INTRODUCTION. 139' 



races that took place in Sraithfield, whither mer- 

 chants and strangers resorted, and which was then, 

 it is evident, a great mart for foreign as well as 

 native horses. Then was the era of the crusades : 

 thousands of the hest horses went with their riders 

 to perish in Palestine, and those champions of the 

 Cross that survived to return, were always in such 

 distress, that they could not, if they would, bring 

 oriental steeds back to their homes. Richard I., in 

 the various metrical poems concerning his expedi- 

 tion, is mentioned riding a Gascon bay, a Cypriot 

 roan, and several Arabians. Two other Cyprus 

 horses sung in romance, most likely never came to 

 England, though 



" Yn this worlde they hadde no pere. 

 Dromedary and Destrere, 

 Stede, Rabyte, *, no Cammele, 

 Goeth none so swifte, without fayle." 



We perceive, in the sum of two pounds twelve 

 and sixpence, given by the king, in 1185, for fifteen 

 breeding mares, and distributed by him to his tenants 

 at four shillings each, the low value of the common 

 race, as compared with ten capital war-horses, which, 

 some years later, cost twenty pounds a piece, — the 

 demand and necessary consequence of the havoc 

 made among them during the frenzy of distant 

 marine expeditions; and in the case of a pair of 

 chargers, twelve years after (1217), brought over 

 from Lombardy at the extravagant sum of thirty- 

 eight pounds thirteen and four-pence, we find the 

 * An Arabian. 



