OF THE HORSE. 13 



through dismounting his cavalry, and causing them to act 

 as infantry. That the British horse was better trained, and 

 even more highly domesticated, is shown by the description 

 Julius Ccesar gives of his services in battle, and it doubt- 

 less was to secure these that the breed was exported to 

 Rome. 



With regard to what the English horse then was we 

 decline to conjecture, only ample evidence exists to demon- 

 strate that the creature which the Romans possessed was 

 not nigh to perfection. The sculptor's art could not reader 

 it near the point of modern requirements, and the sculptors 

 of Rome were not more than those of modern times fet- 

 tered by the facts with which they were surrounded. 



Numerous changes are supposed to have taken place in 

 the English breed, but these will be best understood by 

 crediting the animal with a power of mutation equal almost 

 to the desire of its master. Differences might have been 

 induced, but no great improvement in the breed of horses 

 could have possibly taken place so long as men were cased 

 in armour. The weight of the rider then necessitated a 

 certain build in the horse, and the charger of chivalry was 

 as different from the charger of a modern crack regiment as 

 two animals possibly could be. In James the First's reign 

 the actual change, or substantial improvement in the national 

 breed of horses, commenced slowly to take place. Men 

 then first began to disuse armour, and with lighter weights 

 more attention could be paid to positive points, as they 

 are now esteemed. This alteration however was very gradual. 

 The introduction of a single horse, or even of a thousand 

 horses, cannot affect the breed of an entire kingdom without 

 time being allowed. 



The change has been going forward even to the present 

 time. The squire of a few years back did not ride in a 

 carriage and four because of sheer pomposity, but because 

 a less number of horses could not pull his heavy vehicle 

 along the heavier roads at the rate which he desired to be 

 propelled. Most people of fifty years old can recollect the 

 old thick-legged, hairy-heeled coach-horse, which is now 

 no where to be found ; lighter vehicles and better roads 

 having created a nobler animal. So prints of even mode- 

 rate age portray a far heavier hunter than could now be 



