Читать книгу The Taste of Britain - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - Страница 351

The sheep collectively known as ‘down’ breeds evolved from the native stock of the chalk hills of southern England. This area has been sheep-raising country for many centuries and, by the 1700s, several distinct races had evolved. The first to receive any attention was the Southdown. Improvements were begun by John Ellman of Glynde (Sussex). Thereafter, it was considered one of the best producers of lamb and mutton. Mrs Beeton (1861) comments on the ‘recent improvements’, and remarks, ‘of all mutton, that furnished by the Southdown sheep is most highly esteemed; it is also the dearest on account of its scarcity, and the great demand for it.’

‘From the beginning of the nineteenth century, the fashionable Southdown was increasingly interbred with all the downland breeds and this transformed them,’ thus the origin of Oxford Down, Hampshire Down, and Dorset Down (Hall & Clutton-Brock, 1989). It was also used to improve the Shropshire and bred with the Norfolk to produce the ancestors of the modern Suffolk—now much used for meat.