Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/354

•Chap. IX. OF M A N C H £ S T E R. 32$ the introdu&ibn of a bigger brfeed from the Roman continent* and by the careful incorporation of the foreigners with the na- tives. The ftandard of the Roman horfes was certainly larger than that of the Britifh The Britifh are certainly improved in their fize by the intermixture of a larger and a foreign breed with them* And we find a foreign breed of horfes to have been a&ually introduced into the ifland, and fome of them to have* been actually carried into the moil northerly regions of the Roman government, before the conclufion of the third century Theft ponies the primitive Britons hariiefled to their cars, Thefc ponies the primitive Britons equipped with bridles and girths and mounted with riders The cavalry of theBritiih armies confifted equallyof horfemen and of charioteers'. But theRomans mufl have fir ft taught our fathers to cover the naked backs of their horfes with the furniture of faddles. The horfes in the coins of the Britifh fovereigns have not the leafl appearance of a faddle. And the Britifh and the prefent appellation of that covering is purely and dbfolutely Roman, Sedile, Sadhell, or Sadie 6 . But the necks of the Britifh garrans were frequently ornamented with collars, and their manes were frequently decorated with firings, of the Britifh pearls And the bits were compofed of the bones in the large marine animals that frequented their fhores, were polifhed carefully by the tool, and were brightened into an emulation with ivory '. But if the horfe was originally an inhabitant of Britain, the afs was originally a foreigner. The Romans and the Spaniards trafficked much in this ufeful animal ; and it bore a very con* fiderable price among them 9 . And though the milk of this animal among the Romans was not applied to the purpofts of me- dicine* it was early applied to the ufes of vanity. In the earlier period of the empire it was ftf ppofod by the Roman ladies to contribute much as a wafh towards the whitening of the lkin : and the confort of Nero kept a train of five hundred milch* afles in conftant attendance upon her, and had her bath con* ftantly repienifhed with their milk 10 . And the afs mufl have been brought into Britain with the Romans, as the only Britifh Tt 2 appellations