Ramblings
Saunterings
Ramblings: about North-West England
Ramblings is a set of articles about North-West England, of unknown authorship and
indeterminate date, believed to have been written for amusement on rainy days,
which are not unknown in North-West England.
28. The Way We Were, with Solomon Seal
Continuing the series to remind ourselves of the debt we owe to
our Lakeland pioneers, here, extracted from an ancient edition
of the Cumberland Courier, are some words of Solomon Seal,
Westmorland’s first sheep sharer.
“I have always been fascinated by sheep. Ever since I were a
lad I’ve keep records of all the sheep on our farm. I can’t read or
write, so my records are drawings.
You may think that all my drawings of sheep would look the
same but they don’t. Every sheep is an individual. I can recognise
any of my sheep by sight. In fact, by any other sense as well: by
sound, by feel, by smell, by taste - oh, no, not by taste. I wouldn’t
taste any of my own sheep.
I add little sketches to my records to show all the events in the
sheep’s life: where she goes, who she meets, what she eats, what her
ailments are: what a rich tapestry of life it is!
“I have tried to understand why a sheep wanders off our fields.
People think that a sheep stays where it belongs on the fells, but we
shepherds know that this is not quite true. Every so often, for some
reason, a sheep will escape to a neighbouring farmer’s field.
I have found, after years of study, that a sheep is always in
a serious state of distress to take such a step, to leave her friends
and family and to face unknown dangers in an alien field. With
careful monitoring, vulnerable sheep can be given protective care
to prevent this happening.
“We shepherds have known about wandering sheep for
centuries. That’s why we have shepherds’ meets every autumn.
Each shepherd brings along all the sheep that have strayed onto his
fields and they are returned to their owners. Usually, after a lot of
argument!
You may wonder why we bother - lose some sheep, gain
some sheep, it should all balance out in the end. But, of course,
every shepherd thinks his own sheep are the best, and he wants
them back.
“After a particularly rowdy meet, when the shepherds
couldn’t agree whose sheep were whose, someone said ‘We need
the wisdom of Solomon to sort this mess out.’ Everyone agreed,
and I was therefore appointed official sheep sharer, responsible for
sharing sheep out if amicable agreement could not be reached. They
realised that, with my deep knowledge of sheep, I would probably
know whose sheep were whose anyway.
“The first thing I did was to try to reduce the number of
wandering sheep. All the shepherds came on a one-week sheep
counselling course, at which I trained the shepherds to recognise
danger signals. This had limited success, as, I’m sorry to say, not
all shepherds are prepared to spend hours each day looking at their
sheep.
So, I thought, if we have to accept that there will be wandering
sheep, let’s at least make it easier to identify them. Let’s paint all the
sheep of each shepherd a colour that is different to other shepherds’
sheep.
“They all thought I was barmy, but I was determined to try it.
I bought 151 different colours of paint, one for each shepherd in the
region, and I went round painting every sheep myself.
It worked perfectly. There was absolutely no argument at the
meet. It was obvious whose sheep were whose. But there were two
problems.
First, it was hard to find 151 different colours. Now, my
records had shown that sheep gain such a psychological release by
escaping that they never wandered beyond the neighbour’s
field. Therefore I only needed enough different coloured paints to
ensure that no two adjacent shepherds’ fields had the same colour.
“So what was the minimum number of colours of paint that
I’d need? I spent weeks shifting colours around on a map on the
kitchen table trying to solve this problem. I managed to convince
myself that I only needed to buy four colours of paint: red, blue,
green, yellow. But I didn’t really prove it.
“The other problem was that wool-buyers didn’t want to buy
wool that had coloured splotches. They preferred wool to be wool-coloured.
So I discussed this with the paint-makers and they said
that they’d try to develop a paint that could be washed off just before
we shear the sheep. Unfortunately, they haven’t got the formula
right yet, to take account of all the rain in the Lakes. Usually, the
paint has all gone after a week.
“That suits me, really, as I then still have plenty to do at the
meets, and, you know, having 150 shepherds buying you drinks so
that you treat them kindly is rather pleasant”.
Photo:
Solomon Seal (in the white coat) at work.
Comments:
• It seems that Solomon Seal independently
discovered the famous ‘four-colour theorem’,
first conjectured by mathematicians in 1852 and not proved until
a computer did so in 1976. As far as I'm aware, Seal is the only person to have
found a practical application for the theorem.
• I thought that each shepherd clipped his
sheep's ears so that it was obvious which sheep were his. These 'meets' sound like
an excuse for shepherds to get together for a booze-up.
• Well, why not? It's a lonely job talking
to sheep all day.
• I agree. I wasn't suggesting they shouldn't have
their meets. It's no doubt important for shepherds to keep up with the local news
and to become aware of any new techniques and technology that will help their sheep-farming.
• Talking of technology, I expect that nowadays
shepherds can electronically tag their sheep so there's no need for a sheep-sharer at all.
Ramblings
Saunterings
© John Self, Drakkar Press, 2024-
Top photo: Rainbow over Kisdon in Swaledale;
Bottom photo: Ullswater