HISTORY OF HORSE-RACING. 15 



the use of coaches, an innovation which then created an 

 enormous demand for horses. It is also to be observed that 

 the use of gunpowder, making heavy armour unnecessary, 

 occasioned a demand for light and active horses, instead of 

 those stately animals which had been employed in war and ex- 

 hibition. As far as racing is concerned, it ceased to be a great 

 public amusement during this reign. No mention is made 

 of the sport as forming part of the amusements which were 

 provided for the Sovereign during her visit to Lord Leicester 

 at Kenilworth, and Commenino says that in 1590 tilting or 

 quintain is used, when a ring is struck with a truncheon, instead 

 of horse-racing, which, he adds, is grown out of fashion. 



No doubt racing did not completely die out, as we find in 

 Bishop Hall's 'Satires,' published about the same time, the 

 following lines : 



Dost thou prize 



Thy brute beast's worth by their dam's qualities ; 



Say'st thou, this colt shall prove a swift -paced steed, 



Only because a jennet did him breed ? 



Or sayst thou, this same horse shall win the prize, 



Because his dam was swiftest Trunchifrice, 



Or Buncivall his syre : himself a galloway ? 



While, like a tireling jade, he lags half-way. 



It is remarkable that at this time there was such a lack 

 of cavalry horses that when England was threatened by the 

 Spanish Armada no more than 3,000 cavalry could be mus- 

 tered in the whole kingdom. 



But in the reign of James I. horsemanship was still more 

 practised and encouraged ; many improvements and refine- 

 ments in that art were introduced by the different masters, who 

 now taught it throughout Europe. 



Public races were about this time established, and such 

 horses as had given proof of superior abilities became known 

 and celebrated ; and their pedigree as well as that of their 

 posterity (in imitation, perhaps, of the Arabian manner) pre- 

 served and recorded with the minutest exactness. Garterly, 



