THE HEAVY DRAUGHT HORSE. 101 



While he is a fine specimen of this breed, he affords a singular illustration 

 of the mode of breeding 1 often practised with respect to these horses and 

 the education which they undergo. He was bred in Iieicestershire — his grand- 

 sire was a Flanders-bred horse, and his grand-dam a Wiltshire mare, — his sire 

 was a Wiltshire horse, and his dam a Berkshire mare. At two and a half 

 years old he was sold to a farmer and dealer in Berkshire, on whose grounds he 

 was worked until he was four and a half years old. He was then sold at 

 Abingdon fair to the dealer from whom Messrs. Barclay purchased him. 



These heavy horses, however, are bred in the highest perfection, as to size, in 

 the fens of Lincolnshire, and few of them are less than seventeen hands high at 

 two and a half years old. Neither the soil, nor the produce of the soil, is better 

 than in other counties ; on the contrary, much of the lower part of Lincolnshire 

 is a cold, hungry clay. The true explanation of the matter is, that there are 

 certain situations better suited than others to different kinds of farming, and the 

 breeding of different animals ; and that not altogether depending on richness of 

 soil or pasture. The principal art of the farmer is, to find out what will best 

 suit his soil, and make the produce of it most valuable. 



The Lincolnshire colts are also sold to the Wiltshire and Berkshire dealers, 

 as are those that are bred in Warwickshire and Berkshire, at two years, or 

 sometimes only one year old, and worked until the age of four or five years. 



A dray-horse should have a broad breast, and thick and upright shoulders, 

 (the more upright the collar stands on him the better,) a low forehand, deep 

 and round barrel, loins broad and high, ample quarters, thick fore-arms and 

 thighs, short legs, round hoofs broad at the heels, and soles not too flat. The 

 great fault of the large dray-horse is his slowness. This is so much in the 

 breed, that even the discipline of the ploughman, who would be better pleased 

 to get through an additional rood in the day, cannot permanently quicken him. 

 Surely the breeder might obviate this. Let a dray-mare be selected, as perfect 

 as can be obtained. Let her be put to the strongest, largest, most compact, 

 thorough-bred horse. If the produce is a filly, let her be covered by a superior 

 dray-horse, and the result of this cross, if a colt, will be precisely the animal 

 required to breed from. 



The largest of this heavy breed of black horses are used as dray-horses. The 

 next in size are sold as waggon-horses ; and a smaller variety, and with more 

 blood, constitutes a considerable part of our cavalry, and is likewise devoted to 

 undertakers' work*. 



All our heavy draught horses, and some even of the lighter kind, have been 

 lately much crossed by the Flanders breed, and with evident improvement. 

 Little has been lost in depth and bulk of carcase ; but the forehand has been 

 raised, the legs have been flattened and deepened, and very much has been gained 

 in activity. The slow heavy black, with his two miles and a half an hour, has 

 been changed into a lighter, but yet exceedingly powerful horse, that will 

 step four miles in the same time, with perfect ease, and has considerably more 

 endurance. 



This is the very system, as already described, which has been adopted, and 

 with so much success, in the blood-horse, and has made the English racer 

 and hunter, and the English horse generally, what they are. As the racer is 



* Mr. Bell in his "History of British the draymen exercise over their gigantic horscc.. 



Quadrupeds," very trulv observes, that "the I have often watched the facility with wlucn 



docility of this breed is as complete, although one of them will back a waggon into a narrow 



not perhaps so showy, as that of the lighter and street or archway, but a few inches wider than 



more active kinds j and few persons can have the vehicle itself, and guided only by the voice 



long walked the streets of the metropolis, of the carman, aided perhaps by a few Sligbt 



without witnessing the complete control which movements of his hand. 



