OF HORSEMANSHIP. 49 



different motions and evolutions performed by men and 

 horfes in battle. To this likewife we owe the folemni- 

 ties and fports of tilts, tournaments, and J t/J^s, invented 

 as a nryck-war, to fill up the lazy hours of peace, to 

 infpire and keep alive a martial fpirit, to render the 

 body acTiive, robuft, and expert in the feats of arms ; 

 and which, though confecrated in latter days folely to 

 pomp and gallantry, were anciently of more ferious 

 account, and the real difcipline and exercife of war. 



Hence the praifes, and hence the honours, which 

 were always beftowed upon thofe who excelled in 

 hoyfemanJJjip, not as being fkilled in a light and idle 

 accomplifliment, but as pofTeffing an art, which was of 

 folid ufe, and indifpenfably neceflary in bufmefs of 

 war : for as in ancient times the moft important fer- 

 vice of the horfe was in the field, thofe who broke and 

 managed them were almoft always men of military 

 eminence ; and the appellation of horfeman, or more 

 fimply and literally horfe-breaker, meant a foldier or chiefs 

 who fought on horfeback, in dillin(5lion to one who 

 combated on foot; and the fkill of managing horfes in 

 its two branches of riding or driving them in chariots, 

 was a qualification requifite in a warrior. The epi- 

 thet, therefore, of horfe-breaker was a title of praife 

 and refpc61; ; as we learn from Homer, Virgil, and 

 others, who add it to the names of their moll illuflri- 

 ous heroes and chiefs, and confer diflinguiflied com- 

 mendations upon thofe who excelled in this art, fo 

 neceflary and becoming in the profeflion of arms ; and 



Vol. I. H fo 



