590 
Report uih the Horses Exhihited at Wiiulsur. 
Clydesdale breeders are due, meutious tlie legend that a former 
Duke of Hamilton imported, towards the end of the seventeenth 
century, half a dozen black Flemish stallions, with which the 
native mares were crossed. But he further cites the writings 
of Mr. AVilliam Alton, of Strathavon, who appears to discredit 
the story, which is probably as mythical as that which tells us 
two Eastern horses reached England in 1121, and that, while one 
is said to have remained in England, the destination of the 
other is vaguely said to have been " St. Andi-ew's Church, 
Scotland," to which it was sent as a present by King Alexander I. 
The balance of opinion goes to suggest that the infusion of 
Flemish blood into the Clydesdale strain did not take place till 
about 1715 (though it is curious to note it assisted in reno- 
vating the Great Horse, as King John imported 100 Flemish 
stallions), when Mr. Paterson, of Lochlyoch, journeyed to the 
south, and bought a Flemish stallion, with which his mares 
were mated. The result of this cross soon made his stud 
famous, not in Scotland only, but in England, and it is to the 
Lochlyoch stud that the first improvement in Clydesdales is 
attributed. The Rev. David Ure, of Eutherglen, does not, 
however, discredit the story of the Duke's sis Flemish coach- 
horses ; but, as Mr, W. Aiton lived on the very place to which 
they are said to have been taken, tradition would surely have 
kept their memory green. 
The 6th Duke of Hamilton, who succeeded to the title in 
1742, and died in 1758, imported one Flemish stallion, which, 
strangely enough, he christened Clyde, and which, following so 
closely on the introduction of Flemish blood by Mr. Paterson, 
went far to give a distinctive character to the horses bred in 
Lanarkshire and the adjacent counties. There is, however, 
a somewhat important difference between the version of Lord 
Dunmore and that of " Ben Alder," who wrote on Clydesdales 
in the Neiccastle Chronicle in 1887 ; for whereas the Clydesdale 
Stud-book says that the Duke of Hamilton's six Flemish horses 
were introduced about 1650, "Ben Alder" makes the story 
refer to the 6th Duke, who lived nearly 100 years later. Some 
enti'ies in Mr. Lawrence Drew's private stud-book prove the 
importation of the Flanders horse by the 6th Duke of Hamilton. 
In that compilation "Clyde" is described as a black-browu 
horse ; and Mr. Drew had talked with a man who knew the 
groom well when he travelled with the horse. 
This foundation having been laid, the Highland Society 
offered, in 1823, a prize for the best Clydesdale or other mare 
well qualified for working the strong lands. The mare thus 
selected was to be brought into or retained in the county of 
