The  Devon  Pack  Horse  as  an  Army  Horse.  88 
the  district.  These  were  Phenomenon  and  Joseph  Andrews, 
and  their  blood  is  in  all  the  remaining  Pack  mares. 
Curious  to  relate,  there  is  still  in  the  eastern  counties  a 
stud  of  Roadster  Pack  horses,  which  are  used  for  hunting, 
driving,  and  farm  work.  This  stud  has  been  in  one  family 
since  1775,  and  are  of  the  same  blood  as  Phenomenon  and 
Joseph  Andrews,  who  came  from  the  East  to  the  West,  and 
here  we  have  for  breeding  purposes  a valuable  link,  should 
an  effort  be  made  to  revive  the  breed. 
In  these  days  the  breeds  of  horses  have  been  specialised 
to  perform,  so  to  speak,  one  office  only— the  thoroughbred 
to  race  under  a featherweight,  the  Hunter  (a  cross-bred)  to 
gallop  under  a medium  weight,  the  Hackney  to  step  high 
in  light  harness,  the  Shire  and  Clyde  for  heavy  draught  work 
at  a walk,  and  the  Suffolk  for  rather  faster  heavy  draught  work, 
and  so  on.  Consequently  I have  been  met  with  the  argument 
that  should  we  revive  the  Pack  horse  there  would  be  no 
demand  for  him  ; the  dealers  do  not  require  an  “ all  round 
horse  ” of  this  type.  This  may  be  true,  but  the  army  and 
farmers  require  them,  and  Foreign  Governments  require 
stallions  of  this  breed  for  their  State  studs,  and  would  be  ready 
buyers. 
Origin. 
In  old  works  on  the  horse,  the  oldest  English  breed  is 
spoken  of  as  the  “English  Great  Horse”  or  “Ehglish  Black 
Horse.”  In  this,  I believe,  we  have  the  foundation  stock 
of  the  Devon  Pack  horse. 
Carts  and  wheels  were  little  used  up  to  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  owing  to  the  badness  and  absence  of  road, 
and  up  to  that  time  we  read  “the  Pack  horse  was  the  chief  means 
of  burden  bearing,  either  for  the  conveyance  of  goods  to  market, 
or  of  conveying  men  from  place  to  place.  As  to  conveyance  of 
goods,  we  find  that  as  late  as  1789  few  carts  were  in  use,  no 
waggons,  and  the  bulk  of  the  transit  in  many  districts  was  by 
means  of  the  Pack  horse.  In  the  colliery  districts  coal  was 
carried  by  horses  from  the  mines  ; even  manure  was  carried  on 
to  the  land  in  some  places  on  the  backs  of  horses.  Trusses  of 
hay  were  also  occasionally  met  with  loaded  up  on  horses’  backs, 
and  in  towns  builders’  horses  might  be  seen  bending  under  a 
heavy  load  of  brick,  stone,  and  lime.  Members  of  Parliament 
travelled  to  London  on  horseback  . . .” — Yide  Live  Stock 
Journal. 
After  1800  roads  began  to  multiply  and  improve,  and 
wheel  traffic  to  come  into  general  use.  This  led  to  the  develop- 
ment of  two  breeds  from  the  original  Pack  horse  stock  : a 
heavier  breed  for  slow  wheel  traffic — the  heavy  cart  horse — a 
