572 PROFESSOR J. C. EWART 



Pure bred members of the Forest and Celtic varieties are neither bad nor ugly. The 

 great width between the eyes makes the Forest horse look extremely sagacious, while 

 the large eyes, well-placed ears, and narrow muzzle make the Celtic pony look refined 

 and intelligent. 



Of the Steppe horse, on the other hand, it is difficult to find words to sufficiently 

 express the ugliness of the long, heavy, badly put-on head, or to describe the in- 

 genuity wild specimens display in resisting attempts made to interfere with their 

 freedom. 



Believing that some light might be thrown on the origin of the Newstead horses by 

 ascertaining from whence came the auxiliaries that garrisoned the forts on the northern 

 frontier of Britain, I turned to Mr George Macdonald, LL.D., of the Scottish Education 

 Department, who has made a special study of some of the questions connected with the 

 presence of the Romans in Scotland. 



From the information which Mr Macdonald has kindly placed at my disposal, it 

 appears that there was at one time a ' German ' regiment # at Birrens in Dumfriesshire 

 (cohors I. Nervana Germanorum miliaria equitata — i.e. an infantry regiment 1000 

 strong with about every fourth man mounted). This regiment — which seems to have 

 been moved to Birrens from Burgh-upon-Sands in Cumberland — being originally raised 

 in Germany, may very well have contained many horses of the " bad, ugly " type 

 mentioned by Caesar. 



While the purer bred Steppe horses from Newstead may be of German origin, some 

 of the cross-bred ones, in which the face is less bent and the profile less arched, may 

 be Spanish. The foundation stock in Spain seems to have consisted to a very consider- 

 able extent of large-headed "Roman-nosed" horses. In all the countries which traded 

 with Spain or were under her domination during the Middle Ages, " Roman-nosed " 

 horses are more or less common. There is, e.g., an Austrian breed of Roman-nosed 

 horses originally imported from Spain ; and horses with a marked convex profile are 

 common in Ireland, and they are especially en evidence in Mexico and South America. 

 It may hence be assumed that the ' Spanish ' auxiliaries in Britain would include 

 amongst their horses a considerable number allied to the " Roman-nosed " or Steppe 

 variety. Though Newstead may never have been garrisoned by ' Spanish ' auxiliaries, 

 there was in 221 a.d. a 'Spanish' cavalry regiment (nominally consisting of 500 men) 

 near Newcastle, while another lay long at Chesters on the North Tyne ; and there were 

 1 Spanish ' infantry regiments including many horsemen (cohortes equitatse) at Netherby 

 north of Carlisle, at Ellenborough close to the west end of Hadrian's Wall, and at 

 High Rochester in Northumberland north of the Wall. The gravestone of a soldier of 

 a ' Spanish ' cohors equitata has been found at Ardoch in Perthshire. With so many 



* Mr Macdonald points out that too much stress must not be laid on the territorial names of the auxiliary 

 regiments ; these names undoubtedly indicate the districts in which the regiments were originally raised, but there 

 was no organised system of territorial recruiting, and consequently (as the inscriptions show) the soldiers were often 

 of different nationalities. This need not vitiate the inferences which I suggest ; the name of the district in which a 

 cavalry regiment was originally raised is probably a safe index to the foundation stock of its horses. 



