214 NOTES ON FIELDS AND CATTLE. 



of kidneys and the juiciest of marrow-bones. What 

 a back for a beast to carry flesh — what a model for 

 an ox, what a caution to any that may meditate the 

 stinting of a young one. 



The Welsh cob is usually the produce of a pony 

 mare and an undersized cart colt, bred late, too, and 

 reared upon the mountain-side. Occasionally a cob 

 horse of pretty established type for some generations 

 back is travelled. His produce from a pony usually 

 results again in a more than ordinarily good cob, a 

 kind of active bright-going miniature weight-carrier, 

 with clean legs and grand action. 



The pure Welsh pony, to which the palm over 

 other ponies has been yielded over and over again at 

 the West of England Society's shows, has been cele- 

 brated from all time. To be born of a Welsh moun- 

 tain mare I hold to be as high a lineage as can befall 

 a horse. A relic are they probably of the gallant 

 sort which Caesar describes as tearing through the 

 ranks of war in the scythed chariots of his British 

 foe, pawing terribly in the valley (as is so magnifi- 

 cently pictured the Arabian in the oldest book on 

 record), snuffing the battle afar off, the thunder of 

 the captains, and the shouting, so that it required all 

 his personal influence besides his presence to induce 

 his tried troops at length to recover from their con- 

 sternation ; the trained docility and sure-footedness 

 of which astounded him, as they were reined up, he 

 tells us, at full stretch in the most steep and difficult 

 places ; a number of which were subsequently thought 

 worthy of being transported to Rome with a view to 

 the improvement of the Italian horse, and became a 



