Sheep & Oviculture

A verse work of agricultur al advice written by a 16th century English farmer. An enlarged edition of his work, Five Hundreth Pointes of Good Husbandrie , was published in 1573.

Cistercian s occasional ly marketed an intrinsica lly better product and very often prepared their clip more carefully.

Animals were present everywhere in the everyday life of the Middle Ages: wild animals, like bears, wolves, wild boars, and deer; fish; poultry and farm animals; and the companions of the warrior, the peasant, and the hunter, like horses, falcons, and dogs.

The approach I propose to make in this paper is first to look at modern breeds, and their distributi on in the recent past, to see how far their ancestry can be pushed back towards the Middle Ages. Then a brief considerat ion will be given of the meagre pre-mediev al evidence, including the origin of British sheep, and finally the Middle Ages will be covered in greater detail, taking each source of evidence in turn. Although I have used new evidence from wool in textile remains, it has not been possible to relate the findings to cloth descriptio ns used by economic historians .

The fauna of Anglo-Saxon England was plentiful and varied, and included some animals that have since been made extinct in this country. The vast areas of uninhabited forests, heaths and fells were home to many creatures, in addition to the other wild creatures that inhabited the towns and villages including the domestic animals.

Seneschauc ie is an anonymous document of the later 13th century, thought to date from the early 1270s, describing the roles of all officers and manorial servants on an idealised estate. It is not a guide to agricultur al practice, but to organisati on and man-manage ment.

One of the earliest manuscript s to deal specifical ly with 17th century agricultur e in Scotland was written by John Skene of the Hallyards, who succeeded to the estate in 1644, and died in 1669.

It has recently been maintained that computatio n by the 'great ' or 'long& #39; hundred of six score was "the prevailing usage in sheep-farm ing accounts&# 34; in medieval England. Since this contention , if correct, would profoundly affect the statistics of medieval sheep-farm ing, an examinatio n of evidence bearing upon the matter may be of some use.

Medieval livestock. Pigs, cattle, sheep. Modern efforts to preserve older breeds. Differences between period and modern livestock.

Helping the recreationist evaluate the value of the Cheviot breeds, especially that of the Brecknock Hill Cheviot in regard to the fiber needs, aesthetic values and shepherding abilities of the recreationist.

A dialogue on the labors of plowmen, shepherds, oxherds, and fishermen.

Trace the origins and influence of the Merino sheep mainly in art, but also in literature and natural studies, from the time of its appearance on the European continent through the Renaissance period.

The size, weight and carcass compositio n of cattle and sheep in early modern Scotland.

This translatio n of Walter of Henley&#39 ;s Treatise on Husbandry, which was written in the third quarter of the 13th century. The treatise is aimed at the owners of medium and large estates who worked their demesne lands, rather than farmed them out for cash rents, but might have little direct knowledge of agricultur e.