H 



winter and heat of summer, furnished suffi- 

 cient reason for the knights to don their mail 

 only when actually going into action, or on 

 occasions of ceremony. 



" Hengests and somers " were probably 

 used for very similar purposes, as more than 

 once we find them coupled thus : these were 

 the baggage or transport animals, and were 

 doubtless of no great value. " Courser " is a 

 term somewhat loosely used in the old 

 records ; it is applied indifferently to the war 

 horse, to the horse used in hunting, and for 

 daily road work, but generally in a sense 

 that suggests speed. " Trotters," we must 

 assume, were horses that were not taught to 

 amble ; and the name was distinctive at a 

 period when all horses used for saddle by the 

 better classes were taught that gait. Edward 

 III.'s Wardrobe Accounts mention payment 

 for trammels, the appliances, it is supposed, 

 used for this purpose, and at a much later 

 date in another Royal Account Book, we find 

 an item " To making an horse to amble, 2 

 marks (135. 4d.)." The amble was a pecu- 

 liarly easy and comfortable pace which would 

 strongly commend itself to riders on a long 

 journey. Hobbies were Irish horses, small 

 but active and enduring ; genets were Span- 

 ish horses nearly allied to, if not practically 



