THE ATHOLE GARRON. 



461 



into Spain, about the commencement of the sixteenth 

 century, for stalhons, and Louis XII. of France sent him 

 as a present a choice collection of the best French breeds. 

 In 1535 James V. passed an Act of ParUament for in- 

 creasing the size of Scottish horses, and more particularly 

 those of the ancient Royal forests, of which Athole is one 

 of the oldest. The weight to be carried to the hill is very 



[C. REID, WISHAW. 



^''''"' 'pig. 476.-Lord Londonderry's 4-year-old Clydesdale stallion, Holyrood. 



rarely under i6 or 17 stone, and the garrons have often 

 to finish the last ten miles home of a full thirty miles 

 journey with an i8-stone dead stag on their backs. They 

 are if anything a little short in the neck to make com- 

 fortable saddle hacks, but for hill work they have no equals, 

 as there really is no tiring them out. Ml are hill reared 

 and brought up on rough hill pasture, scarcely any of them 

 knowing anything of oats." 



The Irish word, garron, has the same derivation as the 



