THE Indian summer spread its benevolent sheen over Masham for the weekend as the town again attracted the growing band of devotees of Masham Sheep Fair. The foot-and-mouth crisis of two years ago, which could have despatched the event to history, instead brought out the stubborn side of the British bulldog and support is greater than ever.

The biosecurity measures following the outbreak continue to have an impact for fewer sheep can be accommodated and the rare breeds are still missing. But that is all that was missing from the fair. The superb commentaries, explanatory, trenchant and telling it as it is, were in good form: make a friend of your butcher, learn to use the delicious lesser-used cuts of lamb, spurn man-made fibres and choose wool.

Vegetarians were reminded that without farmers, the countryside would be a wilderness and, over at the sheepdog demonstrations, the message was plain: don't keep a sheepdog as a pet, it is a working animal.

The two working on Sunday were a lesson in focusing on the job. Alec Bain from Tan Hill had brought a bitch and a dog from his sheep farm to carry out an unaccustomed job. One drove a flighty hen and the ducklings she had hatched around an obstacle course and the other included in its task weaving a separate clutch of ducklings around the legs of a line of children.

Sophisticated technology was put aside as the audience, with laughter, groans of suspense and applause, delighted in the displays of man and dog - but not always the white duckling - working together.

More information, education and entertainment was on offer at the Sheep Show stand, doing its last engagement of the year. Seven engaging sheep were brought on stage one at a time while the equally engaging New Zealander explained the antecedents of the Mule, the character of the Suffolk and the hair-do of the Lonk before giving a shearing demonstration.

If you'll excuse the pun, the crowds flocked around the show and children, who may never before have seen a fleece, were not the only ones who went home wiser.