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of communications between this country and the opposite continent, 

 from the most remote antiquity, with which may be joined the strongest 

 probability of the importation of the continental Horse. The Scy- 

 thians or Goths, having migrated to that part of the European con- 

 tinent, where they took the name of Belgcc, doubtless brought with them 

 the Horse of their native regions; the commercial connection also, 

 which subsisted between the ancient Britons and the Tyrians, might be 

 a mean of the introduction hither of the Horses of that country. 

 Thus the southern Horse niay have been brought into this country, 

 far earlier than has been generally supposed, and with respect to the 

 species of the northern parts of Europe, doubtless, it was introduced 

 by the Danes and other northern nations, in their various expeditions. 

 The chariots with scythes affixed to the wheels, and driven rapidly, and 

 bridles ornamented with ivory, found in Britain on the first arrival of 

 the Romans, prove to demonstration, a considerable maturity of skill in 

 the Britons, and the |JOssession of an active and appropriate breed of 

 Horses. The war chariot, with armed Avheels, is an eastern invention, 

 which the Britons most probably derived from Tyre, as well as the 

 breeding stock for the improvement of their Horses. The assertion of 

 the venerable Bede, that the Britons did not ride on horseback, until 

 the year 631, unless we are to understand it as limited to the clergy, 

 seems totally inconsistent with the relations of the Roman writers. 

 Riding on horseback could surely not be unknown in a country where 

 Horses were in such plenty, and which had long been connected with 

 other countries, where such convenience was known and practised. 

 Camden says, on the authority of Dio Niaeus, that the Horses of the 

 northern part of the island, were small, but very swift. 



It is not improbable, that after the loss of independence, the breed 

 of Horses might, from neglect, be suffered to degenerate, and history 

 seems silent on this subject, until the reign of the Anglo-Saxon monarch 

 Athelstan, who was much attached to the Horse, and gave all the 

 encouragement Avithin his knowledge and powers, to its propagation 

 and improvement. Athelstan procured Horses from various pails of 

 the continent, and received presents of white Horses from Saxony, 

 probably of the Turkish or Eastern breed, which, it is plain, he judged 



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