SCOTCHMEN AND THEIR HORSES. 11 



hotter tempered Clydesdale. The horses that have long proved 

 the best for hurrying through the short catching seasons of seed 

 time and harvest in the climate of Scotland, are now chosen by 

 the best judges of horseflesh for the trotting spring waggons that 

 are started to keep pace with these railway times in our cities. 



17. — Inferior to the Shire Horse in size, power, constitution, 

 and placidity, he is better able to meet any pace required from 

 him, is a smaller feeder, and is more easily matched in form and 

 colour. It would be useless to repeat the traditions as to how this 

 horse originated. By some we are told that he is a cross with the 

 Flanders horse, by others with the Thoroughbred. He is probably 

 both. No British breed of cart horses is likely to be entirely 

 without Flanders blood, but the Clydesdale shows less of it than 

 most others. Like all other good animals we know, his size and 

 quality have no doubt been obtained by judicious crosses, and the 

 desired characteristics fixed by long, careful selection of the fittest 

 and best for breeding purposes. It is evident that he has been 

 subject to less recent crosses than the Shire Horse, as he exhibits 

 less variation of stamp, form, and character ; is everywhere known 

 by his true, peculiar Clydesdale head, and he transmits his 

 qualities with considerable certainty. It is this fixed character, 

 even more than the prejudices of his countrymen in his favour, 

 that has caused him to be so much sought for by our colonists. 

 We once heard an Englishman say to a Scotchman, who was about 

 to remit £500 to the old country for a Clydesdale Horse, " Why 

 don't you send to England and get something fit to put into the 

 shafts of a waggon, or to take a load through a river?" " Weel," 

 said the Scotchman, "I might get a very fine horse, I might get 

 an elephant, or I might get a camel, but I always like to know 

 what I am going to get for my money." 



18. — The Clydesdale is generally brown or bay, but some- 

 times black. Stephen's book of the farm is perhaps responsible for 

 the extent to which white legs and faces have lately been tolerated. 

 They are no doubt often found on exceedingly good horses, but 

 they do not make them good, whilst they greatly spoil the 

 appearance of any horse, and thereby lessen his market value. 

 Hair on the legs has been absurdly cultivated, and does not 



