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 

 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) 1 , whilst the most common 



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

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

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



262 



