
from the burnings of animals for discovering witches or
driving away diseases, instances of which have also
occurred in quite recent times in several parts of England.
May 12, Laa-Bouldyn (the Beltaine), as it is called in
Irish, the first of the great Celtic feasts, was held at the
opening of the summer half of the year. Professor Rhys
met with some trace of a tradition of sacrifice on this day,
an old woman having told him of a live sheep having
been burnt in a field in the parish of Andreas son oural
(as a sacrifice) when she was a "lump of a girl."
On May Day (O.S.) it was a custom to burn a sheep
for a sacrifice. Professor Rhys adds in his Manx Folk-Lore
and Superstitions : " Scotch May Day customs point to a
sacrifice having been once usual, and that possibly of
human beings, and not of sheep as in the Isle of Man."
An old farmer in the parish of Patrick, Isle of Man,
gives me the folI?)wing charm which has been used by his
father at sheep-shearing. It was said when he let go his
grip of the sheep :
" Gow magh dy Ihome as trooid thie dy moUagh, lesh
yn eayn bwoirrin as yn coamrey sonney " (" Go out bare
and come home rough, with the she-lamb and the plentiful
covering ").
Manx people sometimes put into their purses the
lucky bone of the sheep. A young woman accidentally
dropped one out of her purse before me yesterday. The
bone is shaped like Thor's hammer '^. I have been
told that if a traveller loses his way at cross-roads, not
knowing which path to take, he throws the sheep's lucky
bone before him, and then follows that path towards
which the hammer-end points.
Pastoral Folk -Lore. 313
CHARMS AND CURE OF DISEASE BY MEANS
OF SHEEP
By The Author
Folk- Lore for 1902 has the following interesting
passages: "About thirty years ago,when King Edward VII.
(then Prince of Wales) was suffering from typhoid fever, it
was asserted that the only cure would be to wrap him in
a sheep's skin immediately after it had been taken from
the animal, while still quite hot, all the wool, of course,
being left on. It was believed by many people at the
time that this remedy was actually used, and was the
means of saving the Prince's life. Only a short time
since, during the illness of the Queen of Holland, I heard
it referred to as a matter beyond doubt." {^Northampton.)
" A child had been for some time afflicted with disease
of the respiratory organs. The mother was recommended
to have it carried through a flock of sheep as they were
let out of the fold in the morning. The time was
considered to be of importance. The attempted cure of
consumption or some other complaints by walking among
a flock of sheep is not new. For pulmonary complaints
the principle was perhaps the same as that of following
a plough, sleeping in a room over a cow-house, breathing
the diluted smoke of a limekiln — that is, the inhaling
of carbonic acid — all practised about the end of the
last century, when the knowledge of the gases was the
favourite branch of chemistry." {Somerset.')
In the same journal (1908) a Devonshire corre-
spondent gives a cure for whooping-cough : " The child
must be taken in early morning to a fold with dew on
it, and a sheep be turned oiF his "form." The child is
then rolled in the place where the sheep has been lying."
(Devon.)
In Northamptonshire and Suffolk a very common
charm resorted to for warding off cramp was the patella
of a sheep or lamb, known as the " cramp bone," worn
314 Shepherds of Britain
as near the skin as possible, and at night laid under the
pillow.
Mr. J. Newman of Chichester tells me that the Sussex
shepherds used to put the fore-foot of a mole into a little
leather bag and wear it round the neck, to keep off cramp ;
also the galls or excrescences sometimes to be found on
beech trees — these are still called "cramp nuts." The
shepherds say that only those from beech trees are of
any use, but they are scarce, and many an hour may be
spent without finding one.
Lady Jane Wilde, in Legends of Ireland {iH']), reports
the following superstition : " When a family has been
carried off by fever, the house may be again inhabited
with safety if a certain number of sheep are driven in
to sleep for three nights."
There may be more sense in this than some think.
Wool absorbs infection in a wonderful way. It is to
be hoped that the sheep are kept in the wilds for some
time after such a venture.
A SHEPHERD BURIAL CUSTOM
By The Author
In Folk-Lore (1900) we read that "when a shepherd
died it used to be the custom to put a lock of wool into
his coffin, the idea being that at the Judgment Day he
could thus prove his vocation, which prevented him from
being a regular attendant in church. The custom has now
become obsolete, but not long ago I heard of a case in
which a lock of wool was placed in the coffin of a
shearer."
Ann Hickman, of Chichester, aged sixty-eight, whose
father was a shepherd at East Ashling, a "^^vf miles dis-
tant, tells me that she can remember, when he died, see-
ing a lock of wool put into his coffin. She was a very
small child at the time. I fail to find others who even
know of the custom. When I asked an old shepherd of
Slindon about it he said : " Never heard of it ; I don't go
Pastoral Folk-Lore 315
to church, can't leave ray flock ; but wish I could, it would
be a treat. I have four lads under me ; I sends them."
WEATHER WISDOM OF THE SHEEP
By The Author
When the sheep begin to go up the mountains the
shepherd says it will be fine weather ; this is always
looked for in the Highlands.
The hill-sheep have an instinctive dread of a coming
storm. ^ When a moorland shepherd meets his sheep, on
a winter's night, coming down from the hill-tops (where
they prefer to sleep) he knows that a storm is brewing.
Bleating lowly, as if uttering a warning to the younger
members of the flock, they seek the shelters on the plains
below. An old Scotch rhyme tells us of three lambs that
seem to have been slow to obey this instinct, unless
perhaps, as they were young, it was not fully developed !
March said to April :
" I see three hoggs ^ on yonder hill,
And if you'll lend me days three,
I'll find a way to gar them dee."
The first day it was wind and weet ;
The second day it was snaw and sleet ;
The third day it was sic a freeze
It froze the birds' nebs ^ to the trees.
When the three days were past and gane,
The silly puir hoggs cam hirpling* hame.
Sir Walter Scott says : " The three last days of March
(old style) are called the borrowing days, for as they are
remarked to be unusually stormy, it is feigned that March
had borrowed them from April to extend the sphere of
his rougher sway."
