Horfes. 1 1 



place where we attach a curb chain. . . . Two large, acorn-topped taflels, fufpended by 

 chains, hang from the back of the horfe. The tail is carefully arranged in a regular 

 pointing form, and tied at the top with ribands." 



In Plates 8 and 9 we come more to the Weft, and to the 17th century B.C., according 

 to the hiftorical march of civilization. On the frieze of a tomb in the Necropolis of Lycia, 

 one of the north-weft provinces of Afia Minor, inhabited by Greeks and an aboriginal 

 race, called Solyni, or Thermifas, we find the fpecimen, or rather a precurfor, of Greek 

 art, in the form of a very tall and beautiful, but rather maffive horfe, led by a groom, 

 which is ftiown in Plate 8. In the following Plate two men are fitting in a chariot, drawn 

 by two horfes. The reins, which were formerly in the hands of the younger man, are 

 wanting, for they were moft probably in gold, or gilded bronze, which attracted the 

 cupidity of barbarian devastators. 



The fplendid horfes of Phidias, from the frieze of the Parthenon (Plate 10), fhow to 

 what fupreme excellence art had been brought five centuries before our era under the 

 unclouded iky of Greece. The horfes of Phidias are of the pure Arabian race, although, 

 compared with the prefent type, their head is more fquare and larger. When the 

 horfeman is on foot his breaft is at a level with the head of the horfe ; when on horfeback, 

 his feet are lower than its knee. Here the neck of the Greek horfe is ftrong and mufcular ; 

 his moulders are well fet ; the breaft deep ; the joints ftrong, dry, and admirably perpen- 

 dicular; the back is fhort, and the tail carried with a peculiar elegance. The mane 

 is generally cut brufh-wife, while the tail is long, and floats freely in the breeze. The 

 horfeman wants neither faddle nor ftirrups ; and under his directions the horfe is either 

 racing or cantering in a gentle gallop. But no matter what motion the artift may have 

 chofen to depict, his marble horfes are almoft really living. Their admirable proportions 

 and fine bearing, no doubt, caufed them to find favour in the eyes, and mercy at the 

 hands, of the Muflulman devaftators, whofe fanaticifm fo fadly mutilated the heads of the 

 horfemen, more particularly perhaps becaufe the reprefentation of men is prohibited by 

 the Alcoran. The bas-relief of Caftor and Pollux (Plate 11) reprefents animals and 

 horfemen in no way inferior to thofe of the Parthenon. The two Greek muzzles for 

 armed horfes (Plate 12) will particularly intereft the antiquarian. 



From Greek we pafs now to Etrufcan art, much inferior of courfe, and bearing an 

 almoft perfect analogy with Egyptian. The team of four horfes (Plate 13) to a very 

 fmall chariot, intended for one man, is more a fancy of the artift than a true reprefentation 

 of contemporary life. The crown worn by the x driver indicates, probably, that fuch a 

 four-in-hand was referved only to kings or chieftains of the Etrufcans. The build of 

 the horfes is remarkable for its length and refemblance to a modern Mecklenburgh coach- 

 horfe. In Plate 14 we find a fine fpecimen of horfe-racing, as practifed four hundred 



