HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH HORSE. 57 



uninitiated in arms, from the families of barons and great persons, to train 

 and practise. 



" They begin by dividing themselves into troops. Some labour to outstrip 

 their leaders, without being able to reach them ; others unhorse their anta- 

 gonists, yet are not able to get beyond them. A race is to be run by this sort 

 of horses, and perhaps by others, which also in their kind are strong and fleet 

 a shout is immediately raised, and the common horses are ordered to withdraw 

 out of the way. Three jockeys, or sometimes only two, as the match is made, 

 prepare themselves for the contest. The horses on their part are not without 

 emulation : they tremble and are impatient, and are continually in motion. 

 At last, the signal once given, they start, devour the course, and hurry along 

 with unremitting swiftness. The jockeys, inspired with the thought of applause 

 and the hope of victory, clap spurs to their willing horses, brandish their whips, 

 and cheer them with their cries," This animated description reminds us of the 

 more lengthened races of the present day, and proves the blood of the English 

 horse, even before the eastern breed was tried*. 



Close on this followed the Crusades. The champions of the Cross certainly 

 had it in their power to enrich their native country with some of the choicest 

 specimens of the Eastern horse, but they were completely under the influence 

 of superstition and fanaticism, and common sense and usefulness were forgotten. 



An old metrical romance, however, records the excellence of two horses 

 belonging to Richard Coeur de Lion, which he purchased at Cyprus, and were 

 therefore, probably, of Eastern origin : 



Yn this worlde they hadde no pere i", 

 Dromedary nor destrere J, 

 Stede, Rabyte , ne Cammele, 

 Goeth none so swifte, without fayle : 

 For a thousand pownd of golde, 

 Ne should the one be solde. 



The head of the war-steed was ornamented with a crest, and, together with 

 his chest and flanks, was wholly or partially protected. Sometimes he was 

 clad in complete steel, with the arms of his master engraved or embossed on 

 his bardings. The bridle of the horse was always as splendid as the circum- 

 stances of the knight allowed, and thus a horse was often called brigliadore, 

 from briglia d'oro, a bridle of gold. Bells were a very favourite addition to 

 the equipment of the horse. The old troubadour, Arnold of Marson, says that 

 41 nothing is so proper to inspire confidence in a knight and terror in an enemy." 



The price of horses at this period was singularly uncertain. In 1185, 

 fifteen breeding mares sold for two pounds, twelve shillings, and sixpence. 

 They were purchased by the monarch, and distributed among his tenants ; and, 

 in order to get something by the bargain, he charged them the great sum of 

 four shillings each. Twenty years afterwards, ten capital horses brought no 

 less than twenty pounds each ; and, twelve years later, a pair of horses were 

 imported from Lombardy, for which the extravagant price of thirty- eight 

 pounds, thirteen shillings, and fourpence was given. The usual price of good 

 handsome horses was ten pounds, and the hire of a car or cart, with two 

 horses, tenpence a-day. 



To King John, hateful as he was in all other respects, we are much indebted 

 for the attention which he paid to agriculture generally, and particularly to the 

 improvement of the breed of horses. He imported one hundred chosen stal- 

 lions of the Flanders breed, and thus mainly contributed to prepare our noble 

 species of draught-horses, as unrivalled in their way as the horses of the turf. 



* Leland's Itinerary, vol. viii. ; and Berenger, vol. i. p. 165. 

 t Peer, equal. J War-horse. Arabia. 



