The Eno'lish Horse. 



i> 



bability, that the British horse would consist of a com- 

 pound of the native animal and those from Gaul, Italy, 

 Spain, and every province from which the Roman ca- 

 valry was supplied. Perhaps the first introduction of 

 Arabian blood took place at this time. Hannibal's 

 cavalry, principally Numidian, had overrun Spain, part 

 of Gaul, and Italy, whose horses were doubtless more or 

 less of Arabian descent. It would also be interesting to 

 learn whether our Saxon forefathers, in their exodus 

 from still further east, when they entered Europe with 

 the second great human wave of population, brought 

 horses with them from the banks of the Araxes ; whether, 

 when long settled in Jutland, Sleswig, and Holsatia, pre- 

 vious to their entrance into England under the banner of 

 the White Horse, they still retained those horses, and 

 what effect they had upon the compound breed of Roman 

 -Britain. 



One thing is certain : during the Saxon period the 

 horses sent by Hugh Capet to Athelstan were highly 

 prized by him, as were also their descendants ; and it is 

 more than probable that these owed their excellence to 

 a direct infusion of Arabian blood, as Charlemagne, pre- 

 decessor to Hugh Capet, had received one or more Ara- 

 bian horses from his equally celebrated contemporar}^ 

 the Caliph Haroun el Raschid. These infusions would, 

 of course, be slight. 



The next importation came with William the Con- 

 queror, when the Spanish horse was introduced. Wil- 

 liam's charger ' was a Spaniard, and several of his barons 



' He is also described as a Spanisli iJarb. 



