CHAPTER IT. 



Mr. Karey's Pamphlet. Introduction. 



MR. RAREY'S American Pamphlet would make about 

 fifty pages of this type, if given in full ; but, in revising 

 my Illustrated Edition, I have decided on omiting six 

 pages of Introduction, which, copied from Mr. Rollo 

 Springfield, an American author, do not contain any 

 reliable facts or useful inferences. 



The speculations of the American author, as to the 

 early history of the horse, are written without sufficient 

 information. So far from the " polished Greeks " hav- 

 ing, as he states, "ridden without bridles," we have the 

 best authority in the frieze of the Parthenon for know- 

 ing that, although they rode barebacked on their com- 

 pact cobby ponies, they used reins and handled them 

 skilfully and elegantly. 



To go still further back, the bas-reliefs in the British 

 Museum, discovered by Mr. Layard in the Assyrian 

 Palace of Nimroud, contain spirited representation of 

 horses with bridles, ridden in hunting and in pursuit of 

 enemies, as well as driven in war-chariots. These 

 horses are Arabs, while those of the Elgin Marbles 

 more resemble the cream-coloured Hanoverians which 

 draw the state carriage of our sovereigns. In one of 

 the Nimroud bas-reliefs, we have cavalry soldiers stand- 

 ing with the bridles of their horses in their hands, 

 " waiting," as Mr. Bonomi tells us, " for the orders to 

 mount ; " but, as they stand on the left side, with the 

 bridles in their left hands, it is difficult to understand 



