BRITISH TURF. 17 



CHAPTER II. 



Early history of the horse and horse-racing in Great Britain — 

 Brief review of the most remark ble writers on the science of 

 horses and horsemanship. 



If, in the absence of any authority as to the 

 exact period when horses were first brought into 

 this country, we might hazard an opinion, we 

 should feel inclined to fix it as coeval with, or 

 at least as immediately following, the coloniza- 

 tion of the Island. 



Emigrating, as the first settlers did, from the 

 opposite coast of Gaul, where, in common with 

 all the other barbarian nations of the North and 

 "West of Europe, they must have been much 

 accustomed to the use of horses, it seems natu- 

 ral that, feeling early the want of them in their 

 newly-adopted country, their immediate efforts 

 would be directed to obtain them ; and we think 

 it far more probable that they should have 

 brought them over on rafts, from the opposite 



VOL. I. c 