Hone, in his Every-Day Book (1826), remarks that
" Before storms, kine and also sheep assemble at one
corner of the field, and are observed to turn their heads
towards the quarter from whence the wind does not
blow " ; and the Rev. C. Swainson, in his Handbook of
^ See supra, " Welsh Sheep," p. 71.
2 One-year-old lambs. ' Beaks. • Limping.
3 1 6 Shepherds of Britain
Weather Folk-Lore,^ has : " If sheep gambol and fight, or
retire to shelter, it presages a change in the weather. Old
sheep are said to eat greedily before a storm and sparingly
before a thaw ; when they leave the high grounds and
bleat much in the evening and during the night, severe
weather is expected. In winter, when they feed down
the hill, a snowstorm is looked for ; when they feed up
the burn, wet weather is near." I saw what Mr. Swainson
says, in respect to gambolling and fighting, exemplified at
Chichester last winter (1908-9). There had been a long
spell of frost, and to a non-expert in weather lore no sign
of a change ; all was crisp, blue sky and sunshine. I
went into the Palace Meadows, and came upon a delight-
ful scene — the lambs skipping and gambolling, while
the sheep with lowered heads fought in a comparatively
demure manner. On my return home I told a friend
that she must go and see these most fascinating antics.
She went the next day ; the frost had suddenly gone, and
the sheep and lambs were passive.
Mr. Walter Money, F.S.A., writes : " The old shep-
herds of Salisbury Plain and of the Berkshire hills, like
their forebears, are very weather-wise, and I have heard an
old man, who was a perfect mine of local information and
folk-lore, render the well-known saying,
A rainbow in the morning
Is the shepherd's warning ;
A rainbow at night
Is the shepherd's delight,
thus in the local vernacular :
The rainbow in the marnin
Gives the shepherd warnin
To car er's gurt cwoat on er's back ;
The rainbow at night
Is the shepherd's delight.
For thae then no gurt cwoat vill er lack.
A homely way of expressing the famous lines of Byron :
Be thou the rainbow to the storms of life,
The evening beam that smiles the clouds away
And tints to-morrow with prophetic ray." ^
' By permission of Messrs. William Blackwood & Sons.
^ The Bride of Abydos^ canto ii, stanza 20.
Pastoral Folk-Lore
317
By Habberton Lulham.
FLEECES OF SKY AND LAND
A "lamb's-wool sky." The shepherd looks for rain.
The unthrift sun shot vital gold
A thousand pieces ;
And heaven its azure did unfold,
Chequer'd with snowie fleeces.
Henry Vaughan (1621-1695).
3 1 8 Shepherds of Britain
I will conclude with the delightful story of the scholar
and the shepherd from Hone's Every-Day Book (1827).
The scholar has not been satisfactorily identified. " One
of the Hundred Merry Tales teacheth that, ere travellers
depart their homes, they should know natural signs ;
insomuch that they provide right array, or make sure that
they be safely housed against tempest. Our Shakespeare
read the said book of tales, which is therefore called
' Shakespeare's Jest Book ' ; and certain it is, that though
he were not skilled in learning of the schoolmen, by reason
that he did not know their languages, yet was he well
skilled in English, and a right wise observer of things ;
wherein, if we be like diligent, we, also, may attain unto
his knowledge. Wherefore learn to take heed against rain,
by the tale ensuing of the herdsman that said, ' Ride
apace, ye shall have rain.' A certain scholar of Oxford,
who had studied the judicials of astronomy, upon a time
as he was riding by the way, there came by a herdman,
and he asked this herdman how far it was to the next
town. 'Sir,' quoth the herdman, 'it is rather past a mile
and a half; but, sir,' quoth he, 'ye need ride apace, for
ye shall have a shower of rain ere ye come thither.'
' What,' quoth the scholar, ' maketh ye say so ? there
is no token of rain, for the clouds be both fair and clear.'
' By my troth,' quoth the herdman, ' but ye shall find it
so.' The scholar then rode forth, and it chanced ere he
had ridden half a mile further, there fell a good shower of
rain, that the scholar was well washed and wet to the skin.
The scholar then turned him back and rode to the herd-
man, and desired him to teach him that cunning. ' Nay,'
quoth the herdman, ' I will not teach you my cunning for
nought.' The scholar proffered him eleven shillings to
teach him that cunning. The herdman, after he had
received his money, said thus : ' Sir, see you not yonder
black ewe with the white face ? ' ' Yes,' quoth the
scholar. ' Surely,' quoth the herdman, ' when she danceth
and holdeth up her tail, ye shall have a shower of rain
within half an hour after.' By this ye may see that the
cunning of herdmen and shepherds, as touching alterations
Pastoral Folk-Lore 319
of weathers, is more sure than the judicials of astronomy.
Upon this story it seenieth right to conclude, that to stay
at home, when rain be foreboded by signs natural, is
altogether wise ; for though thy lodging be poor, it were
better to b'e in it, and so keep thy health, than to travel
in the wet through a rich country and get rheums
thereby."
INDEX
i\bingdon, fair at, 237
Agricultural show, at Petworth, 149 ;
of Beds. County Agricultural
Society, 150. See also under
Holkham, and other place-names
Allan, John Hay, The Last Deer of
Beann Dor an, gz .
