356 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. 



charge of the King's Serjeants at Winchester, for another entry 

 in the same document mentions an allowance being made to 

 Galfridus filius Azonis, sheriff of Hampshire, for " the livery of 

 the Serjeants that look to the King's (Henry II's) horses at 

 Winchester^" We do not know for what purpose or from what 

 country these horses were imported. It is probable that they 

 were brought from Normandy or some other part of France. 

 But an entry in the Exchequer Rolls of the reign of Stephen 

 shows that the King used to send round stallions, probably 

 from Winchester, to serve his mares, which were kept at his 

 various manors. For Warin, sheriff of Wiltshire and Dorset, 

 was allowed thirty shillings and threepence for the livery of 

 one of the King's servants, whilst he was at Gellingham with 

 a stallion to serve the King's mares-. But in the reign of 

 King John no less than one hundred stallions of large stature 

 were imported from the Low Countries — Flanders, Holland, 

 and the banks of the Elbe — and it is, says Sir Walter Gilbey, 

 " from the blending of these sires with English mares in 

 the lowland and shire counties that some strains at least 

 of our modern heavy horses must be held to date their 

 origin." 



It will be at once observed that these stallions of large 

 stature were procured from the very regions where we first 

 hear of a superior breed of horses (obtained through Gaul) in 

 the hands of a German tribe, who, in the first century after 

 Christ, had in their equestris disciplina laid the foundations 

 of Teutonic chivalry — the regions where the Frisians and 

 Thuringians had already notable horses in 380 A.D. 



But the improvement in size of the native English horses 

 was very slow, as is shown by various Acts of Parliament made 

 from time to time. In fact at no time in medieval England 

 was there a large supply of war-horses, as is shown by the 

 high prices paid for great horses. Out of a total of forty- 

 eight horses belonging to baronets, knights, esquires, and 

 valets, either of the King's (Edward I's) household, or not 

 belonging to it, many of which were killed at the Battle of 



1 Madox, 02}. cit. Vol. i. p. 368. = Madox, oj}. cit. p. 364. 



