THE CLYDESDALE BREED. 
PLATE vm. 
STALLION, Seven Years old, the property of Mr Law, Morton, in the County of Mid-Lothian; and 
Zetland Pony, the property of the Right Honourable the Earl of Hopetoun. 
The Horses of Scotland employed in labour, pass by gradations from the smaller varieties of the mountainous districts to the 
larger breeds of the plains and cultivated country. It is in the Lowlands that those adapted for the heavier labours, and pro¬ 
perly termed Draught-Horses, are reared. Although varying in size, form, and properties, in different districts, they have been 
gradually approaching, with the increased means of general intercourse, to a greater uniformity of characters. The part of Scot¬ 
land which had early become the most distinguished for the production of the larger horses for draught was the county of Lanark, 
otherwise termed Clydesdale. This district, intersected in its whole extent by the river Clyde, comprehends a large portion of 
that vast field of coal to which Scotland owes its existence as a manufacturing country, and contains within its bounds the city 
of Glasgow, which, from a secondary town, has become, within the period of less than a century, one of the most rich and popu¬ 
lous cities of the empire. The rapid and continuous increase of this great manufacturing city, and the prodigious land-carriage 
in the rich mining district connected with it, created a demand for horses of superior strength and size for the purposes of draught. 
The kind of cairiage employed for the transport of minerals and all kinds of goods, being the single horse-cart, the Horses 
required were those which should combine with weight of body a considerable degree of muscular activity. Those of the district 
have become, in an eminent degree, adapted to the conditions required, and being intermixed in blood, and formed on a common 
model, a breed has been produced with well-defined characters. It is termed the Clydesdale Breed, because the individuals are 
mainly derived from the district of that name. 
The Clydesdale Breed of horses has a manifest affinity with the Black Horse of Holland and the Netherlands; and universal 
tradition refers to an importation, at an early period, of a number of Flanders stallions to the neighbourhood of Hamilton, by one 
of the Dukes of that name. That a mixture between the Black Horse of Europe and the native race took place at some period 
cannot be doubted; and there is good reason to believe, that the tradition is well founded which refers this national boon to the 
Noble House of Hamilton, whose extensive domains embrace the district the most early noted for the production of this race 
of horses. But it may likewise be believed, that horses from different sources have been from time to time introduced into the 
populous mining and manufacturing district of this part of Scotland, and that thus the breed of Clydesdale is really of very mixed 
lineage, although its distinctive characters have been communicated to it by the blood of the Black Horse. 
The Clydesdale breed of horses, as it now exists, is of the larger class, the ordinary stature of the individuals being sixteen 
hands. Their prevailing colour is black, but the brown or bay is common, and is continually gaining upon the other, and the 
giey not unfrequently manifests itself although the parents should have been dark. They are longer in the body than the 
English Black Horse, and less weighty, compact, and muscular ; but they step out more freely, and have a more useful action for 
ordinary labour. They draw steadily, and are usually free from vice. The long stride characteristic of the breed is partly the 
result of conformation, and partly of habit and training; but, however produced, it adds greatly to the usefulness of the horses, 
both on the road and in the fields. No such loads are known to be drawn at the same pace by any horses in the kingdom as in 
the single-horse carts of carriers and others in the west of Scotland; and in the labour of the fields these horses are found to 
combine activity with the physical strength required for draught. 
The horses of this breed are now reared over all the counties of Renfrew, Ayr, and Dumfries, but they are still produced in the 
greatest numbers in Lanarkshire. They have fair justice rendered to them when young, by their being allowed their natural exer¬ 
cise over a large range of pasturage until the age at which they are taken up for work. Although not pampered, the mares, when 
in foal, are kept in good order by means of turnips, potatoes, and similar food. The only kind of horses, too, reared by the farmers 
being those of the native stock, there is no mixture of breeds, and little employment of those half-bred mares which are common 
in other breeding districts. On the other hand, the rearing of draught horses being more a part of the regular routine of the farm 
than elsewhere, the farmers are usually satisfied to obtain a fair average stock without seeking to produce horses of superior figure 
and higher price. Fewer examples of very fine horses may be presented here than in other breeding districts, but fewer fall below 
the standard aimed at. 
(M) 
