362 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. 



were sought for breeding purposes in the states of Northern 

 Italy. It is but natural therefore to find a specimen in- 

 cluded in the " Stable of Don John of Austria." The drawing 

 by Stradanus here reproduced (Fig. 101) shows that the typical 

 British horse (Brito) was much lighter in build than the con- 

 temporary horses of France, the Low Countries, and Germany, 

 though he was far stronger than the Neapolitan Courser, the 

 typical horse of Southern Italy. Stradanus' drawiog of the 

 typical horse of Northern Italy (Insuher^) shows (Fig. 90) that 

 the breeders there aimed at producing a horse of a stronger 

 frame than the Neapolitan, but not so ponderous as the war- 

 horses of Upper Europe. This fact may explain why the horse- 

 fanciers of Upper Italy were anxious to add British horses to 

 their studs. 



Ralph Holinshed's description of the English horses of the 

 time of Elizabeth forms the best comment on Stradanus' 

 picture of the British horse: ' Our horses,' says the chronicler^ 

 "are high, and although not comonlie of such huge greatness 

 as in other places of the maine, yet, if you respect the easinesse 

 of their pace, it is hard to saie where their like are to be had. 

 Our cart or plough horses (for we use them indifferently) are 

 commonlie so strong that five or six of them (at most), will 

 draw three thousand weight of the greatest tale with ease 

 for a long journeie — although it be not a load of common usage 

 which consisted only of two thousand, or fifty foot of timber, 

 forty bushels of white salt, or six and thirty of baie, or five 

 quarters of wheat, experience dailie teacheth, and I have 

 elsewhere remembered. Such as are kept for burden will 

 carie four hundred weight commonlie without any hurt or 

 hindrance." He adds that the Queen and the nobility used 

 carts to convey baggage, the former on her progresses requiring 

 2,400 horses, which had to be supplied by the adjacent districts, 

 and that " the ancient use of somers and sumpter horsis " had 

 been ' utterly relinquished,' " which causeth the trains of our 

 princes in their progresses to show far less than those of the 

 kings of other nations." 



1 Chron., Bk. ii. chap, i (Folio ed. London, 1587). 



