PERCHEEOX NORMANS. 297 



" I thank you, my dear sir, for the order von have suggested 

 to be observed in my communication. You will soon perceive 

 that I am by no means a practised writer, therefore your sug- 

 gestions are the more acceptable in aiding me to draw up my 

 ' plain, imvarnished tale.' 



" These horses first came under my observation on a jom-ney 

 through France in the year 1831. I was struck with the im- 

 mense power displayed by them in drawing the heavy dili- 

 gences of that country, at a pace whicli^ although not as rapid 

 as the stage-coach travelling of England, yet at such a pace, say 

 from five to nine miles per hour, the lowest rate of which I do 

 not hesitate to say, would, in a short time, kill the English horse 

 if placed before the same load. In confirmation of this opinion 

 I will give you an extract from an article on the Xorman horse 

 in the British Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, which I quoted 

 in my communication to the Farmer's Cabinet of Philadelphia, 

 in 1842, as follows ; 



" ' Tlie writer, in giving an account of the origin of the 

 horse, which agrees in tracing it to the Spanish horse — of 

 Arabian ancestry — with the account which I have given above, 

 which I procured from French sources, says, " The horses of 

 ISTormand}^ are a capital race for hard vwrTc and scanty fare. 

 I have never seen such horses at the collar, under the diligence, 

 the post-carriage, the cumbrous and heavy voiture or cabriolet 

 for one or two horses, or the farm-cart. They are enduring and 

 energetic heyond description ; with their necks cut to the bone, 

 they fiincli not ; they put forth all tlieir eiforts at the voice of 

 the brutal driver, or at the dreaded sound of his never-ceasing 

 whip ; they keep their condition when other horses would die of 

 neglect and hard treatment. A better cross for some of our 

 hoi-ses can not be imagined than those of Is'ormandy, provided 

 they have not the ordinary failing, of too much length from the 

 hock downwards, and a heavy head." I think that all who 

 have paid attention to this particular breed of Xorman horses 

 — the Percheron, which stands A jS"o. 1 — will bear me out in 

 the assertion that the latter part of this quotation will not apply 

 to them, and that, on the contrary, they are shoi-t from the hock 

 downwards; that their heads are short, with the true Arabian 

 face, and not tliicker than they should be to correspond with 



