ClilVELaa'd Bays Out of Fashion: 105 



shown. They have invariably followed the horse in shape and action, getting the Arab head 

 and fine temper. As yearlings and two-year-olds they have fetched high prices." 



The following extracts condensed from the evidence before the Earl of Rosebery's (" Lords ") 

 Committee on Horse Supply in 1873 give authentic information on the true value of Norfolk 

 trotters : — 



Mr. Phillips, of Knightsbridge, who collected most of the unequalled stud formed by the 

 late Emperor of the French, said : " Roadsters date back from Mr. Theobald's Champion, that cost 

 a thousand guineas, and Mr. Bond's Phenomenon. Phenomenon was taken into Yorkshire by 

 Robert Ramsdale, of Market Weighton — crossed with the Yorkshire mares, and a superior breed 

 was produced. Roadsters are bred in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire ; but the Yorkshire 

 breed from the Phenomenon cross are superior to the original Norfolk breed, and handsomer. 

 Roadster stallions are much patronised by foreigners, not so much by the English. The last 

 two horses I sold were both by roadster sires — one, a carriage-horse, for three hundred guineas ; 

 the other, a pure roadster mare, for two hundred and fifty guineas. The mare was 15 hands 

 2 inches high ; the carriage-horse, purchased by the Earl of Lonsdale, 16 hands i inch. 



The Earl of Charlcmont, the largest breeder of horses in Ireland, said " that he finds it 

 pay better to breed harness-horses than any other, although all sorts pay except racehorses." He 

 put most of his mares to a Norfolk horse called Broad Arrow, a carty-looking horse, with excellent 

 action, of whose pedigree he has no notion. He stands 15 hands 3 inches, looks like a cart- 

 horse, but has no hair on his legs ; a very superior action, and a perfect temper. This horse 

 covered si.xty-one mares for the farmers and eleven for tlie earl — seventy-two altogether. " I 

 never asked for his pedigree, because my theory in breeding is to judge by the stock that a 

 horse produces." 



Mr. William Shaw, " thirty-six years a horse-leader (stallions) in Yorkshire," who had travelled 

 in the Holderness district — the East Riding of Yorkshire — for the previous seventeen years, said : 

 " When I began the trade, it was the old-fashioned coach-horse that was in vogue — the Cleve- 

 lands — big bay horses. In 1S36 I began leading a big bay horse ; at first he leaped one hundred 

 and sixty mares in a season, but the fashion went down, until at the end of that time he got 

 only fifty mares. 



" There was a change in the trade ; a new fashion in horses came up. London gentlemen 

 wanted a horse that stepped higher. Formerly it was a big coach-horse that was wanted ; 

 now a horse of blood is wanted, with fine high-stepping action. The price for four-year 

 Cleveland geldings fell from ;^I20 apiece to ;^20. Then the railways came up; the farmers 

 got frightened, and said, ' We have nothing for you, the railways will stop all horse trade.' 

 For eleven years, after I gave up Clevelands, I led a roadster stallion. My price was thirty 

 shillings ; my horse was in fashion, and although trade was bad, I made pretty good seasons. 

 Then I took to a thoroughbred, and have stuck to thoroughbred ever since. I get two guineas 

 for him. 



"The gentleman who first brought roadster stallions in our country, Mr. Ramsdale, brought 

 up some very good ones of the old Phenomenon and Wildfire breed, descended from a cross 

 of carty and blood. Mr. Ramsdale went about amongst the farmers, and picked up where 

 he could a colt a year old good enough for a stallion, and he got the farmers to keep the best 

 uncastrated for the same purpose. Many of this sort were bred in East Yorkshire ; the North 

 was always for the coaching line, Clevelands, but these are all but extinct, because there is no 

 demand for them. 



" I think there are fewer roadster stallions bred now than there used to be. It is something 

 O 



