126 INTRODUCTION. 



Dalmatians, Thracians, Asturians, Sarmatians, &c. 

 must have influenced the form, colours, and quali- 

 ties of horses in the island; and similarly, if the 

 order was equally adhered to, how the British sta- 

 tioned in Armenia and Egypt may have introduced 

 their own to Asia and Africa. It is to this practice 

 that the great intermixture of colours and characters 

 of the horses of Europe may he ascribed, although 

 the effect was greatly modified when the invasions 

 of barbarian conquerors subsequently broke into 

 both empires, each nation conveying along with the 

 whole moveable property its OAvn native breed of 

 horses into the newly acquired territory, and leaving 

 a second amalgamation to future generations. With 

 the exception of the Huns, who withdrew again, 

 the Magyar or Hungarian, and some other nations 

 in the east of Europe, most were already known, 

 and their horses had been introduced by purchase 

 before they came as conquerors ; we may, however, 

 imagine the black race in Spain and in Morocco to 

 have originated in the Alan and Vandal conquests, 

 and the rufous or chesnut breeds of the north-cast 

 of France to derive from the Burgundian invasion. 



We intend to resume this subject when the his- 

 tory of the present breeds of horses shall be con- 

 sidered, and therefore remark only, that in antiquity, 

 with the exception of the black race reared in Gaul 

 and Western Germany, the Asiatic and African 

 bays, /3aX/oj, and the white of Asia Minor, all the 

 breeds of horses were undersized ; and indeed it was 

 not desirable to have them fifteen hands high, as 



