Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Animal Husbandry, Disease, Breeding

    Opens by introducing the characters Dan'l and Dick, a 'brace of clowns' who stand on Hampshire hills, separated by a vale. The clowns discuss news that small-pox has infected sheep in Wiltshire, although Dick is surprised by the possibility of 'Small-pox in ship' and expects ''Twool make the butchers look uncommon blue'. After Dick notes the fact that the disease does not affect swine, they wonder why some species are affected by the disease more than others. They note that pigs 'our sart o' poor relations be' and the wide gulf ''twixt ourselves and ship', but that both pigs and sheep would contract diseases found in humans such as measles. Dan surmises, however, that the peculiar infection of sheep might be related to the fact that they are 'new schemes o'breed' that 'Departun off from Natur's good old ways'.