A rare pair of manuscripts revealing the attempts made to revive horse breeding in Gujarat, especially in the Kathiawar peninsula, and the Deccan, namely in Pune (Poonah) and along the Bhima River, in the 1820s and 1830s.

The main manuscript gives a continuous history of British interests in Indian Horse breeding from 1813 through to 1826, in both Gujarat and the Deccan, before proceeding into fair copies of letters sent from and to Captain H. Jameson of the 3rd Regiment of Light Cavalry between 1827 and 1828 after he was made Superintendent to oversee the breeding of horses in India, and other extracts from various involved officers. This manuscript was owned (and possibly compiled) by Colonel John Bower of the Madras Army, brother of Admiral James Paterson Bower (1806–1889), who was stationed in Cape Town by 1838 for the purpose of purchasing and supplying horses to India for cavalry regiments and for breeding.

Together the manuscripts provide an exceptionally detailed picture of the state of horse breeding, and horse culture at large, in decline in northern India in the early nineteenth century following the Second and Third Anglo-Maratha Wars and, perhaps more importantly, the famine of 1812 which decimated livestock across the northern regions of India. In Kathiawar, for example, it is revealed that before the famine the peninsula had exported around 1200 horses, yet by 1822 that number was down to 400. Blame is also laid on the subsequent efforts to make up for the deficiency in indigenous horses with mountain horses from Persia and Afghanistan being brought in and diluting the gene pool of quality Kathiawar and Bhimthadi breeds. At one point between 1000-1500 horses were believed to have been purchased from Sindh, Herat, and Kandahar and distributed across India. Fingers are also pointed at the silladar system, the method of officers taking horses from the ranks rather than paying for them, and local prejudices against certain breeds (the Kathiawar breeders noticeably reject Arab stock as too small, whilst in the Deccan pure blood Arabs are prized).

The solution by the British was to import fine English and Arab stallions to reverse the genetic decline of Indian breeds and to introduce annual shows with prizes in order to stimulate domestic interest in breeding. One notable import was Sorcerer (1796–1821), an English Thoroughbred who won fifteen races and in 1813 was gifted to a Rajah in Gujarat. He was so desirable as a stallion that even years after his death the inspectors noted the best horses in the region were either his progeny or direct descendants. Much emphasis is put on the arrangement of shows and competitions to stimulate organic interest and growth domestically rather than the East India Company running their own studs in India, but the success of this plan is in doubt even seven years after the first shows.

The larger manuscript is full of other important and interesting facts and figures, including specific purchase and import figures from Persia and Arabia compared to domestic sources, the average price of a Kathiawar horse (514 Rupees), specific locales of breeding interest (e.g. Satana), the costs of Arab horses and specific issues around purchasing from Mokha, and the pride and history of the 'Bheem Thurry' (Bhimthadi) and Kathiawar breeds with such quotes as: 'The inhabitants recount with great delight the performances and pedigrees of their horses, nor will they admit that our small sturdy Arabs equal to them in either blood or power, and I must confess, I agree with them, that the real Kattywar Horse cannot be improved'.

The receipt book is an interesting compliment to the larger manuscript, providing further context to breeding efforts made by the British. Bower makes numerous references to the Sillidar cavalry in comparison to the horses he is able to procure in Cape Town with prices varying from £10 to over £100 for a single colt. The several loose notes are also interesting, providing summaries such as 'the average price and keep of a Colt bred by the Sillidars in Mysoor and purchased when 10 months old and kept at the depot till he attains 5 years' and 'Cost of the Bengal Stud Horses & head on arrival at Bangalore'.

Small 4to (23 x 19 cm); unruled notebook with 226 pp. of manuscript in several hands, 7 loose manuscript leaves of various notes and memoranda, armorial bookplate to pastedown, contemporary half calf, lacking backstrip, worn; [with] landscape 8vo (12 x 24 cm), 66 ff. of manuscript, mostly single sided, with pencil annotations to front endpaper, bound in contemporary sheep, working brass and vellum clasp, all edges marbled, rubbed, very good.