Cleveland Bays and Yorkshire Coach Horses 33 



small side — about 16 hands. He would be no worse for being half 

 an inch short of that height, but he should be full of quality and 

 action. Such a horse would sire a good-looking powerful brougham 

 horse from a Cleveland Bay mare. In selecting a Thoroughbred, 

 when the breeding of a harness horse is the object, it is not so 

 necessary to insist on compactness. There must be length under- 

 neath, and if harness is the object it does not so very much matter 

 if there is a little length on the top as well. Action, of course, is 

 imperative. I should add that the cross between a Thoroughbred 

 and a Cleveland Bay mare is often very good both in saddle and 

 harness, and is an exemplification of the proverb which tells us that 

 a good saddle horse is always a good harness horse, though the 

 reverse by no means applies. 



With the Cleveland Bay, such an excellent worker on the land 

 and such a valuable acquisition in the stud, one would think the 

 breed would be found all over the country, instead of only in a 

 corner of it, and that, really, not in great numbers. As a matter 

 of fact the Cleveland Bay has had, since the beginning of the nine- 

 teenth century, a very chequered existence. Sometimes he has 

 been what Yorkshiremen describe as "all money"; then for a time 

 it has scarcely been possible to give one away. Curious as this 

 may be, it is not difficult to account for. 



When in the beginning of the nineteenth century a lighter 

 carriage and a lighter horse were used on the improved roads, an 

 idea began to prevail that Cleveland Bays would be no longer 

 wanted, and no attempt was made to maintain the purity of the 

 breed except by a few enthusiasts. Then came a time of recrudes- 

 cence, and the Cleveland Bay was looked upon as valuable on the 

 land, as engravings and articles in the Farmers' Magazine and the 

 Sporting Magazine and Sporting Review clearly show. Mr. Lloyd, 

 a Gloucestershire farmer, tells his experience with a Cleveland 

 horse in the first-named periodical in the year 1825, and up to the 

 railway days the breed prospered. 



When the railway days came there was a slump and a clearing 



out, and I have heard a Yorkshire farmer say that it was pitiable 



to see so many fine mares leaving the country. He saw shiploads 



of them going, and at a price which was a bare acknowledgment 



They were sent to Belgium and Germany, and our Belgian and 



German neighbours showed they knew what they were about when 



they availed themselves of the opportunity caused by our folly. 



I wonder how many descendants of those mares we gave away have 



come to England at big prices? 



There was a revival after this, and in the 'sixties some great 

 Vot. III. 36 



