278 COMMON BElTISll ANIMALS 



sometimes a wliite star on the forehead and one or 

 more white heels. The mane and tail are always 

 fall and long and the latter is carried proudly at 

 some distance from the quarters. 'J'lie body is well 

 rounded and the legs are long and slender. Barbs 

 or Barbary horses are somewhat smaller than Arabs 

 and have very fine heads. They vary in colour, but 

 blacks and chestnuts are said to be the best. 



"The King, sir, hath wagered with him six Barbary horses." 



Hamlet v, 2. 



That good horses were held to be of vital impor- 

 tance is shown by the enactments made by various 

 sovereigns for improving the breed. Henry VII 

 and Henry VIII forbade the export of English horses, 

 and Henry VIII amongst other regulations enacted 

 that all prelates and nobles whose wives wore 

 French hoods or velvet bonnets should maintain 

 stallions of the required standard. Some soils and 

 climates would seem to be especially adapted to 

 breeding good horses. For instance, Irish horses 

 are everywhere regarded as the best of their kind in 

 the world. A distinct kind of cart-horse known as 

 the " Suffolk Punch '^ is bred in that county, and the 

 " shire horse,^' a descendant of the old English 

 black, is bred in the shire counties in Central England. 



Chaucer describes some of the horses on which 

 the Canterbury pilgrims w^ere mounted, and tells us 

 that the wife of Bath — "^ 



" U|)-on an amblere esily she sat." 



Ambling horses were considered to have an easy 



* " Proloirue," L 469. 



