PREFACE TO THE SECOND 

 EDITION. 



Since the publication in 1889 of the first 

 edition of this little book, which I was privi- 

 leged to dedicate to His Royal Hicrhness 

 the Duke of Cambridge, great progress has 

 been made in the improvement of the Shire 

 Horse. It therefore has seemed desirable 

 to remodel and enlarge, by the inclusion of 

 more minute details, pages which had been 

 compiled from notes taken in course of an 

 enquiry into the antecedents of the horse 

 now known as the Shire-bred. This re- 

 search led to the conclusion that the Shire 

 Horse is the purest survival of the type 

 described by mediaeval writers as the Great 

 Horse ; and this type being the native de- 

 velopment of that ancient British War Horse 

 which evoked the admiration of Julius Csesar, 

 it seemed appropriate to seek permission to 

 dedicate the book to the Prince who com- 

 bined with his high position as Commander- 

 in-Chief of Her Majesty's Forces, the keenest 



