26 



their legal obligation, and appointed suitable 

 persons to see that her commands were 

 carried out. One of these documents, issued 

 in 1580, announces that the number of 

 horsemen in the country shown by the 

 returns is "much less than she looked for." 



She made some changes in the existing 

 laws, notably that passed in the thirty-second 

 year of Henry VIII.'s reign, concerning the 

 stature of horses in specified shires. That 

 law applied among other counties to Cam- 

 bridgeshire, Huntingdon, Northampton, Lin- 

 colnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk ; 8 Eliz., c. 8, 

 passed in 1566, exempted the Isle of Ely 

 and " other moors, marshes and fens of 

 Cambridgeshire," and the above-mentioned 

 counties from operation of the Act because 

 " the said moors, of their unfirmness, moys- 

 ture and wateryshnes " could not bear such 

 big horses without danger of their " mireyng, 

 drowning and peryshinge." 



She also (3 1 Eliz. 1 2) passed another 

 " Acte to avoyde horse stealinge," the chief 

 feature of which was to forbid anyone un- 

 known to the toll-taker to sell a horse in 

 the market unless the would-be seller could 

 produce "one sufficient and credible" wit- 

 ness to vouch for his respectability. The 

 evil had grown to the proportions of a 



