A PONY HACK. _Engraved on wood by F. Babbage._ A pony well-known on Newmarket Heath and North Country racecourses about 1828.] THE WELSH PONY. At the period when Wales was an independent kingdom live stock was protected by a singularly comprehensive series of laws. These were originally codified by Howel Dda (the Good), a prince who reigned from A.D. 942 to 948, and at a somewhat later period they were embodied in three distinct legal codes, the Venedotian, Dimetian and Gwentian, applicable respectively to North, South and South-eastern Wales, conforming to the local customs which prevailed in each area. Under these laws no Welsh serf was permitted to sell a stallion without the permission of his lord. The value of a horse (or, accurately speaking, pony, as the hill ponies were the only equine stock the country possessed in those days) was laid down without regard to individual merit till he reached his third year. A foal until a fortnight old was worth four pence; from the fifteenth day of his age till one year old, 24 pence; when a year and one day old he was worth 48 pence, and stood at that value till he began his third year when he was valued at 60 pence. When in his third year he was broken in, and his value depended on the work he was fitted for. A palfrey or sumpter horse was valued at 120 pence, and a working horse to draw cart or harrow 60 pence. It was not permissible to use horses, mares or cows for ploughing for fear of injury; oxen only might be employed for such labour. Any entire male animal was worth three females; thus a wild stallion was worth nine score pence to the mare’s value of three score pence. If a horse were sold he was to be warranted against staggers for three nights, against “black strangles”[4] for three months, and against farcy for a year. He was to be warranted against restiveness until the purchaser should have ridden him three times “amid concourse of men and horses;” and if he proved restive the seller had to refund one third of the price he had received. [4] The commentators believe the disease so termed to be glanders; but inasmuch as the warranty against farcy held good for twelve months, perhaps we should accept this reading with reserve.