266 THE BLACK STOCK. 



the local greys, such as the Pyrenean and the Ar- 

 denne, is low, or reduced to the pony form ; but 

 still there is in their proportions an indication of a 

 larger sized animal, which immediately developes 

 when crossed with another race, or when removed 

 to a new locality. Thus the splendid breeds of this 

 stock, which our Norman and Plantagenet princes 

 formed by means of crossing the Pyrenean and Gas- 

 con Lyards, both in their continental possessions 

 and in England, attest that with slight care the race 

 immediately resumes its full development. Expe- 

 rience has likewise shown, in all ages, how advan- 

 tageously it was amalgamated with the bay in the 

 East and with the black in the West, acquiring all 

 the elegance of the former and all the colossal bulk 

 of the latter, with half-bred intermediates ; of one 

 of these our enormous grey breed of brewers' horses 

 is a sufficient proof; of the other the ancient mous- 

 quetaires gris in France and the Scots greys in 

 England are likewise examples, without recurring 

 to the Russian regiments mounted on Circassians. 



THE BLACK STOCK. 

 PLATES V. AND XIV. 



is most generally spread over Europe, and was at 

 one time, it appears, wild, both in the Alps and the 

 forests of northern Gaul, living in marshy woods 

 from the Jura to the Seine, and spreading to the 

 Ardennes, the Vogesian range, the Black Forest at 

 the sources of the Danube, the Thuringian and the 



