Report upon the Exhibition of Horses at Kilbura. bib 
nee viget quidquam simile aut secundum — it must not be forgotten 
that he is, to all intents and purposes, as much an artificial 
exotic as the Anglo-Arabian thoroughbred. His ancestors were 
imported partly by the Norman army which accompanied the 
Conqueror to Sussex, partly by the Flemings, who settled first 
on the borders of Wales, and secondly, at a much later date, in 
the fen districts. The war-charger of the Norman knight was, 
in point of fact, a cart-horse ; and even in the reign of Richard 
Cceur de Lion, Sir Walter Scott — who upon such topics was as 
accurate as Leland — makes the charger ridden by Sir Kenneth 
of Scotland in ' The Talisman ' so weighty and massive that the 
good steed is scoffed at by the Saracen Sultan, as " an animal 
which sinks over the fetlock at every step, as though he would 
plant each foot deep as the root of a date-tree." 
In what manner, and by what slow evolution, such an animal 
as Lord Ellesmere's " British Wonder " was created out of living 
materials, which, if ever an aboriginal breed of cart-horses 
existed upon earth, came probably from the Low Countries, 
will never be satisfactorily and exhaustively traced b}' human 
pen. It is, however, my fixed belief that not until within the 
last century was any marked advance made by Englishmen in 
the improvement of our cart-horse breeds. Soil and climate in 
these islands were undoubtedly favourable to the well-being of 
heavy horses, and it is claimed with pride by the inhabitants of 
the Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire marshlands that within 
five-and-twenty miles of the city of Ely the best cart-horses in 
the world are foaled and reared. From this fountain Lord 
EUesmere has derived much of the Worsley stud, which wrote 
its name in such deep and ineffaceable characters upon the 
annals of the International Horse Exhibition at Kilburn, and 
which richly deserved the prizes bestowed upon it, because its 
young and spirited owner has never hesitated to give enormous 
prices for animals attractive to his fancy. In this manner Lord 
EUesmere gave 750/. to Mr. Street for " Samson " — the sire of 
" Samson II.," " Samson III.," and « Samson IV."— which, like 
^Ir. Wiseman's " Honest Tom," Mr. Taylor's " England's Glory," 
Mr. Seward's " Major," and Mr. Marsto'n's " England's Wonder," 
was foaled within the charmed radius of which Ely is the centre. 
The Worsley stud — which, starting under the able management of 
its owners agent. Captain Heaton, in 1874, has up to the present 
time taken nearly two hundred and fifty prizes — stands perhaps 
in the same ratio to English cart-horses, including " Shires," 
which is occupied by Lord Falmouth's stud at Mereworth 
in relation to thoroughbreds. At Kilburn, Lord EUesmere 
made thirty-four entries in the " Agricultural Horse " classes, 
and obtained four first prizes, three seconds, three thirds, and 
VOL. XV.— S. S, 2 Q 
