12 RACING, 



is now extinct ; its scarcity is proof of the astonishing changes 

 which air, food, and a mixture of blood can produce in the 

 animal world. 



The loss, however, of these pigmies which Mr. Carew 

 regrets was well repaired by a race of larger and more able- 

 bodied creatures ; for the small animals, however pleasing and 

 useful in their own craggy mountainous country, could not 

 extend their merit beyond its boundary, being inferior for the 

 task of war, the swiftness and fatigue of the chase, the splen- 

 dour of tournaments, and the magnificent pageantry of the 

 times, which, particularly in the reign of Henry VIIL, all 

 writers agree was excessive. 



Henry VHL, from his excessive fondness of pomp and 

 ostentation, even obhged under penalties all orders of men to 

 keep a certain number of horses in proportion to their rank and 

 circumstances. 



The archbishop and every duke were enjoined to keep 

 seven trotting stone horses for the saddle, each of which was to 

 be fourteen hands in height. Every clergyman possessing a 

 benefice to the amount of one hundred pounds per annum, or 

 a layman whose wife should wear a French hood or a bonnet 

 of velvet, was to keep one trotting stone horse, under the 

 penalty of twenty pounds ; and there were other regulations 

 equally singular and minute. 



Henry VIII. did not confine his attention merely to the 

 establishment of a generous and serviceable breed of horses ; 

 he was solicitous to provide from different countries skilful and 

 experienced persons to preside in his stables, in order that by 

 their means the rules and elements of horsemanship might be 

 circulated throughout the nation. 



In Sir N. H. Nicolas' work, entitled ' Privy Purse Expenses 

 of Henry VHL,' we find items to the keeper of the ' Barbary 

 horse' for his board for so many weeks ; to the same keeper 

 again — by ' way of reward,' with a reward also ' to the boye that 

 ranne the horse,' with other charges, including ' a bath for the 

 horse.' 



