BREEDING. 215 



favourite breed with the aristocracy of the day ; so 

 that their likeness very probably suggested to 

 the eye and mind of Virgil that graphic descrip- 

 tion of a noble animal that he has left us in the 

 Georgia 



From this time forward " occasional mention is 

 made of the excellence of British horses. The Saxons 

 appear to have paid great attention to the horse, and 

 to have been fully aware of the importance of im- 

 proving the breed. The cognisance which waved on 

 the Kentish royal banner was a white horse. Of 

 what character were the native breeds up to the 

 Norman Conquest it is now impossible even to guess. 

 That they were powerful and well suited to the pur- 

 poses of war, both by their stature and training, we 

 have the testimony of Caesar before mentioned, and 

 of subsequent historians ; but the first attempt on 

 record to improve the native stock by the introduc- 

 tion of foreign blood, occurred during the reign of 

 William the Conqueror, when Roger de Belesme, 

 Earl of Shrewsbury, imported the elegant and docile 

 Spanish horse, and bred from it on his estates in 

 Powis land : and it is recorded that the horses of that 

 part of Wales were long celebrated for their swiftness, 

 — a quality which they doubtless derived from this 

 happy mixture of blood." (Yarrell.) 



At a subsequent period there is a tradition of some 

 foreign horses swimming ashore from a wreck in the 

 Bristol Channel, and escaping clear to the hills. Of 

 recent years great occasional efforts have been made 

 by various landed proprietors in North and South 

 Wales to improve the breed by turning out occa- 



