spiration in the open air, is swept away as fast as it flows. Whereas it is greatly increased by the excessive heat of numbers housed all night in a narrow place. It fouls the wool, makes it hairy, and changes its colour. The SWINE of Spain, which pass their lives in the woods, are all of one colour, as the wild boars. They have fine, silky, curled bristles. Never did a Spanish hog's bristle pierce a shoe."

Previously to any remarks on Bowles's account, we will speak farther, if not definitively, on the origin of the fine-woolled sheep. Of the Asiatic and Grecian descent of those of Spain, I have, in my own mind, not the smallest doubt. As little doubt do I entertain of the Spanish origin of our own clothingwool sheep; their form, the colour and nature of the fleece they bear, to speak of those which betray the least mixture of blood, fully evince it. The story of Spain having derived her fine-woolled breed from our Cotswold hills, appears to me rather adapted to the Peruvian tales than to the page of authentic history. I must own I am guided more by analogy of form and quality, both of wool and flesh, than by either history or tradition, but I cannot yet avoid paying the merited degree of attention to the Memoirs of the ci-devant Royal Society of Agriculture at Rouen, nor ought the mere opinion of Dr. Campbell, in opposition to its authenticity, be held decisive. Every one versant in the early periods of our history, must be well aware of the paucity of materials, on any subject, exclusive of war and court intrigues, also that much is to be found in the archives of France, which bears relation to the affairs of this country. The compiler of the Memoirs says, that in the fif teenth century, our Edward IVth obtained a consi-. derable flock of fine-woolled sheep from the King of Castile, which was the original foundation of the ex

cellence of our clothing wool. That properly qualified persons were appointed to superintend the distribution and management of the Spanish sheep. That two ewes and a ram were sent to every parish, in which the pasture was judged suitable to such stock, the care of them being entrusted to the most respectable yeomen, on whom particular privileges were in consequence conferred. Written instructions for the management of these sheep were also delivered to the shepherds, who were taught to select the finest native ewes for the Spanish cross, in order to the general improvement of our wool. Henry the VIIIth and Queen Elizabeth are said also, on the same authority, to have paid great attention to this important object, which I think highly probable, from a similar care in the two last Henries, in respect to the breed of horses. Nothing even can be more probable, than that importations of sheep might be made, during our connection with Spain, in the reign of Philip and Mary.

It is equally within the range of probability, that Edward IV. might have learned to cross the breed of animals, with the view of improvement, from the Spaniards, since we know that such practice had been successfully pursued in their country, even in ancient times. Thus the sheep of England and Wales were crossed in different districts, and the varieties produced, which we at this day witness. In some parts probably, in the Cotswold hills for instance, and in Herefordshire, for reasons unknown to us, a consi-derable portion of the Spanish stock might be retained pure and unmixed, whence the present superiority of the latter breed, and its approximation in form to the Spanish. Markham mentions the wool of the Lempster side of Herefordshire, and of Worcester, joining upon Shropshire, as having "such a

curious fine staple, from whence you may draw a thread as fine as silk." That our fine-woolled sheep have continued since gradually to degenerate, appears from history and tradition, and from the well-known, constant practice of adopting the long-woolled cross, on every occasion of improving the soil. It is curious on two accounts, that Markham notices the sheep of the Cotswold hills, as " of better bone, shape, and burden, than the others, but with wool of a staple coarser and deeper," because he wrote about the time, when the supposed supply of fine-woolled sheep were sent from the Cotswolds to Spain; and because if his account be correct, the Cotswold farmers have twice changed their stock, from long to short, and from short to long wool again.

The investigation would be too extensive, granting sufficient and authentic documents could be found, to, trace our commercial and manufacturing habits respecting wool, from the periods above cited, to the present. It is to be presumed, that formerly, we needed far less assistance from foreign countries in the manufacture of our fine fabrics, than we have, during the last century, and at present, been in the habit of receiving; that a greater dependance was placed in the quality of our native clothing wools, until a neglect of those was induced by the custom, which became at length established, of drawing, indeed a superior commodity, from Spain: the great extension of tillage in latter times, and the concomitant predilection for large sheep and long wool, together with a very natural prejudice in the importers and manufacturers of foreign wool in favour of a settled routine of business, which they viewed with the jealous eyes of monopolists, seemed totally to preclude the revival of all attempts at the improvement of our own clothing species.

But a sense of the obvious and great national benefits to be derived from such an improvement, ascertained also by the successful example, of other countries, began to stimulate the minds of men of patriotic feeling. The King himself set a truly royal example, by being the first to import, in the year 1792, a number of Spanish rams and ewes, the benefits of which have been communicated to various parts of the country through the medium of Sir Joseph' Banks. A considerable number of individuals in England, Scotland, and Wales, have made trial of the Spanish cross: reasons for the failure of some will be assigned, with proofs drawn from the most authentic sources of the complete success of others.

It may seem rather strange at first sight, that an attempt to improve our native fine wools, to the degree of rendering us independent of foreign supply, should be opposed by our manufacturers, which yet has been too notoriously the case, until of late; but bodies of men can ill suffer any interference with their settled customs, which, right or wrong, they ever presume to be intimately connected with their interest. Their printed arguments were primarily drawn from Don. Bowles's narrative, just now quoted, and their chief stand was made on the supposed necessity of a warm climate and annual journeys, `to the creation, at least preservation, of fine wool. The reader will have observed lines in Italics, to this effect, in Bowles's letter. The absurdity of such positions was not indeed perceived here so early as it was known upon the continent, but the fact of repeated practice, in our own country, through a considerable number of years, now saves us the trouble of argumentative confutation. Dr. Parry's remark on this head is not more concise than rational and conclusive. Speaking of the Estantes and Trashumantes, or the stationary

and travelling sheep, he says, "the former are not permitted to travel because they are coarse, not that they are coarse, because they do not travel." Doubtless the original motives of the Spaniards for annually driving their flocks such an immense distance across the country, had very different objects to those of preserving their wool, yet the people, always forming a judgment from the appearance of the superficies, sceing long-woolled sheep stationary, and the shortwoolled travelling, concluded, without the fatigue of reflection, that rest and motion were essential governing principles in the nature of wools. With what facility might not this hypothesis, like many others which have yet retained so strong a hold on the brains of men, have been overturned? Simply by turning a few estantes or long-woolled tups among the travelling ewes. That injudicious cotting, and keeping the sheep too warm and close, fouls and injures the wool, is clear enough both from reason and the faulty practice of many parts of the continent; nor do I think Don Bowles was, in an error, respecting the preference which sheep have for natural grass over all aromatic herbs such, I believe, to be the fact, although I formerly concurred in the popular notion.

The opponents of improvement have insisted, indeed do still insist, in the face of ocular demonstration, and reiterated annual proofs to the contrarythat fine wool degenerates out of Spain, and that none grown out of that country can be adapted to the purpose of making fine cloths and kerseymeres. That such are made of Spanish wool alone. That could we in this country even equal the quality of Spanish wool, the balance of profit would still be against us, from the necessarily consecutive loss in the weight of carcase. That the winter care and cotting required by Spanish sheep would le, here, too expensive, and even imprac