214 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 
travelling more quickly and comfortably upon his 
jennet. 
By most of thé authorities the war horse of the 
Middle Ages is identified with the old black cart 
horse, or shire horse, of England. A recent work by 
Mr. Walter Gilbey is entitled “The Old English War 
Horse or Shire Horse,” thus assuming that they were 
one and the same; and the late Mr. Walsh was also 
of this opinion, for he wrote as follows: “From time 
immemorial this country has possessed a heavy and 
comparatively misshapen animal, the more active of 
which [sic] were formerly used as chargers or pack- 
horses, while the others were devoted to the plough.” 
And he gives the following unflattering account of 
him: “In color almost invariably black, with a great 
fiddle-case in place of a head, and feet concealed in 
long masses of hair depending from misshapen legs, 
he united flat sides, upright shoulders, mean and nar- 
row hips, and very drooping quarters.” Such was the 
shire horse, — so called because he was raised almost 
exclusively in the Shires or Midland counties. 
Shire horses are still bred, but they have been 
improved by crossing with Flemish stallions. The 
London dray horses are mainly shire horses, and 
since the shire horse is the only purely English cart 
horse, —that is, the only one of English origin and 
raised on English soil, — it 1s fashionable in Eng- 
land to speak of “shire horses,” and never of “cart 
horses.” Nevertheless, when a society was formed in 
that country, some years ago, to improve the breed of 
agricultural horses “not being Clydesdales or Suf- 
folks,” the name “English Cart Horse Society” was 
taken. The fact is, that hunters, coachers, and race 
