26 THE HISTORY AND ART 



This method, I have been afTured, is ftill pra6lifed 

 in Barbary, by the lower fort of people, and anfwei-s 

 very juftly to the roughnefs and brutal violence of 

 thefe ignorant nations, in the ordinary courfe of their 

 manners, and harfhnefs of their tempers. 



Nor is it unreafonable to fuppofe, that their extreme 

 poverty, their ignorance of the arts *, and the want, 

 perhaps, of materials and manufai5tures , might have 

 given rife to this manner of riding, which cuftom adopt- 

 ed, and conftant pracftice made eafy and familiar both 

 to man and horfe j which latter, after a certain degree of 

 difcipline and experience, from the force of habit, and 

 the docility of his nature, might be brought to under- 

 ftand the intention, and obey the will of his rider, with 

 as much certainty and readinefs, as our cart-horfes in 



* In confirmation of this aflertion, I will add a paflage from an ac- 

 count of the Irifh, in the reign of king Richard II. 



When this prince went into Ireland to chaftife IVIac-Morough, who 

 called himfelf king of Ireland, though properly only king of Leinfter, 

 in the year 1399 •, the king of England, by advice of his council, fent 

 the earl of Glocelterunto Mac-Moroiigh to charge him with his crimes. 

 Between two woods, Mac-Morough defcended from a mountain, 

 mounted upon an horfe without a faddle, which cofl: him (as reported) 

 four hundred cows ; for in that country they barter by exchange, horfes 

 for beafts, and one commodity for another. This horfe was very fair, 

 and ran as fwift as any flag, or the fv/ifteft beaft I ever faw. Vide 

 Harris's Hibernica. 



Perhaps the cuftom once in this kingdom of making horfes draw 

 by their tails may be afcribed to the fame caufe, as the riding without 

 faddles •, the ignorance of the age in the art of making faddles and 

 harnefs. 



the 



