reader can primá facie apprehend. But great evils may grow out of small causes."

Our modern political economists, and sticklers for the doctrine of free trade, are not of old John Trussel's opinion.

"Persons who have paid attention to the effect of pasturage upon the wool of sheep, will have noticed the great difference in the nature and quality of those which have been reared on calcareous and chalky downs, compared with another part of the same flock, fed on rich luxuriant lands. The wool of the former will be found short and fine grown, although dry and harsh, nor will it work kindly; whilst the latter will be longer and softer, work better, and also produce softer cloth."

Hence, Mr. Southey takes occasion to recommend to those who have extensive sheepwalks on a limestone soil, as we believe is the case throughout a great portion of Wales, to provide themselves with a competent portion of meadow pasture, to afford them the means of occasionally turning their sheep into fresh herbage; and this interchange will, in a great measure, counteract the effect of calcareous or down pasture."

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"By strict attention to the health of his flock, and by annually crossing the ewes with a superior woolled ram, he may confidently expect, in a few years, to obtain an excellent flock of sheep; but this great change can only be effected by attending to the pasturage of his flock, and the exclusion of all ewes found to produce inferior fleeces."

And again, in p. 24 of his pamphlet, this experienced woolbroker further informs us, that

"The farmer cannot reasonably expect all the lambs of this cross breed to produce fine wool. Some may have indifferent fleeces, or perhaps black or brown hairs may occasionally be interspersed through them. Such lambs should be rejected, as the wool is only suitable for medley cloths, whereas the white fleece can be applied to all purposes. It will, therefore, be seen that the farmer who consults his interest, will annually inspect the fleeces of his flock, and retain only those lambs which produce wool of the best quality."

Now, this is precisely the point in which our British woolgrowers seem to be most heedlessly inattentive. They bestow great pains, indeed, and are regardless of expense, in procuring rams of the highest price to cross their breed of sheep; but when this is done, as if they expected that by some sudden miracle, the whole of the woolly progeny were at once to resemble the sire, they never trouble themselves further with making the requisite segregation. And yet, it is upon this careful and constantlycontinued extirpation of the coarser woolled animals, that the gradual amelioration of the flock is to be effected.

It sometimes, however, is by no means an easy task to get rid entirely of the discarded ewes. The hill sheep of Wales, like all mountaineers, display a considerable portion of amor patriæ, and local attachment. Instances have been known in the hundred of Built of several old grey-faced ewes having returned home, after

having been sold three times, from the rank feedings of Essex, back to their mountain pasture, alone, and without any other guide than instinct.

Mr. S. enters at some length into a discussion of the proper pasture for sheep; and on this point, as well as on their general treatment, he cites Dr. Richard Bright's Travels in Hungary in 1814. He particularly recommends dry food for them in wet weather, and the supplying them occasionally with salt, as materially conducive to their salubrity. He informs us, p. 15, that "sheep eat dry food in wet weather with great alacrity, although, in dry weather, they refuse it."

Mr. Southey is wholly silent on the diseases of sheep. We shall endeavour, therefore, in some sort, to supply the deficiency, by taking this opportunity of recording the following prescription of an old Welsh shepherd, for the prevention and cure of that most destructive of all diseases to our flocks, the rot. Nor will the circumstance of its consisting of a dietetic regimen, rather than in the exhibition of medical drugs, detract from its merit. It is simply this,-to sow a convenient spot of ground with the narrow-leaved parsley. The quantity of ground to be of course proportioned to the number of the flock, and to turn the sheep in to graze upon this pasture whenever the slightest indication of this disease makes its appearance, and this twice or thrice a week for two or three hours at a time. This should be done occasionally, even when they are in perfect health, as they will always greedily devour this herb. The warm aromatic qualities of the parsley operate as an anteseptic and corrective of the aqueous putrescency of that rank watery herbage which causes the rot, Experto crede Roberto. But hares and rabbits are so fond of parsley, that they will come from a great distance to feed upon it, and will destroy it if not very securely fenced.

