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The object was to amuse the audience; but in England no "court gluttony," much less country Christmas, ever saw buttered eggs which had cost £30, or pies of carps' tongues, or pheasants drenched with ambergris, or sauce for a peacock made of the gravy of three fat wethers, or sucking pigs at twenty marks each.
To know him properly, one needs to see him at work in a country where sheep abound, to watch him adroitly rounding up his scattered charges on a wide-stretching moorland, gathering the wandering wethers into close order and driving them before him in unbroken company to the fold; handling the stubborn pack in a narrow lane, or holding them in a corner of a field, immobile under the spell of his vigilant eye.
"My father, good sir, may put what show upon it he will, but shrewd and wise men wax weak in the brain these troublous times. He saw two or three wolves seize upon three of our choicest wethers; and because I shouted to give the alarm to the English garrison, he was angry as if he could have murdered me -just for saving the sheep from the jaws that would have devoured them."
And one man I noticed was of the wethers, to wit the Duke of Norfolk; who stopped outside with the sword of state, like a beadle with a rapping-rod. This has taken more to tell than the time it happened in.
The party had pushed forward before I, or Mr. M'Leay, had mounted our horses; but on overtaking it, we found that eight fine wethers had been added to our stock of animals. To the W.N.W. of Yass Plains there is a remarkable hill, called Pouni, remarkable not so much on account of its height, as of its commanding position.
Lambs. 1 2-yr. 304 136 136 576 Deaths 5 Incr.272 2 3-yr. 293 135 136 564 3 271 3 5-yr. 324 156 156 636 1 312 4 6-yr. 320 156 156 632 2 312 Killed 4 5 3-yr. 300 300 Deaths 2 1167 6 2-yr. 308 308 1 7 1-yr 443 443 8 1-yr 442 442 1 9 40 40 5 3941 20 Purchased 12 Flocks.|Breeding|Maiden|Wethers.|Rams.| Lambs. |Total.| Remarks. | Ewes. | Ewes.| |Male. Female.| No.
I looked for something to read, but the only books in the house were a Bible, which was never opened, and a diary kept most religiously by M'Swat. I got permission to read this, and opening it, saw: September 1st. Fine. Wint to boggie creak for a cow. 2nd. Fine. Got the chestnut mair shode. 3rd. Fine. On the jury. 4th. Fine. Tail the lams 60 yeos 52 wethers. 5th. Cloudy. Wint to Duffys. 6th. Fine.
But before we began again, I laid my head well into the chamber; and there I hears a faint "ma-a-ah," coming through some ells of snow, like a plaintive, buried hope, or a last appeal. I shouted aloud to cheer him up, for I knew what sheep it was, to wit, the most valiant of all the wethers, who had met me when I came home from London, and been so glad to see me.
So prolific was the mixed breed, that in ten years, a flock which originally consisted of not more than seventy Bengal sheep, had increased in number to 4,000 head, although the wethers had been killed as they became fit for slaughter. It appears, however, that as the sheep approached to greater purity of blood, their extreme fecundity diminished. In 1803, Mr.
Bring sheep, shepherd, men, stores, all at one and the same time. Some wethers must be included in your purchase, otherwise you will run short of meat, as none of your own breeding will be ready for the knife for a year and a half, to say the least of it.
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