134 THE HORSE 



until about a.d. 631, and Church dignitaries requiring horses to ride were 

 counselled to use mares, in order to spare the horses for the mail-clad 

 warriors, whose persons and " kit " made up some thirty stones according 

 to our present reckoning. 



These powerful animals are not mentioned as being used for cartage until 

 about 1154, when a monk of Canterbury, William Stephanides, wrote — • 

 " Without one of the London City Gates is a certain Smoothfield (Smith- 

 field). Every Friday there is a brave sight of gallant horses to be sold. 

 ]\Iany come out of the city to buy or look on — to wit, earls, barons, knights 

 and citizens. There are also to be found here cart-horses, fit for the dray, 

 the plough, or the chariot." 



During the Wars of the Roses horse-breeding was seriously checked as 

 either side would requisition them, and probably, like Warwick, " first they 

 wore the roses white and then the roses red " (but " many nobles for such 

 things were shorter by a head "). 



As many as a hundred stallions were imported in the reign of King 

 John from the Netherlands, and "it is," says Sir Walter Gilbey, "from 

 the blending, nearly seven hundred years ago, of these animals with the 

 English breed, that some strains at least of our heavy draught-horses, must 

 be said to date their origin. 



Successive kings of England appear to have striven both to increase the 

 size and numbers of such horses within the realm, and King Henry YIII. 

 enacted that " all prelates and nobles (whose wives wore French hoods or 

 velvet bonnets) should keep stallions for the saddle of a certain size." 

 Although the introduction of carriages by Fitz-Alan, Earl of Arundel, led 

 to the use of lighter horses, and Queen Elizabeth's successors had no need 

 to ride on the back of what we now call cart-horses, the breed continued to 

 receive care and judgment in selection. The Great Horse is again de- 

 scribed in 1658 by the Duke of Newcastle, as having "large limbs, heavy 

 crest, silky-haired fetlocks, and flowing mane and tail," a not inapt descrip- 

 tion of his present day descendant. The engraving of Staunton Hero is 

 selected by Sir Walter Gilbey, and is a good portrait. 



THE SUFFOLK CART-HORSE 



In the latter part of the eighteenth century the agriculturists of 

 Norfolk and Sufiblk were far more enterprising than their brethi'en 

 throughout the remainder of England. Among other subjects to which 

 they paid special attention was the cart-horse, which, though said by Mr. 

 Culley to be a plain horse, was far more level and symmetrical than the 

 aboriginal horse of the country. The Sufiblk horses of the early part of 

 the present century were thus described by the above observer : — " Their 

 merit probably consists more in constitutional hardiness than fine shape, 

 being in general a very plain horse. Their colour is mostly yellowish, or 

 sorrel, with a white ratch or blaze on their faces. The head large, ears 

 wide, muzzle coarse, fore-end low, back long, but veiy straight, sides flat, 

 shoulders too far forward, hind-quarters middling, but rather high about 

 the hips, legs round, and short in the pastern, deep barrelled, and full in 

 the flank. Here, perhaps, lies much of the merit in these horses, for we 



