MIDLAND BLACKS SUFFOLK PUNCHES. 31 



and perhaps from the Bakewellian era, black has been almost universally adopted 

 as the crack and prevailing colour. The chief purpose of the first size of these 

 horses, upwards of seventeen hands in height, and of proportional bulk and weight, 

 forming an animal cousin -germaii to the Elephant, is, as already stated, for the 

 heavy draught of the metropolis, and of town work generally. In certain Counties 

 however, particularly Berks and Hants, it has long been the custom for the farmers 

 to keep teams of the heavy blacks ; a matter of ostentation and parade, rather than 

 of real necessity and use, with both them and their servants. Some farmers of 

 those counties imagine that they realize a profit by purchasing these heavy cattle, 

 yearlings, at Lambourne fair, putting them to work the following year, and selling 

 them to the London dealers at five years old. We are not aware that the market 

 price of a horse of the first class of this kind, in his prime, has been much less than 

 fifty pounds, during the last forty years, and at some late periods it has reached 

 and probably exceeded seventy. The midland County Horses of the INFERIOR 

 SIZES are used as heavy Troop Horses, and for black or funeral work; and probably 

 many of those light and elegant black chargers with full tail and main, distin- 

 guished by their foreign appearance, are bred in those counties. 



The SUFFOLK PUNCH is scarcely an appropriate denomination for the modern 

 Suffolk Cart Horse. The present writer is among the few now living, who recollect 

 particularly, the form of the original Suffolk Punch, of which, probably, not a 

 single specimen now exists. Seventeen or eighteen years since, the most extensive 

 enquiries set on foot, in contemplation of publishing a National Cattle and Horse 

 Plate Work, under the patronage of Lord Somervitte, could not ascertain the 

 existence of more than two Suffolks, of the original breed ; the one, a mare nearly 

 thirty years of age, at Glemsford, in Suffolk ; the other, an old stallion, which 

 worked on the road between Romford and London. It was yet supposed that, a 

 few remained among the farmers in the Sandlands, near Woodbridge. 



The old Suffolk Cart Horse was, according to tradition, and the strongest proba- 

 bility, the produce of a Continental Stallion and an indigenous Suffolk cart mare. 

 The Prussian Count Veliheim of Brunswick, one of the most zealous of Amateurs, 

 and a most extensive observer of the various breeds in use throughout Europe, is of 

 opinion, that the Norman horse was introduced into Suffolk, and in him the 

 Punches originated. This opinion seems strongly countenanced by the figure and 

 colour of a FRENCH Stallion, exhibited at the last Cattle Show in London, by 

 C. C. Western, Esq. M. P. for the County of Essex. The Punches seldom reached, 

 scarcely ever exceeded, sixteen hands in height. Their colour almost universally 

 chesnut, provincially sorrel. Coarse headed, the ears often long, thick, distantly 

 placed or lopped; in some individuals, short, pricked, and handsome. The shoulders 

 wide and low, the rump looking considerable above them. Carcasses deep and 

 large, general length considerable, and sometimes the legs full long. Many of 

 them were round boned, and inclined to grease, on which account they were kept 



