GALLOWAYS AND PONIES. 5^ 



dozen miles, and never felt such power and action in so small a compass 

 before. To show his accomplishments, he was turned over a gate at least 

 eitrht inches higher than his back ; and his owner, who rides fourteeo 

 stone, travelled on him from Bristol to South Molton, eighty-six miles, 

 beating the coach which runs the same road. 



The horses which are still used in Devonshire, and particularly in the 

 M'estern and southern districts, under the denomination of Pack-Hokses, 

 are a larger variety of the Exmoor or Dartmoor breed. The saddle- 

 horses of Devonshire are mostly procured from the more eastern counties. 



There ai-e many farms in that beautiful part of the kingdom on which 

 there is not a pair of wheels. Hay, corn, straw, fuel, stones, dung, lime, 

 &;c., are carried on horseback ; and in harvest, sledges drawn by oxen and 

 horses are used. This was probably in early times the mode of con- 

 veyance throughout the kingdom, and is continued in these districts, 

 partly from the hilliness of the country, and more from backwardness 

 in all matters of improvement. Light articles, as corn, straw, faggots, 

 &;c., are carried in crooks, formed of willow poles, of the thickness of 

 scythe-handles, bent as ox-bows, and with one end much longer than 

 the other ; these are joined in pairs by cross-bars, eighteen inches or two 

 feet long, and each horse has two pair of them, slung together, so that 

 the shorter ends lie against the pack-saddle, and the longer stand four or 

 five feet from each other, and rise fifteen or eighteen inches above the 

 horse's back. Within and between these crooks the load is piled. Dung, 

 sand, &c., are carried in pot^, or strong coarse panniers, slung together 

 in the same way, and the dung ridged up over the saddle. At the bottom of 

 the pot is a falling door, and at the end of the journey the trap is unlatched, 

 and the load falls out. 



There is on Dartmoor a race of ponies much in request in that vicinity, 

 being sure-footed, and hardy, and admirably calculated to scramble over 

 the rough roads and dreary wilds of that mountainous district. The 

 Dartmoor pony is larger than the Exmoor, and, if possible, uglier He 

 exists there almost in a state of nature. The late Captain Colgrave, of 

 the prison, had a great desire to possess one of them, of somewhat superior 

 figure to its fellows, and having several men to assist him, they separated 

 it from the herd. They drove it on some rocks by the side of a tor (an 

 abrupt pointed hill) ; a man followed on horseback, while the Captain stood 

 below watching the chase. The little animal, being driven into a corner, 

 leaped completely over the man and horse, and escaped. 



The Highland Pony is far inferior to the galloway. The head is large, 

 he is low before, long in the back, short in the legs, upright in the pasterns, 

 rather slow in his paces, and not pleasant to ride, except in the canter. 

 His habits make him hardy, for he is rarely housed in the summer or the 

 winter. The Rev. Mr, Hall, in his "Travels in Scotland," says, "that 

 when these animals come to any boggy piece of ground, they first put 

 their nose to it, and then pat on it in a peculiar way with one of their fore- 

 feet, and from the sound and feel of the ground, they know whether it will 

 bear them. They do the same with ice, and determine in a minute whether 

 they will proceed." 



The Shetland Pony, called in Scotland Sheltie, an inhabitant of the 

 extremest northern Scottish isles, is a very diminutive animal, sometimes 

 not seven hands and a half in height, and rarely exceeding nine and a half. 

 He is often exceedingly beautiful, with a small head, good-tempered coun- 

 tenance, a short neck, fine towards the throttle, shoulders low and thick, (in 

 so little a creature far from being a blemish,) back short, quarters expanded 



