n of this breed of
sheep are pastured. The flock tended by the "Shepherd of Salisbury
Plain," of whose earnest piety and simple faith Hannah More has told
us in her widely circulated tract, were South Downs. Formerly these
sheep possessed few of the attractions they now present. About the
year 1782 Mr. John Ellman of Glynde turned his attention to their
improvement. Unlike his cotemporary Bakewell, he did not attempt to
make a new breed by crossing, but by attention to the principles of
breeding, by skillful selections for coupling and continued
perseverance for fifty years, he obtained what he sought--health,
soundness of constitution, symmetry of form, early maturity, and
facility of fattening, and thus brought his flock to a high state of
perfection. Before he began we are told that the South Downs were of
"small size and ill shape, long and thin in the neck, high on the
shoulders, low behind, high on the loins, down on the rumps, the tail
set on very low, sharp on the back, the ribs flat," &c., &c., and were
not mature enough to fatten until three years old or past. Of his
flock in 1794, Arthur Young[25] says: "Mr. Ellman's flock of sheep, I
must observe in this place, is unquestionably the first in the
country; there is nothing that can be compared with it; the wool is
the finest and the carcass the best proportioned; although I saw
several noble flocks afterwards which I examined with a great degree
of attention; some few had very fine wool, which might be equal to
his, but then the carcass was ill-shaped, and many had a good carcass
with coarse wool; but this incomparable farmer had eminently united
both these circumstances in his flock at Glynde. I affirm this with
the greater degree of certainty, since the eye of prejudice has been
at work in this country to disparage and call in question the quality
of his flock, merely because he has raised the merit of it by
unremitted attention above the rest of the neighboring farmers, and it
now stands unrivalled." This, it will be noticed, was only twelve
years after he began his improvements. To Mr. Ellman's credit be it
said that he exhibited none of the selfishness which characterized Mr.
Bakewell's career, but was always ready to impart information to
those desirous to learn, and labored zealously to encourage general
improvement. That he was pecuniarily successful is evident from the
continued rise in the price of his sheep. The Duke of Richmond, Mr.
Jonas Webb, Mr.