1Q2 CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK AND COMPLETE STOCK DOCTOR. 



horses, and rendered compulsory the maintenance of so great a urmber 

 of full sized mares and stallions, in every deer park, and in every rural 

 parish of the realm, that the reign of this monarch was marked by a 

 decided increase in the breeding of powerful, well formed animals. It 

 appears tbat the King even rode a race himself, for it is stated, by Miss 

 Strickland, that the King rode a-Maying, with Katheriue and the royal 

 bride, Mary, widow of Louis XII., of France, and the bride of Charles 

 Brandon. The amusements of the day, says Miss Strickland, were 

 brought to a close by the King and his brother-in-law, the Duke of Suf- 

 folk, riding races on great coursers, which were like the Flemish breed 

 of dray horses. During the reign of Henry VIII., an annual race was 

 run at Chester, the prize being a wooden ball, handsomely embellished, 

 for which, in 1540, a silver bell, called St. George's bell, was substituted. 

 Hence the phrase, " Bear the bell," in allusion to one who has come off 

 victorious in a contest. 



In the reign of James I. races were merely matches against time, 

 trials of speed and bottom for long and " cruel distances." From the 

 time of James I. the history of the English race-horse, and of English 

 racing, may be said fairly to begin, though no existing pedigrees are 

 traced back to that time. But, though pedigrees be not directly traced 

 to great antiquity, enough has been given of the history of English horses 

 to lot the reader know how long was the time, and how careful the breed- 

 ing, required to produce, in the thoroughbred of to-day, the most supei'b 

 race of horses the world has ever known ; for wind, speed and })ottom5 

 he is without a rival in ancient or modern times. 



The horse has of course always figured prominently in fiction and ro- 

 mance ; but in this connection it will sufiice to state the fact that in the 

 Homeric poems of the Trojan war, there is no mention of the trumpet 

 or of cavalry. In Virgil, mounted men, saddles, spurs, and clarions are 

 mentioned. In the romance of " Sir Bevis, of Southampton," he speaks 

 of races of three miles, for "forty pounds of ready golde." Homer 

 knew nothing of horsemen and trumpets in war, while Virgil was famil- 

 iar with them. The author of " Sir Bevis," in his day and generation 

 probably saw races of long distances, and long-distance races generally 

 precede short ones. / 



The excellence of the English race horse of the last 100 years is prob- 

 ably more due to the Barb than to any other one strain, it was in 1121 

 that the first Arabian was imported into England, but the Arabian of that 

 day was not what he was in the centuries 1400, 1500 and 1600, during 

 the time immediately succeeding the overthrow of Charles I. Of English 

 racing horses, Eclipse was the most wonderful of all whose perform- 

 ances have come down to us well authenticated 



