HEAVY HORSES 173 



task being known by the designation of stots or offers. A peculiarity in 

 connection with the former of these titles is, that it is a term applied to 

 oxen in certain parts of Scotland, and perhaps it points to the association 

 of the old draught bullocks with horses used for farm-work. 



William the Conqueror was the first king of England who attempted 

 to produce a horse specially adapted for agricultural purposes; and so far 

 as can be ascertained, the first notice of a horse being so employed was 

 published in the first year of this sovereign's reign. It consisted of the 

 delineation of a horse attached to a barrow and attended by a man. The 

 figures were woven in a piece of Bayeux tapestry, which has served as a 

 landmark to proclaim and fix an approximate date for the introduction of 

 horses into the operations of the husbandmen*, and is therefore historically 

 important, Henry II was the next monarch of England who appears to 

 have made serious efforts to improve the race that was then known as 

 "the Great Horse". In his reign sires were imported from abroad. 

 John, whatever his other failings may have been, developed a genuine 

 interest in horse-breeding, as evidence of which he imported one hundred 

 large-sized stallions from Flanders and Holland for the purpose of crossing 

 with the native mares. Edward II evidently possessed a hankering- 

 after both light and heavy horses, for he is credited with having imported 

 thirty Lombardy war-horses and a dozen big draught stallions for breed- 

 ing purposes; whilst Edward III, working on different lines, added his 

 quota to the efforts of his predecessors by deciding to keep all the besl 

 animals in the country, which end he accomplished by prohibiting the 

 exportation of any horses at all. 



Then there appears to have been a lull in the enthusiasm of the 

 English kings in the matters of horse-breeding, until that monarch of 

 derided views, Henry VIII, undertook to grapple seriously and practi- 

 cally with the question of undersized animals, though Henry VII may 

 be credited with having attempted something by reviving the expor- 

 tation laws. Bluff King Hal, however, when he once determined to see 

 into the matter, lost no time in setting .to work with characteristic 

 energy. Only mares and stallions above a certain height were allowed 

 to be bred from, and the wealthy prelates and nobles, whose wives in- 

 dulged in such expensive luxuries as French hoods or velvet bonnets, 

 were compelled to keep stallions of a stipulated size for the benefit of 

 the community. Satisfied with the improvement that his earlier laws 

 had effected in the race of English horses, King Henry, in 1535, caused 

 another edict to be passed, which provided that all owners or farmers of 

 parks and enclosed ground of the extent of 1 mile in compass should 

 keep two mares apt and able to bear foals, of the altitude of 13 hands 



