hence the appellation extended to the flocks under his care.
It does not seem to be ascertained at what time this introduction of the English sheep took place. Sarmiento thinks under the last Alonso; but Gil Gonzalez Davila, in his History of Henrique III. (Madrid, 1638) says that Catharine, wife of that King, and daughter of John of Gaunt, brought them into Spain as her dowry. Y fue la que quando vino a España traxo a Castilla el uso de las camas de campo, y en dote el ganado que llamamos merino, p. 11.
How long was it before the merino fleece became finer than that of the original stock? Brito, who wrote towards the close of the sixteenth century, says in praise of the wool grown about Santarem, it is so fine that it may vie with that of England (Monarchia Lusitania, T. 1, p. 93). If the Spanish wool had been as fine then as it is now, he would hardly have drawn his comparison from the English.
