THE SADDLE-HORSE 47 



courser of Naples he had a very high opinion, however, the 

 race being good, comely, and strong, and ' of so much good- 

 nesse, of so gentle a nature, and of so high a courage as any 

 horse is, of what country so ever he be.' The courser of 

 Naples was distinguished by a Roman nose, or, to quote 

 Blundevill, from the eyes downwards his face bent 'like a 

 Hawkes beak.' Some of the old Italian masters faithfully 

 convey the type in their pictures. The creature is also to be 

 commended for what the author, using a quaint but favourite 

 phrase, calls his ' sure footmanship.' 



About the jennets of Spain authorities differ, some ancient 

 writers from whom Blundevill draws declaring that, though 

 famous for their swiftness, they are ' small of stature, of small 

 strength, and of small courage ; ' while others state the precise 

 opposite ; and, as to courage, Blundevill quotes the assertion of 

 soldiers who have told him that they could not tell how many 

 miles jennets have carried their riders out of the field, * after the 

 jennets themselves have been shot clean through their bodies 

 with harquebushes.' It is by no means obvious that this is to 

 be accepted as a proof of the jennets' courage : it might be 

 that, being desperately frightened, they ran till they dropped. 

 A point which Blundevill himself noticed was that the pace 

 of the jennet is neither trot nor amble, but ' a comelie kind of 

 going like the Turke.' In the case of the Hungarian horse, 

 handsome is as handsome does. These animals are described 

 as having great and hooked heads, eyes that 'stand almost 

 without the head,' broad jaws, a long, rough neck, with a mane 

 hanging down beneath the knees ; but they are both temperate 

 and wise. The Almaine horse was big and clumsy, and his 

 pace for the most part a very hard trot. Riders of these 

 animals made them 'turn always with their hinde part, not 

 with their fore part : ' obviously they were bad-shouldered 

 horses. The Flanders horse closely resembled the Almaine, 

 though the former was usually bigger, but the Friezeland was 

 quite another creature, generally of mean stature, and of a dis- 

 position 'so devilish, so stubborn, and so froward,' that it was 



