466 



BRITISH AND IRISH HORSES. 



is preserved in the Edinburgh Museum an ancient Celtic 

 stone, which was discovered in the Isle of Bressay, bearing, 

 amongst other pictures of various objects, an excellent 

 representation of a horse, on which a man is mounted. 

 As the horse is certainly the most lifelike of all subjects 

 carved on the stone, it can be safely conjectured that the 

 early inhabitants must have known the animal well in 

 order to depict it so faithfully. 



77/0/0 by] [0. IIKID, WisuAW. 



Fig. 483. — Lord Arthur Cecil's West Highland pony, Highland Laddie. 



" The first authentic record we have of such ponies 

 existing in Shetland is from Brand, the historian, who 

 wrote about the islands in 1700. He says : ' They have 

 a sort of little horses, called Shelties, than which no other 

 are to be had, if not brought hither, and from other places. 

 They are of a less size than the Orkney horses, for some 

 will be but nine, others ten, nives or hand-breadths high, 

 and they will be thought big horses there if eleven, and 



