A HISTORY TRACING 



THE SHIRE HORSE 



TO THE 



OLD ENGLISH GREAT HORSE 



(THE WAR HORSE). 



-♦ 



INTRODUCTION. 



The number of books about horses which 

 have been printed is very large ; a good 

 authority states that the total is upward of 

 four thousand volumes ; and therefore another 

 seems almost superfluous. Yet from that 

 early book of Wynkyn de Worde, printed 

 in A.I). 1500, Thomas Blundeville's in 1566, 

 the Duke of Newcastle's in 1658, and the 

 work by Sir Wm. Hope, Kt., Deputy 

 Lieutenant of Edinburgh Castle, published in 

 17 1 7, to the host of books on horses which 

 have appeared during the last twenty years, 

 there is not one which can be said to render 

 full justice to the peculiarly English breed 

 whose history it is proposed to examine. 



By the exercise of care and judgment 

 I 



