378 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. 



not doubt that the light, swift horses bred for racing and hunt- 

 ing had a good deal of Barbary blood in their veins, and that 

 such too was the case with those horses claimed as purely 

 English by Markham. That the Turk also had been imported 

 into England more than a century before the arrival of the 

 oft-mentioned Byerley Turk in 1689 is put beyond doubt by 

 Blundeville, who states that the horses which he had seen 

 " come from Turkey, as well into Italie, as hither into England, 

 be indifferentlie faire to the eie, though not verie great nor 

 stronglie made, yet very light and swift in their running, and 

 of great courage." The Turk therefore as well as the Barbarian 

 probably had a considerable influence on the racers and hunters 

 of the day. 



There is therefore no need to assume, as has been done by 

 at least one leading authority, that Arabian horses had been 

 imported long before 1616, when King James I bought an 

 Arabian from Mr Markham. With reference to this famous 

 animal and the large price paid for him, my friend Sir Ernest 

 Clarke has sent me a valuable historical note, which I here give 

 in full : 



The Fourth Edition of Volume I. of the General Stud-Book, 

 published by Weatherbys in 1868 (Query a copy of the First 

 Edition, published in 1808), says at the head of the Fourth 

 Part: 



" Arabs, Barbs and Turks." 



" King James I bought an Arabian of Mr Markham, 

 a Merchant, for 500 guns., said, but with little probability, 

 to have been the first of that Breed ever seen in England." 



The original foundation for this figure of 500 guineas (which 

 has been faithfully copied in all the books of reference) is 

 probably the following reference to the horse in question made 

 by that famous equestrian, the Duke of Newcastle, in his "New 

 Method of Dressing Horses" (T. Milbourn, 1667): 



" (p. 73) I never saw any but one of these Horses 

 (Arabian) which Mr John Markham, a Merchant, brought 

 over and said He was a right Arabian ; He was a Bay, but 

 a little Horse, and no Rarity for Shape; for I have seen 



