NAMES AND HISTORY 421 



Names and History. The Shire horse or its prototype, 

 we are told by Walter Gilbey in his handsome little volume 

 The Old English War Horse, 1 was written of a thousand 

 years ago as " The Great Horse." It has been subsequently 

 named the " War Horse," " Old English Black Horse," and 

 the " Strong Horse." 



It is within comparatively recent times that horses have 

 all but superseded bullocks in the working of land. 2 The 

 original work of the English horse was to drag a cumbrous 

 war-chariot at a furious pace. Caesar's account of it shows 

 that even at that early date the breed was maintained in a 

 high state of proficiency, not only as regards physical form 

 and quality, but also in training. He showed a practical 

 appreciation by " carrying many of them to Rome," and for a 

 time they were in much request. At a later period it was 

 necessary to maintain the size and strength of the horse, to 

 enable the animal to carry the heavy plate-armour of the 

 mounted knight, who " often rode more than twenty-five 

 stones." To the efforts made to attain this object we are 

 indebted for the massive frames and powerful limbs of the 

 Shire breed of to-day. Low asserts that it is descended from 

 a black race of horses "which existed in Europe from a 

 remote age," and was the breed " from which the Romans 

 derived the most powerful horses of their cavalry from Belgic 

 Gaul." It maintained its greatest purity in the States of 

 Holland and the Kingdom of Belgium. 



" Its typical form (1845) ' ls round and massive, the chest is 

 wide, the neck strong and muscular, the limbs are short, stout, 

 and hairy. It possesses physical strength and safe action, but 

 is wanting in lightness and speed. It presents every variety 

 of size, from the little sturdy German hackney, to the large 

 animals suited for the waggon and the heavy carriage. The 

 same widely spread race extends into England, etc., etc., with 

 its main centre in the fens and midland counties." 



The first attempt to improve the " coarse-headed, large- 



1 Vinton & Co., Tim. Bream's Buildings, London. 



2 The earliest record of the use of the horse in field work is preserved 

 on a piece of Bayeux tapestry of the time of William the Conqueror 

 (A.D. 1066), showing the figure of a man driving a horse attached to a 

 harrow. About the end of the previous century, a Welsh law "forbids 

 the farmer to plough with horses, mares, or cows, but with oxen alone." 

 YOUATT. 



