The association of the above name with a well-known breed of ponies inhabiting the north and west of Scotland has become of late years an accomplished fact, owing to the fact that almost all the best specimens have been bred on the isle of Rum, whilst those on the mainland have become deteriorated in quality. The former circumstance is doubtless owing to the fact that so far back as the year 1847 a former Lord Salisbury turned a Thoroughbred stallion out on the island; but unhappily no authentic records of the ultimate fate of the horse or of the produce of his sons and daughters have been forthcoming. At a comparatively recent period, however, Lord Arthur Cecil purchased the entire stock of island ponies, and removed them to the neighbourhood of the New Forest, where doubtless their improvement will be studied with ultimate benefit to the breed.

The Rum pony is usually black in colour, and the average height is between 13 hands 2 inches to 14 hands 3 inches, which proves that they are considerably taller animals than the ordinary run of English pony. As a rule, their shoulders are good, and their feet and legs are the perfection of soundness. On the other hand, although rather narrow in their build, their heads incline to coarseness. Lord Arthur Cecil claims for them that the main characteristics of the breed are extreme docility when broken in, immense strength, and great intelligence, all of which merits, combined with iron constitutions, have been preserved by the specimens of the Rum pony which have come beneath the notice of the writer.