1805.] On the Breed of Sheep. 303

test Leicester mutton.* They too, frequently“ moisten << their elay with liberal potions of nut-brown ale"; but itis notthen that hey are“ in the zenitb of their glory." NoSir? heir glory 15 not of 50 fleeting a nature, it rests on their. un= cConquerable valour, and the distinguished part they have acted in ruining the naval forces of our numerous and pow erfu! enemies.

The“ witliog ceritic" 80 justly condemned by Mr. Bartley and other correspondents, did not obtrude the passage mark- ed in 7talics in page 153 of your 68th. Number. 1 will allow nothing of that nature. Perhaps the Aoglo Merino and other Small and comparatively lean mutton, may be preterred at the tables of many genteel and opulent families; 1 am Surprised, however, that the new Leicester mutton, which 15 always heavily loaded with a very thick covering of fat when the Sheep are from one and ahalt to 1wo years old, Shoyld have been compared with the dry and tough meat of“ an “< old Superannuated bew." At certainly would have appear ed more reasonable to have compared the mutton of the Sheep, which require three to five years to lay on even a tun coat, with the flesh of the o/d cackler.

Before I make any observations on comparative experi-

1ents,- 1 feel it a duty incumbent upon me to do Jjustice to Mr. Billingsley. Some years had elapsed between reading an account ot the experiment conducted by that gentleman, and the introduction of his pame into my letter inzerted in your 66th. Number. 1 remembered some objectionable parts of it, especially the age(one year and five Sixths) of the Sheep at the commencement of the trial; and when I wrote the above letter, I conceived that Mr. Billingsley had the Sole direction. But on reading his letter, to the Bath Society, Since 1 received your last Magazine I found that the owners of the Sheep determined the age at which the experiment Should commence.

From all I have heard of Mr. Billingsley, I am Satisfied that he Justly merits the bigh encomzum bestowed upon him

* Those strong and hardy men not only prefer the very fattest mutton

they can obtain, but conSsume vast quantities of it, as appears from the fol- Jowing Story», - Many of the keelmen's wives have been Jang in the habit of dropping joints of mutton and quarters of lamb, from the bridge at Newcastle, into the keels as they pass up and down the river. One ot the men, Seeing his wite at her usual Station, cried“ drop, drop, d---n you drop, what ace yon about." The wife replied“ the d---1 choke thee, for that is the Seventh Joint this week."; 4

How could the consumption of Such districts as this be Supplied with 3mal), and scarcely halt fat mutton, Such as that of the merino Sheep, rhe bone of which is ncarly equal to tbe flesh in weight? would not constant dearth and Sometimes famine, ensue from rearing tiliose Sheep?

> WÜ ded.-