Annandale, Mr. Nelson, The Faroes
and Iceland (1905), 77-8, 300
Anderson, on " Saints " hand-bells,
265 note
Anderson, Col., and old Manx breed .
of sheep, ,65 \
Anglesey, breed of sheep in, 71
Anglia, breeds of sheep in East, 52-5
Argyllshire, shepherd ofj 80
Arkwright, introduction of machinery
by, 293 note
Aspects of pasture, their marked
effect on sheep, 109
Atkinson, Rev. J. C, Forty Tears in a
Moorland Parish (1892), on the
hamp, 245
Antiquary's Portfolio, on ,ewe-milking,
95 ; on dress of fifteenth-century
labourer, 24.6
Antiquity of the sheep. Prof Rolleston
on, 69
Aubrey, John, on the South Downs,
37-40
on village pastimes, 290-91 -
on wearing of straw hats, 248
"Auld Kep," a Border collie of the
old type (twice wipner of the
International Cup), 154
Author, articles by the, 27, 36-7,
53-5.63-6.72-3.76-8,95-6, '05-7,
109-11, 112-14, 118-20, 127-30,
143-4, 167-9, 173-5.181-5, 193-4,
210-11, 219-21, .235-6, 245-51,
257-60,, 264-72, 297-3D0, 313-19
" Backstays " worn by shepherds of
Romney Marsh, 52
Bagpipes, played by English shepherds,
217, 258, 283, 284
Baynton, Sir Edward, visited by
James I. at Bromham, 291
Bedfordshire, famous for sheep, 292
note
shearing revels, 292-3
Bell music on the South Downs, 10
Bells, old. and new shapes of, 265-7.
See also Sheep-bells, Saints bells,
etc.
Bell - nvether's fleece, a shepherd's
perquisite, 214
Berkshire revels, the old, 291 seq.
sheep and shepherds in, 46
Birmingham, class for sheep-dogs at
(i860), 126 ; sheep-bells still
made at, 271
Blackface breed of sheep, 75, 91-2,
lOI
called " collies," 1 30
Blackmore, Stephen, a famous
shepherd, 20 note
Bogie or buggie, a sheep's skin, 100 ;
buggie- flaying ( = taking off a
sheep's skin whole), 100
Bolg, a sack or bag, 100
" Bone-eater," sheep called the, 1 1 8
." Border Leicesters " (sheep) found in
Ireland, 75
Bottle, the shepherd's, 264 ; specimen
in author's possession, 265
Branding of lambs in Skye, 185-7
Bridget, St., anniversary of, formerly
called Ewe-milking Day, 77
Britons, plaiting preceded weaving
among ancient, 226
" sheep-counting scores " may be
derived from ancient, 194-200
321
322
Shepherds of Britain
Bronze age, sheep in the, 69
Brookside (shearing) Company, 206
Broom-squires, as sheep-shearers, 206
Buck-horn, used by Scottish shepherds,
93
Buggie-flaying. See Bogie
Bulling, in the Shetlands and Orkneys,
97, 100
Buret, a coarse native fabric in ancient
England, 226
Burial custom, shepherd's, 314
Burnt-sacrifice, survival of in modern
England, 309
" Bush, shepherd's," how to form a,
ig-19
Bustards (called nvild turkeys) on
South Downs, 17 ; on Salisbury
Plain, 38
Carnarvonshire, sheep character in, 71
Carving of crooks by shepherds,
258-9
Cast, i.e. overturned, a term used of
sheep, 59 note
Celtic numeral system, J99
Charles II., clipping -time customs
under, 213
Charm used at sheep-shearing (Isle of
Man), 312
Check or chequered patterns used by
ancient Britons, 226
Cheviot breed of sheep in Shetland
and Orkney, loi
Chichester, crooks for shepherds made
at, 258
nine men's morris or merelles at,
weather wisdom of sheep ex -
emplified at, 316
wheatear trade obsolete at, 264
note
Chipping Campden, indebted to wool
trade, 230
Church, shepherds' dogs in, 167 seq.
See also Dog-noper and Dog-
whipper
Circencester, indebted to wool trade,
230
Clifford, Henry, "The Shepherd
Lord," 56-8
Clipper, the clapper of a sheep-bell
(Sussex), 269
Clipping, 68 {note to illustration),
211-12, 213, 218. See also
under Coke
Clipping-time, i.e. sheep-shearing time,
212-19 ; "to come in clipping-
time," 212
Cloth trade, in different parts of
England, 225 - 36. See also
under place - names, Kendal,
Lincoln, Leominster, Norwich,
Worcester, etc.
in Ireland, 227 ; in Flanders, 228.
See also " Wool trade "
Cluck, a large iron sheep-bell (Sussex),
268-9
Clynnog Fawr (Wales), dog-tongs at,
173 note
Coke, Thomas William (Earl of
Leicester, 1837), inaugurates
" Coke's Clippings," 2 14; worked
among his own shepherds, 215
"Collie," disputed meaning of, 129
Communal ownership of sheep, 53
" Corn - pipes," used by Scottish
shepherds, 93
Cornish " hair," duty remitted by
Black Prince on, 234
Cornwall, breed of sheep in, 28-9
burnt-sacrifice survivals in, 309
snails believed to be eaten by sheep
in, 117
Cotswold breed of sheep, 4, 71, 287,
seq.
games, the, 287 seq.
lions, i.e. sheep, 287 note
"Cottons," Kendal, 232-3
Counting - out games, elementar)-
methods of reckoning used by
children, 200
" Cramp-bone " {i.e. patella) of sheep,
used for curing cramp, 313-
1 +
" Cramp-nuts " (excrescences on beech
trees), belief of Sussex shepherds
as to, 314 ■
Crook, shepherd's, 9, 16 ; form in
various counties of, 2 5 5-8, etc.
handles, carved by shepherds, 258
made out of an old gun barrel, 255,
257
Pyecombe, 9, 257, 258
Crues (Shetland), 189
Cumberland sheep-farming, 60
Dancing by shepherds, 94, 106, 286-7
Dartmoor, May Day custom of roast-
ing ram on, 31 1
Deer, driven out by sheep, 92
Index
323
Derbyshire, sheep of, 55
Devonshire, sheep and shepherds, 28 ;
sheep-cure for whooping-cough
practised in, 313. See also Dart-
moor, etc.
Dial, ancient rustic pocket, 274-6.
