How they may be Utilised hy Pony Breeding. 
501 
the other, " I can go on yet." " Ah, if thee canst go on yet, 
remember though 'tis my blood thee beest riden upon," sung out 
the original speaker. Well may they be jealous of them, for it 
is astonishing to see what the little fellows will do over this wild 
country under the weight of full-grown men. Dr. Collyns, in 
his work, ' The Chase of the Wild Red Deer,' says, " the thanks 
of the community are due to Sir Thos. Dyke Acland for keep- 
ing up the breed of that diminutive but truly thoroughbred 
animal the Exmoor pony. I believe the animal pur sany can 
be obtained from the worthy baronet alone. Annual sales 
take place of so-called Exmoors at Hampton and elsewhere, but 
these ponies are generally cross-bred, though they have Exmoor 
blood in their veins, and are from their size better adapted for 
general purposes than the native animal. In the year 1816 I 
bought an Exmoor pony for ticerdy-three sliillinys ! (a fair price 
in those days) at Simonsbath. When ' haltered,' caught, that is, 
after I had concluded my bargain, and secured for the first time 
in his life, he proved to be two years old. I gave him to my 
brother's son, a child of four or five years of age. The boy 
learnt to ride upon him, and his brothers and sisters, eight in 
number, afterwards used him in succession. The pony was but 
11 hands high. He died at the age of twenty-three, and after 
he had reached his twentieth year carried my eldest nephew, his 
first owner, then grown up, and by no means a light weight, in 
a run with foxhounds in such a manner as to excite the surprise, 
and I may add the envy, of many sportsmen apparently better 
mounted. Let any man see one of these ' little horses ' living 
at grass, and probably never having tasted corn in his life, 
carrying a full-grown man through a long day with hounds up 
to the finish ; let him ponder for a moment over the animals' 
strength, courage, bottom, speed, and endurance, and he will not 
be surprised that their merits have been discovered and appreci- 
ated." Dr. Collyns is undoubtedly right as to Sir Thomas 
Acland being the only present possessor of the true forest-breed 
of ponies, which some years ago he removed to Ashway Hat, 
just above Torr Steps, in the neighbourhood of Winsford Hill ; 
as Mr. Knight, on buying the greater portion of Exmoor Forest, 
immediately commenced improving the breed of ponies, his first, 
or nearly his first, venture being with Gondola sires. Whether 
this was a very judicious venture I may take leave to doubt, as 
the most authentic accounts that have come down to us repre- 
sent them as 16-hand blacks or black-browns, with high action, 
Roman noses, and drooping quarters ; but to set against these 
defects they seem to have been very clear-winded and enduring, 
as were their descendants. Whatever they might have done for 
horses, they are not the cross I should have selected for ponies. 
