HORSES FOR " COURSE, CHASE, WAR, OR TRAVEL " 183 



\ 

 the fox was no foe to crops ; hedgerows only added zest to his 

 pursuit ; the new sport satisfied the new conditions, and demanded 

 the production of the modern hunter. 



The seventeenth century saw some of the conditions created 

 which have developed the various types in horses of to-day. James 

 I. reduced racing to rules ; Charles I. estabhshed races at New- 

 market ; Oliver Cromwell kept his stud ; Charles II. introduced the 

 " Royal Mares." Changes in the art of war demanded a hghter 

 and more active cavalry. Fox-hunting had become a passion with 

 the country gentry. Coaches travelled more rapidly. Oxen were 

 less used on the farm. During the same century, foreign breeds 

 were extensively imported. Arabs were favourites of James I. 

 But the authority of the Duke of Newcastle, who dishked the breed, 

 Avas paramount in matters of horse-flesh.^ Barbs, or Turks were 

 preferred till the Godolphin and Darley Arabians proved worthy 

 rivals to the Byerly Turk. Other breeds were largely imported 

 from Naples, Sardinia, Spain, Poland, Germany, Hungary, Flanders, 

 and Libya. So great was the admixture of blood, that Bradley, 

 writing in 1727, thinks the true-bred English horse hardly exists, 

 " unless we may account the Horses to be such that are bred wild 

 in some of our Forests and among the Mountains." ^ Horses 

 intended for " the Course, the Chase, War or Travel " were already 

 carefully studied. But horses for farm use were as j^et despised. 

 De Grey ^ speaks with contempt of horses for the cart, the plough, 

 the pack-saddle, and Bradley ignores them altogether. 



It was with the heavy Black-horse of the Midland counties that 

 Bakewell conducted his experiments. The breed had long been 

 knoAATi, and had doubtless helped to supply mounts to mediaeval 

 knights. Early in the eighteenth century the breed had been 

 improved by the importation of six Zealand mares. But the long 

 back and long thick hairy legs were still characteristic. Defoe 

 speaks of the Leicestershire horse as the " largest in England, being 

 generally the great black Coach-Horses and Dray-Horses, of which 

 so great a Number are continually brought up to London." Bake- 

 weU's object was to correct the type to that which was best suited 



^ Methode et Invention Nouvelle de dresser les Chevaux (1658). New- 

 castle's experiments were made with Barbs. The Duke also published in 

 1667 A New Method and Extraordinary Invention to Dress Horses, etc. 



2 Gentleman and Farmers Guide, p. 249. 



^ The Compleat Horseman and Expert Ferrier, by Thomas de Grey (5th ed, 

 1684), p. 8. 



