Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

A Scotch Galloway was taken into the yard of Mr. Dunning, of the Five Lions Inn, Walmgate, on Thursday afternoon, which his son mounted, and the animal set off at full speed towards the bottom of the yard, which is terminated by a passage and several steps, leading to the River Foss. The animal leaped down there, the boy keeping his seat, and they were both plunged to the bottom of the river. On rising to the surface, the animal swam to the opposite side, and the boy and Galloway were landed in safety, without either having sustained any injury.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations:

• ER: East Riding
• GM: Greater Manchester
• NR: North Riding
• NY: North Yorkshire
• SY: South Yorkshire
• WR: West Riding
• WY: West Yorkshire

Comment

Comment

Via John Bibby (Bibby 2022). Unfortunately no contemporary York versifiers seem to have been inspired by the incident. Having only met bovine Galloways I originally thought this was a cow, but the beast is surely equine. A contemporary expert says the term by then indicated size and character rather than breed:

A horse between thirteen and fourteen hands in height is called a GALLOWAY, from a beautiful breed of little horses once found in the south of Scotland, on the shore of the Solway Firth, but now sadly degenerated, and almost lost, from the attempts of the farmers to obtain a larger kind, and better adapted for the purposes of agriculture. There is a tradition in that country, that the breed is of Spanish extraction, some horses having escaped from one of the vessels of the Grand Armada, which was wrecked on the neighbouring coast. This district, however, so early as the time of Edward I., supplied that monarch with a great number of horses.

The pure galloway was said to be nearly fourteen hands high, and sometimes more; of a bright bay, or brown, with black legs, small head and neck, and peculiarly deep and clean legs. Its qualities were speed, stoutness, and sure-footedness over a very rugged and mountainous country.

Dr. Anderson thus describes the galloway: “There was once a breed of small elegant horses in Scotland, similar to those of Iceland and Sweden, and which were known by the name of galloways; the best of which sometimes reached the height of fourteen hands and a half. One of this description I possessed, it having been bought for my use when a Ι boy. In point of elegance of shape it was a perfect picture; and in disposition was gentle and compliant. It moved almost with a wish, and never tired. I rode this little creature for twenty-five years, and, twice in that time I rode a hundred and fifty miles at a stretch, without stopping, except to bait, and that not for above an hour at a time. It came in at the last stage with as much ease and alacrity as it travelled the first. I could have undertaken to have performed on this beast, when it was in its prime, sixty miles a-day for a twelvemonth running without any extraordinary exertion.”

[…]

Many of the galloways now in use are procured either from Wales or the New Forest, but they have materially diminished in number : there are scarcely sufficient to supply even the neighbouring districts, and they are still more materially deteriorated in form and value. Both the Welsh and the Hampshire galloways and ponies claim, however, some noble blood.
(Youatt 1831)

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Original

A Scotch Galloway was taken into the yard of Mr. Dunning, of the Five Lions Inn, Walmgate, on Thursday afternoon, which his son mounted, and the animal set off at full speed towards the bottom of the yard, which is terminated by a passage and several steps, leading to the River Foss. The animal leaped down there, the boy keeping his seat, and they were both plunged to the bottom of the river. On rising to the surface, the animal swam to the opposite side, and the boy and Galloway were landed in safety, without either having sustained any injury.

102 words.

Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Edward I of England (4) ·
• Europa (consort of Zeus) (1) ·
• Galloway cattle (1) ·
• Galloway pony (1) ·
• Galloway (1) ·
• Greek mythology (2) ·
• Horse (71) ·
• Iceland (1) ·
• 📌New Forest (1) ·
• Pony (1) ·
• Rembrandt (1) ·
• River Foss (4) ·
• Scotland (37) ·
• Spanish Armada (1) ·
• Sweden (5) ·
• Wales (8) ·
• 📌Walmgate (4), street in central York, fish and cattle market in the Middle Ages, saw action during the 1644 siege of York, considerable clearance in the 20th century ·
• Welsh Pony and Cob (2) ·
• 📌York (164) ·
• Zeus (1) ·

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