See also Sundial
"Dishley," or "New Leicester" sheep,
56 note
Dog-noper, formerly a church official,
174
Dogs, used for hunting down sheep,
98 ; behaviour of in church, i6g
Darwin on powers of South Ameri-
can sheep-dog, 138
French sheep-dogs to have iron
nail-studded collars for fighting
wolves, 105
of white colour thought best for
sheep, 105
classified as sheep-dogs and collies,
127 ; (a) English, and Sussex
sheep-dogs, 22, 27, 128, 129, 143,
144, 147, 165 ; how trained,
147 ; (i) collie-dogs or collies,
13. iS, 79. 127, 130-31, 132-4,
136 seq., 140, 142 ; how trained,
148-9 ; trials of, 149-67 ; be-
haviour in church of, 167 ; James
Gardner's sayings on, 88-9
Dog-tongs, or " lazy tongs," used for
expelling dogs from church, 170-
173
Dog-whipping, church official ap-
pointed for, 173-5
Dorchester, nine men's morris, or
merrels, still played by boys at,
297
Dorsetshire sheep and shepherds, 27 ;
shepherds' crooks in, 258. See
also under Dorchester
Drayton, Michael, on dress worn by
shepherds (sixteenth century),
247
on leading of sheep by shepherds,
106
on "Lemster ore," 236
on playing of a shepherd to his
sheep, 283
on shepherds' games, 300
Dress, black, in ancient Ireland, 67,
238 ; in ancient Scotland, 235,
238 ; in ancient England, 226,
245 ; at various periods in
England, 245-52 ; "or shepherds.
238-9, 241, 245, 248. See also
under Hat, Hood, Pouch, etc.
Dress —
smock-frock, how worn, 248-50 ;
colours in various parts, 251
of Sussex (blue, drab, and grey),
i6
of Wilts (blue), 40
of Herts (olive green), 251
of Northamptonshire, 108
ot Shropshire, 249
Drought, terrible effect on sheep of,
1 14-16
Dudeney, John, a learned shepherd,
19-20, 21 note; engaged in
wheatear trade, 263
Durham, butchers' mark on sheep-
carcases at, 309
Dustpoint, game of, 300
Eagles and shepherds, 17, 83
Ear-marking in England (seventeenth
century), 182
Earth-stopping by shepherds, 264
East aspect of pasture, effect on sheep,
109
Edward HI., encourages wool-trade,
4-5
Edward VII. (when Prince of Wales),
sheepskin cure believed to have
been used in illness of (North-
ampton), 313
Ellis, Alexander, on the "sheep-
counting score," 194, 200
English or Sussex sheep-dog, his
points described, 127 ; intro-
duced into Isle of Man, 143
Ennerdale, Herdwick sheep of, 60
Environment, affects shepherds, 6
Epitaph on Highland shepherd, 80
Eskdale, ear-marks at, 183
numerals of, 199
Ewe-milking, 77, 95-6. See also
Milk, etc.
Eive-miliing, ancient Irish name for
the ist of February, 95
Ewes, fate of overturned, 1 7
weep for their lambs, 1 n
Exmoor breed of sheep, 28
" shqep-running " on, 290
Extremes (of climate or food) fatal to
sheep, 109
Fairs of sheep and cattle. See unaer
place-names
Y 2
;24
Shepherds of Britain
Faroe Isles, sheep of, 66 ; rueing
practised in, 66 and 220
Findon, fair at, 126
Flemish weavers introduced into
England, 241
Flock, as part of the landlord's
property, 61
Flotivhey. See under Milk (Scottish
methods of preparing)
Flounders, a disease fatal to sheep,
."3
Fortingal, West Perthshire, " sanctus"
hand-bell of, 272
Foster-mothers for lambs, 112
Foxes and sheep, 17, 72, 81, 83
Fox-hunting welcomed by shepherds,
France, account of shepherding in,
105-6 ; sheep led by shepherd in,
105-6 ; game of merelles in,
298-9
Fustean scones, eaten by Scottish shep-
herds, 94
Games, the Cotswold, 287 seq.
Garb, shepherds'. See Dress, shep-
herds'-
Gardner, James, of North Cobbin-
shaw, Midlothian, shepherd and
collie-dog trainer (born 1840),
84-g, 137
Garlanding of sheep and rams, 217
Gatesgarth Fells, no longer " stinted
pasture," 61
Glasgow, Irish flock-masters ship wool
to, 76
Grainger, or Granger, explained, 213
note
Grasmere, ear-marking at, 182
Greek double-reed pipes, 283
Grey cloths of Kent, 234
Gyffylliog (Wales), " lazy - tongs "
used for expelling dogs at, 170,
173
" Hair," Cornish, 234
Halifax, wool trade established at,
under Henry VII., 5
Hamp, a kind of smock-frock, 245-6
Hampshire, sheep and shepherds of, 26
Down sheep in Ireland, 76
white smock worn in, 251
Hand-bells, " saints " or " sanctus.''
See " Sanctus "
Hare, a little brown Manx sheep.
apparently mistaken for a "hare"
by the " Phynodderee " (Isle of
Man belief), 308
Haslock. See Haiuselocks
Hat, tall silver-laced, worn by captain
of shearers, 292
Haivselocks, i.e. neck-locks, the wool
about a sheep's throat, 212
Helvellyn, range, habits of sheep on,
61
Henry VII., wool trade under, 5
Herding of sheep, almost unknown in
Shetland. See under Shetland
Herdwick breed of sheep, 60-62 ;
wool of Herd wicks bred in Wales
turns white, 61
Heredity, its effect on shepherds, 8-10
Herrick, on " Lemster ore " (cloth),
236
Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire sheep in.
