Word (1956), and then by George Ewart Evans, who purported the theory in four books of his published in the 1960s and 1970s. Neither Davidson nor Evans had examined the Horseman's Word through the original Scottish sources, while McPherson had only relied upon observations made in the late nineteenth century. Nonetheless, around the same time that Evans was publishing his theory of a pagan survival, there were also researchers who had examined the origins of the Society and criticised the idea that it had ancient roots. In 1962, Hamish Henderson detailed how it had arisen in the eighteenth century, with his information being expanded upon by Ian Carter in his 1979 study of agricultural life in Scotland. In 2009, The Society of Esoteric Endeavour published a compilation of nineteenth and early twentieth century texts about the Society in a volume entitled The Society of the Horseman's Word. Limited to an edition of one thousand copies, the first hundred copies contained an envelope inside within which was contained a piece of horse hair knotted in exactly the same manner as that which was originally used to invite prospective members into the Society. Fiction In 1981, a novel written by Georgess McHargue that was entitled The Horseman's Word was published. An episode of the television program, The Adventures of Black Beauty titled "The Horsemen" centered around Beauty being the victim of an unscrupulous member of the society. See also Secret society References Bibliography Kerr, Peter. Thistle Soup: A Ladleful of Scottish Life. Globe Pequot, 2004. Porter, James. "The Folklore of Northern Scotland: Five Discourses on Cultural Representation." Folklore, Vol. 109 (1998): 1–14. Society Meetings. Folklore, Vol. 82, No. 1. (Spring, 1971): 88. Further reading Henderson, Hamish "The Ballad, the Folk and the Oral Tradition" in Cowan, Edward J. (ed.), The People's Past. Edinburgh: Polygon, 1980. Secrets of the Horse Whisperers Magical organizations Social history of Scotland Secret societies in the United Kingdom Horse behavior Horse training Clubs and societies in Scotland