522 THE HORSE. 



A variety of horses, differing from the ordinary pack-horses 

 in their greater lightness and elegance of figure, were termed 

 Galloways. They exceeded the pony size, and were greatly 

 valued for their activity and bottom. They were derived from 

 the countries near the Sol way Firth ; and an opinion fre- 

 quently expressed is, that they had been early improved by 

 horses saved from the wreck of the Armada. There is 

 nothing beyond tradition to support this opinion, and it is 

 known that the Horses of Galloway were distinguished long 

 before the age of the Armada. The nature of the country, 

 mountainous, but not heathy and barren, may account for the 

 production of a larger race of ponies, without our resorting 

 to the supposition of foreign descent, just as the same country 

 at the present time produces a peculiar breed of cattle, larger 

 than those of the higher mountains, but smaller than those 

 of the richer plains. Besides, this part of Scotland was a 

 country of forays during the rude border wars of the times, 

 when a more agile race than the ordinary pack-horse was 

 naturally sought for ; and all along the borders of the two 

 kingdoms, a class of similar properties existed. Many of the 

 true Galloways of the western counties were handsome, and 

 their general characteristic was activity, and the power of 

 enduring fatigue. In former times this breed was in great 

 demand in England, and the people of the country where 

 they were produced, up to a period not very distant, were 

 noted as horse-dealers. In England the term Galloway came 

 at length to be applied to horses of a particular size, without 

 reference to their origin, and this application of the word is 

 still in use. The term Pony is applied to Horses of twelve 

 hands or less, the term Galloway, to those of about fourteen 

 hands. The finer kinds of Galloways have long disappeared 

 in the district which formerly produced them, the farmers 

 having cultivated a race of larger size for the purposes of 

 labour. 



A race of Horses, of foreign lineage, but long naturalized, 

 exists in the West of Ireland, almost unknown to the breed- 



