| CHANGING QUARTERS | [Frontispiece] | |
| A SCANDINAVIAN ROCK-DRAWING | Facing page | [4] |
| THE HORSE ON THE BRESSAY STONE | ” | [12] |
| BY THE VOE | ” | [26] |
| GOING SOUTH | ” | [30] |
| COMING FROM MARKET | ” | [38] |
| CARRYING PEAT | ” | [44] |
| JACK (16) | ” | [50] |
| ODIN (32) | ” | [54] |
| MULTUM IN PARVO (28) | ” | [58] |
| THOR (83) | ” | [60] |
| PRINCE OF THULE (36) | ” | [64] |
| SAPPHIRE (1276) | ” | [68] |
| BOADICEA (998) | ” | [72] |
| STELLA (1692) | ” | [76] |
| FOALS IN SUMMER | ” | [90] |
| A TEAM OF MARES | ” | [100] |
| A CHIP OF THE OLD BLOCK By permission of the Proprietors of ‘Punch.’ | ” | [104] |
| ON DUTY | ” | [108] |
ILLUSTRATION PLATES IN APPENDIX.
| [PLATE I.] | At end |
| Fig. 1. A 41-inch Java Pony. | |
| Fig. 2. A Norwegian Udganger Pony. | |
| Fig. 3. A 42-inch Pony of the Udganger type from Iceland. | |
| [PLATE II.] | ” |
| Fig. 4. Skeleton of Highland Chieftain, a 33-inch Shetland Pony. | |
| Fig. 5. Skeleton of Persimmon, a 66-inch Thoroughbred. | |
| [PLATE III.] | ” |
| Fig. 6. Skull of Eric, a 36·5-inch Shetland Pony. | |
| Fig. 7. Skull of a new-born foal, Celtic type. | |
| Fig. 8. Skull of a wild Prjevalsky horse, from Mongolia. | |
| [PLATE IV.] | ” |
| Fig. 9a. Cannon-bone, Eric. | |
| Fig. 9b. Cannon-bone, Protohippus. | |
| Fig. 9c. Cannon-bone, Hypohippus. | |
| Fig. 10. Fore and hind foot, Eohippus. | |
| Fig. 11. Fore and hind foot, Orohippus. | |
| Fig. 11a. Forefoot, Neohipparion. | |
| Fig. 11b. Engraving of a small-headed horse. | |
| [PLATE V.] | ” |
| Fig. 12. Eohippus, 12 inches. | |
| Fig. 13. Orohippus, 16 inches. | |
| Fig. 14. Mesohippus, 24 inches. | |
| Fig. 15. Hypohippus, 40 inches. | |
| Fig. 16. Merychippus, 36 inches. | |
| Fig. 17. Shetland, 33 inches. | |
| [PLATE VI.] | ” |
| Fig. 18. Skeleton of fore-foot of Mesohippus. | |
| Fig. 19. Forefoot of Merychippus (or Protohippus). | |
| Fig. 20. Forefoot of Hypohippus, the Miocene “forest” horse. | |
| Fig. 21. Upper molar, E. stenonis. | |
| Fig. 22. Upper molar, E. fossilis. | |
| Fig. 23. Premolar and molars of a small mediæval? horse from Aberdour, Aberdeenshire. | |
| Fig. 24. Premolar and molars of a small horse from the Roman Fort, Newstead. |
The Shetland Pony.
CHAPTER I.
The Early History.
A breed of small horses appears to have been the first Scottish domestic animal to attract that attention which British livestock now commands so generally. Dion Cassius, as translated by Holinshed, says of the “Calidons,”in the second century of our era, that “they fight in wagons, and have little light and swift horses, which are also very swiftie, and stand at their feet with like stedfastness;”[1] and “St Austin” is said by Hamilton Smith to describe how “Mannii or poneys brought from Britain were chiefly in use among strolling performers, to exhibit in feats of their craft.”[2] This race of small horses survives in the Shetland pony.
It has long been regarded as practically certain that the Shetland Islands possessed a native pony before the Scandinavian invasion and settlement of the ninth and subsequent centuries. Hitherto this view has been supported only by the fact that the Bressay Stone—an accredited relic of the period of Celtic Christianity in Shetland—displays a representation of a pony or small horse. Now, however, we are able to rely on a much more definite and conclusive piece of evidence, bones having been found, in the summer of 1911, buried in the kitchen midden of the Pictish broch or village at Sumburgh, which are identified (by Professor Cossar Ewart) as part of the skeleton of a pony not more than twelve hands high, and as being of ancient date. This fresh evidence places beyond dispute the fact that the pony was a native of Shetland in very early times.