164 The Book of the Horse. 



else in their railway vans, and engage the exclusive services of a dealer to buy them at all the 

 horse fairs in Scotland. But, on the other hand, in 1876 a committee of English gentlemen 

 attended the great Glasgow show of cart stallions, for the purpose of selecting and purchasing 

 a young stallion ; they found and eventually bought a horse that was left in the ring with nine 

 other competitors for the champion cup, and this, in the home county of the Clydesdales, 

 turned out to be the Shire horse described at page 160. 



THE SUFFOLK, OR SUFFOLK PUNCH. 



The Suffolk is another breed very much esteemed in its own district, and seldom found 

 out of it, except on fancy farms ; but there is a steady demand for Suffolk stallions of a good 

 chestnut colour for exportation to the Continent. 



According to popular notions, the Suffolk is always chestnut of one of five different shades. 

 Mr. Longwood, who read a paper on this breed of horses before the Stowmarket Club in 1872, 

 mentioned five different shades, viz., dark chestnut, dark red, bright chestnut, silver-beamed, 

 and light chestnut. But, according to the same authoritj^ there are in the county a good 

 many teams of bay Suffolks. Those who breed for sale are particular about purity of colour, 

 and preserve it by the well-known expedient of keeping nothing but chestnut horses on the 

 breeding-farm, and taking care that the mare, when she takes the stallion, shall have a chestnut 

 horse or pony before her eyes — an expedient as old as the time when Jacob served Laban as a 

 shepherd. 



The Suffolks are now bred large, and reach from 15 hands 3 inches to 16 hands. They 

 were formerly a small, thick, stocky class of horse, hence called " Punches." The breed is 

 of a remarkably docile and placid temperament, very true in the collar, and excellent for 

 plough teams ; but apt, according to agricultural authorities who do not live in Suffolk, to fall 

 lame at road-work or drawing timber. A Mr. Cross, who took part in the discussion of the 

 Stowmarket Club, said that some farmers were of opinion that cross-breds between Suffolk 

 stallions and Cambridgeshire mares stood road-work better than pure-bred Suffolks, which 

 were apt to be light of bone below the knee. But no description of cart-horse fetches higher 

 prices than picked specimens of Suffolks. At a sale, before the dearth of horses raised their 

 prices all over the kingdom, six mares were sold by the Earl of Stradbroke by auction for twelve 

 hundred guineas. 



The following is a description of the Suffolk Punch breed as they were before the develop- 

 ment of agricultural societies had established competition and comparison between cart-stallions 

 in every arable county of the kingdom : — • 



"They are generally about 15 hands high, of a remarkably short and compact make; 

 thin legs, Lony, and thin shoulders loaded with flesh. Their colour is often of a light sorrel, 

 which is as much remarked in some distant parts of the kingdom as their form. They are 

 not made to indulge the rapid impatience of this posting generation, but for draught they 

 are perhaps as unrivalled as for their gentle and tractable temper ; and, to exhibit proofs 

 of their great power, drawing matches are sometimes made, and the proprietors are as 

 an.xious for the success of their respective horses as those can be whose racers aspire to the 

 plates at Newmarket." * 



The Suffolk Mercury, 22nd June, 1724, thus advertises the first match that took place: — 



• "The History and Antiquities of Flamstead ami Hanlwicl<, in ttic County of Suflblli." l!y tlic Rev. Sir Jnlni Culiuni, 

 IJart., F.R.S., F.S.A. 



