Ill] 



AND HISTORIC TIMES 



403 



directly from Spain in Tudor times. Accordingly it has been 

 the fashion to recognise an Andalusian type in the Connemara , 

 ponies, just as it is popularly supposed that a well-known type I 

 amongst the peasantry of the west and south of Ireland is due ' 

 to Spanish blood derived from Spaniards escaped from the 

 Armada, though history shows that, with very few exceptions, 

 these unfortunates were despatched on the shore and left no / 

 time to perpetuate their race. In the chestnut colour, which 



Fig. 120. Yellow-dun Connemara Pony (so-called 'Andalusian' type). 



some have taken to be the most usual, writers have seen 

 further proof of an Andalusian origin. But the Connemara 

 ponies of to-day are dun, white, grey, black, chestnut, and 

 bay, the most typical specimens of the so-called Andalusian 

 type being yellow-dun (Figs. 120, 121)\ whilst the most common 



^ Ewart, Journal of the Department of Agriculture for Ireland, Nov. 1900, 

 pp. 181 sqq. ; 'The Ponies of Connemara,' in Ireland, Industruil and Agricultural, 

 1902, pp. 332 sqq. I am indebted to the Irish Department of Agriculture for 



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