164 THE HISTORY AND ART 



Camhrenjis takes notice of them, and Drayton, the poet, 

 celebrates their excellence. 



This race feems to have been calculated at once for 

 the purpofes of war, and the exhibitions of public fo^- 

 lemnities, of which horfes are always a very effential: 

 and ornamental part : for it is not known that at this- 

 time, nor till a much later period, that horfe-races 

 were introduced into England: although this agreeable 

 and ufeful diverfion, if confined within certain regu- 

 lations, might have been cultivated with great pro- 

 priety among a people fond and proud of their horfes, 

 and that at a time, when bodily exercifes alone were 

 the amufements of all forts of men ; and efpecially, 

 as the Englifli had opportunities of being inftrucfted in 

 them by the Romans, who generally kept their own 

 euftoms wherever they came, and left their impreflion 

 behind them, when they departed. We may, there- 

 fore, reafonably conclude, that they were either ig- 

 norant of thefe fports, or, what is more likely, pre^ 

 ferred the parade and magnificence of tilts and tour- 

 naments, in which the ftrength, a(5livity, fpirir, and 

 beauty of the horfe, as well as the fkill and courage 

 of the rider, could be more ufefuUy employed, and. 

 more gracefully difplayed. 



h appears, however, from a fingular and curious 

 Latin tradl, that in the reign of Henry II. both tourna- 

 ments and horfe-races, or fomething very like races, 

 were cultivated with much earneftnefs and care. Smitb- 

 jield was then the chief theatre for thefe fports, as well 



as 



