putation which he
would not risk in the show-ring without something worth exhibiting. I
started a flock of pedigree Shropshires, but my land was too good and
grew them too big and coarse for showing, and I soon found that it was
useless to try, though I succeeded in taking a prize at the
Warwickshire county show. It so happened that when my shepherd (not
John) returned in great triumph from the show, he found his first-born
son, who had arrived in his absence, awaiting him. "Well done,
shupperd," said a neighbour, "got him a son and a prize the same day!"

John was jealous of any interference in his remedial measures for
ailing sheep, but my wife, who doctored the village generally, was
anxious to try her hand, having little faith in his skill; so we
arranged that the next time he had what he considered a hopeless case
it was to be given over to her exclusively. The opportunity soon
occurred; a ewe was found caught by the fleece in some rough briars in
an old hedge, where it had been some hours in great distress, and,
with much struggling to free itself, it was quite exhausted. Pneumonia
supervened, and when John thought it impossible to save its life he
handed the case over to my wife. She succeeded, chiefly, I think, by
careful nursing, in pulling it through, much to John's surprise;
doubtless he thought its recovery a lucky fluke. John was given to
occasional alcoholic lapses; on one occasion I found him aimlessly
driving sheep across a field of growing mangolds! I could see that he
was muddled, and on reaching home later I sought an interview. He was
not to be found, but at his cottage his wife told me that John was not
very well. I postponed my reckoning till the following day, when, with
great readiness, he explained how it happened. "The day before," he
said, "I frained my fittle (refrained from my victuals) all day, and
when I got up yesterday I didn't feel justly righteous (quite right)
ov my inside; so I gets a bit of 'bacca, just about as much as _you_
med put in your pipe (this, apparently, to incriminate me), and I
putts it at the bottom of a tay-cup, with a drop ov rum; then I fills
it up with hot tay and drinks it off, and very soon I felt it a coming
over (overcoming) mer (me)."

Sheep-breeding was not one of the most important branches of farming
in my part of Worcestershire: the land is too stiff and wet, they
thrive much better on the Cotswolds or the chalk downs of Hampshire.
At one time I visited