140 INTRODUCTION. 



eagerness evinced for possessing the largest and 

 heaviest war-horses then in Europe. For in the 

 rich pastures of the river Po, a race of ponderous 

 Destrieros had been formed, which, if they at all 

 resembled those figured by the early sculptors on 

 the monuments and statues of Condotieri, were 

 equal to our largest breed of dray-horses, the boast 

 of London brewers. 



King John had a passion for horses ; he imported 

 one hundred chosen stallions from Flanders, and 

 thereby contributed materially to the improvement 

 of that class of horses which subsequently became 

 more exclusively employed for draught. In the 

 same reign, a gentleman named Amphitil Till, one 

 of the numerous persons who fell under the enmity 

 of the king, was imprisoned, and agreed to pay for 

 his ransom ten horses, each worth thirty marks, 

 which is nearly equal to 300 of our present 

 money:* but the circumstance only proves the 

 value of his stud, not that they were of English 

 race. 



Whether the old grey breed of England was of 

 the same extraction as the Norman is uncertain ; 

 but while the crown was in possession both of that 

 country and Guienne, where the Ferrant breed 

 abounded, it is likely that from the time of Henry II. 

 it had been introduced ; for the names of grey 

 Lyard, and Sulyardt, occur in ancient heraldry 



* See Rymer's Faedera, quoted by Henry. 



f* Lyard, dappled grey ; Sulyard, mouldy grey. The ancient 



family of Sulyard bore for arms a stumbling white horse, and 



