INTRODUCTION. J 45 



Both the foregoing remarks, and the account of 

 the ancient breeds of horses, appeared to be neces- 

 sary in a preliminary statement, before the question 

 of wild horses could be considered ; because, while 

 they throw, we hope, some light on their primitive 

 distribution, considered merely as different races, as 

 varieties, or as distinct forms, more or less approach- 

 ing to actually separate species, they prepare the 

 reader more fully to enter upon the question of the 

 true wild horse, and the distinctions which, even 

 now, animals collectively so called present to the 

 observer. We have shown that varieties of colour, 

 at least, were in the earliest ages located in a line of 

 nearly the same latitude, but separated in longitude 

 from east to west upon geographical surfaces, where 

 there still remains evidence of their presence, not- 

 withstanding the lapse of ages, and the position 

 they occupied in the colonial route of nations ; and 

 that their gradual intermixture was effected by these 

 causes, and still more by the north-eastern progress 

 of Islamism. There are allusions to the different 

 stocks, beside those already noticed, in the sacred 

 and profane writers ; the former in the mysterious 

 visions of the prophets, and even in the Revela- 

 tions;* the latter in poets and historians to the 



the learned landgrave of Hesse, in his secret visit to Henry IV. 

 of France, observed, in 1602, " English groom* with the king's 

 horses at the Louvre." 



* Zachariah, chap. i. ver. 8, although in a mysterious allt* 

 sion, yet marks the bay Syrian, the white A nneno- Persian, 

 and piebald Macedonian race : and in the Revelations, chap, vi., 



