THE HOKSE. 
33 
CLASSES OF BRITISH HORSES. 
No care is bestowed in selection, and the best of them being picked up by dealers, those that remain suffer continued deteriora¬ 
tion, so that it is now difficult to obtain a tolerable pony in places where a few years ago they were numerous. It will scarcely 
be credited, that numbers of them have been recently bought by dealers to be fattened and sold as Irish beef. Yet a demand for 
the better class of them exists, sufficient to induce attention to the breeding of them, and they would become a valuable produc¬ 
tion of the country, were the most ordinary care bestowed on their improvement. But it is painful to state, that the condition of 
the greater part of these lonely islands is far from being one of advancement, notwithstanding that the extended communication 
by steam is eminently calculated to promote their industry and prosperity. The proprietors are generally non-resident; the 
farms, as in Ireland, are divided into miserable possessions, at excessive rents; and the mass of the people accordingly is in 
such a state of penury as to preclude a beneficial employment of their industry. 
The same kind of horses extends to the neighbouring parts of Argyleshire, and, with some change of characters, dependent 
on the greater elevation and productiveness of the heathy pastures, through all the central and northern Highlands. The pre¬ 
vailing colour is a dull brownish-black. They have abundant hair, stout limbs, and short pasterns. They have good feet, and are 
sure-footed and hardy in the highest degree. They are well suited to climbing mountains, and manifest great sagacity in making 
their way through swamps and bogs; but they are lazy and slow, and altogether destitute of the fire and mettle distinctive of the 
Arabs, the Barbs, and other horses of warmer climates. They are carried in considerable numbers to the low country, where 
they are valued for their power of subsisting on scanty food, and enduring careless treatment. 
The mountains of Wales, in like manner, give birth to a race of small horses, adapted to an elevated country of scanty herbage. 
The Cambro-British necessarily depended for protection on their foot soldiers, and not on their cavalry, and never appear to have 
been distinguished as horsemen in the mountainous country which they so valiantly defended. From their laws and chronicles 
we learn some curious details regarding their horses. II y weld A or Howell, surnamed the Good, who lived in the tenth cen¬ 
tury, condescended to legislate on every subject of household and general economy. He fixed the price of all things to be bought 
and sold within his dominions, from horses to cats. The price of a foal under fourteen days old was to be 4d., of one a year and 
a day old 48d., and-so on. He turned his royal thoughts to the tricks of horse-dealers, a class of persons who seem in every age 
to have adopted the maxim of never speaking the truth in matters of trade. For every blemish discovered in a horse after sale, 
one-third of the money was to be returned, except the blemish should be on the ears or tail! The buyer was to have a certain 
time allowed him to ascertain whether the horse was free from three diseases, namely, three nights for the staggers, three months 
for the wind, and a year for the glanders. Whoever borrowed a horse and rubbed the hair off, so as to gall the back, was to pay 
4d. j if the skin was forced into the flesh 8d.; if the flesh was forced to the bone 16d. No horse was to be used in the plough ; but 
he was to be brought up as a serving horse or palfrey, and his price was then to be 120d. Horses can only be supposed to have been 
valuable from the smallness of their numbers when such absurdities could have become the laws of even the pettiest province. 
When the Normans conquered and partitioned Wales, other horses than those of the country could not fail to be introduced. 
Roger de Bellesme, afterwards Earl of Shrewsbury, is said to have brought the Spanish Jennet to his estate of Powisland, 
to which circumstance has been ascribed the reputation which the horses of that part of Wales once possessed. But whatever 
changes may have taken place in the ancient horses of Wales, it is plain that many of those which now possess the country are 
of mixed lineage. In the higher country, indeed, considerable numbers of ponies, frequently termed Merlins, are reared, which 
must be supposed to be pure with respect to their descent from the pristine race. They are much neglected, but are usually 
superior to the ponies of the Highlands of Scotland, having better shoulders, finer limbs, and superior action. They tend to 
the lighter colours of brown or bay, have good feet, and are sure-footed. But the progress of cultivation has caused a class of 
larger horses, suited for draught, to be reared in all the less elevated districts ; which, though useful, hardy, and true to their 
work, are far inferior in symmetry to the race of the mountains. 
In the forest of Dartmoor is reared a race of ponies, of coarse inelegant figures, but hardy, sure-footed, and capable of under¬ 
going extreme drudgery; and in the high lands of Exmoor is a similar race, but of somewhat smaller size. These little horses are 
thickly covered with long hair, and until caught for use are left nearly wild. They are resolute and cunning, ascending the rocky 
eminences when pursued, leaping from blocks of rock, or even jumping over their pursuers when hemmed in. The New Forest 
of Hampshire, which William the Conqueror converted into a hunting ground, by driving away the wretched inhabitants, 
and burning all the towns, villages, and churches within a compass of many miles, long produced a race of ponies, of which the 
remains yet exist. They are ugly, large-headed, and short-necked, but hardy, sure-footed, and capable of bearing careless usage. 
In like manner, over all the ancient wastes and forests of England, formerly covering the larger part of the surface of the country, 
were reared varieties of horses, the size and strength of which bore a relation to the quality and abundance of the natural herbage. 
Sometimes they were of the pony size, falling short of twelve hands high ; sometimes they reached fourteen hands, and in rarer 
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