Down Sheep Shepherding is one of the oldest arts of
civilized man. The sheep has fed him and clothed him from the time, in northern latitudes, when he first forsook his caves. And England, more than any other European country, is the land of sheep and shepherds. Before the Norman Conquest, we were exporters of wool. Now, we are by far the greatest of importers. But with all our experience of shepherding, which we share with many dry sub-temperate countries, one branch of sheep-farming is peculiar to ourselves, the folding of sheep on arable land. One may say that the introduction of the turnip on the fallows during the eighteenth century revolutionized European farming, but in England alone was the art of folding sheep on those falloai developed. At this present time of year, the lambing-fold is to be seen all over the down lands and the Eastern Counties. There is no scene to compare with it, the shepherd livine in the fold night and day, the fold itself a snug series of individual lying-in compartments, dining quarters. and recreation grounds, all built of hurdles and straw. The very names of these folded flocks are redolent of open upland and arable —South Downs, Hampshire Downs, Oxford Downs, Dorset Downs, Suffolks and Ryelands, to name a few.
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