i94 iProfessor Low on tlie 



never appear to have been distinguished as horsemen in the 

 mountainous country which they so valiantly defended. From 

 their laws and chronicles we learn some curious details re- 

 garding their horses. Hywelda or Howell, surnamed the 

 Oood, who lived in the tenth century, condescended to legis- 

 late on every subject of household and general economy. He 

 fixed the price of all things to be bought and sold within his 

 dominions, from horses to cats. The price of a foal under 

 fourteen days old was to be 4d., of one year and a day old 

 48d., and so on. He turned his royal thoughts to the tricks 

 of horse-dealers, a class of persons who seem in every age to 

 have adopted the maxim of never speaking the truth in mat- 

 ters of trade. For every blemish discovered in a horse after 

 sale, one-third of the money was to be returned, except the 

 blemish should be on the ears or tail! The buyer was 

 to have a certain time allowed him to ascertain whether the 

 horse was free from three diseases, namely, three nights for 

 the staggers, three months for the wind, and a year for the 

 glanders. Whoever borrowed a horse and rubbed the hair 

 off, so as to gall the back, was to pay 4d. ; if the skin was 

 forced into the flesh 8d. ; if the flesh was forced to the bone, 

 16d. No horse was to be used in the plough ; but he was to 

 be brought up as a serving horse or palfrey, and his price 

 was then to be 120d. Horses can only be supposed to have 

 been valuable from the smallness of their numbers when such 

 absurdities could have become the laws of even the pettiest 

 province. When the Normans conquered and partitioned 

 Wales, other horses than those of the country could not fail 

 to be introduced. Roger de Belle sme, afterwards Earl of 

 Shrewsbury, is said to have brought the Spanish Jennet to 

 his estate of Powisland, to which circumstance has been 

 ascribed the reputation which the horses of that part of Wales 

 once possessed. But whatever changes may have taken 

 place in the ancient horses of Wales, it is plain that many 

 of those which now possess the country are of mixed lineage. 

 In the higher country, indeed, considerable numbers of ponies 

 are reared, which may be supposed to be pure with respect 

 to their descent from the pristine race. They are much 

 neglected, but are usually superior to the ponies of the High- 

 lands of Scotland, having better shouV^ rs,. finer limbs, and 



