The  Devon  Pack  Horse  as  an  Army  Horse.  81 
to  be  mentioned,  that  the  breed  continued  longest,  and  it  was  not 
until  1903  that  the  last  pure-bred  Devon  Pack  stallion  was  sold 
out  of  the  county  and  exported  to  Australia,  where  he  now  is. 
In  this  article  I have  mostly  confined  myself  to  a “ certain 
family  of  Devon  Pack  stallions  which  belonged  to  the  same 
yeoman  family,  and  were  descended  in  tail  male  since  1775,” 
a period  now  covering  135  yeai’s.  These  pedigrees  are  now 
in  my  possession  and  are  therefore  as  long  as  Messrs. 
Wetherby’s  “ Pedigrees  of  our  Thoroughbreds,”  and  tracing 
back  to  the  same  Eastern  sires. 
There  were  also  many  other  studs  in  Devonshire,  one  of 
which  boasted  of  Kat  ter  felts  and  Mazeppa  blood  in  their  veins. 
These  somewhat  mythical  stallions  are  fabled  to  have  been  of 
Arab  or  Spanish  blood,  to  have  roamed  on  Exmoor,  and  to  have 
left  their  “trade-mark”  on  all  the  West-country  breeds;  but 
whatever  they  may  have  been,  their  mark  appears  in  the  dun 
body  colour  and  the  donkey  stripe  or  black  lash  down  the  back. 
The  last  of  these  dun  Pack  stallions,  Astonisher , Young 
Astonisher,  and  King  of  the  West , all  produced  stock  almost 
without  exception  of  the  same  colour  and  marking,  and  because 
of  their  hardiness  and  courage  were  much  sought  after.  The 
last  of  these  stallions,  King  of  the  West,  died  about  ten  years 
ago,  and  there  are  still  stock  by  him  in  the  neighbourhood. 
Except  for  the  dun  family,  75  per  cent,  of  the  remaining 
Pack  mares  in  this  neighbourhood  are  black  or  very  dark 
mottled  brown  with  tan  muzzles  ; the  remainder  are  bays,  and 
these  dark  coloured  mares  are  all  of  the  same  family. 
The  type  of  horse  most  difficult  in  these  days  to  find  for 
army  purposes  is  the  horse  artillery  wheeler,  one  that  can  trot, 
gallop,  carry  a heavy  weight  (driver  and  harness),  is  hardy,  and 
can  stay. 
In  the  Pack  horse  we  have  this  type  exactly,  and  having  a 
pedigree  of  135  years,  he  will  breed  to  type. 
The  present  best  artillery  horses  are  probably  chance  bred 
ones,  or  those  containing  Pack  blood  far  back,  but  I am  con- 
vinced, with  what  I know  and  have  seen  of  the  remaining 
specimens  of  the  breed,  that  it  is  as  certain  as  anything  can 
be  in  horse-breeding,  that  if  this  old  breed  were  revived  the 
difficulty  of  horsing  our  artillery  would  disappear. 
In  support  of  this  statement  I have  in  my  possession  the 
measurements  of  the  twenty-four  best  artillery  wheelers  in 
Aldershot,  and  the  measurements  of  the  best  of  these  speci- 
mens when  compared  with  those  of  Pack  mares  now  in  this 
district  are  very  similar. 
The  pack  horse  has  also  the  much  desired  military  attribute 
of  hardiness,  their  ability  to  withstand  exposure,  and  to  main- 
tain their  condition  on  indifferent  “ keep,”  which  is  more  than 
VOL.  71.  G 
