88 



a pace which they were invariably taught, and which they no doubt 

 performed most nimbly and gracefully. Nor Avasthis practised merely 

 on account of the rough trot of such large and heavy Horses, since all 

 descriptions of saddle Horses were taught to amble, that most excellent 

 and useful pace the trot being almost entirely disused. It is left to the 

 reader's imagination, to draw forth of the dray stables of Messieurs 

 Whitbread and Meux, two squadrons, to be reviewed in Hyde-park, 

 upon the amble ! 



Beside the catuphracti, or heavy cavalry, light troops were then iti 

 use, as at present, styled in modern or bastard Latin hobkarii, from 

 their being mounted on hobbies. The light cavalry were probably in 

 -those days irregulars, which Avere mounted upon any procurable species 

 of Horses, without regard to size. The old English Avord hohbtj, noAV 

 nearly obsolete, poney being the present substitute, originated in the 

 French aubin or hobbin, that likcAvise being a derivative from the Italian 

 ubim. The term hackney, Avhich Ave still retain, has most probably been 

 adopted from the French AVord haquince, itself proceeding from the 

 Italian achinea, the former being introduced here by our Norman 

 conquerors. 



The Coursers, we are to suppose, Avere their lightest, speediest and 

 best bred Horses; the nags, light road Horses; and the palfreys Aveve 

 such as carried ladies. 



In the account of disbursements for King EdAvard's Avardrobe, Avhich 

 contains, among other articles, the expence of Horses bought in France, 

 there is an item for trammels, or those implements Avith Avhich Horses 

 are taught to amble or pace. In vulgar Latin, these Avere styled iraij- 

 melli,or //o^/ze///, supposed to be derived from the Italian AVord, tramenare, 

 to shake or wriggle, of such sort being the motion of the Horse in 

 pacing. This account was written in Latin, as Avere almost all memoirs, 

 as Avell as law deeds and prayers, in that pedantic age. There Avere, 

 according to Dr. Henry, even treatises for the instruction of iarmers 

 and their servants, doAvn to the SAvineherd, composed in Latin, and the 

 accounts of farms and dairies kept in the same language. Bishop Ken- 

 net, in his Parochial Antiquities, gives the following specimen of the 

 l^tin of 1400, in Avhich a dairy account Avas kept. " Pro iino, .siiiD- 



