Sheep Panics

Abstract

A SHEEP panic on the night of December 10–11, in which the sheep broke their folds in twenty parishes in an area extending some twenty miles in the highest part of Cambridgeshire, has been attracting attention. These panics have often occurred, for sheep are notoriously timid and nervous animals. On November 3, 1888—an intensely dark night, with occasional flashes of lightning—tens of thousands of folded sheep jumped the hurdles and were found scattered the next morning. Every large farm from Wal-lingford to Twyford was affected, and those on the hill country north of the Thames most so. Again, on the night of December 4, 1893, another very remarkable panic among sheep occurred in the northern and middle parts of Oxfordshire, extending into adjoining parts of the counties of Warwick, Gloucester, and Berks.