GALLOWAYS AND PONIES. 105 



eye, and distended nostril, showed that he was a perfect Bucephalus of the 

 hills ; nor, indeed, was it safe to attack him in the ordinary way. Many 

 of the three-year-olds had been known to break the legs of their pursuers, 

 and some had been dismounted and trampled to death. 



' Garonwy was determined to give the noble fellow a chase over the 

 hills, and so overcome him by fatigue before the lasso was flung. The 

 dogs were unslipped, and off they went, swift as the winds, Garonwy fol- 

 lowing, and the two assistants posted on a neighbouring eminence. Vain 

 was the efibrt to tire the merlyn. Hugo, natui'ally impatient, and without 

 waiting to ascertain that the coils were all clear, flung the lasso over the 

 head of the wild horse. The extremity of the cord was twisted round 

 his own body, and tightening as the animal struggled, the compression 

 became unsupp'ortable, and, at leng-th, in spite of every efibi't to disengage 

 himself, Garonwy was dragged from his horse. 



' The aifrighted merlyn finding himself manacled by the roj)e, darted 

 off Avith all the speed of which he was capable, dragging poor Garonwy 

 over the rocky ground and stunted brushwood. This occurred at some 

 distance from the men. They called in their dogs that the speed of the 

 merlyn might not be increased, but, ere they could arrive at the spot 

 at which the accident happened, the horse and the man had vanished. 

 Whether the sufferings of the hunter were protracted, or he was dashed 

 against some friendly rock at the commencement of this horrible race, was 

 never known ; but the wild animal, frenzied and bhnded by terror, rushed 

 over a beetling clifi", at a considerable distance, overhanging the sea-shore, 

 and the hunter and the horse were found at the bottom, a mis-shapen 

 semblance of what they had been when living.' 



A great many ponies of little value used to be reared on the Wildmoor 

 fens, in the neighboui-hood of Boston, in Lincolnshire. They seldom 

 reached thirteen hands ; the head Avas large, and the forehand low, the 

 back straight, the leg flat and good ; but the foot, even for a Lincolnshire 

 pony, unnaturally large. They were applied to very inferior purposes 

 even on the fens, and were unequal to hard and flinty and hilly roads. 

 The breed became generally neglected, and, at no very distant time, will 

 be probably extinct. 



The Exmoor ponies, although generally ugly enough, are hardy and 

 useful. A well-knoAvn sportsman says, that he rode one of them half-a- 

 dozen miles, and never felt such power and action in so small a compass 

 before. To show his accomplishments, he was tnrned over a gate at least 

 eight inches higher than his back ; and his owner, who rides fourteen 

 stone, travelled on him from Bristol to South Molton, eighty-six miles, 

 beating the coach which runs the same road. 



The horses Avhich were once used in Devonshire, and particularly in the 

 western and southern districts, under the denomination of Pack-horses, 

 are a larger variety of the Exmoor or Dartmoor breed. The saddle-horses 

 of Devonshire are mostly procured from the more eastern counties. 



There are still some farms in the secluded districts in that beautiful part 

 of the kingdom on which there is not a pair of wheels. Hay, corn, straw, 

 fuel, stones, dung, lime, are carried on horseback ; and in harvest, sledges 

 drawn by oxen and horses are employed. This was probably, in eai'ly times, 

 the mode of conveyance throughout the kingdom ; but it is now rapidly 

 getting into disuse even in Devonshire. 



There is on Dartmoor a race of ponies much in request in that vicinity, 

 being sure-footed and hardy, and admirably calculated to scramble over 

 the rough roads and dreary wilds of that mountainous district. The 

 Dartmoor pony is larger than the Exmoor, and,<if possible, uglier. He 

 exists there ahnost in a state of nature. The late Captain Colgrave, 



