374 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. 



hind feet white, or all four feet white ; but note that such 

 white must not mount above the pastors, and such horses be 

 not caled Balzani, but Calzeti, which is as much to say in English 

 as hosed." Space does not permit the enumeration of the bad 

 kinds of leg-marks, but Blundeville makes the very important 

 statement that " It is an excellent good mark also that a horse 

 have a white star in his forehead, or a white List or fillet 

 coming down on his head without touching his brow, and not 

 fully arriving to his nose." But, as we have seen that a white 

 star in the forehead and white bracelets are the constant con- 

 comitants of the bay colour in the North African horse, the 

 occurrence of white marks in horses of the colours mentioned 

 by Blundeville is a clear indication that they have North African 

 blood in their veins. 



The later history of the Suffolk Punch offers an unexpected 

 corroboration of this inference. The original breed had certain 

 characteristic points — a low, plain fore-end, a sorrel colour, 

 short legs, bent hocks, and a facility for drawing, which as 

 far back as 1740 was reckoned the principal test of merit \ 

 Every well-bred Suffolk horse of to-day is descended from a 

 nameless stallion of the 'old breed' foaled in 1768 and which 

 belonged to a Mr Crisp of Ufford, near Woodbridge. He was 

 "a fine bright chestnut, full 15i hands high." About 1773 fresh 

 blood was introduced — a Lincolnshire trotting horse, a stallion 

 short-legged, low, and chestnut in colour, which very soon blended 

 completely with the old, with the result that the breed had 

 more action and was smarter to look at, though in its prominent 

 features the breed was not greatly altered. At the beginning 

 of the nineteenth century another foreign stallion, also chest- 

 nut, was introduced, and he exercised a considerable influence 

 on the breed ; the chief points in the new cross being a little 

 more size and a little less symmetry. About the same time 

 another foreign element was engrafted on the Suffolk stock, 

 a stallion with less of the characteristic type of the old breed 

 than the other two sires, for he was bay, and those of his off- 

 spring which were chestnut were very dark, and had in most 



1 Bidden, loc. cit. 



