352 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. 



which, as we have already seen, the Romans regarded as a 

 most formidable weapon (p. 98). The tribes of the northern 

 parts of the island used only war chariots, as we have learned 

 from Dio Cassius, owing to the diminutive size of their horses. 

 From these circumstances we may not unreasonably infer 

 that, whilst the older tribes of the island used probably the 

 Celtic pony which still lingers in the Hebrides, Connemara, 

 the Shetlands, the Faroe Islands, and Iceland (probably 

 even then more or less mixed with the large-headed Equus 

 cahallus of Europe and Asia), the Belgic tribes not only em- 

 ployed the latter under chariots, but had also imported from 

 their kinsmen on the other side of the Straits some of those 

 excellent horses largely of North African blood, which the 

 Gauls, as we have seen, possessed in abundance and on which 

 their cavalry was mounted at the time of Caesar's conquest 

 (p. 99). 



We may fairly infer that the horsemen of the Belgic tribes 

 of Kent were mounted on the same kind of horses as their 

 kindred on the other side of the Straits, the best of which, as 

 we have seen, were probably blacks and greys. Though un- 

 fortunately Caesar has left no description of the colours of the 

 British horses, yet when we come to deal with the early Irish 

 horses, we shall be able to adduce some evidence to show that 

 already in Roman times horses saturated with Libyan blood 

 and black and grey in colour, like the best horses of Spain and 

 Gaul, were already domiciled in the British Isles (p. 397). 



During the Roman occupation the British horses seem to 

 have been of no large size, if we may judge by the iron horse- 

 shoes found at Silchester and elsewhere, and which are 

 possibly to be ascribed to Roman times. As the Caledonians 

 and Meatae were certainly still using very small horses in the 

 second century A.D., we may infer that as a rule the horses 

 were nothing more than small ponies, though in the south 

 and east and in other parts in the vicinity of Roman stations 

 the native horses were probably improved by imported animals 

 from the Continent. 



The Teutonic tribes who settled in England in the fifth 

 century a.d. were for the most part essentially seamen and 



