Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

Mr J. Dixon, keep of the Unicorn inn, without Monk Bar, in the suburbs of the city, has now in his possession a yearling sheep, of the Shetland breed, which has got a very peculiar relish for the good things of this life. It will eat butter, bacon, cheese, onions, apples, sugar, fish, either raw or cooked, pickled herrings, plum cake, currants, raisins, lemons, and not excepting beef and mutton. The animal will drink ale, brandy, and rum, or coffee and rum, but it will not deign even to smell at gin when offered it, but to crown all it will chew tobacco. The above are facts which cannot be disputed.

Comment

Comment

Via Huddersfield Exposed:

I'm going to put "The above are facts which cannot be disputed" at the end of every email I send ;-P This is from 1841 about an extraordinary sheep in York that refused to drink gin: pic.twitter.com/nRM4n0zSf7

— Huddersfield Exposed (@HuddExposed) October 31, 2022

Perhaps the sheep had suffered from the recommendations of the agricultural writer, William Ellis:

This Author’s Receipt for curing a Sheep of that common Ail, the Gripes: A SHEEP, when troubled with this Malady, will tumble, like a Horse that is griped. If this happens in Summer-time, cut cross the Inside of the Sheep’s Tail pretty high; if in Winter, you may cut a Bit of its Tail quite off without Danger, and do nothing to it. And why they don’t cut off the Tail in Summer, is, because the Fly is apt to blow it and breed Maggots, and ’tis hard to stop the Bleeding. Mix as much Barley-Meal with a Quarter of a Pint of Gin, as the Gin will take up to make it into a Paste, and give it forthwith to a griped Sheep at twice or thrice; one Parcel immediately to follow the other, till it is all given; and when it is all given, then pour down a Sheep’s Throat, a short Half Quartern of naked Gin. Barley-Meal being a drier, rougher Sort than Wheat-Meal, is thought to be more proper for this Purpose than Wheat-Meal; but if the first cannot be got, the last will do: With this very Remedy, a Shepherd, that is at this Time working for me, assures me, he believes he has cured Half a Score Sheep in his Time, by this Remedy, and never knew it once fail (Ellis 1749).

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Original

Mr. J. Dixon, keep of the Unicorn inn, without Monk Bar, in the suburbs of the city, has now in his possession a yearling sheep, of the Shetland breed, which has got a very peculiar relish for the good things of this life. It will eat butter, bacon, cheese, onions, apples, sugar, fish, either raw or cooked, pickled herrings, plum cake, currants, raisins, lemons, and not excepting beef and mutton. The animal will drink ale, brandy, and rum, or coffee and rum, but it will not deign even to smell at gin when offered it, but to crown all it will chew tobacco. The above are facts which cannot be disputed.

117 words.

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• Alcohol (drug) (59) ·
• Apple (7) ·
• Bacon (1) ·
• Beef (3) ·
• Beer (34) ·
• Brandy (5) ·
• Butter (3) ·
• Cheese (1) ·
• Coffee (4) ·
• Fish (8) ·
• Gin (5) ·
• Herring (2) ·
• Lamb and mutton (1) ·
• Lemon (1) ·
• Onion (1) ·
• Pickled herring (1) ·
• Plum cake (1) ·
• Pork (3) ·
• Pub (19) ·
• Raisin (2) ·
• Rum (5) ·
• Scotland (37) ·
• Sheep (27) ·
• Shetland sheep (1) ·
• Shetland (5) ·
• Sugar (4) ·
• Tobacco (3) ·
• William Ellis (writer on agriculture) (1) ·
• Currant (1) ·

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