THE CHARGER. 21 



THE CHARGER. 



The beautiful Engraving here presented to the reader, is of a favourite Charger 

 of MAJOR GENERAL WARDE, which had carried the General boldly and safely over 

 many a bloody field. 



The HORSE has been recorded from the highest antiquity, as the disciplined and 

 faithful ally of man in the field, and as a sharer with him in all the toils and perils 

 of military enterprize. His services in ancient times, were not confined to carrying 

 his master ; he was also yoked to the War-Chariot ; and in the late wars, that 

 machine has been in some sort revived in the Flying Artillery. As a proof of the 

 attention of the Ancients to the military manege, we are informed by Xenophon, 

 a professional and practical writer, they so bitted their horses, that their necks might 

 be pliable and obedient to the reins, teaching them also to move by such measured 

 steps, that the whole equipage, when two, four or six were yoked together, might 

 move as one body, without confusion. They were trained and accustomed to run 

 with the utmost velocity in harness, and inured to fearlessness and hardiness; either 

 for making an attack with an impetuous shock, or receiving in turn, such a shock 

 with firmness. These horses were taught to execute the various evolutions of 

 wheeling with docility, activity, and speed ; to run over all kinds of ground ; to 

 stretch up the steepest ascents, and to rush down the sharpest declivities ; in fine, 

 they were prepared for all the probable and trying occasions of actual service. 



In the wars of classical antiquity, we read of the same races of the horse applied 

 to military purposes, as now uphold the honours of the British Turf ; and from the 

 favourable account given by the ancient Roman historians of the war horses, some 

 of which were driven in chariots, opposed to them by the Britons, it has been 

 conjectured that, a mixed South-Eastern breed of the horse, even in those early 

 times, existed in this country ; and that the Southern breeding stock had been 

 imported through the commercial intercourse subsisting* between the Western 

 coasts of Britain, and those of certain countries of the Mediterranean. Granting 

 this hypothesis, subsequent importations from the Continent of Europe must greatly 

 have enlarged the. size of the English breed, as we find in succeeding ages the 

 military fashion of this country exactly agreeing with that of the other northern 

 parts of Europe, in adopting the GREAT HORSE, as he was emphatically styled, 

 and literally proved, for the service of war. Thus originated the phrase, " to ride 

 the Great Horse," which signified the managed or military horse ; and it appears, 

 that in those early days, the chargers of the officers, as well as the common troop 

 horses, were of a large and heavy breed. 



