Gents Mag 1890 part 1 p.534
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Gentleman's Magazine 1890 part 1 p.534
At the sheep shearing the lambs are separated from their dams, and receive the impress of their owner's initials as well as smits and ear-slits. The half-breed lambs - those bred for the production of mutton - are now weaned from the ewes, and are not allowed to return to the fells. They are kept until autumn, sold at the northern sheep fairs, and then sent ot be fatted on southern grass-lands. Here they feed quickly and make excellent mutton. Only the pure-bred lambs - Black-face or Herdwick - the future heaf-going sheep of the home farm, are retained. After the "clipping" and while the yeomen are carousing in the old barn, the shepherds start on the return journey with the fleeceless flock. As the lambs are brought to the ewes there is a perfect babel of bleats. Turned into the long lanes, the white fleeceless flocks present an indescribable picture of pastoral beauty. Every sheep hangs upon the hazel-clad slopes, stretching its quiet neck to the tender herbage. Not a foot of the banks seems unoccupied - two long lines of sleek, browsing sheep reach away till the bend in the road hides them. Soon the bleating becomes less general, then it ceases, and a strange stillness fills the lanes. A breeze brings up the left lambs' voices, and all is confusion. And thus we plod slowly on to the fells in the sultry summer afternoon, and turn the flock again upon the green slopes. Soon few are to be seen; they have dispersed, but seem to have dissolved. Then we turn homewards, oursleves and the three dogs - not down the long dale road, but by the "forest" - "forest" only by name now, and thick with peat, having traces of birch and mountain ash. Our way lies along the "Grassing heads" running parallel to the valley, but high up above it. Coming through these rushes prevail, and hidden springs. Among them gadflies rest, and grasshoppers make harmony with the hidden waters. Then we come into scrub of oak, birch, and hazel. Flies abound and a few birds. From what has been said of the farms of the fell dales, it will be seen, as already remarked, that these are essentially sheep farms, and that wool is one of the chief products of the "statesmen." Among the many quaint buildings of the hill folds, one is usually set apart as the wool loft; and it is deplorable to have to records that many of these, and even the teeming barns themselves, are full of wool, the produce of many seasons "clips." For the hill farmer has felt depression in trade as well as his southern neighbour, though in a different way. Some of the yeomen tell me that they have four, five, and even six years' wool harvests in their barns, and cannot sell it at present prices. Time was when the wives and daughters of |
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