The White Faces of Leicesters

Southland Times, Issue 14814, 15 December 1900, Page 2 (Supplement)

The White Faces of Leicesters

Mr John Woo 3, Prestonkirk, Scotland, writes to a contemporary as follows :— Some time ago a gentleman from the south of England wrote and asked me if I could tell him •what breed of sheep the Dishley Leioesters were crossed with <•■ n their firat introduction into $ie north.' My reply was as follows :— 'Any correct information that I can give on the subject of your letter I will most willingly supply, but I am eoiry fiat I cannot give, a definite answer to your special question. lam willing to admit the passib lity of their being crossed with aome native breed of Northumberland sheep, bDt of that thei'6 is positively no evidence, and therefore the question can only be discussed from a purely imaginary hypothesis. I am quite well aware tbat people who choose to assume that' 'Border Leicesters' are a cross between the Dishley Leicesters and come other breed generally suggest that it muso have beeD with the Cheviot?. Their reason for tbis suggestion is always the same, and i 9 cont aned in the question, 'Where else could the Border Leicesiera get their pure whi.e faces and legg?' When asking ouch a question, tbey apparently forgot that all old writers agree in stating that Bakewell's Leicesters had white faces aad legs. There is no evidance tbat the Cheviot sheep of that period had such distinctively white points aitloy have now; indeed, it is a fact that fifty or sixty years'* ago a large prop^itonof them had brown or grey faces, &c , and were deaoribed at that time as being so hard to fatten and carrying so lit.l a wool that they were not hiah'y valued anywhere except on Che high and hard Cheviot hills (from which they derive their nime.) Jf the Border Le ; cester is a cross between the Dish by rim and some north-country ewe, I do not ccc the smallest probabil ty of iti having been the Cheviot, an i though there ia not a shred of evidenc?,anl very little like i'aood of such a cross, yet It is the only one ever suggested by controversialists on thia qucauoj. I mast therefore repeit that there is no evidence that the early breeders of Lei ester sheep on the Borders ever cosssd or mixed up their Dishleys with any other breed whatever. The foregoing was the c: tent of the an--B*er to my correspond n'-'s quest'orj bnt (or the sake of supporting my postioi, I may give you two items of evidence. And first, let me quote a sentence from a i article written by the late Samuel Donkin, the famous Northumbrian auctioneer. The atticle referred to is dated 1887, and he speaks then of looking through a vista of eighty yt are, and says that, 'upon trad ton alone, must we rely for the origin of oar numerous breeds of sheep.' And then he goes m to 'e'abe how 'the lab) Mr Ralp^ Chrr-Ellieon, the proprietor of Boveral extensive Cheviot ttook farm?, often expressed a keen desire Co know whether the white or DUNFACED Wtre fcheorigioal Cheviots. 1 After evidenae like this from such an author ty as Mr Donkio, it seems unnecetsery to d pcusb the oolour of Cheviot paints further. The second item of evidence I wish to give relates to thi Royal* Agricultural Society's iSbow held at Newcastle oaTyne in 1864, at which an eihibitor cf Leicester cheep stated that bis father was ona of the or gioal m:mbera of 'The Bakewell Club,' ani that the sheep he was showing were pure Disl 1 <y Laicesters, and declared that they had b>en kept on"his father's farm, and bad bee a 'iaand in bred' from Bakewell'd death t H that day (1861). I saw and pii/1 particu'ar attention to these sheep. Their faces aad le%a were perfectly white, their wool was softer, and they were nob nearly so heavily clad as the ocher L?icestera in the class amoDg3t which they were shown. These aheep were entered a^ belonging to the executes if bhe late Mr Valentiue Barford, Fosoote, Towcester, Northampton ; and if the statement about their breeding was correct, then we do not require to trouble ourselves further about the origin of the white points of the Bo der Leicester*, and I thjng'we onght to bear no more about them being indebted to the Cheviots for the particular whiteness of cb-ir faces and legs.