Most
of the flocks over a very large area took a panic and burst from their
folds, and next morning thousands of sheep were wandering all over the
hills. I feel certain that there must have been an earthquake shock that
night. Nothing else could have accounted for such a wide and general
stampede. The last authenticated earthquake shock in the South Midlands
took place hereabouts in 1775, and was noted at Lord Macclesfield's Castle
of Shirbourne, where the water in the moat was seen to rise against the
wall of one of the towers.[1]
Are our domestic sheep, except for their highly artificial development of
wool, really very different from their wild ancestors, the active and
flat-coated animals which still feed on the stony mountain-tops? The ways
of sheep, not only in this country but abroad, show that a part at least
of their wild nature is still strong in them; and if type photographs of
all the representative domestic animals of our time, had been possible a
few centuries ago, it may be that even in this country the shape of the
animal would be found to have been far nearer to the sheep of St. Kilda
and of the wild breeds than it is to-day.
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