Letter to James Cossar Ewart from Sir William Ridgeway

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Letter to James Cossar Ewart from Sir William Ridgeway who apologizes for not having been in touch recently, due in part to the sudden death of the Master of Caius College (Oxford), Dr Norman Macleod Ferrers. He thanks him for the photograph of a pony's head. He asserts that their conclusion that no asses had evolved west of the Nile is incorrect and cites a renowned Arab historian and geographer, Al-Masudi. He mentions the appearance of curiously striped wild asses in the province of Nubia, on the West side of the Nile. Ridgeway discusses the implications of the infiltration of asses into this area and explores its possible origins.

He is writing to Walter Burton Harris, traveller and author of the book Tafilet. Since he has a thorough knowledge of Arabic dialects and has travelled from Baghdad to Jerusalem so would probably have some knowledge about Arab and Barbary horses. He discusses the links between the Celtic pony and sacrificial asses in Greek myth. He also suggests dropping into see Cossar Ewart at the end of term.

• Academic Writing
• Anatomy
• Animal Markings
• Arab Mares
• Asses
• Barbary Horse
• Horses
• Mythology, Greek
• Ponies
• Research
• Social Interaction
• Thoroughbred Horse

• Al-Masudi | Abu-al-Hasan Ali | d 956 | Arab traveller and historian
• Ewart | James Cossar | 1851-1933 | zoologist and professor of natural history, University of Edinburgh
• Ferrers | Norman Macleod | 1829-1903 | mathematician
• Harris | Walter Burton | 1866-1933 | traveller, explorer and author
• Ridgeway | Sir | William | 1853-1926 | classicist and Disney professor of archaeology, Cambridge (England)

• Africa, North
• Bagdad (Iraq)
• Edinburgh (Scotland)
• Jerusalem
• Oxford (England)