28 THE HORSE. 



the civilized world, before which period no historical, and 

 scarcely even a traditional, record exists, there is some shadow 

 of reason for suspecting, from the frequency of his fossil remains 

 in the islands and his actual domestication there on their hrst 

 discovery, that the horse may have been originally indigenous 

 to Great Britain. 



Just in the same manner, it would have naturally been imag- 

 ined, by the first visitors of this continent, had they found the 

 natives accustomed to the use of horses, that the animal had 

 existed here since the Creation ; and, had their suspicion been 

 corroborated by the subsequent discovery of fossil remains, 

 science would have justified the belief. 



It is not, however, of the British islands altogetlier so con- 

 clusive ; since it is possible that the race, whose fossil remains 

 are found in conjunction with those of other extinct, and, per- 

 haps, antediluvian quadruj)eds, may also have been extinguished 

 by some natural cause, and re-introduced either from Gaul, or 

 by the Phoenicians, who certainly visited the channel isles in 

 search of tin, before the Eoraan invasion. Throughout the 

 oriental world, cavalry with the addition of chariots immediately 

 became as decidedly the first arm in all services, as it was at a 

 later date in the days of chivalry ; until cuirass and lance and 

 all the gorgeous paraphernalia of knightly warfare went down, 

 to rise no more, before the rolling Spanish volleys at Pavia. 



In Europe, however, with but a few exceptions, the use of the 

 horse in warfare was slowly, and never, it may be said, until 

 ages had elapsed, generally adopted. The Spartans, the Athe- 

 nians, the Thebans, when at the highest of their military great- 

 ness, had but inferior and slender cavalry services. At the 

 battle of Marathon, the allies had no horse whatever ; and at 

 Plataea, one year later, although they had a combined force of 

 above 110,000 men in the field, they had not a single squadron 

 of cavalry in tlieir army, even to protect their convoys ; in 

 consequence of which they suffered severely, and were actually 

 in danger of being literally ridden down and trodden underfoot 

 by the desperate charges of the myriads of Persian horse. 



On this occasion, however, it is to be observed that the 

 Thebans, the Thessalians, who as yet were not properly Greeks, 

 though of Hellenic race, and the semi-barbarous Thracians, 



