HEAVY HORSES 187 



" large horses " were brought, though it may not be unreasonable to infer 

 from contemporary events that they came into Teviotdale from Lanarkshire. 

 One other point in connection with these particular horses which is worthy 

 of consideration is the fact that the adoption of the word "magnos" in the 

 aforesaid "conduct", which was in Latin, is an unusual addition, as no 

 qualification of the word " equos " was added to the customary conducts 

 that were issued, this showing that the animals which found their way to 

 Teviotdale were unusually big. It is, of course, quite possible that, as their 

 stature seems to have been exceptionally great, they may have contained 

 the blood of foreign horses in their veins. Still, it does not appear that the 

 horse-breeders of Scotland, such as they then were, displayed anything like 

 the amount of interest shown by the English in the improvement of their 

 stock, though in the reign of King David II, who ascended the throne 

 in 1329, many foreign horses were imported into the country with 

 the object of increasing the size of the native animals. After the reign of 

 1 >avid II, there seems to have been no serious attempt made to increase the 

 value of Scottish horses until James IV ascended the throne in 1488, but 

 he soon began to do what he could to benefit horseflesh in Caledonia by 

 importing sires from Spain and Poland, though these belonged rather to the 

 light class of animal. King James V, however, seems to have recognized 

 the desirability of increasing the size and power of the native horse, and 

 issued a law that large-sized stallions and mares were to be kept by the 

 upper classes, just as in England persons of quality were expected to 

 maintain the position they aspired to by their patronage of the equine race, 

 on lines defined by law. 



What the breeding or stature of these large-sized stallions was, it is 

 impossible to ascertain; but it is quite reasonable to infer that they possessed 

 a great deal of Flanders blood, even if they were not clean-bred specimens 

 of that variety, as large numbers of the blacks in question were constantly 

 crossing the Channel at that time in order to improve the race of English 

 horses, which, whatever their other great qualities may have been, were 

 notoriously deficient in size. Most probably the Galloway of that period 

 was the breed upon which the breeders who were attempting to effect an 

 increase of size in the draught-horse of Scotland first set to work, and of 

 these Galloways it was stated that they were fit for saddle, load, or draught, 

 their strength and size having no doubt been increased by good breeding, 

 and care in the selection of stallions, as the animals from which they sprang 

 were certainly nothing remarkable in size, but rather the reverse. A very 

 possible reason for the horse-breeders of Scotland not having exerted them- 

 selves to produce extra heavy horses, is to be discovered in the fact that 

 most of the ploughing was done by oxen, whilst the unsettled condition 



