Page:Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands.djvu/161

 SHEEP AMONG THE CHEVIOTS.

��THE Cheviots, which are represented in some of the ancient ballads, as green with waving woods, seem now to be a chain of bald hills, much devoted to the pastur age of flocks. Around their base the little circular cotes or folds are scattered. In some parts of this region, the sheep are celebrated for the productiveness of their fleece, and discussions respecting their different races and comparative merits, are earnestly pursued by the neighboring farmers.

Sir Walter Scott, soon after removing to his rural residence at Ashestiel, writes : &quot; For more than a month my head has been fairly tenanted by ideas, neither literary nor poetical. Long sheep and short sheep, and such kind of matters, have made a perfect sheepfold of my understanding.&quot; The Ettrick shep herd relates an apposite anecdote of one of his inter views with him in 1801. &quot; During the sociality of the evening, the discourse ran much on the different breeds of sheep. The original black-faced Forest breed being always called the short sheep, and the Cheviot race the long sheep, disputes at that period ran very high

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