This photo, which I found on the wonderful Geograph website, is available under the 'fair use agreement'. Details of location, photographer etc, can be found at:
This Romney Marsh ewe is , as the others, a print form a Shiels portrait. She's here because she's a cutie; I know very little about this breed except that is ancient , very influential, and that it hasn't much changed since Jane Austen's time.
Not, unfortunately, Mr Bennet of Longbourn, but Mr Bennett. M.P., of Pyt House, Wiltshire. Print from another life-size portrait by Shiels. Merino wool from Spain, in production since the middle ages, was in great demand throughout Europe. Export of the sheep was banned by the controlling guild, but once the Industrial Revolution got under way, the demand for the finest wool increased rapidly. Merinos reached Germany in 1765 , France in 1768, Britain in 1785-ish, , South Africa in 1789, and from there to Australia and New Zealand. The first to bring them to England was Sir Joseph Banks; then some were acquired by King George III. By 1811, Coke had started a Merino Society, but had to admit that the lambs produced from crossing his Southdown ewes were not thriving. Crosses with English longwools didn't produce either a wool animal or a meat one, either. However, many modern English breeds have some Merino ancestry, even though the pure breed is not common. Merinos and Corriedales (a Merino/Longwool cross) are of commercial importance still in the Southern Hemisphere.
Time was when the long-wool sheep of Lincolnshire was the main source of English woollens, the fleece being 'wondrously heavy, and sends down long unctuous wool in pendulous masses almost to the ground'. However, with the import of cheap merino wool in the 1770's, and remoteness from major markets in the 80's and 90's, the old-style Lincoln began to disappear. Arthur Young, thought the breed had been 'entirely spoiled by breeding for quantity of wool only'. Soon after, however, Lincolns were cross-bred for meat production, and began to look radically different. This 1842 print by Shiels is of 'The Old Lincoln breed ram, bred by Mr Jex. St. Jermains, near Lynne, county of Norfolk' is about as close as we can get to imagining the unimproved breed.
This is Robert Bakewell's contribution to sheep breeding-a solid, fast-fattening, fast-maturing , short-legged, docile carcass that the poor could afford and enjoy. Not everyone approved of the fattiness of them, though those that complained were usually rival breeders. Print from an original life-sized painting by Shiels ,published in Low's book of 1842.
That's the great man on the left. Holkham Hall, his great stately home and exhibition centre is in the background there. He started with the Norfolk Horn sheep- black faced, shaggy and skinny, with horns, and mixed them with just about anything and everything in the way of breeds. He also worked to popularise the Southdown, and turn it into a "gentleman's sheep". These are definitely not the white teddy-bearish Southdowns of today, anyway. Apparently one of the problems with the Norfolk Horn was that it didn't like being fenced in!
Written at the bottom of this drawing is the following:"This mill was drawn on the 28th of March 1797 fromIf you click on the picture you'll get a bigger version, and you'll be able to see the white-smocked farmers directing their teams with long sticks. Some sticks have rings at the ends - for what reason I do not know.
Regency Square to ye Dyke Road Brighton a distance of over two
miles by 86 oxen which belonged to the following gentlemen.." (the rest is
unreadable)
"... she had spent two very happy months with them, and now loved to
talk of the pleasures of her visit, and describe the many comforts and wonders
of the place. Emma encouraged her talkativeness -- amused by such a picture of
another set of beings, and enjoying the youthful simplicity which could speak
with so much exultation of Mrs. Martin's having "two parlours, two very good
parlours indeed; one of them quite as large as Mrs. Goddard's drawing-room; and
of her having an upper maid who had lived five-and-twenty years with her; and of their having eight cows, two of them Alderneys, and one a little Welch cow, a
very pretty little Welch cow, indeed; and of Mrs. Martin's saying, as she was so
fond of it, it should be called her cow; "
"In this county, where the rearing of cattle is in most cases the
farmer's principal object, and the dairy is almost entirely neglected, the
calves are not weaned until they arrive at double the age at which they are
generally weaned in other counties. This partly accounts for the bull-like
appearance of the oxen about the head and dewlap; but it is a received opinion
that they are hardier in consequence, and may be kept on coarser pasture. The
characteristics of the choice Anglesey oxen, commonly called Runts from their
small size and peculiar appearance, are (says the Rev. W. Davies, in his View of
the Agriculture of North Wales) the same in most points with those of the Roman
oxen described by Columella. Their colour is coal-black, with white appendages;
they have remarkably broad ribs, high and wide hips, deep chest, large dewlap,
flat face, and long horns turning upwards: their average weight, when fat, at
three or four years old, is from eight to eleven score lb. per quarter. These
deep-chested and short-legged oxen are much esteemed by the graziers for their
aptness to fatten; but they are not quite so well adapted for
draught."
"Mrs. Jennings's prophecies, though rather jumbled together, were
chiefly fulfilled; for she was able to visit Edward and his wife in their
Parsonage by Michaelmas, and she found in Elinor and her husband, as she really
believed, one of the happiest [couples] in the world. They had in fact nothing
to wish for, but the marriage of Colonel Brandon and Marianne, and rather better
pasturage for their cows. "
Here's the famous farmer as he is not often portrayed- mounted on one of the horses he bred. Painting by Boultbee, some time before 1795.
The White Cattle of Chillingham in Northumberland have been enclosed (or, if you like, emparked) since medieval times, and allowed to be wild. Some were hunted for meat and sport (or just euthenised after injury) as you can see from this engraving by Thomas Bewick. Nowadays they are studied for their gene pool and because they are, literally "wild", apart from the occasional hay feed in winter. Records show that some culling and selection went on (under the supervision of Charles Darwin, no less ) but no culling, castrating or other interference has been done since about the end of World War I .
This engraving, from a painting by Shiels, dates from about 1840. The White , or "Forest" cattle of South Wales, were another unimproved breed, almost invariably of the colouring shown on this cow. White cattle had, and have, an almost mythical status as direct descendents of the wild Aurochs, connected to the Roman cult of Mithras, and generally of ancient and mysterious stock. These are not the same as the White Park Cattle of Chillingham and elsewhere, though they could be related.
An abrupt break of slope- shows how, even in the winter, the chalk is a really "dry" land- very porous rock, very thin soil above it. "Dry Valleys" are thought to have formed
Spencer took this photo on Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire. In the middleground is a field with what looks like the remains of an ancient Ridge&Furrow field pattern. The foreground field lines are modern, I am sure. Click on the photo for a bigger pic. That Windmill looks abit odd, stuck there in the middle of the field...
