54 LIGHT HORSES I BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



former is a descendant of the ancient British horse. In York- 

 shire and in Devonshire have survived the type of the ancient 

 horse, because in Yorkshire and in Devonshire this type was 

 more strongly pronounced than in any other part of the coun- 

 try, and because in Yorkshire and in Devonshire were bred 

 in the largest numbers the animals which modernised, if I 

 may use the term, the type of the national horse. The 

 Eastern blood which the Phoenicians would be the likeliest to 

 import to Britain would naturally be the Eastern horse of 

 which they possessed the greatest numbers, that is, the Barb. 

 Then we know from historical records, that a legion of 

 the Crispinian horse was stationed at Danum (Doncaster) 

 during the Roman occupation of Britain, and it is equally 

 a matter of history that the Crispinian legion was mounted 

 on Barbs, and it almost goes without saying on stallions of 

 that breed. That these would be crossed with the mares of 

 the country may be taken as a matter of course, and the fact 

 that in the south-western hills and moorlands and the north- 

 eastern dales there existed until lately two breeds of horses 

 which were in many respects of the same type and character, 

 points out strongly that the two breeds must have had a 

 similar origin, and seems conclusively to knock on the head 

 the theory of a cross Between the thoroughbred and the 

 heavy-bodied, feath^gged, and, comparatively speaking, 

 unwieldy cart hor^^ 



In order to account for one peculiarity in the Cleveland Bay, 

 the black points, a theory has been started that the Scan- 

 dinavian horse, who still has those black points very strongly 

 accentuated, was responsible for their introduction into the 

 Cleveland Bay breed, and that his introduction when the 

 country was over-run by the Saxons and Danes, though not 

 sufficient to materially alter the type of the native horses, was 

 sufficient to leave a mark upon them which lasted through 

 many generations, and which is now gradually dying out. 

 The theory is a very ingenious one, but it will not hold water 

 for a moment. In the first place, it is in direct opposition to 



