102 THE DIFFERENT BREEDS OF ENGLISH HORSES. 



principally or purely of Eastern origin, so has the English draught horse sprung 

 chiefly from Flemish blood, and to that blood the agriculturist has recourse 

 for the perfection of the breed. For the dray, the spirit waggon, and not too 

 heavy loads, and for road work generally, a cross with the Flanders will be 

 advantageous ; but if the enormous heavy horse must be used in the coal- 

 waggon, or the dray, we must leave our midland black, with all his unwieldy 

 bulk untouched. 



As an ordinary beast of lighter draught, and particularly in the neighbour- 

 hood of London, the worn-out hackney and the refuse of the coach, and even of 

 the hackney-coach, is used. In the hay-markets of Whitechapel and Camden 

 Town are continually seen wretched teams, that would disgrace the poorest 

 district of the poorest country. The small farmer in the vicinity of the 

 metropolis, himself strangely inferior to the small farmer elsewhere, has too 

 easy access to that sink of cruelty, Smithfield. They who are unacquainted with 

 this part of the country, would scarcely think it possible, that on the forests and 

 commons within a few miles of London, as many ragged, wild, mongrel horses 

 are to be found, as in any district of the United Kingdom, and a good horse la 

 scarcely by any chance bred there. 



GALLOWAYS AND PONIES. 



A horse between thirteen and fourteen hands in height is called a GALLOWAY, 

 from a beautiful breed of little horses once found in the south of Scotland, on 

 the shore of the Solway Firth, but now sadly degenerated, and almost lost, 

 through the attempts of the farmer to obtain a larger kind, and better adapted 

 for the purposes of agriculture. There is a tradition in that country, that the 

 breed is of Spanish extraction, some horses having escaped from one of the 

 vessels of the Grand Armada, that was wrecked on the neighbouring coast. 

 This district, however, so early as the time of Edward I., supplied that monarch 

 with a great number of horses. 



The pure galloway was said to be nearly fourteen hands high, and sometimes 

 more ; of a bright bay, or brown, with black legs, small head and neck, and 

 peculiarly deep and clean legs. It qualities were speed, stoutness, and sure- 

 footedness over a very rugged and mountainous country. 



Some remains of the old galloways are still to be met with in the Isle of 

 Mull ; but they are altogether neglected, and fast degenerating from admixture 

 with inferior breeds. 



Dr. Anderson thus describes the galloway : " There was once a breed of 

 small elegant horses in Scotland, similar to those of Iceland and Sweden, and 

 which were known by the name of galloways ; the best of which sometimes 

 reached the height of fourteen hands and a half. One of this description I 

 possessed, it having been bought for my use when a boy. In point of elegance 

 of shape it was a perfect picture ; and in disposition was gentle and compliant. 

 It moved almost with a wish, and never tired. I rode this little creature for 

 twenty-five years, and twice in that time I rode a hundred and fifty miles at 

 a stretch, without stopping, except to bait, and that not for above an hour at 

 a time. It came in at the last stage with as much ease and alacrity as it tra- 

 velled the first. I could have undertaken to have performed on this beast, 

 when it was in its prime, sixty miles a day fora twelvemonth, running without 

 any extraordinary exertion." 



In 1754, Mr. Corker's galloway went one hundred miles a day, for three 

 successive days, over the Newmarket course, and without the slightest distress. 



A galloway, belonging to Mr. Sinclair, of Kirby-Lonsdale, performed at 

 Carlisle the extraordinary feat of a thousand miles in a thousand hours. 



