CLASSES AND BREEDS OF BRITISH HORSES. 519 



at excessive rents ; and the mass of the people accordingly 

 are in such a state of penury as to preclude a beneficial em- 

 ployment of their industry. 



The same kind of horses extends to the neighbouring parts 

 of Argyle shire, and, with some change of characters, depend- 

 ent on the greater elevation and productiveness of the heathy 

 pastures, through all the central and northern Highlands. 

 The prevailing colour is a dull brownish-black. They have 

 abundant hair, stout limbs, and short pasterns. They have 

 good feet, and are sure-footed and hardy in the highest de- 

 gree. They are well suited for climbing mountains, and mani- 

 fest great sagacity in making their way through swamps and 

 bogs ; but they are lazy and slow, and altogether destitute 

 of the fire and mettle distinctive of the Arabs, the Barbs, and 

 other horses of warmer climates. They are carried in con- 

 siderable numbers to the low country, where they are valued 

 for their power of subsisting on scanty food, and enduring 

 careless treatment. 



The mountains of Wales, in like manner, give birth to a 

 race of small horses, adapted to an elevated country of scanty 

 herbage. The Cambro-Britons necessarily depended for pro- 

 tection on their foot soldiers, and not on their cavalry, and 

 never appear to have been distinguished as horsemen in the 

 mountainous country which they so valiantly defended. From 

 their laws and chronicles we learn some curious details re- 

 garding their horses. Hywelda or Howell, surnamed the 

 Good, who lived in the tenth century, condescended to legis- 

 late on every subject of household and general economy. He 

 fixed the price of all things to be bought and sold within his 

 dominions, from horses to cats. The price of a foal under 

 fourteen days old was to be 4d., of one a year and a day old 

 48d., and so on. He turned his royal thoughts to the tricks 

 of horse-dealers, a class of persons who seem in every age to 

 have adopted the maxim of never speaking the truth in mat- 

 ters of trade. For every blemish discovered in a horse after 

 sale, one-third of the money was to be returned, except the 