The author, speaking from his experience as a wool-broker, recommends the growing of long wool in preference to any other, as likely to prove most profitable upon the whole to the sheep

owner.

His remarks on the washing of sheep are extremely judicious ; and, for this purpose, he gives a decided preference to the standing pool over the running stream. The great desideratum, he observes, is "to obtain water of the softest quality, or, in other words, such as is most divested of all particles of metallic salts."

We fear these matters are not generally adverted to with the attention they deserve; and yet we are all aware how much the desirable softness of flannel depends on the quality of the water employed in the fulling.

As Mr. S. expatiates so much on washing, on skirting, and on a due regard to cleanliness and neatness in folding up the fleeces

for market, we are surprised he has said nothing on the subject of pitch-marks: they are the very bane of wool. The farmer can scarcely imagine the deterioration and destruction occasioned by the use of pitch as a sheep-mark. The injury it occasions is so serious that, in this age of improvement, it is wonderful this barbarism still continues to be practised. If the ear-mark, and the ruddle-mark, are not deemed a sufficient security to identify property in sheep, Dr. Lewis, in his Commercio-Philo-Technicon, p. 361, recommends the following composition as being at once. cheap, strong, and lasting, so as to bear the changes of the weather, without injuring the wool: take the requisite quantity, of melted tallow, into which let as much charcoal, in fine powder, be stirred, as is sufficient to make it of a full black colour, and of a thick consistence. This mixture being applied hot, with a marking-iron, on pieces of flannel, quickly fixed or hardened, bore moderate rubbing, resisted the sun and rain, and yet could be washed out freely with a strong soap ley. In order to render it still more durable, and prevent its being rubbed off, with the tallow may be melted an eighth or sixth of its weight of tar, which will readily wash out along with it from the wool; but if possible, it were always better for the flock-master to content himself with the ear-mark, and to abstain from pitch and ruddle altogether. From the returns made to Parliament, it appears that, since the year 1819, the importation of wools from Australia and Tasmania has increased in the ratio of twenty to one. The quantity imported in 1830 amounted to 1,967,279 pounds.

"Those who reflect," says Mr. Southey, "on the great increase of wool furnished by countries almost in an incipient state, will be forcibly struck with the rapid progress already made in the cultivation of the sheep, from which such large supplies have been derived.”

In speaking of the Spanish sheep, the Spanish sheep dog has not been forgotten.

"They are represented to us as the best breed of the canine race to assist a shepherd, and protect his flock. Some of them are black and white; others quite white, and the size of a large wolf. They have large heads, and are generally armed with collars, stuck with iron spikes. They are fed only with bread and milk; and this method of feeding causes them to become more subservient to the will of the shepherd than if fed on animal food."

The Welsh shepherd's dog may vie with that of Spain in fidelity and sagacity. As a proof of the latter quality, he will single out and catch any one particular sheep cut of a flock of a thousand, at the bidding of his master, whose exquisite power of discernment in being able to distinguish each individual animal by the countenance, he is said to share.

The Welsh name for the shepherd's dog is bugeilgi, from bugail, a shepherd, and ci, a dog. From hence, the Saxons called their little hunting dogs "beagles," though Dr. Johnson has thought fit

to derive this word from the French bigle. But the French term cannot, like the Welsh, be resolved into any elementary principles indicative of its meaning. Dr. Wotton, in adopting this etymology of the word, informs us,

"Hi canes nomen forsan diderunt canibus nostris venaticis, beagles dictis. Nostri enim canes istos, apud Wallos magni habitos, videntes, et sensum vocis bugail ignorantes, canes suos sagaces beagles voritabant. Ci ultimâ syllabâ neglectâ.

So, also, from the Welsh appellative for a cur dog, corgi, we have the English word cur, "corgi" being composed of corr, a dwarf, and ci, a dog, quasi, the dwarf dog. This is a more probable origin than the Dutch derivation given in the English dictionary.

