42 



(18930) and The Forest Chief (17021), are bays. The bay 

 Lincoln (1350) got the bay Monk (2629) and the brown 

 Prince Victor (5287). Monk got the bay Monaco (11879), 

 and Prince Victor got the black Bury Victor Chief (11105), 

 out of the brown Daisy. 



It would seem that the general tendency of both bay 

 and brown sires is towards bay progeny. The colours of 

 the sires got by Harold, William the Conqueror and 

 Hitchin Conqueror are fair examples of this. 



Black Shire Horses 



Blacks are more common among Shires than any other 

 breed, and the colour is of frequent occurrence in the 

 progeny of sires and dams both of other hues. 



This is easily explained. Our Shire Horses are 

 descended largely from the " Large Old English Black 

 Horse" which Arthur Young, over a century ago, described 

 as one of the only two breeds of English cart horse worth 

 mention. 



The "Black" was a recognised breed in Oliver 

 Cromwell's time, and commanded a high price, as I have 

 shown elsewhere.* This animal was " the produce 

 principally of the Shire counties in the heart of England." 

 In the Eastern counties it was known as the Black 

 Lincolnshire Horse ; and Mr. Reynolds, Veterinary 

 Inspector to the Liverpool Corporation, points out that 

 black and grey were held to indicate purity of breeding. 



The grey coat, as already shown, is much less common 

 than it was twenty or thirty years ago ; but the black has 

 greater vitality, and, as we shall see, reappears frequently 

 in the progeny of bay and brown sires. The characteristics 



*The Great Horse or War Horse, and Edition. By Sir Walthr 

 GiLBEY, Bart. Vinton & Co., London. iSgg. 



