438 BRITISH AND IRISH HORSES. 



Within late years, the Shire Horse Society has done 

 much to specialise this breed, and to increase its soundness. 

 The best Shire horses stand about 16.2 to 17. i, and they 

 must have a great deal of long, fine hair (" feather ") 

 below the knees and hocks. The most esteemed colours 

 are bay, brown and black, with white " stockings," which 

 is a fashionable though foolish (p. 337) fad. Formerly 

 the Black Lincolnshire horse was a well known variety 

 of the Shire horse, but that colour is now rarer than bay 

 and brown. Grey is not unfrequent, and chestnut is 

 usually looked upon as a sign of " softness." The arti- 

 ficial conditions under which Shire horses have been 

 developed within late years, have naturallj^ decreased 

 their hardihood to some extent. Figs. 11, 274, 282, 403, 

 416 and 451 show typical specimens of Shire horses. 



" There is no reason to doubt that the Fens and Mid- 

 lands produced large horses at the time of Caesar, as well 

 as did the Low Countries (with which there was much 

 intercommunication even in those early days, from the 

 fact that some of the British tribes were Belgians), because 

 there is great similarity in the geological and physical 

 features of the two regions. Caesar was much struck 

 with the appearance of the horses in the army of Cassive- 

 laiuius as being superior to those he was accustomed to see. 

 Now the curious fact is that Cassivelaunus was the chief 

 of the tribe called Catieuchlani, occupying the district 

 now comprising Cambridge, Northampton, Rutland and 

 Leicester shires, and forming a big slice of the country in 

 which the large horses originated " (Mc Connell). 



In the middle ages, many Flemish and North German 

 horses were imported for crossing with the English Great 

 Horse or Black Horse, as he was then called ; but as. the 

 new arrivals were practically of the same origin as their 

 English mates, no great change of type could have been 

 effected by this intercrossing. The heavy draught Danish 

 horse (Fig. 452), which comes from the same source as 

 the Dutch and Belgian cart-horse, would pass as a Shire, 



