During the present century organised effort to improve these breeds has followed recognition of their possibilities for usefulness, and in few localities, if any, does the original stock remain pure. In Devonshire, Hampshire, Wales, Cumberland, the Highlands, Shetland, and in the West of Ireland, the original strains have been intermingled and alien blood introduced. Small Thoroughbred, Arab and Hackney sires have produced new and improved breeds less fitted to withstand the rigours of winter and the effects of scanty food contingent on independent and useless existence, but infinitely better calculated to serve the interests of mankind. Before the establishment of the Hackney Horse Society in 1883 the dividing line between the horse and the pony in England was vague and undefined. It was then found necessary to distinguish clearly between horses and ponies, and accordingly all animals measuring 14 hands or under were designated “ponies,” and registered in a separate part of the Stud Book. This record of height, with other particulars as to breeding, &c., serves to direct breeders in their choice of sires and dams. The standard of height established by the Hackney Horse Society was accepted and officially recognised by the Royal Agricultural Society in 1889, when the prize list for the Windsor Show contained pony classes for animals not exceeding 14 hands. The altered Polo-rule which fixes the limit of height at 14 hands 2 inches may be productive of some little confusion; but for all other purposes 14 hands is the recognised maximum height of a pony. Prior to 1883 small horses were called indifferently galloways hobbies, cobs, or ponies, irrespective of their height. THE NEW FOREST PONY. The New Forest in Hampshire now cover some 63,000 acres of which about 42,000 acres are common pasture, the remaining 21,000 acres having been enclosed in 1851 for the growth of timber. The greater portion of the common land is poor and boggy moor, and on these areas ponies have been bred in a semi-wild state from the earliest times. It is considered more than probable that the New Forest ponies are the survival of the stock which, before the time of Canute (1017-1035), was found in the district formerly called Ytene, and which was afforested in the year 1072 by the Conqueror.[2] [2] Mr. W. J. C. Moens, in a pamphlet printed for private circulation. Henry III. (1216-1272), on 15th March, 1217, ordered the Warden of the pony stud kept in the New Forest to give to the Monks of Beaulieu all the profits accruing from the droves from that date till November, 1220, this donation being for the benefit of the soul of his late father, King John. Thus it is evident that the New Forest ponies of the thirteenth century were numerous enough to form a source of revenue to the Crown.