32 
THE HORSE. 
CLASSES OF BRITISH HORSES. 
not exceed 7J hands or 30 inches; and some fall even below the latter standard. The figure in the plate (Plate VIII), in which 
the two animals represented are of their relative size, will convey a better idea than any description can give, of the diminutive 
stature to which the nature of the country has reduced these horses. The pony here represented belongs to the Earl of Hope- 
toun. It was ridden by one of his sons in France, where it excited as much curiosity as the rarest wild beast. 
These little horses in their native islands are left almost in the state of nature until they are caught for use. They have 
no shelter from the continued storms of tempestuous seas beyond what the crags, ravines, and sides of hills afford; and they 
scarce ever receive any food hut what they can collect on the sedgy bogs, the heathy hills, and barren shores of the country. 
Thev are thickly covered with a coat of long hair, which becomes felted upon them like a garment during the inclement 
season. Their colour is generally bay or brown, sometimes mixed with white, and often it is of a dullish-black, and some¬ 
times piebald. They are sagacious and cunning, stealing into the patches of growing corn when opportunity offers. They are 
gentle, and easily reduced to obedience, and when domesticated and kindly treated, exhibit almost as much sagacity as a dog. 
They will enter an apartment and receive crumbs from the table, and stretch themselves on the floor. They have sometimes 
been put in hampers, and thus carried to a distance. They are in great request for equestrian exhibitions, and are more easily 
trained to the feats required than any other kind of horses. Thus they may be made to leap through hoops, and in passing a 
bar, to stoop beneath it, or leap over, as directed. The chief demand for them is for saddle-horses for children. They are the 
safest animals that can be used for this purpose; and as the demand is considerable, and would be much greater were the supply 
more extended, there is good reason for directing attention to the rearing of them, and preserving those peculiarities of size and 
form which give them their value. 
The Orkney Islands possess likewise their breeds of ponies; but they are of more mixed descent, and of larger size and 
coarser form than those of Zetland. These islands, the Ore of the ancient British, were discovered by the Roman fleet, which, 
by command of Agricola, sailed round the Island. They early formed the haunt of northern rovers; and, towards the end 
of the 9th century, were reduced to subjection by Harold Harfagre, the Norwegian, who established a dynasty of Earls, who 
reduced Caithness, end parts of Sutherland, Ross, and Cromarty, and made themselves be felt for ages as the terror of the neigh¬ 
bouring coasts. In the year 1468, the Orkney, together with the Zetland Islands, were given in pledge to King James III. as 
the dowry of his wife Margaret, the daughter of Christian King of Denmark; and in 1472, they were annexed to the Crown of 
Scotland by an act of the Scottish Parliament. The early conquerors of these islands were pirates ; and fighting on foot, made 
little use of the Horse in battle ; so that the horses of the country were probably few in numbers. Those which it now possesses 
are small, although, in the progress of cultivation, others of a larger size have been introduced. They are mostly of a dull 
black colour marked with white, or dun marked with the dark streak along the spine, characteristic of a widely diffused family. 
A few are white, and some piebald, which has been ascribed to the wreck of a number of white German stallions, which took place 
in the latter part of last century. 
The Hsebudes of the Roman geographers, by an early error of transcription, changed into Hebrides, consist of two groups of 
islands ; the first, the Outer Hebrides, consisting of Lewis, Harris, and others, lying out in the western 'ocean, and extending in a 
long chain of about 140 miles ; the second, the Inner Hebrides, lying nearer the coast, and stretching from Bute in the Firth of 
Clyde to Skye on the coast of Ross. These numerous and gloomy islands were, beyond a doubt, possessed by the same Celtic 
race which peopled the other parts of Britain, as is attested by the existing names of places and natural objects, which have 
survived many bloody changes, and by the like rude monuments as extend from Cornwall to the ancient Ore,—from Wilts 
to the mountains of Kerry. But the same ferocious seamen who ravaged the northern islands, formed settlements in these. In 
the Outer Hebrides, Scandinavian names have generally supplanted the Gaelic, and the language of the people is mixed with the 
Frisian and Norse. The Inner Hebrides were not so long and wholly subject to these strangers, and the Gaelic names accordingly 
prevail over the Scandinavian. The conquerors of these islands cared for the sea, and made little use of horses. Nevertheless, all 
the islands of any magnitude produce horses in considerable numbers. Those of the Outer Hebrides are small, round-shouldered, 
muscular, and thickly clad with long hair. Those of the Inner Hebrides are usually of somewhat larger stature. The best of 
them used to be produced in Mull, Barra, and Islay ; and here, too, tradition refers to changes produced by the horses of the 
wrecked Armada, a part of which having rounded the North Cape, found its way to these dangerous coasts. It is abundantly pro¬ 
bable that here, as elsewhere, some of the stranger horses were left behind; but no such traces exist in the present horses of the 
country as can enable us to refer them to Spanish lineage. They are mostly of a brownish-black colour, some brown, bay, or dun, 
some of a dull cream colour, and some grey. They have the common characters of round shoulders, stout limbs, and short upright 
pasterns. They are hardy in a high degree, but they have little speed. They have lost much of the reputation which they once 
possessed. Being employed in carrying loads when young, they are generally bent in the back, and otherwise thrown out of shape. 