See Bedfordshire
Hibbert, Dr. S., on public sheep-
marking in Shetland, 188 ; on
wool of Shetland sheep, 221
Highlands, weather omens from sheep
in, 315
I sheep and shepherds of. See under
Scotland
" Hirsel," a flock or company of sheep,
135
Hogg, a one-year-old lamb, 3 1 5
Hogg, James (the "Ettrick Shep-
herd" or "Mountain Bard"),
28, 140-42, 176-8
Holkham shearing feast, 214, 217
Holne, sacrifice of ram lamb on May
Day at, 311
Home, attachment of sheep to their, 72
Hone, William, Every-Day Book, on
May horns, 285
( 1 8 2 6), on weather wisdom of sheep,
315
(1827), on weather wisdom of shep-
herds, 318-19
(1827), on St. Blaise and the
woolcombers, 293 note
The Table Book (1827), 92-3, 218
Tear-Book, 292-3 ; on labourers'
dress, 248
"Honeycomb" pattern, on smocks,
250
Hoods, worn by Scottish shepherds, 93
Hoolican, the reel of, 286-7
Horn, the long, 285
Hornpipe, the, a single-reed pipe, 284
Index
325
Houl'en, i.e. " holders," applied to
dogs that " held " sheep for their
masters, 144
Hunt, Romances and Drolls of West of
England, on survivals of burnt-
sacrifice in Cornwall, 309
Hunting of sheep with dogs, 9S
Huts of shepherds on South Downs,
17
Iceland, breeds of sheep in, 66-8, 78
r««'«^ practised in, 66, 220
///, the leaping, a disease of sheep, 1 1 3
Ilsley, East, importance of sheep fair
at, 4.6-g
Instinct in sheep, 70, 71, 83, ibo
Inverness-shire, shepherd-bard of, 80
Ireland, cloth manufactures in, 76,
241 ; Irish cloth used in Eng-
land, 227
dress in ancient, 67, 238
men of, called " Westmen " in old
Norse history, 77
" ploughing by the tail," practised
in, 220
rueing practised in, 220
sheep - farming in, described, 75;
various breeds of sheep in, 75 ;
ancient form of sheep-house in,
76 ; importance of sheep-farming
in ancient, 76-8 ; sheep -bells in
ancient, 265 ; connexion between
ancient Irish and Faroes breed,
67) 77-8 ; shepherds of, 73-4,
sheep-dogs of, 73, 142
Isle of Man, breeds of sheep in, 62-6 ;
sheep - marking in, 184-5;
sheep-bells not used in, 78. See
also Loaghtan
burnt-sacrifice in, 311
superstitions in, 308
Jack-straws, game of, 301
Jakobsen, Dr., Shetland Norn Dic-
tionary by, 190
on Shetland ear-marks, 190
Jaloff method of reckoning numerals
compared with Welsh method,
198
Jumpers {siieeTp), how dealt with, 120
June, the sheep-shearing month, 206
June, Rosebuds in, a well-known shear-
ing song, 207-8, 210
Jurby (Isle of Man), burnt-offering at,
311
Keeir sheep, 64
Keep, out to, 53
Kendal cloth, sold at Stourbridge fair,
237
"cottons" (so-called), 232-3
"Green" (cloth), 233, 235
Kent, grey cloths of, 234
sheep and shepherds in, 49-52
Keswick, " clipping " customs at, 2 1 8-
"King" of shepherds, 288
and queen of shearers, 217
King's Teignton (Devon), survival of
burnt-sacrifice at, 310
Kingussie, shepherd's plaid made at,
238 note
Shetland sheep at, 131
Kirk, shepherds' dogs in, 167 seq.
Kirn milk. See Milk (Scottish methods
of preparing)
Kiss in the ring, 286
Kitts, sour. See Milk (Scottish methods
of preparing)
Lady of the lamb (Oxfordshire), 290
Lake Country shearing customs, 219
sheep-farming in, 60. See also Ear-
marking, etc.
Lamb, burnt alive in Cornwall, 309
sacrificed in Devon at Whitsuntide,
310
Lambs, branded in Skye, 185-7
chased by girls in Oxfordshire, 290
Land's End, sheep-feeding near, 29
" Laughton " breed of sheep. See
" Loaghtan " {also " Lughdoan ")
Lavant, Shepherd Stacey of, 113
Lead -mines, said to affect sheep-
pasture, 114
Leafing ill, the, a disease of sheep, 113
Led by the shepherd, sheep, 105-6
Leeds, wool trade established in Henry
VII. 's reign at, 5
Leicester breed of sheep, 55, 56 note,
65 71, 109 ; in Shetland and
Orkney, loi
Leominster (or "Lemster") cloth,
commonly called " Lemster ore,"
236
Lilting, or milking tunes in ancient
Ireland, 77
"Lincoln Green" (cloth), 236
Lincolnshire "longwools," 55; in
Ireland, 75
drovers, 107
326
Shepherds of Britain
Lincolnshire, sheep - counting score
in, 194
Li'ver-fluke, a disease fatal to sheep,
"3
" Loaghtan," or " laughton " breed of
sheep, 62, 63 ; colour and points
of, 63-6
Loaghtan Beg, poem of the, 308
Lock of wool placed in shepherd's
coffin, 314
Lockyer, part of a sheep-bell's fasten-
ings (Sussex), 269
London, white smock worn in counties
round, 251
Looker, i.e. watcher or shepherd
(Romney Marsh), 51
" Lucky bone " of the sheep, super-
stitions regarding, 3 1 2
Lug of bonnet, spoon carried by
Scottish shepherds in, 94
Lughdoan, correct spelling of " laugh-
ton," 64
Manx breed of sheep. See Isle of Man
sheep-dog a " holding," not a driv-
ing, dog, 143. See also under
Dog
Mark, private, of farmer stamped on
sheep with pitch, 219. See also
under Ear-marking, Branding,
etc.
