Gents Mag 1891 part 2 p.129
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Gentleman's Magazine 1891 part 2 p.129
the moss-crop which overhang them, deceived by the heather and ling which grow over the side, the dog suddenly startles it and causes it to fall into the pit. As many as five victims have been found at the same time in one of these traps. The fact that we use steel monitors to illustrate what rams can do in the way of warfare is some indication of our opinion of their prowess. There were two rams of similar styles which met one morning on the moor. One, just purchased, bore a bad character; the other had actually, on this very moorside, killed several competitors. The owner of the latter is suspected of causing the meeting; the owner of the former saw it. At first they walked round each other, and then they marched off twenty or thirty yards, as if it was all over and the business ended. But now they commenced to pull and champ or chew a piece of ling stubble. One bleated to the other and was promptly answered. They faced towards each other, putting themself into attitude, and, like arrows, shot together. Being old pugilists, or batterers, they ran with their bodies almost touching the ground, so that the shock might find them glued to the earth. This is all-important, because anything so spindle-like as legs would disappear like a spider's web. With all the art and crouching of the home ram, however, he flew in a somersault over the stranger's head, and the heart of the onlooker was in his mouth. They were both alive, in spite of the shock, and the one who had stuck to, rather than stood, his ground went back to see how his adversary fared. Then they separated for a second time, but did not go so far apart. Then they met, and a third time retired to the end of the lists, and finally withdrew for a fourth encounter, on each occasion the distance being less. In the end they grazed amicably together, and for the future the one who turned somsersault admitted his rival to be the conqueror, although there was nothing further to denote the reason. Thenceforward it would be said in sheep-circles, when alluding to this encounter, as the slave of Aufidius said of Coriolanus, "I do not say 'thwack our general,' but he was always good enough for him." In the majority of such engagements one of the combatants is killed. The farmer, besides his flock of sheep, keeps a few milch cows, from which, in his forefather's days at least, if not now, butter was produced of high esteem. The buttermilk, mixed with a little meal, helps feed the small stock of pigs which in summertime must "find themselves." He keeps a horse, and occasional rears a colt. The work of the |
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