498 
Waste Hill Lands : 
render corn-growing a most precarious occupation. In con- 
sequence the endeavour has been made to utilise them by feed- 
ing sheep and cattle. It seems to me, however, that the indi- 
genous stock of such places, and the one most likely to pay if 
well looked after, is the pony. Go into whatever district you 
like of this character, and there he is to be found, rough, 
shaggy, small, and, for the most part, poor, ragged-hipped, 
and woe-begone. Not alike in all parts certainly, for the 
Highland sheltie is not like the Welsh pony. He again differs 
from the Exmoor, and the Exmoor from the New Forest pony, 
according to climate, soil, herbage, and other influences, to 
which I shall allude farther on. These are, in my opinion, the 
indigenous horses of Great Britain. In tracing their characters 
as far back as any record of them is extant, we find that the 
Romans, who had in turn encountered almost every known nation, 
had a wholesome dread of the British cavalry and chariots, so 
much so indeed that Caesar especially mentions their skill and 
activity. No doubt when the original tribes retired, as they 
are believed to have done, westwards, into Wales, Devon, and 
Cornwall, they took their herds of horses with them. In the 
mountain fastnesses of those counties, where for generations, 
after the rest of England was overrun and conquered, they held 
a bold if somewhat insecure footing, living a life somewhat akin 
to that of Eastern nations, and using their mountain-bred ponies 
for war and the chase — not to encounter the mail-clad squad- 
rons of the Normans, but as the means of securing a speedy 
advance or retreat, unencumbered as they were with the impedi- 
menta of baggage. Shoes were unknown to them, consequently 
blacksmiths were not wanted, and the pony could scarcely meet 
with more scanty fare, go where he would, than on his native 
hillside. I believe that our Welsh and Exmoor ponies are lite- 
rally and truly descended from the horses that called forth the 
encomiums of Caesar (as no doubt was the almost extinct pack- 
horse) ; and, inasmuch as they have in a great measure lived 
a purely natural life, many of the mares having never' been 
haltered, I think we now get them, though certainly reduced 
in size, with all their original hardihood and soundness. The 
Exmoors, no doubt the best of all our pony breeds, are supposed 
to have come over with the Phoenicians, who in remote ages 
traded to the Devon coast for tin, or at any rate to have received 
a strong impression of Eastern blood from that source. They 
are generally of a buffy bay colour, with mealy nose, or darkisli 
brown; and the uncrossed ones are generally under 14 hands 
in height, thicker through than the New Forest pony, and 
showing more blood than the Welsh, while the Highlander is a 
mere carthorse by the side of them. Whatever was their origin, 