In recommending the skirting of fleeces, Mr. Southey has omitted to mention that even the skirtings, the very refuse of wool, may be converted to a useful purpose, by subjecting them to a chemical process which will reduce them to a saponaceous substance possessing all the detergent qualities of our alkaline soaps. We are indebted for this discovery to Chaptal, the most practically useful of all the French chemists. As wool is in itself a far more precious article than soap, it is obvious, that the sweepings of the warehouses only, or, as we have before termed it, the mere refuse, can be profitably applied to this purpose.

Mr. Southey's tract on wool concludes with some very curious notices of the Alpaca, and of the Angoura, and the Thibet goats, which he recommends to the attention of our Australian colonists. If the present spirited attempt to cultivate the Chinese tea-plant on the Breconshire hills shall prove successful, why may not some of these sickly-haired animals be acclimated to our mountains? In taking our leave of this, we believe the first practical treatise on wool published in this country, we cannot pay the writer a greater compliment, than by observing, that we can find no other fault with the work than its extreme brevity-a fault which we hope to see amended by his giving, to a third edition, at least a double volume and consistency. The subject is ample, and requires this expansion. Mr. Šouthey may glean many useful hints from the many French pamphlets on wool, preparatory to his next appearance before the public, more particularly from a little work under the title of "Du Commerce, des Donanes, et du Systeme des Prohibitions, &c. par M. Billiet, de Lyon:" Paris, 1825.

Whatever may be the boasted qualities of the Spanish, Saxon, Tasmanian, and Australian fleeces, the wool of Wales still remains unrivalled for the manufacture of that superior species of flannel which, light as gauze, and soft as silk, conveys to the skin of the wearer a peculiarly delicious, invigorating, exhilarating, indescribable sensation of comfort; and which, by exciting and

retaining a genial warmth, effectually prevents any sudden check of the sensible or insensible perspiration,-that primary cause of almost all our diseases. Indeed, if prevention be better than cure, Dr. Flannel must be allowed to be our best physician, both in hot and cold climates. Our Cambrian ancestors seem to have duly appreciated the medical qualities of flannel, for, like the ancient Romans, they always wore a fleecy indusium next the skin. This is strongly recommended in the only work now extant in the Welsh language on the healing art, the "Llyfr meddigion Myddfai," the book of the far-famed Caermarthenshire doctors of Mothvai, a village between Llandovery and Llangattock. The instances cited of the pernicious consequences. of neglecting this advice are numerous.

In the year 1621, in the inventory of the wearing apparel of the Rev. Lewis Morgan, vicar of Brecknock, are mentioned, "six pair of hand-cuffs." These hand-cuffs were linen sleeves, and wristbands, to be worn with flannel shirts. The longevity of our ancestors is, no doubt, to be ascribed in a great measure to this prudent use of flannel,

寧

So late as the year 1764, we have it recorded, as an historical fact, that the then High Sheriff of Breconshire, Thomas Bowen, esq. of Tyle Crwn, having been always in the habit of wearing a flannel shirt, and no other, according to the good old custom of his forefathers, suffered himself to be persuaded, in an evil hour, to exchange it for a camisia of fine linen, on the occasion of his arraying himself in his best apparel to go out at the head of a procession of his county, to receive their lordships the Judges of Assize, on their entrance into his bailiwick: but he soon bitterly repented this indiscretion, for he caught cold in consequence, and died before the expiration of his shrievalty.

Ye valetudinarian contemners of flannel, ponder this well, and pay more respect to physical infirmities, and more regard to the interests of New Town, or Llanidloes!

W.

Jones's Views in Wales. Nos. 11 to 23.

(Continued from vol. 3, p. 386.)

To remark the progression of art towards excellence produces something more than mere gratification: it establishes a chronologic accuracy in the observer's mind, and thereby ensures a strength of recollection in respect to places and events, which could not be well attained without such assistance. A perusal of these views supports the assumption, if the curious in the

• Jones's History of Brecknockshire, vol. ii. p. 564.