CHAPTER XVII 



THE CLYDESDALE 



The Clydesdale is the recognized draft breed of Scotland and 

 stands to-day in great degree as the product of Scotch breeders. 



The early history of the Clydesdale is veiled in more or less 

 obscurity. Scotch writers on the horse state that in the seven- 

 teenth and early part of the eighteenth century there was 

 doubtless an interchange of draft-horse blood between Scotland 

 and England. Scotch cattle dealers driving herds into England 

 returned north with English mares which were bred to stallions 

 in the northland. This was prior to the use of the word 

 Clydesdale. Claims have been made that the Duke of Hamil- 

 ton brought black stallions from Flanders in Belgium to Scot- 

 land about the middle of the seventeenth century, and bred 

 them to the native Scotch mares. This, however, is traditional. 

 Undoubtedly very mixed blood was in the early breedmg. 



The origin of the modern Clydesdale seems to trace back to 

 about 17 1 5 or 1720. John Paterson was a tenant farmer of 

 Lochlyoch in Carmichael parish in the county of Lanark. This 

 county is in southern Scotland, and through its center flows the 

 river Clyde, from which the name Clydesdale is derived. Written 

 testimony of the family shows that at about the above-referred- 

 to period Paterson brought a Flemish stallion from England to 

 Lochlyoch, which was bred to the mares in the region there- 

 abouts. The result of this union created a superior strain of 

 draft horses for that time, and they met with special favor during 

 the latter part of the eighteenth and the early part of the nine- 

 teenth century. Breeders valued the influence of the Lochlyoch 

 blood, and this is now regarded as essentially Clydesdale founda- 

 tion stock. The mares descended from this Flemish stallion are 

 described as " generally browns and blacks, with white faces 

 and a little white on their legs ; they had gray hairs in their 



114 



