The D KAY- Horse. 



159 



London Dray, tlie Shire Horse, the Clydesdale, and the Suffolk Punch, the Cleveland Bay 

 having become extinct, or nearly so. It is only within a few years that the Scotch have 

 taken the lead in establishing a Stud Book for Clydesdales, and it was not until the year 1878 

 that the breeders of Suffolk English cart-horses followed the sound example. 



THE DRAY-HORSE. 



The London Dray-horse (and all the horses of the same size and character used in Liverpool 

 and Manchester) is recruited from the largest specimens of the true Shire horse, slow, stately, 

 ponderous, not less than 17 hands high, often 18 hands; he is in horses what a corporal major 

 of Life Guards is to a private of Dragoons. 



Weight in the brewers' horses is essential, because they have to move great weights for 

 short distances, and the shaft-horse frequently has to hold up and back and turn with enormous 

 loads ; for although barrels do not look very large, when filled with beer their gravity is far 

 in excess of the idea conveyed by their bulk. No doubt something is due to fashion and 

 tradition, in the employment of these equine giants by the beer kings of London. First-class 

 farmers, who plough the stiffest land deeply, who are not content with what Mr. Mechi called 

 "the traditional three inches of agricultural pie-crust," consider that 16 hands high is high 

 enough for the very best plough or cart team, although they do not object to an additional inch 

 in an active, well-shaped animal. 



Formerly the twelve great brewing firms, familiarly known as the " Beer Kings of London," 

 used to be as particular about the colours and matchings of their dray-horses as of their own 

 four-in-hands or the Court chariot pairs of their titled wives : one was celebrated for a black, 

 the original dray-horse colour ; another for a brown, a roan, a grey, or chestnut team. But 

 at present such is the demand for horses of this class, that they are compelled to be content 

 with any colour, and to moderate the old standard of height. The parade of teams belonging 

 to Liverpool merchants, on the occasion of the annual show of the Royal Agricultural Society 

 of England being held in the year 1877, was probably the finest gathering of dray-horses ever 

 witnessed. 



Following the plan adopted in preparing this work, of going to headquarters for special 

 information, a set of queries were forwarded to Mr. James Moore, junr., the veterinary super- 

 intendent of Messrs. Barclay, Perkins, & Co.'s. stud of brewery dray-horses, to which he has, 

 with the sanction of the firm, kindly returned the following pithy answers :— 



" Heavy draught-horses suitable for dray work are English bred, and are generally from 

 Wiltshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Herefordshire, Lincolnshire, and Yorkshire ; bred by farmers 

 who in many instances are horse-dealers. 



" They are bought at five to six years of age, and last about ten years. 



"One horse here stood 18 hands high, and weighed nearly 18 cwt. He was a fine hand- 

 some red (or strawberry) roan horse, named ' Baly.' When Garibaldi visited the brewery, 

 in 1864, he particularly noticed the horse, and he was ever afterwards known as Garibaldi. 

 He was about seventeen years old when he died, in 1870. 



"There are several horses at the present time in the brewery that stand 17' hands high, 

 and they are mostly of a roan colour. 



" No mares are used in the brewery. 



" Horses that are used for our country work travel from twenty-five to thirty miles on some 

 days. It is rather difficult to say what distance the horses used for town work travel. 



