THE BREEDS OF HORSES. 271 



Like Meg, he seems to possess a thoroughbred look about the 

 head, in which is set a very full, vigorous eye, has a shoulder 

 well sloped, and an apparently clean fore leg, with a slight 

 fringe. His fault on the portrait, which, it has to be re- 

 marked, is drawn from life, is want of muscular development 

 in the hind quarters and thighs. There is a total absence, 

 as in the case of Meg, of superfluous hair, the pastern-joints 

 and foot being clearly defined. In color Young Clydesdale 

 was a jet black, with white markings. He is said to have 

 descended from Blaze, the colors of the most successful prog- 

 eny of which seem to have been blacks and greys colors 

 now not in favor, the latter being, as regards entire colts, 

 very unfashionable. This is, no doubt, owing to the action 

 of the Highland and Agricultural Society in restricting 

 their competition to black-bays and brown-bays, and Mr. 

 Frame's practice of castrating all grey colts. 



Probably the directors thought grey an unsuitable color at 

 the time for horses for agricultural purposes. As the ban is 

 now removed in competition, and as grey horses look partic- 

 ularly stylish in street lorries, little objection can be taken 

 to them. Gray horses, it may be remarked, are of a different 

 original stock to either blacks or bays. Campbell Smith, in 

 his work, being of the opinion that they are part of the 

 original grey or white stock of the Euxine, and that they are 

 always of higher stature than the bays, which are from 

 Africa, the Teutonic word bayard, from which, in his opinion, 

 the word bay is derived, signifying "a horse." It is worthy 

 of notice that the latter word is never used to denote colors 

 of animals other than horses. The greys are always, too, it 

 will be observed, strong, handsome horses, and in days when 

 the color was more fashionable among breeders were pre- 

 ferred as cavalry chargers: hence those magnificent horses 

 of the Scots Greys which evoked the admiration of Napoleon 

 I at Waterloo. That the breed was distinct in descent, till 

 mixed within tlje past 150 years or so, may be noted from the 

 fact that you rarely, if ever, get a grey unless the sire or 

 dam is grey, while the fact that you can get a brown from 

 a grey or with a grey stallion shows that the strain has 

 gradually been overpowered by the denser blood of the blacks 

 and browns. 



