Ill] 



AND HISTORIC TIMES 



367 



begun to run in 1670. Probably one of the latest representa- 

 tions of the Great Horse used as a charger is the famous statue 

 of William III in Dublin (Fig. 102). The king though garbed 

 like an ancient Roman is mounted on a horse of great stature 

 and of massive build. For two centuries the sculptor of this 

 ponderous steed has been the butt of Irish humorists, who, 

 surrounded by the best horses in the world, could not imagine 



Fig. 102. King William III on a Great Horse; College Green, Dublin. 



the hero of the Boyne to have ridden a cart-horse, and accord- 

 ingly regarded the animal as merely the offspring of the artist's 

 imagination. But the late Viscount Powerscourt some years 

 ago pointed out that he had seen horses of exactly a similar 

 type used by farmers in Holland \ and he suggested that the 



1 Lord Powerscourt could not find the reference to a Dublin daily paper, in 

 which his letter appeared, but in August (1903) he sent me the statement, which 

 I have given above. 



