174 VARIETIES OF THE HORSE 



at least, under a penalty of forty shillings. A like penalty was also 

 inflicted upon any owner or farmer who willingly permitted such mares 

 to be served by a stallion under 14 hands. Still later on, in the year 1541, 

 it was enacted that no horse under 15 hands should be allowed to run in 

 certain forests and districts. This is specially interesting to the modern 

 Shire horsebreeder, as the expression " Shire " is referred to in the Act — 

 not, it is true, in connection with the animal, but with the districts in 

 which stallions under 1 5 hands were to be permitted to run loose on moors 

 and in forests. The districts were Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridge, 

 Huntingdon, Buckingham, Berkshire, Oxford, Worcester, Herefordshire, 

 Gloucester, Somerset, South Wales, Warwick, Northampton, Cheshire, 

 Staffordshire, Shropshire, Leicester, Lincolnshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire, 

 Kent, South Hampshire, and North Wiltshire. Not only were these 

 stringent provisions made for ensuring the services of desirable stallions, 

 but legislation was directed also towards mares, filly foals, and even 

 geldings, which did not appear likely either to grow or to be able to bear 

 foals of reasonable stature, or not likely to be able to do " profitable 

 Labours by the discretion of the drivers". In such cases the driver or 

 drivers were compelled by the Act to cause the unprofitable beasts to 

 he killed, and their bodies to be buried in the ground or "otherwise 

 bestowed as no annoyance thereby shall come or grow to the people 

 there near inhabiting or thither resorting ". Subsequently, the laws 

 already in existence prohibiting the exportation of horses were extended 

 to Scotland, so that any person discovered selling horses to a Scotsman, 

 and the purchaser as well, rendered themselves guilty of the act of felony. 

 That the vigorous policy of King Henry worked well there can be little 

 doubt — a statement made by Sir Thomas Chaloner in the reign of Queen 

 Elizabeth, assists to prove this — for there is every reason to suppose 

 that his subjects, knowing the determined disposition of their monarch, 

 and his peculiar methods of enforcing obedience to his will, acted up to 

 the strict letter of the law in every particular. Finally, it may be added 

 as a testimony to King Henry's sincerity in his desire to improve the 

 heavy horse, that Ralph Holinshed states that he " erected a noble 

 studderie for breeding horses, especially the greatest sort, and for a time 

 had vt'rie good success with them". 



To King Henry VIII, therefore, the present Shire horse is indebted 

 for a good deal of the size and power it possesses; but in spite of the 

 improvements brought about by the active policy of that much-married 

 monarch, the English animals, even at the conclusion of his reign, were 

 not as a rule equal in stature to the horses of the Continent. This 

 is borne testimony to by the writer last quoted, who, in alluding to the 



