2-995-655 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Exmoor Pony Fair at Bampton, Devon, 1860. 'On Bampton fair-day the main street of the town exhibits an animated and striking sight, crowded as it is with rich red Devon cattle, with mountain sheep, and with Exmoor ponies of all ages and sizes, the specialty of the fair. These beautiful little animals, bred wild on the hills around...owe the extraordinary distinction of their race, evinced in their small lean heads, their long, thin manes, their sinewy, sloping shoulders, their strong loins, and their quick, dainty action, to the pains taken in breeding them, many years ago, by Sir Thomas Dyke Acland...Their height ranges between eleven and thirteen hands; the largest, from their substance and action, being equal to carry twelve or thirteen stone as hackneys. Mealy brown, buffy bay, chestnut, and grey are their predominant colours. Their price, of course, varies with the state of the provender market. Purchasers of ponies in October must calculate on keeping them idle through the winter, and on the cost and trouble of breaking them for the saddle or for harness...An annual sale by auction takes place every year at Bampton of a herd of about fifty pure Exmoor ponies bred by Frederick Knight, Esq., the present proprietor of Exmoor'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.