CLASSES AND BREEDS OF BRITISH HORSES. 503 



race of horses, many of which are excellent. It is the cha- 

 racter of this people to carry ardour and boldness of execu- 

 tion into every favoured pursuit, and the improvement of 

 their horses at this time occupies much of their attention. 

 They are fond of horse-races, particularly in the Southern 

 States, and have adopted, to a certain degree, the usages of 

 the English Turf. The nature of their country leads them 

 to cultivate useful horses for the road, and for their innu- 

 merable private and public carriages. They prefer the trot 

 to the paces more admired in the Old Continent ; and, hav- 

 ing directed attention to the conformation which consists 

 with this character, the fastest trotting horses in the world 

 are to be found in the United States. The breeds of the 

 West India Islands are those of the parent states. The 

 horses of Cuba are derived from Spain, and retain the dis- 

 tinctive characters of the parent stock. Those of the Eng- 

 lish Colonies have been improved by the continued inter- 

 course with the mother country. 



CLASSES AND BREEDS OF BRITISH HORSES. 



When JULIUS CAESAR landed amongst the Belgae on the 

 shores of Kent, about fifty-four years before our common era, 

 he found the natives possessed of Horses, which they used 

 for cavalry, or attached to chariots of war, after the manner 

 of the Assyrians, the Persians, and other people of the East 

 in the first ages, of the Egyptians in the remotest times, and 

 of the Greeks in the era termed Heroic. The early use of 

 the Horse, in a manner thus artificial, by nations so remote 

 from one another as the inhabitants of Celtic Britain and the 

 first civilized communities of the East, may be regarded as 

 one of the many proofs derived from history, from language, 

 and from similarity of customs, religious and social, of the 

 pristine relation between these early settlers of Europe and 



