HEAVY HOESES 177 



so curious as the great lords and great gentry were heretofore, neither 

 would they be at the cost". The noble author has, however, a word of 

 praise for English horses, for he supplements his former observations by 

 saying of them: "There are none like them in the world to breed on, 

 but then you must choose them fit for such horses as you would breed "— 

 a piece of advice which must have been obvious to most of his readers. 

 In the course of his work, the Duke of Newcastle appears to be a little 

 hard on Blundeville upon one or two occasions, and unnecessarily so, he 

 being particularly unfortunate in his sneer at the drawing capacity of 

 the heavy horses, as he had evidently not taken into consideration the 

 weight of the vehicles and the badness of the roads which have been 

 referred to above. He denies the existence of the similarity that the 

 earlier writer notices between the Flemish, Almaine, and English animals, 

 and in fact appears to have written with some degree of hostility towards 

 Blundeville, for the justification of which no good reason is forthcoming. 



At a still more recent period it is related that the state coach of 

 Queen Anne was drawn by a team of long-tailed mares of large proportions; 

 and then there occurs another hiatus in the history of the heavy horse; 

 though in the year 1796 an article in the Sporting Magazine refers to 

 " a large and strong breed in the more fertile and luxuriant part of the 

 island", and to the fact of there being no country that could produce 

 their equal for strength and size, " as there are instances of single horses 

 that are able to draw the weight of three tons". Sir Walter Gilbey 

 notices a writer, the well-known Arthur Young, who, in describing a 

 tour lie made through England, alludes to there being only two varieties 

 of Cart-horses as deserving attention — "the large, black, old English- 

 born, the produce, principally, of the Shire counties in the heart of England, 

 and the sorrel-coloured Suffolk Punch, for which the sandy tract of country 

 near Woodleigh is famous ". 



Another rather important link in the chain that connects the present 

 Shire horse with his remote ancestors is to be found in the contribution 

 supplied by John Scott to the Sportsman's Repository in the year 

 1820. This writer commences his observations by a description which 

 is as follows: "A capital Cart-horse should not be more than 15 hands 

 in height, with a brisk sparkling eye, a light well - shaped head, and 

 short prickled ears, full chest and shoulder, but somewhat forelow, that 

 is to say, heavier in his rump than his forehand. He should have 

 sufficient general length, but be by no means leggy, large and swelling 

 fillets, and flat bones. He should stand wide all-fours, but widest behind, 

 bend his knees well, and have a brisk action walk." From some of his 

 expressions, notably those referring to being lower in front and the bending 



