CHAPTER VI. 



THE ENGLISH RACE HORSE (Continued). 



England supplied with horses be ore the Christian era Bred for different 

 purposes Markhain on the speed of early native horses Duke of New- 

 castle on Arabians Hisch ice of blood to propagate Size of early English 

 horses Difficulties about pedigrees in the seventeenth and eighteenth 

 centuries Early accumulations very trashy The Galloways and Irish 

 Hobbies Discrepancies in size The old saddle stock The pacers wiped 

 out Partial revision of the English Stud Book. 



BRITAIN was fully supplied with horses when first invaded by 

 the Romans, but as there is no history beyond that period we are 

 only groping in the dark when we attempt to discover when or 

 whence this supply was procured. The most reasonable theory 

 is that the first supply came from the Phoenician merchants, 

 when they were trading for tin in the southwestern part of 

 Britain. If this theory be correct, the trading between the 

 Phoenicians and the Britons could hardly have been later than 

 the fourth century before the Christian era, and it is more prob- 

 able that it was several centuries earlier. This topic, however, 

 has been considered in a preceding chapter. Another theory is 

 that when the tides of migration struck the Atlantic, in the 

 higher latitudes, there was a natural deflection toward the 

 warmer countries of the south, the people carrying their horses 

 with them. But from the primitive condition of the arts and of 

 maritime affairs among the Norsemen of that very early period, 

 and from the insular position of Britain, it seems to me that to 

 reach it with horses, the most probable source of supply was from 

 that great nation whose "ships of Tarshish" had been trading to 

 all -lands more than a thousand years before the Christian era. 

 But, laying all theories aside, there are some facts and dates that 

 we know, and the particular one to which I wish here to call at- 

 tention is the historical record that when the Romans first visited 

 Britain they found an abundant supply of horses; and this was 

 about four hundred years before Arabia received her supply from 

 the Emperor Constantius. 



