396 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK in. 



external blood with the stock indigenous to the soil, so to speak. It is 

 also a curious fact that, while Shires and Clydesdales vary in colour, 

 Suffolks are, and always have been, some shade of chestnut. 



When Arthur Young, himself a Suffolk man, perambulated England 

 and wrote his impressions, he did not hesitate to describe the Suffolk 

 as one of the ugliest horses to be found in the country. He was big 

 and plain about the head ; low in the shoulder, small in the eye, and in 

 other particulars did not correspond to the ideal of beauty. In Mr. 

 Young's day the Suffolk was a small horse, and from various accounts 

 appears to have been available for farm, saddle, and harness work ; 

 while he was also pressed into the service of carriage people before roads 

 were as good as they are now. 



Suffolk fox-hunters who find themselves compelled to ride over plough- 

 land from the beginning of the season to the end may perhaps envy their 

 ancestors who rode to hounds when Suffolk was a cheese- and butter- 

 making county ; yet much of it was so at the period when Camden penned 

 his Britannia. In that publication, which was given to the world in 1586, 

 occurs the first mention of the Suffolk horse. He might have existed, 

 and probably did exist, for a long time prior to that date. Successful 

 attempts have, however, been made to add to the stature of the Suffolk 

 horse ; and, as some critics affirm, at the expense of his legs, for they 

 saj r that bone has not increased pari passu with the weight of his car- 

 cass. But this point must be settled by the Suffolk breeders themselves, 

 who may, however, fearlessly assert that, if a shapely horse has been 

 evolved out of unshapety ancestors, the dogged perseverance of the 

 Suffolk has not been bred out of him. The more massive specimens 

 are every whit as staunch at the collar as their more diminutive prede- 

 cessors, though curiously enough some persons incline to the idea 

 that the Suffolk horse has now less substance than he had forty years 

 ago. 



An admirer of the Suffolk horse, who sings its praises in the " Live 

 Stock Journal Almanack," points out that the absence of hair on the 

 legs, and the other characteristics of the Suffolk Punches, have come to 

 be recognised as qualities which render them eminently suited for work of 

 various kinds abroad. " Their clean legs tell in their favour, and they 

 are quick and steady in cart or plough." 



An exceedingly interesting history of the Suffolk horse is given in the 

 Suffolk Stud-Book, 1880. It is concluded that the Suffolk horses of 

 to-day are, with few exceptions, the descendants in the direct male line 

 of the original breed, which Arthur Young describes as existing in the 

 first half of the eighteenth century. 



In addition to the .breeds of horses that have been noticed there are, 

 in almost every county, useful working animals of no definite race. 

 There are also, unfortunately, mongrel breeds, whose only claim to be 

 designated "farm-horses" arises from their not being fitted for any 

 other purpose. The perpetuation of these half-bred ill-formed animals 

 tends greatly to depreciate the good old breeds with which they are 

 too often mixed. The mixture or rather infusion of the " blood " of 



