Report on the Horses Exhibited at Windsor. 
595 
Shire or Clydesdale. It is worthy of notice, too, that so far as 
it is possible to trace the history of the Suffolks, we do not find 
that their present conformation is due to any crossing of external 
blood with the stock indigenous to the soil, so to speak. It is 
also a curious fact that, while Shires and Clydesdales vary in 
colour, Suffolks are, and always have been, some shade of chest- 
nut. 
When Artluir Young, himvSelf a Suffolk man, perambulated 
England and wrote his impressions, he did not hesitate to 
describe the Suffolk as one of the ugliest horses to be found in 
the country ; he was big and plain about the head ; low in the 
shoulder, small in the eye, and in other particulars did not 
correspond to the ideal of beauty. In Mr. Young's day the 
Suffolk was a small horse, and from various accounts appears to 
have been available for farm, saddle, and harness work ; while 
he was also pressed into the service of carriage people before roads 
were as good as they are now. 
Suffolk fox-hunters who now find themselves compelled to 
ride over plough from the beginning of the season to the end 
may perhaps envy their ancestors who rode to hounds when 
Suffolk was a cheese- and butter-making county ; yet much of 
it was so at the period when Camden penned his Britannia. In 
that publication, which was given to the world in 158'3, occurs 
the first mention of the Suffolk horse. He might have existed, 
and probably did exist, for a long time prior to that date. Suc- 
cessful attempts have, however, been made to add to the stature 
of the Suflblk horse ; and, as some critics affirm, at the expense 
of his legs, for they say that bone has not increased pari passu 
with the weight of his carcase. But this point must be settled 
by the Suffolk breeders themselves, who may, however, fearlessly 
assert that, if a shapely horse has been evolved out of unshapely 
ancestors, the dogged perseverance of the Suffolk has not 
been bred out of him. The more massive specimens are every 
whit as staunch at the collar as their more diminutive predeces- 
sors, though curiously enough some persons incline to the idea 
that the Suffolk horse has now less substance than he had forty 
years ago. 
In connection with the Royal Show the Suffolk horse may 
boast of a somewhat remarkable history, as it was a Suffolk 
horse, owned by Mr. Thomas Freeman, of Henham, near Wang- 
ford, that won the First Prize for heavy horses at the first Show 
in 1839, having travelled to Oxford to win his premium of 
20^. In those days, it must be remembered, the various breeds 
were not separated, so Mr. Freeman's victory was of the nature 
of a championship, involving the vanquishing of the other 
