574 Report upon the Exhibition of Horses at Kilhurn. 
stud-book for English cart-horses, similar to the volume which 
has already appeared, thanks to Lord Dunmore, in connection 
with Clydesdales, and to another which, before these words are in 
print, will probably be published by Mr. Herman Biddell and 
Mr. Arthur Crisp in connection with the Suffolk breed. Asser- 
tions have been plentifully made that the pedigrees of several 
celebrated Shire horses — such as "Honest Tom," which in its day 
was the best animal of this type ever exhibited — can be traced 
back for nearly a century ; but when the varied colours of " the 
Shires " are taken into consideration, it may fairly be doubted 
whether there be not in most of them a large infusion of recent 
Flemish blood. For it must never be forgotten that the Flem- 
ings were the first European farmers who took to ploughing 
with a pair of large horses, driven curricle fashion. Mr. Street, 
it may be remarked, traces the best existing " Shires " back to 
the old English black horse, upon whom Bakewell strove to 
graft improvements ; adding that while the best colours are bay 
and brown, some few breeders prefer chestnuts, greys, and roans, 
with an occasional partiality for the parent colour, black. This 
same eminent authority tells us that an Agricultural horse 
should possess " feet firm, deep, and wide at the heel ; the 
pasterns not too long or too straight, the bone flat and short 
between knee and fetlock. A stallion should not measure less 
than 11 inches below the knee, with a girth from 7 feet 9 inches 
to 8 feet 3 inches. He should not stand more than 17 hands ; 
should have wide chest, shoulders thrown back, head big and 
masculine without coarseness ; full flowing mane ; short back, 
with large muscular development of the loin ; long quarters, 
with tail well set on ; good second thighs ; large, flat, clean 
hocks ; plenty of long silky hair on legs ; or, to sum up in 
a few words, a horse should be long, low, and wide, and 
thoroughly free from hereditary disease. A main point is 
action ; for he should be a good mover in the cart-horse pace, 
walking ; and if required to trot, should have action like a 
Norfolk cob." 
It would be well if all breeders of cart stock, whatever their 
breed, should keep before them Mr. Street's definition of a' good 
horse ; nor is it unsatisfactory to reflect that England at this 
moment possesses not a few good specimens of a race in which 
no other country has approached her. Our farmers are, as a 
rule, wealthy, our roads excellent, and our hereditary land- 
owners patriotic and enterprising up to the point of spending 
their money freely, without hope of fee or reward, in order to 
lead the way in every stock-raising improvement. But although 
the British cart-horse, in the widest sense of the term, has now 
no equal in the world — indeed it may even be said of him that 
