Holo they may be Utilised by Pony Breeding. 
505 
orl4"2 to 15 hands showing blood is called "a Galloway," after 
the name of the county wherein these larger sized ponies were 
originally bred, in contradistinction to the cob, a stout and often 
underbred horse of about the same inches. Tradition affirms 
that these little horses derived their excellence from some 
Spanish stallions cast on shore there from the wreck of one 
of the ships comprising the Spanish Armada, but I believe this 
rests solely on tradition. If there is any foundation for it, their 
influence was quickly felt, as Gervase Markham, who wrote in 
the reign of James I., and consequently not any great number 
of years after the attempted invasion of England, says in his 
' Catabrie,' published in 1616, — " There was a certain race of 
little horses in Scotland called Galway nags, which he had 
seen hunt the buck exceeding well, endured the chase with 
great courage, and the hard earth without lameness, better than 
horses of greater puissance and strength." I have very little 
doubt that the Galway nags of this honest old sportsman were 
the " Galloways " of a later date, and this mention of them 
proves that they were well known and justly esteemed in his 
time. Perhaps this would rather tend to confirm the tradition 
of the Spanish stallions having improved the race than other- 
wise, because the Armada having been dispersed in 1588, there 
was ample time for the blood to have become distributed all 
through the district. As these horses were without doubt barbs, 
or genets the descendants of barbs, when we consider the effect 
which the first few Arabians imported into England at the end 
of the seventeenth and commencement of the eighteenth centuries 
had on our blood stock, it is easy to understand that even a 
small infusion of Eastern blood, supposing it to be of inferior 
quality, would make a great impression on the common horses of 
any district. The barbs, or their immediate descendants, would 
also be likely to give exactly those qualities for which Gervase 
Markham praises the Galway nags — great courage and en- 
durance of fatigue, and the power of standing work over hard 
ground without being affected by lameness, as in that respect 
the barbs, from the nature of the country in which they are 
bred, are the hardiest of the hardy at the present day. And 
there is no reason to believe that they are either better or worse 
now than they were a couple of hundred years ago. Of late 
years we have heard little, if anything, of Galloways as a peculiar 
breed ; and, I fear, useful as they undoubtedly\were, we must 
come to the conclusion either that a larger style of horse has 
usurped their place in the district which was famed for them, 
or that some more profitable kind of animal in the shape of 
beasts or sheep has been found to fill their pastures, and it would 
now be almost in vain to look for them as a distinct race ; 