Marsh - pennywort (Isle of Man)
poisonous to sheep, 113
Matterdale range, habits of sheep on,
6i
May Day or May Day eve, lambs or
sheep burnt in Isle of Man on,
312 ; ram sacrificed at Holne on,
311; probuble ancient sacrifices
of human beings in Scotland on,
312
Mayo husbandry, former cruelties of,
220
Meeting, agricultural, at Holkham,
214-15 ; on Woburn estate, 215
Meeting-time of shepherds, 59
Meg, a hand-reared lamb (Isle of
Man), 308
Merelles. See Morris, nine men's
Merino breed of Spanish sheep, 7 1
Merle, a variety of the collie-dog, 127
Midlands, ancient breed of sheep in,
69
blue smock worn in, 251
modern breeds of sheep in the, 55
Migratory habits of sheep in Carnar-
vonshire, 71
Milk, Scottish methods of preparing,
94. See also Ewe-milk
Milking tunes in ancient Ireland, 77
Morrils. See Morris, nine men's
Morris, fivepenny, 299
nine men's, or merrels, 297-300
Mothering required of shepherds, 147
Mount up, Sussex sheep-dog trained
to, 129
Native sheep. See under place-names,
e.g. Shetland, Orkney, Isle of
Man, St. Kilda, Hebrides, Faroes,
Ireland, etc.
Neolithic times, question as to presence
of sheep in England in, 69
Nick, uses of the word, nicks of
tally-sticks, 193
Ninepins, game of, 300
Nope =10 knock on the head, e.g. dogs
(North). See Noper
Noper, 174-5
Norfolk breed of sheep, 53-5
North aspect of pasture, effect on
sheep, 109
Northamptonshire, beliefs as to sheep-
skin cures in, 313
" Cramp-bone " of sheep used for
cures in, 313
a drover of, 108
smock-frock worn in, 108
Northumberland, breed of sheep in, 97
Norwich : a centre of cloth industry,
227
Notches, of tally-sticks, 193
used for "scoring" at cricket,
193
Nottinghamshire, breed of sheep in, 55
Old settlers, when sheep are called, 70
" Ore." See Leominster or " Lemster"
Ore-weed, or oar-weed (properly luoar
-weed), sheep fed on, 29
Orkney, breeds of sheep in, loi. See
also under Shetland
sheep-mark in parish register of,
189
Orphan lambs, foster-mothers found
for, 1 1 2
Oural, a sacrifice (Isle of Man), 311,
312
Out to keep, meaning of, 53
Index
327
Ovis Cauda bre'vi, or short-tailed sheep,
97
Oxfordshii'e, " lady of the lamb " in,
290
Paab, a small yard built of uncemented
stones, 64
Pack system of wages, 74
Panpipes used by shepherds in early
times, 285
Pasture, effect on sheep of, importance
of aspect of, 109-10
effect of lead-mines on, 114
poisonous, 1 1 2-1 3
profitableness of, in sixteenth cen-
tuiy, 4
stinted, or common land, 61
Patella of sheep used for curing cramp,
313-14
Pennygrass or pennywort, poisonous
to sheep, 113
Pentads, Welsh method of reckoning
by, 198
Petworth agricultural show, 149
Phjnodderee, the (Isle of Man), 308
Pibgorn (Wales). See Hornpipe
Pindar, or pinder, the keeper of a pin-
fold, or pound for cattle, ,97 note
Pipes, shepherd's, 93, 282-5
"Piping lad," a, 282
"Plaid, shepherd's," 238
Plaiting, in prehistoric times preceded
weaving, 226
Playing of shepherd incites sheep to
feed, 106
Ploughing by the tail in Mayo, 220 ;
near Cavan, ibid, note
Pocket-dial, an ancient rustic. See
Dial
Poisonous sheep-pasture, 112
to sheep, plants, 113
Portreath, calf sacrificed by farmer
at, 309
Portland breed of sheep, 27
Portslade Shearing Company, 206
Potton, Bedfordshire, ancient shearing-
revels at, 292
Pouch, shepherd's, 79
Presentiment in sheep, 70-71
Punding, in the Shetlands, 64, 97, 9?,
189
Pyecombe crook. See Crook
Quirk, preserver of old Manx breed of
sheep, 65
Rabbits, killed and eaten by sheep,
118
Rachael, weeping of the Fleecy, 1 1 1
Ram, the black, meaning of, 209
lamb sacrificed upon Dartmoor at
May Day, 3 1 1
'white, a shearer's feast, 208
Rams, garlanding of, 217
" Rasp," a collie-dog belonging to
Mr. James Gardner, 87, 137
Raths, or circular stockades of the
ancient Irish farmer, 77
Ravens and sheep in Carnarvonshire,
72
Recognition by sheep after shearing,
difficulty of mutual, 112
Reeders, accessories of a sheep-bell,
269
Revels, shepherds', 285-96
Reydon, sacrifice of lamb at Whitsun-
tide at, 3 10- 1 1
Reyme, See Milk (Scottish methods
of preparing)
Rignvelted, meaning of, 59
Roman double-reed pipes, 283
graves in England, shears found
in, 219
Romans, originally a raceof shepherds,
38
Romney Marsh, sheep and shepherds,
or "lookers," of, 51-2
Rosebuds in June, a famous Sussex song,
207-8, 210
" Rows " at Stourbridge fair, 237 note
Rue, to pull the loose wool off sheep,
219-21
Rueing : in the Faroe Isles, 66,
220 ; in Iceland, 66, 220 ; in
Mayo, 220 ; in Orkney and Shet-
land, 66, 98, 99, 189, 220-21
Russia, sheep of modern, compared
