On the coins or money of the Britains are seen impressed the figures of the horse, the bull and the hog, the marks of the tributes exacted from them by the conquerors*. The Reverend Mr. Pegge was fo kind as to inform me that he has feen on the coins of Cunobelin that of a fheep. Since that is the cafe, it is probable that our ancestors were poffeffed of the animal, but made no farther use of it than to strip off the skin, and wrap themselves in it, and with the wool inmoft, obtain a comfortable protection against the cold of the winter season. This neglect of manufacture, may be easily accounted for, in an uncivilized nation whose wants were few, and those easily satis fied; but what is more furprifing, when after a long period we had cultivated a breed of fheep, whofe fleeces were fuperior to those of other countries; we ftill neglected to promote a woollen manufacture at home. That valuable branch of business lay for a confiderable time in foreign hands; and we were obliged to import the cloth manufactured from our own materials. There feems indeed to have been many unavailing efforts made by our monarchs to preserve both the wool and the manufacture of it among ourselves: Henry the fecond, by a patent granted to the weavers in London, directed that if any cloth was found made of a mixture of Spanish wool, it should be burnt by the mayor+: yet fo little did the weaving business advance, that Edward the third was obliged to permit the importation of foreign cloth in the beginning of his reign; but foon after, by encouraging foreign artificers to fettle in England, and inftruct the natives in their trade, the manufac * Cambden. 1. Preface. cxiii. + Stow 419. ture ture increased fo greatly as to enable him to prohibit the wear of foreign cloth. Yet, to fhew the uncommercial genius of the people, the effects of this prohibition were checked by another law, as prejudicial to trade as the former was falutary; this was an act of the fame reign, against exporting woollen goods manufactured at home, under heavy penalties; while the exportation of wool was not only allowed but encouraged. This overfight was not foon rectified, for it appears that, on the alliance that Edward the fourth made with the king of Arragon, he prefented the latter with fome ewes and rams of the Cotefwold kind; which is a proof of their excellency, fince they were thought acceptable to a monarch, whose dominions were fo noted for the fineness of their fleeces *. In the first year of Richard the third, and in the two fucceeding reigns, our woollen manufactures received fome improvements +; but the grand rife of all its profperity is to be dated from the reign of queen Elizabeth, when the tyranny of the duke of Alva in the Netherlands drove numbers of artificers for refuge into this country, who were the founders of that immenfe manufacture we carry on at present. We have strong inducements to be more particular on the modern state of our woollen manufactures; but we desist, from a fear of digreffing too far; our enquiries must be limited to points that have a more immediate reference to the study of Zoology. No country is better supplied with materials, and those adapted Rapin i. 605. in the note. Stow's Annales, 696. + In that of Richard, two-yard cloths were firft made. In that of Henry the VIII. an Italian taught us the use of the diftaff. Kerfies were alfo firft made in England about that time. to every species of the clothing bufinefs, than Great Britain; and though the sheep of these islands afford fleeces of different degrees of goodness, yet there are not any but what may be used in fome branch of it. Herefordshire, Devonshire, and Cotefwold downs are noted for producing sheep with remarkbly fine fleeces; the Lincolnfhire and Warwickshire kind, which are very large, exceed any for the quantity and goodness of their wool. The former county yields the largest sheep in these islands, where it is no uncommon thing to give fifty guineas for a ram, and a guinea for the admiffion of a ewe to one of the valuable males; or twenty guineas for the use of it for a certain number of ewes during one feafon. Suffolk alfo breeds a very valuable kind. The fleeces of the northern parts of this kingdom are inferior in fineness to thofe of the south; but ftill are of great value in different branches of our manufactures. The Yorkshire hills furnish the looms of that county with large quantities of wool; and that which is taken from the neck and shoulders, is used (mixed with Spanish wool) in fome of their fineft cloths. Wales yields but a coarse wool; yet it is of more extensive use than the finest Segovian fleeces; for rich and poor, age and youth, health and infirmities, all confefs the univerfal benefit of the flannel manufacture. The fheep of Ireland vary like those of Great-Britain. Those of the south and east being large, and their flesh rank. Those of the north, and the mountainous parts fmall, and their flesh sweet. The fleeces in the fame manner differ in degrees of value. Scotland breeds a fmall kind, and their fleeces are coarse. Sibbald (after Boethius) fpeaks of a breed in the ifle of Rona, covered with blue wool; of another kind in the ifle of Hirta, larger than the biggest he goat, with tails hanging almost to the ground, and horns as as thick, and longer than thofe of an ox*. He mentions another kind, which is clothed with a mixture of wool and hair; and a fourth fpecies, whofe flesh and fleeces are yellow, and their teeth of the colour of gold; but the truth of these relations ought to be enquired into, as no other writer has mentioned them, except the credulous Boethius. Yet the laft particular is not to be rejected: for notwithstanding I cannot instance the teeth of sheep, yet I faw in the fummer of 1772, at Athol house, the jaws of an ox, with teeth thickly incrusted with a gold colored pyrites; and the fame might have happened to thofe of fheep had they fed in the fame grounds, which were in the valley beneath the house. Befides the fleece, there is scarce any part of this animal but what is useful to mankind. The flesh is a delicate and wholesome food. The skin dreffed, forms different parts of our apparel; and is used for covers of books. The entrails, properly prepared and twisted, serve for strings for various musical instruments. The bones calcined (like other bones in general) form materials for tefts for the refiner. The milk is thicker than that of cows; and confequently • Gmelin defcribes an animal he found in Siberia, that in many particulars agrees with this; he calls it Rupicapra cornubus arietinis; Linnæus ftyles it Capra ammon. Syft. 97. and Gefner, p. 934. imagines it to be the Mufimon of the antients; the horns of the Siberian animal are two yards long, their weight above thirty pounds. As we have fo good authority for the existence of such a quadruped, we might venture to give credit to Boethius's account, that the fame kind was once found in Hirta: but having thrice within these few years had opportunity of examining the Mufimon, we found that both in the form of the horns, and the shortness of the tail, it had the greatest agreement with the goat, in which genus we have placed it No. 11. of our Synopfis, with the trivial name of Siberian. 27 yields a greater quantity of butter and cheese; and in fome places is fo rich, that it will not produce the cheese without a mixture of water to make it part from the whey. The dung is a remarkably rich manure; infomuch that the folding of fheep is become too ufeful a branch of husbandry for the farmer to neglect. To conclude, whether we confider the advantages that refult from this animal to individuals in particular, or to these kingdoms in general, we may with Columella confider this in one fenfe, as the first of the domestic animals. Poft majores quadrupedes ovilli pecoris fecunda ratio eft; que prima fit fi ad utilitatis magnitudinem referas. Nam id præcipue contra frigoris violentiam protegit, corporibufque noftris liberaliora præbet velamina; et etiam elegantium menfas jucundis et numerofis dapibus exornat *. The sheep as to its nature, is a most innocent, mild and fimple animal; and confcious of its own defencelefs ftate, remarkably timid: if attacked when attended by its lamb, it will make fome fhew of defence, by ftamping with its feet, and pushing with its head it is a gregarious animal, is fond of any jingling noise, for which reason the leader of the flock has in many places a bell hung round its neck, which the others will conftantly follow: it is fubject to many diseases: fome arife from infects which depofite their eggs in different parts of the animal; others are caused by their being kept in wet paftures; for as the fheep requires but little drink, it is naturally fond of a dry foil. The dropfy, vertigo (the pendro of the Welsh) the pthifick, jaundice, and worms in the liver annually make great havoke among our flocks: for the first * De re ruftica, lib. vii. c. 2. disease, |