THE HORSE, DIFFERENT BREEDS, ETC, 7^ 



XIII. The Clydesdale Horse. 



The west of Scotland has been long famous for its draught horses. Away 

 in the upper ward of Lanarkshire, the progenitors of that noble race of horsea 

 60 called Clydesdale, from the Vale in which they were originally reared, were 

 first brought to the front and made famous throughout the whole of Scotland ; 

 so much so that the common work horse of that country is now, to all intents 

 and purposes, a Clyde ; and many of the Shire Horses of England are deep in 

 their blood also. 



Where the originals came from, and how they were bred, are questions that 

 have often been discussed in the public press. Tradition, without any founda* 

 tion in facts, points to the importation of Flemish Stallions into the above 

 ward nearly two centuries ago, by one of the Dukes of Hamilton, who sought 

 improvement in his stock. 



Whether such is the case or not, certain it is that by some means or other, 

 the farmers in that country possessed a grand lot of brood mares, from which 

 the Clydesdales of the present day owe their activity and hardiness. Our own 

 opinion is, that they grew up into the state of perfection in which they were 

 found about the beginning of the last century, through the judicious mating 

 of the home stock, and that up to that time, little or no fresh blood was intro- 

 duced. 



The upper ward of Lanarkshire is a wild and somewhat bare country, with 

 a thin soil, which, however, is admirably adapted for grazing purposes ; the 

 farms are small, and the husbandmen who made their livelihood from the 

 profits of the soil, were a shrewd and saving race, with a love for their stock 

 born in them. Proud of their cattle and horses, and considerably skilled in their 

 care, they developed for the district in which they lived, a class specially suited 

 to their wants. 



In kine they modelled, as it were, the Ayrshire Cow, and in horses, more 

 esjjecially in this particular district, they produced and kept continually im- 

 proving the Clyde. Just as on the banks of the Tees, long years ago, there 

 existed a grand race of cattle, so on the hills that rise gently away from the 

 waters of the Clyde, a class of horses belonged to it, which were associated 

 with no other shire or county in Great Britain, till a more enlightened day 

 with the aid of the printing press spread their fame abroad, and created for 

 them an immense demand. 



Thus we find the horses about the year 1720, when Mr. John Paterson, of 

 Lochlyoch, introduced a Flemish Stallion. 



Whether through the introduction of this horse or otherwise, the Lochlyoch 

 mares became very famous, and from them, directly or indirectly, most of the 

 noted stock of the present day trace their origin. 



From the Lampits mare, a descendant of the above stock, came Glancer 

 (335), the horse that may be called the father of the present race of Clydes* 

 dales. 