with native Shetland sheep, 97,
98
Ryeland breed of sheep, 7 1
Sacrificial customs in England, survival
of, 309
St. Blaise celebrated in Yorkshire,
294
St. Columb, sheep of, 28
St. John's, ear-marks at, 183
St. John's Vale, " clipping " customs
at, 218
St. Kevern, sheep of, 28
St. Kilda, breed of sheep in, 66, 68
328
Shepherds of Britain
Saints bells and sheep-bells compared,
265-72
Salisbury Plain, sheep and shepherds
of, 34 i^?., 316
Saltersbrook (Yorks), shepherds' meet-
ing at, 59
" Sanctus " hand-bells, 265, 272
Saunders, David, shepherd of West
Lavington, 37
Sayings on dogs (by James Gardner),
88-9
Scandinavia, sheep of modern, 97,
98
" Scat," or land-tax, once paid to
Denmark in cloth by Shetlanders
Scatholdi, wild sheep of the, 97
Scent of sheep as a means of mutual
recognition, 112
Scholar, of Oxford and weather-wise
shepherd, the, 318-19
Scilly Isles, sheep of, 29
" Score " used in counting sheep, 24,
192-200
Scotland, sheep, shepherds, and dogs
of> 73> 79-101 ; in Hebride?, 66,
68, 78. See also under Shetland
and Orkney
sheep-bells not used in, 78
Sea-weed, sheep feed on, 97, 99
Shap, HerdwicK sheep of, 60
Shearers' king and queen, election of,
217
Shearing customs in Sussex, 206, 207-
II, 292 note •, revels in Bedford-
shire : see Potton
mutual recognition by sheep after,
112
Shears found in Roman graves in
England, 219
Sheep, ancient English breeds of, 67 ;
Tblack breed of the Faroes and
Iceland, Ireland, Shetland, and
Hebrides, 78 ; four-horned, 78 ;
remains of, hardly distinguishable
from those of the goat, 69 ; short-
tailed breed of Northern Europe,
66, 97, 98 ; three-horned, 78
as a moderate drinker, 1 1 9
courage in, 28
deer driven out by, 92-3
exported from England to Spain,
3-4
formed part dowry of Catherine
Plantagenet on marriage to
Henry III. of Spain, 3
Sheep, garlanding of, reason for the
custom, 217
great numbers of, in charge of
drovers, 107
hunted down with dogs trained for
the purpose, 98
kill and eat rabbits, 118
led by the shepherd. See Leading
of sheep
immense numbers in England of,
■ from the thirteenth century
onwards, 3-4
profitableness of, in the sixteenth
century, 4
quality of, affected by soil, 109-10
terrified by a dog's bark, 146
weather wisdom of, 315-19
Sheep -bells and "saints bells" com-
pared, 265-72 ; in Ireland, 78 ;
absent from the Isle of Man,
78 ; not used in Scotland, 78
-carcases, marks made by butchers
on, 309
-counting " score," 194-200
-fairs. See Fairs
-farming, encouraged by Edward
III., 4-5 ; stimulated by wool
. trade, 3
-house, ancient Irish, 76
-killing, a name given to penny-
wort, 113
-lore (superstitions about sheep),
305-19
-marking, 181-90
-pasture, ploughed up for crops,
43
-pool, 147. See also Sheep-washing
-running on Exmoor, 290
-shearing, 204-21 ; charms used at,
312
-skin cloak worn by shepherds in
ancient Britain, 245
-skins, tanned and made into water-
proof cloths in Shetland, 241
-stealing, 176-8
tun, 52
-washing, 147, 203-6 ; decline of,
211-12
-'wash, a festival in the North,
213
Sheffield, small demand for crooks at,
257
Shepherd —
Aylward, Charles, 26
Blackmore, Stephen, 20
Index
329
Shepherd-
Clifford, Henry (the "Shepherd
Lord"), 56-8
Dalgleish, Wattie, 131
Dudeney, John, 19-21, 263
Gardner, James, 84-9, 137
Garlow, David (tale of the trial
course), 160-67
Hogg, James ("Ettrick Shepherd"),
176-8
Mackenzie, Alastair, 80
Piper, George, 26
Saunders, David, 37
Smith, 118
Stacey, 113
Shepherd-boy to land-holder, 24
Shepherd burial custom, 314
communal or town shepherd at
Lydd, 53
king, election of, 217, 288
lore, 305
" Shepherd Lord." See Clifford,
Henry
Shepherdesses, 20, 21, 106, 107
Shepherds, English. See under
Shepherd ; Irish, 73-4 ; Scot-
tish, 79-80; Welsh, 70
born to the craft, 8-9
contentment oi, 11-12
earth-stopping by. See Earth-stop-
ping by shepherds
effect of environment on, 6
effect of heredity on, 8-10
Shepherd's bottle. See Bottle
bush, description of a, 18
plaid, 238-9
Shepherds' customs, traced by Aubrey
in many cases to Roman origins,
39
feasts, revels, sports, and games,
281-302
huts, 17
meeting-time, 59-60
wages, II -13, 39, 59; peculiar
form of on Gatesgarth Fells, 6 1 ;
" pack " system of, 74
Sheppey, meaning of the name, 50
Shysters, women employed as sheep-
shearers in Scotland and anciently
in England, 212, 260
Shetland, breeds of sheep in, 64, 66,
78, 131
long reddish hairs on a rare sheep
in, 221
wild sheep of, 97, 98
Shetland, herding and housing o
sheep almost unknown in, 97
98 ; builing and funding in, ibid.
rueing in, 66, 220
shawl-wool, 66
" tweeds," 240
wool, extraordinary fineness of, 239
wool, Hibbert on, 221
Short-tailed sheep, 97, 98
SJiots, lambs of inferior qualities, 186
Shropshire breed of sheep, 65
breed of sheep in Ireland, 7 5
smock worn in, 249
Sieves made from perforated sheep-
skins, stretched on hoops, 100
Singing of shepherd incites sheep to
feed, 106
" Sirrah," one of Hogg's famous sheep-
dogs, 140-41
Skeat, Professor, letter on the " sheep-
counting scores," 195
Skiddaw, Herd wick sheep of, 60
Skin of sheep, used as cloak by fisher-
men, 100
Skye, lamb-branding in, 185-7
shepherds of, and the "reel of
Hoolican" 286-7
Sligo County, poisonous pasture, 113
Slings employed by shepherds, 259-61
Sli'ver, a lock of combed wool (Yorks),
294
Smell the wind, sheep able to, 7 1
Smock, or smock-frock, wearing of
the, 16, 40, 108, 248-51. See
also under Dress, shepherds'
various colours of, 251
Snails, eaten by sheep, 29, 116-18
Snowdonian range, sheep of, 72
Soil, quality of, affects sheep, 109
Somerset, an idle shepherd of, 29-34
illness believed to be cured by
walking among sheep in, 313
Songs sung by wives of Scottish
shepherds, 94
South aspect of pasture produces fine-
woolled sheep, 109
Southampton, wool-ships in the six-
teenth century sail from port of, 4
Southdown, sheep and shepherds, 3-
26, 55. 242
sheep-fair, 14-17
sheep-walks, 13
South Downs, shepherds' huts on,
17
sundial made by shepherds on, 272
330
Shepherds of Britain
Southey, Robert, Commonplace Book,
quoted on ear-marking, 182-4
Shepherds' Guide quoted by, 182
Merino breed of sheep, 71
"Spear-half" and "spindle-half," 235
Spillikins, game of, 302
Spindle, emblematic of the female
sex, 235
Spoon carried by Scottish shepherds
in lug of bonnet, 94
" Squeakers," 283
Staggers, the, produced by poisonous
pasture, 113
Stinted pasture, 61
Slockhorn (Scotland). See Hornpipe
Stone implements, collected by Stephen
Blackmore, 20 note
Storms fatal to shepherds, 8 3
Stourbridge, the great fair of, 237-8
Strayed cattle, announcements as to,
formerly made in church, 182
sheep, returned to owners at
shepherds' meeting-time, 59
Suffolk breed of sheep, 53-5
" cramp-bone " of sheep used for
cure of cramp in, 313
dog, contests International cup at
Perth, 160, 163, 165
Sundial, 272-7 ; simple form of, used
by South Down shepherds, 272
Superstitions about sheep, 305-19
Surrey, " sheep-counting score " in,
194.
Sussex, Pyecombe crook of, 257
shearing customs in, 292 note
sheep and shepherds of. See under
South Downs
sheep-bells from, 268-70
"sheep-counting score" in, 194
sheep - dog beats a Scottish rival,
129 ; points of, 127
sheep-washing in, 205
Tail, ploughing by the, 220
Tally, signification of, 191 note
Worcestershire, for lambs, 191
-stick registers, 191
Tar-marks on sheep, 1S5
Tenterden, weaving practised at, 234
Thacker, Old Bill, of Gedney, 107
Thor's hammer, sheep's " lucky-bone"
shaped like, 3 1 2
Threlkeld, ear-marks at, 183
Throckmorton, Robert, wins the fam-
ous coat-making wager, 241, 242
Toll-bars, formerly a great obstacle
to droving, 107
Tongs, lazy. See Dog-tongs
" Top-castle," Irish game of, 297
Tonven, a sand hillock (Cornwall), 29
Training sheep-dog pups, method of,
147 .
Trematode, the liver-fluke (a parasitic
worm), 117
Trials, sheep-dog, at Tring, 149 ;
at Caithness, 149 ; at Petworth,
149 ; in Bedfordshire, 151 ; in
Wales, 151 ; on the Highland
Border, 152 ; at Perth, 154, 155
seq., 160-67
"Turk," one of James Gardner's
dogs, 87
Turkeys, sheep-dog pup trained with,
148
wild, i.e. bustards, on South Downs,
17
Umbrellas, immense, once used by
shepherds, 40
" Unwearable " Irish tweeds, i.e. cloth
that cannot be worn out, 76
Veg (Manx) = vagrant or vagabond,
309
Wages, shepherd's, in Yorkshire, 59
"pack" system of, 74
Wakefield, wool trade established in
Henry VII. 's reign at, 5
Wales, care of sheep in ancient, 69
habits of sheep in, 69
Walton, near Wetherby, clipping-
time at, 213
Warwickshire, sheep in, 55
shepherds' crooks in, 258
Wash-pool, for sheep, 203-6 ; rights
as to, 204
Water, strong repugnance of sheep
against entering, 204
Weather wisdom of sheep, 315-19
Weddings, objection to dogs at, 172
Weights for holding corn made from
sheep-skin, 100
Welsh shepherds, and pasturage, 70,
109
West aspect of pasture produces fine-
woolled sheep, 109
West Dean, shepherds' crooks made
at, 258
Weyhill, great fair at, 146
Index
331
"Whaff," 163, 169
"Wharry," one of Mr. James
Gardner's collie-dogs, 138
Wheatears, formerly caught in im-
mense numbers on South Downs,
20
shepherds' traps for, 261-4. ; trade
in, 261-4
ff^Mg, i.e. whey or buttermilk, 264-5
Whipping of dogs out of church.
See Dog-whipping
White colour recommended for sheep-
dogs in Fi-ance, 105
Whitsuntide, lamb sacrificed in Devon
on, 310
Wild, Mrs., on shepherd's water-
proof calico cloaks, 251
Wiltshire breed of sheep, 34-4.5
sheep fairs, 43
Wiltshire, white smock worn in,
Winchester, ancient fair at, 237
Winter's Tale, sheep - shearing feast
described in, 213
Wishart, Edward, sheep - marking
warrant granted to, 189
Woburn shearing-feast, 215, 217
Wolves, precautions against, recom-
mended to shepherds in France,
105-6
Wonersh (Surrey), blue cloth made
at, 236
Wool, abundance of, in England in
fifteenth century, 228
lock of, placed in shepherd's coffin,
314
Woolcombers, 293, 294
Wool-packs, at Stourbridge fair, 238
" Wool -scraps," a perquisite for
gatherers, 204
Wool trade, in England in four-
teenth to eighteenth centuries,
229-36
sheep-farming stimulated by, 3-4
staple manufacture of England, 4
under Henry VII. and Elizabeth, 5
with France, 229 ; with Nether-
lands, 4
Worcester cloth, excellence of, 227
lamb tally, 1 9 1
" Worm "in sheep's foot, supposed, 100
Worsted, in Norfolk, centre of a new
method of making woollen cloth
227 ; famous for its manufactures,
227
Wreck, Spanish, sheep supposed to be
introduced through, 62
Tote, neck - piece of a sheep - bell
(Sussex), 269
Talk of the fleece, used in washin
sheep, 212
Yorkshire, sheep and shepherds of,
56-60
THE END
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